Deep Trouble

In conversation with Emeritus Professor James Flynn from the Joint Department of Politics at Otago University, New Zealand. We discuss his new book entitled A Book Too Risky To Publish: Free Speech and Universities. We discuss the history of right-wing control of universities during McCarthyism, and the totalitarian persecution that social democrat and liberal academics faced under the pretence of fighting Communism. We also discuss the Flynn Effect and his debates with intelligence researcher Charles Murray in relation to racial differences in IQ. Finally, we discuss his view that fields such as Women's Studies and Black Studies are too ideologically driven, and why he believes neither the far left nor the far right truly believes in freedom of speech.

In conversation with Professor Kenneth Freeman who is an Australian astronomer and astrophysicist. Prof. Freeman is currently Duffield Professor of Astronomy in the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at ANU. His research interests are in the formation and dynamics of galaxies and globular clusters, and he was one of the first researchers to point out that spiral galaxies contain a large fraction of dark matter. We discuss dark matter and his new book co-authored with David L. Block entitled God and Galileo: What a 400-Year-Old Letter Teaches Us about Faith and Science which is an exegesis on the dominance of atheism within science today. We also discuss how Professor Freeman reconciles his scientific work with his Christian faith.

In conversation with Professor Thalia Anthony who has expertise in the areas of criminal law and procedure, with a particular specialisation in Indigenous criminalisation and Indigenous community justice mechanisms. We discuss the history of 'blackbirding' in Australia, the case for reparations, as well criminal justice system reformation in relation to Indigenous people and the definition of systemic racism. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that the names of people who are deceased are mentioned in this interview.

In conversation with Professor Gigi Foster from University of New South Wales School of Economics and co-host of the ABC Radio National talk-radio show and podcast series The Economists. We discuss ideas such as a statistical life and quality-adjusted life years in regards to the COVID19 pandemic, and her view that the closure of borders and severe lockdowns in Australia were a mistake, even if the worst case scenario of 150,000 deaths were to eventuate.

In conversation with Joe Huston who is the chief financial officer (CFO) of GiveDirectly; a non-profit that sends direct cash transfers to the world's poorest. We discuss GiveDirectly's work in East Africa as well as the effectiveness of unconditional cash transfers versus traditional in-kind donations. We also discuss the case for basic universal income (UBI) and if UBI is potentially the future even for people in first world countries.

In conversation with Dr Sue Heward-Belle, who is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney and is recognised as a leader in domestic and family violence research. In Australia, on average, one woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner. We discuss Dr Heward-Belle's research on males who perpetrate domestic and family violence.

In conversation with Benjamin Gilmour who is a paramedic, author and film maker. We discuss his frontline experiences with COVID19, as well as his latest memoir, The Gap, which recounts his experiences as a paramedic in the summer of 2008 in Sydney. This remains etched into his memory for the worst reasons.

In conversation with Rachel Menzies, a psychologist at the University of Sydney whose research focusses on the association between death anxiety and psychopathology. We discuss the role of death anxiety during the COVID19 pandemic, Terror Management Theory and the psychological benefits of contemplating daily your inevitable demise.

In conversation with Laureate Professor Peter Doherty who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in medicine for his discoveries about transplantations and 'killer' T cell immunity. We discuss the COVID19 pandemic in terms of how SARS-CoV-2 infects cells, the case against trying to develop herd immunity as well as the likelihood and timeline for vaccine development.

In this episode we are in conversation with Peter Hylands, an accomplished publisher, film producer, writer and conservationist. For many years Peter and his wife Andrea have been engaging viewers and readers around the globe via their new media broadcasting company Creative Cowboy. Peter and Andrea make crucial, unique content about art and culture and nature, frequently working with first nations people and in some of the remotest places on earth.

In conversation with Prof. Peter Singer in regards to the 10th anniversary edition of his book The Life You Can Save and his foundation of the same name. We discuss his views on moral philosophy, his Foundation's aim to promote highly effective charities in their work, attempting to help alleviate suffering in the world's poorest countries, the psychology of giving, and whether true altruism actually exists.

In conversation with Associate Professor of Islamic studies and the founding director of the Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation (CISAC) at CSU, Mehmet Ozalp, in regards to the history of Islam's Golden Age and the contribution of Islamic philosophy to Western culture, the challenges Islam faces in developing its own modernity in the 21st century as well as how to best interpret some of the more controversial passages of the Koran.

In conversation with Professor Stephen Croucher about the aftermath of the Christchurch shootings, the rise of White Supremacist groups in Europe, and the psychology and politics of hate.

In conversation with Jessica Trisko Darden (Ph.D), who is Assistant Professor of International Affairs with the School of International Service at American University, an inaugural Jeane Kirkpatrick Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a former Miss Earth (2007). As co-author of Insurgent Women: Female Combatants in Civil Wars (Georgetown, 2019), she discusses the role of female combatants in ISIS, The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK, and other rebel groups, as well as the complexities involved in the potential repatriation of the women of ISIS.

In conversation 2016 winner of Patrick White award for literature Carmel Bird, where we discuss her work Fair Game which examines the story of the first convict women who were settled in Van Diemen's land, her own experiences of grief and loss and the significance in her life of the Mamestra brassicae, or white moth.

In conversation Rev. Dr Chris Mulherin, the Executive Director of Christians in Science and Technology (ISCAST), we discuss the intersection between theology and the philosophy of science, what he believes the New Atheists get wrong, as well as why politicians should stop demanding scientific 'proof' of climate change.

In conversation with world renowned geneticist Professor Jenny Graves in regards to her work in sex determination, her infamous assertion that the Y chromosome is disappearing, as well as the evolution of the 'gay' gene and the genetics of transgenderism.

Moral philosopher Dr Dean Cocking discusses his book Evil Online, which examines the evil that is perpetrated everyday by normal people, primarily on social media. We discuss his theory of a 'moral fog', Hannah Arendt's idea of the banality of evil, and how social media echo chambers facilitate a kind of moral confusion and lynch mob mentality.

In conversation with award winning director, writer and paramedic Benjamin Gilmour in regards to his new film Jirga which was filmed on location in one of the most dangerous regions in the world; Kandahar province in Afghanistan. We discussed the history of the Taliban and Afghanistan, a country known as 'the graveyard of empires'.

In this SPECIAL EPISODE of Deep Trouble we interview Charles Firth of The Chaser. He offers an analysis of the state of play for the major parties in 2019, why the Labour Party lost the 'unlosable' election, as well as the politics surrounding important issues from refugee intake to climate change. Firth completed an Arts degree in political science at the University of Sydney, where he was the subject of a reality TV styled documentary called Uni. He is best known as a member of The Chaser productions CNNNN where he hosted 'The Firth Factor', which was a satirical segment parodying Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly's 'The O'Reilly Factor', and also appeared in a segment about American culture called 'Firth in the USA' for The Chaser's War on Everything. He is currently the editor of The Chaser Quarterly.

'That Was Then, This Is Now' involved young adults and award winning writers (and a publisher!) coming together on stage to discuss much loved modern classics that have made an impact on them. Produced in partnership with the Castlemaine Children's Literature Festival and Castlemaine Library, this event featured Robyn Annear and Cohen Saunders (The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton), Ellie Marney and Rosa Carrington (A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle), Cate Kennedy and Abigail Meadows (To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee), Gryffin Winsor and Kristin Gill (The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien)

The event took place on 7 November 2018, in the Phee Broadway Theatre, Castlemaine, initiated and produced by Lisa D'Onofrio.

This Event was supported by the Regional Centre for Culture Program, a Victorian Government initiative in partnership with the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation and Mount Alexander Shire, and a Mount Alexander Shire Community Grant.

Thanks also to Steve Charman at MainFM for help with the recording.

Professor Bain Attwood has published extensively on the history of colonialism and indigenous history. His latest book, The Good Country (Monash University Publishing): "eschews the generalisations of national and colonial history to provide a finely grained local history of the Dja Dja Wurrung people of central Victoria."

In this episode we discuss in detail the protectorate system that was set up in Victoria in an attempt to protect the Aboriginal people from the early settlers and in particular the settlement at Franklinford, near Daylesford in central Victoria, from which many descendants of the Dja Dja Wurrung can trace their ancestry. At the time the Franklinford protectorate was described as 'a successful failure'.

Indian-Fijian poet Manisha Anjali was born in Suva, the capital of Fiji, and we begin by discussing the importance of familial and national history in the development of works such as Sugar Kane Woman. Here is the hallucinatory vivid memory of meeting her great grandfather for the first time at his funeral; the free man who had fled Rajasthan and stowed away on a boat from Calcutta to Fiji, his body covered by tropical flowers and cotton buds in his nostrils. We discuss the British colonisation and indenture that began in 1879 and ran until 1919 in which Indians were tricked into coming to Fiji with visions of paradise, when the reality was slave-like conditions where they were forced to work in the colonial sugar cane plantations and refineries. Manisha talks about the plight of Indian women in Fiji at this time who she says suffered from a kind of double colonisation; from British Imperialism and the Indian patriarchy. Manisha also recites her poem Song of the Crocodile which is about three historical Indian women and describes their courage in the face of the hell and sacrifice that is represented by indenture. We also discuss the mysticism of her grandmothers and her own secular obsession with religion, Hinduism, mass worship, the importance of symbols, Jungian archetypes and the collective unconscious. We finish by talking about death, grief, the acceptance of the heartbreak of loss and her casting off of the traditional role of the Indian women, her 'liberation from love' and how she feels marriage reduces a woman.

In conversation with the Hon. Kelvin Thomson, ex-federal politician and Shadow Attorney General for the Rudd Labour government, we discuss immigration, population growth, the Rudd-Gilliard-Rudd years, and Australia's addiction to gambling.

Kelvin's views on immigration address the common misconception that the Howard government was anti-immigration, when in fact the immigration intake increased significantly after the Tampa incident in 2004. On population, Kelvin contends that world population growth in the last century - which has increased from 2 billion to 7 billion, with no signs of levelling out - will eventually lead to a rapid decline in quality of life. Kelvin contends the need to stabilise the Australian population by limiting skilled migration whilst increasing humanitarian refugee intake.

On the Rudd-Gilliard-Rudd years, Kelvin talks through his overall disappointment in the process of governing after such a long time in Opposition. He is, nevertheless, proud of the Labour government's stewardship of the country through the global financial crisis. We discussed the internal leaking and undermining which affected the Gilliard government and which resulted in a hung parliament and crippled the government politically. This resulted in Gillard having to make a deal with the independent MP Andrew Wilkie, who was advocating for the introduction of mandatory pre-commitment on pokies. Due to aggressive campaigning by the NSW gambling industry, however, the reforms collapsed, resulting in the installation of Peter Slipper as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

This leads into a discussion about Kelvin's work with the Alliance for Gambling Reform, and his view that the gambling industry and state and federal governments all focus on the 'personal responsibility' of the gambler in a concerted public relations campaign aimed to place responsibility on people with a gambling disorder, whilst taking focus away from the industry's highly addictive products.

In 1948 the Arab-Israeli war caused the displacement of approximately 700,000 Palestinians as they fled from their homes in an area that would later become Israel. In this episode of Deep Trouble Dr Mark Halloran is in conversation with internationally recognised Palestinian activist Dr Olfat Mahmoud, founder of the Palestinian Women's Organisation (PWHO). Dr Mahmoud is a Palestinian refugee, born in a refugee camp in Lebanon 58 years ago, whose life mission is to fulfil the dream of her family to return to their hometown, Tarshiha in Palestine. Dr Mahmoud recounts the war of 1948, known to Palestinians as Al-Nakba (the catastrophe), which resulted in her grandparents fleeing from Tarshiha at gunpoint into the refugee camps of Lebanon. We talk about the psychology of exile and how her book charts the stories of three generations of women in her family; a story of great love, as well as grief and loss, for friends and family as well as for her homeland. Dr Mahmoud also discusses the history of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and its work of protecting refugees in Lebanon as well as how she feels that the international community has been complicit in its silence whilst Israel has broken various UN resolutions. We also discuss her horrifying experiences during the massacres in Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon in the 1980s, where she worked as a nurse, and her claim that the Israeli army under then defence minister Ariel Sharon, were complicit in allowing the Lebanese Christian Militia to perpetrate these war crimes. Finally we talk about the hopes for Palestinian refugee's right to return, with Dr Mahmoud stating she feels hope is still there but that these hopes are 'frozen'. Tears for Tarshiha is the chronicle of Dr Mahmoud's lifelong fight to return to her homeland.

Uncle Rick Nelson is a Jaara Jaara Elder whose homeland is the land of Dja Dja Wurrung people. Uncle Rick's father is Uncle Brien Nelson, who is a significant figure in the Dja Dja Wurrung community. Uncle Rick is also a direct descendent of Henry 'Harmony' Nelson, who is an apical Elder of the Dja Dja Wurrung. Uncle Rick begins with a Welcome to Country ceremony, or what early settlers called 'Freedom of Bush', before discussing his role with the water pipeline that runs from the Grampians through central Western Victoria, where he acts as an advisor in regards to the protection of local Aboriginal sites. Uncle Rick also discusses the nuances of the Dja Dja Wurrung language and the importance of the two moieties, Bunjil the Eagle and Waa the Crow, to the cultural life of the Dja Dja Wurrung, as well as the mythology behind these moieties. He also tells the story of the devastating effects of early colonisation on the people of the Kulin nation as well as the country, with the introduction of 100,000 head of sheep and the same number of cattle, and the arrival of 60,000 white men within four years of European settlement. We then discuss the protectorate system that was set up in Victoria in an attempt to protect the Aboriginal people from the early settlers and how the descendants of Dja Dja Wurrung can trace their ancestry back to the Franklinford protectorate, which at the time was described as 'a successful failure'.

Professor Jennifer Byrne has spent her scientific career analysing childhood and adult cancers at a molecular level. Her PhD studies mapped loss of chromosome 11p15 loci in embryonal tumours, and she then identified a novel gene family during postdoctoral studies in France. Professor Byrne is Head of the Children's Cancer Research Unit in the Kids Research Institute at the Children's Hospital at Westmead, and Professor of Molecular Oncology in the Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health, Sydney Medical School. She was recently recognised as one of Nature's "ten people who mattered in 2017", for exposing and large number of flawed and fraudulent genetics research papers and helping to design software to detect them.

Rev. Tim Costello AO is the former CEO and current chief advocate of World Vision and a member of the Alliance for Gambling Reform. We first touch on his family life by discussing the political, religious and socioeconomic history of his parents. Next we talk about the influence of faith, secular humanism, morality and ideology, and examine the rise of secularism which resulted in the French revolution and some of the greatest genocidal horrors of the 20th century. We then discuss refugees, and the personal cost of being at the front line of civil wars, mass graves and famine. Rev. Costello talks about our moral responsibility as Australians for the refugees on Manus Island, and the sense of hopelessness he encountered there. Rev. Costello also expresses his concern for the anger, loneliness, isolation and anxiety that is becoming endemic in society and blames this on the 'echo chambers' created by social media. Finally, we discuss his work with the Alliance for Gambling Reform.