It’s a great and challenging show and I was honoured to be asked to chat to them about Australian politics, race, comedy and “doing the work”.
Author Archives: Tom
Aaron Chen Is Very Funny
214 – Ed Miller
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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Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you
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
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
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)
Direct download | iTunes | Spotify | libsyn
Untitled Comedy Night @ Mollie’s Bar & Diner
Easey Comedy At Home December 3
The long awaited return of Easey Comedy is here!
Streaming to you LIVE from our Collingwood theatre into living rooms across Australia and the Universe. Come get reacquainted with live comedy, catch up with your favourites and discover your new comedy crushes. It’s like a weekly comedy gala in your lounge room!If you fancy watching in real life you can purchase tickets to be in our limited live audience.
Follow Easey Comedy on Facebook and Instagram to find out the lineups first!
THURSDAY 3 DECEMBER – LINEUP
Host: Tom Ballard
+ Lano & Woodley
+ Nick Cody
+ Annie Louey
+ Michelle BrasierSuitable for ages 16+.
Need more information? Check out our FAQ.
While we do our best to keep lineups as programmed once announced they may be subject to change.
213 – Sydney Deputy Lord Mayor Jess Scully
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.
If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron
Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you
Glimpses Of Utopia: Real ideas for a Fairer World by Jess Scully is out now through Pantera Press
Cause of the Week: The Asylum Seekers Centre’s “Open The Door To Hope” Appeal
Direct download | iTunes | Spotify | libsyn
212 – In Conversation With Young Climate Leaders
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
Watch the Youth On Strike! documentary
The Foundation for Young Australians
Direct download | iTunes | Spotify | libsyn
211 – Richard Cooke (Returns)
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.
If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron
Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you
Tired of Winning: A Chronicle of American Decline by Richard Cooke
ARTICLE: The Disappearing Man by Richard Cooke
Cause of the Week: Swing Left (swingleft.org)
Direct download | iTunes | Spotify | libsyn
210 – Osmond Chiu
Osmond Chiu is a researcher with the progressive think tank Per Capita and editor of the Labor Left magazine Challenge. A couple of weeks ago, as he was giving evidence to a senate inquiry into issues facing diaspora communities, Osmond was asked by Liberal Senator Eric Abetz to “unequivocally condemn” the Chinese Communist Party. It was very weird and bad and Abetz has since refused to apologise and only doubled down.
Here I ask Osmond about why that incident was so demeaning, why it matters and how we might consider Australia’s relationship with China in a serious, critical but definitely not-racist way.
If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron
Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you
My conversation with Max Chandler-Mather has been written up for Jacobin magazine
ARTICLE: Locking Out The Left: The Emergence of National Factions in Australian Labor
ARTICLE: I was born in Australia. Why do I need to renounce the Chinese Communist Party?
ARTICLE: Abetz’s questioning tests our democracy
You can sign Getup!’s petition supporting Oz here
ARTICLE: Seeing red: Labor’s China problem
Cause of the Week: Union Aid Abroad (apheda.org.au)
Direct download | iTunes | Spotify | libsyn
Where to from here? Young climate leaders discuss the future of Australia
Honoured to be hosting this forum with a punch of exciting and cool young climate activists who will probably make me feel old and bitter. We’ll be discussing what the future looks like for climate activism in post-COVID Australia.
It’s totally free, just register for tickets here.
Here’s the info:
Join comedian Tom Ballard in conversation with eight young climate leaders from across Australian in a special LIVE Q&A event seeking answers to the question:
Where to from here for young people?
On the panel are:
- Marco — Youth On Strike!
- Leila — School Strike 4 Climate
- Tish — Seed mob
- Gauri — Outburst! (Youth Action’s Western Sydney youth leadership team)
- Ashlee and Airly — The Mallacoota Sanctuary Youth Group
- Ishara — Climate Reality
- Timothy — Pacific Climate Warriors.
Disproportionately impacted by COVID and the persisting impacts of climate change, in this forum young Australians will have the opportunity to answer questions on what a post-COVID world looks like for young people and discuss how to increase youth representation and involvement in decision making beyond 2020.
Get involved and submit your questions now! Use this Google Form to submit your questions: https://forms.gle/CxWtzFJCzwXhmMRM9
With young people routinely under-represented in the media, leadership roles, and decision-making positions, this event will give a diverse group a chance to share their thoughts, ideas and feelings on what the future holds, and how best to tackle its challenges.
Presented by the Youth On Strike! video series and the Foundation for Young Australians. Supported by Youth Action NSW, The Education Shop.