The Double Disillusionists

On the evening when the ABS' postal survey postbox finally slammed closed, Sally Rugg (GetUp's marriage equality campaign director) and Antony Green (the ABC's election analyst) shared their impressions of a most unusual event within Australian politics, from the perspective of a campaigner and a psephologist respectively – and predicted what would happen next.

So, courtesy of the High Court, Malcolm Roberts is no longer a senator, because life is cruel, and schadenfreude is delicious. Recording in a pub, we commemorated his passing with beers and regrets that we've done so few podcasts recently that we've missed the chance to explore the details of his extraordinarily absurd legal defence. Joyce – well, he's not going anywhere, but for Nash, Ludlum, and Waters – will we ever see their likes again? Yes, yes we will.

So much talk about same-sex marriage, so little of it from the people on whose lives it will actually impact. So we invited Brendan Maclean (actor/singer/general performance powerhouse) and Dee Jefferson (Time Out's Arts and Culture editor) to tell us what it means to them. Recorded live at Giant Dwarf in Redfern on Tuesday 5 September.

Essential Communications' Rebecca Huntley talks APS and Dom through the postal survey shenanigans from the perspective of a professional pollster – how meaningful will the numbers be, exactly? Plus, the slow-burn dual citizenship debacle - will Barnaby Joyce do to Malcolm Turnbull what he threatened to do to Pistol and Boo?

A special US politics edition live at Giant Dwarf. On Independence Day, APS and Dom were joined on stage by Dr David Smith from Sydney Uni's US Studies Centre and Dr Amanda Tattersall, host of the Change Makers podcast and an expert in community organising. After just under six frenetic, disruptive months into the Trump administration, they looked at his record so far (or lack thereof), discussed some of the success community movements have had in responding, and explored just how close we are to Thunderdome.

With the Coalition once again tying itself in knots over climate policy and renewable energy, we thought we'd talk to someone who wishes we'd just get on with it – Peter Owen, who's the Director of the Wilderness Society in South Australia. He makes the case for transitioning to 100% renewable energy, and in particular, stopping drilling in the Great Australian Bight.

Could there be an early election? Even though it feels like only yesterday that we had a really, really long one? Alice Workman (BuzzFeed) has a theory you'll want to hear – book your international travel now! Plus the latest cascading One Nation debacles and the occasional shot of covfefe.

We'll deny we said it, but One Nation are having a tough week. Meanwhile, the government can't make inroads in the polls, and Labor are for some reason experiencing leadership jitters right when they're on top. Oh, and we plug the next live show at Giant Dwarf on 6 June. Did we mention tickets are available now?

It's been a year since our first podcast, so APS and Dom (we) are takin' the podcast acoustic and unplugged, stripping it back to what it's really all about... two guys talking extensively about the intimate details of budgetary policy. Which is perhaps why the Double Disillusionists still haven't signed a sponsor after 12 months. C'mon, Squarespace, let's not kid ourselves that your standards are hig... they are? Well, okay then.

As its Australian values campaign rolls on, government MP Andrew Laming wants to update the national anthem, while Cory Bernardi is taking Family First under his generous wing, and on Manus – well, we couldn't possibly comment. With Sky News' Janine Perrett.

Andrew P Street and Dom Knight dip into the Australian people's alleged reservoir of good sense to find Malcolm Turnbull rebranding himself as a warrior for Australian values. Like in the film Reservoir Dogs, kinda. Okay it's a tenuous analogy but what else is there that's reservoir-related?! And they're both Mr White - boom!

Mark Latham's Outsiders is new to Facebook, so the Double Disillusionists have an even more low-fi competitor in the "people talking about politics on the internet" stakes. Maddie Palmer has watched His Outsideness (But Still On A Parliamentary Pension) in action on the prestigious The Internet, and tells APS and Dom all about it.

In a shameless bid for a no-holds-barred panel show, Dom, APS and Mark Humphries launch their own three-bloke anti-PC straight talkfest, 'Rightsiders'. Truth bombs incoming! (PS - the moment we stopped recording, we became aware of a sudden gap in the market - call us, Sky!)

We're doing the show live on the first Tuesday of each month... here's some of our first one for 2017. With leadership speculation surging around Canberra yet again, we cast an eye across the field to replace Malcolm Turnbull. Tony Abbott? Peter Dutton? Julie Bishop? Kevin Andrews, even? Kevin Rudd, if we're going in decreasing order of plausibility?

Our guests are Van Badham (Guardian), Michael Hing (The Feed/triple j) and Alice Workman (Buzzfeed). The next live event is Tuesday 4 April at Giant Dwarf - book now at giantdwarf.com.au!

As the Coalition rushes towards yet another spill, pundits everywhere are wondering exactly which alternative PM can somehow doing a better job of selling the same unpopular policies. Tony Abbott? Peter Dutton? Julie Bishop? Scott Morrison? Scott Morrison's lump of coal? (And there's no guest this week, we're saving 'em for the live show next week - book now at giantdwarf.com.au!)

This week's podcast asks whether we can afford housing and burnimgcoal burning as Richard Cooke (The Monthly) joins us to explain why the Coalition might be tricking Labor into that ol' creeping socialism – and his grand plan to invade WA. ALSO FEATURING lots of plugs for our LIVE SHOWS, just announced for 7 March and 4 April! Book at giantdwarf.com.au!

Ever get the sense that our parliamentarians are fiddling while Australia burns... even more coal? Then again, those lumps ARE fun to play with in Parliament! Dom, APS and writer/broadcaster Maddie Palmer wonder why the Coalition is so determined to run to the right with Forrest Gump-like speed and mental acuity. And consider where the WA Nationals fit into that increasingly crowded sector of our political spectrum.

Parliament's back in action, and so are we for another year of #auspol a-banterin'! Political strategist Dee Madigan (Gruen, PM Live) joins APS and Dom to make sense of Cory Bernardi's departure from the Liberal Party and assess the ever-louder spill rumours – with Dutton rumoured to be loading his spud gun, can the PM stick around for a full term?

What a year. No, really, what a year. In our final episode for 2016, Dan Ilic (Fusion) and Alice Workman (BuzzFeed) join APS and Dom from LA* and Canberra respectively to look back on a year strangely full of elections, and strangely devoid of substantive change, both home and abroad, when Canberrans were forced to roll, roll, roll towards freedom...

Catch you all in 2017 when the politickin' resumes, and in the meantime, have a great pointedly non-Christian holiday/pro-Christmas uprising. And thanks for listening in 2016.

* He was back for Christmas anyway, but it sounds more glamorous if we suggest he flew home specially.

As the repercussions from Donald Trump's victory continue, Ruby Hamad (Daily Life) explains why she thinks Peter Dutton should resign, and Mark Di Stefano (Buzzfeed) gives a masterclass on how to get a hashtag trending – and what better hashtag than #Rod4PM? Recorded live at Giant Dwarf on 24 November – look out for more live shows in 2017.

Sure, senators are getting referred to the High Court with dizzying rapidity, and we'll discuss that – but the big news is that the Australian Border Force has a podcast, available in both audible AND TRANSCRIPT form. Fairfax's Jacqueline Maley joins Dom and APS – in a wig freshly-shorn from a sheep's belly – to help us judge.
(Image - Tom Roberts depicts young barristers preparing for court...)

Two Commonwealth Legal Officers... now, only one will survive. Well, neither is a genuine possibility. Writer Jane Gilmore joins Dom and APS to mull over the legal imbroglio, Tony Abbott's recent adventures and housing affordability. Or, more accurately, unaffordability.

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