Oh hello. As the title suggests, this is my little way of letting you know that I'm wrapping up Like I'm A Six-Year-Old once and for all. I've loved doing it - and thanks so much for listening to it and supporting it over the years! Bloody hell! - but I feel like after eight years, hundreds of conversations, a bunch of live shows, a pandemic and a book, it's time for me to move on and focus my energies on other things. If you haven't already, please do check out my other weekly pod about the Gre...
May 11, 2023•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ben Abbatangelo is a proud Gunaikurnai and Wotjobaluk man and a social commentator. He’s the former deputy CEO of global non-profit AIME, has appeared regularly on The Project and the ABC and has written for The Guardian and The Saturday Paper. Based on some of his recent work, I’ve sensed that Ben’s been going through something of a political shift of late, towards somewhere a bit more radical, and I was keen to talk him about it. In this conversation we discuss what that shift has involved, th...
May 08, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Larissa Baldwin-Roberts is a proud Widjabul Wia-bal woman from the Bundjalung Nations and has been a progressive activist since forever. She's a co-founder of the First Nations climate pressure group SEED Mob and is the current CEO of GetUp!. In this conversation I ask Larissa about where her politics come from and how she thinks about political ideology. She outlines how she views GetUp!'s role under a Labor government, her unique perspective on climate politics and how she thinks (/hopes) the ...
May 01, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast John Quiggin is a widely-respected economist and professor at the University of Queensland. He's a former member of the Australian Government's Climate Change Authority, and he's written widely about the scourge of neoliberalism and privatisation. I wanted to get John on the show to discuss the essay written by Treasurer Jim Chalmers for The Monthly back in February, " Capitalism After The Crises " , in which he laid out his vision for "values-based capitalism". In this conversation we discuss w...
Apr 19, 2023•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast She's back! Economist, comrade and now author Alison Pennington returns to the show to discuss her debut book Gen F'ed? How Young Australians Can Reclaim Their Uncertain Futures . We discuss how all the good jobs disappeared, our massively cooked housing market, replacing intergenerational warfare with class warfare and how young people can build political power under this "progressive (?)" Labor government. Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you If you’ve got the means please ...
Mar 15, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week's episode brings you the conversation I had with some other generational voices at a live event at the public library in my home town, Warrnambool. Alongside Zoomer and journalist Sharna Rogers , Xer and psychologist Dr. Jodie Fleming and Baby Boomer and celebrated aid worker Bob Handby AO , I discussed three big topics I explore in my book I, Millennial : housing, work and the climate crisis, and how these issues play out for Australians of different ages. The conversation was moderat...
Mar 08, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Polly Hemming is a Senior Researcher at The Australia Institute's Climate & Energy Program. Just this week she was giving evidence to a Parliamentary committee on the Labor Party's signature climate policy, the "Safeguard Mechanism" - which, I'm sorry to say, stinks. It stinks real bad. Here Polly lays out exactly just how much of a mess this policy is: how it's not designed to reduce emissions that are cooking the planet, but rather protect the profits and interests of the fossil fuel lobby. We...
Mar 01, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Oh hello. I am back again. Look at us. This week I’m bringing you another taste of my debut book I, Millennial: One Snowflake’s Screed Against Boomers, Billionaires & Everything Else , which is now out and about in the world. This is an extract from the chapter on privatisation - "From Our Warm, Public Hands" - which lays out just how much of our public shit has been flogged off, goddammit. You can find out more about the book - and order it as an audiobook, ebook or hardcopy - here. I'm doing s...
Feb 07, 2023•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Craig "Fozzy" Foster is a former Socceroo who has become not only one of Australia’s most respected sports commentators and broadcasters, but also one of our most respected social justice advocates and human rights campaigners. This episode is Craig's keynote speech at the 2022 Refugee Legal Annual Dinner , which I happened to MC online. It's followed by a brief Q&A between Craig, myself, and Refugee Legal's Executive Director (and former LIASYO guest) David Manne. Fozzy is extremely dedicated a...
Dec 11, 2022•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast My book I, Millennial: One Snowflake’s Screed Against Boomers, Billionaires & Everything Else is out in the world! Gosh. We launched it in Melbourne with a lovely event at the Easey Street Concert Hall in Collingwood, featuring me in conversation with my mate Osman Faruqi . Oz and I discussed the guts of the book and why I wrote it, and I read some bits out and took questions and we all had a great time. I hope you enjoy listening back to our conversation. If you're in Sydney, you can come along...
Dec 01, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week I'm bringing you a taste of my debut book I, Millennial: One Snowflake's Screed Against Boomers, Billionaires & Everything Else . You'll hear the full prologue from the audiobook that sets the whole thing up and talks about me doing drugs. The book comes out next week - you can pre-order it here . I'm having book launches in MELBOURNE, SYDNEY and BRISBANE - check out the details and book tickets here . Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you If you’ve got the means ple...
Nov 22, 2022•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ben Schneiders is an award-winning investigate journalist at The Age and author of the new book, Hard Labour: Wage Theft in the Age of Inequality. Over the past eight years, Ben's reporting has exposed the scourge of wage theft and worker exploitation in Australian hospitality, fast food, retail and agriculture. In Hard Labour , Ben summarises just how widespread and serious this problem is in Australian capitalism today, and lays out exactly what's been happening over the past 50 years that's s...
Nov 16, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast I'm back! Again! Sorry about the big gap between episodes. I am bad. Leo Puglisi is a digital journalist who just so happens to be 14 years old. He founded what would eventually become the online news service 6 News Australia when he was just 11, and he's since grown it into a respectable independent media outlet that does pretty great journalism, and regularly puts mainstream "adult" media outlets to shame. During the 2022 election, Leo even managed to secure and conduct insightful interviews w...
Nov 08, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jim Casey is a firefighting unionist, socialist and co-founder of the Australian Firefighters Climate Alliance. He is an anti-capitalist GREENS EXTREMIST who has twice run as a candidate against Anthony Albanese in the seat of Grayndler. As he gears up to run for Greens preselection to be an upper-house candidate in the 2023 NSW state election, Jim took some time to talk to me about his time leading the Fire Brigade Employees Union, the state of the Australian labour movement, his theories on wh...
Mar 29, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Georgia Steele is a former corporate litigator and now independent candidate running in the NSW seat of Hughes at the upcoming federal election. (The seat's currently held by former Liberal MP, now United Australia Party TRUTH-TELLER Craig Kelly.) In this conversation I discuss with Georgia Kelly's bizarro mind and political career, why she thinks the people of Hughes deserves better, the issues that she's campaigning on, her rejection of political ideology and her thoughts on why the two-party ...
Feb 22, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast David Shoebridge MLC has served in the NSW upper house since 2010, and has been the Greens spokesperson for workers' rights, energy and Aboriginal justice. In 2022 he's running to pick up another NSW Senate seat for the Greens (and it's actually possible!). In this conversation I ask David about NSW politics' love of corruption, how he developed his radical politics, what the Greens could achieve in balance of power and whether Greens MPs should have anything to do with investment properties. Jo...
Feb 08, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week I'm bringing you the audio of a panel I appeared on, discussing the reason behind and ideas around the recent boycott of the 2022 Sydney Festival. I joined dozens of other artists in withdrawing from the Festival to protest its acceptance of $20k in sponsorship money from the Israeli embassy; a sponsorship which guaranteed Israel the honour of being a "star partner" of the festival. Here I'm in conversation with academic Dr. Jumana Bayeh , the Executive Director of the Palestine Instit...
Jan 30, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Writer and journalist Johann Hari has returned to the show to discuss why our brains have melted. His new book is called Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention and it is a fascinating, depressing and insightful look at the "attention crisis" we're facing as a society. Johann tells me about just how bad this situation is, how much social media and technology is responsible for it, its social and political implications and what the fuck we can do about it - as individuals, and as a collective. ...
Jan 20, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Van Badham is a playwright, author and activist, and she's returned to the show to discuss her latest book, QAnon: A Short and Shocking History of Internet Conspiracy Cults . Here Van lays out precisely what the QAnon conspiracy theory actually is, how it came into existence and how much it has shaped - and continues to shape - politics in the US and here in Australia. We discuss the most bonkers beliefs involved in all this and what the theory's success tells us about the internet and the failu...
Dec 23, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Transcript available on Metacast James Button is a freelance journalist, ALP member and former speechwriter for the former prime minister Kevin Rudd. He recently wrote a three-part, in-depth series for Nine/Fairfax on "cancel culture": what it is, why it exists and what it means for the Australian Left. In this conversation James and I go deep into his argument and the three pieces and try to clarify how this social phenomenon manifests itself when it comes to issues of race, gender, art and politics. On some fronts we agree, o...
Dec 14, 2021•1 hr 27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Nyadol Nyuon is a former refugee, lawyer and passionate advocate for human rights and anti-racism. This is her keynote address at the 2021 Refugee Legal "Not The Annual Dinner" (held via Zoom), which I MC'ed, followed by a Q&A session with Nyadol and Refugee Legal Executive Director David Manne . It's a passionate address about why human rights are important to her (and why they should be important to you), the realities of race in this country and the ongoing legacy of the War on Terror on our ...
Dec 06, 2021•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast NEWS: I have a brand new podcast to share with youse. It’s called Serious Danger , it’s about the Australian Greens and green politics in Australia generally and I’m doing it with my cool friend Emerald Moon . Also it’s going to fix everything. Have a listen to hear the trailer and find out why I wanted to make the show in the first place. (Also don’t stress: I’ll still be posting episodes of LIASYO for the time being.) Find out more and subscribe to the show by heading to seriousdangerpod.com F...
Nov 21, 2021•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Luke Hilakari has been the Secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council since 2014. He's been a Labor member since he turned 18 and has played a key role in electing (and re-electing) the Andrew Labor government and fighting for marriage equality and workers' rights. In light of all the BATSHIT anti-vax protesting that's been going on in Melbourne of late, I wanted to ask Luke about the presence of anti-vax organising within the labour movement, why some workers might be attracted to this ideo...
Nov 18, 2021•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Professor Megan Davis is a Cobble Cobble woman from Queensland and is the current pro Vice-Chancellor and Balnaves Chair in constitutional law at the University of New South Wales. She's worked for the United Nations and has been intimately involved in the campaign for meaningful constitutional recognition for Australia's First Nations people, and had the honour of first reading out the Uluru Statement From the Hear t publicly in 2017. Four years on from the creation of the Statement - with its ...
Nov 07, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sean Kelly is a writer and journalist, who's a former adviser to Prime Ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard. His new book is The Game: A Portrait of Scott Morrison and it's great/scary/infuriating. With great insight and wit, Sean really tries to get at who our Prime Minister is, what drives, what (if anything) he believes in and what his political success says about us a country. We discuss how Morrison plays the "game" of politics, why he won in 2019 and whether he can be beaten again by the...
Oct 31, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sylvie Ellsmore is the Greens mayoral candidate for the City of Sydney in the upcoming NSW local elections. She's running a campaign to make Sydney a city for everyone, not just the rich, with a particular focus on housing and grassroots democracy. This was a fantastic conversation about the state of local Sydney politics, the legacy of independent mayor Clover Moore and the Greens' vision for how the local city council can play a much more activist role in fixing the truly cooked Sydney housing...
Oct 24, 2021•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Christiaan Van Vuuren is a comedian and YouTube star who you know from Bondi Hipsters, Bloom and At Home Alone Together . He's the presenter of a great new documentary about money in Australian politics called Big Deal , which was directed by the Chaser's Craig Reucassel. This issue drives me (and I'm sure you) crazy, and it was great to get stuck into a similarly-outraged Christiaan. We touch on just how much money is washing around our politics, how much anti-democratic influence that money ha...
Oct 21, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dr. Helen Haines is a former nurse and midwife who now serves as the independent member for the Victorian seat of Indi. Since she entered the parliament Helen has been fighting for the establishment of a federal anti-corruption / pro-integrity body that will actually do what we want it to do: justly hold our public servants to account and root out the shitty corrupt behaviour that is rife in our politics. In the wake of Gladys Berejiklian's resignation as NSW Premier after ICAC announced it was ...
Oct 10, 2021•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Felicity Ruby is a former Greens staffer, current PhD candidate at the University of Sydney and longtime friend and supporter of Julian Assange. In the wake of revelations from Yahoo! News that Trump's CIA floated plans to kidnap and kill Assange after Wikileaks' "Vault 7" revelations in 2017, I wanted to talk to Flick about Assange's plight and its political ramifications. We discuss what kind of a person Julian Assange is, his mission, his trial, the misconceptions that continue to swirl aroun...
Oct 04, 2021•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week's episode is from an event I took part in with the Centre for Independent Studies , hosted by Tom Switzer and featuring academic Satya Jeetmarar . Together we discussed/debated intergenerational inequality in the face of the COVID pandemic. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I think capitalism is the problem, while Satya and the CIS holds a different view. See wot u reckon lol Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a P...
Sep 27, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
