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. To get the whole shebang, get your own personalised premium podcast feed at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_ http://twitter.com/joshzepps http://instagram.com/joshszeps/ http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

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. http://twitter.com/joshzepps http://instagram.com/joshszeps/ http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

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. 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

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. 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

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. http://twitter.com/joshzepps http://instagram.com/joshszeps/ http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

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. To get the whole shebang, get your own personalised premium podcast feed at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_ http://twitter.com/joshzepps http://instagram.com/joshszeps/ http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

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. 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/ tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

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. 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

Outside Australia, Alexander Downer is best known as the diplomat who kicked off the Mueller Investigation by alerting the FBI that one of Trump’s advisors, George Papadopoulos, said the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton over drinks in London. Downer was Australia’s ambassador to the UK at the time. Inside Australia, Downer is a household name. He is the most consequential Foreign Minister in decades (what Americans call the Secretary of State), serving for over a decade during 9/11 and the Iraq War. As a senior government minister in the Five Eyes alliance, he was influential in formulating Western countries' response to ISIS and jihadism. Most recently, he was Australia’s ambassador to the United Kingdom (a position which, between Commonwealth countries, is called the High Commissioner). Downer recently wrote about the UK race riots and the strains of multiculturalism. As someone deeply familiar with immigration, multiculturalism, Islamism and foreign policy, Josh wanted to pick his brain. Don’t miss a moment of the intellectual action. Get email updates from the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_ http://twitter.com/joshzepps http://instagram.com/joshszeps/ http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

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 http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_ http://twitter.com/joshzepps http://instagram.com/joshszeps/ http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

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 http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_ http://twitter.com/joshzepps http://instagram.com/joshszeps/ http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

"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 To get more content like this and support the free-speech mission of Uncomfy Convos, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_ http://twitter.com/joshzepps http://instagram.com/joshszeps/ http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

Andy is the producer The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling and previously of the New York Times' groundbreaking podcast The Daily. During the riots and racial reckoning after the killing of George Floyd, newsrooms were roiled by existential questions: Should journalists be activists? Do white male journalists hide behind "objectivity" to impose their bias? Do they get coddled by media companies who hide their misdeeds, or do they suffer extra scrutiny as targets for the social-justice mob? Andy was in the eye of the storm. He'd been snapped up by the world's most powerful newspaper to grow its audio division, co-creating The Daily and other celebrated podcasts like Caliphate and Rabbit Hole. Then, in a life-altering cancel-culture frenzy, he lost it all. Andy is in Sydney for the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, where he and Josh spoke together on a panel, "Speaking Bluntly: Identity politics in journalism". He stopped by the Uncomfortable Conversations studios to share his incredible tale, warts and all. Andy's new podcast is Reflector. This full conversation is 2h14m long. To hear it in all its glory, and to get more thought-provoking, ad-free episodes, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_ http://twitter.com/joshzepps http://instagram.com/joshszeps/ http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

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 http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_ http://twitter.com/joshzepps http://instagram.com/joshszeps/ http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

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". 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

Two of the internet’s most intellectual contrarians sit down in a park with Josh. Magic ensues. Jesse is among the world's most astute analysts of internet nonsense. He became a lightning rod when his 2018 Atlantic cover story was the first deeply reported mainstream article to question child transgender medicine. His punishment was swift and severe, driving him into the netherworld of Podcastistan where his hit show with Katie Herzog, Blocked and Reported, analyses the pieties and group think of internet tribes. His own Substack is here. Today's other guest is the most articulate, clear-headed contemporary thinker on race and social justice, tribalism and civil rights. He's been on The View, Real Time with Bill Maher and Joe Rogan. He's triggered a backlash from social justice warriors at the Ted conference with a Ted speech that transgressed racial taboos by calling for colourblind equality. His podcast is Conversations with Coleman and his Substack is here. This episode is the audio of a YouTube video shot in New York City in early spring. Check it out here. It’s cool. (Oh, and subscribe to the YouTube channel, silly.) Get tickets to see me and Coleman live in Melbourne here or at the festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney here. For more, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_ http://twitter.com/joshzepps http://instagram.com/joshszeps/ tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

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. 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

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. 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