Luke Savage is a Canadian socialist and staff writer for Jacobin magazine whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Atlantic and The New Statesman.

I’ve always really enjoyed Luke’s writing about US politics and political economy and was stoked that he joined me from Toronto to chat about Canada, the neoliberalism of Trudeau and the politics of Jimmy Kimmel’s horrific “Goodbye Trump” animation video. I asked Luke about what the Obama years might tell us about the un-radical promise of a Biden presidency, the failure and limits of liberalism, why bipartisanship sucks and what might become of the Big Cheeto President now.

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My 2021 show is called WE ARE ALL IN THIS – it’s on sale now at the Adelaide Fringe

I’m joining the (awesome) line up for Tommy Little’s Big Comedy Show @ the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in March

@LukeWSavage

Luke’s podcast Michael and Us on Patreon

Democratic Socialists of America

Luke’s writing at Jacobin magazine

ARTICLE: Liberalism in Theory and Practice

ARTICLE: In 2009, Pundits Predicted a New Progressive Era. It Never Came. 

ARTICLE: Joe Biden Wants to Make Health Care “Secure For All.” He Should Just Make it Free.

Jimmy Kimmel’s Goodbye Trump video

Cause of the Week: The Workers’ Action Centre Toronto (workersactioncentre.org)

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Doug Cameron is a former AMWU trade unionist who served as a Labor senator from 2008 to 2019. He’s now retired to Hobart, but still regularly tweets out exactly what he thinks about Australian politics and the state of the ALP.

After a week of leadership speculation, a shadow cabinet reshuffle and a lot of chatter about how progressive people should just shut up and vote Labor no matter what, I found it refreshing to talk to an old-school class warrior like Doug who articulates bold, socialist politics. We talked about his experience as a socialist working in the trade union movement and the ALP, why the party should grow a spine, the Corbyn moment and why he thinks joining the Greens is the “easy way out”.

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Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

My 2021 show is called WE ARE ALL IN THIS – it’s on sale now at the Adelaide Fringe

I’m joining the (awesome) line up for Tommy Little’s Big Comedy Show @ the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in March

@DougCameron51

Footage of Doug Cameron’s valedictory speech

Transcript of the speech

ARTICLE: Doug Cameron was right all along by Bernard Keane

Floodcast’s episode on the state of Albo and the ALP, Damp Warm Lettuce

Cause of the Week: Everybody’s Home Campaign (everybodyshome.com.au)

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It’s the final ep for 2020! Thank heavens etc.

JR Hennessy is a Sydney-based writer whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Monthly and The Outline. He’s the current editor for Business Insider Australia and he is smart and funny.

I wanted to take to James about his thoughts on the wonders of 2020 and what (if anything) we can take from it. We discuss it all: people who consider politicians and health experts their friends, winning fights on the computer, “experts”, OnlyFans, “dropshipping”, logging off, whether the Millennial socialism moment is over and finding some hope for the Left in a post-COVID world.

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays/It’s Over, everyone.

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I’m performing at the Corner Hotel tonight (Tuesday) alongside Dilruk Jayasinha and Lehmo

I’m coming to Brunswick Heads for a bunch of shows with Sam Taunton & Nikki Britton in January

@jrhennessy

JR’s substack

jrhennessy.com

businessinsider.com.au

JR’s writing at The Outline

JR’s writing at The Monthly 

ARTICLE: Who the hell cares what old people think about climate change?

ARTICLE: World will be the same but worse after banal virus says Houellebecq

Cause of the Week: Foodbank (foodbank.org.au)

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Simon Copland is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the Australian National University (ANU) who is currently studying the online “manosphere” on Reddit. He’s written for the BBC, The Guardian, Fairfax and News Corp. and he co-hosted the Queers podcast with Benjamin Riley.

Here Simon lays out what the “manosphere” is and why it exists. We discuss incel violence, male alienation, Jordan Peterson, the material conditions that leads to this stuff and the challenges of trying to understand it. Scrubbing the internet clean of these ideas clearly isn’t working and neither is joking about killing all men; so what’s the alternative?

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I was on the “What’s Left?” podcast with Aimee Terese & Oliver Bateman

I’m coming to Brunswick Heads for a bunch of shows with Sam Taunton & Nikki Britton in January

@SimonCopland

simoncopland.com

queerspodcast.com

ARTICLE: What are we talking about when we talk about a crisis in masculinity? by Simon Copland

Simon’s review of the politics of Joker

Cause of the Week: MensLine Australia (mensline.org.au)

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Ed Miller is the Economic Fairness Campaigns Director at the progressive activist group GetUp!.

I wanted to chat to Ed about where GetUp! is at these days; the attacks being made on it by the Murdoch media, its recent wins and failures and its more explicitly anti-capitalist campaigning that I’ve been noticing recently. We discuss the way GetUp! works, why conservatives hate it, the power of its members and why Australian politics’ obsession with “debt and deficits” has limited our political imagination.

We also had a (quick) crack at discussing Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and why it matters.

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I’m performing at Melbourne’s excellent Comedy Republic this Thursday and Friday

I’m coming to Brunswick Heads for a bunch of shows with Sam Taunton & Nikki Britton in January

My 100th episode with GetUp! director Paul Oosting from 2017

@EMHMiller

getup.org.au

The People’s Recovery – GetUp!’s policy vision

The Australian editorial: Every dollar you donate to GetUp! is a waste of money

ARTICLE: GetUp!’s MMT push in Australia “fraught with danger”

ARTICLE: Captain GetUp: conservative group’s satirical superhero debuts to ridicule 

A piece from MMT economists on inflation in the FT

A video explainer on the basics of MMT

Luke McGregor explains MMT

Ed’s interview with MMT economist Stephanie Kelton for GetUp!’s Future to Fight For podcast 

Cause of the Week: Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network (seedmob.org.au)

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Jess Scully is the Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney as part of “Team Clover”. This year she released her debut book Glimpses of Utopia: Real Ideas for a Fairer World, which draws on her own experience and actual examples from all over the world on how people are doing politics, democracy, work and environmental action differently.

Jess is a delightful, passionate and optimistic person who inspired me to shake out of my current cynical, black pill-ed view of the world (as Jess says, under neoliberalism, “We have internalised the impossibility of change”). We discussed why it’s worth thinking about utopia and how we can get there, citizens’ juries, workers’ co-ops, the financialised economy and how the alternative ways of organising society are already playing out in the world right now.

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I’m hosting Refugee Legal’s “Not The Annual Dinner” online event this Thursday November 26th, 7pm, feat. a keynote address by Behrooz Boochani. Book tickets here. 

@Jessaroo

jessscully.com

teamclover.com.au

Glimpses Of Utopia: Real ideas for a Fairer World by Jess Scully is out now through Pantera Press

The New Democracy Foundation

Cause of the Week: The Asylum Seekers Centre’s “Open The Door To Hope” Appeal

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This is my conversation with a group of young climate leaders as part of a panel organised by the Foundation for Young Australians, Youth Action NSW and the team behind the Youth On Strike! documentary.

It was a fierce and inspiring chat about about where young people’s call for climate action goes to from here in a post-COVID Australia and touched on activism, First Nations justice and youth representation. It was a pleasure to moderate; I hope you enjoy listening to it.

The panel featured:

• William from the Youth on Strike! docco and SEED Mob
• Leila, an organiser with School Strike 4 Climate
• Tish from SEED Mob
• Gauri from Outburst!
• Ishara from Climate Reality
• Timothy from Pacific Climate Warriors

If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

I’m hosting Refugee Legal’s “Not The Annual Dinner” online event on Thursday November 26th, 7pm, feat. a keynote address by Behrooz Boochani. Book tickets here. 

Watch the Youth On Strike! documentary

The Foundation for Young Australians 

Youth Action NSW

Seed Mob

Outburst!

Climate Reality

Pacific Climate Warriors

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Richard Cooke is a brilliant writer and commentator who’s written for the likes of The Chaser, The Monthly, The New York Times and The New Republic. His 2019 collection of essays Tired of Winning: A Chronicle of American Decline painted a picture of “Trump country” and the factors at play in US politics over the past four years.

Richard kindly came back on the pod to reflect on the results of the 2020 presidential election: what a Biden/Harris victory means, just how bad the Trump presidency has/hasn’t been, whether Bernie Would Have Won, the spectre of “wokism” (ergh), BIPARTISANSHIP and what this whole whacky episode might tell us about the state of the Australian Left.

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It’s NAIDOC Week!

I’m hosting a conversation with young climate activists in partnership with the Foundation of Young Australians and you can join for FREE 

The Greens had a huge number of wins in the Victorian Local Council elections, including the first ever Greens government in my local City of Yarra. Join The Greens today (if you like)! 

@rgcooke

richardcooke.com

Richard’s writing on LongForm

Tired of Winning: A Chronicle of American Decline by Richard Cooke

ARTICLE: The Disappearing Man by Richard Cooke

ARTICLE: Anthony Albanese on Rudd, News Corp, Trump and why he won’t name a JobSeeker rate by Josh Butler

Cause of the Week: Swing Left (swingleft.org)

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