Our very own media editor Natasha Lee seems to have found spare time in her schedule to moonlight on a new Friday afternoon podcast. The show is the brainchild of creative entrepreneur Wade Kingsley and is curiously named Media Tarts.
Don’t even ask.
“I’ve always felt like Natasha had star power,” Kingsley said. “She seeks quirky and unique stories, but her cheeky personality was somewhat hidden behind the keyboard. I wanted other people to know and love her the same way I do.”
Right on, Wade.
And normally, I might worry about this sort of out-of-office activity. However, considering she spends the entire time talking about the media industry in the podcast, I assume she is just executing a highly sophisticated guerrilla marketing campaign for Mediaweek.
A different conversation about the media
“Media Tarts was an opportunity to have a different conversation with the media about the media,” Kingsley explained. “I’ve always loved the social side of the industry. It felt like there was a big gap between harder analysis and what you’d chat with a colleague about over a coffee or a wine.”
The premise of the show is simple: pour a drink and dissect the week’s industry news “with a cheese knife”.
“Media Tarts is aimed at people who love working in the media but prefer some informality and less polished chat,” he said. “It’s two people sitting on a bar stool eating from a cheese plate and holding a glass of champagne. We just happen to have microphones recording it.”
“It’s a look at the week in media through a ‘Friday vibes’ lens,” Kingsley added. “Friday has been forgotten as the ‘fun’ day in media due to remote work and younger generations missing out on the long lunch or 4 pm drinks.
Those occasions were where you did your best networking and information sharing. Media Tarts wants to be that last thing you listen to on a Friday before exiting the media bubble.”
Biting the hand that feeds the clickbait machine
After hearing from Kingsley, it was time to have a listen.
And once they poured the bubbles to kick off the first episode, the duo wasted no time biting the hand that feeds the local clickbait machine. Pondering aloud why Australian press seems so “seduced” by Kyle Sandilands. They noted that journalists routinely go weak at the knees.
Case in point, turning up to his voluntary court appearances just to let the shock jock deliver an unchecked, five-minute editorial about needing his job back to pay his mortgage.
Lee diagnosed the root cause as sheer terror.
She suggested journalists freeze up because they fear a live “bite back” from a dominant personality.
She expanded her critique to target the broader “sycophancy” of the local press, pointing to the recent Australian tour of Oprah Winfrey. Despite the historical proximity of Winfrey to P Diddy during a massive news cycle about his alleged abuses, the local press pack opted to eagerly run after her yelling her name.
Lee says it out loud. They failed to ask a single uncomfortable, skeptical question.
Adding gravitas to the bar tab
To add a little intellectual muscle to the pod, Wade affectionately introduced broadcaster and podcaster Josh Szeps to the show.
Sharing his own trade secrets for interviewing difficult subjects like Tony Abbott, Szeps advised extending a generous olive branch of common ground first.
He figures this strategy ensures the guest doesn’t immediately clam up before you hit them with the heavy-hitting moral questions.
Last shouts and a new side hustle
Because no media week is complete without a race to the bottom of the barrel, the hosts closed out the episode with a segment called “Last Shouts”.
A segment designed to highlight the most absurd media glitches of the week.
Wade tipped his hat to a highly questionable Onion headline joking about the kidnapping of a CBS anchor’s mother.
Lee, recounted the surreal visual of Donald Trump discussing the threat of war with Iran while an Easter Bunny nodded enthusiastically beside him on the White House balcony.
The pair are already plotting podcast merchandise in the form of a “lawyers picnic” basket.
Whether or not the tarts follow through with the merch, I have to hand it to Natasha on her side hustle.
That is, provided she remembers to login on Monday mornings.