There are few people on the internet whose musings make you vigorously mutter ‘Yes!’ under your breath to the chagrin of your fellow commuters. Journalist, podcast host, audio producer and self-proclaimed ‘bearded Muslim man who has opinions’, Osman Faruqi, is one of those rare people.
As the head of audio at independent publisher Schwartz Media, Osman oversees production for the enormously successful 7am (which has become the most popular daily news podcast in the country since its launch in 2019) and will now host the newest addition to the masthead’s stable – a weekly podcast covering TV, film, music, art and literature called The Culture.
That’s a long way from spending a summer making spreadsheets for a construction firm while studying environmental engineering, and doing volunteer stints on Sydney’s community radio on the side.
But that’s the thing about dream jobs, often they’re not at all where you expected to find yourself.