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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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Now displaying: 2021
Dec 23, 2021

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 failures of the modern Left, and we disagree about what happened to JFK.

Merry Xmas everyone! See you in 2022, when everything will be fixed forever xx 

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

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

Catch me (and a crazy good line-up) performing at Just For Laughs Australia at the Malthouse Theatre in January

Check out with my other podcast about the Greens and green politics with Emerald Moon, Serious Danger

@vanbadham

Van's book QAnon and On: A Short and Shocking History of Internet Conspiracy Cults

Van's podcast is The Week on Wednesday

ARTICLE: If your friends or family have fallen for an internet conspiracy cult, here's what you should do by Van Badham

AN EDITED EXTRACT OF VAN'S BOOK: QAnon: how the far-right cult took Australians down a 'rabbit hole' of extremism

Cause of the Week: Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (asrc.org.au)

Dec 14, 2021

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, on others I try to push back and challenge some of the common arguments that are wheeled out on this stuff. 

It's long, but (I hope) really worthwhile. TL:DR - class politics is GOOD and we need MORE OF IT PLEASE. 

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

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

Check out with my other podcast about the Greens and green politics with Emerald Moon, Serious Danger

@JamesButton49 (though he rarely tweets!)

Read James' three-part series on cancel culture: 

ARTICLE: The Failure of Occupy is Almost Complete by Freddie deBoer

ARTICLE: Woke politics and power by Waleed Aly 

Cause(s) of the Week: Savannah Pride (savannahpride.com.au); Marrin Weejali Aboriginal Corporation (marrinweejali.org.au)

Dec 6, 2021

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 society and politics. 

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

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

I’m recording a stand up special at Chapel Off Chapel THIS WEEK! Two shows only

Check out with my other podcast about the Greens and green politics with Emerald Moon, Serious Danger 

@NyadolNyuon

Nyadol's address at the National Press Club, "Australia Reimagined" 

Cause of the Week: Please support Refugee Legal's work (refugeelegal.org.au

 

 

Nov 21, 2021

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

Find us on twitter, Instagram, Patreon and YouTube on @SeriousDangerAU

Get to know Emerald more by catching up on our conversation together from last year.

<3 u

 

Nov 18, 2021

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 ideology and what can be done about it. 

We also discuss the class war that the pandemic has shone a light on, solidarity, why strikes are beautiful, spanking the Labor Party and how the union movement will be approaching the upcoming election. 

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

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

I’m recording a stand up special at Chapel Off Chapel in early December

@lhilakari

weareunion.org.au

ARTICLE: We need a royal commission into the organised far-right in Australia by Luke Hilakari

ARTICLE: Has solidarity succumbed to the rise of rage? by Waleed Aly

Labor's policy's on workers' rights for the upcoming election

Trades Hall's Sticking Together book

Cause of the Week: Australians For A Murdoch Royal Commission (murdochroyalcommission.org.au)

 

Nov 7, 2021

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 Heart publicly in 2017.

Four years on from the creation of the Statement - with its call for Voice, Treaty & Truth - Megan updates me on where the campaign for a constitutional First Nations Voice to Parliament is at, the roadblocks that remain, designing a model and searching for bipartisanship ahead of a possible referendum. 

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

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

I’m recording a stand up special at Chapel Off Chapel in early December

I’m doing Easey Comedy in Collingwood on Thursday November 11th with Dave Hughes

@mdavisqlder

ARTICLE: The Uluru Statement, four years on by Professor Megan Davis

INTERVIEW: The Uluru Statement - where to from here? on ABC Overnights with Rod Quinn

ARTICLE: Police officer not guilty of murdering woman during confrontation on Geraldton street (ABC NEWS) 

Cause of the Week: Uluru Statement From The Heart Campaign (ulurustatement.org)

 

Oct 31, 2021

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 ALP in its current state. 

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

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

I’m recording a stand up special at Chapel Off Chapel in early December

I’m doing Easey Comedy in Collingwood on Thursday November 11th with Dave Hughes

I appeared on "The Culture" podcast to discuss Dave Chappelle's latest special with Osman Faruqi & Cassie Workman

My last episode with Sean

@MrSeanKelly

The Game: A Portrait of Scott Morrison by Sean Kelly at Black Inc

Sean's writing for Nine Fairfax Media

ARTICLE: Morrison sees votes in anti-Muslim strategy by Lenore Taylor (2011)

ARTICLE: Albanese says he's in the final quarter, so when is he going to start kicking goals? by Sean Kelly 

Cause of the Week: The Indigenous Literacy Foundation (indigenousliteracyfoundation.org.au)

 

Oct 24, 2021

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 market. I think you'll find Sylvie's passion ideas inspiring and cool. Go team. 

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

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

I’m recording a stand up special at Chapel Off Chapel in early December

I’m doing Easey Comedy in Collingwood on Thursday November 11th with Dave Hughes

@Sylvie_E

Sylvie's candidate page

Sylvie's Facebook

Sylvie's instagram

If you live in NSW make sure you're enrolled to vote in the local elections by the end of TODAY (October 25th)

ARTICLE: Greens want the City of Sydney to lead on affordable housing

Check out the federal Greens' policy to build 1 million homes

Cause of the Week: Welcome Merchant (on linktree); book for the Greens for the City of Sydney Dinner Party here

Oct 21, 2021

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 has, why "transparency" simply isn't enough and why Christiaan is optimistic about the possibilities of change and fixing this shit. 

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

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

I'm doing Easey Comedy in Collingwood on Thursday November 11th with Dave Hughes

I’m recording a stand up special at Chapel Off Chapel in early December

I'm hosting a discussion with Craig Reucassel and a great panel as a fundraiser for the Greens at 6:30pm tonight; book now! 

@ChristiaanVanV

@MakeItABigDeal

Watch "Big Deal" on ABC iview

DemocracyForSale.net

Cause of the Week: MakeItABigDeal.org

 

Oct 10, 2021

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 investigating her (because that it's job), Helen and I discuss what an effective federal body would look like, the Morrison government's scaremongering about accountability, the chances of Helen's bill getting passed and the corrosive influence of political donations.  

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

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

WE ARE ALL IN THIS is scheduled for the Brisbane Comedy Festival in November

I'm recording a stand up special at Chapel Off Chapel in early December

THIS THURSDAY NIGHT come along to the Greens' National Campaign Kick-Off

@helenhainesindi

helenhaines.org

Helen's press release on the Federal Government's response to Gladys Berejiklian's resignation

ARTICLE: Why Scott Morrison and his government oppose a NSW-style anti-corruption watchdog 

ARTICLE: The long history of political corruption in NSW - and the downfall of MPs, ministers and premiers  

Cause of the Week: UNICEF's CoVax Appeal (unicef.org.au/covax-appeal)

 

Oct 4, 2021

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 around him and the insane paranoia of Western intelligence agencies (aka our lovely allies).   

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

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

WE ARE ALL IN THIS is scheduled for the Brisbane Comedy Festival in November

@FlickRubicon

felicityruby.com

ARTICLE: Kidnapping, assassination and a London shoot out: Inside the CIA's secret war plans against Wikileaks

ARTICLE: End Game by Scott Ludlam 

Flick's writing on Assange at Arena Magazine

ARTICLE: What it's like to be targeted by the CIA and its mates

EVENT: Raucos Anti-AUKUS Caucus discussion this Thursday October 7th at 7pm

Juice Media's Honest Government Ad about AUKUS 

Cause of the Week: The Courage Foundation (couragefound.org)

 

Sep 27, 2021

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 Patron

WE ARE ALL IN THIS is scheduled for the Brisbane Comedy Festival in November

@CISOZ

cis.org.au

Cause of the Week: Youth Projects (youthprojects.org.au)

Sep 20, 2021

Nick Boshier (Trent from Punchy, Bondi Hipsters) and Jazz Twemlow (Tonightly with Tom Ballard lol) are two very nice men and good comedians who have created a new satirical sketch show for Amazon Prime, The Moth Effect.  

The dudes let me know the guiding philosophy behind the show's satire, their favourite sketches, the irony of taking the piss out of corporatism while working for Amazon, giving less of a shit about the insane news cycle and how to do comedy about the shortcomings of "wokeness" without being a douchebag. 

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

WE ARE ALL IN THIS is scheduled for the Brisbane Comedy Festival in November

@JazzTwemlow

@nickboshier

Watch The Moth Effect on Amazon Prime

Jazz's Leftie Bootcamp sketch from Tonightly

ARTICLE: Big-name cast members Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson elevate Moth Effect 

ARTICLE: New woke lineup for The Wiggles slammed by outspoken Nationals Senator Matt Canavan 

ARTICLE: The ghosts are not silent by ABC Background Briefing 

Cause of the Week: The Great Koala National Park (koalapark.org.au)

Cause of the Week: International Rescue Committee (rescue.org)

Sep 3, 2021

Mehreen Faruqi has been a Greens senator for NSW since 2017. Her memoir Too Migrant, Too Muslim, Too Loud was released in July, describing her life, politics and reflections on being a progressive and outspoken migrant in Australia. 

Here Mehreen and I discuss how her perceptions of what Australia is have changed over the past thirty years, her thoughts on compromise and incrementalism and the Greens' role in pushing big bold ideas, as well as her desire to see a "feminist, anti-racist Australia". 

(Sincere apologies for the long time between podcast episodes, everyone: I have been going LOOPY in lockdown and have been having a bit of a rough trot that stopped me doing very much at all. I am much better now though thank you. I hope you are ok too. The end. As you were.)

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

My two shows and special filming at Chapel Off Chapel have been rescheduled to October 8th & 9th

WE ARE ALL IN THIS is scheduled for the Brisbane Comedy Festival in November

@MehreenFaruqi

mehreenfaruqi.org.au

Mehreen's book Too Migrant, Too Muslim, Too Loud is out now through Allen & Unwin

ARTICLE: Coalition supports Pauline Hanson motion to ban critical race theory teachings 

My episode with outgoing Greens Senator Rachel Siewert

Cause of the Week: Greyhound Rescue (greyhoundrescue.com.au)

 

Jul 8, 2021

Victor Kline is a writer and barrister who is the leader of a new political party, The New Liberals. The party was born out of a frustration that Victor and some close friends felt by the current state of Australian politics and the lack of any party that truly represented them.

Here we discuss what Victor believes it means to be a truly "liberal" party, why they want to reclaim that name, the party's political strategy, and what I would argue is liberalism's limits: its inability to wrestle with questions of class and political economy. 

I’m doing Dry July please help me/cancer research

I went on "Miners Driving Teslas" with Daniel Bleakley and it was fun

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

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

WE ARE ALL IN THIS will be at the Brisbane Comedy Festival in August

There’s an encore Sydney show of WE ARE ALL IN THIS on August 20th

My two shows and special filming at Chapel Off Chapel have been rescheduled to August 27th & 28th

@victorklineTNL

newliberals.net.au

ARTICLE: New Liberals' registration approved despite Liberal party objection over "voter confusion"

ARTICLE: New Liberals leader outlines his party's politics

Cause of the Week: The New Liberals (newliberals.net.au)

Jun 24, 2021

Luke McGregor is a beloved Australian comedian who co-stars in the ABC series Rosehaven alongside Celia Pacquola and presents "Lukenomics" on The Weekly. He's also my very nice friend and one time we got KFC together. 

A month on from his appearance on Q&A alongside (now Nationals leader) Barnaby Fucking Joyce, Luke talks to me about the frustrations of public debate, why studying economics stopped him being a Liberal voter, and the ins and outs of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). 

I'm doing Dry July please help me/cancer research 

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

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

My book I, Millennial: One Snowflake’s Screed Against Plague, Boomers, Billionaires & Everything Else will be published in December

WE ARE ALL IN THIS will be at the Brisbane Comedy Festival in August

There’s an encore Sydney show of WE ARE ALL IN THIS on August 20th

My two shows and special filming at Chapel Off Chapel have been rescheduled to August 27th & 28th

@LukeWMcGregor

Luke's Facebook page 

Luke's appearance on Q&A

Lukenomics explainer on MMT

Free online event: MMT and the Media: Taking Charge of the Narrative with Luke & Bill Mitchell 

Daily Mail article on Luke's appearance on Q&A

Cause of the Week: Brightside Farm Sanctuary (brightside.org.au

Jun 17, 2021

Josh Callinan is the Secretary of the Retail And Fast Food Workers' Union (RAFFWU); a young fighting union which represents thousands of overwhelmingly younger Australian workers in highly casualised and insecure industries. 

RAFFWU was set up in opposition to the right-wing "yellow" union the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (the SDA), aka Christian Porter's favourite union. In this conversation Josh explains just how bad the SDA has been for workers, the scourge of casualisation and how RAFFWU is organising for a better deal and a better future. 

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

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

This Sunday is World Refugee Day! Please help out the ASRC if you can

My book I, Millennial: One Snowflake's Screed Against Plague, Boomers, Billionaires & Everything Else will be published in December

WE ARE ALL IN THIS will be at the Brisbane Comedy Festival in August

There’s an encore Sydney show of WE ARE ALL IN THIS on August 20th

My two shows at Chapel Off Chapel have been rescheduled to August 27th & 28th

@JoshCullinan

raffwu.org.au

RAFFWU's "SDA Facts"

ARTICLE: Precarious workers held out to dry by Josh Cullinan

ARTICLE: Australia's Youngest Union Is Organising Retail and Fast-Food Workers (in Jacobin)

ARTICLE: Shopped Out by Ben Schneiders & Royce Millar

Cause of the Week: RAFFWU! Join them yourself or spread the word (raffwu.org.au)

 

Jun 6, 2021

Tim Hollo is a former staffer for the Australian Greens, is the Greens candidate for the federal seat of Canberra and works as the Executive Director of the official Greens think tank, The Greens Institute.

He's currently working on a book laying out his theory of "ecological politics"; a a self-organising democracy grounded in the natural world and connection. Tim wants a politics seeks to go beyond the neoliberal capitalist status quo, rejects the far-right's "solutions" and avoids what he considers to be the limits of socialism. We discuss the details of Tim's theory, as well as his reflections on the Greens' strategy around Kevin Rudd's CPRS, how fossil fuel companies killing off the possibilities of climate action, decentralising power and why consensus decision making isn't centrism.

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

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

WE ARE ALL IN THIS will be at the Brisbane Comedy Festival in August

There's an encore Sydney show of WE ARE ALL IN THIS on August 20th

My two shows at Chapel Off Chapel have been rescheduled to August 27th & 28th

@timhollo

greeninstitute.org.au

Tim's writing at The Guardian

OPINION PIECE: The End Of The World As We Know It by Tim Hollo

OPINION PIECE: Tim Hollo on an ecological democracy where "everything is connected" and embedded in nature 

Cause of the Week: IndigenousX (indigenousx.com.au)

May 24, 2021

Emma Dawson is an ALP member and a former adviser to the Rudd and Gillard governments on public broadcasting policy. These days she’s the Executive Director of the think tank Per Capita, “an independent, progressive think tank, dedicated to fighting inequality in Australia”.

After very kindly providing me with a nice lunch, Emma explains where her politics come from, the Labor Party's neoliberal legacy, the role of markets in society and her passion for social democracy. She lays out the policy complexities with the #80ADay JobSeeker campaign and the tensions between idealistic, activist politics and brutal electoral math. 

(Note: at one point I think Emma accidentally said Linda Reynolds when she was referring to Linda Burney.) 

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 taping a comedy special across two shows at Chapel Off Chapel next week feat. my best jokes of the past three years

You can see my show WE ARE ALL IN THIS at the Newcastle Comedy Festival this weekend

WE ARE ALL IN THIS will be at the Brisbane Comedy Festival in August

@DawsonEJ

percapita.org.au

ARTICLE: Unemployment doesn't just happen to "other people". It can happen to you by Emma Dawson

ARTICLE: Centrist Joe is precisely the president America needs by Emma Dawson

ARTICLE: Income support 'not the only lever': Labor's plan to tackle disadvantage

The 2021 Per Capita Tax Survey

What Happens Next? edited by Emma Dawson & Janet McCalman

Cause of the Week: The Australian Unemployed Workers' Union (unemployedworkersunion.com)

May 17, 2021

Jonathan Biggins is a legendary Australian satirist, actor and writer, who is currently performing his one-man show The Gospel According To Paul - a theatrical biography of the reforming Labor Treasurer and Prime Minister, Paul Keating. 

I asked Jonathan about his thoughts on Keating's complicated legacy - the good and the bad - and how his (often arrogant, but politically effective) leadership contrasts with the shit we have today. We discuss "economic rationalism", the waging of culture wars and identity politics and Jonathan's grave concern about the effect that social media technology is having on our society.. 

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 taping a comedy special across two shows at Chapel Off Chapel in early June, feat. my best jokes of the past three years

You can see my show WE ARE ALL IN THIS at the Newcastle Comedy Festival in May 

WE ARE ALL IN THIS will be at the Brisbane Comedy Festival in August

jonathanbiggins.com.au

The Gospel According To Paul by Jonathan Biggins is on at the Arts Centre in Melbourne until May 23rd 

It then tours to Bendigo and Brisbane

ARTICLE: Scott Morrison wants a big, simply country. With Labor dumbstruck and blindsided, he's getting one by Guy Rundle

Cause of the Week: The Actor's Benevolent Fund (actorsbenevolentfund.org.au)

 

May 1, 2021

Richie Merzian is the Director of the Climate & Energy Program at The Australia Institute

With Australia embarrassing itself on the global stage when it comes to setting actual reduction targets that might actually do something, this was a great chance to check in with where the climate debate is at. Richie lays out just how lacking our commitments are, what they should be and what other countries are doing, as well giving me the rundown on electric vehicles, carbon accounting tricks, just transition models, fossil fuel subsidies and the (relatively straightforward) path to addressing this existential crisis.   

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

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

My 2021 show WE ARE ALL IN THIS is on at the Melbourne Comedy Festival NOW – just 6 shows left!

My new show WE ARE ALL IN THIS is coming to Sydney for two nights only in May

Or you can see WE ARE ALL IN THIS at the Newcastle Comedy Festival on May 

I was on the latest episode of the Confessions of the Idiots podcast and it was great fun

Support Shane Bazzi's legal fund because he's being sued by Peter Dutton 

This was a great article on my friend Naser Moradi, a brilliant artist who has been in Australian immigration detention for more than six years

@RichieMerzian

australiainstitute.org

Hot Mess - Richie's summary of Morrison's performance at Biden's climate summit

The US is charging ahead on climate action, so where the bloody hell is Australia? by Richie Merzian

ARTICLE: Labor backs coal beyond 2050

RESEARCH: Australian fossil fuel subsidies hit $10.3 billion in 2020/21 

Cause of the Week: The Juice Media (thejuicemedia.com

Apr 13, 2021

Hello! Sorry for the radio silence - I have been busy being too hot for TV and annoying Andrew Bolt. Apologies. 

This week's ep is a slice of a conversation I had with socialist councillor Stephen Jolly and Leftist intellectuals (and previous LIASYO guests) Alison PenningtonJeff Sparrow and Guy Rundle for Stephen's new podcast, Melbourne Calling

We had a wide-ranging chat about the state of the Australian Left in the wake of COVID, the sexual assault crisis in Canberra, workers' power and ideology. 

You can watch the full chat here.

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

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

My 2021 show WE ARE ALL IN THIS is on at the Melbourne Comedy Festival NOW - just 6 shows left!

WE ARE ALL IN THIS is coming to Sydney for two nights only in May

Please watch my lip sync tribute to Greta Thunberg at the Melbourne Comedy Festival. We put a lot of work into it lol 

@StephenJolly99

@ak_pennington

@Jeff_Sparrow

MelbourneCalling.com.au

The Melbourne Calling YouTube page

Cause of the Week: Pay The Rent (paytherent.net.au)

 

Mar 31, 2021

Samantha Maiden is an award-winning journalist who's currently the political editor at news.com.au. In February, she broke the story of Brittany Higgins' alleged rape in Parliament House in 2019, which has since sent shockwaves through Canberra and the Australian political class. 

I wanted to ask Sam about what's really been going on over the past couple of months: what we're witness, what it means and why it's different to the #MeToo moment from a couple of years ago. She reflects on Higgins' bravery, people wanking on desks and the Morrison government's attempt to respond to the ongoing crisis.    

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

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

My 2021 show WE ARE ALL IN THIS is on at the Melbourne Comedy Festival NOW!

WE ARE ALL IN THIS is coming to Sydney for two nights only in May

@SamanthaMaiden

Samantha's writing at news.com.au

ARTICLE: Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins says she was raped at Parliament House 

ARTICLE: A new power has risen in Australian politics - and it's not coming quietly by Annabel Crabb 

ARTICLE: PM caught in crusade of women journos by Aaron Patrick

Cause of the Week: Rape & Domestic Violence Services Australia (rape-dvservices.org.au)

 

Mar 14, 2021

David Milner is an award-winning journalist who now regularly writes for The Shot - a "profound and profane" news site from The Chaser that is consistently pumping out sharp, angry rants about the state of Australian politics and the sinister influence of the Murdoch media. 

This was a great conversation about how The Shot was born in the fires of Melbourne's 2020 lockdown, what David learned from his time as a video journalist, just how toxic Newscorp is, how we could reject it, the ALP's lack of a fight and why right now is "a depressing time for people who give a shit about things". 

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

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

My 2021 show is called WE ARE ALL IN THIS – it’s on sale now at the Melbourne and Sydney Comedy Festivals

@DaveMilbo

theshot.net.au

Dave's pieces at The Shot

The Shot Store

ARTICLE: How to eat the rich while social distancing

ARTICLE: When Murdoch’s tabloid failed Liverpool the people kicked it out of town for good. What’s stopping Melbourne?

80aday.org

Cause of the Week: March 4 Justice (march4justice.com.au)

Mar 9, 2021

Ricardo Menéndez March was elected to the Parliament of Aotearoa in 2020. He was born in Mexico, immigrated to New Zealand and eventually became a socialist, queer activist and anti-poverty campaigner.   

Ricardo tells me about the motto he lives by ("Be gay. Do crime"), the neoliberal legacy of the NZ Labour Party, the gap between the Ardern government's rhetoric of kindness and the reality on the ground, and the Green movement's challenge to remain authentic and grassroots-driven, while still being productive and professional to make things better for ordinary people. 

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

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

My 2021 show is called WE ARE ALL IN THIS – it’s on sale now at the Melbourne and Sydney Comedy Festivals

@RMarchNZ

Ricardo's profile on the Greens Party website

greens.org.nz

Ricardo's maiden speech

Documentary: Someone Else's Country

Cause of the Week: Auckland Action Against Poverty (aaap.org.nz

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