What should the role of America be? In their new book, "The Myth of American idealism: How U.S. Foreign Policy Endangers the World", Noam Chomsky and Nathan Robinson present a litany of American foreign policy missteps. 

Nathan is the founder of Current Affairs magazine, of which he is the editor-in-chief, and the author of Why You Should Be a Socialist. 

Here, Josh picks Nathan's brain... on the contrasts between Trump's populism and Bernie Sanders', the Ukraine War, Medicare-for-all, and the role of the United Nations in world affairs.

Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com

To hear the rest of this chat and join in the fun of the Uncomfy Convos multiverse, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_

http://twitter.com/joshzepps

http://instagram.com/joshszeps/

http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

What happens to politicians when they're openly bribed -- *ahem*, sorry, "assisted" -- by a hugely powerful corporation? The saga of how Qantas peddles influence, wins subsidies, escapes regulation, and secures Australian government protection by showering politicians with first-class upgrades and secret airport club memberships is, frankly, bonkers.

The legendary financial journalist Joe Aston, formerly a political staffer and Qantas communications man himself, spills the beans in his explosive new book, "The Chairman's Lounge: The inside story of how Qantas sold us out". It's a universal parable about what happens to capitalism and democracy when any one company gets too powerful... and its political favours too luxurious to resist.

Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com

To get more content like this and to join in the fun of the Uncomfy Convos multiverse, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_

http://twitter.com/joshzepps

http://instagram.com/joshszeps/

http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

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:   

https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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.

http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_

http://twitter.com/joshzepps

http://instagram.com/joshszeps/

tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

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”.

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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.

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

Josh Szeps

𝕁𝕠𝕤𝕙 𝕊𝕫𝕖𝕡𝕤 (@joshzepps) on X

Instagram (@joshszeps)

Josh Szeps on TikTok

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.

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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.

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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.

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

You have a limited offer you can use now, that gets you up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off one time purchases with code UNCOMFORTABLE20 at checkout

You can claim it at: https://magicmind.com/UNCOMFORTABLE20

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:   

 https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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.

Check out Faces of X here

http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_

http://twitter.com/joshzepps

http://instagram.com/joshszeps/

tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

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.

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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.

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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.

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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.

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

Grab your Exclusive NordVPN Deal by going to nordvpn.com/Conversations to get a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 4 extra months for free. It’s completely risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee.

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.

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe 

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:   

 https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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.

http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_

http://twitter.com/joshzepps

http://instagram.com/joshszeps/

tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

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.

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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?

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

Grab your Exclusive NordVPN Deal by going to nordvpn.com/Conversations to get a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 4 extra months for free. It’s completely risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee.

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.

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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.

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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.

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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.

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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.

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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.

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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".

To get more content like this and to join in the fun of the Uncomfy Convos multiverse, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_

http://twitter.com/joshzepps

http://instagram.com/joshszeps/

http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

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.

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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.

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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?

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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?

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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?

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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.

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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.

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

http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_

http://twitter.com/joshzepps

http://instagram.com/joshszeps/

tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

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.

To get your very own premium version of Josh’s podcast, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/listen