Helen Razer is a writer, a broadcaster and a gardener who doesn’t fuck around. Presenting alongside Mikey Robbins on breakfast and Judith Lucy on drive, she was a defining voice on triple j throughout the 1990s thanks to her wit, her vocabulary and her distaste for bullshit.

Since her time on the radio, Helen has forged a reputation as a ruthless and incisive opinion writer, appearing in The Big Issue, The Saturday Paper, Crikey, The Guardian and elsewhere. She very kindly had me over to her place for lunch and to talk about her latest book on the quality of public debate and the spectre of “Stupid”.

In this first part of our chat, we discuss comedy, the value and purpose of university learning, feminism, killing liberalism, capitalism, marriage equality and the “banality of good”.

@HelenRazer

badhostess.com

A Short History of Stupid by Helen Razer & Bernard Keane

Helen’s writing for Crikey

Details for my show Taxis & Rainbows & Hatred at the Sydney & Perth Comedy Festivals

Cause of the Week: The ABC’s Appeal for the Nepalese Earthquake (abc.net.au/appeals)