Shows
Szego Unplugged PodcastThe real John AndersonI’ll explain the “accidental” gag soon — first, the important stuff. In this episode I pick the formidable brain of John Anderson, second-in-charge of Oz from 1999 to 2005 and these days a serious player in the world of long-form podcasting. He was an early adopter of the web-based interview, launching his “Conversations” series in 2017 to tackle the big geopolitical and philosophical questions with public intellectuals. As he tells me, he needed some convincing years ago to interview a psychologist he’d never heard of called Jordan Peterson. The rest is history. Anderson’s thirst for answers on how we should...2025-06-0556 min
Tensions TransplantedSeason 2 - Episode 3 - The Jewish SeatsIn Episode 3 of Tensions Transplanted, Rob Kaldor takes a close look at the federal election campaigns unfolding in Goldstein, Macnamara, and Wentworth — the three electorates with Australia’s largest Jewish populations. He’s joined by author Julie Szego, journalist Michael Visontay, and Jewish Independent editor Deborah Stone to unpack how October 7 and the rise in antisemitism are shaping campaign strategies, shifting voter sentiment, and influencing the political outlook in these pivotal seats.📖 Read Julie Szego’s articles 📖 Read Michael Visontay’s articles 📖...2025-04-1635 min
Szego Unplugged PodcastThe secret pain of 'trans widows'In this podcast I speak with Indian filmmaker Vaishnavi Sundar, currently in Australia for screenings of her groundbreaking feature-length documentary, Behind the Looking Glass, which explores the lives of women whose male partners have “come out” as trans. (For details of screenings scroll to the end of this post.) These women are sometimes known as “trans widows.” Also joining us is Bronwyn Winter, a fellow Substacker, and scholar of politics.I’ll say more about our conversation and Sundar’s taboo-busting film in a moment. But first — the topic of heterosexual men identifying as women is freakishly timely thanks...2025-03-221h 06
Szego Unplugged PodcastThe West's war on free speechIn this podcast episode (click here for the video version or listen wherever you get your podcasts) I speak with Dr Alan Davison, President of the Free Speech Union Australia, the local chapter of an organisation established in the UK in 2019. As its name suggests, the FSU defends freedom of expression against cancel culture and the increasing trend of governments, particularly those left-of-centre, policing speech in the name of “social cohesion”.Here’s what I think: in an ideal world hate speech laws would muzzle racists and extremists. In the real world racists and extremists wield increasing cultur...2025-03-091h 12
Szego Unplugged PodcastAn atheist Jew and a conservative Christian walk into a bar ..Can a believer and a non-believer find enough common ground to have a truly meaty conversation? I’ve always wondered about this. But my podcast guest Dr Paul Tyson, a philosopher, theologian, sociologist and fellow Substacker, reckons these days he finds it easier to talk meaningfully with atheists and feminists than with Christians, many of whom are as woke as the next person. While Tyson is un-woke, he is economically left and contributes to a “post-capitalist” think-tank alongside former Greece finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis. Tyson is interested in knowledge and the role that science plays in our approa...2024-11-291h 03
The Third SpaceJulie Szego: The Crisis in JournalismJulie Szego is a writer of the popular Substack blog Szego Unplugged, and a former senior journalist at The Age and other major Australian publications. She has authored a book titled The Tainted Trial of Farah Jama which was shortlisted for both the VIC and NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.Our conversation spans a number of topics including taking risks, activist journalism, liberals versus progressives, Islamism, Jewish identity, the state of liberal Jewry today, advice for writing and more.Julie’s Substack: Szego UnpluggedBuy Julie’s book t...2024-11-171h 28
Szego Unplugged PodcastTrump and the working class: the sequelIf four years ago you would have told me that come the next US election we’d be confronting the prospect of Donald Trump: The Resurrection, I’d have suggested you get more fresh air. But here we are. And with his fascinating, if not inspired, choice of Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance as running mate, Trump redux sharpens his pitch to the embattled American working class. In this post I speak with journalist and author Batya Ungar-Sargon, a lefty after my own heart who nonetheless reckons the Trumpian right is offering American workers something genuinely new...2024-07-2330 min
Szego Unplugged PodcastDissecting the Cass ReviewIn this podcast I speak with journalist Bernard Lane, formerly at The Australian and now a fellow Substacker, whose newsletter Gender Clinic News — see the link below — covers the escalating debate over youth gender medicine at home and abroad. For many years Lane was effectively the only journalist doggedly covering what may yet emerge as one of the biggest medical scandals in history. It’s worth re-reading that last sentence. How on earth did we land here? Reporters are supposed to run towards a huge story, not away from it.We talk about activism stifling journalism and activi...2024-05-011h 32
Szego Unplugged PodcastAnd today's lesson is ...Over the past 20 years governments have poured billions into the education system, overhauled the national curriculum again and again, reformed the school funding model (or not — but never mind that for now), beefed up teacher training standards, and expounded on the history, maths and reading wars. But for all the frenetic activity on education policy, our kids keep getting dumber. How dumb? Well 20 years ago Australia’s 15 year-olds were ranked among the highest in the world in reading, maths and science — since then their performance has slipped so much it’s as if they have missed a...2024-03-0149 min
Szego Unplugged PodcastThe three faces of Jew hatredIn this podcast I speak with distinguished historian Jeffrey Herf about the global wave of anti-Semitism unleashed in the aftermath of October 7. We discuss the Jew hatred of the right, the left and the Islamist movement — and how Hamas has seduced Western intellectuals into “magical thinking” about its true nature. We also ponder what the future holds for the increasingly fearful Jewish communities of the diaspora. Alongside other notable historians such as Matthias Küntzel and Benny Morris, Herf is curating and featuring in a three-part webinar on The Origins and Ideology of Hamas. The webinar, which kicks o...2024-02-201h 03
Szego Unplugged PodcastIsrael, Jews and journalismAmid a new Israel-Gaza war, the world reeling from unprecedented atrocities against Israeli civilians, former Age editor Michael Gawenda reflects on his life as a Jew — the title of his astonishing new book— and on what he sees as a troubling shift towards activist journalism. During the last Israel-Gaza war two years ago, more than 400 Australian journalists and writers petitioned the media to “do better on Palestine,” calling on editors to stop promoting “discredited” spokespersons, “tired narratives” and “both siderism” that “equates the victims of a military occupation with its instigators”. Gawenda says the events of recent days makes the petitioners’ stance...2023-10-091h 11
Szego Unplugged PodcastThe ghost of Christopher HitchensWelcome to my inaugural podcast episode!I’m speaking here with journalist Matt Johnson about his latest book, How Hitchens Can Save the Left: Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-Enlightenment. The subject couldn’t be closer to my heart because: a) I’m an enduring fan of Christopher Hitchens, a lacerating and erudite polemicist whose death in 2011 left a Hitch-sized hole in the universe, and b) “rediscovering fearless liberalism in an age of counter-enlightenment” is a project in which I’m a wee bit invested. In the years before his passing, Hitchens had become a rev...2023-08-2235 min
Julie Bindel's podcasts and writingJulie SzegoJulie Szego was a star masthead writer at The Age newspaper in Australia, until, earlier this month, she was told that her services were no longer required, after 25 years of writing for them. It happens, right? Things move on, new writers are hired. But covering a range of issues –including feminism, state education, parenting and immigration, as well as other topics lapped up by a broad swathe of The Age’s soft left, middle ground readers.Previously a lawyer, she started writing for The Age in her thirties, working as a staffer for 12 years before taki...2023-06-2043 min
The Media ShowThe Media Show, Friday 16 JuneDebate erupts over the publishing of leaked texts in the Brittany Higgins saga and Trump indictment sparks media hysteria. Plus, Age columnist Julie Szego was sacked as woke editor refused to run her article on gender. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.2023-06-1624 min
Wahre Verbrechen - True Crime PodcastDer CSI-EffektEin DNA-Profil führt die australischen Ermittler zu dem 19-jährigen Farah Jama, der zwei Frauen binnen weniger Stunden vergewaltigt haben soll.Er streitet den Vorwurf vehement ab, doch die Beweise sind erdrückend.Was ist in den Nächten des 14. und 15. Juli 2006, in zwei unterschiedlichen Vororten von Melbourne wirklich passiert?Die ganze Geschichte hört ihr in dieser Folge.Trigger-Warnung: Sexueller Missbrauch, Gewalt*Enthält Werbung*Wenn euch mein Podcast gefällt, dann schreibt mir bit...2022-04-0744 min
A Lap of Caulfield ParkJulie Szego, journalistOn the final Lap of Caulfield Park podcast for 2021, Ashley Browne is joined by fellow journalist (and fellow The Age alumnus) for a broad discussion and occasional deep dive into the news and views of the day and the year.On the agenda are:- Memories of working for The Age and why she left.- The weekly column that Julie still writes for the newspaper.- COVID. Did 2021 become even harder to navigate than 2020? And what were her coping strategies?- Her strong views on public versus private education and wo...2021-12-1341 min
WalkleyTalks PodcastMedia training #2 : Engaging with communitiesThe Walkley Foundation and Scanlon Foundation present - Media training: Inclusive reporting that represents Australia's diversity
Session 2: Engaging with communities
This is the second in a series of professional development webinars for Australian journalists to bring greater diversity and inclusion to their reporting, presented by the Walkley Foundation and the Scanlon Foundation. This session focuses on engaging with communities, with a conversation between Julie Szego and Jieh-Yung Lo.
In this session we explore how media reporting and storytelling can encompass cultural nuance and the authentic representation of Australia’s cultural diversity. This is increasingly important, as evident by the challenges fa...2021-11-2340 min
WalkleyTalks PodcastMedia training #1 : The language of storytellingThe Walkley Foundation and Scanlon Foundation present - Media training: Inclusive reporting that represents Australia's diversity.
Session 1: The language of storytelling
This is the first in a series of professional development webinars for Australian journalists to bring greater diversity and inclusion to their reporting, presented by the Walkley Foundation and the Scanlon Foundation. This first session focuses on the language of storytelling, hosted by Walkley-winning feature writer James Button and featuring community and youth worker Nor Shanino.
Storytelling is about listening and then getting out of the way so that the personalities and experiences can be heard. In this session...2021-11-161h 24
True Crime BreweryThe Hand that Rocks the Cradle: Kathleen FolbiggKathleen Folbigg has lived a life filled with tragedy. As a child, her father murdered her mother, leaving her to grow up in foster care. But Kathleen seemed to have overcome her difficult past when she married her husband Craig and they set out to start a family.
In 1989, Kathleen’s infant son Caleb died. This death was followed by the deaths of three more of her children in 1991, 1993, and 1999. It wasn’t until the death of her daughter Laura in 1999 when family, friends, and the authorities became suspicious. Kathleen denied killing her babies, but her behavior and her...2021-05-181h 46
The Rule BookThe Making A Murderer Effect - Part IIPart II We get to sit on juries and decide between right and wrong, fact and fiction, freedom, sometimes even life. So what happens when our heads are full of Serial and Making a Murderer. Or what if we're binging on old CSI episodes. Can we still be trusted to make the right decisions? 'The Making a Murderer Effect' asks these questions through the lens of one particular case in Melbourne, Australia. This episode features interviews with journalist Julie Szego, Professor Jeremy Gans and lawyer, Hina Pasha. www.therulebook.xyz @rulebookpodcast Produced by @jamesgmilsom. All other things also same person.2016-08-1222 minThe Rule BookThe Making A Murderer Effect - Part IWe get to sit on juries and decide between right and wrong, fact and fiction, freedom, sometimes even life. So what happens when our heads are full of Serial and Making a Murderer. Or what if we're binging on old CSI episodes. Can we still be trusted to make the right decisions? 'The Making a Murderer Effect' asks these questions through the lens of one particular case in Melbourne, Australia. This episode features interviews with journalist Julie Szego, Professor Jeremy Gans and Hina Pasha, lawyer. Produced by James Milsom and tricksy studio. Music from James Milsom. www.therulebook.xyz @rulebookpodcast2016-07-3022 min