As Israel and Hezbollah cautiously observe a ceasefire, the prospect of a Palestinian state feels as remote as ever. But there are people working tirelessly to bring one about, impeded by radicals on both sides who see this as a war between Goodies and Baddies. Omar Dajani is one of the visionaries. As a Palestinian-American professor, he and Josh disagree about much regarding the culpability and dysfunction of Gaza's misery. Omar was a negotiator for the Palestine Liberation Organization and at...
Nov 28, 2024•33 min•Ep 292•Transcript available on Metacast David Walliams is one of the most successful comedians in the world. On "Little Britain", his smash hit BBC sketch comedy show, he created characters whose catchphrases have become part of the culture: "I'm a lady", "Computer says No", and so many more. David did ten seasons as a judge with Simon Cowell on Britain's Got Talent, and has written 43 children's books that have sold over 60 million copies. Josh and David recently did a six-week, fifteen-show tour of Australia and New Zealand, where J...
Nov 25, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Ep 291•Transcript available on Metacast This is the most uncomfortable conversation Josh has ever recorded. He used to work for Alan Jones, the most powerful broadcaster in Australia. Now, he's been arrested on sexual assault allegations. (Alan, that is. Not Josh. Phew) Sexual predation. Political power. Investigative journalism. Innocence until proven guilty. Josh has never spoken publicly about his own experiences while working with Alan Jones. Until now. To get more content like this and to join in the fun of the Uncomfy Convos mul...
Nov 21, 2024•41 min•Ep 290•Transcript available on Metacast Why do some civilisations enlighten while others languish? Why do some conquer, and others collapse? Was the British Empire a bloody stain... or, on balance, a force for modernity? Niall is one of Britain's most prolific and influential historians. His seventeen books, including the groundbreaking tomes Civilisation and Empire, define the modern historical canon. Niall has become associated with heterodox concerns about wokeness and Western decline. But Josh wanted to probe deeper: How should we...
Nov 18, 2024•25 min•Ep 289•Transcript available on Metacast It's crunch time for the Australian government's Orwellian-sounding "Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation" legislation. The bill was passed last Thursday by Australia's House of Representatives and is currently stalled in the Senate. Right-wing populists are spreading hysteria that it would let the government throw you in jail for speaking your mind on social media. The bill would not, in fact, punish you for posting on social media. But it could give government officials the power to ma...
Nov 14, 2024•21 min•Ep 288•Transcript available on Metacast Few Britons are as iconic as Stephen Fry. On TV, he's an Emmy-winning comedy legend immortalised in shows like A Bit of Fry & Laurie, Jeeves & Wooster, and Blackadder. He has hosted the British Academy Film Awards twelve times and won six BAFTAs as the host of the smash-hit BBC television quiz show Q.I. On stage, Stephen's adaptation of Me and My Girl won two Olivier Awards. He was nominated for a Tony for his performance in The Globe's production of Twelfth Night on Broadway. On the big...
Nov 11, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Ep 287•Transcript available on Metacast Well, it's Trump. The morning after the election, Josh live-streamed his post-election analysis and his predictions for a second Trump term from Cambridge, England, and took live questions. Watch the video on Substack, or listen in right here. To get more content like this and to join in the fun of the Uncomfy Convos multiverse, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_ http://twitter.com/joshzepps http://instagram.com/joshs...
Nov 07, 2024•35 min•Ep 286•Transcript available on Metacast You have a limited offer you can use now, that gets you up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off one time purchases with code UNCOMFORTABLE20 at checkout You can claim it at: https://magicmind.com/UNCOMFORTABLE20 The full premium version of this episode is available as a free gift to you. This version here is just a teaser, but ALL ELECTION-RELATED CONTENT WILL NOT BE PAYWALLED if you access it on Substack. To hear this episode in its entirety, as well as all upcoming election episodes i...
Nov 05, 2024•22 min•Ep 284•Transcript available on Metacast The full premium version of this episode is available as a free gift to you. This version here is just a teaser, but ALL ELECTION-RELATED CONTENT WILL NOT BE PAYWALLED if you access it on Substack. To hear this episode in its entirety, as well as all upcoming election episodes in full, you need to leave this app – you will NOT need to pay anything – and listen on Substack here: https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe At 11:00 a.m. on November 9th, 2016, the day after Donald Tru...
Nov 01, 2024•21 min•Ep 282•Transcript available on Metacast You have a limited offer you can use now, that gets you up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off one time purchases with code UNCOMFORTABLE20 at checkout You can claim it at: https://magicmind.com/UNCOMFORTABLE20 The full premium version of this episode is available as a free gift to you. This version here is just a teaser, but ALL ELECTION-RELATED CONTENT WILL NOT BE PAYWALLED if you access it on Substack. To hear this episode in its entirety, as well as all upcoming election episodes i...
Oct 31, 2024•26 min•Ep 281•Transcript available on Metacast The full premium version of this episode is available as a free gift to you. This version here is just a teaser, but ALL ELECTION-RELATED CONTENT WILL NOT BE PAYWALLED if you access it on Substack. To hear this episode in its entirety, as well as all upcoming election episodes in full, you need to leave this app – you will NOT need to pay anything – and listen on Substack here: https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe Join Michael Moynihan of The Fifth Column and Josh Szeps of U...
Oct 30, 2024•24 min•Ep 280•Transcript available on Metacast Arm yourself with facts now, to stay sane on election night. This episode is your toolkit against the schemes to sow confusion, foment chaos and challenge the vote. The ABC journalist Matt Bevan reveals to Josh the extraordinary Trump strategy that'll kick in if Harris wins a narrow victory, and the weird ways it relates to the Jan 6th riots and the denial of that election. For everything you need to know to understand election night -- and the days and weeks beyond -- don't miss this one. Matt'...
Oct 28, 2024•2 hr 33 min•Ep 279•Transcript available on Metacast Get ready, humans. Josh is about to start pumping out extra shows all week long to keep you informed, inspired and resilient during the U.S. election. But to receive your sweet nuggets of sanity, if you're not a Substacker then YOU HAVE TO DO ONE SIMPLE, FREE THING. You'll kick yourself if you don't. Listen RIGHT NOW to find out what. Head to the substack link below to get all the information you need for tomorrow's live show and to all the free content over the next week https://uncomfortableco...
Oct 28, 2024•18 min•Ep 277•Transcript available on Metacast John Safran is a legendary provocateur and comedy documentarian. He is iconic Down Under for his outrageous explorations of taboo subjects (think: Sacha Baron Cohen or Louis Theroux). In his latest escapade, he tried to investigate modern anti-Semitism by flying to Los Angeles and illegally camping out at Kanye West's mansion. He and Josh discuss online trolls, taboos, social media, satire, anti-Jewish conspiracies and living as a prominent Jew during the Gaza War. His new book is "Squat: A week...
Oct 24, 2024•1 hr 28 min•Ep 276•Transcript available on Metacast Are we too focused on race? Have recent anti-racist movements like Black Lives Matter abandoned the ‘colourblind’ spirit of the original civil rights movement? Coleman Hughes is an American writer, podcaster and public intellectual known for his criticism of modern social-justice ideas about racism and racial inequality. In this live Festival Of Dangerous Ideas edition of Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps, Hughes articulates his vision for a future where individuals are judged by ‘the ...
Oct 21, 2024•1 hr•Ep 275•Transcript available on Metacast Ding, dong, the psychopathic tyrant of Gaza is dead. Who was Yahya Sinwar? What does his death mean? Should Netanyahu declare victory and end the war? And why is Josh getting in trouble on Twitter over all this... again? To get more content like this and to join in the fun of the Uncomfy Convos multiverse, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_ http://twitter.com/joshzepps http://instagram.com/joshszeps/ http://tiktok.com...
Oct 18, 2024•23 min•Ep 273•Transcript available on Metacast Is political violence “unAmerican”? Or is it as American as Thomas Jefferson, who wrote that "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants"? Nick Bryant is one of the BBC’s greatest foreign correspondents. He has a doctorate in American politics from Oxford University and lived for years in Washington D.C. and New York City covering American politics for a global audience. One of his books sits on Joe Biden’s bookshelf in the Oval Office. As we h...
Oct 17, 2024•25 min•Ep 274•Transcript available on Metacast Australia's response to the pandemic was among the most aggressive -- and controversial -- in the world. What went right? What went wrong? At last, we have a much-needed accounting of the lessons of Covid, from the Aussie academic who became an unlikely pandemic authority in the U.S. thanks to his position as an outspoken economics professor at George Washington University in Washington D.C. Steven Hamilton's new book is a frank, factual, fierce recap of the Covid years. Written with his fellow ...
Oct 14, 2024•51 min•Ep 272•Transcript available on Metacast One year on from the Hamas attack, Josh is sick of biased bickering about why Israel is in the right or in the wrong. Here, he brings you an informed, impartial, big-picture account of where Israelis and Palestinians find themselves. Marcus Walker is a senior reporter at the Wall Street Journal, and the friend to whom Josh turns when he needs to understand the Middle East. A Brit based in Rome, Marcus has been deployed to Israel as a journalist seven times since October 7th, interviewing the mos...
Oct 10, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep 271•Transcript available on Metacast Damien Cave is the Vietnam bureau chief and global affairs correspondent for The New York Times, covering shifts in power across Asia and the wider world. He has spent most of the past 20 years as a correspondent for The Times. He’s been based in Baghdad and Miami, Mexico City and Sydney, and spent lengthy stints reporting from many other places, including Lebanon, India, Taiwan, Turkey and Cuba. In 2017, He led a team opening The Times’s new Australia bureau, covering a region where both his gr...
Oct 07, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep 270•Transcript available on Metacast Candace Owens is one of the most popular commentators in the world. Initially critical of President Trump, she was a famous critic of Black Lives Matter and became the communications director for the conservative group Turning Point USA. Her talk show on the conservative website The Daily Wire, "Candace", was cancelled earlier this year after she made antisemitic remarks. She now runs her platform independently. Ahead of her Australian tour, Josh wanted to understand what she's up to and what ma...
Oct 03, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep 269•Transcript available on Metacast Do you drink too much? If there was a magic pill that made you not want a second drink, would you take it? You’d at least expect to have heard of it. That’s what the journalist Katie Herzog thought as she sat through AA meetings, feeling like a failure for boozing. Then, she found naltrexone. Josh hasn’t had a drink in four years after having a different epiphany. Here, the two of them wrestle with myths, blind spots and revelations about drinking, addiction, introspection, and being a grown-up....
Sep 30, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Ep 268•Transcript available on Metacast Imagine being an innocent YouTuber, tricked into receiving millions of dollars from Russia just because you're a Putin hack. That's what the U.S. Department of Justice alleges has been happening, and worse. How are the enemies of liberal democracy shaping the information you see online? Ross Anderson is an expert on right-wing YouTubers, the Life Editor at the world edition of The Spectator, and a regular contributor at The New York Sun. He explains the whole extraordinary shebang. To get more c...
Sep 26, 2024•30 min•Ep 267•Transcript available on Metacast Keith Urban is one of the world’s most popular musicians. He started out in Australia, moved to Nashville, worked his arse off, won a stack of Grammys and sold over 20 million albums. He’s about to start a residency in Las Vegas and he'll tour Australia in 2025 . His new album is “HIGH”. Don’t miss the YouTube page to see Keith and Josh bantering in the flesh. And get more amazing conversations by popping your email address into our Substack supercomputer . http://twitter.com/joshzepps http://in...
Sep 23, 2024•34 min•Ep 266•Transcript available on Metacast Can governments regulate “misinformation”? Or is that just a pretext for controlling what you can say? Were “the Twitter Files” a bombshell revelation of censorship, or a paranoid beat-up? How should Big Tech have grappled with issues like Russia, Covid, and the FBI? Andrew Lowenthal worked with Matt Taibbi for months on the Twitter Files. He helped to create the Westminster Declaration to oppose any restrictions on online speech. He used to work with leftie NGOs fighting for the digital rights ...
Sep 19, 2024•28 min•Ep 265•Transcript available on Metacast Missy Higgins is one of Australia's most successful musicians. She exploded onto the scene in 2004. Her debut single launched at No. 1, her first album debuted at No. 1, and, barely out of her teens, she won the ARIA, Australia's Grammy, for Best Pop Release. Tabloid speculation swirled about her sexuality. Josh wants to know how she now thinks about gayness, love, fame and failure. Her new album, released exactly on the 20th anniversary of her first, is The Second Act. To get more content like ...
Sep 16, 2024•58 min•Ep 264•Transcript available on Metacast In the lead-up to every U.S. election of the past 12 years, Chas Licciardello has hosted a national primetime television comedy show called Planet America, covering the ins and outs of American politics. He is a member of Australia's most famous comedy group, The Chaser, and starred in their satirical TV shows for nearly a quarter of a century: The Chaser Decides, CNNNN, The Chaser's War on Everything, Yes We Canberra! and The Hamster Wheel. Chas and Josh sat down after the landmark presidential...
Sep 11, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep 263•Transcript available on Metacast Outside Australia, Alexander Downer is best known as the diplomat who kicked off the Mueller Investigation by alerting the FBI that one of Trump’s advisors, George Papadopoulos, said the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton over drinks in London. Downer was Australia’s ambassador to the UK at the time. Inside Australia, Downer is a household name. He is the most consequential Foreign Minister in decades (what Americans call the Secretary of State), serving for over a decade during 9/11 and the I...
Sep 09, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep 262•Transcript available on Metacast Our societies are more diverse than ever, yet we spend more of our time with people just like us. Are we losing a sense of common life? Maybe the far left and the far right aren't the cause of our division, but a consequence of it? Jon Yates is an entertaining, whip smart writer and activist who studies how to build a more united society. He says the problem is not that we're different from each other, but that we're distant from the other. We are not fractured because of Trump or Fox News or MS...
Sep 05, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep 261•Transcript available on Metacast Are we too focused on race? Have recent anti-racist movements like The Voice to Parliament and Black Lives Matter abandoned the colour-blind spirit of the civil rights pioneers? Josh took to the stage for a special one-night-only Uncomfortable Conversations live event with Coleman Hughes, one of America’s most prominent authors and thinkers on the topic of race. This is a 25 minute preview of the exclusive live show. If you want to hear the full 1 hour + event, as well as lots more similarly pro...
Sep 02, 2024•27 min•Ep 260•Transcript available on Metacast 
