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 and clear-sighted when it comes to the fight for human rights - for refugees, for women, for workers, for sportspeople, for everyone - and this speech was a great reflection on the various campaigns he's been involved with, and the state of human rights on Australia and across the world right now. It was especially enlightening to hear Craig discuss the human rights issues surrounding the World Cup in Qatar, and how massive sporting events can sometimes provide massive opportunities to advocate for greater human rights protections.
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My debut book I, Millennial: One Snowflake’s Screed Against Boomers, Billionaires & Everything Else is out now!!!
I'm touring my new stand-up show IT IS I all over the country in 2023
ARTICLE: Craig Foster lashes out at FIFA over 'gutless' move at World Cup
Cause of the Week: Refugee Legal (refugeelegal.org.au)
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.
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I'm doing some big fun shows at Just For Laughs Sydney this weekend, too
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.
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Come see the 2022 Yearly Wrap show I’m hosting at Comedy Republic in Melbourne in December
I’m doing a Work in Progress show at the very cool Brunswick Picture House in January
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 seen workers' power dwindle so much.
This was a great conversation, in which Ben and I discussed the enraging specifics of the wage theft cases, why the SDA sucks, how much we should blame the ALP for all this and where we might find some hope in the future for Australian workers.
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I'm launching the book with events in Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane
Come see the 2022 Yearly Wrap show I'm hosting at Comedy Republic in Melbourne in December
I'm doing a Work in Progress show at the very cool Brunswick Picture House in January
Hard Labour: Wage Theft in the Age of Inequality is published through Scribe
ARTICLE: Shopped Out: SDA & Fair Work Commissions by Ben & Royce Millar
Cause of the Week: Join your union (australianunions.org.au)
IF YOU WORK IN RETAIL PLEASE JOIN RAFFWU NOT THE SDA (raffwu.org.au)
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 with Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese.
Here Leo talks to me about starting a media outlet so young, what he sees as the mission behind 6 News, the kind of criticism and trolling he's had to face online, his dedicated to fact checking and what he thinks makes for a great political interview.
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Cause of the Week: Sponsor me in the ASRC's KMs of Compassion here
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 why real political power lies outside of parliament and the controversies he ran into when taking on "Albo".
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My special "ENOUGH" is out on Paramount+ this Friday
ARTICLE: We've Never Seen Conditions As Bad As This by Jim Casey
ARTICLE: Anthony Albanese: Labor heavyweight's Greens rival Jim Casey defends "Trotskyist" speech
Cause of the Week: Rachael Jacobs, Greens Candidate for Grayndler (support her here)
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 system is failing.
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I’m coming to The Clubhouse in Hobart March 17th
I'm making a cool TV show in lutruwita with Kates McLennan & McCartney
Cause of the Week: The Family Co (thefamilyco.org.au)
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.
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I'm coming to The Clubhouse in Hobart March 17th
The Greens' Balance of Power pitch
Cause of the Week: David Shoebridge's Senate campaign (nsw.greens.org.au)
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 Institute for Public Diplomacy Salem Barahmeh and my fellow boycotters Dr. Mohammed Ahmad (founding director of Western Sydney literacy outfit Sweatshop) and Maissa Alameddine (the Artist Director of the Ensemble Dandana, which is part of the Arab Theatre Studio).
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"Artists Against Apartheid Sydney Festival" petition
ARTICLE: Sydney Festival acts boycott over Israel by Farid Farid
ARTICLE: Why I'm helping to organise a boycott of this year's Sydney Festival by Jennine Khalik
ARTICLE:Boycotts are an essential and necessary part of public life by Osman Faruqi
Cause of the Week: Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions Australia bdsaustralia.net.au
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.
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Johann's first appearance on the show was back at Ep #73
You can order Johann's latest book Stolen Focus here: stolenfocusbook.com