Auscast News

Henry Young, a former naval fighter pilot who flew Spitfires and Seafires, joins Jeremy Cordeaux AM at the dining room table with his son Mike on the eve of his birthday. At 103 he recently took the controls of a twin-cockpit Spitfire and, according to Mike, threw in two barrel rolls.

Henry relives landing on aircraft carriers, the crash in Northern Ireland that cost him both wings, training with the United States Navy, and the chance meeting in Piccadilly that led to 63 years of marriage. He also shares why he believes being born in Australia is like winning the lottery.

This interview aired live on The Court of Public Opinion on Friday 25 September 2026.

The Court of Public Opinion with Jeremy Cordeaux AM streams live every Friday from the dining room table at jeremycordeaux.com and via Auscast Radio at auscastnetwork.com. Download the podcast anytime on your favourite podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Professor Steve Worthington of Swinburne University's Business School joins Jeremy Cordeaux AM to explain the end of card surcharges from 1 October. He looks at where surcharging came from, why he argued the price you see should be the price you pay, and whether businesses will simply lift their prices instead.

Steve also explains why cash is making a small comeback, what the changes could mean for credit card rewards and annual fees, and the risks when loyalty program data ends up in the wrong hands.

This interview aired live on The Court of Public Opinion on Friday 25 September 2026.

The Court of Public Opinion with Jeremy Cordeaux AM streams live every Friday from the dining room table at jeremycordeaux.com and via Auscast Radio at auscastnetwork.com. Download the podcast anytime on your favourite podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Emeritus Professor Ian Plimer joins Jeremy Cordeaux AM around the dining room table to take apart Snowy 2.0. Drawing on a career in geology and mining, he explains why he believes the project went ahead without basic geotechnical data, and how he says it should have been built.

Ian also explains the challenge of tunnelling under Adelaide's South Road, gives his take on Senator Alex Antic's win and the direction of the Liberal Party, recounts the 155-year history of Britain's window tax, and tells the story of taking his Bentley up a freshly graded outback road.

This interview aired live on The Court of Public Opinion on Friday 25 September 2026.

The Court of Public Opinion with Jeremy Cordeaux AM streams live every Friday from the dining room table at jeremycordeaux.com and via Auscast Radio at auscastnetwork.com. Download the podcast anytime on your favourite podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr John Bruni of SAGE International joins Jeremy Cordeaux AM for his regular look at world affairs. He gives his view on the walkout during Benjamin Netanyahu's address to the United Nations, Australia's security agreement with Ukraine, and what Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are really talking about.

John argues the real contest between the superpowers is artificial intelligence, explains why he thinks the West keeps losing its cultural expertise, and pushes back against doom-laden headlines. Plus a military flyover that caught his eye and a tongue-in-cheek case for a third Trump term.

This interview aired live on The Court of Public Opinion on Friday 25 September 2026.

The Court of Public Opinion with Jeremy Cordeaux AM streams live every Friday from the dining room table at jeremycordeaux.com and via Auscast Radio at auscastnetwork.com. Download the podcast anytime on your favourite podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Demographer and social researcher Mark McCrindle of McCrindle Research joins Jeremy Cordeaux AM to unpack two major new reports, Treasury's Intergenerational Report and the HILDA survey. He explains what a population heading for almost 40 million in the 2060s means for housing, health, aged care and the tax base.

Mark also tackles adult children living at home, overqualified graduates, a falling birth rate and why most Australian couples rate their relationship as better than average. Plus a caller with memories of post-war migrant housing and the two words the table reckons guarantee a happy marriage.

This interview aired live on The Court of Public Opinion on Friday 25 September 2026.

The Court of Public Opinion with Jeremy Cordeaux AM streams live every Friday from the dining room table at jeremycordeaux.com and via Auscast Radio at auscastnetwork.com. Download the podcast anytime on your favourite podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jeremy Cordeaux is in the garage with Pete and Gary, and opens on a scandal close to home: "corridor care" in South Australia, where patients are being treated, and dying, in the hallways of the Royal Adelaide Hospital, the most expensive hospital building in the world. The same system, he notes, is now building a new Women's and Children's Hospital at $3 billion, and he asks where the media and the opposition are, and why the old hospital is being turned into apartments rather than kept to ease the load.

He relays ASIO chief Mike Burgess's blunt warning not to talk in your Chinese-made car, and extends it to phones, smart speakers and the Chinese electronics inside nearly every vehicle, citing a Four Corners demonstration of a car being remotely hacked. He rounds on Tony Burke's suggestion that homeowners take in a lodger, noting Burke owns six houses, and warns of a possible spare-room tax, skewers Jim Chalmers for mocking early super access while doing it for his own staff, and welcomes the scrapping of the veterans' medical-expenses cap as a template for reinstating the over-65s health rebate before 1.2 million people drop their cover. Plus Transport Minister Catherine King's lifetime Qantas Chairman's Lounge membership, the $7 billion home-battery scheme he likens to the pink batts scandal, the Alan Jones trial's anonymous accusers, and this day in history from Howard Florey and Jim Henson to The Muppets and the dismissal of the Whitlam government.

The Court of Public Opinion with Jeremy Cordeaux AM streams live every Friday from the dining room table at jeremycordeaux.com and via Auscast Radio at auscastnetwork.com. Download the podcast anytime on your favourite podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jeremy Cordeaux is in the garage with Pete and Gary, and opens on the big one: the bosses of the major AI companies warning, all within days of each other, that their own technology may be an existential threat to humanity. Jeremy believes they mean it, and asks the obvious questions, how do you put the genie back in the bottle, why build it without a kill switch, and has anyone thought to ask the AI itself? He notes we managed the nuclear threat for eighty years, but doubts the US and China will slow down when, as Trump says, whoever wins the AI race wins the world.

He is scathing about the Prime Minister in Silicon Valley worrying about artists' and content creators' copyright rather than the survival of the population, and argues that platforms and creators need each other, the audience of 10.1 million a month is an opportunity, not a grievance. He questions the pursuit of a UN Security Council seat, calling the UN impotent, irrelevant and a $100 million-a-year cocktail party that stood by at Srebrenica, and turns to immigration: with around 919,000 Australians of working age on unemployment support at a cost of $21 billion, he asks why we are told cutting migration will crash the economy. Plus a cynic's look at Earl Spencer's Diana memoir and the numbers behind it, the flop of Alan Joyce's book, and this day in history from Michael Faraday and Irving Berlin to Friends and Hobbit Day.

The Court of Public Opinion with Jeremy Cordeaux AM streams live every Friday from the dining room table at jeremycordeaux.com and via Auscast Radio at auscastnetwork.com. Download the podcast anytime on your favourite podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr John Bruni of SAGE International joins Jeremy Cordeaux AM around the dining room table on the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Asked whether the world has learned anything since 2001, his answer is a blunt no, and he explains why he thinks the West is still fighting wars of choice.

They cover the disruption to shipping through the Red Sea and what it means for fuel and fertiliser, the hidden price of globalisation, Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel's standing abroad, Donald Trump's $5,000 election pitch, and Dr Bruni's warning that things move slowly before they move very quickly.

This interview aired live on The Court of Public Opinion on Friday 11 September 2026.

The Court of Public Opinion with Jeremy Cordeaux AM streams live every Friday from the dining room table at jeremycordeaux.com and via Auscast Radio at auscastnetwork.com. Download the podcast anytime on your favourite podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The complete live stream of The Court of Public Opinion with Jeremy Cordeaux AM, from around the dining room table on Friday 11 September 2026. On the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, former Prime Minister John Howard recalls being in Washington on the day, Dr John Bruni asks whether the West has learned anything, Professor David Flint makes the case for Swiss style direct democracy, Professor Toby Walsh separates AI fact from fear, and veteran newsman John Ovenden shares his greatest scoop.

In this show
0:00:00 Jeremy Cordeaux opens the show
0:32:44 Dr John Bruni: 25 Years After 9/11, Have We Learned Anything?
1:01:50 John Howard Relives 9/11 in Washington and Slams Trump's $5,000 Pitch
1:31:30 Professor David Flint: Give Power Back to the People, Swiss Style
2:02:10 Professor Toby Walsh: Will AI Really Kill Us All?
2:28:47 John Ovenden's Greatest Scoop, Star Encounters and Newsroom Pranks

Prefer one conversation at a time? Every interview is also available as its own episode in The Court of Public Opinion feed.

This show aired live on The Court of Public Opinion on Friday 11 September 2026.

The Court of Public Opinion with Jeremy Cordeaux AM streams live every Friday from the dining room table at jeremycordeaux.com and via Auscast Radio at auscastnetwork.com. Download the podcast anytime on your favourite podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Veteran broadcaster John Ovenden, whose career has taken in the ABC, the BBC and Channel 10 across 10 countries, joins Jeremy Cordeaux AM around the dining room table for a morning of stories from behind the microphone.

He recalls the day he beat the competition to the Adelaide Festival program, the emotional moment he found his surname on the Thiepval memorial, the stars who would never give an interview and the ones who did, from Elton John to Muhammad Ali, plus pranks from the newsroom floor and a very special birthday gift for Jeremy.

This interview aired live on The Court of Public Opinion on Friday 11 September 2026.

The Court of Public Opinion with Jeremy Cordeaux AM streams live every Friday from the dining room table at jeremycordeaux.com and via Auscast Radio at auscastnetwork.com. Download the podcast anytime on your favourite podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.