Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

Just Josh: Iran's Billions & Elon's Trillion 19.06.2026 59min

The Reverend Josh breaks down Trump's surrender to (sorry, “memorandum of understanding with”) Iran; what Elon's trillion-dollar payday revealed about the far left, the far right, AI and prosperity; how we might interpret the rise of populist, anti-immigrant parties in the UK and Australia; and why you should spurn pessimism and tales of civilisational collapse, and have a weekend of grace. What a week!

The Gays Who Reject "LGBTQ+" 15.06.2026 1j 33min

What's the "queer community"? Who's "LGBTQIA+"? When did sexuality get hitched to a queer cultural movement aimed at deconstructing gender, colonialism and white male privilege? What happens when a boring old gay guy dissents? Ben Appel found out. Raised in a fundamentalist Christian community, he expected his Ivy League University experience to be one of liberation. Instead, he found the minds of queer college activists as closed as his pastor's. Ben joins Josh to describe his run-ins and to ask whether the rights of gay people are served by an LGBTQIA+ coalition now as preoccupied with Gaza and trans ideology as it is with gay people themselves. Ben's new memoir is Cis White Gay: The Making of a Gender Heretic.

WTF? Gladiator Battles on the White House Lawn: How MMA & the Manosphere Took Over America (& the White House) 11.06.2026 13min

On Sunday, mixed martial arts fighters will beat the crap out of each other in a 90-foot-tall Ultimate Fighting Championship cage on the South Lawn of the White House. Senator John McCain once denounced the sport as "human cockfighting". President Trump loves it so much he's made it a centrepiece of the United States' 250th birthday celebrations. Trump isn't alone. Not long ago, MMA was considered too violent even to be offered alongside pornographic movies on pay-per-view cable. Now, it's a mainstream juggernaut. How did this happen? The story is an insane saga involving Las Vegas, Covid, Joe Rogan, MAGA and the spectacular ambition of one man: Dana White. White, who built the UFC, is on the cover of TIME magazine this week. His profile was written by TIME's senior sports correspondent, Sean Gregory, who visited with White, Trump and legendary Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel for his piece. Sean Gregory joins Josh to explain the wild origins of MMA, the alliances that turbocharged it, Dana White's role in delivering young men to MAGA, and what the UFC tells us about masculinity, the manosphere, and where America finds itself today.

"Smile! Civilisation is Collapsing" with Sarah Wilson 08.06.2026 1j 12min

In a world of catastrophic fires, record floods, collapsing democracies and rising unrest, our lives have rarely felt more precarious. So how do we keep living meaningfully through it? And if (or when) it all comes apart, what kind of people do we want to be? Sarah Wilson is a New York Times bestselling author, whose new book, ‘I Eat the Stars’, chronicles how we might live meaningfully, sanely, and hopefully, survive the end of civilisation. Live at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne, Sarah sits down with Josh to discuss how we face difficult truths without succumbing to doom, whether rumours of humanity’s death are greatly exaggerated, and how oddly liberating it is to recognise you are useless to capitalism.

Matt Taibbi, America's Top Gonzo Journalist, on How the Media Lost Its Mind 01.06.2026 1j 41min

Get 30% OFF an Annual Uncomfortable Conversations Subscription at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe/sanity What happened to the news media? What does it have to do with why Hillary Clinton couldn’t fill a room, while Trump filled stadiums? Did diversity kill objective journalism? And what does a journalist who lived in the Soviet Union think of free speech in the West today? Matt Taibbi became a rockstar reporter covering Trump’s first election campaign for Rolling Stone. He went on to cover huge stories like Twitter’s pre-Elon censorship regime and the misinformation around Trump’s ties to Russia. Matt joins Josh in New York City for this in-the-flesh livestream about American politics, algorithms and why, despite it all, he’s optimistic about what comes next.

“What the Hell Happened to L.A.?” with Meghan Daum 28.05.2026 1j 21min

Los Angeles was once the city where people went to reinvent themselves. Space, sunshine, stardom. How did it become the city where people go to disappear into homeless tent encampments? Meghan Daum is one of America’s sharpest cultural essayists, a former LA Times columnist and a longtime Angelino. While Josh is in L.A., he and Meghan livestreamed from the Hollywood Hills in this Memorial Day conversation about what, exactly, Los Angeles is (city? county? megalopolis?), the decline of showbiz, the 2025 wildfires, California Democrats, dog abuse, addiction, incarceration, and why Spencer Pratt, a reality TV star from The Hills, might be the most honest candidate running for mayor.

Where Does Anti-Zionism End and Anti-Semitism Begin? 25.05.2026 1j 46min

Is it possible to criticise Israel without being anti-Semitic? How do we even know if you cross that line? It’s a question that has divided dinner tables, ended friendships, and split the left in half since October 7th, and with recent events, is no longer a theoretical debate. The oldest hatred in human history is once again at the surface. Israeli President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres called David Harris “the foreign minister for the Jews”, having spent fifty years as one of the most prominent Jewish diplomats in the world. He served as CEO of the American Jewish Committee, has met with heads of state on every continent, and has just published Antisemitism: What Everyone Needs to Know with Oxford University Press. He grew up in a family that lived through Soviet communism, Nazi-occupied France, and the expulsion of Jews from Libya. He knows what happens when the shapeshifting virus of anti-Semitism comes out of hibernation. He joined Josh in the Uncomfortable Conversations studio to discuss why anti-Semitism always ends in lethality, why Israel has become the Jew among nations, what the left gets catastrophically wrong about October seventh, and why, after fifty years of working for peace, he still considers the existence of Israel nothing short of a miracle.

What Australia's Covid Frontman Regrets 21.05.2026 13min

As the Hantavirus and Ebola pop up in the news, what did we get wrong during Covid? Dr Nick Coatsworth was the Australian government’s deputy chief medical officer during the pandemic’s first wave, when he regularly appeared on radio and TV to provide the public with information. He became the face of the vaccine rollout. Today, he’s more reflective. He shuns vaccine mandates, wants a national Covid inquiry, and opposes policies that would ban health “misinformation”. Earlier in his career, as an expert in infectious and respiratory diseases, Nick led humanitarian teams in the Congo and in Darfur for Medicins Sans Frontiers - an experience so horrifying it left him with PTSD. He’s now a resident medical expert at the Nine Network on Australian TV, as well as a practising doctor at Canberra Hospital, where he was previously its director of infectious diseases. Nick and Josh bring you up to speed on Hantavirus & Ebola, and wrestle with lockdowns, lab leaks, contact tracing, quarantine, misinformation, vaccine mandates, and what we need to learn from a pandemic we don’t reflect on enough.

Josh vs the News: Think Bigly! with Reverend Szeps 20.05.2026 56min

The world is seemingly on fire. Iran, Ukraine, China, Trump, AI, climate, antisemitism, the Australian budget. It’s an avalanche of bad news, until Reverend Szeps arrives on the scene to put it all into perspective. Plus: Shakira vs the Spanish government, might be the most inspiring thing you’ll read this week.

Just Josh: Why Can't Politicians Answer A Question? 18.05.2026 58min

Hey! Politicians! Stop talking like cardboard cutouts (if you're mainstream) or lunatics (if you're not). If politicians can't figure out how to have uncomfortable conversations, voters will elect populists who can. Last Thursday, Australia's flagship current affairs TV show grilled the opposition leader, Angus Taylor. It wasn't pretty. Obfuscations, snarkiness, waffling, pre-rehearsed speechifying, evasions. Why??? Few people are more experienced at navigating uncomfortable conversations than ole Szepsie. Here, in a selfless public service, Josh plays back the interview and interjects with his thoughtful advice. This is a fascinating post mortem of how politicians can do better, how political personas are constructed, how political interviews work, how to succeed at them, and what all this reveals about our unique political moment.

What Trump & Xi are Really Up To! with fmr White House Official Tom Wright 14.05.2026 12min

Trump is in China, and you need to know what he and Xi are up to. What new world order are they creating? Today, Josh sits down with a senior US former national security official to understand how three men - Trump, Xi and Putin - are remaking the world. Tom Wright was a special assistant to President Biden and the Senior Director for Strategic Planning on the US National Security Council, where he helped to shape US policy on Ukraine, Taiwan, semiconductors, and the China relationship as it lurched from confrontation, to managed competition, and back again. Now, from the outside, he's trying to make sense of what Trump, Xi and Putin are building together, and what it means for every country they don't run (yet). Josh probes Tom about the night he learned about the famous Chinese spy balloon in US airspace, about President Biden's mental decline, the Kamala Harris campaign, and how medium-sized powers might navigate a brave new world. Tom is a scholar of international relations by training, originally from Ireland. He's a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a nonresident fellow at the Lowy Institute and a contributing writer to The Atlantic. He joined Josh at the Uncomfortable Conversations studio during a tour of Australia to discuss the Trump-Xi summit, Putin in Ukraine, nuclear submarines, and why you shouldn’t buy a Chinese EV. His new paper for the Lowy Institute is ‘Inflection Point: Biden, Trump and the Future World Order.’ Our thanks to the Lowy Institute for facilitating this conversation.

Josh vs the News: BUDGET BONANZA! 13.05.2026 1j 7min

It’s the biggest day in a generation for Australian economic reform (and for those of you abroad observing our friendly foreign land). From house prices to entrepreneurship to the far right to the abundance agenda Josh brings you everything you need to know about the 2026 Budget but were afraid to ask.

Nazi Salutes = Free Speech? with John Safran 10.05.2026 1j 24min

Is anything too offensive for our post-cancel-culture world? When Trump & Elon wield "freedom of speech" as a way to silence their enemies, who's defending unpopular voices? When anti-Zionism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia can be weapons, how do we decide what's beyond the pale? John Safran is Australia's Michael Moore, a provocateur and writer whose new documentary is ‘Shut Your Big Fat Mouth’. As a Jew, he interviews neo-Nazis, conspiracists and porn stars to understand what open expression means in a chaotic and hostile world. 'Shut Your Big Fat Mouth John Safran’ premieres Sunday 24 May at 7:30pm on SBS, and streams free on SBS On Demand.

Should You Be A Nationalist? 07.05.2026 53min

Does nationalism have to be xenophobic or racist? What would it mean to be a nationalist who isn’t a blood-&-soil bigot but a pluralistic liberal? How can multicultural societies like ours sustain strong national identities? Could we actually reinvigorate democracy with a big ole dose of chest-thumping and flag-flying? David Moscrop, is a Canadian writer, academic and public intellectual. He has a PhD in Political Science and was a regular contributor for The Washington Post. He joined Josh ahead of a trip to Australia to discuss national identity on a dog-eat-dog planet, the left’s overreach in the culture wars, Canadian truckers, right-wing anti-vaxxers, multiculturalism, jingoism, how all of us can be more coherent as a democratic unit, and most importantly, why Love Actually is a terrible film. David Moscrop appears at Melbourne Writers Festival (7-10 May) and Sydney Writers' Festival (17-24 May).

Josh vs the News: Trump Cancels "Project Freedom!" 06.05.2026 36min

The latest chaotic development under “Operation Epic Fury” has continued to show the catastrophic strategic position the United States has found itself in. But it could be worse! It’s not like the Iranians know about the midterms, and the impending electoral annihilation coming for Trump if this latest oil shock isn’t resolved. Oh wait… Josh breaks down the the failure of “Project Freedom”, how Iran has discovered an asset even more valuable than nuclear weapons, and why the rest of the world is about to pay a tremendous price for America's miscalculation.

Jimmy Carr: "The World is Being Rebuilt from Scratch" 04.05.2026 1j 24min

Jimmy Carr is one of the most successful stand-up comics on earth (and one of our most recurring guests). His hilarious, brutal crowd work is a viral sensation, and his television credits include hosting some of the UK’s longest running panel shows such as 8 Out Of 10 Cats, Big Fat Quiz Of The Year and his smash-hit Netflix specials, Natural Born Killer, and His Dark Material. Whilst touring Australia for his latest live show, JIMMY CARR: LAUGHS FUNNY, he joined Josh in the flesh at the Uncomfortable Conversations studio to discuss revolution, A.I, fame, hair transplants, and why some things just can’t be fixed. His new podcast is ‘Jimmy Carr: Crowd Work’ (https://open.spotify.com/show/72DxXJcIZGKEjX5hOoE2hk?si=e216f378b7b84f3f).

Why Smart People Make Dumb Choices 30.04.2026 1j 16min

Life’s biggest decisions are always the most Uncomfortable. Should you have a baby? Should you quit your job? Should you move to a new country? Should you drop acid? Anytime you’re faced with a decision that is likely to change who you are, you’re faced with a unique conundrum: The person you’ll be - who’ll judge whether you made the right call or the wrong one - is future you. They’re a different person than Future You would be if present-day You had made the opposite decision. Still with me? How are we supposed to decide how to lead a good life, if we can only ever know what we know right now (but we need to make decisions now that will affect who we become in the future)? Laurie Paul is a professor of philosophy and cognitive science at Yale University who’s a leading expert on the counterfactual analysis of causation and the concept of transformative experience. She joins Josh to discuss how we judge whether to become a parent, how your preferences get scrambled by addiction, why atheists and religious people are secretly terrified of each other’s epiphanies, what cochlear implants tell us about identity, A.I., psychedelics, and what it means to make a choice in a state of radical ignorance… about who you’ll be once you’ve made it.

'Truth' in an Age of A.I. 28.04.2026 2j 4min

What will reality feel like when we receive most of it via all-knowing machines? Our shared understanding of the world has been fractured by social media’s echo chambers of news, entertainment, misinformation, and distraction. Could A.I. help re-establish common facts? Or will it only make the truth even slippier? Steve Rosenbaum is an Emmy-winning former television news producer, TED Resident and boss of the NYC Media Lab. He joins Josh to explore the death of traditional news, why TikTok is so addictive, how young people think about trustworthiness... and how to fortify facts in a world of slop. Steve's new book is "The Future of Truth: How AI Reshapes Reality".

Josh vs the Anti-Abortion Activist 20.04.2026 1j 51min

For an issue we don’t normally know how to talk constructively about, can Josh and one of the most outspoken anti-abortion activists model what a genuine, but respectful, disagreement can actually look like? Joanna Howe is best-known for her viral videos on YouTube and social media debating people in the street about abortion, confronting politicians outside their offices, and smacking down pro-life politicians for not being pro-life enough. She's a law professor and a Catholic whose hundreds of thousands of followers cheer her on as she owns the libs and argues for abortion to be illegal because it is murder from the moment of fertilisation. She joins Josh to have a rational debate about an emotional topic, and try in some small way, to help you have less toxic and more constructive conversations of your own. You can find Josh’s previous conversation with the American family-values anti-surrogacy activist Katie Faust, here.

BLOCKADE COUNTDOWN: What's the End Game? 16.04.2026 46min

What is the end game in Iran? What is the blockade achieving? What cards does Iran still hold? Last week, the end was in sight with a two-week ceasefire. Then talks in Pakistan between the US vice president and the Iranians went nowhere, and Trump suddenly imposed a blockade. Since Monday, U.S. forces say they’ve now completely halted all economic trade leaving Iran’s ports. Iran say they’ll retaliate if the blockade continues. Where does the escalation lead? Does Trump have anything left up his sleeve? What exit ramps are there for either side? Steven Simon served in the US State Department, where he specialised in the Middle East and counter-terrorism on President Clinton’s National Security Council. President Obama brought him back into the White House to serve as the NSC’s Senior Director for the Middle East and North Africa. He’s a leading world expert on Iran and co-wrote a book in 2011 called “The sixth crisis: Iran, Israel, America and the rumors of war.” His most recent book is “Grand Delusion: The Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East.” Steven joined Josh to explain the logic (or illogic) of Trump’s blockade... and what thirty years of shaping US policy in the Middle East has taught him about how this conflict is likely to end.