Explore every episode of the podcast Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

After the slaying of one of America’s highest-flying health-insurance CEOs, the tenor of many reactions from the Online Left was: “Murder is never justified, BUT…”

The chattering classes are now busy condemning such hot takes for seeking to “understand” a killer’s motives; for excusing the inexcusable.

But neither reaction will convince the growing minority of Americans who believe that something is fundamentally broken, and that violence could be morally justified to fix it. Here, Josh dares to ask… could it ever, in fact, be okay to respond to corporate malfeasance with public violence? Can we use this moment to think a bit harder about our moral code?

Tim Dean is the Senior Philosopher at The Ethics Centre, a non-profit that fosters moral conversations about everyday life. He has a PhD in philosophy with an expertise in the evolution of morality, he runs philosophy and ethics workshops for businesses, and he's a public philosopher and science writer whose first book is How We Became Human, about how our evolved moral minds are out of step with the modern world.

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How did the best satirists notice the comedic potential of “wokeness” in its earliest moments? And where does the evolution of the Left leave political satire now?

Andrew Doyle writes for the fictional parody characters Jonathan Pie and Titania McGrath. He invented Titania as a caricature of social-justice activists (her Twitter bio describes her as an ecosexual radical intersectionalist poet with variable pronouns) but many people believed she was real, falling for her absurdly worthy tweets.

Andrew has written a couple of terrific books, "Free Speech and Why It Matters" and "The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World".

Andrew and Josh sat down in London shortly before the 2024 U.S. presidential election to discuss satire, free speech, the working class, partisan politics, comedy and the future of the Left. You can also watch this interview in its pretty British glory on YouTube here.

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As Syria transforms, as Trump returns, as Putin prepares for victory, as China lies in wait, and as we all look towards a new year, Josh sits down with one of the smartest analysts of liberal democracy.

Stan Grant was CNN's Senior International Correspondent based in Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong and Beijing, before returning to Australia as International Affairs Analyst for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

He is arguably Australia's most experienced global journalist and the most famous Indigenous Australian. He resigned from the national public broadcaster last year in a national firestorm about racism.

He and Josh discuss the future of the global order, whether Enlightenment values are up to the task, and the role of public broadcasters like the ABC.

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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.

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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.

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As Israel and Hezbollah cautiously observe a ceasefire, the prospect of a Palestinian state feels as remote as ever. But there are people working tirelessly to bring one about, impeded by radicals on both sides who see this as a war between Goodies and Baddies.

Omar Dajani is one of the visionaries. As a Palestinian-American professor, he and Josh disagree about much regarding the culpability and dysfunction of Gaza's misery. Omar was a negotiator for the Palestine Liberation Organization and attended the Camp David Summit with President Clinton in 2000.

But he now argues for a new type of two-state solution that would enable Israelis and Palestinians to live and work on both sides of the 1967 Green Line. As the co-chair of the non-profit A Land for All, he wants to shift our thinking from a model of separation to one of power sharing.

In this episode, Josh has a frank and heartfelt conversation with a senior Palestinian thinker that offers a glimpse of a better future.

This episode was recorded prior to the recent Lebanon ceasefire.

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David Walliams is one of the most successful comedians in the world. On "Little Britain", his smash hit BBC sketch comedy show, he created characters whose catchphrases have become part of the culture: "I'm a lady", "Computer says No", and so many more. 

David did ten seasons as a judge with Simon Cowell on Britain's Got Talent, and has written 43 children's books that have sold over 60 million copies. 

Josh and David recently did a six-week, fifteen-show tour of Australia and New Zealand, where Josh interviewed him in front of tens of thousands fans. Before the final show in Perth, David sat down for an uncomfortable conversation about offending people, dressing up as a woman, and how he and Matt Lucas created some of the most memorable characters of 21st century television.

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This is the most uncomfortable conversation Josh has ever recorded. He used to work for Alan Jones, the most powerful broadcaster in Australia. Now, he's been arrested on sexual assault allegations. (Alan, that is. Not Josh. Phew)

Sexual predation. Political power. Investigative journalism. Innocence until proven guilty. Josh has never spoken publicly about his own experiences while working with Alan Jones. Until now. 

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Why do some civilisations enlighten while others languish? Why do some conquer, and others collapse? Was the British Empire a bloody stain... or, on balance, a force for modernity? 

Niall is one of Britain's most prolific and influential historians. His seventeen books, including the groundbreaking tomes Civilisation and Empire, define the modern historical canon. 

Niall has become associated with heterodox concerns about wokeness and Western decline. But Josh wanted to probe deeper: How should we think about Ukraine, Gaza, populism and the West, in light of what we know about what makes human societies thrive?

Josh and Niall sat down in Westminster, London, on the afternoon of the 2024 American presidential election -- before the result was known. 

This episode is available in full on the Uncomfortable Conversations YouTube channel as well as for premium subscribers at  https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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It's crunch time for the Australian government's Orwellian-sounding "Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation" legislation. 

The bill was passed last Thursday by Australia's House of Representatives and is currently stalled in the Senate. Right-wing populists are spreading hysteria that it would let the government throw you in jail for speaking your mind on social media. 

The bill would not, in fact, punish you for posting on social media. But it could give government officials the power to make social media companies suppress opinions the Australian government deems "harmful".

Josh opposes giving such power to the state. By contrast, Professor Daniel Angus is broadly supportive of the bill. He's one of Australia's leading researchers into technology, social media, fake news and misinformation, and he advised the government on the legislation. 

At this crucial moment, with only two weeks remaining before parliament shuts down for the year -- and as the Senate deliberates on this hugely important law -- please listen to this conversation and get informed. Wherever you are, enjoy this friendly clash of perspectives about algorithms and free speech on the web.

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Few Britons are as iconic as Stephen Fry.

On TV, he's an Emmy-winning comedy legend immortalised in shows like A Bit of Fry & Laurie, Jeeves & Wooster, and Blackadder. He has hosted the British Academy Film Awards twelve times and won six BAFTAs as the host of the smash-hit BBC television quiz show Q.I. 

On stage, Stephen's adaptation of Me and My Girl won two Olivier Awards. He was nominated for a Tony for his performance in The Globe's production of Twelfth Night on Broadway.

On the big screen, he's starred in Wilde (as Oscar Wilde, a performance nominated for a Golden Globe), Gosford Park, Chariots of Fire, A Fish Called Wanda, V for Vendetta and The Hobbit.

Stephen is the voice of all the Harry Potter audiobooks. His eloquence infuses his countless essays, comedy sketches, articles, novels, and books about Greek mythology.

His autobiography, Moab is My Washpot, with its raw honesty about his screwed-up teenage years, was transformational for a young Josh Szeps. 

On a recent trip to Sydney, Stephen swung by the Uncomfortable Conversations studios to visit with Josh. Enjoy this sparkling conversation about the cycle of life, the richness of being human, finding creative authenticity, and ignoring Donald Trump.

And if you haven't jumped over to Substack to get free updates on what we're up to, you're a duffer. There's more great stuff coming. Go to uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe. It's not hard -- we promise. 

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Well, it's Trump. The morning after the election, Josh live-streamed his post-election analysis and his predictions for a second Trump term from Cambridge, England, and took live questions. Watch the video on Substack, or listen in right here.

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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

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Here we go. Kamala Harris was on Saturday Night Live. At Madison Square Garden, Puerto Rico was garbage. Trump is appropriating Charlamagne tha God. Kamala is deploying Will Ferrell. And now, you vote.

The host of ABC TV's "Planet America", Chas Licciardello, joins Josh to break down the campaigns, the media's coverage, and the hysterical online nonsense you should avoid. Happy Election Day.

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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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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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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Josh's article

Josh's episode of Q+A

The Australian's profile

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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.

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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.

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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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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.

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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.

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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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