Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

Myq is a New York comic who’s been on the Tonight Show, Conan, Letterman, James Corden, Seth Meyers, Comedy Central, Last Comic Standing, and America’s Got Talent. He also introduced Josh to ayahuasca. What happened next? To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

Despite his reputation as a defector to neoconservatism, Christopher Hitchens was more faithfully committed to liberal principles than many on the left today: Free expression, internationalism, individual rights and universalism as opposed to identity politics. That’s the argument Matt Johnson makes in his book, How Hitchens Can Save the Left: Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-Enlightenment. To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

Josh is a travel hacker and aviation nerd. He's one of those people who knows all the ways to get as many frequent flyer miles as possible, and cash them in for luxury, first-class experiences on the world's best airlines. He sits down with producer Stef to take him through how the whole thing works. 

Megan Phelps-Roper was brought up in one of the most hated sects of American Christianity – the Westborough Baptist Church. Now, she sits down with the woman at the centre of an equally vicious firestorm, J.K. Rowling, in a new podcast from The Free Press. Josh and Megan reflect on the trans wars, religion, and the power of the mob.

Josh answers all your questions about A.I., fitness, Ukraine, gender ideology, and vacationing in Europe in winter.

Presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr blew up the internet when he pushed anti-vaccine claims on Joe Rogan’s show. It’s déjà vu all over again for Josh, who had his own little vax run-in with Rogan last year. Should scientists and medical researchers do a better job of engaging with alternative media? America’s leading skeptic, Michael Shermer, thinks so. He and Josh hash it out. 

On a summer night in Brooklyn in 2015, in the week when Trump descended a staircase to declare his ridiculous stunt candidacy for the Republican nomination, Josh launched his first ever podcast. Jim Norton, Abbi Crutchfield and Kevin Allison lit up a dive bar, guzzling cocktails and bantering about the news. Be transported back to that event. To get your very own premium version of Josh’s podcast, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/listen

Sarah Haider is a Pakistani-American writer and a ferociously clear-headed thinker about culture, society, identity politics, religion, cancel culture, sex and gender. She’s been featured on the BBC and in The Economist and recognized as a “Freethought Heroine” for her work co-founding a non-profit that assists dissident Muslims. Her podcast, A Special Place In Hell, is co-hosted by the equally curious contrarian feminist Meghan Daum. Here, Sarah and Josh wrestle with the biggest questions of contemporary culture. Enjoy the ride. To get your very own premium version of Josh’s podcast, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/listen

Permission to Think is a collaboration with the University of Technology, Sydney, where we debate the vigour, rigour and freedom of the academy. Today, the Melbourne University Law Professor Dr Katy Barnett sticks her neck out to argue against activist academics. To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed. Hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

The world’s leading A.I. researchers have released an open letter warning of the “existential threat” the technology poses to human civilisation. Stephen Marche begs to differ. He’ll go down in history as the man who created the world’s first mainstream novel written by A.I. To do so, he spent months interacting with Chat GPT. Join Josh as he and Stephen argue about the fate of artificial intelligence… and of humankind.