As the summer series grinds on we’re joined once again — well, after a gap of more than a year — by author and columnist John Birmingham.
In this episode we talk, inevitably, about the nexus between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. But we also chat about Brisbane and the good old days, cancer, the Apple Vision Pro, World Expo 88, digital locks, physical fitness, and the links between hypermasculinity, Gamergate, and fascism.
It also sees the return of the chia seed protein pudding, and yet more mentions of Umberto Eco.
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Episode Links
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John Birmingham (born 7 August 1964) is a British-born Australian author, known for the 1994 memoir He Died with a Felafel in His Hand, and his Axis of Time trilogy.
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I write books and things. This is sort of like my private club where anyone can hang out to talk about that stuff. So, okay, not that private. I’ll let you know about the stuff I’m doing, the stuff I love, and more importantly, the sort of things I think you might love too. For once, it’s not all about me.
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[24 April 2014] The editor-in-chief of the Australian Financial Review has apologised for a headline that ran on the front page of its Western Australian edition today stating: “ARMS BUILDUP | BUYS PLANES | WORLD IS FUKT.”
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[12 February 2025] REPORTER: Are you policing yourself for conflicts of interest? What are the checks and balances? MUSK: We post our actions to the DOGE handle on X.
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[13 February 2025] President Donald Trump and Elon Musk came together in the White House on Tuesday for Trump to sign an executive order concerning the billionaire’s work leading the Department of Government Efficiency and wanting federal agencies to work with him.
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[13 February 2025] Little X appeared to tell Trump "shush your mouth" in the Oval Office.
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[22 January 2025] Students protesting against Elon Musk's extremism have hung him in effigy in Milan's Piazzale Loreto, stringing up a fake body upside down in an imitation of the hanging of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini's corpse in the very same square in 1945.
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[28 October 2018] While I was in Washington DC recently, I recorded an interview with attorney and author Mike Godwin, he of Godwin’s Law fame.
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[1 November 2024] While Eco is firm in claiming “There was only one Nazism,” he says, “the fascist game can be played in many forms, and the name of the game does not change.” Eco reduces the qualities of what he calls “Ur-Fascism, or Eternal Fascism” down to 14 “typical” features.
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[22 June 1995] Freedom and liberation are an unending task.
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"In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups. The police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories."
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[9 February 2025] Candidates for top intelligence and law enforcement jobs were asked to give “yes” or “no” responses to questions such as: Was Jan. 6 “an inside job?”
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Search for him on your social media app of choice.
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[10 February 2025] I’m a bit over this new masculinity. It stinks of Eau-de-flop-sweat, and there’s no escaping the reek. This whiffy motherfucker is everywhere, like one of Godzilla’s room fillers, and notwithstanding the endless loop of victory laps these guys have been taking recently, it doesn’t smell like victory to me.
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Gamergate or GamerGate (GG) was a loosely organized misogynistic online harassment campaign motivated by a right-wing backlash against feminism, diversity, and progressivism in video game culture. It was conducted using the hashtag "#Gamergate" primarily in 2014 and 2015.
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I’ve pulled together everything I’ve learned about procrastination and crammed it into one short book, "The Complete (but little) Book About Procrastination".
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Umberto Eco (2014). “Travels in Hyperreality”, p.10, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. (Originally published 1973.)
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Herodotus (Ancient Greek: ????????, romanized: H?ródotos; c.?484 – c.?425 BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the Histories, a detailed account of the Greco-Persian Wars among other subjects such as the rise of the Achaemenid Dynasty of Cyrus, and was the first writer to apply the scientific method to historical events. He has been described as "The Father of History", a title conferred on him by the ancient Roman orator Cicero, and the "Father of Lies" by others.
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World Expo 88, also known as Expo 88, was a specialised Expo held in Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia, during a six-month period between Saturday, 30 April 1988 and Sunday, 30 October 1988, inclusive. The theme of the Expo was "Leisure in the Age of Technology", and the mascot for the Expo was an Australian platypus named Expo Oz.
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From the Australian Television Archive
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A lengthy introduction to State of Origin rugby league is given by “King Wally Otto in the Soundproof Booth” (a pseudonym for well-known Australian voice-over presenter Robbie McGregor).
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Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen KCMG (13 January 1911 – 23 April 2005) was an Australian politician. He was the longest-serving premier of Queensland, holding office from 1968 to 1987 as state leader of the National Party (earlier known as the Country Party)... The developer, Mike Gore, was seen as a key member of the "white shoe brigade", a group of Gold Coast businessmen who became influential supporters of Bjelke-Petersen. The "white-shoe" nickname was a contemptuous allusion to the nouveau riche origins revealed by their gaudy and tasteless choice of clothing, which included brightly coloured or patterned shirts, slacks with white stripes or in pastel shades, and shoes and belts of white leather, these often having gold or gilt buckles.
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From the original Master Tape, upscaled and enhanced.
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South Bank is a cultural, social, educational and recreational precinct in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The precinct is located in the suburb of South Brisbane, on the southern bank of the Brisbane River.
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[8 March 2023] Mafia figure who paid off cops and ran illegal casinos and the notorious 'Bubbles Bath House' dies aged 80 - and now his seedy story can be told in full.
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Wayne Keith Goss (26 February 1951 – 10 November 2014) was Premier of Queensland from 7 December 1989 until 19 February 1996, becoming the first Labor Premier of the state in over 32 years.
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A long time ago, in a magazine far far way—well, okay, the old Bulletin mag before it folded—I was asked to write an obituary for Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, premier of Queensland and the closest thing to an actual fascist dictator this country has ever known.
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[19 December 2024] In this episode Stilkgherrian talks about his recent injuries and related hospital visits, the history of those hospitals, content warnings, dildos in Texas, and some old anti-vaxxers. Then photos are down the bottom of the page.
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Brian Toohey was a columnist with the Australian Financial Review who has also written for The Nikkei Asia Review, The West Australian, The Sunday Age and other publications. He was editor of The National Times and a Canberra and Washington correspondent for AFR. He is the author or co-author of four books: "Oyster: The Story of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service"; "Tumbling Dice: The Story of Modern Economic Policy"; "The Book of Leaks" and "The Winchester Scandal". Among other subjects, he has written extensively about national security policy since 1973.
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The Nepal Peace Pagoda in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, is located at the transformed Brisbane World Expo '88 site, South Bank Parklands. It is one of the most significant heritage items in Brisbane from the hosting of the Expo. It is the only international exhibit remaining on the site.
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The Apple Vision Pro is a mixed-reality headset developed by Apple. It was announced on June 5, 2023, at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. Pre-orders began on January 19, 2024, and became available for purchase on February 2, 2024, in the United States.
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Marc Lowell Andreessen (/æn?dri?s?n/ AN-dree-sen; born July 9, 1971) is an American businessman and former software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser with a graphical user interface; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
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From 2014 until 2024, Apple undertook a research and development effort to develop an electric and self-driving car, codenamed "Project Titan". Apple never openly discussed any of its automotive research, but around 5,000 employees were reported to be working on the project as of 2018.
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[14 February 2025] Another tale from this tech-driven hell we're living in: A coworker who was evacuated from his home because of the fires last month is living in a short-term rental until he and his family can move home. The rental has only digital door locks with a touch screen for entering your pin number. He's been locked out of his rental house in the rain for a half hour because the touch screen of the digital door lock is wet from the rain and ignoring his touches. There is no physical key for unlocking the doors. You can only open them electronically -- with electronics that don't work in the rain.
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The Axis of Time trilogy is an alternative history series of novels written by Australian journalist and author John Birmingham, from Macmillan Publishing.
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CONVERSATION TOPICS: Andrew Best, Gay Rainbow Anarchist, Paul McElwee, and two people who choose to remain anonymous.
THREE TRIGGER WORDS: Bernard Walsh, Joanna Forbes, kofeyh, Mark Newton, Paul Williams, and two people who choose to remain anonymous.
WE WILL, WE WILL JUDGE YOU: David Porteous, John Lindsay, Peter Wickins, and Trent Yarwood. This is one of the two new rewards for the Untitled Music Podcast with Snarky Platypus, two pilot episodes of which we’ll produce in January. Send us your three-song playlist and we’ll play a bit of each one and judge your taste.
ONE TRIGGER WORD: Andrew Kennedy, Andrew M, Bic Smith, Bruce Hardie, Frank Filippone, Joop de Wit, Kit Biggs, Mark Newton, Michael, Michael Cowley, Mindy Johnson, Miriam Faye, Nicole Coombe, Oliver Townshend, Peter Blakeley, Peter McCrudden, Ric Hayman, Rohan Pearce, Shane Perris, Tom Carding, Tom Carding again, and one person who chooses to remain anonymous.
RECOMMEND A SONG TO US: Kimberley Heitman and Rhydwyn. This is the other new reward linked to the Untitled Music Podcast. In 25 words or less tell us why we should like a song and we’ll play it and tell you what we think.
PERSONALISED VIDEO MESSAGE: kofeyh.
PERSONALISED AUDIO MESSAGE: Ben Harris-Roxas, Matthew Tayloe, Michael Harris, and two people who choose to remain anonymous.
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Series Credits
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