Fire at Will

In this episode, Douglas Murray discusses the importance of defending Western civilization and the rise of anti-West rhetoric. They explore societal fears of addressing extremism, the influence of ideology on science, and evolving attitudes towards virtues. Reflecting on the impact of societal shifts and the value of gratitude in modern society.

Australiana is now Fire at Will - your safe space for dangerous conversations.We as a society are self-censoring at record rates. Say the wrong thing at the wrong moment to the wrong person and the consequences can be dire. When the truth is no defense and nuance is seen as an attack, self-censorship is a rational choice. Yet, our silence comes with a price. When we are too fearful to speak openly and honestly, we deprive ourselves of the ability to build genuine relationships, we yield all cultural and political power to those with opposing views, and we lose our ability to challenge ideas or change minds, even our own. Katherine Brodsky thinks it's time for principled individuals to hit the unmute button and resist the authoritarians among us who name, shame, and punish. Her new book is titled 'No Apologies: How to Find and Free Your Voice in the Age of Outrage—Lessons for the Silenced Majority'.Follow Australiana on social media here.Subscribe to The Spectator Australia here.

Australiana is now Fire at Will - your safe space for dangerous conversations.Australia is facing serious domestic and international challenges, all at a time when the political class has arguably never been so ill-equipped to address them. In fact, perhaps the only thing that nearly all Australians can agree on is that our leaders are not a patch on what they were in times gone by. At the same time, ‘she’ll be right, mate’ has served Australia well enough so far, and may yet still. To help us understand the state of the nation and our politics in 2024, Will is joined by one of Australia’s best-known and most insightful political journalists, Joe Hildebrand.Follow Australiana on social media here.Subscribe to The Spectator Australia here.

Australiana is now Fire at Will - your safe space for dangerous conversations.Bill Clinton's strategist James Carville memorably said, "It's the economy, stupid". Times have changed. The great political battles of our time are not waged over economics, but cultural issues. Today, "It's the culture, stupid".No one understands this better than Matt Goodwin. Matt is an academic and bestselling author, known for his work on political volatility, risk, populism, British politics, and Brexit. His book, 'Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics' is one of the most influential political science books of modern times.Follow Australiana on social media here.Subscribe to The Spectator Australia here.Subscribe to Matt's Substack here.

Australiana is now Fire at Will - your safe space for dangerous conversations.Journalist. Contrarian. Iconoclast. Intellectual. Provocateur... And one of the most successful novelists of the 21st century.Lionel Shriver has, in her own words, spent a career courting self-destruction. But she's still standing. In this no-holds barred conversation with Will, Lionel gives her inimitable take on identity politics, the trans debate, and the manias that continue to afflict society in 2024.Note: Lionel's dog makes a cameo in the second half of the episode. Apologies on his behalf.Follow Australiana on social media here.Subscribe to The Spectator Australia here.

Australiana is now Fire at Will - your safe space for dangerous conversations.We all comfort ourselves by believing in cause and effect. According to Dr Brian Klaas, we wilfully ignore a bewildering truth: but for a few small changes, our lives and our societies could be profoundly different. When given the choice between complex uncertainty and comforting – but wrong – certainty, we too often choose comfort. In other words, we ignore the flukes.Brian is an associate professor of global politics at University College, London, a contributing writer for The Atlantic, and the author of several books, the most recent of which has just been released. It is titled: Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and why everything we do matters.Follow Australiana on social media here.Subscribe to The Spectator Australia here.

Australiana is now Fire at Will - your safe space for dangerous conversations.2024 is the biggest election year in history. Countries with more than half the world’s population – over four billion people – will go to the polls. You’d think the more elections the better, right? Dr Nic Cheeseman would urge caution. In fact, he argues that the greatest political paradox of our time is that there are more elections than ever before, and yet the world is becoming less democratic. Nic is the Professor of Democracy at the University of Birmingham and the co-author of the book, ‘How to Rig an Election’.Follow Australiana on social media here.Subscribe to The Spectator Australia here.Follow Nic on Twitter / X here.

The most astute social commentators on the present are the people who have the deepest understanding of the past. As Mark Twain famously said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” Historians are best placed to hear the rhymes of history in the news of the day.There are few historians who have demonstrated such an aptitude and insight for understanding modern politics and culture as Dr Victor Davis Hanson. Victor is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He has written or edited twenty-five books, the latest of which is ‘The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America’.Follow Australiana on social media here.Subscribe to The Spectator Australia here.

It’s perhaps never been harder to speak the truth than it is in the West today. In fact, many people now implicitly question the value of the truth itself. That’s why it’s so important to recognise and champion people with the intellectual capacity and moral courage to speak the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it may be.Few people in the public discourse can speak deep truths with such simplicity and power as Zuby. Zuby is a rapper, author, podcast host, public speaker and creative entrepreneur, not to mention Elon Musk’s dream presidential candidate…Follow Australiana on social media here.Subscribe to The Spectator Australia here.Subscribe to Real Talk with Zuby here.

Few people called for sanity as the world lost its collective mind during the COVID pandemic, but Jay Bhattacharya was certainly one of them. Jay is a Professor of Health Policy at Stanford University, a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and one of the three authors of The Great Barrington Declaration.In this wide-ranging conversation with Will, Jay discusses the litany of institutional failures that marred the pandemic response, and what we must do to avoid making the same mistakes again.Follow Australiana on social media here.Subscribe to The Spectator Australia here.