Straight Talk with Mark Bouris

Steve Baxter is a former Shark Tank investor, ex-Army guided weapons technician, and founder of Beaten Zone Venture Partners, a fund backing Australian defence startups and pushing them into the US market where the real money is.

In this conversation, Steve takes us from growing up in outback Queensland and joining the army at 15, through building and selling one of Australia's biggest dial-up internet providers, to why he believes private capital — not government grants — is the key to Australia's sovereign defence capability.

We get into cardboard drones that took out Russian aircraft in Kursk, robot dogs armed for the battlefield, a hypersonic aircraft built in Brisbane, and why 83% of Australia's super funds won't touch defence investment because of ESG. Steve also gives his blunt take on the Iran war, why he thinks deterrence beats conflict every time, and what he'd say to anyone about investing in the business of war.

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Gerard Rennick, founder of the People First Party and former Queensland senator, joined me to discuss his journey from rural Queensland to politics and why he believes Australia needs more leaders with real-world experience.

Drawing on his background in finance and a Master’s in Tax Law, Rennick shared his views on the economy, housing, taxation, productivity and capital markets. He has since built his own party from the ground up around five policies he believes could fundamentally reshape how Australia handles money, tax, superannuation and infrastructure.

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Former Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Nick Coatsworth joins me for a wide-ranging conversation on leadership, healthcare, and the future of Australia.

Drawing on his experiences in humanitarian medicine, the COVID pandemic, and the health system, Dr Coatsworth shares his perspectives on public policy, economic challenges, and what Australia needs to do to build a stronger future. It’s a thoughtful discussion on resilience, responsibility, and the lessons that shape better decision-making

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Most people think self-doubt is the problem. Dr. Shadé Zahrai says it's not... it's what's underneath it.

In this episode we sit down with communication expert and PhD researcher Dr. Shadé Zahrai to unpack the four psychological drivers that either fuel your self-doubt or build what she calls "Big Trust." This isn't therapy-speak, it's research-backed, practical, and built for people who are already doing the work but can't figure out why they keep getting in their own way.

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Dr Stacy Sims is one of the world's leading exercise physiologists specialising in women's health, and she joins Project 100 to explain why the science women have been given is largely based on male data and what that means for how women should actually train, eat, and protect their healthspan.

From the cellular differences between the sexes, to perimenopause, creatine, protein timing, Alzheimer's risk, and why sleep beats everything else. This is a conversation every woman (and the people who love them) need to hear.

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Jim Jefferies has done 6 Netflix specials, more than any comedian on earth.

But this conversation goes well beyond comedy. Jim opens up about his nephew Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent, one of four soldiers killed in the Whitsundays helicopter crash, and why he believes both Liberal and Labor governments closed ranks to bury the truth.

From ICE raids to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's joke scandal, Ozempic to sports cards, this is Jim Jefferies completely unfiltered.

Find tickets to see Jim on his Australian comedy tour here: https://jimjefferies.com/

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Tim Lawless is Australia's most closely watched property data analyst and right now, the market is moving faster than anyone predicted.

As Head of Research at Cotality (formerly CoreLogic), Lawless sits at the centre of every major shift in Australian housing. In this conversation, he and Mark Bouris go deep on what the federal budget has done to investor confidence, why the numbers are deteriorating faster than the data can capture, and what the property market realistically looks like from here. Lawless also walks through the economics of holding an investment property in 2026, city by city, with unusual candour about where the opportunities may eventually re-emerge. 

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Chris Joye is one of Australia's sharpest economic minds. He's a fund manager, AFR columnist, and architect of the indices used to measure Australian house prices.

In this conversation, Joye delivers a blunt assessment of where Australia is headed economically. He argues the federal budget was a defining moment that exposed the government's agenda: taxing the private sector to fund an expanding public service. He connects that policy shift to rising inflation, falling house prices, and a growing brain drain that few politicians are willing to confront honestly.

Topics covered:
• Why the federal budget was a turning point for Australian economic confidence
• Sydney and Melbourne house prices falling at double-digit annual rates
• The RBA's inflation battle and why interest rates may need to go higher
• Australia's national and state debt crisis and what it means for future taxes
• The case for cutting the NDIS, selling the NBN, and raising the GST
• Why high-net-worth Australians and entrepreneurs are quietly leaving
• Trump's economic model and what Australia could learn from US prosperity

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Mark Schwarzer is one of the greatest goalkeepers Australia has ever produced — 109 caps, a Premier League career spanning two decades, and a front-row seat to some of football's most defining moments.

Recorded during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, we break down Australia's chances against Egypt, what it actually feels like to face a penalty shootout, and why he believes the current Socceroos squad might be the most exciting group of Australian footballers ever assembled.

We speak about:
• How Australia should set up tactically against Mo Salah and Egypt
• Why Kylian Mbappé appears to have more time on the ball than anyone else
• The psychology of penalty shootouts from a goalkeeper's perspective
• The infamous 2006 World Cup loss to Italy and Fabian Grosso's theatrical dive
• Growing up in Grose Wold and his path from Marconi FC to European football
• Football as the one sport that unites multicultural Australia
• The John Travolta story from the Uruguay qualifier dressing room

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Dave Hughes is one of Australia's most recognisable comedians — but for the past six weeks, he has been one of the country's loudest voices on the budget changes to the Capital Gains Tax.

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