Curtin’s Cast Episode 58 - 27 May 2026 - The Alchemy of Leadership with Professor Paul Strangio

No Kos this week — but Nick Dyrenfurth is joined by one of Australia’s leading public intellectuals and scholars of political leadership, Professor Paul Strangio, to unpack one of the defining political questions of our age: Why has democratic politics become so chaotic — and why has Australia, so far at least, resisted full-scale democratic rupture? Drawing on Paul Strangio’s new book ‘The Alchemy of Leadership: Seven Australian Prime Ministers in a Turbulent Twenty-First Century’ (Melbourne University Publishing), this wide-ranging conversation explores the collapse of old political loyalties, revolving-door prime ministers, media fragmentation, hyper-politics, populism, culture wars and the emotional exhaustion now embedded in modern democratic life. From Howard, Rudd and Gillard to Abbott, Morrison, Albanese and the post-2025 political landscape, Nick and Paul examine how leadership itself has changed in the twenty-first century — and whether traditional democratic authority can still survive in the age of algorithms, permanent campaigning and anti-politics. They discuss: Why Australian politics became permanently unstable after 2007 John Howard’s role in “smuggling” conservative populism into the mainstream Pauline Hanson, Trumpism and why Australia avoided full MAGA-style collapse Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.