Independent podcast Lamestream, hosted by award-winning journalists Osman Faruqi and Scott Mitchell, gives listeners a fascinating critique of how the media is handling the news.
To the surprise of both hosts, the podcast hit the ground running, and doesn’t look like slowing down anytime soon. Since launching in April 2025, Lamestream has surpassed half a million downloads and now reaches more than one million people each month across social media.
Mediaweek spoke to hosts Faruqi and Mitchell about celebrating their first birthday, and the announcement of a national tour.
Mediaweek: Did you ever imagine Lamestream would become as widely accepted and as popular as it has?
Lamestream: To be honest, not really! When we launched Lamestream we really had no idea if it would be successful or how many people would listen. We were both pursuing other work as a potential backup if Lamestream didn’t take-off.
We thought there was a gap in the market for a show that looked at news, politics and current affairs, but through the lens of the media, but we also thought there was a chance it would just be a handful of journalists who tuned in.
The fact that it’s become so popular, not just within the industry but with audiences generally, is pretty wild. We hoped that it would resonate and reach a lot of people, but the fact that it’s become a sustainable and growing business within 12 months is really exciting.
View this post on Instagram
MW: Have you ever had any blowback following the release of an episode?
LS: You know what, this is something we expected to happen all the time. Journalists aren’t the most thick-skinned people out there, and we thought a show that interrogated and critiqued the pretty small and insular Australian media industry would lead to us copping all sorts of backlash. But overwhelmingly the response has been people thanking us for looking into the various issues impacting the media, encouraging us to go further or passing on more tips.
I have heard second-hand that some editors and media bosses grumble every now and then at certain segments, but all that really tells us is that everyone is listening!
MW: What is your research process like? Do you get together and brainstorm ideas or do you both just kind of know what to run?
LS: There’s a lot of overlap in topics we’re interested in, but there’s a lot of divergence as well. We each have our own areas of special interest and different sources, so we tend to spend most of the week chasing different leads, speaking to different people, researching things we think are interesting and then get together and share what we’ve found.
Sometimes it’s a topic that we both have a lot of interest and experience in, and can bring informed perspectives, and in other instances it’s a subject where one of us will explain what’s going on to the other and get their take in response.
The challenge with a conversational show like ours is getting across a lot of information in a way that is still engaging. The only way to do that is to be really across the brief, so we spend a lot of time researching and talking to people.
MW: What has been the most eye-opening lesson of this entire experience?
LS: Without a doubt it’s how much Australians care about the media. Trust in mainstream media may be at record lows, but there are so many interested, engaged, passionate listeners who care about the world around them and want to know more about the people shaping it.
Sometimes we’ll pick what we think is a pretty niche topic, or something we think only media nerds will care about, and it will generate the most feedback and conversation. I think there’s a huge desire out there to understand how this powerful, and kind of strange, industry functions – especially at a time when the world feels so precarious.
View this post on Instagram
Lamestream Live: The First Birthday Tour
The podcast will celebrate its first birthday with a national live tour in June and July 2026, with additional shows in Sydney and Melbourne announced after the original dates sold out within 24 hours.
Guests include Grace Tame, activist and former Australian of the Year (Sydney), Hannah Thomas, lawyer and survivor of police brutality (Melbourne), Amy Remeikis, journalist and author (Canberra) and Sophie McNeill, former ABC Middle East Correspondent and member of WA Parliament (Perth).
Tickets are priced at $49.90 and are on sale now via the Lamestream website.
Top image: Lamestream media