PODCAST · government
Nicholas Gruen
by Nicholas Gruen
A record of media podcast interviews I've done.
Episodes
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Superannuation: The ALP's Maginot Line (With Leon Gettler)
In this brief chat with Leon Gettler, I explain why I think Australia's superannuation system is a political Maginot line, just waiting to be exploited. It is motivated more by empire-building – by private fund managers and unions – rather than meeting the needs of the people whom the ALP claims…
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90% of Voters Hate This, But Politicians Do It Anyway
Interviewed on my videos by Peter Clarke of The Transit Zone, you'll find this interview is in a new register, more appropriate to our dire situation. Asked what I thought of democracy I riffed off Lincoln's idea that it was "the last best hope of earth". And off an idea I expressed a few years…
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Me on Curious World View
Ryan Faulkner-Hogg asked me to join him on his long-form podcast show where, over nearly three hours, we spoke about many things.Here are his show notes: I joined the Australian economist Nicholas Gruen recently in his Melbourne home to host his first 'long-form' podcast (although I'm not sure at...
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Can random citizens fix what party politics broke?
In this final talk at Web Directions NEXT, I explore how we might breathe new life into democracy—by giving ordinary people a permanent seat at the table.The idea is to establish a House of Citizens—a standing assembly of everyday people, chosen by lottery, deliberating on the same laws and...
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How we confuse winning with worth
In the second of three talks at John Allsopp’s Web Directions Dec 2024 NEXT conference, I dig into a question modern life has taught us to overlook: how do we decide what's truly good? We’ve built a civilisation where merit is often confused with ambition, where leadership is predicated on...
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Economic and political reform, with John Humphreys and Gene Tunny
In this freewheeling conversation with John Humphreys and Gene Tunny, we delve into what’s gone wrong with modern policymaking—and what can be done about it. We begin with the dysfunctional state of our tax system. I argue we should scrap dividend imputation and cut the company tax rate to…
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Presentation 1 at NEXT - Awakening our better angels
This is the first of three talks I gave to John Allsopp's Web Directions NEXT conference held in Sydney in late 2024. The three talks introduce a new project of mine - a series of short videos called Awakening our better angels.It’s about our institutions—how they shape our behaviour, our…
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International councils of citizens: can they moderate the madness?
As readers may know, in contrast to most folks promoting citizen assemblies, I am not too optimistic that running temporary, special purpose citizen assemblies will achieve much. They come and go, serve up some recommendations to the government and then become ‘issues management’ fodder, and in…
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Me on Alex Kaschuta's Subversive podcast
From Alex's blurb Together, we examine how the internet’s kerosene amplifies wish-casting, why monarchic fantasies seduce tech elites, and what bottom-up meritocracy - citizen juries, sortition, and ‘small-scale hacks’ - might offer a polity that feels increasingly unmoored. We grapple with...
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Complexity, clichés and bullshit: Me versus Rory Sutherland
Rory Sutherland suggested that the host of Simplifying Complexity have me on his podcast a while back. In that interview, I was critical of those who peddle ‘complexity’ as a new paradigm in economics. It's not. It's a bunch of new models. But the idea of 'complexity' as some new lens really runs...
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Me on ABC Hobart on the proposed Hobart Stadium (after Minister Abetz)
An interview that took place with me at 5.20 on the 1st April 2025 on the release of the Tasmanian Planning Commission draft integrated assessment report.
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Trump's tariffs and trust in the US
I discuss Trump's tariffs with Leon Gettler, how economists aren't telling the whole truth about those Tariffs. Trump is wrong when he says foreigners will pay them. But he's not all wrong.
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The dirty electoral funding deal: How to get something better
I talk to Leon Gettler about the way electoral funding is manipulated by the major parties to entrench their own power. Democracy is supposed to be a competition, not a rigged game, yet we see politicians making decisions that serve their own interests rather than the public good. I argue that…
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A role for juries in electoral democracy?
In this after-dinner talk to the Radix conference on Resilient Democracy at St George's House on Feb 20th, I lay out a different way of thinking about democracy — one that challenges the assumption that elections are the only legitimate form of representation. Democracies mix two approaches:...
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The people's house: building a new institution
In this discussion, Gene Tunny and I discuss my leading article in my Substack last week. There I agued that our political systems are built on representing people through elections whereas there’s another way to represent the people — by sampling. We can create bodies that are representative of...
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The proposed Hobart AFL Stadium
An interview with me on Victoria's 3AW Wide World of Sports
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Interview on the Hobart stadium
An interview with ABC Hobart on the release of my report on the Hobart Stadium which you can download from this link: https://tinyurl.com/GruenReport
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Kamala's and Donald's economic policies
I joined Peter Clarke and Margo Kingston on their Transitzone podcast. Here's their own description of our discussion. _________________________________________________ This last week of the election campaign has seen Donald Trump become even more overheated in his rhetoric. His fixation on…
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Me on economic forecasting
Here I discuss a speech made by Andrew Hauser, Deputy Governor of the RBA on how little forecasters know and how much humbler we should all be. I focus on what he didn't say, which is that the best way to tackle hubris and improve forecasting is to run open forecasting tournaments. Only then can...
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The Robodebt non-investigation
Me and Leon Gettler discuss share our disappointment and dismay that no-one is being held accountable for the disgrace of RoboDebt and talk about unaccountability more generally.
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Economics: is complexity the answer?
Do we need a ‘new paradigm’ in economics? Mostly, our problems are more mundane than that. They stem from slavishly using our frameworks, and applying them as if they give us most of the answer. I think they're just a starting point, a set of clues about one way to structure one's thinking. In...
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Me, Margo Kingston and Peter Clarke on the Transit Zone
I discuss the recent Tasmanian election and have the cheek to suggest that the Jacqi Lambie Network might have been the most serious political party on offer. We talk about the role a standing citizen assembly could play in settling down politics as usual, how it might help the politicians get…
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Fessing up to the fudges in ESG
In this discussion with Leon Gettler I talk about the ways in which ESG (the widening of investment mandates to take into account issues to do with the Environment, Social and Governance) can be dysfunctional. For instance policies to only invest in low emissions firms are unlikely to do much…
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Chatting with Steve Austin about the Government's Wellbeing Framework
I spoke with Steve Austin a few months ago about wellbeing frameworks and what they can (and can't) do to improve our world. So he got back in touch with me to ask what I thought of the Federal Government's recently released wellbeing framework.
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Elite Capture: Christianity Wrote the Playbook!
Of all the podcasts we’ve done so far, this is my favourite. We discuss Peter Heather’s marvellous book “Christendom: the triumph of a Religion”. It covers the thousand years from the time Christianity becomes embedded in the Roman Empire, via Emperor Constantine’s conversion. Heather’s book…
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Changes to the RBA
A short interview with ABC news on what I think of the Changes to the Reserve Bank announced by Philip Lowe yesterday.
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Why ESG is a puppet show
There's a spectre haunting ESG, the new trend towards investment funds seeking to consider things other than their financial bottom line. ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance. But there's a problem. Often firms are not well placed to improve outcomes beyond their own immediate...
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How did we get from "How Can I Help" to "How Can Govt Help Me?
A couple of months ago I read and admired this article on Palladium, a new(ish) website that “explores the future of governance and society through international journalism, long-form analysis, and social philosophy”. It seemed that there was sufficient overlap between its concerns and mine that…
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Risk: protecting the children or protecting the system? CEO on Disadvantaged youth
In this thought-provoking episode of Uncomfortable Collisions with Reality, Nicholas Gruen and guest Jarrod Wheatley, founder and CEO of PIC Professional Individualized Care, delve into the complex issue of risk in out-of-home care for children. As they explore the challenges faced by those...
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Promoting Wellbeing or Anti-thinking?
This is the second part of a great discussion I had with friend and colleague Gene Tunny on wellbeing agendas, how they go wrong and how transformative they could be. We begin by exploring what I call ‘top-down thinking’ — a style of strategising that was largely (and mercifully) absent from life...
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What a wellbeing budget would look like: Hint, not like Jacinta's budgets
In this interview with Leon Gettler I discuss why I think New Zealand's Wellbeing Budget was anything of the kind. It was a wellbeing themed budget, not one that will do much for wellbeing. I then discuss what it would look like if we really did want to embrace wellbeing. Will the Australian...
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The $100B lying on the pavement
Another great conversation with my friend, colleague and partner in podcasting crime Gene Tunny. Gene suggested we discuss various ways in which we've placed nationally independent analysis at the centre of government, only to find that it hasn't performed as well as it might. A classic example…
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Four ways to fix the world
Every society evolves unique ways for people to live together happily and productively. But they change over time. Modernity has eclipsed these four ideas. Recovering them can make us happier and more productive. If I had four words to sum up where I've got to over the last couple of decades...
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Engines of Oligarchy: with Hugh Pope
One of my favourite podcasts with journalist, scholar and gentleman Hugh Pope who has just brought to publication a book written by his father in 1990. But being well ahead of its time, the book was unpublishable. It pursued Aristotle's point that elections installed a governing class and were...
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Science: How it obscures reality
I enjoyed this discussion with philosophy PhD and high school teacher from San Francisco's Bay area. I tried to articulate my own view that our understanding of science as the paradigm of all knowledge gets in the way of understanding important aspects of reality that science can't help us with.…
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Talking with the ABC's Steve Austin about wellbeing.
I did this interview in the wake of the budget discussing what we could achieve if we took wellbeing seriously. Which no government I know of really has. And that includes Jacinta Ardern and her "Wellbeing" Budget.
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Promoting Wellbeing or Anti-thinking?
This is the second part of a great discussion I had with friend and colleague Gene Tunny on wellbeing agendas, how they go wrong and how transformative they could be. We begin by exploring what I call ‘top-down thinking’ — a style of strategising that was largely (and mercifully) absent from life...
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Wellbeing: escaping the iron law of business-as-usual
I really enjoyed this week’s uncomfortable collision with reality with colleague Gene Tunny. We covered a lot of ground talking about the use and abuse of the wellbeing agenda. Where does it come from? Why is it taking off as an approach to policy making? How do we make the most of this as...
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Walking while chewing gum: Spurring innovation and fighting recession
Colleague Gene Tunny and I discuss a means by which we could improve the impact of innovation programs as well as fight recessions and booms. And the cost? Nothing! If you'd like to watch the conversation, it's here on YouTube.
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Bureaucracy as oppression: The case of out of home care
Poverty used to be the principal vector of oppression, but increasingly bureaucracy is integral to the story as anyone who's watched I, Daniel Blake will realise. Or way back in the 19th-century in Australia, at the Indigenous reserve at Corranderrk in Victoria as you can see here. In any event,...
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Who belongs on the RBA board?
This interview with Leon Gettler arose from these two Twitter discussions I had with various economists. They think only trained economists should be welcome on the RBA board. I wasn't so sure. And the more I thought about it, the less sure I was.
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How we all became competitors
In this episode of uncomfortable collisions with reality, Peyton and I talk to Jonathan Hearn who has just published "The Domestication of Competition" a history of the way in which competition became increasingly significant through history. Increasingly competition came to be seen as a…
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Uncomfortable collisions with reality: Jarrod Wheatley on saving abused and neglected kids
In this episode I speak with Jarrod Wheatley about how he took a model of out of home care from Germany and brought it to Australia, the obstacles he faced and the successes he's had with it. We swap notes, me from the perspective I've got in the gods thinking about how policy systems work from…
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Democracy: forking the project
This is a podcast of a discussion between me and my friend Peyton Bowman about my essay "Democracy: forking the project". Here is the abstract of the essay. Citizens’ juries — where a representative sample of citizens deliberate and decide on political issues — are increasingly popular....
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NG on Economic Rockstar
The shownotes from Economic Rockstar Nicholas Gruen is CEO of Lateral Economics and is a widely published policy economist, entrepreneur and commentator. In this episode Professor Gruen discusses the need for reform in economics at both academic and policy level. He also explains the importance…
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Should we just suit ourselves?
Here’s the first instalment of some podcasts I’m working on with my friend Peyton Bowman. In previous discussions, we spent a fair bit of time exploring the way, by being so different to our own, the ancient world gives us insights into our current state. Anyway, we have gone one better, inviting...
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Getting the best without competition
In this conversation with Leon Gettler I talk about the ways we could select people on merit in a bottom-up way which dispensed with the invidiousness of competition. This kind of thing was actually prominent in the minds of the American founding fathers way back when. We should return to their...
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Where did you stand when the right went toxic?
You know how those on the left are pilloried for not standing up during Stalin's show trials in the 1930. When the tanks rolled into Prague in 1958 or to Hungary a decade later? Well they should be piloried for it. And now the toxicity of the right has spun out of control, still most people on…
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Four foundational principles for a flourishing organisation or society: Part One
I explore a way I've come to think about society with my friend Peyton Bowman and represent in a diagram which is the first slide in these slides. (Here is the pptx, and here is the pdf.) (Note only the first two slides were used in this talk). The diagram illustrates the principles which should...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
A record of media podcast interviews I've done.
HOSTED BY
Nicholas Gruen
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Nicholas Gruen currently has 148 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
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A record of media podcast interviews I've done.
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Nicholas Gruen publishes regularly with 148 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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