Episodes

  • Pop Superstar Missy Higgins on Sexuality, Fame and Failure

    Pop Superstar Missy Higgins on Sexuality, Fame and Failure

    · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

    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.

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  • Kamala vs Trump with Chas Licciardello

    Kamala vs Trump with Chas Licciardello

    · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

    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.

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  • “Multiculturalism in the UK” with Foreign Minister Alexander Downer

    “Multiculturalism in the UK” with Foreign Minister Alexander Downer

    · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

    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.

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  • “Why We’re Divided” with Jon Yates

    “Why We’re Divided” with Jon Yates

    · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

    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

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  • PREMIUM: Coleman Hughes Live in Melbourne

    PREMIUM: Coleman Hughes Live in Melbourne

    · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

    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

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  • JUST JOSH: Free Speech, Incitement & Elon Musk

    JUST JOSH: Free Speech, Incitement & Elon Musk

    · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

    "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

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  • “Cancel Culture at the NY Times” with Andy Mills

    “Cancel Culture at the NY Times” with Andy Mills

    · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

    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

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  • “Oscar-Winning Creativity” with Emile Sherman

    “Oscar-Winning Creativity” with Emile Sherman

    · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

    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

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  • "Trump = Hitler?" with Dennis Glover

    · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

    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".

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  • Jesse Singal and Coleman Hughes

    Jesse Singal and Coleman Hughes

    · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

    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.

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  • Senator David Pocock on

    Senator David Pocock on "How to Be a Senator & World-Cup Athlete"

    · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

    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 Ă  Court, had a fascinating conversation on this show which you should listen to here

    You don't neeeeed to hear Holmes Ă  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.

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  • JUST JOSH: The Perfect Veep Pick

    JUST JOSH: The Perfect Veep Pick

    · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

    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.

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  • “What Even Is the ‘Intellectual Dark Web’ Today?” with Dr Jamie Roberts

    “What Even Is the ‘Intellectual Dark Web’ Today?” with Dr Jamie Roberts

    · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

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    Vaccine mandates. Wokeness in Hollywood. The female pay gap. Race protests. Diversity programs. Covid lockdowns. #metoo. The so-called intellectual dark web tackled it all. A loose grouping of dissenting intellectuals and commentators, they sought to buck taboos and open minds.

    What happened? Who went down the rabbit hole to crazy town, and who maintained thier heads? And where is the space for sane dissent today?

    Dr Jamie Roberts is a political philosopher and university lecturer who has ruffled feathers by openly admiring some of what the IDW was trying to do -- and even teaching college classes on it. His new book is "The Way of the Intellectual Dark Web: What Joe Rogan and his associates can teach us about political dialogue". He and Josh perform a real-time post mortem on a still-metastasising movement.

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  • “Is Planet Earth Alive?” with Ferris Jabr

    “Is Planet Earth Alive?” with Ferris Jabr

    · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

    Have you ever wondered what’s up with Earth? Seriously. What the actual heck. Of all those trillions of space rocks, this one is all leafy and watery and lifey. What is it, this spaceship we’re on, this pale blue dot? Might it be a kind of living thing itself?

    ‌

    This old hippy idea has been wrestled into a more fascinating, harder-headed thesis by the scientist and journalist Ferris Jabr. He's written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, National Geographic, Wired and The Los Angeles Review of Books; and he’s a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and Scientific American. His new book is “Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life”.

    ‌

    If your idea of a good time is listening to a couple of nerds geeking out on evolution, the cosmos, consciousness, and what happened to woolly mammoths, this is the episode for you, baby.

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  • “PROJECT 2025” with Skye Perryman

    “PROJECT 2025” with Skye Perryman

    · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

    Project 2025, technically the 2025 Presidential Transition Project, is a set of sweeping policy changes to be enacted on Day One of the next conservative administration. If Trump wins, that’s January 20th, 2025. Skye Perryman is one of the project’s leading opponents.

    She’s the president and CEO of Democracy Forward, a non-profit that promotes democracy through court cases, lobbying and education. Washingtonian magazine named her one of this year’s Most Influential People Shaping Policy and her legal work has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court.

    Skye and Josh debate what really matters in the stoush over Project 2025 and what Trump Round Two might look like.

    This episode is a taste of a longer conversation. To hear the full chat and get more Uncomfortable Conversations content, head to: https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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  • Tim Minchin:

    Tim Minchin: "Arty Farty Echo Chambers"

    · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

    How do you escape the shaming of the mob when you're a public figure with original ideas?

    Tim Minchin is one of the most successful creatives Australia has ever produced. He wrote the music and lyrics for Matilda the Musical, which won more Olivier Awards than any other show in history at the time. Now in its 13th year, the show continues to sell out on the West End. The Broadway production was nominated for a stash of Tonys. The 2022 movie version is a riot.

    Minchin went on to write the Broadway stage musical Groundhog Day, which scored seven Tony Award nominations and won the Olivier for Best New Musical.

    Tim has starred in massive arena shows like Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, and sells out stadiums with his own blend of music, comedy, and musical comedy. He co-wrote and starred in the hit television comedy show Upright and he's a staple on the biggest TV talk shows.

    But he's been most influential as a thinker, rationalist and activist -- as a New Atheist, a Defender of the Enlightenment and a Renaissance Man. He often finds himself at odds with the progressive wing of the artistic scene... cautious about being cancelled, but compelled to call out the bullshit he sees.

    Due to copyright, we aren’t able to include the full versions of the songs mentioned in this podcast, but I urge you to listen if you’re unfamiliar with Tim’s work:

    White Wine In The Sun
    https://youtu.be/fCNvZqpa-7Q?si=dTedPJk58G54Ikza

    When I Grow Up
    https://youtu.be/6Y82wktAEmQ?si=gVaVtvQIO1f8jCEB

    Woody Allen Jesus

    https://youtu.be/_SFdUJLebzU?si=1-rBM5ht7xt85V1S

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  • “Racial Identity in Europe” with Thomas Chatterton Williams

    “Racial Identity in Europe” with Thomas Chatterton Williams

    · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

    First things first: The Uncomfortable Conversations LIVE touring empire is expanding, with live shows in Sydney and Melbourne in August with the inimitable Coleman Hughes. Tickets are selling fast. Get yours now. Don’t miss out:

    Sydney https://bit.ly/Coleman-Szeps-Syd

    Melbourne https://bit.ly/Coleman-Szeps-Melb

    Meanwhile, the new YouTube page is going gangbusters. The episode you're listening to was shot as an outdoor TV interview on an early spring day in a Manhattan park. Check it out and subscribe to YouTube for more cool videos to come: https://bit.ly/UC_Videos

    Thomas Chatterton Williams is a New Yorker who lives in Paris. He's the son of a Black father from the segregated South and a white mother from the West. He himself is the father of two white-looking children. Straddling the USA and Europe has given him a fascinating insight into identity, diversity and life as a Black man in America and in France. His memoir, Self–Portrait in Black and White, is a must-read.

    As Thomas and Josh chat on a chilly but sunny New York day, they wrestle with the Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan attacks, Islamism, blood-and-soil right-wingers, George Floyd’s murder, racial profiling, and much more.

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  • "Is Josh a 'Bad Gay'?" with Alastair Lawrie

    · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

    When Sydney's biggest broadsheet newspaper published an opinion piece by Josh on the occasion of the Mardi Gras Gay Pride Parade, it triggered a backlash from some in the LGBT+ community. One of Josh's attackers was a prominent activist, Alastair Lawrie, the Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Justice and Equity Centre.

    Instead of arguing with Alastair on Twitter, Josh invited him on the show to hash out their differences and discuss what challenges the LGBTQ+ community still faces.

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  • “Trump’s Prognosis” with David Frum

    “Trump’s Prognosis” with David Frum

    · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

    Well, what happens now? Does Donald Trump win? Does he lose? To whom? What are we all in for?

    On the eve of Trump’s coronation as the Republican presidential candidate at the party’s National Convention this week, he was narrowly shot in an apparent assassination attempt at a rally.

    Is this the most dramatic election of our lives? David Frum is one of the most influential anti-Trumpers to come out of a Republican White House. As President George W Bush’s speechwriter, he's credited with the famous phrase the "axis of evil". He wrote the first insider account of the Bush presidency. Frum is now a senior editor at The Atlantic.

    David and Josh sat down shortly before the Trump shooting for the occasion of the Republican National Convention. They discuss Trump’s plans, Biden’s options, the fate of both parties
 and of America.

    In the first half-hour of this episode, Josh reflects on how to process this moment, and how the assassination attempt and response have already begun to shape what the future will hold for this campaign as well as American democracy at large.

    To reinvigorate the biggest issues from Josh’s refreshing perspective, get ad-free episodes and extra shows by signing up at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

    Josh Szeps

    đ•đ• đ•€đ•™ đ•Šđ•«đ•–đ•Ąđ•€ (@joshzepps) on X

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  • "Is Trans Ideology Harming Transsexuals?" with Dana Beyer

    · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

    "Transsexual" sounds like an old-fashioned term. But it describes a real medical condition in which your brain has the opposite sex from your body. Are transsexuals threatened by newer gender-queer, non-binary theories of sex?

    Dr Dana Beyer says so. She's one of the most influential and effective trans activists in history. A medical doctor and self-described transsexual, she's been striding the hallways of power since the 1970s meeting with the likes of Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden to achieve landmark wins for LGBT rights. Today, she believes modern gender theory is harming transsexuals like herself.

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