Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps
The 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.
Episodes
How A.I. is "Demolishing" Mathematics
A.I. is unleashing a “judgment day” on everything from algebra and geometry to probability and logic. What happens to human knowledge when it's dropped in our laps instead of being understood?
It was just days ago that OpenAI dumped 722 new mathematics papers online, claiming extraordinary mathematical breakthroughs. Professional mathematicians are stupefied. Many of them are worried that A.I. ris
Consent and the "Cornell 7"
A female university student visits a male frat house at night. She is drugged and raped, for seven hours, by seven male students. She reports it but the university authorities sweep it under the rug. No charges are laid.
That's the story that has lit up the media and sparked thousands of online arguments since the young woman filed a 101-page civil complaint. She names seven of the young men and s
JUST JOSH: Conspiracies & FlyDubai, Oh My
When does healthy scepticism become unhinged suspicion? How do you know if you’re being gullible or sensible? What are the cognitive traps that social media pulls us into? And why should you care?
As soon as news broke of a violent attack in the cockpit of a FlyDubai 737 en route to Tel Aviv, the internet pushed back. Something was fishy. There were anomalies in the official story. Viral videos fr
Why do smart people believe stupid things?
Every human mind is a propaganda machine. It manufactures certainty, reinforces old narratives, and keeps us loyal to beliefs that no longer serve us. In an era of infinite information and AI-generated content, these internal distortions make it tricky to distinguish between insights and self-bullshit.
Owen Fitzpatrick is a social psychologist who's travelled to more than 100 countries and studied
Free speech, hate speech, and the limits of Liberal tolerance with Sami Shah
What do we actually owe each other in a society trying to hold pluralism, free speech, and real religious and ethnic tension together at the same time?
Josh sits down with comedian, writer, and Crikey columnist Sami Shah, born Muslim in Pakistan, where his satirical writing on religious extremism drew death threats and a fatwa before he found his way to Australia. They cover an extraordinary amoun
Who's hacking you right now? with ethical hacker Assadi Youssef
When you read news about a data breach which might have exposed your information, do you even care? Who’s behind all this hacking: China, Russia, or a nerd in his parents’ basement? Are our water and electrical systems at risk? And is A.I. going to make things more secure, or will it destroy privacy altogether?
Assadi Youssef got into computer hacking as an eleven-year-old boy before becoming an
William Shatner Doesn’t Want to Die, from The Moynihan Report
Today we’re sharing a bonus episode from The Moynihan Report.
William Shatner sits down with Michael Moynihan in Los Angeles for a conversation about life, time, and knowledge. They talk about death, God, AI, Blue Origin, The Intruder, and the relentless curiosity that keeps Shatner looking for whatever comes next. Oh yeah, and at 95 years old, he’s releasing a heavy metal album.
Social media broke our ability to agree, with Jonathan Haidt
Jonathan Haidt is considered one of the world's most influential living psychologists. He joins Josh on this new instalment of Permission To Think - a collaboration with The University of Technology Sydney School of Social Sciences.
This episode is part of The Best Of series and was originally posted on 20th April, 2026. At the time of recording, Jonathan penned a piece for The Atlantic titled ‘Wh
“So… *Does* God Hate F*gs?” with Megan Phelps-Roper
What do our modern-day culture wars have to teach us about cult-like thinking, moral puritanism, judgment and compassion?
And if you lose religious faith, how are you left thinking about agnosticism, atheism, the purpose of the cosmos, and the meaning of life? What, if anything, is worth keeping from the Bible?
Megan Phelps-Roper was raised in the Westboro Baptist Church, the fundamentalist cult t
Is there any Room left for moderates? With Jeff Maurer
Is there any room left for the political centre, or has it been swallowed by two competing extremes with nothing but contempt for the middle?
Josh chats with comedy writer and author of I Might Be Wrong, Jeff Maurer, for a wide-ranging conversation about the collapse of moderate politics in America. They dig into the strange case of Abdul El-Sayed campaigning with Hasan Piker in the Michigan prim
JUST JOSH: The Unlearned Lesson of 9/11
It's a quarter-century since 9/11. What do we need to understand about its legacy, so as to handle the next quarter-century better?
Josh was a college student visiting the World Trade Towers the summer before the September 11th attacks. In this marathon editorial, he reflects on the day itself, the complacency of the 1990s, the "clash of civilisations", popular misconceptions about al Qaeda's moti
Jewish Comedy at the Bondi Attack
Has a secret in your ancestry ever changed who you are?
Imagine being a non-Jewish comedian who suddenly finds out he's Jewish. What do you do? You put on a comedy show on the site of the worst antisemitic terrorist attack in the country's history. Of course.
David Rose found out his great-grandfather was a famous 19th-century caricature of the stereotypical "Hebrew comic", who performed with the
Are Men Toxic?
A sex scandal involving star players for the Sydney Swans has rocked Australia. Coinciding with a spate of violence against women, the country is revisiting its all-too-familiar conversation about how “Men must do better”.
What does that look like, exactly? How do we explain and reduce male misbehaviour against women?
Ben Vasiliou is the CEO of Australia's leading preventative mental health charit
What is Elon Up To?: An Idiot’s Guide to Space and Why You Need to Pay Attention
You may not realise it, but humankind is on the cusp of an extraordinary space race. Are we about to become a multi-planetary civilisation? Do we really need a super-fuel-tanker floating in space? Just how many A.I. data centres does Elon want floating high above your head?
Anthony Colangelo is a proud space nerd who knows anything and everything about the latest state of play between SpaceX, Blue
Glenn Loury: Are we censoring ourselves to death?
In this recording of a live event at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Josh hosts a one-on-one conversation with the legendary American intellectual, Glenn Loury.
Loury is one of America's most influential thinkers about self-censorship, cancel culture, race relations and polarisation. As a Reagan conservative in the 1980s, he was a controversial dissenter from mainstream Black thought... but a
Jason Arday, Suey Park & the Identity Hunger Games
Josh has been reflecting on what the tragedy of Cambridge University's youngest-ever Black professor reveals about the high-stakes identity game we've all been enlisted into. In this solo episode, he issues a call to arms to defy the whole sanctimonious circus and assert your own glorious human messiness. Be real, humans.
How the Public Shaming Machine was Built with Jon Ronson
What should we make of the public shaming machine we have built?
Following the death of the Cambridge academic Jason Arday, Josh checks in with the godfather of public shaming, Jon Ronson. His 2015 book So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed was the first blockbuster analysis of what we now call “cancel culture”, and even inspired an episode of Black Mirror.
Ronson was Louis Theroux before Louis Theroux.
The Case Against Israel with Peter Beinart
Peter Beinart is arguably the world’s most influential Jewish anti-Zionist.
He’s a journalist and a professor of journalism and political science. But in American and Jewish cultural life, he’s far more than that -- a lightning rod, a traitor, a truth-speaker, a coward, a hero. Applauded, derided, beloved, loathed.
Peter is an orthodox New York Jew who keeps kosher, attends synagogue, and sen
How Branding Replaced Facts in Politics
What unites Trump and Obama, Pepsi and Coca-Cola, the far right and the far left? They’re all brilliant at defining their brands. They have a clear narrative. They can tell a compelling story about the world and their place in it.
So much of life, of business, of social media, of political parties and social movements is shaped, these days, not by facts but by “alternative facts”, by feelings, by
How to be a Dissident
What does it mean to be a dissident? If you join a protest march, are you dissenting… or conforming? How should you push back against leaders who wield fear and intimidation; against digital technology that dehumanises you and flattens us all?
Gal Beckerman is a staff writer at The Atlantic who worked for six years at the New York Times Book Review. His first book was named a best book of the y
Are Jews Okay? (with baklava)
Is Israel making Jews safer, or less safe? Does pro-Palestinian activism feed antisemitism, or is that a Zionist lie? And why are Greek men so hunky?
Two of Josh’s favourite gals, ChayaLeah and Yael from the “Ask a Jew” podcast, join Josh from California and Greece for a funny but forthright catch-up about freedom, terrorism, Palestine and felafel. Enjoy.
Josh vs the News: Why Everyone is Wrong About A.I.
Fable this. Deepseek that. As fascinating as each new A.I. model breakthrough (or breakout) is, are we missing the forest for the trees? The Reverend Josh believes so. In this scintillating Substack Livestream, he leads us to the Promised Land the way all great Messiahs do: with a four-point bureaucratic plan. Along the way, he’ll answer your questions about Israel, sun protection, and how much he
Why is Trump Building a Secret Ballroom Bunker?
Exploding pagers! Enigma codes! Sexy Israeli spies! J Edgar Hoover's boyfriend's remote-controlled window opener! And, yes, Trump's top-secret ballroom bunker.
It's all told with impeccable style by Matt Bevan, the host of If You're Listening, which is one of Josh’s favourite shows about international intrigue.
The show's companion book, If You're Listening: Declassified, explores how history is
Buckle Up for “the Manosphere 2.0” - Helen Lewis
What’s up with boys? Or, more importantly, what’s up with the men who use “what’s up with boys?” to crush women?
It’s not just a rag-tag fringe of young male influencers who are reviving sexism. There’s a professional movement of influential Christian nationalists whose long-term agenda is to return women to their rightful place, as homebound subjects of their husbands.
Helen Lewis’ reporting on
Josh vs the News: How The Odyssey Broke the Internet
The way culture-war ideologues have hijacked The Odyssey reveals how social media ruins everything. As go the arguments about the film, so go our conversations about fairness, gender, race and immigration. And so go our elections.
Josh recounts the online sh**storm, and draws a long bow from Homer to Christopher Nolan to how civilisations like ours collapse.
Read Josh’s column in the Australia
Is this Child Psychiatrist "Anti-Trans"?
Dr Jillian Spencer is a senior child and adolescent psychiatrist who was fired three years ago after publicly criticising how puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones were being prescribed to kids.
Now, her employer, one of the biggest health care providers in the country, has issued a bombshell statement. Children's Health Queensland has announced that it is withdrawing its misconduct allegations
How Evolution Shaped Men vs Women
Are men innately more violent? Are women innately more people-focused? What explains gay people, campness, transgenderism? How much of the sex differences are cultural, and how much is hardwired by our evolutionary psychology?
The science of the sexes has come a long way. Steve Stewart Williams is a psychology professor who wrote the groundbreaking book The Ape That Understood the Universe and who
Do Not Speak Ill of Lindsey Graham's Butthole (and other advice for America)
Journalist and ne’er-do-well Michael C. Moynihan joins Josh for a Substack livestream about the state of American politics, far-left candidates, far-right ICE agents, and the importance of being respectful, in this time of mourning, towards the late Senator Lindsey Graham’s butthole.
Have Kids Become Little Shits?
Screen time. Free range parenting. Attention deficit disorder. Social media bans. And that little bastard on the plane kicking the back of your seat the whole flight. Are we losing control because of parenting advice that's overthought, overcomplicated bullshit?
Today's guest says so. Ryan Martin is an educator who specialises in helping families navigate the wild terrain of raising challenging k
Race, ICE & the "Woke Right"
How do you stay enthusiastic about defending your opponents’ right to say things you hate? That’s the pickle of the free-speech defender in these crazy times.
Whether it’s Trump dragging his enemies through courts, ICE agents kidnapping activists or the Florida government banning ‘wokeness’, David Volodzko - once a victim of left-wing cancel culture who now fights right-wing cancel culture, too
Is Morality Made Up?
Is everything you believe about right and wrong just an accident of where you were born? Or is morality a universal truth waiting to be discovered?
And if you dedicate your life to answering these questions, how would you feel if one of the greatest moral problems of our time unfolded around you?
David Enoch is a world-leading ethicist and philosopher of law. He also happens to be an Israeli who's
Why We Don’t Believe Boys: Female Grooming & the Male Teen
When Harry was thirteen, his stepmother initiated a sexual relationship with him that lasted for three years and made him a father at fifteen. The horror and confusion of feeling complicit, of being treated as the guilty party, of seeing bystanders gaslit and abusers exonerated, motivated Harry to launch a political campaign, #YourReferenceAintRelevant. Last month, he succeeded in changing the law
Josh vs the News: The TODAY Show, Cancel Culture, and Karl's Free Speech
Australia's most famous TV host has just been cancelled… but has he really?
The "Matt Lauer of Down Under", Karl Stefanovic, hosted the TODAY Show for more than two decades. Suddenly, he was fired on Friday after a chummy interview on his new independent podcast with the British anti-Muslim activist Tommy Robinson. The podcast only launched four months ago.
Is this cancel culture? An attack on
Why don't Palestinians have a state? Haviv Rettig Gur on the True Tale of Palestinian Resistance
Why don't Palestinians have a state?
To answer "because Israel" is to treat Palestinians as props in a Western morality play, rather than as a people in a fight for survival. The true tale of Palestinian resistance is an incredible story of power, Zionism, Maoism, Algerian anti-colonialism, Islamic liberation and Arab nationalism.
Haviv Rettig Gur is an Israeli journalist and political analyst who
Just Josh: a New UK PM, the New Left, New Right, & Brexit 10 Years On
It’s 10 years since Britain voted to leave the EU, and their revolving door of Prime Ministers just keeps spinning.
Josh goes live to share his thoughts on the potential new Prime Minister, the New Left and Right, and where Britain goes from here…
Angertainment: How Online Outrage Ruined Everything
Can we blame polarisation on right-wing internet crazies? Or is the whole online system shot?
The most valuable thing we produce online is anger. Not our data, our habits, or our clicks, but our anger.
Ed Coper is a progressive activist who wants us to understand how tech platforms farm anger on an industrial scale. He calls it angertainment: the machinery that turns outrage into clicks, clicks
Just Josh: Iran's Billions & Elon's Trillion
The Reverend Josh breaks down Trump's surrender to (sorry, “memorandum of understanding with”) Iran; what Elon's trillion-dollar payday revealed about the far left, the far right, AI and prosperity; how we might interpret the rise of populist, anti-immigrant parties in the UK and Australia; and why you should spurn pessimism and tales of civilisational collapse, and have a weekend of grace. What a
The Gays Who Reject "LGBTQ+"
What's the "queer community"? Who's "LGBTQIA+"? When did sexuality get hitched to a queer cultural movement aimed at deconstructing gender, colonialism and white male privilege? What happens when a boring old gay guy dissents?
Ben Appel found out.
Raised in a fundamentalist Christian community, he expected his Ivy League University experience to be one of liberation. Instead, he found the minds
WTF? Gladiator Battles on the White House Lawn: How MMA & the Manosphere Took Over America (& the White House)
On Sunday, mixed martial arts fighters will beat the crap out of each other in a 90-foot-tall Ultimate Fighting Championship cage on the South Lawn of the White House. Senator John McCain once denounced the sport as "human cockfighting". President Trump loves it so much he's made it a centrepiece of the United States' 250th birthday celebrations.
Trump isn't alone. Not long ago, MMA was considered
"Smile! Civilisation is Collapsing" with Sarah Wilson
In a world of catastrophic fires, record floods, collapsing democracies and rising unrest, our lives have rarely felt more precarious. So how do we keep living meaningfully through it? And if (or when) it all comes apart, what kind of people do we want to be?
Sarah Wilson is a New York Times bestselling author, whose new book, ‘I Eat the Stars’, chronicles how we might live meaningfully, sanely, a
Matt Taibbi, America's Top Gonzo Journalist, on How the Media Lost Its Mind
Get 30% OFF an Annual Uncomfortable Conversations Subscription at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe/sanity
What happened to the news media? What does it have to do with why Hillary Clinton couldn’t fill a room, while Trump filled stadiums? Did diversity kill objective journalism? And what does a journalist who lived in the Soviet Union think of free speech in the West toda
“What the Hell Happened to L.A.?” with Meghan Daum
Los Angeles was once the city where people went to reinvent themselves. Space, sunshine, stardom. How did it become the city where people go to disappear into homeless tent encampments?
Meghan Daum is one of America’s sharpest cultural essayists, a former LA Times columnist and a longtime Angelino.
While Josh is in L.A., he and Meghan livestreamed from the Hollywood Hills in this Memorial Day co
Where Does Anti-Zionism End and Anti-Semitism Begin?
Is it possible to criticise Israel without being anti-Semitic? How do we even know if you cross that line?
It’s a question that has divided dinner tables, ended friendships, and split the left in half since October 7th, and with recent events, is no longer a theoretical debate. The oldest hatred in human history is once again at the surface.
Israeli President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres called
What Australia's Covid Frontman Regrets
As the Hantavirus and Ebola pop up in the news, what did we get wrong during Covid?
Dr Nick Coatsworth was the Australian government’s deputy chief medical officer during the pandemic’s first wave, when he regularly appeared on radio and TV to provide the public with information. He became the face of the vaccine rollout. Today, he’s more reflective. He shuns vaccine mandates, wants a national Co
Josh vs the News: Think Bigly! with Reverend Szeps
The world is seemingly on fire. Iran, Ukraine, China, Trump, AI, climate, antisemitism, the Australian budget. It’s an avalanche of bad news, until Reverend Szeps arrives on the scene to put it all into perspective.
Plus: Shakira vs the Spanish government, might be the most inspiring thing you’ll read this week.
Just Josh: Why Can't Politicians Answer A Question?
Hey! Politicians! Stop talking like cardboard cutouts (if you're mainstream) or lunatics (if you're not).
If politicians can't figure out how to have uncomfortable conversations, voters will elect populists who can.
Last Thursday, Australia's flagship current affairs TV show grilled the opposition leader, Angus Taylor. It wasn't pretty. Obfuscations, snarkiness, waffling, pre-rehearsed speechify
What Trump & Xi are Really Up To! with fmr White House Official Tom Wright
Trump is in China, and you need to know what he and Xi are up to. What new world order are they creating?
Today, Josh sits down with a senior US former national security official to understand how three men - Trump, Xi and Putin - are remaking the world.
Tom Wright was a special assistant to President Biden and the Senior Director for Strategic Planning on the US National Security Council, where
Josh vs the News: BUDGET BONANZA!
It’s the biggest day in a generation for Australian economic reform (and for those of you abroad observing our friendly foreign land). From house prices to entrepreneurship to the far right to the abundance agenda Josh brings you everything you need to know about the 2026 Budget but were afraid to ask.
Nazi Salutes = Free Speech? with John Safran
Is anything too offensive for our post-cancel-culture world? When Trump & Elon wield "freedom of speech" as a way to silence their enemies, who's defending unpopular voices? When anti-Zionism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia can be weapons, how do we decide what's beyond the pale?
John Safran is Australia's Michael Moore, a provocateur and writer whose new documentary is ‘Shut Your Big Fat Mouth’
Should You Be A Nationalist?
Does nationalism have to be xenophobic or racist? What would it mean to be a nationalist who isn’t a blood-&-soil bigot but a pluralistic liberal? How can multicultural societies like ours sustain strong national identities? Could we actually reinvigorate democracy with a big ole dose of chest-thumping and flag-flying?
David Moscrop, is a Canadian writer, academic and public intellectual. He has
Josh vs the News: Trump Cancels "Project Freedom!"
The latest chaotic development under “Operation Epic Fury” has continued to show the catastrophic strategic position the United States has found itself in. But it could be worse! It’s not like the Iranians know about the midterms, and the impending electoral annihilation coming for Trump if this latest oil shock isn’t resolved. Oh wait…
Josh breaks down the the failure of “Project Freedom”, how I
Jimmy Carr: "The World is Being Rebuilt from Scratch"
Jimmy Carr is one of the most successful stand-up comics on earth (and one of our most recurring guests).
His hilarious, brutal crowd work is a viral sensation, and his television credits include hosting some of the UK’s longest running panel shows such as 8 Out Of 10 Cats, Big Fat Quiz Of The Year and his smash-hit Netflix specials, Natural Born Killer, and His Dark Material.
Whilst touring Aus
Why Smart People Make Dumb Choices
Life’s biggest decisions are always the most Uncomfortable. Should you have a baby? Should you quit your job? Should you move to a new country? Should you drop acid?
Anytime you’re faced with a decision that is likely to change who you are, you’re faced with a unique conundrum: The person you’ll be - who’ll judge whether you made the right call or the wrong one - is future you.
They’re a differe
'Truth' in an Age of A.I.
What will reality feel like when we receive most of it via all-knowing machines?
Our shared understanding of the world has been fractured by social media’s echo chambers of news, entertainment, misinformation, and distraction. Could A.I. help re-establish common facts? Or will it only make the truth even slippier?
Steve Rosenbaum is an Emmy-winning former television news producer, TED Resident
Josh vs the Anti-Abortion Activist
For an issue we don’t normally know how to talk constructively about, can Josh and one of the most outspoken anti-abortion activists model what a genuine, but respectful, disagreement can actually look like?
Joanna Howe is best-known for her viral videos on YouTube and social media debating people in the street about abortion, confronting politicians outside their offices, and smacking down pro-
BLOCKADE COUNTDOWN: What's the End Game?
What is the end game in Iran? What is the blockade achieving? What cards does Iran still hold?
Last week, the end was in sight with a two-week ceasefire. Then talks in Pakistan between the US vice president and the Iranians went nowhere, and Trump suddenly imposed a blockade.
Since Monday, U.S. forces say they’ve now completely halted all economic trade leaving Iran’s ports. Iran say they’ll
Philosopher A.C. Grayling in the Most Mind-Expanding Episode of the Year
Today, a delightful and scintillating and inspiring and disconcerting and thought-provoking and discombobulating and many-other-multi-syllabic words-ing romp with one of the most celebrated philosophers in the English-speaking world.
A.C. Grayling is a British philosopher who has written more than thirty books on everything from the nature of consciousness to the history of freedom to what it mea
Josh vs the News: Blockade Games, Orban Ousted, & Elon Notices Australia
On this week's thrilling instalment of the world's favourite livestream, Josh vs the News:
• Hormuz gets a Big, Beautiful naval blockade!
• How Viktor Orbán was defeated by a ranch full of zebras!
• and why is Elon tweeting about Australia this week?
Plus, Professor Szeps answers your questions: "why is US petrol expensive if America doesn't import Iranian oil?"
Tune in live every week
"Nuremberg" & the Psychology of Evil
Were top Nazi leaders mad? Were they evil? Were they like religious fundamentalists, committed to a deranged ideology? Or were they just amoral narcissists grasping for power in the wrong place at the wrong time?
Jack el-Hai wrote the book which became the movie "Nuremberg", in which Russell Crowe plays Hermann Göring. In Nuremberg jail, awaiting trial, 22 senior Nazis were interviewed by a young
Writing for 'SNL' with Sam Jay
Sam Jay is an Emmy-nominated comedian and former writer on Saturday Night Live. She walked away from becoming an SNL cast member to host her own HBO talk show about uncomfortable conversations called 'Pause with Sam Jay'. She has a Netflix stand-up special, an HBO stand-up special, and her latest show is We The People, nominated for Best Comedy Show at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards last year.
Thi
BREAKING: Trump Always Chickens Out (Thank F*ck)
Donald ‘Taco’ Trump has once again lived up to his nickname. After weeks of escalating threats to obliterate Iran's power plants, bomb them back to the Stone Age, and declare that "a whole civilization will die tonight," the President has blinked. Again.
Josh breaks down the entire chaotic timeline of Trump's Iran strategy, and argues that these past two weeks may have written Trump's political
Dave Hughes Has a Problem With Josh
Dave Hughes is a legend of Australian television, radio and stand-up comedy. He has been so ubiquitous on TV and radio for the past 30 years that almost every Australian has a Dave Hughes impersonation.
This episode is part of the Uncomfortable Conversations Comedy Festival extravaganza. Josh headed to Melbourne for a ten-hour Substack Live marathon with five of the greatest comedians. You’ll
The King of Late Night TV, Steve Vizard
Steve Vizard is Australia's Johnny Carson. Tonight Live with Steve Vizard was Australia's Tonight Show in the 1990s, after Vizard had previously created two of Australia's biggest-ever sketch comedy shows.
This episode is part of the Uncomfortable Conversations Comedy Festival extravaganza. Josh headed to Melbourne for a ten-hour Substack Live marathon with five of the greatest comedians. You'l
A Black Muslim Comic & Gay Jew Walk Into an Uncomfortable Conversation
Zainab Johnson is a black muslim female New Yorker with a half-million instagram fans and the title of Variety magazine’s Top 10 Comics to Watch.
This episode is part of the Uncomfortable Conversations Comedy Festival extravaganza. Josh headed to Melbourne for a ten-hour Substack Live marathon with five of the greatest comedians. You'll get a new episode every 48 hours for the first two weeks of
Nazi Jokes & Stand-Up Taboos with Tom Ballard
Think of Tom Ballard as a young John Oliver, who hosted Australia's national nightly satirical news television show ,"Tonightly with Tom Ballard".
He returns to the show to discuss his getting cancelled for doing a Nazi salute, punching down, anti-semitism, Gaza & Zionism, cancel culture and offensive comedy.
This episode is part of the Uncomfortable Conversations Comedy Festival extravaganza
Manosphere, Feminazis & the "Six Tribes" of Young People
Across the West, young people are finding it harder to build their careers, afford homes, and start families. But have we assumed they’re all the same, and been so busy treating the symptoms of their unhappiness that we've accidentally made them more miserable?
A major new study has divided young Australians into six "tribes": from far-left student activists to family-oriented nationalists, fro
Everything is Awesome! Just Ask Josh
Everything is awesome humans. Well at least it is when Uncomfortable Conversations Community Manager (and resident Tocqueville expert) Evan Pivonka joins us.
Josh and Evan went live to answer your questions and explore some underreported stories: Ozempic zombies, insider trading allegations, humans about to return to the moon, and the lost art of talking to strangers.
Top Trump Diplomat Tells All: fmr Deputy Secretary of State Inside the Room Where it Happens
What is going on with Trump’s foreign policy? Attacking Iran, decapitating Venezuela, threatening Cuba. Is America flexing its greatness, or flailing? Is there a method to the madness? What is really going on inside the room where it happens?
Stephen Biegun was the United States Deputy Secretary of State in the first Trump Administration. He was also the special representative for North Korea, ch
"Mr Mamdani, THIS is What Makes a City Thrive" with Eamon Waterford
Cities that rock and cities that suck do a few things differently. They need to hit a bullseye on high-vs-low density, walkability, law and order, red tape, congestion pricing and a host of other things. Which cities nail it? And how can yours do better?
Eamon Waterford is a world expert on what the best cities get right. He's the chief executive of a think tank, the Committee for Sydney, that re
Josh Vs The News: Feel Better with Reverend Szeps
Step away from the doomscrolling. Take a breath. Let the waves crash.
In this week's edition of Josh vs the News, Josh offers something different: a tonic for tumultuous times. Instead of dissecting the latest outrage or geopolitical crisis, he invites you to zoom out and remember what actually matters.
How do you find peace when artificial intelligence threatens widespread, fast, and traumatizi
The Mind-Boggling Magic of Math with Adam Spencer
How can a bunch of equations on a piece of paper reflect the deepest facts about reality? How is it that every single object, from a skyscraper to a black hole to your liver, obeys mathematical gobbledegook? And how do physicists deduce that gobbledegook just by solving written puzzles?
Today's episode will blow your mind with curiosities about the fabric of reality, the size of the biggest num
Josh vs the News: How to Think About Iran Without Losing Your Mind
Everyone’s had something to say about Iran. But they're missing the most important piece.
In this week's powerful editorial, Josh invites you to shift focus away from the tsunami of hot takes, of Trump takedowns, of condemnations and victory proclamations and self-certainty on both sides.
Take a reprieve from the chatter and consider the question most commentators have skipped.
"Turning Point" Leader vs Josh
The national director of Turning Point Australia (the Aussie chapter of Turning Point USA) isn't your typical Christian nationalist. He's a 28-year-old Lebanese-Australian influencer, educator and activist.
How should we understand the goals of the new, nationalist right? From Trump to Farage to the National Rally in France, from the Alternative für Deutschland in Germany to the meteoric rise of
‘The Iran Conversation No One Is Having’ with David Frum
David Frum had a front-row seat the last time America went to war against a Middle Eastern adversary. He was in the George W. Bush administration in the lead-up to the Iraq War. In fact, as one of Bush's speechwriters, he wrote the line that came to define American foreign policy for the first decade of the 21st century. Four months after the World Trade Center towers were turned to rubble, Presid
A.I., Iran, & Automated War with Prof. Toby Walsh
Among the first responses by Iranian state media to the US-Israeli war on Iran was a propaganda video. It flaunted row upon row of gleaming Iranian drones, safely lined up in an underground weapons cache, ready to strike Israel, Arab states and US bases.
Drones. Precision-Guided Munitions. A.I. war games. Autonomous Weapon Systems. At the Pentagon, at Anthropic, for Trump and in Iran, they're re
How Big Tech Destroys Learning
How do you learn things? Does it come easily or is it hard? Are you drawn to e-readers, or books? Typing, or handwriting? Duolingo, or moving to a Tuscan villa for six months to drink wine and debate epicureanism?
We’re all alert to the problem of smartphones, screentime, kids and social media. But what if the problem is bigger? What if our brains and bodies are fundamentally hardwired to learn
What's China Up To?
Military purges. DeepSeek AI. Social credit scores. Taiwan.
Why has the Chinese leader purged five of the seven members of the military's top decision-making body (one of the remaining two members being himself)?
Next month, the Chinese Communist Party will enact its fifteenth Five-Year Plan. It's a biggie, because 2027 is the centenary of the People's Liberation Army - a date when China ha
Our Spectacular Future of Solar-Generated "Fossil Fuels"
Imagine a world where vast solar arrays produced cheap, abundant energy for everybody... while also powering hyper-scaled superintelligent A.I. data centres, as well as factories that suck carbon from the atmosphere to make cheap natural gas from nothing but sunlight and air.
It's within our grasp. Solar is the cheapest form of energy. The only impediments are regulations that were written in t
The Ultimate A.I Survival Guide (for Humans)
How much will A.I. change your life in the next few years? In what ways? How will you navigate the upheavals? How will the society around you do so?
"Normies" are finally waking up, it seems, to the scale of what's happening. The dam broke this week in part thanks to an essay which went viral by the A.I. founder and investor Matt Shumer, titled ‘Something Big is Happening.’ It's a clarion call f
Violent Clashes at Israeli President's Bondi Visit
Violence erupted this week as police in downtown Sydney clashed with thousands of activists protesting a visit to Australia by the Israeli President, Isaac Herzog. He was invited to Australia in the wake of the anti-Semitic Bondi terrorist attack.
In his weekly livestream, ‘Josh vs the News’, Josh sits down to sift through the media reporting and how we might best think about protest, free speech
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