Curtin’s Cast
by John Curtin Research Centre
Welcome to Curtin’s Cast, the John Curtin Research Centre’s podcast of politics, ideas and culture brought to you by JCRC Executive Director Nick Dyrenfurth and Redbridge’s Kos Samaras. Each fortnight we will bring you the freshest and most challenging conversations from the world of Australian and global politics, culture, and ideas every week with leading political leaders, activists, and thinkers.
Episodes
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Curtin's Cast Ep 76 - Is the Left losing the Working Class? (Jack Peacock, Focaldata UK)
Britain's Labour Party won a landslide in 2024. So why did it struggle so badly and recently replace Keir Starmer with Andy Burnham? And is Australia's Labor Party heading for the same political trap? This week, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined by Jack Peacock, Associate Director at...
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Curtin's Cast Ep 75 - Josh Frydenberg on antisemitism, the Liberal Party and a possible return
In his just released, best-selling memoir A Grateful Son, Josh Frydenberg reflects on family, Jewish life and a career at the centre of Australian politics. On episode 75 of Curtin’s Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth speaks with the former Treasurer about the influences that shaped him, the rise of...
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Curtin's Cast Ep 74 - Political Violence and the Outrage Economy
Has political hate become a business model? And is Australia importing the toxic political culture of the United States? In a special one-on-one edition of Curtin’s Cast, John Curtin Research Centre head honcho Nick Dyrenfurth and RedBridge director Kos Samaras confront the disturbing…
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Curtin's Cast Ep 73 - 13 October 2026 - George Megalogenis on Australia's 3 Great Shocks
Three Shocks: The Australia Politics Hasn’t Caught Up With One of Australia's finest political journalists and authors, "demography whisperer" George Megalogenis, joins Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras to discuss the three forces reshaping Australia: migration, the changing workforce and a more...
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Curtin’s Cast Ep 72 - 7 October 2026 - Labor Slumps, One Nation Leads: What Is Really Happening to Australian Politics?
Labor has hit record-low favourability ratings as One Nation again tops the primary vote in the latest RedBridge/Accent poll. Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras unpack what the numbers really mean, whether the “Albo Derangement Reflex” obscures genuine voter anger, and why the Coalition’s dramatic...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 71 - 30 September 2026 - Viren Naidu on India's Gen Z 'Cockroach' Party
India’s Gen Z Revolt: Meet the Cockroach Janta Party India’s young people are increasingly questioning whether education, hard work and competitive exams will deliver the secure future they were promised. Out of that frustration has emerged one of the world’s most unusual youth movements: the...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 70 - 23 September 2026 - Emma Dawson (Chifley Research Centre)
Can Labor Hold Back the Orange Tide? Emma Dawson and Kos Samaras talk Vic and NSW elections, Gen Z and Australia’s AI Future With Nick away, Kos is joined by Curtin’s Cast veteran Emma Dawson, Executive Director of the Chifley Research Centre, to take the pulse of Australian politics. They check…
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Curtin's Cast Episode 69 - 16 September 2026 - NZ in Revolt with Neale Jones (former chief of staff to Jacinda Ardern)
NZ in Revolt: Leadership Chaos, Fragmentation and the Election Ahead Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined by Neale Jones, Managing Director of Capital and former chief of staff to Jacinda Ardern, to unpack the turmoil reshaping New Zealand politics ahead of the 7 November election. With...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 68 - 9 September 2026 - Freddie Hayward (New Statesman) on America's 'Summer of Socialism' and 9/11 25 years on
Freddie Hayward on America’s ‘Summer of Socialism’ and 9/11, 25 Years On Something unusual is stirring inside America’s Democratic Party. Across the northern summer, young progressive and democratic-socialist candidates have been knocking over establishment Democrats — raising the possibility…
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Curtin's Cast Episode 67 - 2 September 2026 - What's Roiling Generation X?
They’re the generation politics forgot — and they may now be among the angriest in Australia. Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras go deep on the latest RedBridge/AFR generational polling, which has One Nation at an extraordinary 35 per cent among Gen X, Labor on 28 and the Coalition languishing at…
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Curtin's Cast Episode 66 - 24 August 2026 - Melongate, Victoria's New Premier and One Nation's peak?
Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras go deep on the two latest RedBridge/AFR polls and what they reveal about the extraordinary reshaping of Australian politics: One Nation’s surge, the Coalition’s weakness, Labor’s low primary vote and whether voters are moving towards a durable three-bloc system or...
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Curtin’s Cast Episode 65 - 12 August 2026 - Ross McMullin: The Light on the Hill
This week on Curtin’s Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth is joined by award-winning historian Ross McMullin, author of the definitive history of the Australian Labor Party, The Light on the Hill. Thirty-five years after its original publication, McMullin has returned to his landmark work, updating Labor’s...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 64 - 5 August 2026 - Paul Kelly (The Australian): The Twilight of Exceptionalism
This week on Curtin's Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined by one of Australia's foremost political journalists and historians, Paul Kelly, Paul Kelly, Editor-at-Large, The Australian and author of the new book, The Twilight of Exceptionalism: The Liberal and Conservative Era…
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Curtin's Cast Episode 63 - 27 July 2026 - Victorian Leadership Special
🚨 WE'RE BACK! Curtin's Cast returns – EARLY RELEASE 🎙️ Victoria's election campaign has just been blown wide open. In a dramatic day of escalating political tension, Deputy Premier Ben Carroll has advised Premier Jacinta Allan that he intends to be a candidate for the Labor leadership should a...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 62 - 24 June 2026 - Anna Goldsworthy – The God We Made
Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined by acclaimed author, pianist and incoming ANAM Artistic Director Anna Goldsworthy to discuss her new Quarterly Essay, The God We Made: The Threat and Promise of Artificial Intelligence out now with Schwartz Media Is AI another technological revolution…
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Curtin’s Cast Episode 61 – 15 June 2026 - One Nation's Victorian Threat
Could the 2026 Victorian election mark the beginning of the end of Australia's century-old two-party system? One Nation is now leading or tied in most national polls. Leadership whispers around Victorian Labor Premier Jacinta Allan are growing. But is this bigger than one premier — or even one...
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Curtin’s Cast Episode 60 - 10 June 2026 - Ed Coper – Angertainment: How Social Media Outrage Ruined Everything
This week on Curtin’s Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth sits down with political strategist and campaigner Ed Coper, author of the new book Angertainment: How Social Media Outrage Ruined Everything. Over more than two decades, Ed has worked with an extraordinary range of political, civic and business leaders...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 59 - 3 June 2026 - Prime Minister Pauline Hanson?
One Nation is now Australia's most popular political party. Pauline Hanson is Australia's most popular political leader. And new RedBridge–Accent MRP modelling suggests the Australian political system may be fragmenting faster than either major party understands. This week on Curtin's Cast, Nick...
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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…
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Curtin’s Cast Episode 57 – 20 May 2026 - Budget Wars, Chasing Pauline & the End of Howard’s Australia
Is Australian politics finally exiting the dead zone of managerialism and re-entering an era of genuine ideological conflict? In Episode 57 of Curtin’s Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth and Australia’s "revered pollster” Kos Samaras unpack the political shockwaves from Labor’s 2026 budget — and why much of…
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Curtin’s Cast Episode 56 - 13 May 2026 - Angry Young Women feat. Emily Lawford (New Statesman)
For years politics and media have obsessed over angry young men, the manosphere and figures like Andrew Tate. But what if the bigger political story is the radicalisation — and growing pessimism — of ‘Angry Young Women’? This week Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined by New Statesman staff...
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Curtin’s Cast Episode 55 - 6 May 2026 - Has One Nation Hit Its Ceiling?
One year on from the 2025 federal election, the political landscape is shifting again — and not in ways either major legacy party can fully control. In this episode, Kos Samaras and Nick Dyrenfurth unpack the latest RedBridge/Accent/AFR polling and the fallout from the Nepean by-election. Has One...
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Curtin’s Cast Episode 54 - 29 April 2026 - AI, Jobs & the Coming Political Reckoning
In this episode, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras break down why AI anxiety is already political — not hypothetical — and why governments are at risk of repeating the biggest mistake of the last economic transition. We’ve seen this movie before. It didn’t end well. Over 70% of Australians think AI...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 53 - 22 April 2026 - Europe’s Political Upheaval
On this episode, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined by leading scholars of nationalism and European politics expert Associate Professor Ben Wellings (Monash University) to unpack the forces reshaping the UK and Europe. From the collapse of the political centre to the rise of populists and...
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Curtin’s Cast Episode 52 – 15 April 2026 – How Left and Right Populism Are Reshaping Australia
Australia isn’t experiencing one populist surge, but two. In this episode of Curtin’s Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras unpack new RedBridge and Accent Research polling revealing a striking political reality: under the same economic pressures, different generations are breaking in completely...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 51 - 8 April 2026 - Misha Zelinsky on World War 3
Has World War 3 already begun — just without a declaration? This week on Curtin’s Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined by the excellent Misha Zelinsky — Fulbright Scholar, economist, lawyer, and national security expert — to unpack a confronting idea: We may already be living through...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 50 - 1 April 2026 - Prof Frank Bongiorno on Bob Hawke
This week, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined by arguably Australia’s finest historian and public intellectual, Professor Frank Bongiorno, for our landmark 50th episode — and a big question at the heart of Australian politics: Is Bob Hawke really the “gold standard”… or a myth we can’t...
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Curtin’s Cast Episode 49 - 25 March 2026 - South Australian Election Review
A seismic election result in South Australia — but was it a Labor landslide, or a structural collapse of the Liberals? Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras unpack: The Liberals finishing third and fourth across large parts of the state One Nation’s 22% surge and what it really means The critical...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 48 - 18 March 2026 - Is the two-party system dead?
This week on Curtin’s Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras break down the most striking polling shift in a generation — and what it means for Australian politics. Victoria is no longer a conventional contest. Both major parties are struggling to reach 30%. One Nation is now polling in the…
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Curtin's Cast Episode 47 - 11 March 2026 - Dr Kylie Gilbert-Moore
This week co-hosts Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined by Dr Kylie Gilbert-Moore — Middle East scholar, columnist and former political prisoner in Iran. After spending 804 days jailed in Tehran’s Evin Prison, Kylie offers a rare perspective on how the Iranian regime works and how ordinary...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 46 - 4 March 2026 - Peter Khalil MP
This week Curtin's Cast is joined in the studio by Peter Khalil — Labor member for the federal seat of Wills in Melbourne, Assistant Minister for Defence, former Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee, ex-national security adviser to Kevin Rudd, and previously the government’s former...
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Curtin's Cast Ep 45 - 25 February 2026 - Polls, Pretenders & the Problem with the Liberal Party
This week it’s a one-on-one Kos vs Nick deep dive. No guests. No niceties. Just a hard look at the polling — and some of the rubbish floating around. We unpack: 📊 The latest federal and state polls — what’s real and what’s noise 🔵 The new Liberal leadership — and why it’s not generational…
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Curtin's Cast Episode 44 - 19 February 2026 - Alastair Campbell on Trumpism and why Australia gives him hope
🎙️ New Curtin’s Cast: Alastair Campbell on democracy in the age of Trumpism Politics everywhere feels simultaneously stuck and combustible — in the US, the UK and here in Australia. This week Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined by Alastair Campbell — former Director of Communications and...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 43 - 9 February 2026 - Coalition implosion, One Nation surging and risks for Labor
🎙 Curtin’s Cast returns for 2026 Episode 43 | Polling shocks, Coalition fracture and the new politics of grievance Australian politics is realigning in real time. In the first Curtin’s Cast episode of 2026, co-hosts Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras unpack a turbulent political summer — from…
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Curtin’s Cast EOY Special - Nine Media’s Sean Kelly on Quarterly Essay #100: The Good Fight
As we wrap up Curtin’s Cast for 2025, a big thank you to everyone who’s tuned in this year — and a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and season’s greetings to all our listeners. Your support has helped make Curtin’s Cast one of the most widely listened-to political podcasts in the country, and…
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Curtin's Cast Episode 41 - 10 December 2025 - Kos and Nick on One Nation surge, Barnaby and much more
On this week’s Curtin’s Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras go one-on-one on what the latest Redbridge and Resolve polling is really telling us about Australian politics heading into a huge 2026 calendar. With two state elections looming in South Australia and Victoria, and federal pressures...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 40 - 3 December 2025 - Alex Vynokur (United Ukraine Appeal) and Dom Meagher (JCRC)
🎧 NEW EPISODE | CURTIN’S CAST 🇺🇦🇦🇺 Recorded live from Parliament House, Canberra Winning the Peace: Why Ukraine’s Reconstruction Is Australia’s Test Too This episode features one of the most powerful voices in Australia’s Ukraine community. Alex Vynokur didn’t become an advocate by choice —...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 39 - 26 November 2025 - Paul Sakkal (Nine Media Chief Political Correspondent)
Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras sit down with Nine Media’s Chief Political Correspondent, Paul Sakkal, for one of the sharpest political conversations we’ve had all year. We cover everything reshaping Australian politics right now: • The latest polling — and what it really means • Liberal Party...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 38 - 19 November 2025 - Nick and Emma Dawson on the Revolt Against Politics As Usual
With Kung Fu Kos away, Nick Dyrenfurth teams up with guest co-host Emma Dawson (Chifley Research Centre) to tackle a huge few weeks in politics: 📊 What the latest federal polling really says 🌆 Mamdani’s NYC upset + outsider politics 🇬🇧 UK Labour turmoil, Reform & Greens surge 📱 Australia’s...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 37 - 11 November 2025 - Troy Bramston on Gough Whitlam
Fifty years to the day after the Dismissal, this week on Curtin’s Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth and guest co-host Emma Dawson talk to acclaimed historian and political biographer Troy Bramston about his stunning new biography Gough Whitlam: The Vista of the New. 700+ pages of reform, chaos, and vision —...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 36 - 5 November 2025 - SDA Union National Secretary Gerard Dwyer
🎙️This week on Curtin's Cast, Kos Samaras and Nick Dyrenfurth sit down with Gerard Dwyer, National Secretary of the SDA — Australia’s largest private-sector union covering retail, fast food and warehouse workers and a proud John Curtin Research Centre Board member. From regional NSW, to the...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 35 - 29 October 2025 - Kos and Nick on the Netflixisation of Politics
🎙️ This week's Curtin's Cast delves into what one British political writer calls the Netflixisation of Politics. Nick Dyrenfurth & Kos Samaras dive into the end of the political pendulum: both major parties bleeding to their disruptor flanks, the rise of niche tribes, and how politics has become...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 34 - 22 October 2025 - From Basra to 🇦🇺 Aussie Boardrooms: JCRC Chair Sam Almaliki
🎙️ Our guest today has lived the Australian story from the inside out. Born in Basra, Iraq, arriving to Australia as an asylum seeker aged nine including spending time in Villawood Detention Centre, and now a lawyer, chairperson and entrepreneur — Sam Almaliki’s journey is one of hope, hardship...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 33 - 15 October 2025 - Historic major party vote lows, One Nation support rising and Greens' Gaza gaffes
🎙️ New Curtin’s Cast episode! Kos and Nick dive into explosive new polling showing the combined major party primary vote at historic lows. The Liberals are haemorrhaging votes on their right flank while collapsing among Gen Z, millennials, women and CALD voters. They unpack the immigration…
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Curtin's Cast Episode 32 - 1 October 2025 - Kos and Nick on MAGA politics, Andrew Hastie and much more
🎧 New #CurtinsCast episode - Kos Samaras is back with Brisbane Lions tragic & premiership celebrator Nick Dyrenfurth to dissect the week in politics: 🇬🇧 The rise of alt-right & MAGA politics in the UK and Australia 🛠️ Andrew Hastie on migration, housing & slaying the neo-liberal dragon ⚠️…
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Curtin's Cast Episode 31 - 24 September 2025 - Dr Shireen Morris (JCRC Board Member, Constitutional Lawyer and Author)
🎧 New Curtin’s Cast Episode With Nick Dyrenfurth still away, JCRC board member & leading constitutional lawyer Dr Shireen Morris joins Kos Samaras for a rich, personal and political conversation. 🌏⚖️ 💡 From her Indian-Fijian family roots and early acting dreams to the frontlines of law and...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 30 - 17 September 2025 - Dr Stephen Parnis
#CurtinsCast host Nick Dyrenfurth takes a well-earned spell from the microphone as John Curtin Research Centre board member and constitutional lawyer Dr Shireen Morris joins Kos Samaras to lead a searching conversation with "proud Westie" and emergency physician Dr Stephen Parnis. From the...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 29 - 10 September 2025 - ACTU Secretary Sally McManus
This week’s Curtin's Cast features the excellent ACTU Secretary, Sally McManus. Kos Samaras and Nick Dyrenfurth explore her working-class upbringing in north-west Sydney, the parallels between the rise of One Nation in the 1990s and today’s hard-right, neo-Nazi currents, and whether her…
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Curtin's Cast Episode 28 - 3 September 2025 - Prof Sean Scalmer (Author of A Fair Day’s Work: The Quest to Win Back Time)
This week we’re joined by Professor Sean Scalmer — one of Australia's leading historians based at the University of Melbourne, Fellow of the Academy of Social Science, and author of A Fair Day’s Work: The Quest to Win Back Time. We dive into: ⏳ The fight for the eight-hour day and Australia’s...
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Curtin's Cast Episode 27 - 27 August 2025 - Former Liberal MP Keith Wolahan
This week’s Curtin’s Cast features the thoughtful and formidable former Liberal MP Keith Wolahan. Kos Samaras and Nick Dyrenfurth discussed Keith’s Irish Catholic working-class roots in Dublin, his childhood in suburban Melbourne and education at Ringwood Secondary College, through to his…
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About this show
Welcome to Curtin’s Cast, the John Curtin Research Centre’s podcast of politics, ideas and culture brought to you by JCRC Executive Director Nick Dyrenfurth and Redbridge’s Kos Samaras. Each fortnight we will bring you the freshest and most challenging conversations from the world of Australian and global politics, culture, and ideas every week with leading political leaders, activists, and thinkers.
Hosted by
John Curtin Research Centre