Speaking Bluntly (2024) - Antoinette Lattouf, Andy Mills & Josh Szeps

Journalists play a vital role in a democracy, holding power to account. The traditional model of journalism sees journalists as disinterested seekers of the truth, striving for ‘objectivity’ and suppressing their own opinions. But as newsrooms and editorial pages previously staffed only by white male journalists have evolved, and as the internet has driven the rise of opinion journalism, we are faced with two important questions: Does it matter who journalists are? And does it matter what they think? At a time when media business models are in crisis, how should we think about bias, representation, truth and opinion? What happens when journalists themselves become ‘the story’? And if we can’t talk about these thorny questions in the media itself, can the media do its job at all? 

Antoinette Lattouf is a broadcaster, columnist, author, speaker, human rights advocate, mental health ambassador who dabbles in satire and is terrible at reverse parking. She is the creator and co-host of The Antoinettes podcast, a weekly commentary and comedy podcast. She is also the co-host of news and analysis podcast The Briefing. The multi-award-winning journalist is the co-founder of Media Diversity Australia – a not-for-profit organisation working towards increasing cultural and linguistic diversity in the media.

Andy Mills is an American reporter and podcast producer who co-created The Daily at The New York Times, Reflector and several documentary series including Rabbit Hole and The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling.

Josh Szeps is one of Australia’s most influential and innovative interviewers. In New York, he was a founding host-producer of the revolutionary US streaming news network, HuffPost Live. He won a Webby Award while the organisation won a Pulitzer. Josh also appeared regularly with Al Roker as a contributor on the NBC TODAY Show. On his return to Australia, he co-anchored the national morning television show, Weekend Breakfast, and became a fixture of ABC Radio Sydney. Afternoons with Josh Szeps launched in 2021, a three-hour daily talkback radio show. In 2024, Josh left the legacy media to wrestle freely with ideas in a spicier way. Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps took off as a podcast, Substack publication, live touring enterprise and YouTube channel.

Chaired by Louise Adler, Director of Adelaide Writers’ Week, who has spent over 30 years in the culture business and continues to be committed to the dissemination of dangerous ideas.