Better Than Yesterday with Osher Günsberg

Briggs is an Indigenous Australian rapper, actor, comedian, and record label owner from Shepparton, Victoria. 

From his breakout album in 2009, Briggs has gone on to dominate the hip hop scene here and abroad. 

He’s released four solo albums, as well as the landmark “Reclaim Australia” with AB Original - an album that spoke volumes to the conversation about race relations in our country. 

A.B. Original were recently crowned APRA’s 2018 Songwriters of the Year and in 2017 won the ARIAs for Best Independent Release and Best Urban Album and Triple J’s J Award for Album of the Year for their album Reclaim Australia.

He’s an actor - featuring in Cleverman, Black Comedy and The Weekly - and also a highly regarded comedy writer, most notably working with Matt Groening on his series Disenchantment. 

Briggs' new single is called “Life Is Incredible” a shot to the gut aimed at life expectancy of Indigenous Australians compared to the rest of the population. 

Like all great artists - he performs to the top of his intelligence at all times. And as Briggs is a very, very smart man - that makes him a force of nature. 

Briggs is also a legit coffee nerd, so there’s a fair chunk of solid coffee talk at the top that will impress anyone who weighs their beans. 

@briggs on twitter and @senatorbriggs on IG to let him know you heard him here. 

Enjoy this conversation with Briggs.

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Jonathan Haidt is a Social psychologist at NYU-Stern. He’s the author of The Righteous Mind, and his latest book The Coddling of The American Mind. 

We are a few weeks out from an election here in Australia so I couldn’t think of a better time to get someone on the show to help us explore how our thinking is being swayed from outside influences, why we are getting just so super-sensitive to things we never used to be sensitive about, and indeed what we stand to lose by protecting ourselves from and avoiding things that make us uncomfortable. 

We talk about what’s wrong with trigger warnings, and how we as a society have been slowly getting more and more polarised. 

I hope this conversation helps you in your decision this election - helps you make a choice that isn’t influenced by things you’ve read on Facebook that are written to fire you up but don’t really reflect reality or indeed the nuance of the argument. 

I hope this conversation encourages you to explore just that - the nuance of the issue at hand, not the knee-jerk emotional response that we seem to have been drawn into more and more in this FB like-button world of calling out perpetrators to our team and finding offence to something as small as a lower-case proper noun (which I have been called out for). 

Jonathan is just fascinating and I highly recommend you track down his books which you can find out more about at righteousmind.com and thecoddling.com

If you like what you hear - let him know on twitter @jonhaidt he’s touring Australia in July you can get tickets to his talks at thinkinc.org and please enjoy this conversation with Jonathan Haidt.

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My guest today is Jo Thornely - on twitter @JoThornely. 

Jo is an author, podcaster and music aficionado from Sydney Australia. 

A rabid live-tweeter of The Bachelor in all its forms, Jo is also utterly fascinated by Cults. Her Book and podcast of the same name “Zealot” is an incredibly interesting exploration into what makes people believe things that really, really aren’t real - and believe them so much that they will do, and have done, many many really awful things. 

It’s absolutely fascinating and I can’t wait for you to hear it. 

It’s particularly interesting when looked at through the lens of what makes people believe in things that really aren’t real - like Climate Change deniers and the anti-vac movement - the parallels are strong and I’d encourage you to consider how she describes the way people get trapped in that kind of thinking. 

Jo’s book Zealot is out wherever you get books. It’s grim, it is real, and it is darkly, darkly funny. 

Enjoy this conversation with Jo Thornely.

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My guest today needs very little introduction. 

Ian Dickson. Dicko as you’d know him, was a brilliantly powerful record company executive that worked hand in glove with Simon Cowell as they created and broke Westlife across the planet. He came out to Australia to work with BMG records and a few years later came to public prominence as the ‘nasty’ judge on Australian Idol. A massive media career followed, TV shows, radio shows, you name it, he did it. 

But as you’ll hear in our chat - the Dicko as we knew him no longer exists. 

He’s a different man. A man who’s left behind what he once was and once wanted, and is now rediscovering his passion for music from an entirely different place. 

He’s putting on a massive festival which we go into great detail about - the gig is happening August 10th on the Gold Coast - get your tickets at https://www.almostthegreatestgigonearth.com

You thought you knew Dicko. 

You thought you knew what drove him. 

Prepare to know something new. 

Enjoy this conversation with Ian Dicko Dickson. 

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My guest today is Mahmood Fazal. 

He’s a journalist for Vice, and hosts the compelling podcast “Violent Times”, a show that explores the role of violence in our modern society. From speaking to graffiti artists who were involved in brutal street violence in Melbourne in the 80s and 90s, to connecting with Australia’s Deadliest Soldier, to spending an afternoon with the Yakuza in Japan - Mahmood gets face to face with the people who have not only committed violence on others, but have been victims of violence themselves.  

Mahmood’s story is a heavy one. 

The son of Afghani immigrants, Mahmood was just a kid at school with a different name and probably a stranger lunch than the other kids. Then 9/11 happened. 

Then things changed for the young man.

I’ll let Mahmood tell it - however his own path into violence, living with the consequences of violence and indeed his redemption from violence, is a riveting and compelling story. 

Just off the top here. 

This is a conversation about violence. 

We needed to describe violent acts in order to put things into context. Some of the descriptions are quite graphic. 

If that sort of thing isn’t for you - all good, I’ll see you next episode. 

With that being said - I hope you get a lot out of this conversation with Mahmood Fazal.

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Todd Liubinskas is Strength and Conditioning Coach, Entrepreneur, and the new Fitness Director at Men’s Health. 

He’s also the founder of “Let’s Get Going” a non-profit mentor and experience program. They aspire to promote the health and well being of adults from the age of 18 years old with an intellectual or physical challenge. One of their goals is to provide a fitness program that will be fun, safe and enhance social relationships; as well as establishing a pattern of physical activity to promote wellness throughout adult life.

Todd is also involved in a rapidly exploding grass-roots fitness community called The 440 - which takes place just down the road here in Bronte where we live. 

Despite his boulder shoulders and abs that look like a plate of smooth river rocks perfectly arranged in a fancy design magazine, one of Todd’s big focus points is on how he can share the benefits of moving your body with those who might not move their body much, if at all.

He works with many people to help inspire them to get moving, to get access to that physical and mental benefit of moving. 

On the back of my chat with Tanya Hennessy last week - if you’re looking to get moving, even just a little bit - Todd’s got some words for you. 

You can find him on IG @toddybinskas, #the440 online with his work at Men’s Health. 

Enjoy this conversation with Todd Liubinskas. 

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