Forum Podcast

University of Melbourne postgraduate student Jimmy Yan interviews Professor Sean Scalmer about his new book, Democratic Adventurer: Graham Berry and the Making of Australian Politics, which launches on 25 May 2020 on Monash University Press. 

The publisher's summary of Democratic Adventurer reads as follows: 

Graham Berry (1822-1904) was colonial Australia’s most gifted, creative and controversial politician. A riveting speaker, a newspaper proprietor and editor, and the founder of Australia’s first mass political party, he wielded these tools to launch an age of reform: spearheading the adoption of a ‘protectionist’ economic policy, the payment of parliamentarians, and the taxing of large landowners. He also sought the reform of the Constitution, precipitating a crisis that the London Times likened to a ‘revolution’. This book recovers Berry’s forgotten and fascinating life. It explores his drives and aspirations, the scandals and defeats that nearly derailed his career, and his remarkable rise from linen-draper and grocer to adored popular leader. It establishes his formative influence on later Australian politics. And it also uses Berry’s life to reflect on the possibilities and constraints of democratic politics, hoping thereby to enrich the contemporary political imagination.

Forum is a podcast produced by SHAPS, the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

This podcast was produced by the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which our University operates - lands of the Kulin peoples, which includes the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung, Wathaurong, Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung peoples, as well as the Yorta Yorta nation. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty to these lands was never ceded.

Explaining Change: Aristotle and the Pandemic

This podcast episode is intended to help us think through our current situation during the global coronavirus pandemic. The focus of this episode is on understanding the phenomenon of change, or more specifically, how we understand the causes of change. This is a philosophical discussion, although I have prepared it in a way that presumes its listeners, namely all of you, do not necessarily have any philosophical background. It is also a discussion about how to think about living our lives – indeed about restructuring our lives – as a consequence of having had this collective experience. In sum, I will try to take you through how Aristotle might have understood the purpose of the pandemic.

Disaster & Change is a special series of Forum, a podcast produced by SHAPS, the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

This podcast was produced by the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which our University operates - lands of the Kulin peoples, which includes the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung, Wathaurong, Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung peoples, as well as the Yorta Yorta nation. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty to these lands was never ceded.

Does Disaster inevitably lead to political change? The case of the Soviet Union and World War II

Does an unplanned and large-scale calamity – a war, say, or a global economic crisis – lead to lasting social, cultural, and political change? This podcast explores this question with regard to the Soviet Union and World War II. The calamity of the war had a devastating impact on Soviet society, on the Soviet economy, and on the Soviet population. Hopes for social and political change were high in 1945, but they were nearly universally disappointed. The dictatorship and the command economy, which had been adapted during the catastrophe of the war, snapped back into their pre-war mould. And yet, there were subterranean changes in politics, the economy, and society, which would work themselves out over the coming decades. The podcast explains some of these changes and ends by drawing larger conclusions on the relationship between disaster and change.

Mark Edele is Hansen Professor of History and Deputy Head of School of the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies. Parts of this podcast use material from his current book project Stalinism at War. The Soviet Union in World War II. Some sections have been published as Mark Edele, "The Soviet Culture of Victory," Journal of Contemporary History 54, No. 4 (2019): 780-98. The book on veterans mentioned in the podcast is Martin Crotty, Neil J. Diamant and Mark Edele, The Politics of Veteran Benefits in the Twentieth Century. A Comparative History (Cornell University Press, 2020). 

Disaster & Change is a special series of Forum, a podcast produced by SHAPS, the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

This podcast was produced by the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which our University operates - lands of the Kulin peoples, which includes the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung, Wathaurong, Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung peoples, as well as the Yorta Yorta nation. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty to these lands was never ceded.

In the Midst of Death There is Life: Collapse and Recovery from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Professor Janet McCalman opens our new podcast series by discussing the recent bushfire and Covid-19 coronavirus crises and Australia's political pitfalls and opportunities.

Disaster & Change is a special series of Forum, a podcast produced by SHAPS, the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia. 

This podcast was produced by the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which our University operates - lands of the Kulin peoples, which includes the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung, Wathaurong, Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung peoples, as well as the Yorta Yorta nation. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty to these lands was never ceded.

Professor Margaret Cameron, head of SHAPS, introduces the new podcast series.

Disaster & Change is a special series of Forum, a podcast produced by SHAPS, the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

This podcast was produced by the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which our University operates - lands of the Kulin peoples, which includes the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung, Wathaurong, Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung peoples, as well as the Yorta Yorta nation. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty to these lands was never ceded.