Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

David Frum, former Bush speechwriter and conservative commentator, reflects on Iraq, Iran and how past foreign policy choices shape today. He discusses the rationale for intervention, coalition-building, legal and congressional limits, reconstruction challenges, and the domestic risks of wartime powers. Short, sharp conversations about strategy, credibility and the high stakes of U.S. action.

Toby Walsh, Chief Scientist at the UNSW AI Institute and leading voice on AI and autonomous weapons, joins briefly before a UN trip. He discusses drones, precision munitions and how AI is reshaping targeting and wargaming. They cover Pentagon-AI contractor clashes, autonomy in navigation and vision, risks of faster escalation, proliferation of cheap drones, and calls for bans on weapons that target humans.

Jared Cooney Horvath, neuroscientist and author focused on the science of learning, argues that classroom tech can undermine real learning. He discusses how screen use links to lower test performance, why skills often fail to transfer, and how multitasking and devices harm attention and empathy. The conversation explores memorization’s role in creativity and how schooling should build thinking and resilience.

Bill Bishop, China analyst and Sinocism author, offers sharp, on-the-ground perspective. He discusses Xi’s purge of PLA leadership and motives behind it. They cover China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, military modernization toward the PLA centenary, and Taiwan’s deterrence dilemmas. Technology topics include surveillance, AI (DeepSeek), and semiconductor constraints shaping China’s strategic choices.

Casey Handmer, energy entrepreneur and founder of Terraform Industries with a PhD in theoretical astrophysics, outlines solar-driven synthetic hydrocarbons and large-scale energy systems. He discusses solar-plus-battery grids replacing baseload myths. He explores powering AI data centers with desert solar, space-based compute, and regulatory obstacles to rapid deployment.

Joel Pearson, neuroscientist who leads Future Minds Lab and advises on human readiness for AI. He explains why recent AI models feel like a turning point. He outlines agentic AIs that act autonomously and what they can build. He highlights industries facing rapid disruption, psychological impacts, and how education, policy and personal habits must adapt.

Tense protests and large-scale clashes in Sydney over a presidential visit. New post-Bondi police powers and legal challenges shaped crowd control. Debates around protest tactics, slogans that stoke historic fears, and how media frames competing narratives. Questions raised about free speech limits, policing militarisation, and why certain international visitors attract intense demonstrations.

Jeff Maurer, former Last Week Tonight writer and author of the satire Substack I Might Be Wrong, joins to unpack media, comedy and cultural change. He discusses leaving a hit show over ideological drift. Short, sharp takes on blackface, transgender controversies, satire’s limits, and how newsrooms shifted from debate to caution.

Federal forces and ICE operations deployed in US cities and the alarming implications for civil liberties. Arrests of journalists and prosecutions of officials as possible political tools. The risk of neighbour-against-neighbour low-intensity violence and the dangers of violent resistance. Nonviolent civil disobedience, reconciliation models, and citizens' assemblies as paths to rebuild democratic norms.

Seth Stern, civil liberties lawyer and chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, breaks down press freedom risks. He discusses Don Lemon’s charges, how espionage and RICO laws can be stretched against reporters, and the rise of raids, seizures and selective prosecutions. He outlines reforms and why defending journalistic independence matters now.