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.
A DM Podcast
Copyright: © 2024 Josh Szeps 224787
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At 11:00 a.m. on November 9th, 2016, the day after Donald Trump's surprise victory over Hillary Clinton, a shell-shocked Josh sat down with Slate's former editor David Plotz, the co-host of the Slate Political Gabfest, to share their analysis of what might happen. This is that conversation.
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The full premium version of this episode is available as a free gift to you. This version here is just a teaser, but ALL ELECTION-RELATED CONTENT WILL NOT BE PAYWALLED if you access it on Substack. To hear this episode in its entirety, as well as all upcoming election episodes in full, you need to leave this app – you will NOT need to pay anything – and listen on Substack here:
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What would it look like if we could escape the phony choice between strident positions and find a third way? Not a "compromise". Not a squishy midpoint betweren any two extremes. But a genuinely new way of looking at an issue, informed by the best of all sides? Instead of hunting for the worst in our opponents' positions, what if we could harness the best?
That's the mission of the journalist Stephanie Lepp, a producer whose new series of short videos, Faces of X, demonstrates what she's up to. She and Josh wrestle with partisanship, social media, both-sidesism, ideological capture, and how we all might think more freely in this toxic election cycle.
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The full premium version of this episode is available as a free gift to you. This version here is just a teaser, but ALL ELECTION-RELATED CONTENT WILL NOT BE PAYWALLED if you access it on Substack. To hear this episode in its entirety, as well as all upcoming election episodes in full, you need to leave this app – you will NOT need to pay anything – and listen on Substack here:
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Join Michael Moynihan of The Fifth Column and Josh Szeps of Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps as they tackle America’s role in global affairs and discuss whether the U.S. should remain the world’s cop or if its superpower days are over. Josh brings insights from Australia, a nation with tough illegal immigration policies but high legal immigration, while Michael draws from his time in Sweden, where immigration and NATO are key concerns.
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Arm yourself with facts now, to stay sane on election night. This episode is your toolkit against the schemes to sow confusion, foment chaos and challenge the vote. The ABC journalist Matt Bevan reveals to Josh the extraordinary Trump strategy that'll kick in if Harris wins a narrow victory, and the weird ways it relates to the Jan 6th riots and the denial of that election. For everything you need to know to understand election night -- and the days and weeks beyond -- don't miss this one. Matt's short-form podcast series is "America's Last Election".
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Get ready, humans. Josh is about to start pumping out extra shows all week long to keep you informed, inspired and resilient during the U.S. election. But to receive your sweet nuggets of sanity, if you're not a Substacker then YOU HAVE TO DO ONE SIMPLE, FREE THING. You'll kick yourself if you don't. Listen RIGHT NOW to find out what.
Head to the substack link below to get all the information you need for tomorrow's live show and to all the free content over the next week https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
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John Safran is a legendary provocateur and comedy documentarian. He is iconic Down Under for his outrageous explorations of taboo subjects (think: Sacha Baron Cohen or Louis Theroux). In his latest escapade, he tried to investigate modern anti-Semitism by flying to Los Angeles and illegally camping out at Kanye West's mansion.
He and Josh discuss online trolls, taboos, social media, satire, anti-Jewish conspiracies and living as a prominent Jew during the Gaza War. His new book is "Squat: A week squatting at Kanye’s mansion."
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Are we too focused on race? Have recent anti-racist movements like Black Lives Matter abandoned the ‘colourblind’ spirit of the original civil rights movement?
Coleman Hughes is an American writer, podcaster and public intellectual known for his criticism of modern social-justice ideas about racism and racial inequality. In this live Festival Of Dangerous Ideas edition of Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps, Hughes articulates his vision for a future where individuals are judged by ‘the content of their character’, not the colour of their skin.
Drawing from research and personal insights, he argues for a society that embraces a colourblind ethos, aiming to dismantle divisive narratives and foster a more inclusive culture.
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Ding, dong, the psychopathic tyrant of Gaza is dead. Who was Yahya Sinwar? What does his death mean? Should Netanyahu declare victory and end the war? And why is Josh getting in trouble on Twitter over all this... again?
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Is political violence “unAmerican”? Or is it as American as Thomas Jefferson, who wrote that "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants"?
Nick Bryant is one of the BBC’s greatest foreign correspondents. He has a doctorate in American politics from Oxford University and lived for years in Washington D.C. and New York City covering American politics for a global audience. One of his books sits on Joe Biden’s bookshelf in the Oval Office.
As we head into the final weeks before the U.S. election, Nick and Josh discuss Trumpism, polarisation and Nick's latest book “The Forever War”.
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Australia's response to the pandemic was among the most aggressive -- and controversial -- in the world. What went right? What went wrong?
At last, we have a much-needed accounting of the lessons of Covid, from the Aussie academic who became an unlikely pandemic authority in the U.S. thanks to his position as an outspoken economics professor at George Washington University in Washington D.C.
Steven Hamilton's new book is a frank, factual, fierce recap of the Covid years. Written with his fellow economist Richard Holden, "Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism: How we crushed the curve but lost the race" will be an important tool for the next pandemic.
One year on from the Hamas attack, Josh is sick of biased bickering about why Israel is in the right or in the wrong. Here, he brings you an informed, impartial, big-picture account of where Israelis and Palestinians find themselves.
Marcus Walker is a senior reporter at the Wall Street Journal, and the friend to whom Josh turns when he needs to understand the Middle East. A Brit based in Rome, Marcus has been deployed to Israel as a journalist seven times since October 7th, interviewing the most influential players and embedding himself in the conflict. No one knows the country's mood better.
Enjoy this bracing, eye-opening assessment of the fate of the Jewish state and its Palestinian subjects.
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Damien Cave is the Vietnam bureau chief and global affairs correspondent for The New York Times, covering shifts in power across Asia and the wider world.
He has spent most of the past 20 years as a correspondent for The Times. He’s been based in Baghdad and Miami, Mexico City and Sydney, and spent lengthy stints reporting from many other places, including Lebanon, India, Taiwan, Turkey and Cuba.
In 2017, He led a team opening The Times’s new Australia bureau, covering a region where both his grandfathers served in World War II, and inspiring him to write a book titled “Into the Rip” in Australia and, in the United States, “Parenting Like an Australian: One Family’s Quest to Fight Fear and Dive into a Better, Braver Life.”
Before that, from 2014 to 2017, Damien was a deputy editor on the National desk, advancing the digital development of The Times.
In 2007, He was part of a team of finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in international reporting for our coverage of the war in Iraq. The team also won an Overseas Press Club award that year, his second — the first one was for a humor essay about Paraguay.
Candace Owens is one of the most popular commentators in the world.
Initially critical of President Trump, she was a famous critic of Black Lives Matter and became the communications director for the conservative group Turning Point USA. Her talk show on the conservative website The Daily Wire, "Candace", was cancelled earlier this year after she made antisemitic remarks. She now runs her platform independently.
Ahead of her Australian tour, Josh wanted to understand what she's up to and what makes her tick. To keep abreast of conversations like this, be sure to join the Uncomfortable Conversations Substack, and check out the YouTube page to watch this conversation in the flesh.
Do you drink too much? If there was a magic pill that made you not want a second drink, would you take it? You’d at least expect to have heard of it.
That’s what the journalist Katie Herzog thought as she sat through AA meetings, feeling like a failure for boozing. Then, she found naltrexone. Josh hasn’t had a drink in four years after having a different epiphany. Here, the two of them wrestle with myths, blind spots and revelations about drinking, addiction, introspection, and being a grown-up.
Katie hosts one of the most successful podcasts on the web with Jesse Singal, Blocked & Reported, where they dissect internet craziness.
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Imagine being an innocent YouTuber, tricked into receiving millions of dollars from Russia just because you're a Putin hack. That's what the U.S. Department of Justice alleges has been happening, and worse. How are the enemies of liberal democracy shaping the information you see online?
Ross Anderson is an expert on right-wing YouTubers, the Life Editor at the world edition of The Spectator, and a regular contributor at The New York Sun. He explains the whole extraordinary shebang.
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Keith Urban is one of the world’s most popular musicians. He started out in Australia, moved to Nashville, worked his arse off, won a stack of Grammys and sold over 20 million albums.
He’s about to start a residency in Las Vegas and he'll tour Australia in 2025. His new album is “HIGH”.
Don’t miss the YouTube page to see Keith and Josh bantering in the flesh. And get more amazing conversations by popping your email address into our Substack supercomputer.
Can governments regulate “misinformation”? Or is that just a pretext for controlling what you can say? Were “the Twitter Files” a bombshell revelation of censorship, or a paranoid beat-up? How should Big Tech have grappled with issues like Russia, Covid, and the FBI?
Andrew Lowenthal worked with Matt Taibbi for months on the Twitter Files. He helped to create the Westminster Declaration to oppose any restrictions on online speech.
He used to work with leftie NGOs fighting for the digital rights of dissenters across the Asia-Pacific, until he saw his activist colleagues drift away from free speech towards the opposite – what he calls "anti-disinformation".
He now runs a digital civil liberties initiative called liber-net which argues that, under the cloak of countering misinformation, the powers-that-be suppress information, ideas, and opinions expressed by everyday people. Andrew is an Australian based in Europe and he was kind enough to stop by the Uncomfy Studios on a recent trip to Sydney.
Watch the in-the-flesh video on the YouTube page (subscribe while you’re there) and if you’re not a paid Substack subscriber, enjoy this preview of a much longer, gripping convo.
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Missy Higgins is one of Australia's most successful musicians. She exploded onto the scene in 2004. Her debut single launched at No. 1, her first album debuted at No. 1, and, barely out of her teens, she won the ARIA, Australia's Grammy, for Best Pop Release.
Tabloid speculation swirled about her sexuality. Josh wants to know how she now thinks about gayness, love, fame and failure. Her new album, released exactly on the 20th anniversary of her first, is The Second Act.
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In the lead-up to every U.S. election of the past 12 years, Chas Licciardello has hosted a national primetime television comedy show called Planet America, covering the ins and outs of American politics.
He is a member of Australia's most famous comedy group, The Chaser, and starred in their satirical TV shows for nearly a quarter of a century: The Chaser Decides, CNNNN, The Chaser's War on Everything, Yes We Canberra! and The Hamster Wheel.
Chas and Josh sat down after the landmark presidential debate to share their thoughts.
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Outside Australia, Alexander Downer is best known as the diplomat who kicked off the Mueller Investigation by alerting the FBI that one of Trump’s advisors, George Papadopoulos, said the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton over drinks in London. Downer was Australia’s ambassador to the UK at the time.
Inside Australia, Downer is a household name. He is the most consequential Foreign Minister in decades (what Americans call the Secretary of State), serving for over a decade during 9/11 and the Iraq War. As a senior government minister in the Five Eyes alliance, he was influential in formulating Western countries' response to ISIS and jihadism. Most recently, he was Australia’s ambassador to the United Kingdom (a position which, between Commonwealth countries, is called the High Commissioner).
Downer recently wrote about the UK race riots and the strains of multiculturalism. As someone deeply familiar with immigration, multiculturalism, Islamism and foreign policy, Josh wanted to pick his brain.
Don’t miss a moment of the intellectual action. Get email updates from the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
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Our societies are more diverse than ever, yet we spend more of our time with people just like us. Are we losing a sense of common life? Maybe the far left and the far right aren't the cause of our division, but a consequence of it?
Jon Yates is an entertaining, whip smart writer and activist who studies how to build a more united society. He says the problem is not that we're different from each other, but that we're distant from the other. We are not fractured because of Trump or Fox News or MSNBC - those are consequences, not the cause, of our fracturing. Our divisions create the space for demagogues, he argues, not the other way around.
Is he right? If so, what can we do? Jon has a few ideas. Many of them you won't like, especially the "Hitler-y" ones (we hope). But you definitely want to hear them.
Jon's book is called "Fractured". To hear more from clever bunnies like him, get our newsletter at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
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Are we too focused on race? Have recent anti-racist movements like The Voice to Parliament and Black Lives Matter abandoned the colour-blind spirit of the civil rights pioneers?
Josh took to the stage for a special one-night-only Uncomfortable Conversations live event with Coleman Hughes, one of America’s most prominent authors and thinkers on the topic of race.
This is a 25 minute preview of the exclusive live show. If you want to hear the full 1 hour + event, as well as lots more similarly provocative conversations, head to https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
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"The debate over free speech, hate speech, online harms, algorithms and social media is tangling us up in knots. Let’s get back to first principles, because our ability to survive the 21st century depends on it."
So wrote Josh in Australia's top newspapers on the weekend, linked below. He had gotten into a stoush on the national TV panel show Q+A with Australia's eSafety Commissioner, whom Elon Musk calls a “censorship commissar”, over free speech on social media.
Thanks to you, the listener whose attention makes this show possible, we needn't restrict ourselves to thinking inside the limitations of the television sound bite, or the newspaper column inch. Here, in a freewheeling, unfettered way, let’s wrestle with free speech, algorithms, incitement... and whether it's sexist to tweet that #NotAllMen are dicks.
To get more content like this and support the free-speech mission of Uncomfy Convos, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
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Andy is the producer The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling and previously of the New York Times' groundbreaking podcast The Daily.
During the riots and racial reckoning after the killing of George Floyd, newsrooms were roiled by existential questions: Should journalists be activists? Do white male journalists hide behind "objectivity" to impose their bias? Do they get coddled by media companies who hide their misdeeds, or do they suffer extra scrutiny as targets for the social-justice mob?
Andy was in the eye of the storm. He'd been snapped up by the world's most powerful newspaper to grow its audio division, co-creating The Daily and other celebrated podcasts like Caliphate and Rabbit Hole.
Then, in a life-altering cancel-culture frenzy, he lost it all.
Andy is in Sydney for the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, where he and Josh spoke together on a panel, "Speaking Bluntly: Identity politics in journalism". He stopped by the Uncomfortable Conversations studios to share his incredible tale, warts and all.
Andy's new podcast is Reflector.
This full conversation is 2h14m long. To hear it in all its glory, and to get more thought-provoking, ad-free episodes, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
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Can great TV & movies help us overcome political polarisation? Is being creative the same as being open-minded? Why are artists sometimes blinkered?
Emile Sherman is the Academy Award-winning producer of Heartstopper, Slow Horses, The King’s Speech, Top of the Lake, The Power of the Dog, Anthony Hopkins' latest film, One Life, and much more.
His new podcast, The Sandbox, interviews the key creatives behind his biggest shows and films about their creative process. His other podcast is Principle of Charity
If you’re on the free Uncomfortable Conversations podcast then this is a delightful twenty-odd-minute preview of the full conversation. Or enjoy the ninety-minute-plus intellectual adventure in all its Oscar-worthy glory by scoring your own primo podcast feed at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
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What should you make of comparisons between the present day and the 1930s? Is the greatest risk that we're sliding towards Nazi-style fascism? Or that we're being drawn into a civil war where half the country are villains?
Dennis Glover has a PhD in History from King’s College Cambridge and works as a professional speechwriter and author. He has written policy and speeches for many of Australia's most influential left-wing politicians including Julia Gillard and Kim Beazley.
He's the author of The Art of Great Speeches, Orwell’s Australia, An Economy is Not a Society, and The Last Man in Europe, a novel about George Orwell.
His new book is "Repeat: A Warning from History".
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Two of the internet’s most intellectual contrarians sit down in a park with Josh. Magic ensues.
Jesse is among the world's most astute analysts of internet nonsense. He became a lightning rod when his 2018 Atlantic cover story was the first deeply reported mainstream article to question child transgender medicine.
His punishment was swift and severe, driving him into the netherworld of Podcastistan where his hit show with Katie Herzog, Blocked and Reported, analyses the pieties and group think of internet tribes. His own Substack is here.
Today's other guest is the most articulate, clear-headed contemporary thinker on race and social justice, tribalism and civil rights. He's been on The View, Real Time with Bill Maher and Joe Rogan. He's triggered a backlash from social justice warriors at the Ted conference with a Ted speech that transgressed racial taboos by calling for colourblind equality. His podcast is Conversations with Coleman and his Substack is here.
This episode is the audio of a YouTube video shot in New York City in early spring. Check it out here. It’s cool. (Oh, and subscribe to the YouTube channel, silly.)
Get tickets to see me and Coleman live in Melbourne here or at the festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney here.
For more, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
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Why do some people have strong moral opinions but don't act on them, while other people effect real change?
It's a question Josh wanted to ask Australia's most influential athlete-turned-politican. David Pocock was a rugby champion who played for Australia's national team, one of the world's most iconic rugby sides.
He then became the first senator not aligned with any major political party to represent the Australian Capital Territory. He was one of the most prominent faces in a tsunami of independents who annihilated the ruling conservative government. The billionaire backer of that political revolution, Simon Holmes à Court, had a fascinating conversation on this show which you should listen to here
You don't neeeeed to hear Holmes à Court before listening to this episode, but it's a bloody great chat so you might as well.
Josh's conversation with The MeatEater, Steven Rinella, which Senator Pocock refers to at the start, can be heard here
Senator Pocock grew up in a white family in Zimbabwe in the 1990s before moving to Australia in his teens. He and Josh discuss his anti-racism, his activism, why Aussies gamble so much, what the purpose of sport is, and whether it's time to do away with the two-party system.
If you're new to this show and you're a fan of Dave Pocock's, here are a few other episodes you might want to check out:
Sam Harris
Megan Phelps Roper
Douglas Murray Live
Tim Minchin
Needless to say, subscribe to the show in your podcast app and on YouTube if you dig it.
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Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for the presidency, has chosen her running mate… and it isn’t one of the swing-state governors her pollsters were recommending.
Josh is surprised, impressed, and uncharacteristically chipper about what this means for Harris, for the election and for the future of the American left. Cheer up and dive in to everything you need to understand about the possible fiftieth vice president of the United States, Tim Walz.
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DON'T MISS COLEMAN HUGHES AND JOSH LIVE IN MELBOURNE! GET TICKETS NOW AT https://bit.ly/Coleman-Szeps-Melb
Vaccine mandates. Wokeness in Hollywood. The female pay gap. Race protests. Diversity programs. Covid lockdowns. #metoo. The so-called intellectual dark web tackled it all. A loose grouping of dissenting intellectuals and commentators, they sought to buck taboos and open minds.
What happened? Who went down the rabbit hole to crazy town, and who maintained thier heads? And where is the space for sane dissent today?
Dr Jamie Roberts is a political philosopher and university lecturer who has ruffled feathers by openly admiring some of what the IDW was trying to do -- and even teaching college classes on it. His new book is "The Way of the Intellectual Dark Web: What Joe Rogan and his associates can teach us about political dialogue". He and Josh perform a real-time post mortem on a still-metastasising movement.
GET THOSE TIX TO SEE COLEMAN HUGHES AND JOSH BEFORE THEY SELL OUT: https://bit.ly/Coleman-Szeps-Melb
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Have you ever wondered what’s up with Earth? Seriously. What the actual heck. Of all those trillions of space rocks, this one is all leafy and watery and lifey. What is it, this spaceship we’re on, this pale blue dot? Might it be a kind of living thing itself?
This old hippy idea has been wrestled into a more fascinating, harder-headed thesis by the scientist and journalist Ferris Jabr. He's written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, National Geographic, Wired and The Los Angeles Review of Books; and he’s a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and Scientific American. His new book is “Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life”.
If your idea of a good time is listening to a couple of nerds geeking out on evolution, the cosmos, consciousness, and what happened to woolly mammoths, this is the episode for you, baby.
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
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Project 2025, technically the 2025 Presidential Transition Project, is a set of sweeping policy changes to be enacted on Day One of the next conservative administration. If Trump wins, that’s January 20th, 2025. Skye Perryman is one of the project’s leading opponents.
She’s the president and CEO of Democracy Forward, a non-profit that promotes democracy through court cases, lobbying and education. Washingtonian magazine named her one of this year’s Most Influential People Shaping Policy and her legal work has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Skye and Josh debate what really matters in the stoush over Project 2025 and what Trump Round Two might look like.
This episode is a taste of a longer conversation. To hear the full chat and get more Uncomfortable Conversations content, head to: https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
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How do you escape the shaming of the mob when you're a public figure with original ideas?
Tim Minchin is one of the most successful creatives Australia has ever produced. He wrote the music and lyrics for Matilda the Musical, which won more Olivier Awards than any other show in history at the time. Now in its 13th year, the show continues to sell out on the West End. The Broadway production was nominated for a stash of Tonys. The 2022 movie version is a riot.
Minchin went on to write the Broadway stage musical Groundhog Day, which scored seven Tony Award nominations and won the Olivier for Best New Musical.
Tim has starred in massive arena shows like Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, and sells out stadiums with his own blend of music, comedy, and musical comedy. He co-wrote and starred in the hit television comedy show Upright and he's a staple on the biggest TV talk shows.
But he's been most influential as a thinker, rationalist and activist -- as a New Atheist, a Defender of the Enlightenment and a Renaissance Man. He often finds himself at odds with the progressive wing of the artistic scene... cautious about being cancelled, but compelled to call out the bullshit he sees.
Due to copyright, we aren’t able to include the full versions of the songs mentioned in this podcast, but I urge you to listen if you’re unfamiliar with Tim’s work:
White Wine In The Sun
https://youtu.be/fCNvZqpa-7Q?si=dTedPJk58G54Ikza
When I Grow Up
https://youtu.be/6Y82wktAEmQ?si=gVaVtvQIO1f8jCEB
Woody Allen Jesus
https://youtu.be/_SFdUJLebzU?si=1-rBM5ht7xt85V1S
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First things first: The Uncomfortable Conversations LIVE touring empire is expanding, with live shows in Sydney and Melbourne in August with the inimitable Coleman Hughes. Tickets are selling fast. Get yours now. Don’t miss out:
Sydney https://bit.ly/Coleman-Szeps-Syd
Melbourne https://bit.ly/Coleman-Szeps-Melb
Meanwhile, the new YouTube page is going gangbusters. The episode you're listening to was shot as an outdoor TV interview on an early spring day in a Manhattan park. Check it out and subscribe to YouTube for more cool videos to come: https://bit.ly/UC_Videos
Thomas Chatterton Williams is a New Yorker who lives in Paris. He's the son of a Black father from the segregated South and a white mother from the West. He himself is the father of two white-looking children. Straddling the USA and Europe has given him a fascinating insight into identity, diversity and life as a Black man in America and in France. His memoir, Self–Portrait in Black and White, is a must-read.
As Thomas and Josh chat on a chilly but sunny New York day, they wrestle with the Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan attacks, Islamism, blood-and-soil right-wingers, George Floyd’s murder, racial profiling, and much more.
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When Sydney's biggest broadsheet newspaper published an opinion piece by Josh on the occasion of the Mardi Gras Gay Pride Parade, it triggered a backlash from some in the LGBT+ community. One of Josh's attackers was a prominent activist, Alastair Lawrie, the Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Justice and Equity Centre.
Instead of arguing with Alastair on Twitter, Josh invited him on the show to hash out their differences and discuss what challenges the LGBTQ+ community still faces.
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Well, what happens now? Does Donald Trump win? Does he lose? To whom? What are we all in for?
On the eve of Trump’s coronation as the Republican presidential candidate at the party’s National Convention this week, he was narrowly shot in an apparent assassination attempt at a rally.
Is this the most dramatic election of our lives? David Frum is one of the most influential anti-Trumpers to come out of a Republican White House. As President George W Bush’s speechwriter, he's credited with the famous phrase the "axis of evil". He wrote the first insider account of the Bush presidency. Frum is now a senior editor at The Atlantic.
David and Josh sat down shortly before the Trump shooting for the occasion of the Republican National Convention. They discuss Trump’s plans, Biden’s options, the fate of both parties… and of America.
In the first half-hour of this episode, Josh reflects on how to process this moment, and how the assassination attempt and response have already begun to shape what the future will hold for this campaign as well as American democracy at large.
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"Transsexual" sounds like an old-fashioned term. But it describes a real medical condition in which your brain has the opposite sex from your body. Are transsexuals threatened by newer gender-queer, non-binary theories of sex?
Dr Dana Beyer says so. She's one of the most influential and effective trans activists in history. A medical doctor and self-described transsexual, she's been striding the hallways of power since the 1970s meeting with the likes of Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden to achieve landmark wins for LGBT rights. Today, she believes modern gender theory is harming transsexuals like herself.
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Boomers. Millennials. Gen X. Gen Z. Are you actually in control of your feelings about gender fluidity, social media, streaming television, laptops, jumbo jets and the pill, or have you absorbed the norms of your generation?
Dr Jean Twenge is a psychology professor who's been studying large, national surveys of young people for decades, teasing out how the generations differ. Her books include an analysis of millennials ("Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled―And More Miserable Than Ever Before"), Gen Z ("iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy―and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood―and What That Means for the Rest of Us") and most recently, a study of every single one of us in "Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents―and What They Mean for America's Future".
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Europe is holding its breath ahead of France’s parliamentary elections, in which a “far right” party could win power for the first time since WWII.
The hero of 21st-century right-wing European triumphalism is Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán. Many European far-right candidtaes are his devoted fan boys, as are farther-flung admirers like Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson.
This week, Hungary assumed the rotating leadership of the European Union presidency. Orbán’s first move was to swoop into Kyiv to tell the Ukrainian President to stop fighting and get along better with those nice Russkies.
How has this anti-Western, anti-democratic strongman upended a European democracy? What’s happened to Hungary? And could it happen here?
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President Biden’s catastrophic debate performance has left many people worried about his electoral chances against Donald Trump. At this late stage, is there any way out?
Here, you get a double feature. In the first half-hour, Josh shares his reaction to the debate and his advice on Democratic messaging. Then the iconic political scientist Yascha Mounk -- an expert in how democracies thrive or fail – joins us to explain the pathway to Democratic victory. But is Joe Biden part of the plan?
Finally, for premium subscribers, Yascha proposes a strategy for either the Republicans or the Democrats to win back popular support and re-stitch the fabric of American democracy.
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Why does the death of some people punch us in the gut, and others slide by? Does your way of grieving indicate what you value in life?
Judith Whelan died last night. She was 62. She was Josh’s mentor, his champion, his arch-defender, playmate, and confidante, despite being his boss’s boss’s boss. She is, in many ways, the person who made Josh’s current career possible.
Another mentor and friend, Howard Fineman, died two weeks ago. And Josh’s father is in the death spiral of Alzheimer’s.
Here, Josh answers a question his six-year-old daughter asked him this morning: Why is he crying for Judith Whelan… but not his own dad?
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What's up with kids these days? ADHD. Autism. Bullying. Toxic boys. Self-harming girls. Social media addiction. Coddled teens. Anxious parents. A lot of folks are wringing their hands about the young-un's mental health. Josh thought he'd pick the brain of one of the world's leading experts who actually works at the coalface with troubled kids. Dr Billy Garvey is a senior specialist in child mental health at one of the largest tertiary paediatric hospitals in the world.
Billy challenges many of Josh's assumptions about parenting and childhood. He's a fascinating, insightful, riveting guy whose own podcast about raising kids is called Pop Culture Parenting. His show is blowing up in Australia as parents crave simple, evidence-based strategies to raise tiny mewling lizard-people into flourishing human beings.
Billy's new book is Ten Things I Wish You Knew About Your Child’s Mental Health. Enjoy.
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Josh was at Jerry Seinfeld's Sydney show last night, which was disrupted by Palestinian protesters in the audience. Josh shares his initial reaction and reflects on Gaza activism and anti-Zionism.
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On September 11th, 2001, the Australian prime minister, John Howard, was scheduled to meet with President George W Bush at the White House. While he was hunkered down in Washington during the terrorist attacks, Australia was being run by his deputy, the Acting Prime Minister, John Anderson. John was the equivalent of Australia’s Vice President during some of the most significant events in recent history.
Anderson is a Christian conservative who opposed same-sex marriage and the 2023 indigenous referendum. He and Josh have a fascinating time, wrestling with the biggest issues of culture and politics -- from religious faith, to gay rights, to Gaza. He brings you his first-hand experience inside the halls of power. John now interviews public intellectuals on his podcast, Conversations with John Anderson.
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Is it useful or debilitating to frame Indigenous people merely as victims of history?
Anthony Dillon is an Indigenous Australian, an academic and commentator who rejects today’s popular ideologies about White Australia, invasion and racism. He and Josh wrestle with how to make progress on First Nations issues in an innovative way.
This episode is part of Permission to Think, a collaboration with the University of Technology Sydney, thanks to Professor Alan Davison. It’s a taste of a longer episode which you can hear by popping over to https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
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Peter Helliar is one of Australia's biggest stand-up comedians. He was on TV every night for eight years as a panellist on The Project. He had his own network sitcom, How to Stay Married. He's a rockstar of the Melbourne Comedy Festival. He was nominated for Australia's biggest TV award, a Gold Logie. Last year, he was a contestant on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! When we sat down with him recently, he was playing the narrator in a live production of The Rocky Horror Show.
This interview was recorded shortly after another comedian, Arj Barker, asked a breastfeeding mother to leave his Melbourne Comedy Festival show when the baby was making too much noise, sparking a cultural debate about discrimination against mums versus the craft of comedy. Peter is hugely insightful as a performer. Enjoy.
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Andrew Tate. Jordan Peterson. Joe Rogan. From where are young males getting their models of masculinity? What does it even mean to Be A Man in the 21st century?
Osher Günsberg is the biggest TV host Down Under. For the past 21 years, he has been a mainstay of the country’s biggest shows as the host of Australian Idol, The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and The Masked Singer, which were recently cancelled. He’s the narrator of Bondi Rescue, and his podcast, Better Than Yesterday, is one of the country’s biggest shows. In it, he discusses his mental health journey with high-profile guests.
Osher, like Josh, is the father of a boy. Here, he and Josh wrestle with male violence, women's safety, masculinity, mental health, and being a dad.
This conversation is a great listen in its own right, but the whole thing is even better. To hear the final section, get your own personalised premium ad-free feed by jumping over to https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
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As the U.K. prepares for a sudden national election in four weeks, Helen Lewis and Josh wrestle with the issues that dominate all around the English-speaking world. Anger about rising prices – check. Anxiety about immigration – check. Dislocation due to globalisation – check. A culture war about wokeness – check.
Helen is arguably Britain's most insightful and entertaining journalist. Her interview with Jordan Peterson for GQ has nearly 70 million views on YouTube. She's done several terrific radio series and podcasts: The Spark, Great Wives, and The New Gurus; and she co-hosts The Private Eye Podcast. Her book, Difficult Women, was an instant classic. She’s a frequent panellist on the smash hit BBC TV panel show Have I Got News for You. And her columns in The Atlantic, where she is a staff writer, are a must-read.
If you believe the polls (and who could possibly doubt them these days?), the Labour Party leader, Sir Keir Starmer, is about to sweep away fourteen years of conservative rule. There’s no one better to explain why than the unmissable Helen Lewis.
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Josh had a rough week. He shares his advice about how to live a resilient, productive life -- to himself as much as to you.
This is a preview of a longer monologue for paid subscribers. We hope you enjoy it. Thanks for listening.
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Does being "left-wing" mean giving everyone equal opportunities? Or does it mean elevating historically excluded groups like gays, trans folks and people of colour? Professor Clive Hamilton is a professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University. He was active in the civil rights movements of the 1970s and he founded the country's most important left-wing think tank, the Australia Institute, thirty years ago.
In additon to his many books about the threat from China and from climate change, he penned an article: "Wake up, lefties, and reject wokeness".
This episode is part of Permission to Think, a collaboration with the University of Technology, Sydney, where Josh is a visiting fellow. Thanks to the university’s dean of Arts and Social Sciences, Professor Alan Davison, for making it possible.
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We opened up the webcams for a live Zoom talkback episode. We discuss fascinating news stories, Josh shares a private essay he wrote to his friends who are having a dispute over Joe Rogan, and you’ll learn how he keeps his cool during testy conversations.
Keep an eye out for more live talkback sessions in the future, and make sure you’re signed up to http://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com to be part of the team.
Wendy Harmer is the most groundbreaking female comedian in Australia. She shattered the glass ceiling in the 1980s as a stand-up comic and TV host, before ruling the radio airwaves for decades. Her book is “Lies My Mirror Told Me: A frank, funny, fearless memoir”. Josh picks her brain about when she bombed hosting television’s night of nights.
This is a taste of a longer episode for premium subscribers. If you'd like to hear the whole thing, pop over to the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
In Silicon Valley, it's hard to overstate the significance of Jaron Lanier. He coined the term "virtual reality" and founded the first virtual reality company in the '80s. You may recognise him as the dreadlocked polymath in the The Social Dilemma, Netflix's documentary about the harms of social media.
Today, he is a leader of a dissident group of tech geniuses who believe the hype of A.I. is overblown, in both its capabilities and its risks. While many of his colleagues speak of artificial intelligence as a mythological turning point for civilisation, he argues -- in books and in a series of groundbreaking essays in The New Yorker magazine -- that A.I. is just a tool. It's a mindless auto-complete bot.
Lanier's humanism is laudable and infectious. But Josh can't quite grok his dismissiveness of artificial intelligence. In this chat, Jaron is as frustrated by this impasse as Josh is. Enjoy the resulting to-and-fro.
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Why is the Australian government in a court battle with Elon Musk? Should taxpayers be paying for disabled Australians to hire hookers? Should campus protestors be as upset about the plight of the Uighurs as of Palestinians? And why has a lady been driving around with a deadly snake stowed in her car for months?
Josh breaks down the most intriguing stories of the week with two scintillating commentators: Claire Lehmann, the founder and editor of Quillette and a columnist for The Australian newspaper, and Peter van Onselen, the political editor of the Daily Mail Australia and a politics professor at the University of Western Australia.
This is a taste of a longer episode for premium subscribers. If you'd like to hear the whole thing, pop over to the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
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Could independent politicians kill off the two-party system and make politics more accountable?
At the last Australian election, a decade of conservative government rule was brought to an end thanks largely to a wave of so-called "teal independents" supported by Simon Holmes à Court’s organisation.
The son of Australia’s first billionaire and the heir to generations of influential politicians and businessmen, Simon Holmes à Court has become one of the most significant figures in Australian politics. His political revolution has challenged the status quo of the two major political parties and allowed communities to wrestle back power from institutions that don't represent them. This is a fascinating, wide ranging chat with a brilliant mind.
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Australia is in the grip of a national reckoning about male violence against women. Last month, 11 women died at the hands of men, almost half of whom were killed in the Bondi stabbing. Countless news reports describe an epidemic of men killing women. Rallies all over the country emphasise the central message: Men Need To Do Better. But what do the facts say? How can we best fix the problem? And is Josh merely being a defensive, toxic male when he says it’s “not all men”? Josh seeks to bring reason to an emotional conversation.
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A legend of Australian comedy, Meshel Laurie has endured her share of woke social media pile-ons. The top-rating radio host, comedian and TV performer is invariably described as “divisive”. Why? Because she’s a woman? Because she’s uncensored?
Meshel’s podcasts are Australian True Crime and Can We Be Real. Here, she and Josh reflect on social media, alcohol, drugs, comedy, stardom, Buddhism, the pandemic, and how to discuss male violence without alienating men.
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We opened up the phones to field questions from the listeners for our first-ever live talkback episode. We discussed fascinating news stories as well as the hard-hitting topics the mainstream media refuses to touch, like why it's okay to eat dog.
Keep an eye out for more live ask-me-anything sessions in the future, and make sure you’re signed up to uncomfortableconversations.substack.com to get involved.
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He’s the man who introduced Joe Rogan to hunting.
Steven Rinella hosts the long-running TV show and podcast MeatEater. He’s an outdoorsman, conservationist, writer and TV star who's written ten books about wildlife, hunting, fishing, and wild game cooking. But best of all, he’s a generous and wise thinker about ecology and animal suffering.
Josh has never shot an animal in his life. Enjoy.
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It's always a treat when Professor Joel Pearson stops by for The Buzz, to blow our minds about our minds.
On this visit, Joel and Josh wrestle with how you experience time. Why does time sometimes seem to move fast, and slow? Are some people naturally better at different times of day? How fooled can you be by tricks of time? Is there a biological timer in your brain? And why does time speed up as you age?
Joel is a professor of cognitive neuroscience who runs the Future Minds Lab at one of Australia's big ivy leagues, UNSW. His latest book is "Intuition: Unlock Your Brain's Potential to Build Real Intuition and Make Better Decisions".
This is a taste of a longer episode for premium subscribers. It includes a couple of visual brain games to test your time perception. They need to be seen to be experienced. If you'd like to hear the whole thing and to see the experiments, pop over to the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe to access to videos of this and all our other premium shows.
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Jimmy Carr’s comedy career has spanned over two decades and seen him sell out arenas all over the world. Jimmy returns to Netflix with his latest stand-up special Jimmy Carr: Natural Born Killer. The show was seen by 1.2 million people in 45 countries and is the first special that Jimmy has directed. Now you get to see it at home.
I sat down with Jimmy during my visit to London to discuss his new special as well as all things comedy, cancel culture, social media, the state of the world and much much more.
Jimmy Carr returns to Netflix with his latest stand-up special Jimmy Carr: Natural Born Killer out now.
Jimmy’s brand-new international tour Jimmy Carr: Laughs Funny is on sale now. For tickets and info visit jimmycarr.com
Website: https://www.jimmycarr.com
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jimmycarr
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jimmycarr
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@jimmycarr
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For the first Uncomfortable Conversations live tour, Douglas Murray joined Josh in conversation on a sold-out five-city tour. This is the audio of the matinee show in Sydney, which was recorded live from the audience while protesters tried to make as much noise as they could outside. So our most sincere apologies for the quality of the audio, however, the YouTube shows were recorded with proper equipment and sound great!
Whether you agree or disagree with him, Douglas is one of the most important public intellectuals today. A journalist and bestselling author, he tackles controversial issues head on like nobody else.
Two of the live shows will be posted on YouTube (you won't hear those here to avoid duplication, so be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel). Enjoy the intellectual rumble.
To keep on top of every gem we release, and for ad-free episodes which include Q&A's and other bonus goodies, be sure you're subscribed at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
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Josh wanted to explore the perspective of a Western leftist who's been condemning Israel and who understands the Middle East.
Eiynah is a Pakistani-Canadian podcaster, illustrator and commentator who grew up in Saudi Arabia. Throughout the Gaza conflict, she has been vehement in her opposition to Israel.
Eiynah's podcast is called Polite Conversations and you can follow her @NiceMangos.
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Sydney's #1 talk radio host, the legendary Ben Fordham, joins journalist, podcaster and explosive former ABC provocateur Antoinette Lattouf to debate the big stories of the week.
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This week, the Federal Court of Australia will hear a case with profound implications for women's rights and trans rights. It involves a women's app whose creator is being sued for discrimination by a trans woman because the app is exclusively for biological females. Here, the defendant shares her story.
Should women be allowed to exclude transgender women from female-only spaces? Or do trans women have a human right to be treated, anywhere and everywhere, as biological females?
Most of the media isn't covering the case, because in polite journalistic circles it's heresy at best, or bigotry at worst, to question whether trans women differ from biological females. Sall Grover is the creator of the app, whose life has been deranged by this litigation.
In this unique one-on-one, ahead of her landmark court appearance this week, Sall and Josh wrestle with profound questions that could redefine womanhood and gender rights in Australia.
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Nobody attended all seven live conversations with Douglas Murray. Nobody will ever hear them all. Except for Josh.
Here, he brings you into the inner circle. What takeaways did Josh get? Was he frustrated by Douglas' blind spots? Has Douglas changed Josh's mind on Gaza, Zionism, trans issues or wokeness?
This is a taste of a longer episode for premium subscribers. If you'd like to hear the whole thing, pop over to the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
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For the first Uncomfortable Conversations live tour, Douglas Murray joined Josh in conversation on a sold-out five-city tour. This is the audio of the final show, in Melbourne.
Whether you agree or disagree with him, Douglas is one of the most important public intellectuals today. A journalist and bestselling author, he tackles controversial issues head on like nobody else.
Two of the live shows will be posted on YouTube (you won't hear those here to avoid duplication, so be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel). Enjoy the intellectual rumble.
To keep on top of every gem we release, and for ad-free episodes which include Q&A's and other bonus goodies, be sure you're subscribed at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
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Douglas Murray is one of the foremost conservative thinkers of our time. He's a journalist and author of numerous best-selling books who's appeared on some of the biggest stages around the world.
Douglas and Josh just completed the first ever Uncomfortable Conversations live tour at sold-out venues in five cities, debating topics as diverse as the conflict in Gaza, cancel culture, gender dysphoria and much more.
Here's the first taste of the tour: Two audience Q&A segments from the Brisbane and Adelaide shows, where Douglas and Josh attempted to solve the world’s most complicated problems... one audience-submitted question at a time.
This episode is only available in full for premium subscribers. If you're not a paid subscriber, enjoy a short taste -- or, to experience the full multicoloured glory of Uncomfortable Conversations, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
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Do you ever feel apprehensive about speaking up? Are you ever misunderstood? Do you ever find other people evasive, or abrasive?
The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charles Duhigg caused a splash 12 years ago with his research into the formation of habits and his book "The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life." Now, he's studied super communicators to discover why you're misunderstood, and what you can do better. His new book is "Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection".
Here, Charles and Josh misunderstand each other... in instructive ways.
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This is a preview of an episode for paid subscribers.
What should we make of politics in the 2020s? Are we in an ascendant moment for the centre left? The US swung Democratic at the last midterm elections. The Australian conservatives were annihilated at the last poll. The same will happen to the UK Tories later this year.
Peter van Onselen is a professor of politics who has written multiple books about the rise and fall of almost every recent conservative prime minister. He has worked inside parliament house, written political commentary for The Australian newspaper, he was the chief political reporter for Channel Ten, and hosted Australia's nightly TV news panel show, The Project.
Should the Right be conservative, or populist? Should the Left be woke, or working class? Peter and Josh take stock of the political landscape in 2024.
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Peter Garrett is one of the most iconic Australians. As the lead singer of Midnight Oil, he's had countless number one hits all over the world. He entered politics and reached the highest levels of government as a cabinet minister, including spearheading the campaign to ban Japanese whaling worldwide. As an environmentalist and indigenous rights activist, he has seen a half-century of social justice. Josh sits down with an Australian legend to pick his brain about modern culture, the left and the right, China, climate chaos and much more.
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Can a non-white person be racist? Or is racism something only white people do? The beloved captain of Australia's national women's soccer team, Sam Kerr, a woman of colour, was charged by UK police with racial harassment after allegedly calling a white male police officer a "stupid white bastard" in London.
Australia's commentariat has been twisting itself in knots trying to find the correct anti-racist hot take. The official consensus is that people of colour can't be racist, so she did nothing wrong. The other side shrieks that that's hypocrisy, insisting that all race-based insults are equally bad. Josh tries to bring rationality to an irrational debate.
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When Josh left his ABC Radio show in December, keen observers recalled an appearance he'd made on the hugely popular US podcast The Fifth Column some months earlier, which had hinted that all was not well in paradise. For the first time since jumping off from the legacy media train, Josh sits down with the Fifth Colunmistas in New York City for a catch-up... and a review of the spiciest stories in the news.
This is a crossover episode with The Fifth Column podcast. If you've already heard it on their feed, sorry. If you've never heard of them, check them out at https://wethefifth.substack.com.
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Yesterday we released a preview of this paid episode. Due to the reaction to the full episode on the paid feed, we are re-releasing it here for free as a public service.
Amid the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, "anti-Zionism" has become shorthand for "anti-bombing-Palestinians". But what do we mean when we ask if someone opposes Zionism? Does being a “Zionist” mean you support Israel's brutality? Josh is being asked this question more and more. He tries to untangle an answer.
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Do we fetishise indigenous culture? Praising timeless First Nations wisdom makes us feel warm and fuzzy. But what do land acknowledgements, smoking ceremonies and racial sensitivity classes have to do with the oldest continuous civilisation on earth and its future in the modern world?
Tyson Yunkaporta is an Aboriginal scholar at Deakin University in Melbourne. His new book is "Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking". He and Josh have it out.
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Well, the knives are out. Later this month, Josh is touring Australia with the outspoken British journalist Douglas Murray. It's the first in a series of live tours that'll bring you the world's most interesting minds from across the entire political and ideological spectrum. You'll hear some of those events on this very pod.
But now, the threat of cancellation looms. Activists are trying to force theatres to cancel the Douglas Murray events. Here, Josh shares his thoughts.
This episode is only available in full for premium subscribers. If you're not a paid subscriber, enjoy a short taste -- or, to experience the full multicoloured glory of Uncomfortable Conversations, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
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The Worthless Twink is one of the most prominent gays on Instagram. But he's not called that any more. Tim Abbott is reinventing himself as a meme artist. He gets real and raw with Josh about influencers, the gays, and self-obsession.
This episode was recorded before the tragic death of Sydney couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies on Monday the 19th of February.
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Josh is joined by fan favourite Professor Joel Pearson, neuroscientist and psychologist, to discuss the biggest stories in technology... and how they'll affect your life.
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This week, Josh is joined on the panel couch by Courtney Act, one of the world’s most iconic drag queens (or, rather, by her even more captivating alter ago, Shane Jenek) and by the ABC's National Technology Reporter, Ange Lavoipierre.
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Angela is Australia’s most successful adult film actress, and the most award-winning female porn star in history, anywhere. She graduated with First Class Honors and now runs a multi-million-dollar operation as one of the top 0.01% of OnlyFans creators. She and Josh discuss gender, sexual identity, Botox, porn and taboos.
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Anti-Zionist Instagram mums are on the hunt. They plan to expose secret WhatsApp messages where sniveling, bloodthirsty Jews like Josh plot. What’s up with snitching these days? Can we quit it already?
Also, Josh bought a cat and needs your advice.
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Neuralink brain implants. Apple Vision Pro virtual reality. Silicon Valley tech bros who plan to live forever. It’s been a big week in science and technology news, and who better to devour, digest and regurgitate it for you than neuroscientist Joel Pearson and technology journalist Angharad "Rad" Yeo (and their humble interlocuter nerd, Josh)?
Joel’s book is The Intuition Toolkit and you can check out the show’s YouTube page to see our purdy faces.
Let us know what you think of the episode on the Substack page. You can join the community for free, or pay for heaps of awesome bonus content at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
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How does the moist grey meat between your ears create the kaleidoscope of sensations you experience as your life? How do other animals experience the world? And will A.I. ever feel like something?
Joel Pearson is a psychologist and neuroscientist who runs the Future Minds Lab at the University of New South Wales and is in charge of Innovation & Enterprise in their school of psychology. His new book is "The Intuition Toolkit: The New Science of Knowing What without Knowing Why."
Join Joel as he blows your mind about your mind.
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The doomsayers are out in force, with plenty of gloomy prognostications for 2024. In this solo episode (also available on YouTube if you want to behold Josh’s staggeringly beautiful hair), Josh explains why — on climate, economics and politics — 2024 will be a helluva lot better than you think.
Josh had a tradition on his radio show. Each Friday, he’d banter with two celebrities about the news. Well, behold this first-ever inaugural grand honorary opening maiden extravaganza lollapalooza: The Uncomfortable Conversations Panel.
This week, our guests are the two most interesting people in the world: Sarah Wilson and Jessie Stephens. Sarah’s podcast is Wild, which you should listen to. She’s also a multi-New York Times best-selling author, social philosopher and keynote speaker. Jessie’s podcasts are Mamamia Out Loud and Cancelled, which you should also listen to. She’s also a best-selling author. They’re both rather impressive and you should follow them.
If you’re a paid subscriber and if you’re seeing that this episode is only about 26 minutes long, then something is wrong and you’re on the free feed. The full episode is almost an hour long! Log into Substack to get your own unique premium podcast feed with no ads and longer episodes at https://bit.ly/UC_Primo. Or, if you’re just a free subscriber and you’re happy with that, enjoy the first 25 minutes and we're glad to have you.
In this week’s conversation, a judge strips Elon Musk of his big fat bonus, the government bans vapes, and the UK prime minister practices serrrrrrrious intermittent fasting. Let us know what you think in the Substack comments. Enjoy.
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Should swastikas be banned? Should you be allowed to chant “Palestinians are terrorists”? What about “trans women aren’t women”? Or “Covid was a hoax”?
In an era of misinformation and hate speech, universities, governments and journalists are wrestling with whether to control what gets said. Should there be any limits?
You’ve seen James Kirchick on Bill Maher’s show. He’s a big free-speecher; a writer, columnist, and a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. He and Josh butt heads debating free speech and hate speech in a chaotic world.
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Today, January 26th, is Australia's national day. It's hugely controversial, being the anniversary of the British Empire's arrival on indigenous land. On the morning of Australia Day, Josh reflects on race relations and the ongoing Australia-Day controversy.
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Elie Honig used to prosecute the mafia in New York City. Now he’s CNN’s senior Legal analyst. As a seasoned prosecutor of organised crime, he helps Josh wrestle through Trump’s legal problems and their likely outcomes. Elie’s new book is “Untouchable: How Powerful People Get Away with It”.
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Meg made an astonishing documentary about Guantanamo terrorists who were released into a de-radicalisation program in Saudi Arabia. Then her film, The UnRedacted (Jihad Rehab), was cancelled… and so was she.
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*CORRECTION: The UnRedacted (Jihad Rehab) is not yet available to watch at JihadRehab.com but Meg is working on it and it will be ready in the very near future. Follow Meg's my GoFundMe or Facebook page for the film for updates, links below.
FILM FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/people/The-UnRedacted-Documentary/100086743011195/
FILM GOFUNDME PAGE: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-unredacted-jihad-rehab
When we accuse a country of being a "coloniser", it's meant as a bad thing. But what if colonialism is okay? What if the British Empire was, on balance... good?
That's the position of @NigelBiggar, a Professor Emeritus at Oxford University whose new book, “Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning”, is making heads explode all over Britain. Join Josh as he tries to wrestle with the ethics of the Raj, indigenous rights, racism, and one of the greatest crimes – or greatest virtues? – in political history.
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Are Jews a minority? Do they deserve the same social-justice protections as other identity groups? Or are they white—perhaps even the “whitest” of white privileged elites?
David Baddiel is a comedian and writer. He helped turn comedy into ‘the New Rock’n’Roll’ when he created the hit TV shows ‘The Mary Whitehouse Experience’ and ‘Newman & Baddiel in Pieces’. He’s appeared on the UK’s biggest comedy shows including ‘Little Britain’, ‘Skins’, ‘8 Out of 10 Cats’, and ‘QI’, and he performed to 12,500 people at the Wembley arena in the UK’s first ever stadium comedy show.
Now, he has turned his ferocious intellect to his Jewishness. How does the social-justice Left think about Jews? Where do Jews fit in a ‘woke’ worldview? Baddiel’s brilliant new book and TV documenatry are both called “Jews Don't Count”.
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How long can ham sit on the Christmas table before you shouldn’t eat it? Can fried rice kill you? Can you store butter out of the fridge? Why did Josh start spewing chunks just twenty minutes after eating a chimichanga? Gary Kennedy is a world expert in food safety and the managing director of Correct Food Systems. To help you survive your impending holiday feast (and every Chinese takeaway you’ll ever have), don’t miss this quirky, compelling, uncomfortable Christmas special.
How would your life change if you found out, beyond all doubt, that you're a robot? What if nothing you’ve ever done was your own free choice? What if your brain just tricks you into feeling like you’re choosing things it already planned?
Josh can't believe that. But the Stanford Professor Robert Sapolsky, one of the world’s leading free-will sceptics, does. His latest book is “Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will”.
Prepare to have your mind blown. If you have one.
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Today, over 3,200 of Josh’s arts-industry colleagues are engaging in a Palestinian Day of Action, wearing Palestinian scarves during performances nationwide. Josh, you’ll be shocked to learn, has some thoughts.
In a future of digital spying, inflationary economies, incompetent central banks and petty authoritarians, could Bitcoin be the guarantee of all your other freedoms? Josh was on Peter’s blockbuster podcast, What Bitcoin Did, and now Peter stops by the Uncomfy Convos studio on a recent trip to Sydney. He’s a super smart thinker about the role of the individual, the state… and your wallet.
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David Pakman is a progressive American political commentator who hosts one of the world’s most popular left-wing talk shows, with over 1.8 million subscribers. Josh picks his brain about the state of the media, of the Left… and of America.
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There's a LOT going on in the Uncomfy Convo world. You probably have a lot of questions. I'm here to answer them.
What's wrong with empathy? Is effective altruism better? How did you develop your sense of right and wrong? Is suffering necessary for pleasure? These are the questions the psychologist Paul Bloom wrestles with. Enjoy the ride.
Yippee-ki-yay, Josh has quit his ABC Radio show to double down on Uncomfortable Conversations. Starting in the new year, you'll get additional free episodes, a YouTube channel, a live tour and more. Before embarking on his adventure, Josh wanted to speak with the most successful person who has recently pulled it off. Bari Weiss was an opinion writer and editor at The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. She walked away to do her own thing at The Free Press.
Now more than ever, we need you to subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed. Hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
Brian Dunning is an expert on critical thinking, science and skepticism. His weekly podcast, Skeptoid, debunks conspiracy theories, and his new film is “The UFO Movie THEY Don't Want You to See”. Here, Josh tries to get to the bottom of what’s really going on with UFOs.
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Can you work at a corporation or university and openly contradict elite opinion? Can you freel y suggest that gender is binary, land acknowledgments are silly, that there are biological reasons why more men become CEOs, or that racial diversity quotas are patronising? Not without being punished, according to a tsunami of cases being catalogued by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Its CEO, Greg Lukianoff, who co-wrote the bestseller “The Coddling of the American Mind” , has a new book, “The Cancelling of the American Mind”, with the Gen-Z journalist Rikki Schlott to explain what’s going on.
What does it take to sustain a career in the performing arts? Julia Zemiro is one of Australia’s most beloved perfomers. An actor, improv comic and TV host, she has hosted the official New Year's Eve telecast from Sydney Harbour, the music quiz show “RocKwiz”, and her own beloved television interview show “Julia Zemiro's Home Delivery”, I sit down with her to muse on what it takes to make it in a tough biz.
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Josh shares fresh thoughts on Gaza, Palestine and Israel in this special bonus episode. To subscribe to the premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
Eli Lake is the former senior national security correspondent for The Daily Beast and Newsweek. He’s a contributing editor to Commentary Magazine and the host of the Re-Education Podcast. He was a syndicated columnist for Bloomberg between 2014 and 2022 and a former reporter at the New York Sun, the Daily Beast and the Washington Times. He and Josh debate Israel’s responsibility for the current crisis in Gaza.
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How are you feeling about the war in Ukraine? We may be at a fork in the road and about to blow it. The Wall Street Journal's Marcus Walker recently returned from Ukraine. He shares with you everything from the fascinating little details to the bracing geopolitics.
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I’ve been asked many times about my thoughts on situation in Israel and Gaza…. So here they are.
On October 14th, Australians will vote about whether to recognise the country’s First Peoples in the Constitution by establishing a body called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
Jack Latimore is a Birpai man and the Indigenous affairs journalist for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. He joins the show to explain it all.
You can read Jack’s work at the link below.
https://www.theage.com.au/by/jack-latimore-p4ywbz
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Josh is in New York, where he just stopped by the studios of one of America’s greatest podcasts, The Fifth Column, to record this special crossover pod. Find Michael Moynihan, Kmele Foster and Matt Welch at https://wethefifth.com and https://wethefifth.substack.com.
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A long, long time ago, The Gays couldn’t marry. What was it like in that mediaeval nightmare? The world’s most popular sex advice columnist, Dan Savage, joined Josh in New York on the set of his television talk show in 2013. Enjoy this fascinating time portal, unavailable anywhere else on earth, except on the premium podcast feed at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
Are there biological differences between male and female brains? How much of what you do is dictated by evolution? As a part of our Permission To Think collaboration with the University of Technology Sydney's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, evolutionary psychologist Professor Steve Stewart-Williams describes how you came to be an ape who understands the universe.
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Australians are about to vote on whether to change the constitution to create a special advisory body for Indigenous Australians. Is it an overdue forum for justice? Or a risky, undemocratic game of identity politics? It’s the listener question Josh gets the most. Here, he tries to inject some sanity into an increasingly toxic debate.
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Yascha Mounk is one of the world’s most interesting thinkers about diversity, liberalism and democracy. His new book, The Identity Trap, is an ambitious account of the origins, consequences, and limitations of “wokeness”. How did a relatively marginal set of ideas – postmodernism, postcolonialism, critical race theory – come to rule the world?
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Has Louis CK reeeeeeally been “cancelled” if he still has a face? I mean, he wasn’t beheaded, ergo, “cancel culture” doesn’t exist. Amna Khalid is an equal-opportunity defender of free speech—a professor who slams wokesters… at the same time as legally opposing Florida’s war on woke universities. Anna’s blog and podcast, “Banished”, are about the history of censorship. This episode is part of Permission to Think, a collaboration with the University of Technology, Sydney, where Josh is a visiting fellow. A fabulous chat about the fate of education and the limits of free speech.
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Is Zionism a noble goal, or a form of colonial apartheid? Is a two-state solution possible? Desirable? Antony Loewenstein is a fierce critic of Israel and of the whole Zionist project. His new book is The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World. He and Josh debate the rights and wrongs of a Jewish homeland.
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Is Barbie the triumphant feminist critique of modern society it claims to be? The dust has settled on the mega-hit, so Josh finds some time to weigh-in.
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Ed Kavalee is a legend of Aussie radio, and a bloody funny bloke. Josh and Ed sit down to compare the best and worst of Australia vs America.
It’s being compared to the discovery of fire or of electricity. Either way, artificial intelligence will revolutionise human civilisation. How?
Toby Walsh runs the AI Lab at UNSW and is a world-leading expert in AI. His most recent book is “Machines Behaving Badly: The Morality of AI.” Join him and Josh all the way down the rabbit hole.
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Josh used to drink a lot, and now he doesn't. One of the most frequently asked questions on our Ask Me Anythings, is how and why he quit. It deserves a longer explanation. Here it is.
“If you’re explaining, you’re losing,” said Ronald Reagan, who never had to explain himself to a baying Twitter mob. Respected journalist David Volodzko, an expert on political extremism, got the newspaper job of his dreams… and lost it all within days. If you’ve ever wondered whether cancel culture exists, don’t miss his stunning tale.
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And you can support David at his Substack page at https://substack.com/@volodzko
Jerry Seinfeld personally chose Mark Normand to be his opening act. He’s a favourite of Joe Rogan and has appeared on CONAN, the Tonight Show & Late Show. Josh caught up with him, live and in-the-flesh, during Mark’s Australian tour.
Mark’s new special Soup To Nuts is available on Netflix now. Check out the trailer HERE.
Follow Mark on Twitter HERE.
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Are you more forgiving of people you agree with than those you don’t? Have humans evolved to favour our own kind, to avoid ostracism, and to gain social status? Cory Clark is a behavioral scientist who studies tribalism and group identity. Her findings are shocking… but they offer us a path out of this mess.
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In a TV interview that put Josh on the map, Russell Brand shows up at Josh’s New York studio for the wildest ride of Josh’s life. Nipples are tweaked. Laptops are ruined. Wild minds are in flight. It’s one for the history books. Enjoy.
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Destiny, aka The Omni Liberal, aka Steven Bonnell is the debater who most terrifies right-wing trolls on Twitter. He was among the first people in the world to stream video games online full-time and now live-streams political debates in which he crushes his conservative opponents. What makes him tick?
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Josh's husband Sean’s memoir Not Like Other Dads was released in early June and has been a raging success. For this premium episode, they sit down and talk about the book, his motivations for writing it, and his experience, of their experience, of becoming parents.
Andrew & Gaia Grant study the world’s biggest companies and coach them to be nimbler, more creative, and more diverse. How did we get so uncreative… and what separates the best from the rest?
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Myq is a New York comic who’s been on the Tonight Show, Conan, Letterman, James Corden, Seth Meyers, Comedy Central, Last Comic Standing, and America’s Got Talent. He also introduced Josh to ayahuasca. What happened next?
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Despite his reputation as a defector to neoconservatism, Christopher Hitchens was more faithfully committed to liberal principles than many on the left today: Free expression, internationalism, individual rights and universalism as opposed to identity politics. That’s the argument Matt Johnson makes in his book, How Hitchens Can Save the Left: Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-Enlightenment.
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Josh is a travel hacker and aviation nerd. He's one of those people who knows all the ways to get as many frequent flyer miles as possible, and cash them in for luxury, first-class experiences on the world's best airlines. He sits down with producer Stef to take him through how the whole thing works.
Megan Phelps-Roper was brought up in one of the most hated sects of American Christianity – the Westborough Baptist Church. Now, she sits down with the woman at the centre of an equally vicious firestorm, J.K. Rowling, in a new podcast from The Free Press. Josh and Megan reflect on the trans wars, religion, and the power of the mob.
Josh answers all your questions about A.I., fitness, Ukraine, gender ideology, and vacationing in Europe in winter.
Presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr blew up the internet when he pushed anti-vaccine claims on Joe Rogan’s show. It’s déjà vu all over again for Josh, who had his own little vax run-in with Rogan last year. Should scientists and medical researchers do a better job of engaging with alternative media? America’s leading skeptic, Michael Shermer, thinks so. He and Josh hash it out.
On a summer night in Brooklyn in 2015, in the week when Trump descended a staircase to declare his ridiculous stunt candidacy for the Republican nomination, Josh launched his first ever podcast. Jim Norton, Abbi Crutchfield and Kevin Allison lit up a dive bar, guzzling cocktails and bantering about the news. Be transported back to that event.
To get your very own premium version of Josh’s podcast, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/listen
Sarah Haider is a Pakistani-American writer and a ferociously clear-headed thinker about culture, society, identity politics, religion, cancel culture, sex and gender. She’s been featured on the BBC and in The Economist and recognized as a “Freethought Heroine” for her work co-founding a non-profit that assists dissident Muslims. Her podcast, A Special Place In Hell, is co-hosted by the equally curious contrarian feminist Meghan Daum. Here, Sarah and Josh wrestle with the biggest questions of contemporary culture. Enjoy the ride.
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Permission to Think is a collaboration with the University of Technology, Sydney, where we debate the vigour, rigour and freedom of the academy. Today, the Melbourne University Law Professor Dr Katy Barnett sticks her neck out to argue against activist academics.
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The world’s leading A.I. researchers have released an open letter warning of the “existential threat” the technology poses to human civilisation. Stephen Marche begs to differ. He’ll go down in history as the man who created the world’s first mainstream novel written by A.I. To do so, he spent months interacting with Chat GPT. Join Josh as he and Stephen argue about the fate of artificial intelligence… and of humankind.
Do you know Josh? You may be surprised to hear his surprise when the show’s producer, Stefan Posthuma, turns the tables and puts Josh on the spot with some First Date Questions of his own.
In front of a packed crowd at a sold-out Brisbane City Hall, Josh interviews the world's most influential living biologist, Richard Dawkins.
Michael Shermer is a titan of the rationalist movement. He’s been on Oprah. He’s been on Donahue. He’s argued on TV with Deepak Chopra. He had a column in Scientific American for twenty-odd years. He’s the executive director of The Skeptics Society and the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine. His latest book is Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational.
Susan Sarandon is an Academy Award winning actor, philanthropist and progressive activist. She joined Josh on his old TV show to talk about her rise in Hollywood, gun laws, drug laws and being a “milf”.
Eva is a high-end dominatrix: A sex worker who flies around the world, servicing people’s most carnal desires. What makes them -- and her -- do what they do?1
What are your non-negotiable travel essentials? What catch phrase would you put on a billboard? What are your most left-wing and right-wing views? From deep and insightful to low-brow and fun - the audience asks Josh... anything.
Shadi Hamid is a Muslim-American writer and professor whose latest book is “The Problem of Democracy”. In his new Substack, Wisdom of Crowds, he makes the case against consensus… and in favour of polarisation. Josh wants to figure out what the hell he means.
As Josh comes to the end of his trip to West Africa. He sits down with his travel companion Dan to share their summary of the adventure.
After a dramatic youth that included a forced marriage to an Al-Qaeda operative, Yasmine became an activist for women’s rights in the Muslim world. Her charity, Free Hearts, Free Minds, helps ex-Muslims escape Muslim theocracies. Ironically, some of her toughest adversaries are western progressives, too timid to criticise Islam.
He’s a one-man wellness, publishing and podcasting empire. Rich Roll started getting fit in middle age and is now a world-renowned vegan ultra-endurance athlete.
Dick Cavett is one of the greatest television talk show hosts of all time. After being a writer on the original NBC Tonight Show (first with Jack Parr, then with Johnny Carson), Cavett got his own show in 1968. It ran for nearly 40 years and cemented him as a titan of American broadcasting, hosting seminal political debates as well as Hollywood’s biggest stars. A few years ago, Cavett appeared on Josh’s TV show. This is the audio of that encounter.
“The Mooch” was a wildly successful investment banker when he joined Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. He became the White House Communications Director in 2017. Anthony tells Josh about his time in the White House, his relationship with Trump, and what kind of a guy he really is.
Josh is backpacking around West Africa. As you do. What’s it like? He’s here to tell you, recorded live from the road (or the dusty track, as the case may be).
Sign up below on our FREE Substack tier to hear the whole thing.
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Universities are now dominated by diversity, equity and inclusion mandates, says the philosopher Peter Boghossian… and the result is a stultifying climate of intellectual conformism. In this all-new instalment of Permission to Think, our collaboration with the UTS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Josh and Peter debate how universities, and our culture at large, can reclaim true intellectual freedom.
If you're a greenie, you're supposed to be anti-nuclear. That was true of the former Extinction Rebellion spokesperson Zion Lights... until she became one of Britain's most prominent advocates for nuclear power. But do her claims stand up to Josh's scrutiny?
Josh walked into a bar in Brooklyn and, in front of a packed crowd of drunks, argued about the news with some of the funniest, smartest people in New York. This is that event.
Jamie Kirchick knows everything about the secret, spooky, saucy, seedy side of Washington DC. Hear him hold forth on the secret history of gay spies, trans activists and, of course, the never-not-impending arrest of Donald J Trump.
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In this brand new venture, Josh addresses some of life's deepest questions as posed by his friend and work colleague Robbie Armfield. In this first episode, Robbie has anxiety about generating sounds and aromas in the office toilet cubicle. Robbie has questions. Josh has the answers.
You can find more from Robbie on his podcasts "Welcome to Meet You" and "Robbie's Modern Life".
The brilliant Coleman Hughes is an American writer, podcaster and musician. He burst onto the intellectual scene at a young age with his ruthlessly well-articulated opinions on race and public policy issues. He joins Josh this week with his giga-brained thoughts on race, equity and inclusion.
You probably know Zach Cregger from comedy shows like Wrecked and Whitest Kids U'Know. He also wrote and directed Barbarian, one of the horror films of 2022. This chat from the #WeThePeople LIVE archive is a conversation Josh and Zach had in Puerto Rico in 2016 where they spoke about the process of making good comedy, procrastination and how social media kills creativity.
For most transgender people, transitioning is one of the greatest experiences of their lives. For others, it deforms into crippling regret. KC Miller is one of them.
Dr Ball is a scientific futurist whose book is Converge: A futurist's insights into the potential of our world as technology and humanity collide." She and Josh wrestle with artificial intelligence, the future of food, radical life extension, and air fryers.
Remember a while ago Josh asked you, to ask him anything? Yep, he only answered one question - which turned into a full episode about JK Rowling... Well, there were many more tasty morsels in that cauldron of questions, so he's back to answer more!
Tim Urban’s first appearance on this show remains one of the all-time favourites. Now, this explosive thinker of cosmic, civilisation-level thoughts returns with a book: “What's Our Problem? A Self-Help Book for Societies”. He and Josh wrestle with what’s going wrong. Why is everything a mess? Why is everyone acting like a baby? When did things get so tribal? Why do humans do this stuff?
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From the #WeThePeople LIVE archives this week to a 2016 chat with the wonderful Myq Caplan. First and foremost Myq is comedian. Josh and Myq chat about what funny is, how he became funny, and the creative process he uses to stay funny. Enjoy.
For the full episode sign up at uncomfortableconversations.substack.com
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Susan Neiman is one of the world's most respected living philosophers. She was born in America and educated at Harvard but now lives in Germany, where she's the director of the Einstein Forum and a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. She's a leading expert on the Enlightenment. Her new book is Left is not Woke.
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This week, the world's biggest LGBTQI+ event, World Pride, kicks off in Sydney. Right on cue, activists are calling to boycott a new Harry Potter video game because Rowling is a famous anti-trans bigot. But... is she?
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The so-called "intellectual dark web" was supposed to shine a light on issues too thorny for the mainstream media to touch. Now, it's a basket case of kooks. The journalist Ross Anderson recently wrote an amazing feature on the "red-pilling" of the gay conservative online host Dave Rubin. He's here to explain what's going wrong.
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Josh gets excited, at long last, about a realistic plan for fighting climate change while creating new jobs and a healthier environment. In short: electrify everything.
For more about Saul, check out his website HERE.
Subscribe to our Substack HERE.
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Going back some five years to Josh's first ever chat with the now Uncomfy Convos regular, the self-help psychology sage Oliver Burkeman. On this episode we talk about happiness, drawing on his 2012 book The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking.
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Helen Lewis's new BBC Radio 4 show, The New Gurus, investigates why so many of us have turned away from mainstream medicine, mainstream politics and the mainstream media to embrace the power of charismatic individuals instead. Helen went viral in 2018 with her legendary interview with Jordan Peterson. She's a brilliant interrogator and a thoughtful critic of the culture wars, wokeness, gender ideology and the far right.
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This week Josh reflects, in a somewhat heated way, on the surreal injustices of the justice system. Plus: Aussie-made shoulder-launched drone guns. And sharks in Sydney harbour.
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Sam Harris is a best-selling writer, philosopher and neuroscientist who hosts one of the world's most influential intellectual podcasts, Making Sense. Josh wants to pin down, once and for all, Sam's feelings about his former associates in the "intellectual dark web" who've gone off the rails. They also discuss Elon, Twitter, and the best flavour of cookie.
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Scott Adams is the creator of the cartoon strip Dilbert. He rose to Twitter prominence ahead of the 2016 US election where he picked Trump as the winner, praising him as a master persuader. We leave Trump aside in this episode and focus on Scott's advice on creativity and success that he details in his 2014 book - How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big.
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For this last Best Of episode we have the amazing Kurt Fearnley - paralympian, media personalist and advocate, who brings an amazing perspective on the global experience of disability. Then, the show I get the most feedback on, my diatribe about gun laws. And finally, one of the world’s foremost experts on sex differences - the historian and bioethicist Alice Dreger.
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This week, Josh airs what's on his mind. Did the NFL star Damar Hamlin suffer cardiac arrest because he was vaccinated, or because he was smashed in the chest by six-foot-four, 220-pound receiver? Was the musical editor of The Simpsons, who died this week, the greatest TV composer of all time? We revisit the best-ever Simpsons songs to find out! Is there anything redeeming about seagulls? And as we learn new facts about the Buckingham Palace racism scandal, Josh finds himself confused... Is it always racist to ask where you're from?
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The holiday interlude continues with our top podcast moments. Andrew Denton is a giant of Australian media. Now out of the limelight, he focuses much of his work on voluntary assisted dying advocacy. Tim Flannery - ecologist, explorer, and Australian of the Year winner brings us an amazing perspective on what it is to understand nature, and humanity’s place within it. And finally Ana Marie Cox - one of the most uncomfortable conversations of the last year. We argue about cancel culture from the left and from the right. Do we meet in the middle? Listen to find out.
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Well what a year it has been! And as we end every year here on Uncomfortable Conversations, it’s time for me to answer your questions. What have you been noodling on in 2022? And what do I reckon about it all? It’s time to find out.
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It's time for a Christmas interlude, the best parts of our favourite uncomfortable conversations. Tim Urban is still probably my all-time favourite guest. The creative genius behind the blog Wait But Why brings his brain melting takes on the world, and our place within it. Clementine Ford and I have some disagreements. Neither of us pull a punch. Our chat gets to the heart of what we’re trying to do here. And Malcolm Turnbull, Australia’s 29th Prime Minister. What an opportunity it was to quiz an ex PM about his views on the current political climate, his time as leader, and the chaos that led to his eventual downfall. Enjoy!
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The Guardian has called Rutger Bregman "the Dutch wunderkind of new ideas". He has a forward thinking, earnest approach to the small task of making the world a better place for everyone - something he's been working on this since his early 20's. This episode is taken from the #WeThePeople LIVE archive.
To get the full episode go to www.uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/listen
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Eric runs the investment firm of the right-wing multi-billionaire Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and the first outside investor in Facebook. Yet Eric is a left-wing political dissenter. With a PhD in mathematical physics from Harvard, he’s a confounding genius. He coined the term “the intellectual dark web”. His journey is perplexing. His vision of the future is ominous. Join Josh on his journey down the Weinstein rabbit hole.
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On this special episode from Josh's archive, he speaks with legendary British documentarian Louis Theroux. For decades, Louis has thrust himself into strange and extreme worlds, casting a light on the fringes of the human experience. This interview took place at the time of the release of his first feature film: My Scientology Movie.
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Bridget is a podcasting and publishing phenomenon. She and Josh discuss everything from Peruvian ayahuasca ceremonies, to Joe Rogan, to cancel culture, to the Byron Bay cult she momentarily joined. Oh, and how motherhood has made her finally appreciate Christmas.
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Tom Ballard is one of Australia's most successful comedians. He may be the millennials’ most prominent, hilarious voice of fury against capitalism and boomers. Tom and Josh argue about the benefits and perils of 21st-century capitalism, free speech and liberalism.
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We're launching a new Uncomfortable Conversations community. Get loads more content for free! This is the most important thing you'll hear this month. Don't miss it.
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Kat is a feminist who takes no bullshit. She created a stir with her piece “Why I Keep Getting Mistaken for a Conservative”. She and Josh discuss the challenges faced by women and the fallout of the #metoo movement.
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James Lindsay is one of the most controversial figures on the American right. He was permanently banned from Twitter in August, until Elon reinstated him this week. He initially gained famed debunking the social-justice left. Since then, he has become notorious for increasingly dire warnings about an authoritarian leftist takeover of culture. Is he a crank, or a genius? Josh tries to figure him out.
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When you see the colour blue, is it the same as when I see the colour blue? How does your brain create an image of the world... and of yourself? Dive into the wild world of the matrix with one of the world's leading neuroscientists, Anil Seth. His bestselling book is Being You: A New Science of Consciousness.
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Josh is being eviscerated on social media for spreading pro-vaccine misinformation. Did he? What did he, and we, get wrong about Covid?
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How do you stitch together diverse immigrant societies into a common future? How do you avoid collapsing into quarrelling tribes? Yascha Mounk is an optimistic academic who understands how democracies thrive... and decay.
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Josh reflects on Elon Musk, Kanye, Israel, and the rise of online Jew-hate.
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What will Elon Musk do with Twitter? Who wants to live inside Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse? Should Facebook censor hate speech? Jordan Guiao lived and worked in Silicon Valley and he knows big tech inside and out. We was formerly a digital strategist and the head of social media for the ABC and SBS respectively, and is currently a Research Fellow at The Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology. His new book is Disconnect - Why We Get Pushed to Extremes Online and How to Stop It.
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Josh reflects on Kanye's antisemitic meltdown, Taylor Swift's supposed fat shaming video and activism in Iran.
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David got his PhD in political thought from the London School of Economics and now teaches at King’s College London. He was a political science lecturer at the National University of Singapore and an associate editor of the University of Malaya’s South East Asian Studies journal. He explains the echoes he sees in the West of Mao's Cultural Revolution. A politics of rage. Intellectual conformism. Cancel culture. This episode is a collaboration with the University of Technology Sydney as part of its "Permission to Think" series.
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Emile is the Academy Award-winning producer of Lion, The King’s Speech, Rabbit-Proof Fence and The Power of the Dog. His cousin is a high-flying corporate consultant and former anti-apartheid activist. They have a podcast, Principle of Charity, which seeks to find common ground between opponents on controversial issues. But how far can talk take us, really? Don’t miss this electrifying debate.
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Should women aspire to the same things as men? Or have they been betrayed? Louise says we lie to young women about who they are and what they should want. She's a journalist, anthropologist, activist and the writer of the new book "The Case Against the Sexual Revolution".
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On the previous episode of Uncomfortable Conversations, the trans activist Dianna Anderson alleged bad journalism by Jesse Singal, who wrote the bombshell 2018 Atlantic magazine piece, "When Children Say They're Trans". Josh left the issue dangling, agreeing that it deserved a fact-check. Don't listen to this episode until you've heard Dianna's. Here, Jesse responds.
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Dianna E. Anderson is a gender non-binary writer and activist whose latest book is “In Transit: Being Non-Binary in a World of Dichotomies”. They and Josh disagree on a lot: the reality of biological sex, journalists who criticise trans issues, and whether burqas are sexist. Here, they hash it all out.
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Misha is a former trade union boss who now reports from Ukraine for the Australian Financial Review.
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Tyson is a researcher, writer, and traditional wood carver. He works as a senior lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges and is the founder of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab at Deakin University. His podcast, "The Other Others", discusses how Indigenous knowledge can solve the world’s problems -- which is also the topic of his book, Sand Talk. He and Josh debate the far right, the woke left, structural racism, acknowledgments-of-country, and conspiracy thinking in Aboriginal communities.
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What's wrong with Australian men? What expectations do single, middle-aged women face? What happened to the Left? Sarah Wilson is a global phenomenon -- an activist, journalist, speaker, writer, podcaster and host. She joins Josh on this special crossover episode to wrestle with the biggest questions in our lives.
Notes
Sarah mentions the following study during the show. Details here:
A 2019 Harvard University study that looked at global economies and innovation found that Australia, paradoxically, was both one of the richest nations and the least innovative . . . and that the former led to the latter. Follow the links for more details.
https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/australia-is-rich-dumb-and-getting-dumber-20191007-p52y8i
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What is a man? What is a woman? What is transgenderism? What is drag? When are we acting out gender stereotypes, and when are we just being ourselves? Shane is the man behind Australia’s most popular drag queen, Courtney Act. Josh and Shane debate gender, sex, and the imminent death of heterosexuality (maybe).
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During the pandemic, did the Australian prime minister subvert democracy? One of Australia’s leading political commentators takes Josh deep into the bizarro world of Morrison’s multiple ministries.
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As Salman Rushdie recuperates, Josh debates Islamophobia, blasphemy and cancel culture with the Pakistani-Australian writer and comic Sami Shah.
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Pandit Dasa was a monk for more than 15 years. Now he's ditched the robes and helps people ease their way into more thoughtful, generous, fulfilling mental states. Josh wants to know whether that's an invaluable contribution to modern life... or a spiritual cop out. Pandit's book is Closing The Apps: How to be Mindful at Work and at Home.
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Antoinette Lattouf is a journalist, author and diversity advocate. She co-founded Media Diversity Australia. Her new book is How To Lose Friends and Influence White People.
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Stephen Marche is a Canadian author and political commentator. He writes for The New York Times, The Atlantic and Esquire among others. His new book The Next Civil War is a bracing look at what Stephen believes is a likely culmination of US division.
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Tyler Cowen is a celebrated American economist, blogger, author and podcaster. He currently sits as the Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University. He's also an optimist about how the division we face today might end. His new book is Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Winners, and Creatives Around the World.
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David Plotz was the editor of Slate magazine during its glory days. In fact, he was Josh's first guest after the election of Donald Trump in 2016. The two reconnect about how to have difficult conversations in the 21st century.
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Douglas is a gay English conservative, columnist, and the best-selling author of the new book The War on the West. He and Josh debate the collapse of faith in western liberal democracy, and the threat posed by Trump and illiberal leaders like Viktor Orbán, and woke culture in general.
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From Nike supporting Colin Kaepernick to Qantas supporting same-sex marriage, corporations are going woke. Carl Rhodes is the Dean of the Business School at the University of Technology, Sydney... and, perhaps surprisingly, a leftist. He decries "woke capitalism" so much that he's written a book about it. He and Josh wrestle with the threat of wokeness and ask: Should companies keep their noses out of cultural questions, or is a corporate social conscience better than none?
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As part of Acast's audio pride parade, Josh shares his thoughts on growing up gay in Sydney, and what pride means to him.
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How should we communicate science to the public? Celebrated scientist and popular Irish science communicator Professor Luke O’Neill joins Josh to plead for better scientific understanding in the general population.
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Peter founded the animal liberation movement in the 1970s and is a driver behind the Effective Altruism movement around the world. This is a recording of "An Evening with Peter Singer", a live Q&A which Josh moderated at Sydney's Enmore Theatre on March 27th, 2022.
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An argument between Josh and veteran progressive muckraker Ana Marie Cox about whether wokeness is a real problem or a phantom of the right. Ana Marie founded Wonkette, was the senior political correspondent for MTV News and wrote for the New York Times magazine, among much, much else.
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Dr Drew is a physician, addiction medicine specialist and media personality. Since 1984 he has been beloved by American audiences for his candid communication of issues like AIDS, addiction & recovery, sexual health and harm reduction. His new book, co-authored with his daughter Paulina is It Doesn't Have To Be Awkward.
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Cecile was a US diplomat in Japan, Pakistan, Thailand, Scotland and Israel, and a political advisor to the US Marine Corps in the Pacific. As the Ukraine War drags on, she and Josh debate the limits of American power... and whether allies like Australia can depend, any longer, on a broken superpower.
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Kurt Fearnley, AO, is one of Australia's most successful paralympians. He began life crawling the dusty streets of Carcoar in central New South Wales and is now a disability rights advocate, humanitarian and media personality.
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A leaked opinion from the US Supreme Court suggests that women's right to an abortion may be overturned in America. Who gets to decide hot-button cultural issues? What would this bombshell tell us about democracy? In 2017, Josh and Joe Rogan argued about exactly this. Today, Josh reflects on that exchange.
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How do taboo words develop, and why do we seem to be getting worse and worse at understanding each other? N. J. Enfield is a professor and the chair of linguistics at the University of Sydney, and a research associate in the Language and Cognition Group at the Max Planck Institute.
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Jonathan Haidt is considered one of the world's most influential living psychologists. He's just penned a piece for The Atlantic titled Why The Past Ten Years Of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid that looks at how social media erodes trust, shared narrative and social capital. He joins Josh on this new instalment of Permission To Think - a collaboration with The University of Technology Sydney School of Social Sciences.
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Eric Fiegl-Ding is a Harvard epidemiologist and health economist. In January of 2020 he became one of the first prominent scientists to raise the alarm about the potential of a Covid catastrophe through his viral HOLY MOTHER OF GOD tweet.
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Nathalie Tocci is a political scientist, Honorary Professor at the University of Tübingen, and international relations expert specialising in the EU's role in peacekeeping. She also directs the Istituto Affari Internazionali - a non-profit think tank which aims to contribute to the advancement of European integration and multilateral cooperation.
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Lee Jussim is an American social psychologist and distinguished professor leading the Social Perception Laboratory at Rutgers University. He joins Josh for this fifth instalment of Permission To Think, in collaboration with the University of Technology Sydney Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
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Michael Kimmage held the Russia/Ukraine portfolio in President Obama's State Department. He's an expert on international affairs, U.S.-Russian relations and American diplomatic history.
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Scott is the founder of the Center for the Science of Human Potential and the host of the #1 psychology podcast in the world. His latest book is Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization.
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Toomas Hendrik Ilves was the president of Estonia from 2006 to 2016. He led the country through Russia's invasions of Georgia and Crimea. Previously, as foreign minister, he had successfully lobbied for Estonia to join NATO.
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Should all drugs be legal? Dr. Carl Hart - neuroscientist and Professor of psychology at Columbia University is an advocate for drug legalisation and responsible recreational drug use. His new book is Drug Use For Grown Ups: Chasing Liberty In The Land Of Fear.
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Eliot A. Cohen is a military expert, foreign policy academic and former advisor to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.
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Mike Pesca is an award winning journalist and host of the wildly successful daily podcast, The Gist.
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Justin Amash was the first Republican member of congress to call for Donald Trump’s impeachment. He was subsequently described by Trump as “one of the dumbest & most disloyal men in Congress”.
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Cathy Young is a former Boston Globe columnist and contributing editor at Reason. She writes a weekly column on politics, social issues and culture at Arc Digital. Why have so many independent thinkers careened off into knee-jerk contrarianism and conspiratorial thinking during the pandemic? Feminist, journalist and contrarian herself, Cathy Young, has a theory.
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Peter made millions in crypto, lost millions in crypto, and bought an English soccer club with crypto. He now hosts the world's biggest podcast about bitcoin. How the hell did he do it?
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David Frum is the former George W Bush speechwriter who invented the phrase “an axis of evil”. He is now a senior editor at The Atlantic.
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It's been a hell of a week. Josh is back from America and jumps in solo to discuss the post-Rogan Twitter fallout, Myocarditis fact checking, what public health means, so-called "concentration camps" and some of the more stupid takes on the whole thing.
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What’s sex? What's sexuality? What’s gender? Are trans women “real” women? Are woke activists expanding womanhood, or deranging it? Alice Dreger is one of the world’s foremost academic experts on sex, sexuality and intersexuality. Her recent Quillette article is “Can We Have Sex Back?”
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For the last show of 2021, its about time we heard from you. Your questions, for Josh, answered.
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Did the pandemic turn Australia into a nation of paranoid, boot-licking dobbers? Brigid Delaney is a Guardian Australia columnist whose upcoming book is about Stoicism.
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The latest in of Permission To Think, a collaboration with the University of Technology Sydney - Josh speaks with social psychologist and the host of the podcast Unmasking The Abuser, Dr. Dina Mcmillan.
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Jamie Woodhouse is the founder of Sentientism, a movement for granting evidence, reason and compassion to all sentient beings.
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Clementine Ford is Australia's most controversial, firebrand feminist. Her latest book is "How We Love".
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Why are you here? Are we alone in the universe? Will we extinguish ourselves? Why do you procrastinate? And what does social media reveal about your chimpanzee mind? Tens of millions of viewers watch philosopher-blogger king Tim Urban wrestle with these questions in TED Talks and on his comic blog, 'Wait But Why'. Spark up a reefer and join Josh on a cosmic journey into a genius mind.
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When a Muslim girl wears a burqini to the beach, is that religious freedom, or sexist oppression? Dr. Elham Manea is a Yemeni professor who lives in Switzerland. In this second instalment of 'Permission to Think', our collaboration with the University of Technology, Sydney, she makes a passionate case for the universality of human rights. This is one helluva chat.
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Ayaan Hirsi Ali is one of the world's most prominent activists for the rights of women in Islam. She and Josh discuss coronavirus, immigration, fatherless families, Justin Trudeau... and Dave Chappelle.
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You mightn't expect the founder of a billion-dollar asset management company to be a crypto nerd. But Mark Carnegie is one of the few big-time venture capitalists who actually understands Bitcoin. Most of what you hear about cryptocurrencies comes from evangelists who've drunk the kool-aid, or traditionalists who Just Don't Get It. Mark is neither. Enjoy this deep discussion of how -- and whether -- cryptocurrencies will revolutionise the world.
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Before Ali G and Borat, John Safran blew up Australian TV as a troublemaker extraordinaire. His new book "Puff Piece: How Philip Morris set vaping alight (and burned down the English language)" is a gonzo glimpse into the bizarre future that tobacco companies are trying to build. He and Josh reflect on performative social justice, the gullibility of the modern left in falling for corporate moralising, and why the Mississippi lynchings were originally pitched as "woke".
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One of Australia's greatest novelists opens up about the pandemic, Twitter, and finding your voice amid the cacophony. Her new book is The Luminous Solution: Creativity, Resilience and the Inner Life.
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Peter recently quit his job as an assistant professor of philosophy, saying that universities have sacrificed ideas for ideology. The more he spoke out against illiberalism on campus, the more retaliation he faced. This is the first episode of the "Permission to Think" series, a collaboration between Uncomfortable Conversations and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology, Sydney.
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The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney, where Josh is a Professional Fellow, is launching a series of conversations with world-class intellects. The mastermind behind the series, the Faculty’s Dean, explains why.
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Comedy legend Norm Macdonald died today. Revisit his deranged 2015 interview with Josh on HuffPost Live.
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Professor Tim Flannery received Australia's highest honour, the Australian Of The Year award, for his work as an ecological historian, explorer and environmentalist. He and Josh discuss tree kangaroos, climate change, anti-vaxxers, and giant dinosaur sharks.
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Todd Sampson is an adventurer, advertiser, and award-winning documentary-maker whose new TV show, Mirror Mirror, looks at body image dissatisfaction. Oh, he also climbed Mt Everest before it was cool.
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Americans have been going craycray over Austraystray. From Fox News to social media, images of Australia's lockdowns are being presented as a descent into totalitarianism. The concern-mongering came to a head with an article in The Atlantic by Conor Friedersdorf entitled "Australia Traded Away Too Much Liberty: How long can a democracy maintain emergency restrictions and still call itself a free country?" Josh responded with a 25-tweet rebuttal which went viral. So the two men tracked each other down (one vacationing in Greece; the other, locked down in Sydney -- guess which was which?) to hash it out.
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As the Health Department Secretary, Dr Stephen Duckett was Australia's most senior health official. He now runs the health program at the think tank that helped shape Australia's hardline response to COVID-19. Josh is fed up with lockdowns, and wrestles with Stephen about the path back to life.
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Record vaccinations in NSW, the National Cabinet plan to re-open, vaccine hesitancy, Covid is here for good. What a time for some more bonus Covid musings.
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Christina Hoff Sommers is a feminist philosopher. She and Josh discuss gender, boys, cancel culture, and whether she is secretly her own Nixon-loving uncle in disguise.
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James Mathison
Psychedelic TV Host
The former host of Australian Idol makes a case for magic mushrooms in public life.
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Oliver Burkeman describes himself is "unreasonably obsessed with the question of how people organise their days". He returns to the show for a chat about time, and how to use it. His new book is Four Thousand Weeks.
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"Stuart Diver is the sole survivor of Australia's deadliest landslide. He was buried alive by a mountain of frozen sludge for 65 hours. His new podcast is The Elements."
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Kat is an author and culture critic. She and Josh discuss feminism, sexual assault, Woody Allen, and whether it's okay for a fantasy writer to discriminate against wolf-men.
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With violent freedom protests, bickering states, a bungled vaccine rollout and over half of Australia's population in lockdown, its time to talk.
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Malcolm Turnbull was the 29th Prime Minister of Australia
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Mark Humphries the preeminent political satirist on Australian TV.
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In the culture wars, Jesse Singal is either the world's supervillain or its superhero, depending on your point of view. His original Atlantic article is at https://bit.ly/3zZ9Msq and Jonathan Kay's article about the smear campaign against him is at https://bit.ly/3dgcShO. Jesse's new book, in real-world printed form, is "The Quick Fix".
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Part #2 of Josh's live show with musical comedy legend Tim Minchin.
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Musical comedy legend Tim Minchin joins Josh live on stage for a sold-out podcast performance.
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Is it feminist to f*#k with your face? Mamamia’s Jessie Stephens joins Josh on the comfy couch to unleash.
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A giant of Australian media, Andrew Denton is a producer, writer and former television and radio star who now spends much of his time advocating for Voluntary Assisted Dying laws through his organisation Go Gentle Australia and his podcast Better Off Dead.
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Do lockdowns work? Will we reach herd immunity? Will Australia ever re-open to the world? As Melbourne endures another lockdown, Josh grills Australia's leading epidemiologist, the World Health Organisation advisor Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, about how we might return to "normal".
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Chloe Valdary is the founder of The Theory of Enchantment, an anti-racism program. She and Josh discuss whether Israel can be redeemed.
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He's been called "the best Prime Minister Australia never had". As Australia's Opposition Leader, John Hewson lost an unlosable election. Was his problem that he had big ideas?
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Just before Joe Biden's election, Josh sat down with the ferocious critic David Roth to discuss what Trump taught us about populism and power. Did wokeness help create a climate in which Trumpism could grow? And might it again?
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Jessie is a writer, podcaster, and the assistant head of content at Mamamia. When, she wonders, did bitching on Twitter become a full-time career?
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Border walls. Offshore detention. Kids in cages. What do we do about refugees?
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Imagine no Republicans. No Democrats. No Labor or Liberals. Would democracy flourish? Or corrode? John Opdycke is the president of Open Primaries, the non-profit that wants to end the stranglehold of the two-party system. In a hyper-partisan world, is the future of democracy supra-partisan?
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One of the Britain's most prolific and influential stand-up comics sits down with Josh to discuss death, humour, marathons, gender fluidity and the American Civil War. Why not?
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Katie is a journalist and one of the most insightful commentators on the modern culture wars. co-hosts the podcast "Blocked and Reported" with Jesse Singal.
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In the past 10 days, more than 20 Americans have been killed by three gunmen in a string of mass shootings. How should we understand America's gun curse... and is there any way to overcome it?
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Every other week Uncomfortable Conversations brings you a Comfy Couch episode, in which Josh and a friend chat about whatever is on their mind. This week, the Australian host of The Voice, Darren McMullen, dives deep into the Clubhouse app and finds wokeness aplenty.
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Meghan Daum is a feminist, firebrand, and former opinion columnist for The Los Angeles Times. Her podcast is The Unspeakable.
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