- 17
- Episodes
- Monthly
- Cadence
- 2023
- First episode
About Szego Unplugged Podcast
My eclectic obsessions and musings. Gender identity, identity politics, politics, public education, class, old-school feminism. szegounplugged.substack.com (https://szegounplugged.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)
- Publisher
- Julie Szego
- Category
- news · news
- Language
- en
- Explicit
- No
- First episode
- 22 Aug 2023
- Latest episode
- 9 Nov 2026
Latest episodes
17 episodes in the feed.
9 Nov 2026
Man On a Mission
On the eve of Remembrance Day — latterly an occasion for vandalising monuments with anti-Israel graffiti — I’m publishing this podcast interview with retired Australian Army Colonel, Michael Scott. Michael’s 32-year military career included deployments to East Timor, Bougainville, Iraq and Afghanistan. From 2019 to 2021 he had a secondment to the United Nations in Jerusalem. In 2023 he was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross for his outstanding devotion to duty. Most conspicuously from my point of view, since October 7 he’s stepped up like few others have to defend the state of Israel, the Jewish people and democratic values. He’s the author of several books on the subject: the next one, When the Light Must Be Held: Standing Sentinel Against the Gathering Storm, will be released later this year. Michael describes our present moment as an interbellum, an interval before the next war: so there’s nothing hedging or ponderous about this conversation! We discuss the reasons for his grim diagnosis, what Remembrance Day means for him, his assessment of the Australian Defence Force, his experience in the military — including his stint working with the UN in the Middle East — his take on the combustible subject of Ben Roberts-Smith, the decorated war hero accused of war crimes. I vent my frustration about Penny Wong’s response to the Israeli military’s finding that the tragic strike on the World Central Kitchen convoy not be referred to criminal investigators. We talk about the rise of anti-Jewish intimidation, such as the shocking case of the horseback Israel-hater at Bondi. I vent my frustration about the Jewish community’s failure to confront the fascists and Islamists who take to the streets on October 7 to claim it for themselves. And we talk about the 2023 Foundation, the Australian non-profit organisation that Michael established to combat antisemitism by facilitating experiences in Israel. (It’s astonishing the extent to which visiting Israel transforms perspectives on the conflict— hence the strenuous efforts of Israel-haters to cast such tours as sinister). But he offers a note of caution: don’t waste your time trying to reason with the “lemon face” crowd. Cryptic? All is revealed herein. Agree with him or not, Michael is a rare figure of conviction and honour. To buy Michael’s books, visit his website: https://michaelscottcsc.com (https://michaelscottcsc.com) Michael on LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/in/mscott-csc (http://www.linkedin.com/in/mscott-csc) For information on his Foundation, visit www.2023foundation.org.au (http://www.2023foundation.org.au) Szego Unplugged is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe (https://szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
23 Sept 2026
Inside Israel’s protest camp
Welcome to my first video post. It’s non-stop innovation here at Szego Unplugged: no boo boo (https://szegounplugged.substack.com/p/a-boo-boo) this time! Esther Takac is a Melbourne-based filmmaker, author and psychologist, who I first met eons ago when she responded to a column I wrote about the challenges of reading the Book of Genesis to my kids by sending me her beautiful, award-winning book, Genesis: The Book With 70 Pages, a “how-to” manual for introducing the young to the foundational text of our civilisation. No-one could accuse Esther of flinching from weighty and confronting subjects. As a psychologist, she deals with trauma and children across the world, including as a consultant to the Paediatric Department at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. Trauma, and its transcendence, informs her filmmaking too. First in The Narrow Bridge, a much-lauded documentary, which explores the emerging relationships between Israelis and Palestinians bereaved after losing loved ones to the conflict. (The documentary, widely screened and broadcast internationally will feature at the United Nations film festival next month.) Her latest film, Rising: Voices of Protest and Hope, tracks central figures in Israel’s street protests against the Netanyahu government, the most far-right in the nation’s history. From the mass opposition to the government’s flagged judicial overhaul, to the horrific shock of October 7, to the weekly rallies for the release of hostages in Gaza — the people Esther profiles could write the book on resilience and faith. The film is timely as Israelis go to the polls next month in what’s routinely described as one of the most consequential elections since the establishment of the state. Esther and her subjects believe democracy itself is on the ballot — and I don’t disagree. That said, Esther and I sometimes disagree on matters Israel, which is why I enjoy talking to her so much; she argues non-judgmentally and with an open-mind. Today we discuss trauma and grief, how she navigated an Israel bleeding after October 7, her response to the eruption of Jew-hatred in Australia and her fears and hopes for Israel’s future. And yes, at times we disagree. Rising screens at Classic Cinemas in Elsternwick, Melbourne, on Sunday 27 September at 7.30pm: a panel discussion on Israel’s future will be held afterwards. Tickets and more information:https://events.humanitix.com/rising-special-melbourne-screening (https://events.humanitix.com/rising-special-melbourne-screening)Rising Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/RisingDocFilm (https://www.facebook.com/RisingDocFilm) Click here (https://vimeo.com/1134445896?autoplay=1&muted=1&stream_id=Y2xpcHN8ODg4MjE2NTh8aWQ6ZGVzY3xbXQ%3D%3D) to watch a trailer. Szego Unplugged is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe (https://szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
3 Sept 2026
Jason Arday et al
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit szegounplugged.substack.com (https://szegounplugged.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_7) By popular demand, theologian, author and fellow Stacker (https://gcpt.substack.com/) Paul Tyson returns (https://szegounplugged.substack.com/p/an-atheist-jew-and-a-conservative) to this podcast! We chat about the Jason Arday controversy, a defining, and tragic, episode of the DEI era. Since we recorded this conversation the fallout from the scandal continues with Simon & Schuster releasing the former Cambridge professor’s memoir, Great and Unfortunate Things, and an inquest (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-27/jason-arday-inquest-opens/107082894) opened into his death. Meanwhile, Nathan Cofnas (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cevmrjd9lj1o), the philosopher who first raised allegations of plagiarism against Arday, was suspended by his employer, Ghent University in Belgium, on allegations of “discriminatory conduct”, and UK Green Party leader, Zack Polanski, is calling for curbs on press reporting. Wokeism, alas, is far from dead. If you’re not across this tumultuous story, not to worry: I give a 10 minute-long primer. If you are across it, maybe you want to press the forward button. Paul and I also touch on the sexual orientation and religion questions in the Australian census. And we discuss his new book with the subtle title, Gender Theory is Wrong — endorsed by several rock-star gender-critical philosophers — in which he argues trans ideology is a product of the Enlightenment gone wrong. You can buy Paul’s book from the publisher here (https://wipfandstock.com/search-results/?keyword=Paul+Tyson). And on Amazon here (https://www.amazon.com.au/Gender-Theory-Wrong-Sex-Irrealism-Understanding/dp/B0GL4N8JYL/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1). Subscribe to his Substack, Gender Critical Philosophical Theology, here (https://gcpt.substack.com). Links relevant to this episode: Tyler Austin Harper’s Why I Quit The Tenure Track: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/09/elite-academia-leadership-hypocrisy/687969/ (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/09/elite-academia-leadership-hypocrisy/687969/) Musa al-Gharbi on the Jason Arday scandal: Only part of this podcast is accessible to regular subscribers. The full episode is just for paid subscribers. To become one of them, click below. Szego Unplugged is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
29 Jul 2026
The Palestinian Maverick
For some time now I’ve been keen to speak with Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, an anti-Hamas Palestinian nationalist and peace advocate who has a scorching critique of the so-called pro-Palestinian movement in the West. This week I finally got my wish; here, Ahmed talks to me at length about his essay Hamas and Its Two Million Hostages, published this week in The Jewish Quarterly (https://jewishquarterly.com). Ahmed’s piece interrogates how the Islamist terror group took root in Gaza, seized power and stayed in power long enough to execute the October 7 invasion of southern Israel. He dissects Hamas’s strategy of brutalising and indoctrinating ordinary Gazans into the cult of martyrdom so that the jihadists could weaponise civilian deaths to inflame world opinion against Israel. To understate matters, the strategy proved spectacularly successful. In the Gaza war, Ahmed himself lost 34 members of his extended family to Israeli airstrikes. His essay is in part memoir — revisiting his childhood in Gaza and the all-too-brief moment of optimism and euphoria in the wake of the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords. We talk about the real Gaza as opposed to the symbolic Gaza that animates what Ahmed calls the “pro-Palestine industrial complex”: about the toxic impact of foreign aid on the strip and about the Al Jazeera’ing (who says it’s not a word!) of media discourse on Israel-Gaza. About why the Western liberal-progressive media finds his an inconvenient voice, and how his views on Jews, Israel and Zionism evolved over the years. His words ought to carry weight here in Australia, given that the Labor Party dumped references (https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/peak-jewish-group-says-labor-platform-regurgitates-one-eyed-obsession-with-israel-20260722-p60hi2.html) to Hamas needing to disarm and play no governing role from its resolution at the weekend's national conference, even though these elements are official Labor government policy. A few clarifications. At one point I ask Ahmed about the Israeli writer Einat Wilf’s claim that she’s only aware of three Palestinians who are prepared to affirm the legitimacy of a sovereign Jewish state between the river and the sea. Actually, she said four people rather than three; and obviously she’s referring to people prepared to publicly accept the legitimacy of Israel — I should have made that clear. For Ahmed’s response, have a listen! At another point I refer to Hasbara: I should have explained that that’s a Hebrew word for Israel’s public diplomacy — and like all things related to Israel it’s assumed a sinister meaning for the political left. Ahmed is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council (https://www.atlanticcouncil.org), a US foreign policy think-tank based in Washington, DC., where he leads the project Realign for Palestine. To buy a copy of Ahmed’s essay, Hamas and Its Two Million Hostages, follow this link: https://jewishquarterly.com (https://jewishquarterly.com) Szego Unplugged is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe (https://szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
2 Jul 2026
Multicultural Troubles
Chetna Mahadik is general manager at the Robert Menzies Institute in Melbourne, a fellow stacker and the editor of, and contributor to, a recently published book of essays, Immigration & Multiculturalism: The Past, The Present and The Future. Chetna’s essay, Racism in Australia: Narrative and Reality, tracks her encounters with the country’s sometimes mystifying debates about its national character. As she explains in the piece, Chetna migrated to Australia from India in 2011 with a master’s degree in globalization and media. At the time Melbourne was experiencing a spate of attacks against Indian international students, with student leaders alleging the violence was part of a broader pattern of anti-Indian racism. Chetna decided she’d write about the controversy — but what she found surprised her. We talk about her essay and what she learned about “anti-racism” discourse. We talk about the insights she gained from editing the politically-heterodox essay collection, which explores the evolution of Australian immigration policy from the postwar ethos of “populate or perish” through to the dismantling of the White Australia Policy and the adoption of multiculturalism. We talk about the fraught debate around Muslim immigration to the West, and to Australia after the Bondi Beach massacre, the rise of the populist right and Pauline Hanson’s promotion of “monoculturalism.” A few things of note: On 21 July the Robert Menzies Institute is holding a public conversation on “Conditions for a Successful Immigration Policy” with Coalition Senator Jonno Duniam. You can book tickets here: https://www.robertmenziesinstitute.org.au/event/jonno-duniam-policy-dialogue/ (https://www.robertmenziesinstitute.org.au/event/jonno-duniam-policy-dialogue/) The essay collection, Immigration & Multiculturalism: The Past, The Present and The Future, is available from the publisher here: https://www.connorcourtpublishing.com.au/Immigration-Multiculturalism-The-Past-the-Present-and-the-Future-edited-by-Chetna-Mahadik_p_681.html (https://www.connorcourtpublishing.com.au/Immigration-Multiculturalism-The-Past-the-Present-and-the-Future-edited-by-Chetna-Mahadik_p_681.html) Or on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com.au/Immigration-Multiculturalism-Past-Present-Future/dp/1923568760 (https://www.amazon.com.au/Immigration-Multiculturalism-Past-Present-Future/dp/1923568760) Or on Booktopia (https://www.booktopia.com.au/immigration-multiculturalism-chetna-mahadik/book/9781923568761.html?srsltid=AfmBOoqiQ7aqNeSNNxvImjHg08RxIuZn44cHelNu2W5XKzSBwG45B7Rw). And Chetna’s newsletter, which includes columns first published in the AFR, is here: Szego Unplugged is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe (https://szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
2 Jun 2026
The rot in Australia's literary scene
David Free is a critic (including for the Nine papers), novelist, and fellow-Stacker. In recent times, David, a non-Jew, has drawn attention for his lucid and brave essays on the anti-Jewish hostility that’s found a place in Australia’s literary scene. If you haven’t subscribed to his newsletter, you really must, and I suggest you start with this (https://davidjamesfree.substack.com/p/why-is-antisemitism-so-hip) post, which we discuss at length here because in it David basically proves that the “woke”/intersectional/identity politics/regressive left brigade has a Jew problem. He rests his case on the 2018 book White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, who he exquisitely calls “the American grievance huckster.” I’m so taken with his theory that I read aloud the incriminating passage in full! We also yak about Clive James, George Orwell and the vicissitudes of this writing life. Listen, as they say, wherever you get your podcasts. Here’s the link to David’s Substack: Szego Unplugged is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe (https://szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
27 Jul 2025
The Greens and the trans "cult"
Here I talk to Drew Hutton, a man of the moment for all the wrong reasons. Alongside Bob Brown, Hutton co-founded the national Greens in the early 1990s. A week ago the party’s state council in Queensland affirmed an earlier decision to boot him out for refusing to delete “transphobic” comments from others on his Facebook post. He says the party he co-founded has been hijacked by a transgender and queer “cult.” So I welcomed Drew to what’s becoming a very non-exclusive club of people cancelled for questioning trans ideology and its push to erase biological sex across society. We discussed his (kangaroo) trials with the Greens, when he first realised a cult had swallowed his beloved party and why the broader progressive movement is in danger of losing its way. Click here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cW7liXdUi4) to watch the video version of this podcast or listen on Apple or Spotify. Szego Unplugged is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe (https://szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
5 Jun 2025
The real John Anderson
Host Ramona Szego interviews John Anderson, former Australian politician, about his transition to long-form podcasting, his views on Western values, and his concerns about current political and social issues.
22 Mar 2025
The 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 (https://bronwyndrw.substack.com), 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 to an incendiary four minute monologue of a fleeting character in this week’s episode of The White Lotus. The monologue has set the anti-woke media ecosystem on fire. I reckon the scene has done more to undermine trans ideology than even Donald Trump’s edict declaring there are only two sexes. For while good progressive folk dismiss Trump’s executive order as cruel and indicative of today’s culture-war obsessed insurgent right, they can’t quite hurl the same accusation at the writers of the hugely popular streaming series, which, for the uninitiated, skewers the global elites through the travails of the guests and staff of a luxury resort chain in Maui, Sicily and in season three, Koh Samui. The monologue in question came from “Frank” (Sam Rockwell) an old friend of main character “Rick” (Walton Goggins). Frank has been living in Thailand for years and the two catch up in a Bangkok bar. Rick asks Frank what he’s been up to, and Frank, a born-again Buddhist, answers .. frankly. He tells of spiralling into alcoholism and of his promiscuity with Asian women and then, without warning, reveals how all this led to a sexual fixation with the idea of being an Asian woman himself. He would invite men to sodomise him and hire an Asian woman to watch. “I'd look in her eyes while some guy was f*****g me and think, I am her, and I'm f*****g me,” he said to Rick’s hilarious astonishment. Those of us who’ve had the misfortune of falling down the trans debate rabbit hole immediately named Frank’s inclination as autogynephilia — “love of oneself as a woman,” in the Greek — but more importantly, so did Dr Ray Blanchard, the American-Canadian sexologist who coined the term in the 1980s to describe non-homosexual males whose desire to transition stemmed partly from sexual arousal at the thought of themselves as female. Reposting The White Lotus scene on X, Blanchard remarked: “Since 2003, political trans activists and their “allies” have done everything they could to prevent the word and the concept of autogynephilia from entering public awareness. And yet, with excruciating slowness but apparent inevitability, it is doing just that.” It is not hard to see why trans activists do everything possible to suppress any mention of the word or concept of autogynephilia. There is a fear that acknowledging some men are motivated to transition for sexual reasons will lead to trans women being demonised as sexual deviants or perverts; indeed, too many feminists deploy vulgar tropes of this sort. But the main imperative, as I’ve written before, is ideological. The “gender identity” movement, to the extent that we can pin down something so fundamentally incoherent, seeks to negate or at least blur the biological reality of sex so as to enable the belief that a male can actually be a woman in some spiritual or pseudo-scientific sense. This belief system is compelled to suppress the stark truth that for many men their feelings of alienation from their sexed bodies are themselves a symptom of their very male predilection for fetish and sexual obsession. (Again, that’s simply an observation on my part and not an accusation or moral judgment.) After all, it would be hard to argue that males who get off on thinking of themselves as women should be entitled to access women’s spaces. So the “gender identity” narrative must remain intact if the recent dismantling of sex-based rights in Australia and across the West is to withstand scrutiny and legal challenge. I wrote about the airing of autogynephilia in recent court cases here (https://szegounplugged.substack.com/p/lets-talk-about-sex-and-fetishes). (Incidentally the Lesbian Action Group’s bid to exclude trans women — biological males — from their events failed (https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jan/21/victorian-lesbian-action-group-court-ruling-cant-exclude-transgender-bisexual-women-ntwnfb) in the tribunal on the grounds it constituted unlawful discrimination: the Group is raising funds (https://lesbianactiongroup.org.au) for a Federal Court appeal.) Meanwhile the erasure of autogynephilia in popular culture has given birth to a new kind of hero; the uber-masculine man, who after decades in the public eye as a soldier/Olympian/footballer/politician (I’m sure your mind is coughing up names and images so I don’t have to) is reborn as the authentic woman he’s been all along. A woman more womanly than any other — and hence deserving of “Woman of the Year” gongs (https://www.glamour.com/story/caitlyn-jenner-speech) — because she’s had to contend with the greatest tragedy a woman could conceivably face; to have been mistaken as male at birth. The hero worship of trans women leaves no room to acknowledge that their “coming out” often inflicts a serious emotional cost on their female partners. The progressive media will air stories about loving wives supportive of their partner’s transition now happily identifying as one part of a “lesbian” relationship. I’m not delegitimising these stories, but what of the wives unwilling to participate in their husband’s simulation of womanhood? The culture brands her as cruel and bigoted; her trauma invalidated, even when her male partner inflicts what can only be seen as extreme narcissistic abuse. How else to describe the male who decides to come out just as his wife is at her most vulnerable, breastfeeding a newborn? Which is one of the disturbing stories we encounter in Sundar’s latest film. Behind the Looking Glass profiles trans widows from around the world, often with the help of striking animation. The women speak for themselves with courage and candour. This is not the first time Sundar has tackled gender identity ideology — to the usual pushback and cancellation. Through her company, Lime Soda Films, she explored the rise in women and girls seeking transition in her four-part documentary, Dysphoric. In this podcast we discuss the impact of gender identity ideology in India — yes it’s arrived there too, and as always it’s the poorest women and most marginalised communities who pay the highest cost. This should exercise the minds of Australians given that exporting the ideology to the developing world is an explicit goal (https://szegounplugged.substack.com/p/australias-new-cultural-imperialism)of the Albanese Government’s foreign policy. In February 2023 Foreign Minister Penny Wong launched the first dedicated fund to promote international “LGBTQ rights” in the Asia-Pacific, pledging to “listen to the voices, views and priorities of LGBTQIA+ human rights defenders and civil society.” You’ll hear me talking about a screening of Behind the Looking Glass in Sydney: unfortunately that’s already happened. But it screens in Melbourne tomorrow, March 23: Contact: tlc.vicinc.events@gmail.com (mailto:tlc.vicinc.events@gmail.com) $10 TLC members / $15 non members. And you can follow the link to watch the film online here: https://x.com/vaishax/status/1837134170969317449?s=46 (https://x.com/vaishax/status/1837134170969317449?s=46) Szego Unplugged is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe (https://szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
9 Mar 2025
The West's war on free speech
In this podcast episode (click here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szMc0QMxUo8) for the video version or listen wherever you get your podcasts) I speak with Alan Davison, President of the Free Speech Union Australia (https://freespeechunion.au), 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 cultural and political influence and invert the logic of human rights to further their repressive agenda. Anti-vilification laws are ineffective at best, dangerous at worst. In the episode, we explore the proposed new bans on “hate speech” currently under debate in the Victorian Parliament. (The Federal and NSW governments have also recently introduced tougher hate speech laws.) Despite its anodyne title the Justice Legislation Amendment (Anti-vilification and Social Cohesion) Bill 2024 (https://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/bills/justice-legislation-amendment-anti-vilification-and-social-cohesion-bill-2024) has until recently been most fiercely championed by radical trans activists. At present, Victorian laws ban vilification based on race and religion: the new regime, comprising both civil and criminal penalties, would extend protection to other characteristics including sex, disability, sex characteristics, sexual orientation, personal association and — you guessed it — “gender identity”. Such laws expose critics of trans ideology — in other words, those who insist men can’t be women — to further repression from the state and harassment in the courts. I trust you folks will visit me in prison. Latterly, with the eruption in Jew-hatred, the State Government has sought to flog the Bill as the missing weapon in the fight against anti-Semitism. Jewish community leaders are also enthusiastic proponents of the Bill — a position that’s understandable but deeply misguided. I suggest we already have ample laws on the books empowering police to crack down on incitement. And Davison shares his fascinating analysis of why hate speech laws ultimately fuel anti-Semitism by deterring robust conversations about Islamist ideology. We look at the UK experience (https://thecritic.co.uk/is-britain-bringing-back-blasphemy/) where some Muslim groups are effectively lobbying to re-introduce blasphemy laws under the banner of stamping out “Islamophobia”. This is an illuminating discussion (apart from one or two instances in which the audio drops out — apologies) in which I start by asking Davison, former dean of the faculty of arts and social sciences at the University of Technology Sydney, why universities have abandoned robust intellectual debate for groupthink. We also cover a barely-reported tribunal finding (https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/ARTA/2025/59.html?context=1;query=esafety;mask_path=au/cases/cth/ARTA) against Australia’s eSafety Commissioner — a.k.a “eKaren” — whose office had been running an “informal” censorship regime that sought to deprive ordinary citizens of their right to appeal bureaucratic decrees. One caveat: you’ll hear that I make reference to JD Vance’s speech (https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/14/europe/jd-vance-munich-speech-europe-voters-intl/index.html) last month to European leaders in which he warned that the biggest threat to the continent’s security came not from external bad actors but from “within”, and gave the suppression of unorthodox views as one example. (He cited, among other things, Sweden convicting an anti-Islam campaigner for burning the Koran in public). The Vice-President is right: suppressing free speech is a serious threat to democracy, as such measures diminish trust in public institutions and frequently inflame, rather than quell, racially-charged discord. But after Vance and Donald Trump’s extended takedown of Volodymyr Zelensky during which they regurgitated pro-Putin propaganda and the US’ subsequent pausing of military aid and intelligence sharing to embattled Ukraine, I’m left in no doubt about the biggest threat to democracy in Europe and elsewhere. It does indeed come from “within”: from Vance and his boss. Further reading: https://quillette.com/2024/08/07/disuniting-australia/ (https://quillette.com/2024/08/07/disuniting-australia/) Szego Unplugged is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe (https://szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
28 Nov 2024
An atheist Jew and a conservative Christian walk into a bar ..
Philosopher and theologian Dr Paul Tyson, a self-described conservative Christian, shares his insights on finding common ground with atheists and feminists, and navigating the complexities of truth and meaning in the contemporary world.
23 Jul 2024
Trump and the working class: the sequel
If 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 and transformational (https://americancompass.org/j-d-vance-the-populist-choice/). Ungar-Sargon, an opinion editor at Newsweek, has written two books: Bad News: How Woke Media is Undermining Democracy (https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/bad-news/) (you can see why I like her), and the recent and hugely relevant, Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America’s Working Men and Women (https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/second-class/). For the latter Ungar-Sargon travelled around the US for a year interviewing non-college educated workers to get their sense of whether they had a shot at the American Dream — home ownership, upward mobility, a dignified retirement — and if not, what might make it more of a reality. Despite the interviewees’ diverse backgrounds and circumstances, she found strong consensus on some issues, chief among them the vexed issue of mass illegal immigration. Nowhere is the class divide as pronounced as it is here; as Ungar-Sargon sees it, while educated Americans view migrants with “patronising pity,” workers regard them as little different from themselves save for the fact of American citizenship, “and they think that should mean something.” “They (the working class) are frustrated when it seems like the opposite is true: immigrants are getting help they could desperately use and can’t access.” We discuss — and debate!— class warfare, the new Republicans and whether they really are that, Trump and whether he’s a threat to democracy, the Democrats’ decapitation of Joe Biden and why a party that takes its cues from George Clooney is a party in bad shape. Hope you enjoy this interview with a gutsy and iconoclastic commentator. Click here to watch the video version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsBCk8hxPlE) of this podcast or listen on Apple or Spotify. Szego Unplugged is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe (https://szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
1 May 2024
Dissecting the Cass Review
In 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 activism having undue influence over science and medicine. Mostly we talk about the final report of England’s Cass Review, the independent inquiry into gender identity services for children and young people, carried out by renowned paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass. We cover her findings on the administration of puberty blockers (they should be banned as a routine intervention) and opposite sex hormones (extreme caution is recommended), and her overall conclusion that the current medicalised approach to treating gender-related distress in minors rests on “remarkably weak evidence.” Being literary types we also dissect the report’s tone and posture starting with the throat-clearing opening line. And we gently tackle some of the elephants still lurking in this room called “the trans debate.” https://cass.independent-review.uk/home/publications/final-report/ (https://cass.independent-review.uk/home/publications/final-report/) Szego Unplugged is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe (https://szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
1 Mar 2024
And 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 year’s schooling. By some measures around 20 per cent of high school kids are functionally illiterate. It won’t surprise you to learn such trends hit disadvantaged students worst of all. In fact, these kids fall further and further behind their more advantaged peers as they move through high school. Hard to imagine a more damning indictment of our education system. Education expert Ben Jensen has a good idea of what’s gone wrong in our schools; and when I first encountered his diagnosis it had the force of a religious epiphany. Jensen, whose consultancy Learning First advises governments around the world on education reform, reckons the basic problem is we have no idea what’s actually being taught in classrooms. To make matters worse, Jensen says, educators have gone all in for well-intentioned but misguided philosophies such as “individualised learning,” and “meeting kids where they’re at.” In this podcast we grapple with these big themes writ small in classrooms. (I even sneak in a question about crazy US ideas such as “maths is racist.”) Can we turn things around in our schools? I believe we can; if Federal Education Minister Jason Clare takes heed of Jensen’s refreshingly blunt advice. Links: https://learningfirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Curriculum-and-inequality-July-2023.pdf (https://learningfirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Curriculum-and-inequality-July-2023.pdf) https://learningfirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/To-lift-standards-we-must-reclaim-the-curriculum-October-2022.pdf (https://learningfirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/To-lift-standards-we-must-reclaim-the-curriculum-October-2022.pdf) (with Nicole Murnane) https://learningfirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Four-reforms-could-close-the-education-inequality-gap-September-2022.pdf (https://learningfirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Four-reforms-could-close-the-education-inequality-gap-September-2022.pdf) (with Mailie Ross) https://learningfirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/A-lesson-on-how-to-reverse-two-decades-of-failed-education-reforms-August-2022.pdf (https://learningfirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/A-lesson-on-how-to-reverse-two-decades-of-failed-education-reforms-August-2022.pdf) (with Mailie Ross) https://grattan.edu.au/report/catching-up-learning-from-the-best-school-systems-in-east-asia/ (https://grattan.edu.au/report/catching-up-learning-from-the-best-school-systems-in-east-asia/) Szego Unplugged is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe (https://szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
20 Feb 2024
The three faces of Jew hatred
In 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 off in the US on February 26, is the work of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, a body dedicated to preserving and studying the history and culture of East European Jewry. YIVO’s chief Jonathan Brent explains: “Exploring the deep affiliations of radical Islamist Hamas with the anti-Semitic propaganda of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, this (webinar) series exposes a painful point of intersection between Eastern European Jewish history and contemporary events.” You can register for Part 1 here (it’s free): yivo.org/IdeologySeries1 (https://yivo.org/IdeologySeries1) You can view information about the series here: yivo.org/IdeologySeries (https://yivo.org/IdeologySeries) The times are a bit punishing for Australians but all sessions will be recorded and available on YIVO’s YouTube channel. Herf is Professor Emeritus of history at the University of Maryland, College Park. He’s published extensively on Nazism and the Holocaust and their aftermath in Europe and the Middle East. If you haven’t read his incisive post-October 7 commentary you should check out these links: https://www.americanpurpose.com/articles/from-the-river-to-the-sea/ (https://www.americanpurpose.com/articles/from-the-river-to-the-sea/) https://quillette.com/2023/10/10/the-ideology-of-mass-murder/ (https://quillette.com/2023/10/10/the-ideology-of-mass-murder/) (With Norman J.W. Goda): https://quillette.com/2023/11/23/holocaust-historians-the-genocide-charge-and-gaza/ (https://quillette.com/2023/11/23/holocaust-historians-the-genocide-charge-and-gaza/) He’s recently published a collection of essays entitled, Three Faces of Antisemitism: Right, Left, and Islamist: https://www.routledge.com/Three-Faces-of-Antisemitism-Right-Left-and-Islamist/Herf/p/book/9781032583013 (https://www.routledge.com/Three-Faces-of-Antisemitism-Right-Left-and-Islamist/Herf/p/book/9781032583013) Our Zoom connection wasn’t the best so you’ll hear a wobble or two; hopefully it won’t detract from what I reckon is a powerful and illuminating conversation. Szego Unplugged is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe (https://szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
9 Oct 2023
Israel, Jews and journalism
Amid a new Israel-Gaza war, the world reeling (https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20231008-world-in-shock-after-hamas-attacks-on-israel) 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, flawed to begin with, appear “even worse.” He thinks these journalists should publicly explain why they signed the petition. In this podcast interview we also discuss his time as editor at The Age and whether he’d be able to attain such a position if he were starting his career now as “the Jew I have become” — namely, a Jew deeply attached to Israel, one who refuses to denounce Zionism in order to gain admission to the political left. Other Jews are more willing to comply; Gawenda describes them as “anxious Jews”; Jews fundamentally anxious about being Jewish. (They’re hilariously depicted in Howard Jacobson’s The Finkler Question as self-declared “ASHamed Jews.”) One such “anxious Jew,” in Gawenda’s view, is Louise Adler, his long-time colleague, publisher and former friend. Adler signed the journalists’ petition. Earlier this year she came under fire (https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/feb/25/adelaide-writers-week-withdrawals-sad-and-unfortunate-director-louise-adler-says) as director of Adelaide Writers’ Week for inviting Palestinian writers to discuss their experiences of occupation and dispossession to the exclusion of any Israeli voices. Two of the featured writers were accused of peddling anti-Semitic tropes; one had referred to Ukraine’s (Jewish) president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as a “depraved Zionist.” Gawenda’s book opens with an account of his friendship with Adler ending “suddenly and fiercely” over Israel. We discuss why he took the extraordinary step of publicly airing this personal falling out. And we talk about Gawenda’s childhood as the son of Holocaust survivors, the influence of his socialist, non-Zionist youth movement and whether he sees hope of a reconciliation between the Jews and the left. On the latter, he’s optimistic. In the aftermath of one of the darkest days for the Jewish people since the Holocaust, I, for one, will take any hope on offer. Sources: My Life As A Jew, Michael Gawenda, published October 3 (Scribe) Szego Unplugged is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe (https://szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
22 Aug 2023
The ghost of Christopher Hitchens
Welcome 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 reviled figure on the mainstream left — a status he wore with his typical swagger. A Marxist in his youth, his staunch support for the Iraq war saw him cast out of his political tribe as a traitor. The UK Labour MP George Galloway described Hitchens’ career as “something unique in natural history .. The first ever metamorphosis from a butterfly back into a slug.” But as Matt tells me, Hitchens’ shift from dogma had started long before the Iraq war, gathering pace in the aftermath of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie and the collapse of the Soviet Union. And the “fearless liberalism” at which he arrived — a creed that values freedom, solidarity and universal human rights — has its lineage in leftist heroes such as George Orwell. So is “the Hitch” the cure for the left — and what form does the left’s sickness take? If he were alive today would he be cancelled? Would he be on Substack like the rest of us heretics? Listen and find out! One thing: our chat comes to a slightly abrupt close due to a tech boo-boo at my end. It’s unlikely to happen again. But it does give me an excuse for another chat with Matt at a future date. He’s a rigorous thinker with a finely-tuned moral compass. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe (https://szegounplugged.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
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