How can we flourish in 2025 in a world gripped by tribalism on the right and left? Friend-of-the-show Stan Grant returns to reflect on community, cancellation, wokeness and faith.

Stan was CNN's Senior International Correspondent based in Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong and Beijing, before returning to Australia as International Affairs Analyst for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

He is arguably Australia's most experienced global journalist and the most famous Indigenous Australian. He resigned from the national public broadcaster last year in a national firestorm about racism.

Stan and Josh discuss racial slurs, changing norms, tribalism, the rootless global elite, and finding meaning outside religion.

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As Los Angeles burns, our thoughts are with everyone in L.A. In this special episode, Josh reflects on natural disasters, leadership, and the anniversary of the Black Summer fires in Australia.

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Artificial systems are about to revolutionise your workplace, your school, your home, your phone… and, most of all, your head.

How should we prepare for the inevitable human response?

Professor Joel Pearson is a psychologist and neuroscientist who runs the Future Minds Lab at the University of New South Wales as well as MindX, a consultancy that works with companies like Samsung, Pixar, Saatchi and Google to help tailor products to how people’s minds actually work.

Josh and Joel consider the current state of A.I., how far it came in 2024, what to expect from 2025... and how to arm yourself for the disruptions of a world grappling with new hyper-intelligent artificial systems.

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For the first show of the year, an unexpected treat. A few months ago, Josh had an amazing conversation as a guest on a colleague's podcast. We bring this to you as a nice way to reset, to recalibrate, to reaffirm your mindset as we enter a fresh year.

The show is called "A Lot to Talk About" and it's hosted by Bradley Dryburgh, a young guy whose parents were told his Cystic Fibrosis would ruin his life. Instead, he became an ultra-marathon runner, podcaster and motivational speaker.

He invited Josh on his show shortly before the U.S. election, so forgive their brief exchange about presidential politics. It's interesting as an analysis of the 24-hour media cycle and how small events can have a big impact. Mostly, Josh and Bradley focus on clear thinking, courageous conversations, the legacy media, algorithms and how to stay sane in a hectic world.

Happy 2025, humans.

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Happy new year, human. Remember the Year 2000, the turn of the millennium? Well, you're about to enter the century's second quarter. This Wednesday, we'll be closer to 2050 than to the last millennium. The final half of the twenty-first century will be nearer than the twentieth.

What might the next quarter of a century have in store? Josh argued it out with the whimsical and surprisingly youthful public speaker on futurism, Dr Ben Hamer. He's done projects at the World Economic Forum and as a visiting scholar at Yale University, and hosts The ThinkerTank Podcast. Have a happy and safe new year. Thank you, thank you, thank you for making this podcast possible in 2024.

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It's one of the biggest weeks of the year at the box office. What's your most overrated and underrated movie of the year? Today, comedian and film buff Alexei Toliopoulos joins secret cinema nerd Josh Szeps to reveal which flicks to delight in and which to avoid. Plus, honourable mentions, the worst film of the year, and what to look out for from Hollywood in 2025. Merry Christmas, humans.

Check out Alexei’s podcast ‘The Last Video Store’ HERE

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One of the greatest characters Josh regularly interviews is Gary Kennedy, the iconoclastic food scientist who oversees international food safety protocols and can answer every weird, wonderful, arcane food question that has ever popped into your noggin.

How long can you leave a Christmas ham in the fridge after it sat on the table for three hours? Can you use just one chopping board for the whole feast? Will reheating Chinese fried rice kill you? Does a "best before" date mean anything? Is it more dangerous for Australians to eat stale prawns in the sun on or for Americans to eat marshmallow-slathered sweet potato mash?

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The full conversation is almost two hours long and sbolitely fascinating. Enjoy this free preview or, to hear the whole shebang, subscribe at Uncomfortableconversations.substack.com

"Woke” is such a tired word. Yet there remains a cultural elite which uses the language of social justice to gain power and status, without helping the disadvantaged. What’s going on?

Musa al-Gharbi is an assistant professor of sociology who studies how knowledge workers have improved their cultural power by deploying the language of social justice to justify their own influence -- and to portray the losers in the knowledge economy as deserving their lot because they think or say the “wrong” things about race, gender, and sexuality.

Far from being a right-wing anti-woke crusader, Musa is a Black Muslim academic who explores how we think about about social phenomena. His new book is “We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite”.

Here, Musa and Josh wrestle with what the “Great Awokening” was really all about, how ideas are the currency of the knowledge economy, and how we can actually help the marginalised and disadvantaged. This episode is part of Permission to Think, a collaboration with the University of Technology, thanks to Professor Alan Davison.

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