Mia Freedman steps down from No Filter after 10 years. Kate Langbroek announced as new host.

Some news.

After 10 years, 655 episodes, and 69 million downloads of No Filter, I'm stepping away from the microphone. The Naomi Watts interview we dropped last week was my last as host.

And I wanted to tell you a bit about how I came to this pretty major decision.

If you've been listening to the show for a while, you might have noticed that I've tried to step away a couple of times before, when I've persuaded some very capable women to fill in for me while I took a breath.

Watch: A snippet of my final No Filter interview with Naomi Watts. Post continues after video.

No Filter is just one of the things I do here at Mamamia — I wear a few different hats. I'm a co-founder of the company, which started as just me and is now a team of more than 150 people, and I'm also a co-host on Mamamia Outloud which is a daily show and the 3rd biggest podcast in the country.

I also write a newsletter called Babble, I have three kids, two dogs and a fairly new granddaughter and for the last 17 years, since Mamamia began, I've just kept adding new things to my plate. Because I love what I do.

I love our core purpose — which is to make the world a better place for women and girls — and I love to think about new ways to do that with all kinds of content.

No Filter has been — and will continue to be — a big part of that core purpose… because by inviting people to tell their stories in a candid, intimate, vulnerable way that is sometimes heartbreaking, often funny and always interesting… it helps people.

I know this because you tell me — it helps you to understand other people's experiences and perspectives, and it helps you to feel seen if perhaps you've experienced something similar.

Without getting too kumbaya about it, sitting across from people — sometimes famous but usually not — while they talk about some of their most vulnerable moments… about some of the most wonderful, shocking, astonishing, devastating or unexpected things that have happened to them is an absolute privilege.

I take that responsibility very seriously — we all do here at Mamamia. Every single person who works on this show is aware of what a responsibility it is to have the trust of someone you've never met who lets you ask the most personal, difficult, confronting and sometimes intrusive… even outrageous questions.

There's a moment in every No Filter interview for me, when it feels like flying — when you connect with someone and help them to express themselves or tell a story they've never shared before. That's why I've loved doing it every week for 10 years. It's been a joy and a gift to have those conversations and put them out into the world.

It's not always been easy though, especially at the beginning. When we first started this show — me and my OG producer and creative partner Eliza Ratliff — we really struggled to book guests.

Nobody knew what a podcast was back then. Mamamia wasn't the size it is now. Legacy media like magazines and newspapers and TV and radio still had a hold on publicists and celebrities who had no idea how fast women were moving to websites like Mamamia and podcasts like No Filter.

So for the first year or so, I just called in favours from friends who worked in the media and persuaded them to talk to me for an hour. But we quickly realised that the interviews that were the most interesting — both for me as an interviewer and for the audience — were normies. Regular people who weren't famous but who have experienced incredible things.

Those have always been my favourite.

So anyway, hosting this show is a joy but also a responsibility, and it takes a lot of work. I used to think I could just keep piling on more and more things, but in the last couple of years I've realised I can't, and also I don't want to.

I've also realised that if, creatively, I want to try new things, work on some new projects… I have to make some room in my life to open new doors — which means, by definition, closing others.

For two years, I've been thinking about this on and off, and I've had times when I've thought more or less seriously about stepping away. But honestly? The time has never been right for a ton of reasons.

Now though, it's finally time. And a big part of the reason why it's time is because I've needed to find the right hands to take the wheel of this show that means so so much to me.

You can also listen to my announcement in full below… Post continues after audio.

I've found those hands, in our executive producer Naima Brown, who I've been working with for a while now, and — of course, No Filter's new host, Kate Langbroek.

Kate was my first pick to host No Filter when I took my first proper break last summer and goddamn it — she managed to do the most downloaded episode of the year.

Her interview with Andy Lee was a masterclass — one of the best interviews I've ever heard. I mean, I knew she was good — not only was she my first choice, she was my only choice.

And I'll tell you why. There are an insane number of interview podcasts around now — you may have noticed. Some of them are great. A lot of them are fine.

Because interviewing is far, far harder than it may seem.

I've learnt a huge amount from the greats — Leigh Sales, Andrew Denton, Richard Fydler, Oprah — and what they all have in common is how driven they are by curiosity.

They all want to understand people better — whether that person is a Prime Minister or an Oscar winner or a school teacher.

No Filter is driven by curiosity — by compassion and empathy, but also — and this is important — by HUMOUR.

Because even in the darkest situation, humour can be found, humour needs to be found… and Kate Langbroek has every trait I admire as an interviewer and as a human being:

She's maternal (you don't need to have kids to be maternal, by the way, but this show requires some big mum energy, so your guest feels safe, cared for and protected).

She's funny — she doesn't take herself — or anyone — too seriously. She's self-deprecating, she's original in the way she thinks about things, and she's really really smart.

She's also secure — she's not trying to impress anyone or play to an agenda — and she's comfortable going straight from small talk to intense — no bulls**t — Kate just wants to have fascinating conversations — on air or off.

Gosh, do I want to give her the show or have her babies. Hard to say.

Listen to the full episode of No Filter where Kate Langbroek interviews Andy Lee. Post continues after audio.

So there it is. Next week is Kate's first show, she'll be the first voice you hear and she has a very special guest.

It's me. I'm the guest.

I never do long-form interviews because I'm so scared of getting cancelled. But I trust Kate — and I trust you, my beloved No Filter listeners — and so I feel like it's a safe place for me to talk in a more in depth and personal way about what the last couple of years have been like, leading up to this decision. There are laughs and tears — very No Filter.

Meanwhile, — if you feel like you're going to miss me — thank you — and you can hear me every day on Outloud and you can get my free newsletter called Babble — it's where I write and post videos of me chatting while I put on my makeup.

And the last thing I'll say is thank you. Thank you to every single guest who has trusted me with their most personal stories, to Lize Ratliff my creative partner on No Filter for so many years, to all the exec producers and audio producers I've worked with on the show since then and most of all, to you — to every single one of you who has reached out online or stopped me in the street to tell me about an interview you loved or that moved you or gave you a new perspective on the wonderful, complicated experience of being human.

Thank you for having me in your ears. It's been super cosy in here. Kate's going to love it — and you're going to love her.

Read more from Mia Freedman:

• MIA FREEDMAN: 'Why I changed my word of the year.'

• MIA FREEDMAN: 5 life lessons for teenagers.

• MIA FREEDMAN: '7 things I stopped wearing in 2024.'

Feature image: Supplied.