Building on the success of its flagship daily news podcast 7am, and it’s growing arts and culture coverage, Schwartz Media is launching new podcast The Culture at the end of the month. Award-winning journalist, editor of 7am and pop-culture obsessive Osman Faruqi (pictured) will host The Culture, taking a weekly deep dive into the latest and best in film, music, TV, streaming, books and art.
Schwartz Media entered the audio space two years ago with what soon became the #1 news podcast in Australia, 7am. Amongst all Australian podcasts on the April Podcast Ranker chart, 7am ranked #5.
“The Culture is a show I’ve wanted to make for a long time,” said Faruqi.
“We hear from our audience all the time that they’re hungry for smart, engaging and fun angles on what they love watching and listening to.
“The show will be mainstream and accessible but also won’t shy away from discussing broader social themes that emerge from discussions around film, music and TV. Think of an Australian Still Processing, the NYT culture podcast.”
The new series will feature conversations with critics from across the publisher’s titles including Anwen Crawford, Shaad D’Souza, Christos Tsiolkas and Bri Lee, as well as culture commentators from around the world.
The Culture will also include interviews with local and international musicians, filmmakers, writers and other artists about their work. Each episode will be a 30-40 minute in-depth examination into a work, artist or a particular theme.
Schwartz Media CEO Rebecca Costello said now was the perfect time for the publisher to increase its audio offering with a culture podcast.
“When we released 7am, we filled a gap in the market for an independent and high-quality Australian news podcast, quickly becoming the country’s most popular daily news podcast.
“News and culture are two of the things Schwartz Media does really well so The Culture just makes perfect sense for us.” said Costello. The publisher is also home to The Saturday Paper and The Monthly.
The first episode of The Culture will be released on Friday, May 28, 2021 and then weekly on Fridays.
See also: Podcast Week