223 – Senator Jordon Steele-John

Jordon Steele-John is a disability and youth activist and has been a Greens senator for Western Australia since 2017, when he replaced Scott Ludlam in the Senate at just 23 years old.

Here I ask Jordon about how parliament actually works and how it feels to be inside it as a Millennial Green. He explains why he’s in parliament, his disappointment in the ALP, what being a socialist means to him, empowering young people, the fight for “ecological democracy” and the good and bad of the NDIS and the ongoing Royal Commission into the abuse and neglect of people with disabilities.

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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 and the Melbourne Comedy Festival

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

@JordonSteele

jordon-steele-john.greensmps.org.au

ARTICLE: ‘Aussie Squad’ may be Labor’s worst nightmare by Janet Albrechtsen

ARTICLE: Tim Hollo on “ecological democracy” for The Green Institute

ARTICLE: “We are sexual beings”: why disability advocates want the NDIS to cover sexual services

ARTICLE: Stuart Robert condemned for plan to deny people with disability access to sex worker services

Cause of the Week: People With Disabilities Australia (pwd.org.au)

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222 – Amy Remeikis

Amy Remeikis is Guardian Australia’s political reporter who writes the Australian politics live blog, covering the thrills and spills of Australian politics as they happen.

Amy joined me after another crazy week in Canberra, to reflect on the “Remeikis experience”, why the political class sucks so much, what to make of the media bargaining code and Labor’s strategy to win back Queensland at the next election.

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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

@AmyRemeikis

Amy’s writing at The Guardian

ARTICLE: Facebook vs the media code: whoever wins, we lose by Lizzie O’Shea

ARTICLE: Be careful what you wish for: government-mandated theft backfires as tech giant pulls pin by Bernard Keane 

ARTICLE: Fine-tuning the message: federal Labor looks to Queensland as the electoral canary in the coalmine by Amy Remeikis 

ARTICLE: Labor’s wicked problem: how to win back Queensland by Christopher Wallace

You can read Amy’s powerful pieces sharing her reflections on being a survivor of sexual assault here

and here

Cause of the Week: Support your local florist! 

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221 – Dr. Evan Smith

Dr. Evan Smith is a historian and academic who’s extensively researched the history of the Far Left in Australia and the UK. Last year he released his book No Platforming: A History of Anti-Fascism, Universities and the Limits of Free Speech.

I reached out to Evan last month after the whackiness of the storming of the US Capitol and Trump’s removal from Twitter. We only managed to find some time recently for a chat, but this is clearly still a relevant conversation (as Trump is formally acquitted by the Senate in his impeachment trial). Evan lays out the history of “no platform” as a political tactic, the moral and political arguments surrounding it, the grey areas and its potential limits as a strategy for the Left.

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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

@evanishistory

Evan’s blog, New Historical Express

You can support Evan’s work on Patreon

My interview with Douglas Murray on Tonightly

ARTICLE: We’re obsessed with ‘no platforming’ but aren’t resisting the return of harder censorship by Jeff Sparrow

ARTICLE: Evan reviews Jeff Sparrow’s Fascists Among Us

Cause of the Week: The Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union (unemployedworkersunion.com

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220 – Luke Savage

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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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

@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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219 – Doug Cameron

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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218 – Luke Pearson

Luke Pearson is a Gamilaroi man who in 2012 founded IndigenousX: a 100% Indigenous owned and operated, independent media, consultancy, and training organisation.

As January 26th approaches, I wanted to ask Luke about what he makes of the Australia Day culture warring, his critique of the #changethedate campaign, our national amnesia when it comes to our history and why we need to #changethenation instead. He explains the nature of the ongoing occupation of this country, what political action might bring about material change for First Nations people and why the idea of changing the national holiday is like a gym membership.

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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

@LukeLPearson

@IndigenousX

ARTICLE: Why we need to change the date of Australia Day

ARTICLE: Maybe we shouldn’t change the date of Australia Day after all 

ARTICLE: Why I no longer support #changethedate

ARTICLE: Why we need to #ChangeTheNation (by Shiralee Lawson)

ARTICLE: Why I was gutted when Australia applauded the anthem change 

ARTICLE: We are One Nation? 

ARTICLE: Remembering 1938 ‘Day of Mourning’ declaration

ARTICLE: ‘We hereby make protest’ – a history of 1938

Andrew Jakubowicz’s research on “Harmony Day”

CAUSE OF THE WEEK: indigenousx.com.au

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217 – Amy MacMahon

Oh hello. Happy New Year.

Amy MacMahon is the new Greens member for the Queensland state seat of South Brisbane after unseating Labor’s Jackie Trad at the 2020 election.

Amy tells me how her politics were informed by her experiences in Bangladesh and her mum’s stroke of a few years ago. We discuss what running on a socialist platform looks like in Australia today, that stupid “Mean Girls” tweet scandal, what the ALP has become and how the Greens can reach out to the labour movement, as well as the Greens’ priorities for Queensland in the year ahead.

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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

@amymacsouthbris

amymacmahon.com

greens.org.au/qld

ARTICLE: How a ‘Mean Girls’ Quote Became a Stupid QLD Election Scandal 

Amy’s response to the “Means Girls” quote nonsense

Young Greens’ panel: Should the Greens embrace socialism?

ARTICLE: Thousands sign petition to investigate historic Aboriginal land sale (Deebing Creek) 

Cause of the Week: Mums 4 Refugees (mums4refugees.org)

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The Little Dum Dum Club Did A Live Show And I Did It And It Was Fun

 

After the longest break from live shows in Dum Dum history we are BACK, LIVE in Melbourne to a sold-out crowd with PETER HELLIAR, TOM BALLARD and NICK CAPPER! Tommy’s got a prop to make himself feel more comfortable, Karl’s wearing all of his lockdown purchases, Pete has a new support act, Capper’s eaten a pizza and Tom gets bullied. PLUS given that it’s a live show, there’s shots being done onstage and people in the crowd yelling at us. God, it’s good to be back!

 

You can listen to it here.

216 – JR Hennessy

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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215 – Simon Copland

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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