Tonightly and Media Watch wacky clips craftsman Dylan Behan is back with his annual News Fighters year in review episode taking an in depth look at 2024 in news and politics. From Dutton’s nuclear epiphany to Albo’s endless cash splashing (mostly on his own house) this year has marked an an ever increasing enshittifcation of Australian politics. Also Stefan Pazur does his annual wrap of sport and entertainment. News Fighters: where we fight the news, so you don’t have to!

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G’day Fearmongers!

Merry Christmas to everyone (except Raygun).

Join A Rational Fear as we break down some of the most memorable stories (to us). We gathered around table at the Tilbury Hotel — one of the earliest satirical venues in Australia, the birth place of Three Men and A Baby Grand, and the earliest incarnations of the Wharf Revue — how very fitting that we, A Rational Fear, destroy that legacy with our little podcast.

Joining Lewis Hobba and Dan are a handful of our favourite friends in comedy, Bec Melrose, Steph Broadbridge and Chris Taylor. We have a few lunch time beer, and let loose on the year 2024.

Thank You if you’ve listened to any of our podcasts this year — as the 2025 election looms you can bet your Nuclear Power Plant that we’ll be back each week covering the ins and outs of the campaign. And Lewis, will be doing a video series on instagram reels and TikTok dedicated to the election.

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Hello Fearmongers,

This is the Exit Interview for Kylea Tink, the current independant Member of Parliament for North Sydney. But not for long thanks to AEC the boundaries of North Sydney are being folded into the neighbouring electorates.

Since there is no HR department at Parliament House I took it upon myself to sit down with Kylea Tink and ask her how her time was at the company.

From this conversation it is clear that Kylea Tink is not done as she is already hinting that she could run for a neighbouring seat to the former electorate of North Sydney — is she going to Bennelong? Is she going to Berowra?

What is for certain — Kylea is going to be putting her energy in getting more community independents elected in Parliament hosue.

Thanks as always for downloading A Rational Fear — if you can chip into the Patreon or if you can’t shoot us a response on the listener survey.

Cheers

Dan

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G’day Fearmongers,

We have a very different episode of the podcast this week — we’re throwing out the rule book to bring a conversation with Millie Holten (Instagram), the brilliant creator of a new web series that is doing huge numbers on TikTok called Long Head.

Starring the incredible voices of incredible comedians Kate Dehnert, Tom Walker and Sam Campbell as the titular Long Head.

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald called it “Mr Bean for the TikTok generation”.

It’s a very strange and stupid series. A radical departure from the usual biting satire that folks subscribe to A Rational Fear for. Long Head is refreshingly delightful.

How did we manage to book Millie? Well Dear Listener — I am the executive producer of the series — so this email is what the National Anti-Corruption Commission would call a gross compliment of interest

Millie and I have been working on this show since 2022, and we’re so stoked that the world can finally see it. Of course — I did nothing really, mainly admin — we actually made it with a really talented team of animators including Dale Anderson, Michael Harris, and animation director Annabelle Ots.

And we were lucky enough to record the sound and have it expertly crafted and designed by Matt Perrott’s Mighty Sound in Sydney.

The whole series was generously paid for by … you the taxpayer. More specifically Screen Australia supported the project — thank you, Screen Australia!

We’d love you to watch it, and share it with your friends and family who are on TikTok. And if you know any big wigs in showbiz, please send it to them too.

WATCH IT ON TIKTOK HERE

We think it could be the next Bluey — we want American kids to walk around talking like Sam Campbell.

Cheers,

Dan Ilic

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G’day Fearmongers,

The privilege of being a white guy with a podcast is that you get to talk to your heroes, record those conversations and then share them with your friends, acquaintances, and 10,000 of you — our fellow fearmongers.

In this episode Jon Ronson joins us to talk about psychopathy, the evolution of public shaming in the late social media era, we try to tease out of him what his experience was like on #QandA, we touch on Trump, and then Jon tells us this incredible anecdote about sneaking into Bohemian Grove with Alex Jones. It’s wild.

The video of this podcast is ready to view only on Patreon

If you’re the kind of person who’d rather watch an un-edited version of this chat — you can — by simply joining the Patreon for as little as $4 a month.

You can go see Jon live on stage around Australia this month with his psychopath nights tour. 🎟️ fane.com.au

Cheers

Dan

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Salam Fearmongers,

This week we’re connecting with two of our favourite friends of the pod who are wandering around the hall of COP29 in Baku, Azerbijan.

Linh Do & Richie Merzian.

We chat negotiations, financial commitments and how no one at COP is even talking nuclear. And how that dead whale on the shores of Baku (on the land-locked Caspian Sea), rattled everyone on Day 1 of the climate talks.

Read more about that whale.

Richie and Linh also chat about Australia's bid for COP31, the quality of the meals in the football stadium where COP is being held this year, and, of course, climate celebrity sightings. Yeah, we’re TMZ now!

Cheers

Dan

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Howdy Fearmongers,

Trying to make sense of the US Elections is a fools errand.

Well, consider us your fools.

I spent Wednesday afternoon not being able to do work, or anything really, the limit of my motor skills maxed out at flipping between live YouTube channels of US based news and refreshing the NYT app. This was the wrong choice. If I’ve learned anything from following US elections — no one knows anything, and everyone is making it up.

As the red wave continued to spill across the USA I said “F it”, and walked to the pub. My wife and I sat in the spring afternoon sun, drinking a non-alcoholic beer, (because I’m now a soy boy that has been fully cucked) and feeling grateful that we live in Australia, and surely, nothing like that could happen here. Right? 🥔

On this week’s pod we chat with US comedian, journalist, activist and friend of the pod Francesca Fiorentini (The Bitchuation Room), and also we’re lucky enough to grab Amy Remeikis in between meetings at her new gig at the Australia Institute.

We have a big conversation analysing why the Democratic party lost this election, and what another Trump administration means for climate action and what if a social media ban is just a cynical attempt at stopping 13 year olds being radicalised by Joe Rogan.

Cheers

Dan

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Howdy Fearmongers,

We’re in the home stretch — at the time of publishing, there’s only 6 days left until Americans everywhere skip work, neglect their families, and dodge bullets to line up in droves to spend a few good hours deciding who will be the comptroller, dog catcher, deputy sheriff, parking tsar, book stacker and President of the USA.

Recorded in Texas, this episode of A Rational Fear brings together a couple of Austin based poliphiles 🐘 Republican devotee James Donald Forbes McCann and 🫏 Democrat dedicatee Eve Ellenbogan as they grapple with some of the big issues facing the country in this — the Season Finale of the United States of America.

And as for me — well I may as well have turned my mic off.

Follow James Donald Forbes McCann on his podcast HERE.

And you can follow Eve Ellenbogan on Instagram HERE.

Summary

In this episode of Irrational Fear, host Dan Ilic and guests discuss the current political climate in the U.S., focusing on the upcoming elections, the role of comedy in politics, and the implications of recent Trump rallies. They delve into the hypocrisy of political values, immigration policies, and economic reforms, while also addressing media endorsements and the influence of billionaires like Jeff Bezos. The conversation touches on Israel's political stance and the integrity of the electoral system, culminating in a humorous yet critical examination of the state of democracy.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Patreon Support

01:51 Political Climate and Upcoming Elections

03:29 Trump Rally and Comedy in Politics

10:43 Hypocrisy in Political Values

12:36 Immigration and Border Policies

20:22 Economic Policies and Taxation

25:08 Media Endorsements and Jeff Bezos

29:07 Israel and Political Stances

37:24 Election Integrity and Voting Systems

Thanks as always for downloading A Rational Fear — if you can chip into the Patreon or if you can’t shoot us a response on the listener survey.

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If you enjoyed this please drop us a review on Apple podcasts:

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