Long before developmental paediatrician Dr Billy Garvey and self-described “developing parent” Nick McCormack pressed record on their hit podcast Pop Culture Parenting, the two close mates would just have vulnerable chats about parenting while walking around the neighbourhood with their babies strapped to their chests. Now their podcast feels like an organic extension of those conversations – albeit with more than 130,000 downloads each month.
Together the pair use the fun framework of movies to tackle different aspects of child development. Listeners start with a rush of nostalgia as they revisit familiar characters, before getting down to the harder work at hand.
Over three years, the pair have unpacked everything from anxiety (Jaws) and connection (“Edward Scissorhands) to parenting styles (Mean Girls) and breaking cycles (Groundhog Day). PCP* has fostered a global community that Garvey believes is more important than the actual chats.
“It’s not a hierarchy,” he says. “Nick and I are just a part of that community as well.”
Billy does his clinical work out of a one of the worlds largest tertiary paediatric hospitals that now has close to a three-year waitlist for assessments and support. After being awarded a Churchill Fellowship that allowed him to travel to the UK and US to learn more in his field, he looked into using media to broaden his reach and benefit families that he couldn’t meet in person. McCormack works in media and comms, so he was a natural fit for the project.
Even now, their ongoing vulnerability in talking about their own parenting and childhood difficulties is key to the show’s disarming appeal.
“It’s also this therapeutic journey for me, unpacking in the safety of a friendship,” says Garvey. “We only do one take [and] we don’t cut anything out. Nick often doesn’t know what the topic is until we hit record. So we’re very lucky that we have this genuine close friendship. I can just have a conversation with him, and it’s only when we wrap up that my head comes back to the point that it’s an education piece.”
He shares an anecdote from the Pretty Woman episode, in which he introduced the episode’s theme of self-esteem. “[Nick] starts the episode pretty confident that it’s not something he can really relate to,” Dr. Garvey says. “And then halfway through, I say something and Nick starts crying. For about 10 minutes he’s just silent, because he’s crying about his own experience and thinking back on his early years.”
Those are exactly the kind of powerful, honest moments that drive PCP, with each two-part episode first connecting the chosen movie and theme and then inviting reader emails and poll responses. The emails can be incredibly emotional, and McCormack often gets choked up as he reads them aloud. That connection between the hosts and their audience is very real, as evidenced by the three hours of audience engagement that followed their first live event last year.
The next live event is Saturday March 29 at ACMI, tied to a screening of Luc Besson’s 1997 sci-fi hit The Fifth Element and ACMI’s The Future & Other Fictions exhibition. The theme of the discussion will be the future, with the pair discussing how that topic ties into parenting the next generation of adults.
“I think kids these days are actually more worried than we were about the future,” says Garvey. “Whether it’s climate or the economy or politics or equity, there’s a lot to be worried about. And from a younger age, they become aware of everything that’s going on and the anxiety that we have around those things.”
He points to The Fifth Element’s positive portrayal of neurodiversity and gender equity and hopes that the live events reach a section of the parenting population – especially fathers – who might not listen to parenting podcasts. Just as the podcast praises or critiques fictional characters as models for what to do or not to do, the live event is an opportunity for further connection with that global PCP community. And yes, there will be an extended meet-and-greet afterwards.
Garvey stresses these crucial conversations aren’t based on his own beliefs, but on the wealth of research that simply didn’t exist for previous generations. “This is not my opinion; this is what the research shows,” he says. “We just know so much more now. There’s heaps of science and developmental research that can inform how we guide our kids. But there’s not an easy way to access it.”
Perhaps the highest praise for the podcast is the fact that even people who aren’t parents listen to it. That includes educators, people working in child protection, prospective parents and anyone simply seeking further insight into their own upbringing.
Dri Billy and Nick will be at ACMI on Saturday 29 March 2025 2pm for the live podcast recording of Pop Culture Parenting Live: The Fifth Element and the Future at ACMI. Find out more and get your tickets here.
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