Even if you're not Australian, you want to listen to this conversation with one of the nation's most iconic statesmen.

Bob Carr is a former foreign minister of Australia (i.e. the secretary of state) and, before that, the longest-continuously-serving Premier of NSW, Australia's most populous state. He's an intellectual powerhouse, an icolonoclast, a champion debater, a student of American history, of geopolitics and of diplomacy.

For the first portion of this conversation, he and Josh discuss Australian issues - nuclear submarines, his tenure as state leader. But the second half is a delightful rumination on power, Trump, the liberal world order, China, success, legacy, and grief.

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What are Trump and Putin cooking up for Ukraine? Can the Europeans sideline it? What options does Ukraine still have on the table? And does any of this really matter to non-Europeans any more?

This week, the ceasefire talks that President Trump boasted he'd wrap up in 24 hours fell apart, again. Russia says it wants an end to the war, if Ukraine effectively surrenders. Trump now admits Putin might be "dragging his feet".

Misha Zelinsky lived in Ukraine for the first year of the war, reporting from the conflict. A Fulbright Scholar and national security expert, he has the honour of being personally sanctioned by the Putin regime.

Misha and Josh assess where the conflict currently stands, what Ukraine's options are now, and whether it still matters to the rest of us.

His recent book is "The Sun Will Rise", a fictional story inspired by his time in Ukraine.

In this conversation, we reference:

• Josh's conversation with the former President of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, here.

• Josh's conversation with Wall Street Journal reporter Marcus Walker on Ukraine here.

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Angus Taylor is the Shadow Treasurer of Australia and a key figure of the Opposition, the centre-right Liberal Party.

A former cabinet minister, businessman and Rhodes scholar, he's often discussed as a future prime minister. Opinion polls put his party's return to power in the May election as a 50/50 bet.

Josh sat down with the Shadow Treasurer to discuss innovation, productivity, nuclear power, and how annoying it is to do your taxes.

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How should moderate, secular Jews feel about Israel? How brutalising must Israel’s Gaza policy be before more Jews denounce it? Is Israel a well-intentioned country hijacked by right-wing leaders from its true purpose of peace? Or is it intrinsically committed to destroying Palestinians? Was a Jewish ethno-state a mistake from the start? Or is Israel an island of democracy in a sea of Islamist dysfunction?

 

No group debates these questions more vehemently than Jews themselves. After the October 7th Hamas attack, one book in particular shot up the bestseller list in the West. "The Palestine Laboratory" detailed how the technologies which Israel developed to control Palestinian populations have been exported for ugly purposes to regimes all the world. The book won Australia's most prestigious journalism award, a Walkley.

 

Its author, Antony Lowenstein, is an anti-Zionist Jew. He lived in East Jerusalem from 2016 to 2020 and has been published in The Guardian, The New York Review of Books, and The New York Times.

 

Josh felt it's time to invite Antony back for another argument, as Jews are wont to have, about the state of the Jewish state.

 

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John McWhorter is arguably the world’s most famous linguist. A professor at Columbia University and a columnist for the New York Times, he alternately enrages the right and the left as an anti-Trump, anti-woke, Black academic.

John and Josh sat down in Sydney to discuss gay slang, the Trumpist right, Black provocateurs and “serving c***t”.

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When Trump floated the idea of the U.S. acquiring Greenland, some called it a random brain fart. But there is a real conversation among security experts about control of the Arctic in the 21st century. As climate change opens up new avenues for shipping, spying, mining, submarining and warfare, the far North Atlantic matters more and more.

Sherri Goodman was the Pentagon's chief environmental officer in the Clinton Administration. Her specific expertise is in the polar regions, Russian nuclear subs, climate chaos, and Arctic security. She's a Senior Fellow with the Polar Institute and the Environmental Change and Security Program with the Woodrow Wilson International Center, and her latest book is "Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership and the Fight for Global Security".

Josh picks her brain about the threats and opportunities of climate change… and why Greenland does, in fact, matter.

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Last week, Arab leaders gathered in Egypt for a Palestine Summit. The 22-nation Arab League emerged with a re-energised Arab Peace Initiative to solve the Israel-Palestinian Conflict once and for all. Australia's largest and most trusted news organisation, the ABC, covered the event in an article entitled "This Plan Would End the Israel-Palestinian Conflict, But Israel Doesn't Like It". Josh has thoughts.

This is a recording of an episode of Szeps Live, a weekly Substack Video Livestream. Most episodes will not be released in this feed. To watch or listen to Szeps Live (either live or delayed), subscribe for free to our Substack mailing list here.

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Australians go to the polls in a few months. It looks surprisingly grim for the first-term, centre-left Labor government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

As part of Uncomfortable Conversations' election coverage, Josh invited a select handful of prominent politicians who are likely to be the most interesting figures for listeners from all over the world to enjoy.

Senator Dave Sharma is one of them. He's a member of the Opposition centre-right Liberal Party. He was a member of the Australian House of Representatives in the last government but lost his seat to an independent, Allegra Spender, when the conservatives lost power in 2022. He made a comeback the following year to become a senator representing the nation's most populous state. Before entering politics, he was Australia's ambassador to Israel, although he himself is of Canadian-Indian descent.

Senator Sharma and Josh discuss populism, Trump, Gaza, nuclear power, and whether liberalism will survive the 21st century.

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Justin Trudeau's political career will end this weekend when his replacement is elected as the Canadian Liberal leader.

This happens at a moment of extraordinary uncertainty for Canadians. As the U.S. launches a painful trade war, Canadians are being forced to rethink their economic and strategic future.

What's going on up there? Who are the candidates you need to know? How do they perceive the Trump tariffs?

Jen Gerson is a writer who worked for the Economist, Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail. She's now the co-founder of The Line, a Canadian Substack commentary website and podcast. Here, she gives you everything you need to know about the Great White North.

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Perhaps the most dangerous idea is what to do about dangerous ideas.

A spate of anti-semitic attacks has led to new laws that will punish Australians for "hate speech". But are hate-speech laws a band-aid over deeper problems like ethnic bigotry, religious conservatism, historical ignorance, social media, migrant integration, university bias, and Islamism - problems which may have been addressed if we'd spoken more openly about them in the first place?

That's the argument of Professor Alan Davison, the incoming president of Australia's Free Speech Union. He and Josh discuss free speech, diversity, journalistic integrity, critical thinking, and who gets to speak for minority groups.

Is it time to speak more fearlessly, not less? Or is the free-speech position just an excuse for more division and hate?

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