The 9pm Usual Chaos in Indonesia and Thailand with Erin Cook

A white woman with her long brown hair tied back wears a yellow and black top, sunglasses, and a smile like the Mona Lisa. Behind her stretches out a view of a tropical landscape and, eventually, the ocean. It?s Erin Cook!
Journalist Erin Cook towers above South-East Asia. (Photo: Supplied)

There’s been riots in Indonesia with at least nine people killed. And there’s political chaos in Thailand as the prime minister is sacked and 15 political parties scramble to form coalitions so they can choose a new PM. So who better to talk to than journalist Erin Cook, who specialises in South-East Asia?

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The 9pm Half-time Bingo Card Update 2025 with Snarky Platypus

Illustrative stock imagery of a bingo card and bingo player stamps, with an inset image of a random platypus.
Main image by Rudonni via Pixabay. Foreground bingo card originally by Milton Bradley Company, photo by Abby Hendrickson under under a CC-BY 2.0 Generic license. Platypus inset photo by Taronga Conservation Society Australia / Chris Wheeler. Digital composition by Stilgherrian.

Back at the start of the year, my good friend Snarky Platypus and I created a bingo card for 2025. A set of 25 things that might happen. Well, we’re half-way through the year, so let’s see how we went.

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The 9pm AUKUS and the Echidna with Sam Roggeveen

A middle-aged white bloke wears a black jacket and t-shirt and, with arms folded, looks straight into the camera. An inset shows a book cover reading: “The Echidna Strategy: Australia’s Search for Power and Peace by Sam Roggeveen”. And it has a picture of an echidna.
Sam Roggeveen (Photo: Petri Kurkaa). Inset: The cover of The Echidna Strategy. (Image: Black Inc Books)

Any moment now, Donald Trump might cancel AUKUS, the massive defence agreement which among other things would see Australia buying eight nuclear-powered submarines. AUKUS has become the big thing in Australia’s defence procurement, but do we need it? Sam Roggeveen thinks not, and he’s our guest today.

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The 9pm Remembering Valentina Tereshkova and Bonus Aliens with Dr Alice Gorman and Rami Mandow

Left: Dr Alice Gorman. (Photo: Simon Royal/ABC) Right: Rami Mandow. (Photo: Supplied; Post-processing: Stilgherrian). Not the best ALT text, I know, but yeah a white women and a man "of Middle-Eastern appearance".
Left: Dr Alice Gorman. (Photo: Simon Royal/ABC) Right: Rami Mandow. (Photo: Supplied; Post-processing: Stilgherrian).

With massive budget cuts to NASA, claims that we’ve found alien life, and an important anniversary coming up, it’s time once more to talk about Space! My guests, therefore, are space archaeologist Dr Alice Gorman aka Dr Space Junk, and astrophysicist Rami Mandow.

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The 9pm Australia’s Most Important Relationship is with Indonesia with Erin Cook

A white woman with her long brown hair tied back wears a yellow and black top, sunglasses, and a smile like the Mona Lisa. Behind her stretches out a view of a tropical landscape and, eventually, the ocean. It?s Erin Cook!
Journalist Erin Cook towers above South-East Asia. (Photo: Supplied)

Let’s kick off the Edict‘s mid-2025 series with a look at Australia’s relationship with Indonesia, because Jakarta was the first international city prime minister Anthony Albanese visited after his re-election. Our special guest is journalist Erin Cook, who specialises in South-East Asia.

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