Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

How do you escape the shaming of the mob when you're a public figure with original ideas?

 

Tim Minchin is one of the most successful creatives Australia has ever produced. He wrote the music and lyrics for Matilda the Musical, which won more Olivier Awards than any other show in history at the time. Now in its 13th year, the show continues to sell out on the West End. The Broadway production was nominated for a stash of Tonys. The 2022 movie version is a riot.

 

Minchin went on to write the Broadway stage musical Groundhog Day, which scored seven Tony Award nominations and won the Olivier for Best New Musical.

 

Tim has starred in massive arena shows like Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, and sells out stadiums with his own blend of music, comedy, and musical comedy. He co-wrote and starred in the hit television comedy show Upright and he's a staple on the biggest TV talk shows.

 

But he's been most influential as a thinker, rationalist and activist -- as a New Atheist, a Defender of the Enlightenment and a Renaissance Man. He often finds himself at odds with the progressive wing of the artistic scene... cautious about being cancelled, but compelled to call out the bullshit he sees.

 

Due to copyright, we aren’t able to include the full versions of the songs mentioned in this podcast, but I urge you to listen if you’re unfamiliar with Tim’s work:

 

White Wine In The Sun
https://youtu.be/fCNvZqpa-7Q?si=dTedPJk58G54Ikza

When I Grow Up
https://youtu.be/6Y82wktAEmQ?si=gVaVtvQIO1f8jCEB

Woody Allen Jesus

https://youtu.be/_SFdUJLebzU?si=1-rBM5ht7xt85V1S   

 

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First things first: The Uncomfortable Conversations LIVE touring empire is expanding, with live shows in Sydney and Melbourne in August with the inimitable Coleman Hughes. Tickets are selling fast. Get yours now. Don’t miss out:

 

Sydney https://bit.ly/Coleman-Szeps-Syd

Melbourne https://bit.ly/Coleman-Szeps-Melb

 

Meanwhile, the new YouTube page is going gangbusters. The episode you're listening to was shot as an outdoor TV interview on an early spring day in a Manhattan park. Check it out and subscribe to YouTube for more cool videos to come: https://bit.ly/UC_Videos

 

Thomas Chatterton Williams is a New Yorker who lives in Paris. He's the son of a Black father from the segregated South and a white mother from the West. He himself is the father of two white-looking children. Straddling the USA and Europe has given him a fascinating insight into identity, diversity and life as a Black man in America and in France. His memoir, Self–Portrait in Black and White, is a must-read.

 

As Thomas and Josh chat on a chilly but sunny New York day, they wrestle with the Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan attacks, Islamism, blood-and-soil right-wingers, George Floyd’s murder, racial profiling, and much more.

 

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When Sydney's biggest broadsheet newspaper published an opinion piece by Josh on the occasion of the Mardi Gras Gay Pride Parade, it triggered a backlash from some in the LGBT+ community. One of Josh's attackers was a prominent activist, Alastair Lawrie, the Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Justice and Equity Centre.

 

Instead of arguing with Alastair on Twitter, Josh invited him on the show to hash out their differences and discuss what challenges the LGBTQ+ community still faces.

 

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Well, what happens now? Does Donald Trump win? Does he lose? To whom? What are we all in for?

 

On the eve of Trump’s coronation as the Republican presidential candidate at the party’s National Convention this week, he was narrowly shot in an apparent assassination attempt at a rally.

 

Is this the most dramatic election of our lives? David Frum is one of the most influential anti-Trumpers to come out of a Republican White House. As President George W Bush’s speechwriter, he's credited with the famous phrase the "axis of evil". He wrote the first insider account of the Bush presidency. Frum is now a senior editor at The Atlantic.

 

David and Josh sat down shortly before the Trump shooting for the occasion of the Republican National Convention. They discuss Trump’s plans, Biden’s options, the fate of both parties… and of America.

 

In the first half-hour of this episode, Josh reflects on how to process this moment, and how the assassination attempt and response have already begun to shape what the future will hold for this campaign as well as American democracy at large.

 

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Josh Szeps

𝕁𝕠𝕤𝕙 𝕊𝕫𝕖𝕡𝕤 (@joshzepps) on X

Instagram (@joshszeps)

Josh Szeps on TikTok

 

"Transsexual" sounds like an old-fashioned term. But it describes a real medical condition in which your brain has the opposite sex from your body. Are transsexuals threatened by newer gender-queer, non-binary theories of sex?

 

Dr Dana Beyer says so. She's one of the most influential and effective trans activists in history. A medical doctor and self-described transsexual, she's been striding the hallways of power since the 1970s meeting with the likes of Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden to achieve landmark wins for LGBT rights. Today, she believes modern gender theory is harming transsexuals like herself.

 

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Boomers. Millennials. Gen X. Gen Z. Are you actually in control of your feelings about gender fluidity, social media, streaming television, laptops, jumbo jets and the pill, or have you absorbed the norms of your generation?

 

Dr Jean Twenge is a psychology professor who's been studying large, national surveys of young people for decades, teasing out how the generations differ. Her books include an analysis of millennials ("Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled―And More Miserable Than Ever Before"), Gen Z ("iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy―and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood―and What That Means for the Rest of Us") and most recently, a study of every single one of us in "Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents―and What They Mean for America's Future".

 

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Europe is holding its breath ahead of France’s parliamentary elections, in which a “far right” party could win power for the first time since WWII.

 

The hero of 21st-century right-wing European triumphalism is Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán. Many European far-right candidtaes are his devoted fan boys, as are farther-flung admirers like Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson.

 

This week, Hungary assumed the rotating leadership of the European Union presidency. Orbán’s first move was to swoop into Kyiv to tell the Ukrainian President to stop fighting and get along better with those nice Russkies.

 

How has this anti-Western, anti-democratic strongman upended a European democracy? What’s happened to Hungary? And could it happen here?

 

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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President Biden’s catastrophic debate performance has left many people worried about his electoral chances against Donald Trump. At this late stage, is there any way out?

 

Here, you get a double feature. In the first half-hour, Josh shares his reaction to the debate and his advice on Democratic messaging. Then the iconic political scientist Yascha Mounk -- an expert in how democracies thrive or fail – joins us to explain the pathway to Democratic victory. But is Joe Biden part of the plan?

 

Finally, for premium subscribers, Yascha proposes a strategy for either the Republicans or the Democrats to win back popular support and re-stitch the fabric of American democracy.

 

For more terrific content and to join the Uncomfy Convos multiverse, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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Why does the death of some people punch us in the gut, and others slide by? Does your way of grieving indicate what you value in life?

 

Judith Whelan died last night. She was 62. She was Josh’s mentor, his champion, his arch-defender, playmate, and confidante, despite being his boss’s boss’s boss. She is, in many ways, the person who made Josh’s current career possible.

 

Another mentor and friend, Howard Fineman, died two weeks ago. And Josh’s father is in the death spiral of Alzheimer’s.

 

Here, Josh answers a question his six-year-old daughter asked him this morning: Why is he crying for Judith Whelan… but not his own dad?

 

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What's up with kids these days? ADHD. Autism. Bullying. Toxic boys. Self-harming girls. Social media addiction. Coddled teens. Anxious parents. A lot of folks are wringing their hands about the young-un's mental health. Josh thought he'd pick the brain of one of the world's leading experts who actually works at the coalface with troubled kids. Dr Billy Garvey is a senior specialist in child mental health at one of the largest tertiary paediatric hospitals in the world.

 

Billy challenges many of Josh's assumptions about parenting and childhood. He's a fascinating, insightful, riveting guy whose own podcast about raising kids is called Pop Culture Parenting. His show is blowing up in Australia as parents crave simple, evidence-based strategies to raise tiny mewling lizard-people into flourishing human beings.

 

Billy's new book is Ten Things I Wish You Knew About Your Child’s Mental Health. Enjoy.

 

To subscribe to Josh’s premium podcast feed. Hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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