Despite his reputation as a defector to neoconservatism, Christopher Hitchens was more faithfully committed to liberal principles than many on the left today: Free expression, internationalism, individual rights and universalism as opposed to identity politics. That’s the argument Matt Johnson makes in his book, How Hitchens Can Save the Left: Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-Enlightenment.
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"What Hitchens Would Make of the Left" with Matt Johnson

The world has never been more connected. Yet never more divided. We yell at each other from inside our echo chambers. But change doesn’t happen inside an echo chamber. It’s time to get out, to stretch our legs, to step on some land mines. It's time to have an uncomfortable conversation with Josh Szeps.
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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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“What's Become of the Left?” with Prof. Clive Hamilton

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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TALKBACK: How Josh Keeps His Poise… and Are Christians Under Attack?

Wendy Harmer is the most groundbreaking female comedian in Australia. She shattered the glass ceiling in the 1980s as a stand-up comic and TV host, before ruling the radio airwaves for decades. Her book is “Lies My Mirror Told Me: A frank, funny, fearless memoir”. Josh picks her brain about when she bombed hosting television’s night of nights.
This is a taste of a longer episode for premium subscribers. If you'd like to hear the whole thing, pop over to the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

Wendy Harmer ‘On Being Australia’s Ricky Gervais'

In Silicon Valley, it's hard to overstate the significance of Jaron Lanier. He coined the term "virtual reality" and founded the first virtual reality company in the '80s. You may recognise him as the dreadlocked polymath in the The Social Dilemma, Netflix's documentary about the harms of social media.
Today, he is a leader of a dissident group of tech geniuses who believe the hype of A.I. is overblown, in both its capabilities and its risks. While many of his colleagues speak of artificial intelligence as a mythological turning point for civilisation, he argues -- in books and in a series of groundbreaking essays in The New Yorker magazine -- that A.I. is just a tool. It's a mindless auto-complete bot.
Lanier's humanism is laudable and infectious. But Josh can't quite grok his dismissiveness of artificial intelligence. In this chat, Jaron is as frustrated by this impasse as Josh is. Enjoy the resulting to-and-fro.
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Jaron Lanier: "There's No Such Thing as Artificial 'Intelligence'"

Why is the Australian government in a court battle with Elon Musk? Should taxpayers be paying for disabled Australians to hire hookers? Should campus protestors be as upset about the plight of the Uighurs as of Palestinians? And why has a lady been driving around with a deadly snake stowed in her car for months?
Josh breaks down the most intriguing stories of the week with two scintillating commentators: Claire Lehmann, the founder and editor of Quillette and a columnist for The Australian newspaper, and Peter van Onselen, the political editor of the Daily Mail Australia and a politics professor at the University of Western Australia.
This is a taste of a longer episode for premium subscribers. If you'd like to hear the whole thing, pop over to the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe
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"What Hitchens Would Make of the Left" with Matt Johnson

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