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.

 

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Josh was at Jerry Seinfeld's Sydney show last night, which was disrupted by Palestinian protesters in the audience. Josh shares his initial reaction and reflects on Gaza activism and anti-Zionism.

 

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On September 11th, 2001, the Australian prime minister, John Howard, was scheduled to meet with President George W Bush at the White House. While he was hunkered down in Washington during the terrorist attacks, Australia was being run by his deputy, the Acting Prime Minister, John Anderson. John was the equivalent of Australia’s Vice President during some of the most significant events in recent history.

 

Anderson is a Christian conservative who opposed same-sex marriage and the 2023 indigenous referendum. He and Josh have a fascinating time, wrestling with the biggest issues of culture and politics -- from religious faith, to gay rights, to Gaza. He brings you his first-hand experience inside the halls of power. John now interviews public intellectuals on his podcast, Conversations with John Anderson.

 

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Is it useful or debilitating to frame Indigenous people merely as victims of history?

 

Anthony Dillon is an Indigenous Australian, an academic and commentator who rejects today’s popular ideologies about White Australia, invasion and racism. He and Josh wrestle with how to make progress on First Nations issues in an innovative way.

 

This episode is part of Permission to Think, a collaboration with the University of Technology Sydney, thanks to Professor Alan Davison. It’s a taste of a longer episode which you can hear by popping over to https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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Peter Helliar is one of Australia's biggest stand-up comedians. He was on TV every night for eight years as a panellist on The Project. He had his own network sitcom, How to Stay Married. He's a rockstar of the Melbourne Comedy Festival. He was nominated for Australia's biggest TV award, a Gold Logie. Last year, he was a contestant on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! When we sat down with him recently, he was playing the narrator in a live production of The Rocky Horror Show.

 

This interview was recorded shortly after another comedian, Arj Barker, asked a breastfeeding mother to leave his Melbourne Comedy Festival show when the baby was making too much noise, sparking a cultural debate about discrimination against mums versus the craft of comedy. Peter is hugely insightful as a performer. Enjoy.

 

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Andrew Tate. Jordan Peterson. Joe Rogan. From where are young males getting their models of masculinity? What does it even mean to Be A Man in the 21st century?

 

Osher Günsberg is the biggest TV host Down Under. For the past 21 years, he has been a mainstay of the country’s biggest shows as the host of Australian Idol, The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and The Masked Singer, which were recently cancelled. He’s the narrator of Bondi Rescue, and his podcast, Better Than Yesterday, is one of the country’s biggest shows. In it, he discusses his mental health journey with high-profile guests.

 

Osher, like Josh, is the father of a boy. Here, he and Josh wrestle with male violence, women's safety, masculinity, mental health, and being a dad.

 

This conversation is a great listen in its own right, but the whole thing is even better. To hear the final section, get your own personalised premium ad-free feed by jumping over to https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

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As the U.K. prepares for a sudden national election in four weeks, Helen Lewis and Josh wrestle with the issues that dominate all around the English-speaking world. Anger about rising prices – check. Anxiety about immigration – check. Dislocation due to globalisation – check. A culture war about wokeness – check.

 

Helen is arguably Britain's most insightful and entertaining journalist. Her interview with Jordan Peterson for GQ has nearly 70 million views on YouTube. She's done several terrific radio series and podcasts: The Spark, Great Wives, and The New Gurus; and she co-hosts The Private Eye Podcast. Her book, Difficult Women, was an instant classic. She’s a frequent panellist on the smash hit BBC TV panel show Have I Got News for You. And her columns in The Atlantic, where she is a staff writer, are a must-read.

 

If you believe the polls (and who could possibly doubt them these days?), the Labour Party leader, Sir Keir Starmer, is about to sweep away fourteen years of conservative rule. There’s no one better to explain why than the unmissable Helen Lewis.

 

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Josh had a rough week. He shares his advice about how to live a resilient, productive life -- to himself as much as to you. 

 

This is a preview of a longer monologue for paid subscribers. We hope you enjoy it. Thanks for listening.

 

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Does being "left-wing" mean giving everyone equal opportunities? Or does it mean elevating historically excluded groups like gays, trans folks and people of colour? Professor Clive Hamilton is a professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University. He was active in the civil rights movements of the 1970s and he founded the country's most important left-wing think tank, the Australia Institute, thirty years ago.

 

In additon to his many books about the threat from China and from climate change, he penned an article: "Wake up, lefties, and reject wokeness".

 

This episode is part of Permission to Think, a collaboration with the University of Technology, Sydney, where Josh is a visiting fellow. Thanks to the university’s dean of Arts and Social Sciences, Professor Alan Davison, for making it possible.

 

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We opened up the webcams for a live Zoom talkback episode. We discuss fascinating news stories, Josh shares a private essay he wrote to his friends who are having a dispute over Joe Rogan, and you’ll learn how he keeps his cool during testy conversations.

 

Keep an eye out for more live talkback sessions in the future, and make sure you’re signed up to http://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com to be part of the team.

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