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Like I'm A Six-Year-Old

Comedian Tom Ballard sits down with politicians, activists, thinkers and comedians to try to talk, laugh, cry and argue about politics. You will learn things and get fired up and hear some swearing. Enjoy.
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Like I'm A Six-Year-Old
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Now displaying: May, 2020
May 28, 2020

Mark Seymour is one of the best singer-songwriters Australia has ever produced. He's the former frontman of Hunters & Collectors and now writes and performs with Mark Seymour & The Undertow. The new Undertow record is called Slow Dawn and comes out today. 

Mark has regularly been outspoken about his politics through his music and public appearances, particularly when it comes to Australia's refugee policies. Here he tells me about how he approaches tackling social issues in his music (without being sanctimonious), why he's left-wing, wearing an "Asylum Seeker" t-shirt at the AFL Grand Final, his experiences in South Africa and how the tides of history weigh on us all today. 

If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

You can see me on Stan Australia’s Australia Lockdown Comedy Festival – all episodes are streaming now

@_MarkSeymour

markseymour.com.au

Mark on Facebook

Slow Dawn on Apple Music

Hunters & Collectors at the 2013 AFL Grand Final

Cause of the Week: The Frankston Life Church (frankston.life)

 

May 26, 2020

Tim Wilson is the Liberal MP for the Victorian seat of Goldstein and the Chair of the House Economics Committee. He last joined me on the podcast back in July 2015

I wanted to talk to Tim about how he's found dealing with the COVID-19 crisis as a local member and his thoughts on the Morrison's government's economic response thus far as a well as a bit old-fashioned ideological argy bargy. We discuss the JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments, neoliberalism, government debt and why being a democratic socialist makes me an evil idiot. 

If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

You can see me on Stan Australia’s Australia Lockdown Comedy Festival – all episodes are streaming now

@TimWilsonMP

timwilsonmp.com.au

ARTICLE: Scott Morrison takes aim at Australia's industrial relations system, reaches out to business and unions

ARTICLE: Tim Wilson: Freedom fighter by Tim Elliott

Cause of the Week: Bayside Community Information & Support Service Inc (bayciss.org.au

May 25, 2020

Rick Morton is an award-winning journalist and writer. He reported on Social Affairs for The Australian for years and is now the Senior Reporter for The Saturday Paper. His memoir 100 Years Of Dirt - about surviving his poverty- and trauma-ridden childhood - has been a critical and commercial success.

Here I ask Rick about issues he's been writing about of late - the conspiracy theories that have thrived amid COVID-19 and the new aged-care "Uber app" that's been given a multi-million dollar government contract - as well as his broader approach to journalism, the realities of poverty, how class works in Australia and the privatisation of the welfare state.

If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

You can see me on Stan Australia’s Australia Lockdown Comedy Festival – all episodes are streaming now

@SquigglyRick

rickmorton.com.au

Rick’s writing for The Saturday Paper

ARTICLE: How COVID-19 energised conspiracy theorists

ARTICLE: A fraction too much friction (on Scott Morrison's approach to the truth) 

ARTICLE: Exclusive: Gov’s $5.8m aged-care app offers ‘no duty of care’

Rick's articles for The Australian

Rick's speech The Power of Money

ARTICLE: Rick Morton found writing his memoir painful enough. Then he had to read it aloud

Cause of the Week: Brotherhood of St. Laurence (bsl.org.au)

May 19, 2020

Rachel Siewert has been a Greens Senator for WA since 2005. She's the whip for the Greens in the Senate and her portfolios include First Nations Affairs, Family, Ageing and Community Services, Gambling and Mental Health. She recently chaired a Senate Committee into the adequacy of the Newstart/JobSeeker payment and has been fighting hard for the government to #RetainTheRate after the COVID crisis has passed. 

In this conversation, Rachel explains how her politics are founded on concern for both people and the planet, the realities of our punitive welfare system, just how shitty JobSeeker is and why the Greens' "Invest To Recover" policy proposal - including a jobs, income and education guarantee - is the kind of bold response Australia needs 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

You can see me on Stan Australia’s Australia Lockdown Comedy Festival – episode one is streaming right now!

@SenatorSiewert

rachel-siewert.greensmps.org.au

RN INTERVIEW: Are welfare payments entrenching Australians in poverty and unemployment? 

SENATE COMMITTEE REPORT: Adequacy of Newstart and related payments and alternative mechanisms to determine the level of income support payments in Australia

The Greens' "Invest To Recover" Plan

ARTICLE: Greens demand job guarantees and free education for young people in coronavirus recovery plan

The Australian Unemployed Workers Union

ARTICLE: Adam Bandt, the personable hardliner by Margaret Simons

Cause of the Week: The Australian Greens (greens.org.au)

 

May 15, 2020

Dave Anthony is a stand up comedian, writer, activist and co-host of the history comedy podcast The Dollop. In May 2016 he correctly predicted that Hillary Clinton was going to lose to Trump in the presidential election. So yeah - he knows stuff. 

Dave joined me from LA in the GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD to talk about the death of American empire, what he's learned from history, his journey to socialism, the right-wing Democratic Party and why Joe Biden is really really bad. We laugh and also talk about the end of hope.

If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

You can see me on Stan Australia’s Australia Lockdown Comedy Festival – episode one is streaming right now!

I'll be performing comedy to an empty room this Saturday night for Delivered Live and you can stream it if you like

@daveanthony

daveanthonycomedy.com

dolloppodcast.com

The Dollop episode on the Clarence Thomas hearings

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

ARTICLE: Biden And Sanders Announce Task Forces To Find Party Unity Over Policy

Cause of the Week: Extinction Rebellion (rebellion.earth)

May 12, 2020

Jon Kudelka is a Walkley Award-winning political cartoonist who's been drawing for over 20 years. He drew thousands of cartoons for The Australian until 2019 and his work now regularly appears in The Hobart Mercury and The Saturday Paper

Jon kindly joined me from Tasmania via Zoom to reflect on his journey to cartooning, the (minimal) influence that satire has on things, what he learnt from John Clarke, the deterioration and stasis of Australian politics, punching down, how compromised the ALP has become and how COVID-19 might wake people up to shitty free-market ideology. 

If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

You can see me on Stan Australia’s Australia Lockdown Comedy Festival - episode one is streaming right now!

THIS THURSDAY NIGHT I'm hosting this bingo night via Zoom to raise money for the Inner City Legal Centre which do great work for LGBTQIA+ folks

@jonkudelka

kudelka.com.au

Jon's instagram

Jon's cartoons for The Saturday Paper

Jon's cartoons for The Australian

ARTICLE: Data company that "helped locate Osama Bin Laden" recruits former Labor MP Mike Kelly 

Cause of the Week: StreetSmart Australia (streetsmartaustralia.org

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