Beyond Infinity

Welcome back to Beyond Infinity. It's been a while. Today Piers discusses latest space news from Jupiter, the Moon and Mars. NASA admits it can't afford the high cost of returning the Perseverence rover's precious Mars sample tubes to Earth and is looking for help from space privateers. And SpaceX continues to develop the world's most powerful launch vehicle Starship, with a view to colonising Mar...

A wide-ranging conversation about Dan Andrews life, personality, socialist left politics and the repercussions. Does he deserve hatred or grudging respect? Geoff Wells, a medical specialist who repeatedly warned about brutal and misguided lockdowns during covid, offers insights. We talk golf, medical science, Victoria's economy and the world's response to the pandemic.

In a fiery appearance at the DealBook Summit in New York City, Elon Musk unloaded on Disney CEO Bob Iger. Musk insisted he would not be 'blackmailed' and that Iger should 'GFY' over his advertising boycott of X. We consider what's at stake for the mercurial Musk and the potential fallout for his other businesses.

Piers and John Mac chew the fat, again. Why such heated controversy around the esteemed former Victorian State Premier Dan Andrews joining a couple of Mornington Peninsula golf clubs? Can't a man just relax and enjoy his hard-earned, early retirement in peace? (If you like this stuff, there's PLENTY more at beyondinfinity.com.au)

Exorbitant prices, high interest rates and lack of housing stock mean many young people will never own their own home in Australia. And with 1% or less rental vacancy and record immigration, people are struggling to get any kind of a roof over their heads. Yet governments seem powerless to help, even as banks say lending rules are too tight and make many potential borrowers ineligible for mortgage...

Piers and veteran radio presenter John McCormack discuss Australia's recent referendum on the Voice to Parliament. Passing referenda is historically and technically difficult: only 8 out of 45 attempts to amend the Constitution have succeeded since Federation in 1901 and they require support from a majority of people in a majority of states. Yet there were high hopes, especially among Aboriginals...

Mature (?) social media goes subscription-based; Twitter's blue tick of approval; Reddit's unpopular IPO; TickTock gains ground - forcing change on incumbents; Renting options on new cars. Piers and Brad show their age.

Piers and bee activist Simon Mulvany chat about the politicisation of the debate around so-called climate change, with its fear mongering and manipulation by vested interests. Is 'pollution' a better term to use than 'climate change'? We consider how important it is for Australia to transition carefully to renewables, without causing peak load blackouts and vast economic damage. We discuss how sci...

With the referendum to alter Australia's Constitution set for Saturday, 14 October 2023, people will vote yes or no on a single question about the establishment of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Yet the devil is in the detail and the challenge for the government and other proponents remains to explain just how the new law will work in practice. Piers sat down recently with Brad Ma...

Piers reconnects with mathematician Dr Ian Storey and pro investor Guy West over a glass of wine to update listeners on artificial intelligence's effects on markets and investing in AI. Are we seeing the start of an AI bubble, more about hype than a real threat to humanity? We discuss how hedge funds use machine learning and the need to regulate AI. We marvel at AI's astonishing mastery of languag...

Longest cumulative lockdowns on the planet, declining mental health, record state debt, economic damage, new taxes and levies and now the loss of the Commonwealth Games. Melbourne continues to endure tough times. Piers sits down with Brad Mackenzie to ponder the question: are Melburnians scarred from their collective experiences since early in 2020 when a global pandemic was declared?

Piers sits down with beekeeper activist Simon Mulvany to discuss the spread of a parasite killing honey bees in New South Wales. Simon explains how the varroa mite entered Australia, the only country in the world that was varroa-free until recently. He outlines the enormous damage the mite causes to wild and commercial bee populations and its threat to primary industries. Simon is opposed to the u...

Piers is joined by Dr. Ian Storey, lecturer in information systems at Torrens University, for a chat about the many and varied effects of artificial intelligence on almost every aspect of human life. From AI-powered battle drones and deep fake voice cloning for ransoms through to plagiarism, provenance of online images and manipulating elections, we are on the cusp of a revolution akin to the inve...

Despite its spectacular 'rapid unscheduled disassembly' four minutes into its flight, the maiden voyage of SpaceX's monster super heavy lift rocket is considered a successful failure. SpaceX say they will learn from their mistakes and try again in a matter of months. And if they succeed, they will have a vehicle far more powerful than the Saturn V moon rocket of the Apollo era, with the distinct a...

Piers sits down with Brad Mckenzie to discuss whether Russia should be banned from the Paris Olympic Games in 2024. We look at the long history of politics' involvement in sport - from Jessie Owens at the Berlin Games of 1936 through to the World Cup in Qatar and the Australian Tennis Open. For all the anguish over mixing politics and sport, sport seems to win out anyway. Please check out our enti...

Welcome to the latest episode of Beyond Infinity and our first for 2023. We discuss how Unmanned Aerial Vehicle technology is re-shaping the battlefield and beyond. We dive into the exciting world of drones and how they will revolutionize space exploration - like on Mars with the Ingenuity helicopter, which has just completed its 40th ground breaking autonomous flight. Join us as we explore the fu...

A retrospective on the year's podcasts: how bee-keeping works; extreme weather hits eastern Australia; covid dwindles yet lingers as other biohazards emerge; Elon Musk's Twitter fiascos; the Multiverse; the mega hacks of Optus and Medibank. 2022 was supposed to mark an inflection point in history - with the rise of China, war in Ukraine and a climate emergency, but did we really 'inflect'?

The world's most successful entrepreneur now owns what he hopes will be Earth's digital town square, but he faces stiff head winds. He paid a very high price for the business at the top of the market, seems to have pissed off many employees, including senior management, as well as raised doubts among key advertisers. He's made his presence felt through mass sackings, a ban on working from home, a...

The Premier looks like winning another four years in office, despite what many see as his disastrous and incompetent mishandling of the pandemic. First, there was Melbourne's hotel quarantine fiasco, then problems with contact tracing and hundreds of preventable aged care deaths. There followed the longest cumulative lockdown of any city on Earth - 267 days - with devastating effects on mental hea...

A massive cyber attack threatens the private data of 9.8 million current and former Optus customers. Authorities are being forced to reissue drivers licenses and passports, while the Federal Government promises regulatory reforms with stiff telco penalties for future breaches.

Better to recycle waste water and reduce ocean outfall or rely on energy-hungry desalination plants? In the lead up to the Victorian state election, a petition on change.org calls for a $60 million upgrade to the Eastern Treatment Plant to remove all contaminants from wastewater currently discharged near Gunnamatta on the Mornington Peninsula, south of Melbourne. The Clean Ocean Foundation claims...

Bee keeping activist Simon Mulvany explains the problem of varroa mites for bees; how the pest entered Australia and what's being done to control it, including the controversial use of fipronil insecticide. We broaden the conversation to include other biohazards, like foot and mouth disease in Indonesia, the reemergence of drug-resistant polio, monkey pox and covid-19.

It's theorised that birds use quantum effects to navigate with help from the Earth's magnetic field. And how do massive flocks move as clouds in such exquisite and controlled close proximity? Inspired by the movie 'Everything Everywhere All At Once', mathematician and lecturer in information systems Dr. Ian Storey outlines the two main theories of QM - the Copenhagen interpretation and the multive...

Musk's dream to make humanity a multi-planetary species. The frenetic pace of development at Starbase, his private rocket production facility, test site and spaceport in Texas. Success of Starlink in Ukraine annoys Russia. Musk defies the critics and weathers plenty of bets (and threats) against him, including shorting Tesla. Piers is joined by activist influencer Simon Mulvany. Part 2 of a 2 part...

A look at the world's wealthiest individual and his delayed takeover of the loss-making microblogging service. His battles with Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter shareholders and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Why would Musk want control? Piers is joined by activist influencer Simon Mulvany. Part 1 of a 2 part interview.