Episode 1 of First Contact has arrived.
The kind Nayuka Gorrie joined me for a viewing of the show and to share her thoughts. We discuss #DefineAboriginal, the difficulty in making a show like this and the issues and attitudes it exposes.
Watch Episode 1 on SBS demand here
Read my piece for Guardian Australia on the show here
Hear my previous episode with Nayuka here
Check out some discussion of the show from Indigenous voices on the NITV website here
Jamila Rizvi is a writer, commentator, former Labor staffer and political junkie. She was raised in Canberra by her immigrant public service parents, joined the Labor Party at 18 and has worked for the Rudd and Gillard governments.
In this frank and funny chat, Jamila reflects on her political pragmatism, the “Labor tragedy” that was the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd years and what her passionate exchange with Steve Price on The Project revealed to her about trolls, debate and PC.
The World Keeps Happening is being filmed for Stan at the Comedy Theatre on Saturday December 3rd
First Contact series 2 starts Tuesday November 29th on SBS
Jamila’s writing on news.com.au
change.org petition: Call for The Project to apologise to Steve Price live on air
A message to Steve Price and his supporters: grow up and get over it by Clementine Ford
Cause of the Week: CARE Australia (care.org.au)
On the dancefloor at Mardi Gras this year, I met Tim Rosenberger. He is a gay, conservative, Republican law grad from Ohio. And he has supported Donald Trump’s candidacy for President of the United States. That candidacy was successful. And now we’re here.
Here I have a lengthy chat with Tim via Skype about why he thinks Trump and Pence will be good for LGBTIQ+ Americans, racial politics, “pussy-gate”, the electoral college, Clinton, climate change PC, identity politics and much more. I listened. It was hard and frustrating. But useful. I hope. #MAGA
The World Keeps Happening is being filmed for Stan at the Comedy Theatre on Saturday December 3rd
Boundless Plains To Share at Belvoir Theatre in January 2017
Boundless Plains to Share at Adelaide Fringe in February 2017
Article: Aftermath – 16 writers on Trump’s America in The New Yorker
Article: Trump warms to Electoral College, 4 Years After Calling it a “Disaster For Democracy”
Article: Trump’s Muslim register database – an explainer on Vox
Article: The Democrats are screwing up the resistance to Donald Trump by Jamelle Bouie
Article: Bursting the Facebook bubble – we asked voters on the left and right to swap feeds
Article: Virginia’s governor restores voting rights for 13,000 felons
Article: Trump in the White House – an interview with Noam Chomsky
Cause of the Week: Safe Schools Coalition (safeschoolscoalition.org.au), Log Cabin Republicans (logcabin.org)
In these times of uncertainty and fear, I speak to my mum and dad.
Neil and Judy tell me about their political beliefs, the changes they’ve seen in their lifetime, what they make of the election of Donald Trump and how they think progressive change can happen.
I learnt and laughed a lot. I hope you enjoy it.
The World Keeps Happening is being filmed for Stan at the Comedy Theatre on Saturday December 3rd
Boundless Plains To Share at Belvoir Theatre in January 2017
Boundless Plains to Share at Adelaide Fringe in February 2017
Article: Where the Devil is in the Detail by Julian Burnside
Like I’m A Six-Year-Old LIVE! with Adam Bandt, Sunday December 4th
Article: Stop asking me to empathize with the white working class by Kali Holloway
Article: Neoliberalism: the deep story that lies beneath Donald Trump’s triumph by George Monbiot
Article: We need to understand why Trump won to stop it happening again by Osman Faruqi
Cause of the Week: Amnesty International (amnesty.org.au)
It happened. Donald J. Trump is going to be the next President of the United States.
I am very sad.
I don’t know about you, but I want to help. I want to make things better.
Support queer rights by donating to allout.org
Support refugees by donating to UNHCR Australia
Support the fight against climate change by donating to 350.org
Support gender equality by donating to Emily’s List Australia
The Republic Repeals Itself by Andrew Sullivan
It was the rise of the Davos class that sealed America’s fate by Naomi Klein
The Terrorists Have Won – Keith Olbermann
The US has elected its most dangerous leader. We all have plenty to fear by Jonathan Freedland
Stephen Colbert tries to make sense of all this
Nur Warsame is Australia’s first openly gay imam.
Yep.
He’s an incredible man with a fascinating story that I think is really important to hear. If you’re like me and want to call out and stand up against any religious bigotry towards queer people BUT you also don’t want to pile on to the current shitstorm of Islamophobia that’s swirling around this country at the moment, there’s a lot to be learnt here from Nur. Here we discuss his journey to coming out publicly, what it’s cost him, how he reconciles his faith with his sexuality and how we can have better conversations about this stuff.
The World Keeps Happening is being filmed for Stan at the Comedy Theatre on Saturday December 3rd
Boundless Plains To Share at Belvoir Theatre in January 2017
Boundless Plains to Share at Adelaide Fringe in February 2017
Meet Australia’s First Openly Gay Imam on SBS’s The Feed
Article: Nur Warsame: Australia’s First Openly Gay Imam
Article: The secret mosques opening their doors to LGBTI Muslims
Nur on SBS’s Insight: How Do People Make High Stakes Decisions?
Fields of Blood: Religion & The History of Violence by Karen Armstrong
Article: Half of all British Muslims think homosexuality should be illegal, poll finds
Cause of the Week: Marhaba (@marhaba_Melb)
Activist, writer, engineer, motoring enthusiast and outspoken young Muslim woman of colour Yassmin Abdel-Magied is kicking arse on multiple levels right now and I felt very lucky indeed to have this opportunity to chat with her.
Earlier this year, Yassmin sparked a large controversy in the literary world when she walked out on author Lionel Shriver’s speech on cultural appropriation at the Brisbane Writers Festival. Here she reflects on that experience and further explores her thoughts on why an awareness of what cultural appropriation is and how it works is important.
Last week’s guest Gay Alcorn had a different take on this subject; you can listen back to that episode here.
The World Keeps Happening is being filmed for Stan at the Comedy Theatre on Saturday December 3rd
Boundless Plains To Share at Belvoir Theatre in January 2017
The Greens’ petition against the lifetime visa ban for people seeking asylum
Why does my headscarf mean to you? Yassmin’s TED talk
Lionel Shriver’s speech in full: I hope the concept of cultural appropriation is a passing fad
I walked out of the Brisbane Writers Festival keynote address this is why by Yassmin Abdel-Magied
What happened in Brisbane by Suki Kim
Identity politics doesn’t deserve Lionel Shriver’s contempt, but it can be limiting by Nesrine Malik
Will the Left survive the Millenials? by Lionel Shriver
A call for difficult conversations not censorship by Yassmin Abdel-Magied
Why the shaming of Lionel Shriver leads to a literary ghetto by Anson Cameron
Confronting Lionel Shriver by Maxine Beneba Clarke
White Fragility: why it’s so hard to talk to white people about racism by Dr. Robin DiAngelo
White Nonsense Round Up on Facebook
Cause of the Week: Mumtaza (mumtaza.agency)
Gay Alcorn has been a journalist for over 25 years. She’s been a Fairfax Washington correspondent, edited The Sunday Age, won three Walkley Awards and is now the Melbourne editor for Guardian Australia.
I wanted to talk with Gay about a whole many things (we began by talking about this week’s 4Corners report on the refugee children of Nauru and the roles and biases of journalism), but the bulk of our chat became focussed on the notion of “political correctness”: the nature of our public discourse, section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, identity politics and cultural appropriation.
Gay describes herself as a progressive person but is a staunch advocate of the freedom of speech and has concerns about the way we go about talking with each other. Is it now longer possible for us to “reasonably disagree”?
This piece by Gay on PC is the basic starting point for our chat, I’d recommend reading that first before listening here. We also got on to Lionel Shriver’s speech at the Brisbane Writer’s Festival and the ensuing furore; this will also be the focus of next week’s episode with Yassmin Abdel-Magied.
Boundless Plains To Share at Belvoir Theatre in January 2017
Gay’s writing at Guardian Australia
The Media’s Moment of Truth by Frank Bruni
Hunt For The Radical Centre: Confronting Welfare Dependency by Noel Pearson
The Pacific Solution’s brutal fact: we need it by Jonathan Holmes
Those fighting offshore detention don’t need all the answers by me
Section 18C Explainer: What is it, and why do some politicians want it changed? by Luke McNamara
Cause of the Week: Guardian Australia (theguardian.com/au), Oxfam Australia (oxfam.org.au)
TIME TO MEET ANOTHER HERO, EVERYONE! Shen Narayanasamy is the Human Rights Campaign Director at GetUp!. She’s an outspoken activist for refugee and migrant rights who is seriously shaking shit up at the moment and she was nice enough to explain to me why (and how) she’s doing it.
From her Di Gribble address on “The Great Immigration Con” to taking on the private companies that are complicit in human rights abuses through the operation of offshore detention centres to the task of defeating the philosophy behind the “detention regime” in its totality, I reckon this is a really illuminating and (mildly) hopeful discussion.
Boundless Plains To Share at the Belvoir Theatre, January 2017
Walk Together 2016 is happening THIS SATURDAY October 22nd
ABC’s Q&A: Australia’s Sovereign Borders
Article: Burning The Stakeholders by Chloe Hooper
Article: Lunch with lawyer and asylum seeker advocate Shen Narayanasamy
Article: A solution to our refugee criss by Robert Manne, Tim Costello, Frank Brennan & John Menadue
GetUp!’s #BringThemHere campaign
Cause of the Week: No Business In Abuse (nobusinessinabuse.org)
He used to co-host Australian Idol but this year James Mathison ran against former prime minister Tony Abbott for the federal seat of Waringah as an independent.
In this chat James explains why he decided to run, his frustrations with the current political deadlock in Australia, the limitations of election campaigns and his predictions of a new progressive movement on the horizon.
Plus he shamelessly advertises Coke.
Boundless Plains To Share at the Belvoir Theatre, January 2017
Comedy 4 Karma in Daylesford, Saturday October 15th
I’ll be appearing in season 2 of SBS’s First Contact in November
Walk Together 2016 is happening on Saturday October 22nd
#OurBrothersOurSisters on raisely.com
Me on Guardian’s Token podcast
Me on Brendon Burns’ Dumb White Guy podcast, Part 1 // Part 2
Article: CEOs bank on bonuses as average Australian worker left to flounder
Article: We’re two-faced about ‘wasting’ money on welfare
Article: James Mathison wants to create a new progressive political movement to target the far right
Article: Thoughts on Junket 2016
Article: Leaked UNHCR report – Manus Island’s world’s worst
Cause of the Week: Barnados (barnados.org.au)