Like I'm A Six-Year-Old

It's the final ep for 2020! Thank heavens, etc.  JR Hennessy is a Sydney-based writer whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Monthly and The Outline. He's the current editor for Business Insider Australia and he is smart and funny. I wanted to take to James about his thoughts on the wonders of 2020 and what (if anything) we can take from it. We discuss it all: people who consider politicians and health experts their friends, winning fights on the computer, "experts", OnlyFans, "dropshipping", logging off, whether the Millennial socialism moment is over and finding some hope for the Left in a post-COVID world. Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays/It's Over, everyone. If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you I'm performing at the Corner Hotel tonight (Tuesday) alongside Dilruk Jayasinha and Lehmo I’m coming to Brunswick Heads for a bunch of shows with Sam Taunton & Nikki Britton in January @jrhennessy JR's substack jrhennessy.com businessinsider.com.au JR's writing at The Outline JR's writing at The Monthly  ARTICLE: Who the hell cares what old people think about climate change? ARTICLE: World will be the same but worse after banal virus says Houellebecq Cause of the Week: Foodbank (foodbank.org.au)

Simon Copland is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the Australian National University (ANU) who is currently studying the online "manosphere" on Reddit. He's written for the BBC, The Guardian, Fairfax and News Corp. and he co-hosted the Queers podcast with Benjamin Riley. Here Simon lays out what the "manosphere" is and why it exists. We discuss incel violence, male alienation, Jordan Peterson, the material conditions that leads to this stuff and the challenges of trying to understand it. Scrubbing the internet clean of these ideas clearly isn't working and neither is joking about killing all men; so what's the alternative?  If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you I was on the "What's Left?" podcast with Aimee Terese & Oliver Bateman I’m coming to Brunswick Heads for a bunch of shows with Sam Taunton & Nikki Britton in January @SimonCopland simoncopland.com queerspodcast.com ARTICLE: What are we talking about when we talk about a crisis in masculinity? by Simon Copland Simon's review of the politics of Joker Cause of the Week: MensLine Australia (mensline.org.au)

Ed Miller is the Economic Fairness Campaigns Director at the progressive activist group GetUp!. I wanted to chat to Ed about where GetUp! is at these days; the attacks being made on it by the Murdoch media, its recent wins and failures and its more explicitly anti-capitalist campaigning that I've been noticing recently. We discuss the way GetUp! works, why conservatives hate it, the power of its members and why Australian politics' obsession with "debt and deficits" has limited our political imagination. We also had a (quick) crack at discussing Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and why it matters. If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you I'm performing at Melbourne's excellent Comedy Republic this Thursday and Friday I'm coming to Brunswick Heads for a bunch of shows with Sam Taunton & Nikki Britton in January My 100th episode with GetUp! director Paul Oosting from 2017 @EMHMiller getup.org.au The Australian editorial: Every dollar you donate to GetUp! is a waste of money ARTICLE: GetUp!'s MMT push in Australia "fraught with danger" ARTICLE: Captain GetUp: conservative group's satirical superhero debuts to ridicule  A piece from MMT economists on inflation in the FT A video explainer on the basics of MMT Luke McGregor explains MMT Ed's interview with MMT economist Stephanie Kelton for GetUp!'s Future to Fight For podcast  Cause of the Week: Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network (seedmob.org.au)

Jess Scully is the Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney as part of "Team Clover". This year she released her debut book Glimpses of Utopia: Real Ideas for a Fairer World, which draws on her own experience and actual examples from all over the world on how people are doing politics, democracy, work and environmental action differently. Jess is a delightful, passionate and optimistic person who inspired me to shake out of my current cynical, black pill-ed view of the world (as Jess says, under neoliberalism, "We have internalised the impossibility of change"). We discussed why it's worth thinking about utopia and how we can get there, citizens' juries, workers' co-ops, the financialised economy and how the alternative ways of organising society are already playing out in the world right now. If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you I’m hosting Refugee Legal’s “Not The Annual Dinner” online event this Thursday November 26th, 7pm, feat. a keynote address by Behrooz Boochani. Book tickets here.  @Jessaroo jessscully.com teamclover.com.au Glimpses Of Utopia: Real ideas for a Fairer World by Jess Scully is out now through Pantera Press The New Democracy Foundation Cause of the Week: The Asylum Seekers Centre's "Open The Door To Hope" Appeal  

This week's ep is my conversation with a group of young climate leaders as part of a panel organised by the Foundation for Young Australians, Youth Action NSW and the team behind the Youth On Strike! documentary. It was a fierce and inspiring chat about about where young people's call for climate action goes to from here in a post-COVID Australia and touched on activism, First Nations justice and youth representation. It was a pleasure to moderate; I hope you enjoy listening to it.  The panel featured:  William from the Youth on Strike! docco and SEED Mob Leila, an organiser with School Strike 4 Climate Tish from SEED Mob Gauri from Outburst! Ishara from Climate Reality Timothy from Pacific Climate Warriors If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you I'm hosting Refugee Legal's "Not The Annual Dinner" online event on Thursday November 26th, 7pm, feat. a keynote address by Behrooz Boochani. Book tickets here.  Watch the Youth On Strike! documentary  The Foundation for Young Australians  Youth Action NSW Seed Mob Outburst! Climate Reality Pacific Climate Warriors

Richard Cooke is a brilliant writer and commentator who's written for the likes of The Chaser, The Monthly, The New York Times and The New Republic. His 2019 collection of essays Tired of Winning: A Chronicle of American Decline painted a picture of "Trump country" and the factors at play in US politics over the past four years.  Richard kindly came back on the pod to reflect on the results of the 2020 presidential election: what a Biden/Harris victory means, just how bad the Trump presidency has/hasn't been, whether Bernie Would Have Won, the spectre of "wokism" (ergh), BIPARTISANSHIP and what this whole whacky episode might tell us about the state of the Australian Left.  If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you It's NAIDOC Week! I’m hosting a conversation with young climate activists in partnership with the Foundation of Young Australians and you can join for FREE  The Greens had a huge number of wins in the Victorian Local Council elections, including the first ever Greens government in my local City of Yarra. Join The Greens today (if you like)!  @rgcooke richardcooke.com Richard's writing on LongForm Tired of Winning: A Chronicle of American Decline by Richard Cooke ARTICLE: The Disappearing Man by Richard Cooke ARTICLE: Anthony Albanese on Rudd, News Corp, Trump and why he won't name a JobSeeker rate by Josh Butler Cause of the Week: Swing Left (swingleft.org)  

Osmond Chiu is a researcher with the progressive think tank Per Capita and editor of the Labor Left magazine Challenge. A couple of weeks ago, as he was giving evidence to a senate inquiry into issues facing diaspora communities, Osmond was asked by Liberal Senator Eric Abetz to "unequivocally condemn" the Chinese Communist Party. It was very weird and bad and Abetz has since refused to apologise and only doubled down. Here I ask Osmond about why that incident was so demeaning, why it matters and how we might consider Australia's relationship with China in a serious, critical but definitely not-racist way. If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you I'm hosting a conversation with young climate activists in partnership with the Foundation of Young Australians and you can join for FREE  My conversation with Max Chandler-Mather has been written up for Jacobin magazine I am very sad about what's happened to Jeremy Corbyn and I know it's complicated but please watch this video by the son of a Holocaust survivor that lays out how cynical the anti-Semitism charge is  @redrabbleroz osmondchiu.com.au ARTICLE: Locking Out The Left: The Emergence of National Factions in Australian Labor ARTICLE: I was born in Australia. Why do I need to renounce the Chinese Communist Party?  ARTICLE: Abetz's questioning tests our democracy You can sign Getup!'s petition supporting Oz here ARTICLE: Seeing red: Labor's China problem Cause of the Week: Union Aid Abroad (apheda.org.au)

IT'S A CROSS-POD, PEOPLE. My dear friend Greg Larsen has a new podcast about the dogshit state of things in Australia right now. It is good and funny and I think you'll enjoy it.  Greg interviewed me for his first episode and we covered it all: does the Left need to get better at falling in line? Is hating Murdoch more important than getting infuriated by the ALP? Why are the Greens wankers? To vote or not vote? Are YouTube comedians good?  If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you @GregMLarsen Listen & subscribe to Greg's Big Aussie Revolution on iTunes Episode 131 with Greg Adam Bandt's address at the National Press Club and declaration of the Greens' War on Privatisation  Cause of the Week: Anti-Poverty Week (antipovertyweek.org.au)

Dave Eden is a Brisbane-based communist writer and podcaster who authors the blogs With Sober Senses and The Word From Struggle Street. He costs the anti-capitalist podcast Living The Dream with Jon Piccini.  In this conversation Dave explains what he means by the term "communism" and gives a fascinating anti-capitalist take on the Budget. We also discuss his piece for Jacobin on why the current calls for a return to Keynesianism and full employment won't work.  If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you I’m proud to become an ambassador for Alex Makes Meals; check them out and help them if you can @withsobersenses withsobersenses.wordpress.com The Living The Dream podcast ARTICLE: In Australia, Keynesianism Is Back In Fashion - but It Still Won't Work by Dave Eden Cause of the Week: Sisters Inside's Fund For Children  

Joe Hildebrand is a journalist, broadcaster and columnist for news.com.au. He's a former co-host of Studio 10 and currently presents on 2GB and co-hosts the US politics podcast, I'm Usually More Professional.  In this wide-ranging chat, Joe and I discuss the first presidential debate and have it out over Joe's fondness for "radical centrism". Joe explains why he thinks "all governments are basically the same" and why he's worried about Labor being beholden to the "extreme Left". If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you I'm proud to become an ambassador for Alex Makes Meals; check them out and help them if you can @Joe_Hildebrand The I'm Usually More Professional podcast with Joe, Alice Workman & Sam Dastyari ARTICLE: There is only one way Labor can save itself by Joe Hildebrand Cause of the Week: St Vincent de Paul Society (vinnies.org.au)