Stay ConnectedThe world has never been more connected. Yet never more divided. We yell at each other from inside our echo chambers. But change doesn’t happen inside an echo chamber. It’s time to get out, to stretch our legs, to step on some land mines. It’s time to have an uncomfortable conversation with Josh Szeps.
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Copyright: © 2024 Josh Szeps 224787
Productivity tips. Life hacks. Calendar apps. Magic mornings. Brain supplements.
None of it will free you from the sense that there's more to do than you possibly can. That's because you're finite. Your time is finite, your focus is finite, and you're going to die. No productivity hack can change that.
It's a liberating idea, if you look at it the way Oliver Burkeman does. Oliver was the second-ever guest on this podcast, at the height of the Covid pandemic, to discuss how to ignore the news. He returned in 2021 to discuss his profound book, "Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals" (four thousand being the number of weeks in an eighty-year life).
Oliver was a columnist for The Guardian in New York before decamping to the English countryside from where he writes his marvellous blog, The Imperfectionist. Today, Oliver and Josh discuss ambition, anxiety, the hedonic treadmill, self-help, Elon Musk, distractedness, boredom, and snorkelling in Yorkshire.
Oliver's latest book is "Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts".
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Natalie is a Jewish Iranian-American who grew up in New York. She was partying at the Nova Music Festival in Israel when Hamas attacked.
Today, she uses her experience to advocate for the Combat Antisemitism Movement.
She and Josh discuss Gaza, the Israeli occupation, hatred, love... and her experiences that day.
To get more content like this and to join in the fun of the Uncomfy Convos multiverse, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_
What's it like being a promiscuous young gay guy in the 2020s? How much freedom is there in random sex from hookup apps, versus how much shame? Do social conservatives have a point when they say fidelity and monogamy are the best model for life?
The producer of "Fleabag" and "Baby Reindeer" -- both humongous British TV shows which started as one-person stage shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival -- has a new one-person stage show about a gay Brit looking for love. "Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen" was a smash hit in Edinburgh and just opened at the Sydney Opera House.
The show's writer, Marcelo Dos Santos, and its star, Samuel Barnett, swung by the Uncomfortable Conversations studio on the day of their opening night. Marcelo won Britain's Critics Circle Theatre Award last year. Samuel has been nominated for an Olivier Award and two Tony Awards, for "The History Boys" and "Twelfth Night" on Broadway.
You can also watch this entire conversation in-person here.
Samuel, Marcelo and Josh wrestle with promiscuity, grief, self-worth, mental health, cultural malaise, sex on stage, and why Aussies and Brits are so allergic to American self-help.
To get more content like this and to join the Uncomfy Convos multiverse, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_
President Trump says the United States should take over the Gaza Strip and relocate its two million residents to neighbouring countries while we redevelop Gaza into the "Riviera of the Middle East." Josh has thoughts.
To get more content like this and to join in the fun of the Uncomfy Convos multiverse, hit the Substack page at Subscribe to Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps
Why do Americans use shower curtains instead of glass shower stalls? How do you explain the success of The Olive Garden? And is Los Angeles really as foul as Josh claims?
David Farrier is a New Zealand documentarian living in L.A., where his whimsical podcast Flightless Bird is produced by Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert production company.
David premiered at the Sundance Film Festival with his extraordinary feature-length documentary, Tickled, and is a frequent collaborator with Flight of the Conchords' Rhys Darby.
David swung by the Uncomfortable Conversations studio on a recent visit to Sydney to muse delightfully with Josh about Los Angeles, Joe Rogan, A.I., YouTube, and the future of America.
*Note: This episode was recorded in late 2024 prior to the outbreak of the 2025 Los Angeles fires.
Watch this conversation on YouTube. And you’re missing out on our best ad-free content if you haven’t popped over to the Uncomfy Convos Substack page.
How well is the legacy media covering President Trump's flurry of executive actions?
Among the first deluge of White House orders is a decree defining "sex", "gender", "male" and "female". The reporting on this order -- and on LGBT and gender issues more broadly -- tells us a lot about ideological echo chambers, newsroom diversity, and how not to have constructive conversations in an era when they're more necessary than ever.
White, conservative, evangelical American Christians helped to bring Donald Trump to power. Their political activism is turbo-charged by populist right-wing "post-liberals" who believe traditions like civility and pluralism are passé -- people including entertainers like Tucker Carlson and Curtis Yarvin, as well as intellectuals like Sohrab Amari, Patrick Deneen and Rod Dreher.
These "post-liberals" are correct in some of their criticisms of modern America but wrong in their solutions, argues today's guest, Jonathan Rauch. And who's best-placed to defeat them? Paradoxically, this atheist Jew argues: the Evangelical Church.
Rauch has spent his life fighting for liberal values. At The Economist magazine, he pioneered its editorial embrace of gay marriage long before that was popular. His hugely influential books include "The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth", about which Josh and Sam Harris interviewed him on Sam's podcast, Making Sense, in 2024.
Today: What happens to American democracy if Christianity can no longer perform the functions on which our constitutional order depends? Josh and Jonathan wrestle it out.
Rauch is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. His new book, "Cross Purposes: Christianity's Broken Bargain with Democracy", is available at https://tinyurl.com/y8ejdd5z
Watch this conversation on YouTube. And you’re missing out on our best ad-free content if you haven’t popped over to the Uncomfy Convos Substack page.
Do women police each other's behaviour more than men do? Are they likelier to be busybodies, calling each other out online? Pouncing, denouncing, hounding, unfriending? That's the experience of the legendary dissident journalist Meghan Daum, a former Los Angeles Times columnist who has created a sanctuary for independent-minded women to support each other's intellectual freedom.
Meghan lost her house in the LA fires just days after we recorded this conversation. Support her terrific podcast at www.theunspeakablepodcast.com and discover her new venture at www.theunspeakeasy.com.
Watch this conversation on YouTube. And you’re missing out on our best ad-free content if you haven’t popped over to the Uncomfy Convos Substack page.
Well, it's Trump's Inauguration. Again. On our previous episode, "Inauguration Episode One", Josh interviewed a pro-Trumper. Today, expand your thinking about the best- and worst-case scenarios of Trump's second term with a searingly cogent counter-opinion.
David Frum is one of the most influential conservative "Never Trumpers". He worked in the White House as President George W Bush's speechwriter, and is now a staff writer at The Atlantic. He wrote the books Trumpocracy (2018) and Trumpocalypse (2020).
Enjoy this bracing analysis from one of the most rigorous defenders of conservatism against the tide of right-wing populism. It's a conversation you don't want to miss.
We've kept this episode free, outside the paywall, as a public service. If you appreciate it, please consider whether you really need to free-ride or if you could subscribe at the Uncomfy Convos Substack page.
On Monday, Donald J Trump will be sworn in as president. Again. To help us understand the best-case scenarios and worst-case scenarios for his second term, Josh has invited two diametrically-opposed thinkers. Today, the pro-Trump case with Batya Ungar-Sargon. On Inauguration Day, the anti-Trump case with David Frum.
Batya is the deputy opinion editor of Newsweek and one of the most articulate pro-Trump voices in America. She has a PhD in English from the University of California, Berkeley, and promotes Trumpism from the "populist left". She has written two books, "Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy", and "Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women".
Today, Batya and Josh have a spirited debate about immigration, isolationism, NATO, the woke left, the working class, and Trump's political cronyism. It tells you a lot about our topsy-turvy politics that our pro-Trump guest is a former leftist and our anti-Trump guest is a conservative. Enjoy.
Watch this conversation on YouTube. And you’re missing out on our best ad-free content if you haven’t popped over to the Uncomfy Convos Substack page.
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