Better Than Yesterday with Osher Günsberg

Sonya Pemberton is an Emmy-winning science documentary maker.

She’s recently made JABBED - love, fear and vaccines; URANIUM - Twisting the Dragon's Tail, and now, #VITAMANIA all about how many if any vitamins we need daily. 

We got in touch when a few months ago I put a photo of myself getting some vaccination shots up on instagram.

We have a baby on the way. 

I don’t want that baby to die of a disease that belongs in a Dickens novel. 

Vaccines are proven effective by the scientific process, so therefore I use vaccines. 

It’s a pretty simple thing to say. 

But some people lost their fuckin’ minds at me. 

There’s a lot of very convincing, very flawed information out in the world about vaccines. 

To the point that people were accusing me of wanting to kill my child, and accusing me of being on the take from pharmaceutical companies. 

I explored a bit more as to why people might believe such things. Things that clearly aren’t true. 

And I started to discover that if I took the attitude of “I’m right and you’re stupid” that wouldn’t change anything. 

If I acknowledged the fear and the incredible wanting to cause no harm to their child - and that being the root of the desire to explore if vaccines were safe - well that’s a different story. 

If you google something for long enough eventually you’ll get an answer that confirms your opinion. 

That’s how algorithms work. 

You get more of what you click on. 

Then you eventually vanish down into a filter-bubble of confirmation bias. Where you never see anything other than the kind of things you click on. 

If you spend long enough on FB and You Tube, you’ll quickly come across a conspiracy theory - no matter what it is you’re looking for. 

Things start to get scary. 

Eventually, wanting to feel less alone, or looking for others in a time of fear people reach 

out to others who are also concerned - primarily in Facebook groups. 

There they find a welcome ear, and support and more confirmation that they’re making the right decision. 

That’s when it gets kind of cult-like for me. 

There’s an appeal to purity that kicks in, and threat of exclusion if you ever leave the group or say anything against that group. I see it in the vegan community all the time. 

So people start to identify as a part of that group or movement, even if it’s a movement based on collective delusion that’s been disproven time and again. 

Once that identity is set in - any challenge to the base belief of that identity is seen as heresy and ends up pushing people deeper into that delusion. 

And that’s where the incredible reactionary positions and violent language happens. 

It’s really confronting. 

It would be super scary to be in it because you’d have a belief that the world is out to get you and me and your kids. 

I could tell you it doesn’t, but they told you I’d say that didn’t they?

As we learned from Jo Thornely, that’s straight up cult-talk 101. 

So. 

In the middle of all of this noise and anger when I was just trying to talk about something that’s real, I was contacted by our mutual friend Caroline Pegram who looks after Dr Karl. 

She told me I should have Sonya on the podcast - because of the extraordinary film she made - Jabbed, a film all about vaccines and how they work and the history of vaccines which goes back hundreds and hundreds of years. 

We managed to make that conversation happen. 

It was over Skype, so thanks for understanding the audio...

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Stephen Dupont is a conflict photojournalist from Australia.

For thirty years he’s travelled the world photographing people, places and cultures at  their most beautiful, their most vulnerable, and often their most violent.

Stephen is a rare breed of person, the kind that willingly forges forward into a conflict zone, hoping to get the right shot that will tell the story of those in side the conflict so that those on the outside world may bear witness to it and maybe do something to change it. 

As you’d imagine, Stephen has seen and documented moments of humans being their most horrendous to each other. 

From witnessing American Soldiers burning the bodies of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan - a photograph that changed the rules of engagement around the world - to being blown up in a suicide bombing that killed fifteen people - Stephen has seen and documented and lived and breathed and smelled the horrors of humanity, and he’s lived to talk about it. To share what he’s seen. 

Stephen is fascinating to talk to, and if your’e into photography you can catch him at Aperture Australia, the largest photography conference in Southern Hemisphere is set to return to Sydney International Convention Centre (ICC) in Darling Harbour, Sydney on the weekend of 22-23 June - more details at apertureaustralia.com.au

If you like what you hear, you can let him know on IG - @stephenmdupont, but for now come to my apartment for a cup of coffee with a truly fantastic Australian, Stephen Dupont.

***A note! I get confused in this episode and mistakenly said that photographer Bob King had passed away.

He's thankfully very much alive!

I got confused - Bob asked me about a photo I took of him and another shooter who did pass away for the funeral programme and in the moment I got the names confused.

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Doris Younane is a highly acclaimed Australian actor who became a household name for her role in Nine Network’s McLeod’s Daughters. However she’s been on our screens and stages for a long time. 

Heartbreak High, Rake, False Witness, Water Rats, Blackjack, Stingers, Sea Change, Party Tricks, Janet King, Catching Milat, Soul Mates, even The Wrong Girl.

Now Doris is on the new Ten drama “Five Bedrooms".

Doris came around to the apartment the other day to chat about life, studying at NIDA, being in a relationship for 20 years and the perils of living in the public eye. 

You may not be an actor, you may not be female, and you may not one day dream of being either - however I guarantee that you’ll hear something in Doris story today that will lift you, inspire you, and make you want to get after whatever it is that floats your boat - anything from getting your taxes done right to making sure your family has the best shot at life - something you’ll hear today will give you a kick in the pants. 

Because that’s what I sure got out of this chat. 

Enjoy this conversation with Doris Younane

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Stan Grant is an Australian television news and political journalist. He is currently the ABC's indigenous and international affairs analyst, and professor of global affairs at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia.

He’s written a number of books, two which absolutely stand out are Talking to My Country, and his latest book Australia Day. 

You see Stan is an Aboriginal First Nation Australian man. 

His father was an elder of the Wiradjuri people - a country that stretches across central NSW - from Wagga Wagga and Leeton to West Wyalong, Parkes, Dubbo, Forbes, Cootamundra, Cowra and Young among other places.

Stan has spent much of his career abroad - covering conflict, has witnessed the unimaginable horrors of war, and has lived for years in countries far from his own. 

These days, Stan is back and he’s written a book called Australia Day. 

A book about not just about a difficult day in our community - the 26th of January, the day we as a nation celebrate Captain Cook planting a flag and declaring this country for England - for some it’s the day that Australia as we know it began. For others it’s the day that Australia as they knew it ended. 

It’s a complex thing to talk about. There’s a lot of emotion around what it is to be Australian, and the role of the legacy of colonialism on us all, Indigenous or otherwise - and where we go from here. It’s a hot-button topic. One that deserves a long conversation and a deep exploration. It’s no accident I’m putting this out at the start of national reconciliation week 2019. 

So let’s go. Come to my house and enjoy a cuppa and a conversation with a man that speaks as if he’s free styling poetry, Stan Grant.

LINKS:

• Watch episodes of Better Than Yesterday on YouTube
• Watch Story Club on YouTube and grab tickets to Story Club's next show
• My books So What? Now What? and Back After The Break are available here
• Send a pic of what you're looking at to [email protected]

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Julian Mitchell is the co-founder of the Mushroom cultivation company Life Cykel find about more about him and the work he’s doing at LifeCykel.com

He’s an interesting guy - he used to work in the mining industry and had a moment where he chose to do something different. Something very different. 

Something that would put people more in touch with the food they ate, and something which would allow recycling of food and waste products in a sustainable way. 

Life Cykel have made some heavy hitting friends, and in a few days they’re partnering with Virgin Airlines on World Environment Day to divert the coffee waste from their lounges away from landfill, to use them instead to grow mushrooms which will one day return to the menu at the Virgin Lounge. 

This conversation is a little different from a regular podcast I do. It sounds like you think it will, two guys nerding out about mushrooms. 

Hopefully it gets you thinking more about where your waste goes, where you get your food from , and how you might reduce one and increase the other. 

Enjoy this conversation with Julian Mitchell. 

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Checking in, May 17, 2019

James Mathison. 

My former Channel [v] and Australian Idol team mate. 

Former campaigner for the federal electorate of Waringah up against Tony Abbot.

Host of the TV show Thrones 360, the wrap up show that airs after Game Of Thrones on Foxtel - the last ever episode which comes out this Monday. 

It’s an election tomorrow in Australia. 

Let’s talk democracy, and what is working - what isn’t working and what else we might do about fairly governing millions of people. 

Come to my kitchen table to chat with my dear friend, and a man that will change the world, James Mathison.  

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