Australiana: Recent Episodes
The Spectator
Australiana delivers in-depth discussions with Australian newsmakers and news breakers to help you understand our politics, our culture and the wars that are being waged to change them. Brought to you by The Spectator, the world’s longest-running magazine of news, arts and ideas. Hosted by Will Kingston.
Whilst illiberal progressivism (or woke for short) appears to be in retreat, what will take its place is an open question. The right in the UK has splintered, Europe is still being suffocated by the weight of the leftist social democratic model, free speech is under assault in Australia (as it is pretty much everywhere), and whilst the Republicans are resurgent in the US, Trump’s brand of economic protectionism would have been anathema to the American right in years gone by.
To discuss the future of conservatism, free speech, and Western civilisation, Will is joined by Mumford and Sons alumni and host of The Winston Marshall Show, Winston Marshall.
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There’s an interesting historical pattern in British politics, and you can see it in various shapes and forms since the days of William the Conqueror. About once every century, there is a realignment that completely changes the nature of politics in the country. The last great realignment was the 1922 election, with the Liberal Party falling to third-party status, the Conservatives establishing themselves as the largest party in Parliament, and Labour emerging as the undisputed opposition party.
103 years later, all the conditions are in place for another political revolution. A feeling of decline across the country, two weak major parties, and a populist alternative that is rapidly climbing in the polls. That alternative is the Reform party, led by Nigel Farage. To discuss whether Reform will be a perpetual irritant or a potential government, Will is joined by one of Reform’s five MPs, and its Business and Agriculture Spokesman, Rupert Lowe.
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The UK economy is structurally buggered (to use a technical term). Decades of economic mismanagement has caused growth to grind to a halt. To discuss if, and how, it can be turned around, Will chats to Jon Moynihan.
Jon has had an esteemed career in business and venture capital, including as CEO and Executive Chairman of PA Consulting Group, efforts which earned him a seat in the House of Lords. He has recently released a powerful two-volume manifesto for economic change, titled ‘Return to Growth: How to Fix the Economy'.
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In the last month, the grooming gangs scandal has gone from being the UK’s worst-kept secret to its greatest source of national shame. From at least the 1990s, and likely long before then, criminal networks comprised almost entirely of Pakistani Muslim men prostituted, raped and tortured thousands of young girls in towns and cities across the UK. And the authorities, despite being aware of what was happening, did very little to intervene. UK citizens, and indeed the world, quite rightly want to know why.
To help Will understand, he is joined by Maggie Oliver. Maggie is a former detective who resigned from Greater Manchester Police in 2012 and blew the whistle on the failure to tackle grooming gangs in Rochdale. She wrote about her battle to expose the gangs, and seek justice for the victims, in her book ‘Survivors’, which was adapted for the screen in the BBC drama ‘Three Girls’. The Maggie Oliver Foundation supports survivors and those at risk of childhood sexual abuse and exploitation.
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After a merry festive season, this is the time of the year when some of us decide to cut back on the booze. Dry January is a peculiar concept. Anyone who does it will tell you they feel great at the end of the month, but most of them can’t wait to get back to the pub.
In many ways, drinking doesn’t make sense. It often takes more than it gives. And yet we keep drinking, just like we have for tens of thousands of years. The question is, why?
To help Will with an answer, he is joined by Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, and author of ‘Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization’, Edward Slingerland.
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Regular listeners may remember that last year Will interviewed the wonderful documentarian, podcaster and YouTuber Andrew Gold. Andrew recently returned the favour and invited Will onto his wildly successful YouTube show, Heretics. Will and Andrew discussed how the woke mind virus has infiltrated Australia, the parallels between the grooming gangs scandal and child sexual abuse in remote Indigenous communities, the problems of mass migration in Australia, and the corruption of Australia's educational institutions.
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Music used to be about "sticking it to the man." It's now the most conformist industry there is. Hayley Mary has seen the transformation firsthand. Hayley was the lead singer of Australian indie rock band The Jezabels, before launching a successful solo career.
She has recently experienced the wrath of the music establishment, after a controversial Instagram post (complete with a MAGA hat) sparked a cancellation storm (see the post here). In this special conversation with Will, she speaks out about why she took a stand for free speech, subversion, and the counter-cultural instincts that once made music great.
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As friend of the show Charles C.W. Cooke has said, “To the honest eye, Joe Biden was a mid-wit career politician from Delaware who had the chance to appear normal enough to unseat Trump from office. To the authors of our roiling morality play, he was Earth’s Last Honest Man. After he won the White House, this second characterization was foisted upon us with abandon.” It was never true, as was finally and irrefutably hammered home with the pardon of his son, Hunter.
No one has done more to expose Biden for the man he really is than Miranda Devine. Australian listeners will remember Miranda from her successful career in Australian journalism, before she moved to the US to take up a role with The New York Post. She has gone on to release two of the most influential books on American politics this decade, 'Laptop from Hell' and 'The Big Guy: How a President and His Son Sold out America.'
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In recent years, Western society has conducted a perverse experiment. We have indulged the grievances of almost every identity group, exalting victimhood status and self-flagellating over the sins of the past. There is one glaring exception in the identity politics game. Men (and particularly white men).
A generation of boys have grown up being told that they are toxically masculine and that they must atone for their male privilege. The consequences have been disastrous, and we now have a generation of boys and young men across the West who are genuinely and seriously disadvantaged, and living without hope.
Few are brave enough to discuss this uncomfortable truth. Fortunately Miriam Cates is. Miriam is a former Conservative member of the UK Parliament, and is now a GB News Host and a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Social Justice, where she is spearheading the ‘Lost Boys’ initiative, a major new research project that seeks to understand what is going wrong for boys and men, and how to fix it.
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As Western values continue to come under assault, it is hard not to feel like there is a courage deficit in society today. We are often too afraid too question and confront dangerous ideologies, and often too complacent to defend the history and the culture upon which the Western world was built.
Someone who has never been accused of lacking for courage is Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Ayaan is a human rights activist, author, and, as of recently, the founder of Courage Media, a platform committed to challenging the dominant narratives that suppress truth and intellectual debate.
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The American President remains the most powerful person in the world. The collective choice made by a relatively small group of voters in a handful of American swing states will change the lives of people everywhere from Ukraine to Taiwan, from Israel to Iran, and from the UK to Australia.
The question is, how will the world change during a second Trump term? Few people are better placed to answer that question than former Treasurer of Australia, former Ambassador of Australia to the US, and now Founding Partner and President of Bondi Partners, Joe Hockey.
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London’s famously gloomy weather reflects the national mood. Farmers are marching on Westminster to protest crippling changes to inheritance tax laws. They are one of countless segments of the population that the new Starmer government has alienated in its early days in power. Illegal migrants continue to cross the channel in unprecedented numbers. Journalists are being investigated for thought crimes. And the long-term economic outlook is anemic.
At the same time, the new Trump administration may provide a blueprint for how to shake up a country in decline. The question is, how can we make Britain great again? To help Will with an answer, he is joined by comedian, podcaster and GB News host, Leo Kearse.
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There has been no real, society-wide reflection on the way we responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. We need to reflect on it, because the responses of Western governments were characterised by some of the most flagrant abuses of political power in history. We also witnessed shocking failures in the pharmaceutical industry; all in the pursuit of gigantic profits at the expense of public safety.
Fortunately, Naomi Wolf is talking about it. Naomi’s most recent, and perhaps most important, contribution to the public debate has been editing the now released collection of papers, collectively called 'The Pfizer Papers – Pfizer’s Crimes Against Humanity.'
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Donald Trump will be the 47th President of the United States. He will be the second President in history to be elected for non-consecutive terms, after Grover Cleveland. Whether you like him or not, Trump has confirmed his position as the most remarkable American political figure of the 21st century.
To discuss what we’ve just seen, and what is to come, Will is joined by writer and commentator, Melissa Chen.
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In a recent episode with Lord Frost, Will asked him if he was hopeful for the future of the United Kingdom. He acknowledged that it feels doom and gloom in 2024, but that the country has a history of getting itself into difficulties, and then finding the strength to overcome them. It is a great country with great traditions, and we just need to draw on them once again.
If the UK is to draw strength from its history, it should talk more about it. There’s no one better in the world to have that conversation with than the co-host of the cultural phenomenon that is The Rest Is History podcast, Dominic Sandbrook.
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We are 10 days out from the most important US election of our lifetimes. Of course that’s what they always say, but this time it feels like it may just be true. In this special bonus episode, Will chatted to Former White House Press Secretary, and now host of The Sean Spicer Show, Sean Spicer. Sean reflected on the campaign, and gave his prediction for who will win on the 5th of November. And spoiler alert, he thinks he'll win bigly.
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The start of a new government sets a tone that is often difficult to change. And the tone of Keir Starmer’s first 100 days has been dire, reinforcing a feeling of malaise across the United Kingdom.
To help with his first report card, Will is joined by David Frost, a Conservative member of the House of Lords and previously the Europe adviser to Boris Johnson and his Chief Negotiator for Exiting the EU in 2019 and 2020.
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There are many things that are depressing about the modern culture wars, but none more so than the war on the past. There is a concerted, fierce and increasingly successful effort to not just make us ashamed of our history, but to disconnect us from it entirely.
How did this war start, and more importantly, how can it be won by defenders of Western civilisation? To answer these questions, Will is joined by sociologist, author, and commentator Frank Furedi. Frank’s new book is titled, “The War on the Past: Why the West Must Fight for its History.”
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In some respects, October 7 and the events that have followed is the continuation of a story that is almost as old as time itself. But in many others, the conflict, and the response to it, has been a reflection of our times.
Identity politics, the loss of confidence in western civilisation, the ideological capture of our institutions, the corruption of the media, and the self-flagellating instinct to atone for the sins of the past can all be seen in the response to October 7.
There has been no one better in the world at analysing this conflict through the prism of our contemporary culture than Brendan O’Neill. His new book is titled, “After the Pogrom: 7 October, Israel, and the Crisis of Western Civilisation.”
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There is a feeling of pessimism in the UK at present, and it seems to be getting worse each day under the Starmer regime. A sense that the country has forgotten who it is. A feeling of helplessness that things are getting worse. And a rage that leaders on both sides of politics just don’t seem to care.
Calvin Robinson has, sadly, said enough is enough. With a heavy heart the popular priest and broadcaster moved from his home in England to the US earlier this month. In this conversation with Will, he explains why.
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For many voters, the upcoming US election isn’t really about the border, or the deficit, or guns, or healthcare, or abortion. As many pundits have now suggested, it’s about the vibes. It raises an unsettling question: does policy even matter anymore? Is the spin more important than the substance?
There’s no one better to answer that question than the Chairman and Co-Founder of Purple Strategies, a bipartisan public affairs firm, Alex Castellanos. Alex is one of the America’s best known and most successful media consultants and strategists. He has served as media consultant to seven U.S. Presidential campaigns, and has been credited with the discovery of the “political soccer mum” and called the father of the attack ad.
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Comic and GB News Host Nick Dixon was on the show a few weeks ago. He returned the favour by inviting Will on his podcast, "The Current Thing," last week. This podcasting pyramid scheme turned out rather well – it was a fun conversation covering the US election, the latest Churchill controversy, and the Starmergeddon facing Britain.
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Talking about Islam is a dangerous business, but talk about it we must. The West is facing a civilisational moment, and tensions between Islamism and Western liberal democracy may well determine its future.
Joining Will in these murky waters is GB News Presenter and the founder of the online video platform Reasoned, Darren Grimes.
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Free speech is under attack all over the Western world, but the assault may be the most sinister in the United Kingdom. Keir Starmer's authoritarian regime seems intent on chipping away at civil liberties until very few remain standing.
To discuss the state of free speech in the UK today, Will is joined by journalist, commentator, and the Founder of the Free Speech Union, Toby Young.
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It's easy to say that "woke ideology" is a nonsense. It's much harder to say that when your job, your social status, or your friendships may be put at risk by doing so. We need a practical, principled approach to fighting back against wokeism. Enter Helen Pluckrose.
Helen is a political and cultural author and speaker. She is the co-author of ‘Cynical Theories’, which was book of the year in The Times, Sunday Times and Financial Times. Her latest book, 'The Counterweight Handbook,' is a practical guide to help you survive and defeat critical social justice at school, at work, and beyond.
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The United Kingdom is a great country. It’s arguably contributed more to the flourishing of Western civilization than any other. Which is why recent events have left many people heartbroken.
Racially and culturally motivated riots have erupted on British streets, met with a two-tiered policing and judicial response, a crackdown on free speech, and an awful sense that the next five years could see the country change beyond recognition.
At the same time, the United Kingdom has faced dark moments before, and triumphed. Will it do so once again? To help Will answer that question, he is joined by GB News presenter and the co-host of The Weekly Skeptic podcast, Nick Dixon.
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Across the Anglosphere, governments on both sides of politics have never been more interested in the personal lives of their citizens. The nanny state thrives from Australia to the United Kingdom, and even in that traditional bastion of freedom, the USA.
Christopher Snowdon is the UK’s leading warrior against the excesses of the nanny state. He is the Head of Lifestyle Economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs, the author of six books, the editor of the Nanny State Index, and the co-host of the brilliant “Last Orders” podcast from Spiked.
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What the mainstream media calls a “conspiracy theory” is often nothing more than an amalgam of incentives hiding in plain sight. Once you see that, the rest becomes pretty obvious. Misaligned incentives are everywhere, and are the root cause of some of our thorniest global challenges. So how can we fix them?
There is no one better qualified to answer that question than Liv Boeree. Liv has one of the world’s most interesting CVs. She has a First Class degree in Astrophysics, she has won European Poker Tour and World Series of Poker championship titles, she is a Ted Talk phenomenon, and a successful YouTuber and podcaster. Her podcast 'Win Win', encourages us to understand the good, bad and ugly parts of competition, and find ways to harness the power of game theory to build a more positive-sum world.
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When it comes to conflict in the Middle East, there’s the war, and then there’s the war about the war. Of course, this isn’t new. Caesar was penning war reports in Gaul and sending them back to Rome to win hearts and minds over 2000 years ago. But, back then Caesar could control the narrative.
Today that is almost impossible. Social media, an activist mainstream media, and more sophisticated disinformation techniques have combined with millennia-old prejudices, and made it exceedingly difficult for Israel to communicate why they are fighting, how they are doing, and what still needs to be done.
Eylon Levy has been on the frontline of the war about the war. Eylon is a former Israeli government spokesperson, and International Media Advisor to the President of Israel. He is now co-founder of the Israeli Citizen Spokespersons’ Office and host of the State of a Nation podcast.
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The American experiment is failing. Division, mistrust and misinformation are now the country's defining characteristics. The storming of the Capitol, the prosecution of Donald Trump and battles over gun rights and abortion raise the spectre of further political violence.
We often hear that these events are unprecedented. On the contrary, author and journalist Nick Bryant suggests that the hate, divisiveness and paranoia we see today are in fact a core part of America's story. His remarkable new book is titled 'The Forever War: America's Unending Conflict with Itself'.
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Sir Niall Ferguson is arguably the world's greatest living historian. He first pointed out that we’re in Cold War II back in 2018. In articles for The New York Times and National Review, Sir Niall tried to show how China now occupies the space vacated by the Soviet Union when it collapsed in 1991.
This view is less controversial now than it was then. China is clearly not only an ideological rival; it’s also a technological competitor, a geopolitical rival, and a military rival.
Sir Niall has recently amended his thesis to something altogether more disturbing. What if, in this new Cold War, the US — and not the Chinese - might be the Soviets?
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Education was once the search for truth. Sadly, this is no longer the case in many universities across the Western world. Instead of promoting debate, disagreement, and viewpoint diversity, too many institutions peddle a series of ideological narratives that seek to engrain a black armband view of history, an assertion of the importance of identity over merit, and a subjective definition of truth.
That’s why there is no more urgent priority in the world today for sensible conservatives than to fight back against the radical left’s colonisation of education. Wilfred Reilly has accepted the challenge. Wilfred is a political science professor at Kentucky State University, and the author of the wonderful new book, “Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me: Debunking the False Narratives Defining America's School Curricula”.
NOTE: We had some very minor issues with Will's sound. Rest assured the tech team have been severely reprimanded.
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It wasn’t so long ago that one phrase sat above any other in the hierarchy of endorsements for a British or Australian male: “He’s a good bloke.”
You don’t hear it as much in 2024 because blokehood is under attack across the Western world. Historically positive masculine virtues are now shamed as toxically masculine. At a minimum, blokeishness is derided as boorishness by our social betters in the media, politics, business, and culture.
The first step to reclaiming blokehood is understanding it, which is what Geoff Norcott has done. As a rare right-winger, Geoff is a unique voice in British comedy, and has been hugely successful on the stand up circuit, with his podcast, and on TV.
His latest book has made him the official expert on British blokes. It is titled, "The British Bloke: Decoded – From Banter to Man Flu, Everything Finally Explained."
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It feels like AI can now write anything for us and create anything for us. In some respects it’s exciting, but it’s also scary, and it raises a depressing question: will technology kill creativity?
There are few people better placed to answer that question than Polish-American artist Agnieszka Pilat. Agnieszka is the Silicon Valley elite’s favourite artist. Intelligencer magazine has called her the court painter of the potentate’s of Silicon Valley, including Elon Musk, who has twice invited her onsite for an artist residency at SpaceX.
She is best known for her work with Spots: dog-like robots designed by Boston Dynamics, which are more usually used by mining companies or militaries than by artists. In her own words, “Machines are humanity’s children. I am just giving them a page in a family album.”
There has long been a curious sub-genre in liberal journalism. It can best be described as “examining working class Americans in their natural habitat.” It goes something like this. Journalists from New York or California will bravely venture into a red state, observe the local inhabitants from afar, and come back with a series of superficial insights that reinforce the existing prejudices of coastal elites.
Partly as a result of this lack of journalistic curiosity, liberal America is no closer to truly understanding the underlying forces that swept Donald Trump into the White House, and may yet do so again.
Batya Ungar-Sargon did something novel. She wanted to understand the American working class, so she actually spoke to them, all over the country, for over a year. Lessons learnt were captured in ‘Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America’s Working Men and Women.’ It is the best book to read if you want to understand the political and cultural forces at play in America in 2024.
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The most peculiar aspect of 'Pride' is how it has lumped together the gay population, with the most extreme proponents of gender ideology, when the latter have arguably done more than any other group to harm the former.
Gareth Roberts has witnessed this firsthand. Gareth has fallen into commentary on gender ideology, but like previous guests of the show such as Graham Linehan and Helen Joyce, he was marvellously successful before wading into such treacherous waters.
Gareth is a screenwriter and novelist, best known for his work on the iconic British series Doctor Who. His latest book is titled 'Gay Shame: The Rise of Gender Ideology and the New Homophobia.'
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The world could end before you finish listening to this podcast. That's the reality of a nuclear-armed world. If a sense of complacency had crept in about the threat of nuclear weapons, Annie Jacobsen's stunning new book is a wake up call.
'Nuclear War: A Scenario' imagines the 72 minutes after the 'button is pushed', and it doesn't end well. It's shockingly realistic, due to Annie’s meticulous research, which reflects her status as a Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times bestselling author.
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Heresy is defined as opinion profoundly at odds with what is generally accepted. It has rarely been more dangerous to be a heretic, which is why it's rarely been more important to champion them.
There is no bigger heretic than Andrew Gold. Andrew is a journalist, author, and TV presenter who produces documentaries on bizarre and controversial subcultures.
He has battled an abusive exorcist, dueled with the Crazy Baby Lady, hunted UFOs, and spoken to a teen school captain, who also happened to be a pedophile. His podcast is appropriately titled, ‘heretics’.
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Note: We had some minor sound issues in the first 10 minutes, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to edit out anything that Victor said. Stick with it. It’s worth it!
In some respects, the West is exhibiting similar symptoms to past civilizations that decayed, declined, or were completely wiped off the map. At the same time, there are green shoots that may point to a rebirth of the United States, and Western civilization more broadly.
To put our moment in a historical context, Will is joined by the inimitable Victor Davis Hanson. Victor's latest book is titled 'The End of Everything: How Wars Descend Into Annihilation.'
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Australiana is now Fire at Will - your safe space for dangerous conversations.
Why is Africa poor? There’s a series of trendy answers to that question, that are almost taken as read amongst the progressive elite that dominate our institutions. Racism, slavery, and colonialism.
Magatte Wade has called BS on this narrative, and she is uniquely qualified to do so, being widely regarded as the world’s leading African prosperity activist. She is an entrepreneur, speaker, and author. Her latest book is titled ‘The Heart of a Cheetah: How we have been lied to about African poverty, and what that means for human flourishing’.
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Australiana is now Fire at Will - your safe space for dangerous conversations.
Across the western world, cosplay protests are ongoing in some of the most elite academic institutions. They point to a deeper malaise in places of higher education. That's a real problem. The illiberal dogmas that have infiltrated our social institutions have their roots in the cultural rot in western education systems.
To discuss how this happened, and what can be done, Will is joined by Eric Kaufmann. Eric is Professor of Politics at the University of Buckingham. His next book is out soon. It is titled 'Taboo: How making race sacred produced a cultural revolution.'
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Western liberal democratic capitalism has created more prosperity, and enabled more human flourishing, than any other social system. It is something we should be proud of. And yet, Jonah Goldberg argues it is under attack, both from illiberal progressive identity politics, and right-wing populism.
Jonah is one of America's most esteemed political pundits. He was the first editor of National Review Online, before founding The Dispatch - a digital media company providing engaged citizens with fact-based reporting and commentary on politics, policy and culture. He is a regular contributor to CNN and The Los Angeles Times, and a #1 New York Times bestselling author.
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There’s a common refrain when it comes to housing in Australia today: ‘it’s never been harder to enter the housing market’. Housing affordability has been labelled by politicians, the media, and aspiring homeowners as a historic crisis.
What if that’s just not the case? What if we’ve seen the same story countless times before? What the markets are doing what they have always done, and what they should be doing? Perhaps, as Cameron Murray suggests, the market isn’t the answer? Cameron is an economist and Australia’s leading expert on housing. His new book is titled, ‘The Great Housing Hijack: The Hoaxes and Myths Keeping Prices High for Renter and Buyers in Australia’.
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It’s easy to forget that journalists were once invested with immense trust by citizens. This is no longer the case. Journalists are amongst the least trusted members of society, and it has been largely self-inflicted.
The rise of activist journalism over objective journalism, the rush for online clicks, and the narcissistic desire of too many to transition from being journalists to media personalities has blighted the profession. The question is, is journalism beyond saving?
Anthony De Ceglie is well placed to answer the question. Anthony was the Deputy Editor at the Daily Telegraph, and is now Editor in Chief of West Australian newspapers, including The West Australian, and the editor in chief of Seven West Media’s new evening digital newspaper, The Nightly.
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Gen Z has developed quite a reputation. Lazy. Difficult to work with. Technology-addicted. And of course, insufferably woke. What if that reputation is ill-founded? What if, in fact, Gen Z is the most culturally conservative generation since World War Two? What if Gen Z are the saviours-in-waiting of western civilisation?
That’s the opinion of content creator, author and Gen Z-er, Isabel Brown. Isabel’s new book is titled, ‘The End of the Alphabet: How Gen Z Can Save America’.
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Sometimes it feels like the tidal wave of ‘wokeness’ (or identity politics) washed over the western world almost overnight. It has captured more or less every societal institution in a remarkably short period of time.
However, the intellectual roots of the movement can be traced back over fifty years. The best analysis on how it has achieved such incredible influence comes from the German-American political scientist, Yascha Mounk. Will and Yascha discuss his latest book, ‘The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time’.
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Politics is downstream from culture. To change politics, one must first change culture. The left intrinsically understands this in a way that the right simply does not. The arts have been captured by a toxic mixture of identity politics, social justice ideology, and cancel culture.
Matthew Marsden has seen this ideological takeover firsthand. He rose to fame from his role on the iconic British TV series Coronation Street, and has subsequently starred in a long list of Hollywood films, including Black Hawk Down, Resident Evil: Extinction, Rambo and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
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There are two ways to look at American politics in 2024. There’s the prevailing pessimistic view. Many people think democracy is under threat, the economy is structurally vulnerable, the military is stretched, and for many, the looming election represents a choice between two geriatric evils.
There is another perspective. What incredible fun! American politics has never been so entertaining. And as we look forward to the election, no one knows what will happen.
If anyone can make sense of it all, it’s Charles C.W. Cooke. Charles is a senior writer at National Review, the host of the Charles C.W. Cooke Podcast, and the author of The Conservatarian Manifesto.
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It is now in vogue to celebrate non-Western cultures and disparage Western ones. Many well-meaning people have been fooled by hypocritical and inconsistent anti-West rhetoric.
It’s not just dishonest scholars who benefit from this intellectual fraud but hostile nations and human rights abusers hoping to distract from their own ongoing villainy.
If the West is to survive, it must be defended. In this very special episode, Will talks to the preeminent defender of western civilization alive today, Douglas Murray.
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We as a society are self-censoring at record rates. Say the wrong thing at the wrong moment to the wrong person and the consequences can be dire.
When the truth is no defense and nuance is seen as an attack, self-censorship is a rational choice. Yet, our silence comes with a price. When we are too fearful to speak openly and honestly, we deprive ourselves of the ability to build genuine relationships, we yield all cultural and political power to those with opposing views, and we lose our ability to challenge ideas or change minds, even our own.
Katherine Brodsky thinks it's time for principled individuals to hit the unmute button and resist the authoritarians among us who name, shame, and punish. Her new book is titled 'No Apologies: How to Find and Free Your Voice in the Age of Outrage—Lessons for the Silenced Majority'.
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Australia is facing serious domestic and international challenges, all at a time when the political class has arguably never been so ill-equipped to address them. In fact, perhaps the only thing that nearly all Australians can agree on is that our leaders are not a patch on what they were in times gone by.
At the same time, ‘she’ll be right, mate’ has served Australia well enough so far, and may yet still. To help us understand the state of the nation and our politics in 2024, Will is joined by one of Australia’s best-known and most insightful political journalists, Joe Hildebrand.
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Bill Clinton's strategist James Carville memorably said, "It's the economy, stupid". Times have changed. The great political battles of our time are not waged over economics, but cultural issues. Today, "It's the culture, stupid".
No one understands this better than Matt Goodwin. Matt is an academic and bestselling author, known for his work on political volatility, risk, populism, British politics, and Brexit. His book, 'Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics' is one of the most influential political science books of modern times.
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Journalist. Contrarian. Iconoclast. Intellectual. Provocateur... And one of the most successful novelists of the 21st century.
Lionel Shriver has, in her own words, spent a career courting self-destruction. But she's still standing.
In this no-holds barred conversation with Will, Lionel gives her inimitable take on identity politics, the trans debate, and the manias that continue to afflict society in 2024.
Note: Lionel's dog makes a cameo in the second half of the episode. Apologies on his behalf.
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We all comfort ourselves by believing in cause and effect. According to Dr Brian Klaas, we wilfully ignore a bewildering truth: but for a few small changes, our lives and our societies could be profoundly different.
When given the choice between complex uncertainty and comforting – but wrong – certainty, we too often choose comfort. In other words, we ignore the flukes.
Brian is an associate professor of global politics at University College, London, a contributing writer for The Atlantic, and the author of several books, the most recent of which has just been released. It is titled: Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and why everything we do matters.
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2024 is the biggest election year in history. Countries with more than half the world’s population – over four billion people – will go to the polls. You’d think the more elections the better, right?
Dr Nic Cheeseman would urge caution. In fact, he argues that the greatest political paradox of our time is that there are more elections than ever before, and yet the world is becoming less democratic. Nic is the Professor of Democracy at the University of Birmingham and the co-author of the book, ‘How to Rig an Election’.
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The most astute social commentators on the present are the people who have the deepest understanding of the past. As Mark Twain famously said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” Historians are best placed to hear the rhymes of history in the news of the day.
There are few historians who have demonstrated such an aptitude and insight for understanding modern politics and culture as Dr Victor Davis Hanson. Victor is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He has written or edited twenty-five books, the latest of which is ‘The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America’.
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It’s perhaps never been harder to speak the truth than it is in the West today. In fact, many people now implicitly question the value of the truth itself. That’s why it’s so important to recognise and champion people with the intellectual capacity and moral courage to speak the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it may be.
Few people in the public discourse can speak deep truths with such simplicity and power as Zuby. Zuby is a rapper, author, podcast host, public speaker and creative entrepreneur, not to mention Elon Musk’s dream presidential candidate…
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Few people called for sanity as the world lost its collective mind during the COVID pandemic, but Jay Bhattacharya was certainly one of them. Jay is a Professor of Health Policy at Stanford University, a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and one of the three authors of The Great Barrington Declaration.
In this wide-ranging conversation with Will, Jay discusses the litany of institutional failures that marred the pandemic response, and what we must do to avoid making the same mistakes again.
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The overwhelming majority of academic articles come and go with little fanfare. There may be the odd admiring nod from a professor, or a few lively debates in university tutorial rooms. But that’s normally about it.
Unless you are Professor Bruce Gilley. In 2017, Bruce authored a watershed paper titled, ‘The Case for Colonialism.’ It sparked a global furore. Far from cowered, Bruce has just released a new book, also titled ‘The Case for Colonialism’, that doubles down on his argument: colonialism was, on balance, good for the colonised, and good for the world.
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It’s that time of the year when many of us will sit down and write. It could be resolutions. It could be reflections. It could be that book that everyone has inside them. There's just one problem. It's really hard.
To crack the code of writing, Will is joined by one of the most successful crime fiction authors of all time, Jeffery Deaver. Jeffery has sold over 50 million novels in 25 languages, won numerous awards and counts Ian Rankin, Harlan Coben and Lee Child among his fans.
His latest novel, The Watchmaker’s Hand, has just been released.
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It's hard not to see America as a country in decline. Foreign policy attention is stretched, political debate is toxic, the national debt is eye-watering, and the institutions have been ideologically captured.
However, America has been written off before. It's geographic, demographic, economic and military advantages remain the envy of the world.
To discuss American politics as we enter a defining year in the country's history, Will is joined by best-selling author, host of The Gorka Reality Check, and former Deputy Assistant to President Trump, Sebastian Gorka.
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As we approach the end of 2023, it’s easy to become despondent about the fate of the West. War rages in Ukraine and the Middle East, as China eyes off Taiwan. The cost of living crisis is becoming unbearable for average families. Illiberal ‘wokeism’ continues to infect our institutions. And the Anglosphere leaders elected to guide us out of this mess appear woefully ill-equipped to do so.
To discuss the state of the world, and the small matter of the future of western civilisation, Will is joined by the Executive Director of the Centre for Independent Studies, and former Editor of The Spectator Australia, Tom Switzer.
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For over 30 years, Naomi Wolf was lauded as a feminist icon, a bestselling author and a darling of liberal America. Her investigative journalism during the COVID pandemic led to those labels being replaced overnight with pejoratives like 'conspiracy theorist' and 'anti-vaxxer'.
Unbowed and unbroken, Naomi continues to stand against tyranny in the finest tradition of classical liberalism. Her new book is titled 'Facing the Beast: Courage, Faith, and Resistance in a New Dark Age'.
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Satire is one of the most important ingredients of a healthy public discourse. But it is under threat across the west. Comedy, once the most subversive of artforms, has caved to the woke mob. Misinformation laws threaten to curtail free speech even further. And perhaps some of us have lost the ability to laugh at the irreverent and the politically incorrect.
Joel Berry is not one of those people. Joel is the Managing Editor of the Babylon Bee, one of (if not the) most popular satirical websites on the planet. Millions of people read the Bee’s content every month.
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Who was the most influential person in history? Why do empires fall? What is the biggest misconception about WWI? Napoleon or Alexander the Great? And why are men so obsessed with the Roman Empire?
All these questions (and more) are answered by the host of Hardcore History, Dan Carlin. Hardcore History is widely recognised as one of the greatest podcasts of all-time. It reimagined the telling of history for the modern media age.
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Today, colonialism is viewed by many as the original sin of British history. The truth is far more complex. Theologian, ethicist, and author Nigel Biggar is one of the very few public figures with the courage to take a holistic approach to the study of the British Empire.
His latest book is titled ‘Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning.’ It offers a moral inquest into the colonial past, forensically contesting damaging falsehoods and thereby helping to rejuvenate faith in the West’s future.
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For the second time in his life, Laurence Fox is engulfed in a cancellation storm. It has taken a heavy toll, but he refuses to be silenced.
In this wide-ranging conversation with Will, he discusses cancel culture, GB News, the failure of multiculturalism, the future of conservatism and the sad decline of London.
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The forensic, long-form political interview remains possibly the best, and certainly the most entertaining, mechanism for political accountability. Can it survive in an age of spin, social media and soundbites?
To answer that question, Will is joined by Rob Burley. Rob is one of the most respected and experienced editors in British political television, with a CV that includes stints as editor of the BBC’s live political programs, The Andrew Marr Show, Politics Live and Newswatch.
His new book, ‘Why is This Lying Bastard Lying to Me?’, is a history of political television and a love letter to its highest form: the long-form, forensic political interview.
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Graham Linehan created some of the most beloved British sitcoms of all-time, including Father Ted, Black Books and The IT Crowd. That counted for little when his life was upended for the ‘crime’ of advocating for sex-based rights.
In this conversation with host Will Kingston, Graham talks about his career in television, the craft of sitcom writing and why he continues to rally against the dangers of trans ideology.
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What if Hitler was killed in 1923? Was Germany's defeat in WWII inevitable? How should we assess Churchill's legacy? And are the events unfolding in Gaza today a by-product of WWII?
All these questions, and more, are answered by arguably the pre-eminent living historian on the Second World War, James Holland.
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Jeffrey Archer is one of the most successful authors of all time. He has been published in 115 countries and more than 50 languages, with international sales passing 275 million copies. But his life has been just as remarkable as any of his stories. It’s a tale of political intrigue, wealth, fame, financial calamity, nobility, crime, incarceration, redemption and love.
In this wide-ranging conversation with host Will Kingston, Jeffrey reflects on his life, his work and his three loves: politics, storytelling and his wife, Dame Mary.
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Helen Joyce is a journalist, author and feminist campaigner. Her first book, ‘Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality’, was an immediate bestseller and named by The Times, The Spectator and The Observer as one of their books of 2021.
It tells the story of how national laws, company policies, school curricula, medical protocols, academic research and media style guides are being rewritten to privilege self-declared gender identity over biological sex.
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Has western society ever been more unhappy? Deaths of despair are at historically high levels. Antidepressant use is through the roof. Woke culture is encouraging us to feel guilty about pretty much everything. We are in desperate need of an injection of happiness.
Fortunately, this week Will is joined by just the person to provide it. Professor Gad Saad is one of the world’s most important public intellectuals, and surely its most entertaining. His most recent book is titled, ‘The Saad Truth about Happiness: 8 Secrets for Leading the Good Life.’
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Capitalism was the driving force behind extraordinary advances in prosperity throughout the 20th century. But isolationist policies, stagnant wages and woke companies have led many to question whether the capitalist system has run its course.
To assess the state of capitalism in 2023, Will is joined by self-described 'rabid capitalist', Hannah Cox. Hannah is a prominent American libertarian writer, commentator and activist. She is best known as the co-founder of Based, a hugely popular multimedia platform that uses new media to drive real-world policy outcomes.
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Who was the greatest-ever military general? What was history's most disastrous party? Is identity politics ruining the study of history? And what on Earth was the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth?
All these questions and more are answered by the co-host of the smash-hit 'The Rest is History' podcast, Dominic Sandbrook.
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It may seem odd to describe a book that was published almost 30 years ago as highly topical. But the 1995 Miles Franklin Award winner, ‘The Hand That Signed The Paper’, is just that.
The book's author, Helen Dale, has since established herself as one of Australia's true polymaths. She has continued to produce magnificent novels, such as 'Kingdom of the Wicked', as well as casting a liberal lens over the issues of the day for Law & Liberty (where she is a Senior Writer), The Australian, Quillette and most notably of course, The Spectator Australia.
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International best-selling author Bjorn Lomborg has spent a career infuriating people by being sensible. He brought much-needed pragmatism to the climate debate, and he's now doing the same for international development.
In his latest book, titled 'Best Things First', he presents the 12 most efficient solutions for the world's poorest and our global SDG promises.
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John Anderson AC is a sixth-generation farmer and grazier from New South Wales, who spent 19 years from 1989 in the Australian Parliament, including six years as Leader of the National Party and Deputy Prime Minister.
In this wide-ranging conversation with host Will Kingston, John discusses the health of public debate today, the upcoming Voice referendum and why politicians have forgotten the importance of 'the case for change.'
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One of the most important academic papers of modern times was published in 2017. It was titled, ‘The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct’. Thankfully, it wasn’t the content of the paper that started a global discussion, but rather the circumstances that surrounded it and the light that it shone on the current state of academia, woke ideology and notions of truth and freedom of expression.
This week, host Will Kingston is joined by one of the pseudonymous authors of the paper, philosopher, writer, and one of the most interesting thinkers of our age, Dr Peter Boghossian.
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In some respects, the Romans feel strangely familiar. In the great men (and yes, they were almost always men) of the Roman Empire, we can glimpse human motivations, desires and flaws that we share today. At the same time, the Romans inhabited a world replete with some (thankfully) not so familiar features: eunuchs, prophecy, incest and barbarism.
What lessons can we draw from a civilisation that is at once familiar to us, and yet so alien? To answer that question, host Will Kingston is joined by the preeminent Roman historian of our generation, Tom Holland. The third book in Tom’s series on Ancient Rome, ‘Pax: War and Peace in Rome’s Golden Age’, is out now.
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Drugs in the White House... Presidential court cases... Geriatric party leaders… Eight hour hunger strikes… And the odd attempted ‘insurrection.’ It’s fair to say that we’ve become desensitised to just how strange American politics has become. To help make sense of the madness, host Will Kingston is joined by Texas’ #1 radio host, the ‘Czar of Talk’, Michael Berry.
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We live in an age where the lines between entertainment and political activism are so blurred as to be almost non-existent. Barbie is less a movie about a doll than a lecture about the patriarchy. The ‘Welcome to Country’ at most footy games will soon be longer than the game itself. And many stand-up comedians are less interested in telling jokes than they are about making political statements.
Monty Franklin is not one of those comedians. Instead he’s become one of Australia’s most successful US-based comedians by poking fun at the things that make Aussies great. In the words of John Cleese, who co-wrote with Monty the upcoming film, ‘The Great Emu War’, ‘silliness always wins’.
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Society's approach to mental health is, well, healthier than it was in the past. The stiff upper lip, suck it up, ‘be a man’ mentality has been replaced by a more open and accepting conversation around depression, anxiety and trauma.
However, this evolution has also brought with it some troubling consequences: an unhealthy ennoblement of victimhood, difficulty instilling resilience in young people and a fear of uncomfortable truth’s that need to be spoken. It raises the question, has Australia become a fragile nation? To answer the question, Will is joined by psychiatrist, journalist and author of ‘Fragile Nation: Vulnerability, Resilience and Victimhood’, Tanveer Ahmed.
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It isn't hard to find a right-wing critique of woke ideology. It is much more difficult to find left-leaning thinkers coming out in opposition to the woke dogma that has superseded traditional, social democratic principles in most western centre-left political parties. This is why Susan Neiman’s new book, ‘Left is not Woke’ is such an important contribution to the public debate.
Susan is one of the world’s most renowned and respected living philosophers. She currently resides in Germany where she is the Director of the Einstein Forum. She’s also a self-described socialist, and she’s set out to separate 'wokeism' from the historic principles of the left.
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Adam Creighton is an Australian economist and journalist. He is currently the Washington correspondent for The Australian newspaper. In this interview with host Will Kingston, Adam takes us on a whistle-stop tour of the burning economic issues of the day, including cost-of-living, productivity and innovation.
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Brendan O'Neill is the chief political writer for Spiked and a regular contributor to The Spectator. His new book, 'A Heretic's Manifesto', is a rallying cry to stand up against the woke orthodoxy of our age.
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Sall Grover was a Hollywood screenwriter for a decade before returning to Australia to start 'Giggle' - a social media app for women. After a barely believable series of events (that could only have happened in the strange times in which we live), the app is at the centre of one of the most significant legal cases in modern Australian history. The outcome will have very real repercussions for girls and women across the country.
Note: We had some minor sound issues (and a host with a nasty cold). Stick with it. It's worth it.
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Miranda Devine is an Australian journalist and bestselling author. Whilst working in Australia, her opinion pieces for, among others, The Daily Telegraph and The Sydney Morning Herald more often than not made their way to the forefront of the national conversation. She currently resides in New York, where she writes for The New York Post.
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Johannes Leak is the Editorial Cartoonist for The Australian. Like his father Bill before him, Johannes’ cartoons represent the soul of the newspaper. In this conversation with host Will Kingston, Johannes delivers a masterclass on the craft of political cartoons, as well as discussing how identity politics and cancel culture are encroaching on modern media and the arts.
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Winston Marshall was the banjoist and lead guitarist for British folk rock band Mumford and Sons. In 2021, he left the band so that he could be free to use his voice to shine a light on the taboo topics of our age. His podcast for The Spectator, Marshall Matters, is now one of the most popular political and social commentary podcasts in the UK.
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Senator Alex Antic is a Liberal Senator representing South Australia in the Australian Federal Parliament. In this wide-ranging conversation with host Will Kingston, Alex discusses the Voice referendum, the future of the Liberal Party, the challenges facing the west and the rise of China.
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Andrew Bogut is Australia’s greatest ever men’s basketballer. His glittering professional career started in 2005 when he became the first Australian to go number #1 in the NBA draft, it reached its crescendo in 2015 with an NBA championship for the Golden State Warriors, and ended back in Australia with the Sydney Kings.
Off the court, he has developed a reputation as an intelligent, contrarian thinker on a wide range of issues. In this conversation, Andrew and host Will Kingston discuss the relationship between politics and sport, trans athletes and whether sporting clubs should take a position on the Voice referendum.
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Mick Ryan is a retired Major-General in the Australian Army. His decorated 35 year military career included deployments to East Timor, Iraq, and southern Afghanistan, as well as a stint as a strategist on the United States Joint Staff in the Pentagon. This experience, in conjunction with an impressive academic resume, has earnt him a reputation as one of Australia’s finest military minds.
His new book, ‘White Sun War’, is an engrossing imagining of a future conflict between China and the US over Taiwan. In this conversation with host Will Kingston, Mick discusses what that conflict may look like.
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Daisy Cousens is one of the most insightful and entertaining voices in Australian political and social commentary. She’s mastered legacy media via contributions to Sky News, Q&A and The Spectator Australia, but it’s her burgeoning reputation as a YouTuber that has catapulted her to global attention. Over 215 thousand people now subscribe to her channel.
In this episode, Daisy and host Will Kingston go on an intrepid adventure into the culture wars and Australian and American politics.
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Warren Mundine grew up in a poor Aboriginal family in the 1950’s and rose to become the National President of the Australian Labor Party, an advisor to five Prime Ministers, a successful businessman and a tireless advocate for indigenous Australians.
In this conversation with host Will Kingston, he discusses why he is opposing the Voice, and outlines some practical things we can do instead to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians.
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Cameron Murray is an Australian author and economist, who specialises in property markets, environmental economics and corruption. His latest book is titled ‘Rigged: How Networks of Powerful Mates Rip off Everyday Australians.’
It’s an extraordinary and shocking story of how boys clubs and backroom deals have come to dominate business and government in Australia, robbing ordinary Australians of half of their wealth.
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Kellie-Jay Keen (AKA Posie Parker) is an activist for sex-based rights. She is the founder of Standing For Women, a global women’s rights campaign group, and the creator of the action Women Stand Up!
Her recent tour of Australia and New Zealand made global headlines. She was rushed by Lidia Thorpe in Hobart, accused of being a Nazi sympathiser in Melbourne, and assaulted in Auckland in scenes that shocked the world.
In this conversation with host Will Kingston, she's a British mum of four leading a global movement on behalf of women everywhere.
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Check out the STANDING FOR WOMEN website here.
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Almost every big company has embraced woke policies and attitudes over the last five years, despite little evidence they improve business performance.
Host Will Kingston explores this paradox with American economist and management thought leader, Peter Klein. In 2022, Peter made headlines in business sections the world over for a paper he co-authored, titled ‘Why Do Companies Go Woke?’
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Read 'Why Do Companies Go Woke?' here.
Buy 'Why Managers Matter' here.
Konstantin Kisin is a Russian-British comedian, podcaster and writer. His speech earlier this year to the Oxford Union on 'whether woke culture has gone too far' (watch) established him as one of the most influential social commentators in the world today. Each week he co-hosts the wildly successful Triggernometry podcast with another friend of Australiana, Francis Foster.
In this wide-ranging conversation, host Will Kingston and Konstantin discuss Ukraine, free speech, the decline of western culture and the rise of activist journalism.
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We now live in an age where words are violence. Where morality is assessed in Silicon Valley boardrooms instead of local communities. Where free speech is encumbered with so many legislative ifs and buts that it’s rapidly losing meaning.
The great tragedy is it feels like there are less and less people willing to stand up for a belief that previous generations fought and died for – the right to think and say what we believe. Host Will Kingston is joined by legal theorist Josh Krook to discuss how free speech in Australia is eroding before our eyes.
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Note: We had some minor sound quality issues arising from Josh calling from the UK. Stick with it. It's worth it.
In last week’s episode host Will Kingston chatted to firebrand conservative commentator Sydney Watson, whose funny and fearless culture war observations have made her a Youtube sensation the world over. It turns out both host and guest had an aversion to brevity.
This is Part II of Australiana in conversation with Sydney Watson. In this episode Will and Sydney cover modern feminism, race relations and woke celebrities.
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Sydney Watson is not a quiet Australian, although she shares their frustrations. On the contrary she’s a very loud Australian. Her army of over one million social media followers come to her for funny and fearless culture war observations.
In this first episode of a two-part series, host Will Kingston and Sydney discuss the body positivity movement, trans conversion therapy and the rise of identity politics within companies.
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Australia and the UK have adopted a legally-binding commitment to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. In this provocative conversation with host Will Kingston, author and Spectator journalist Ross Clark lays out a searing case for why this commitment is not only environmentally futile, but economically and geopolitically dangerous. Ross’ new book is titled ‘Not Zero: How an Irrational Target Will Impoverish You, Help China (and Won't Even Save the Planet).’
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Buy ‘Not Zero’ here.
Why are there almost no right-wing comedians? Why do we take jokes so seriously? Is it possible to be funny in 2023 without being cancelled? Host Will Kingston searches for answers with teacher-turned-comedian-turned-podcasting magnate, Francis Foster. Francis is co-host of the hugely successful Triggernometry podcast. Will and Francis discuss comedy and a buffet of culture wars issues in this wide-ranging conversation.
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Follow Francis on social media:
- TikTok: tiktok.com/@francisjfoster
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/francisfostercomedian/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/francisjfoster/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/francisjfoster
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The pandemic may be coming to an end, but the virus of groupthink that infected our institutions still runs rampant. Host Will Kingston chats with economist and author Gigi Foster about how Covid exposed an egregious failure of competence and courage in the sciences and academia, where the scientific method and academic debate were shamefully tossed aside. The question is, can they be saved?
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Australia is changing before our eyes but we cannot see it. Or perhaps we don’t want to? Enter Australiana, the new podcast that will look at the big issues facing Australia through the telescope of the news of the day. Every week host Will Kingston will speak to a newsmaker or news-breaker to understand our politics, our culture and the wars that are being waged to change them.
Australiana is produced by The Spectator, the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. There’s no publication better placed to help you see the changing face of our nation.
Twitter: @SpectatorOz