Let's take a break from the news cycle for a moment, shall we? There's a lot of cool shit to ponder that's more important and more fascinating. Like, how does the gooey blob of atoms between your ears generate all of your experiences? And are we on track to producing machines that feel as alive as you? Eric Schwitzgebel is a legendary professor of philosophy at UC Berkeley and an important voice in Silicon Valley's conversations about ethical artificial sentience. He and Josh muse on the various...
Jun 23, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 355
Are we too spoilt to be creative? Are we succumbing to decadent decline? How do you dissent when the incentives are to conform? How do the French retain the art of disagreement while the Anglosphere gets stuck in predictable squabbles? How can we grow a pair of collective cojones and defiantly create a better future? Today's episode would normally be paywalled. We're offering it as a free example of the kind of unstructured, unpredictable, unedited, freewheeling, thought-provoking clashes Josh d...
Jun 19, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 354
Anti-Zionism, antisemitism, Palestinians, Hamas, Israeli Arabs, diaspora Jews, Gaza, and now an all-out war with Iran. It's head-spinning, trying to make sense of Israel right now. Today, Josh comes to you battered and bruised by the slings and arrows of a national pile-on. He wrote the lead opinion piece in the big thumping weekend edition of Sydney's and Melbourne's biggest broadsheet newspapers, in which he argued for diaspora Jews to stop reflexively making excuses for Israel. The backlash h...
Jun 16, 2025•56 min•Season 1Ep. 353
Chris Uhlmann is one of the most experienced and well-known journalists Down Under. He worked for decades as either the host or the chief political reporter on many of the country's most respected news shows: The 7.30 Report, ABC News, Nine News, and ABC Radio's flagship current affairs show "A.M." He's made the leap to Substack , and joined Josh to discuss his regrets as a leading journalist, objectivity, fairness, thought bubbles, the flaws of media (old and new), climate change, immigration, ...
Jun 12, 2025•45 min•Season 1Ep. 352
Over the weekend, the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play went to Eureka Day, a brave, hilarious satire of wokeness, vaccine denial, identity politics and social justice. Fresh from Broadway, the Sydney production is on now at the Seymour Centre. Its playwright, Jonathan Spector, joined Josh from California before his Tony triumph. Eureka Day is playing in Sydney until the 21st June 2025 at the Seymour Centre. You can find out more here....
Jun 11, 2025•47 min
If you want to feel optimistic about the mind-boggling potential of the renewable energy revolution, listen to Saul Griffith, one of the world's leading experts in electrification, decarbonisation and renewable energy technologies. He's founded a dozen Silicon Valley technology companies, R&D labs, and non-partisan organizations, and he was instrumental in developing the Biden Administration's climate action plan. Saul's U.S. research labs were recently eviscerated by Elon Musk's DOGE cuts. ...
Jun 09, 2025•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 351
While the showdown continues over Trump's military deployment against Los Angeles protestors, can we take heart from the resurgence of anti-Trump liberalism in Canada, Australia, the U.K. and Europe? Could the Democrats capture that energy? If the culture has moved on from "wokeness", then what's the next paradigm for the Left? How should we think about immigration, multiculturalism, infrastructure, abundance, Obama’s legacy, and big-vs-small government in the next chapter of American political ...
Jun 05, 2025•35 min•Season 1Ep. 350
At 26, Hannah Ferguson is one of the most influential young women in Australia. Her media company, Cheek Media, boasts an army of politically-engaged, progressive female fans. Ferguson co-hosts the smash hit podcast Big Small Talk , which breaks down politics and pop culture. An unapologetic progressive, she recently interviewed the prime minister and earned the honour of speaking at one of Australia's most prestigious forums, the National Press Club address. Ferguson intends to run for the sena...
Jun 02, 2025•1 hr 35 min•Season 1Ep. 349
Andrew Sullivan is one of the most influential political writers of his generation. He became the face of the gay marriage fight, after writing the first major American article arguing for it in 1989. His 1995 book, Virtually Normal, became a bible of the marriage equality movement. Andrew had moved to America to get his PhD in politics from Harvard in the '80s, after studying at Oxford. As a gay, British, Catholic conservative in America, he dominated debates - on television as well as in writi...
May 29, 2025•36 min•Season 1Ep. 348
Terms like "genocide" and "apartheid" are thrown around a lot by anti-Israel activists. But when a leading Israeli Holocaust historian declares his own country to be a genocidal apartheid state, we ought to listen. Born and raised in Israel, Dr Goldberg is a professor in the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was the head of the university's Research Institute of Contemporary Jewry until last year. Goldberg is a world-renowned expert on ...
May 26, 2025•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 347
How do you reconcile Trump's passion for American Greatness with his disengagement from international systems which America set up? What are the consequences so far of Trump's tariff flip-flops? Can Ukraine be resolved by the Great Powers alone? Do volatile bond markets predict the end of the U.S. dollar? Where does this all leave America in relation to the rest of the world? And what's the deal with Qatar's gift of a blingy Air Force One? David Smith is an expert in American and international p...
May 22, 2025•28 min•Season 1Ep. 346
We've got a special treat for you today. Josh sat down with the hosts of the "Changed My Mind" podcast, who interrogated him about whether it's really possible, in our divided times, to change someone's mind. Josh shares his thoughts about the art of persuasion; reveals topics on which his position has changed; and wrestles with conundrums like factory farming, freedom of speech and abortion. How persuadable are people, really? Josh is more hopeful than many. "Changed My Mind" is hosted by Aidan...
May 19, 2025•1 hr 34 min•Season 1Ep. 345
Gurwinder rose to fame writing elaborately insightful Twitter threads about how to be human in the twenty-first century. He now publishes The Prism, on Substack, a guide to navigating the digital age. Watch this conversation on YouTube . And you’re missing out on our best ad-free content if you haven’t popped over to the Uncomfy Convos Substack page. http://twitter.com/joshzepps http://instagram.com/joshszeps/ http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations...
May 15, 2025•1 hr 43 min•Season 1Ep. 344
Are people too disagreeable these days? Or, in fact, are we losing the knack for disagreement? Are we self-silencing? Or getting more rude? Jenara Nerenberg is the founder and host of The Neurodiversity Project. She's a Harvard graduate who lectures widely on neuroscience and diversity, and who runs workshops at institutions like the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Her new book, " Trust Your Mind: Embracing Nuance in a World of Self-Silencing ", investigates the psychology of “self-silenci...
May 12, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 343
Are we alone? If alien life exists, why can't we find it? What's "the great filter"? Why is the universe set up the way it is? What are the chances there 's some purpose to it all? And is BBC News correct in reporting that "Scientists find 'strongest evidence yet' of life on distant planet"? What have we actually found? What might it mean? Whenever the news turns to alien life, Josh turns to his favourite astrophysicist, Dr. Sara Webb, at the Swinburne Institute of Technology in Melbourne. Light...
May 08, 2025•1 hr 21 min•Season 1Ep. 342
The internet is a dumpster fire. Are you a firefighter? Or an arsonist? This episode is a cracker. Sacha Judd is an expert on internet subcultures. A former lawyer, she has become something like “the Mark Cuban of New Zealand” - a smart, left-wing investor in high-growth startups; advisor to businesses; and fierce commentator on Big Tech. Sacha wants to bring back the “good internet”: a place fueled by genuine community, creativity, and connection. She and Josh wrestle with online conspiracy the...
May 05, 2025•1 hr 44 min•Season 1Ep. 341
Do nuclear weapons protect Western civilisation? Or are they an insane error that humanity should undo? Is nuclear power worth the cost and risk? Dave Sweeney co-founded the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017. Dave and Josh debate the risks and rewards of nuclear weapons and nuclear power in an unstable world, and discuss whether environmentalism is antithetical to progress. To hear every bit of this fascinating, two-hour-plus conver...
May 02, 2025•50 min•Season 1Ep. 340
Have indigenous Welcomes-to-Country gone too far? On Friday, far-right hecklers disrupted the Welcome to Country (i.e. the land acknowledgment, in North American parlance) of a profound Australian national event, the Anzac Day Dawn Service. The protest has sparked a national firestorm about race, racism and remembrance. Josh shares his thoughts about the coverage of the controversy, and then debates its deeper implications with the Indigenous scholar Tyson Yunkaporta. Watch this conversation on ...
May 01, 2025•1 hr 12 min
What’s social media doing to us, and how would you fix it? Mark Zuckerberg has been a busy boy on the witness stand in Washington DC lately. In one of the most consequential antitrust cases in tech history, Meta is being sued by the U.S. government for allegedly maintaining a monopoly. It could reshape the future of social media, privacy regulation, and Big Tech. But in an ideal world, how would you reform social media? How might we prevent it from deranging us? Frances Haugen worked at Google a...
Apr 28, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 339
What do you make of a U.S. government that snatches people off the street and disappears them into Central American prisons, forever, with no trial, and no way to appeal? Matt Welch is a libertarian journalist. He's no wild-eyed, Trump-loathing leftie. Fresh off the back of his appearance on Bill Maher, Matt joined Josh on Josh's streaming TV show, Szeps Live, to riff about Elon, DOGE, government effectiveness, abundance liberalism, high-speed rail, Orbán, Erdoğan, el Salvador, the Supreme Court...
Apr 24, 2025•1 hr 25 min•Season 1Ep. 338
What's the purpose of school? Why do we run schools the way we do? How might we reinvent education in an era of artificial intelligence and ADHD? Professor Pasi Sahlberg is one of the world's leading education experts. He ran Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture, moved to Washington DC to advise the World Bank on education, and was a visiting professor at Harvard University. His award-winning book is "Finnish Lessons: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland?" Pasi is n...
Apr 21, 2025•1 hr 48 min•Season 1Ep. 337
The Democratic Party is paralysed. It can't merely offer resistance to Trump. It also needs to offer an alternative to him. But how? Should they oppose his every move, as the likes of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Cory Booker believe? Or should they shut up and wait for the president to doom himself, as Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and former Clinton consultant James Carville prefer? How have Democrats fallen... and what can they do now? David Pakman is the guy Josh...
Apr 17, 2025•20 min•Season 1Ep. 336
When are independent shows like Uncomfortable Conversations serving a useful purpose... and when are they just preaching to the choir? "Decoding the Gurus" is a podcast that dissects how new-media personalities gain guru status. Frequently, such podcasters claim to be bravely challenging the status quo... while comfortably pandering to their team. Is Josh such a hack? Josh is in Tokyo visiting one of the Decoding hosts, Chris, who lives there. The three of them caught up to record this crossover...
Apr 14, 2025•1 hr 19 min•Season 1Ep. 335
Anthony Bourdain was Josh's hero. Laurie Woolever was, as Bourdain called her, his "lieutenant". A writer and culinary graduate, Laurie had worked for another gigantic cooking celebrity, Mario Batali, before he was brought down for alleged sexual harrassment. She spent almost ten years as Bourdain's right-hand-gal. The two of them wrote two books together, one of which they were halfway through when Bourdain died by suicide in 2018. Laurie posthumously published "Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Bi...
Apr 10, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 334
Do males and females differ in what we want out of life? In what jobs we want to do? In how much we want to look after babies, or run a tech start-up, or sweep the living room, or be a CEO? Or are biological preferences just an excuse to justify inequality? Cordelia Fine is a feminist academic who studies scientific explanations of sex differences and workplace inequality. Her books on gender have won prizes at the Royal Society, been recommended by the Sunday Times, and cited as among the Top T...
Apr 07, 2025•39 min•Season 1Ep. 333
If you want to see what's wrong with not being offensive, watch Snow White. The new Disney re-make is so committed to not offending anyone that it’s a social-justice jumble. Snow White isn’t white as snow; her love interest isn’t a prince; the dwarves aren’t “dwarves”; but there IS a dwarf in a non-dwarf role; Snow White doesn’t need a man; the man doesn’t “stalk” her; she’s a bad-ass independent gal; the word “dwarf” isn’t mentioned. It’s a mess. As Australian politicians introduce sweeping hat...
Apr 03, 2025•29 min•Season 1Ep. 332
Even if you're not Australian, you want to listen to this conversation with one of the nation's most iconic statesmen. Bob Carr is a former foreign minister of Australia (i.e. the secretary of state) and, before that, the longest-continuously-serving Premier of NSW, Australia's most populous state. He's an intellectual powerhouse, an icolonoclast, a champion debater, a student of American history, of geopolitics and of diplomacy. For the first portion of this conversation, he and Josh discuss Au...
Mar 31, 2025•1 hr 41 min•Season 1Ep. 331
What are Trump and Putin cooking up for Ukraine? Can the Europeans sideline it? What options does Ukraine still have on the table? And does any of this really matter to non-Europeans any more? This week, the ceasefire talks that President Trump boasted he'd wrap up in 24 hours fell apart, again. Russia says it wants an end to the war, if Ukraine effectively surrenders. Trump now admits Putin might be "dragging his feet". Misha Zelinsky lived in Ukraine for the first year of the war, reporting fr...
Mar 27, 2025•39 min•Season 1Ep. 330
Angus Taylor is the Shadow Treasurer of Australia and a key figure of the Opposition, the centre-right Liberal Party. A former cabinet minister, businessman and Rhodes scholar, he's often discussed as a future prime minister. Opinion polls put his party's return to power in the May election as a 50/50 bet. Josh sat down with the Shadow Treasurer to discuss innovation, productivity, nuclear power, and how annoying it is to do your taxes. Watch this conversation on YouTube . And you’re missing out...
Mar 24, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 329
How should moderate, secular Jews feel about Israel? How brutalising must Israel’s Gaza policy be before more Jews denounce it? Is Israel a well-intentioned country hijacked by right-wing leaders from its true purpose of peace? Or is it intrinsically committed to destroying Palestinians? Was a Jewish ethno-state a mistake from the start? Or is Israel an island of democracy in a sea of Islamist dysfunction? No group debates these questions more vehemently than Jews themselves. After the October 7...
Mar 20, 2025•41 min•Season 1Ep. 328
