The Minefield

Jedediah Purdy discusses the necessary conditions for democratic life in a time of pervasive suspicion. Topics include the challenges of trust, navigating suspicion in modern society, the politics of resentment, love and democracy, complexities of democratic contests, and media's role in shaping political narratives.

Ours is a time when institutional distrust, digital disinformation and mutual suspicion have become pervasive — but can democracy withstand epistemic and social fragmentation of this kind?

Professor Maryanne Wolf discusses the threat to literacy in a screen-saturated age, emphasizing the importance of deep reading for moral understanding. The conversation explores the connection between literacy, knowledge, and morality in literature and pop music, highlighting the transformative power of engaging deeply with texts. The value of being stopped in your tracks by literature and art is emphasized, advocating for intentional reading practices to nurture attention in a digital world.

The podcast explores the modern terror of boredom and its potential deeper meaning. It discusses how boredom fosters creativity, introspection, and appreciation of moments without external stimuli. The conversation delves into the various forms and implications of boredom, highlighting the struggle for presence in a distracted age and the value of embracing boredom for meaningful experiences. It also emphasizes the importance of being present to foster genuine relationships and explores the concept of unselfing in a technological world.

Spanish painter Francisco de Goya’s depiction of Saturn eating his son is a haunting portrait of lust and the fear of one’s own finitude. Christos Tsiolkas joins Waleed and Scott to look into that darkness, and discover what looks back.

Now that John Cleese has announced that the iconic series will return, it’s worth examining what made Fawlty Towers a masterpiece — and whether its interaction with the political climate of the 1970s had anything to do with it.

The podcast explores the impact of playlists on music consumption, the evolution of music listening from CDs to digital era, the importance of album structure, rise of streaming services like Spotify, and the balance between artistry and algorithms in music creation.

Australian novelist Briohny Doyle joins Waleed Aly and Scott Stephens to examine Charles Dickens’s unforgettable tale of misanthropy and remorse, and discover how its aesthetic techniques and ethical vision continue to speak to us today.

Exploring the role of the state in shaping just societies, the shift from self-interest to cooperation, the evolving state presence in people's lives, challenges of fragmented society-state relationships, risks of politicians influencing interest rates, and analyzing state actions during the pandemic.

The podcast discusses the challenges faced by marginalized communities in climate change policies, objections and protests surrounding climate policy in Australia, controversy around taxing electric vehicle drivers, the flawed assumption that fuel excise pays for roads, the leveling down argument for equality, and the ethical, democratic, and economic implications of electric vehicle road use charges.