Think Again

Jennifer talks with Dr Nick Riemer from the University of Sydney about the new definition of antisemitism proposed by Universities Australia for use on Australian campuses. This definition was developed in reaction to pro-Palestine protests against the actions of the State of Israel, to stymie open and scholarly debate. ReferencesJumana Bayeh 2025, Silencing Palestine: Universities Australia and t...

Jacques talks again with Suzan Saka from the Alevi Foundation of Australia about the dire situation of Alevi people in current Turkiye and surrounding countries. Suzan begins by giving some background about the Alevi culture, and the substantial presence of Alevi people in Australia. She then details the hardships and prosecutions they suffer in Syria, Iraq and their Anatolian homeland in Turkiye....

Jacques talks with Mike Salvaris, Director of the Australian National Development Index (ANDI). While our governments and political leaders focus on narrow economic indicators (like GDP) of 'progress' and  how well a country and its population are doing, various attempts have been made to capture more meaningful social, cultural and personal aspects of people's lives since the 1960s. Mike Salvaris...

Mark Zirnsak from the Tax Justice Network Australia talks with Jennifer about the recent federal government budget, handed down just before an election on the 3rd of May. While the budget has some positives such as boosts to Medicare, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and fair funding for schools, it doesn't address the fundamental inequity of our tax system. It would take a braver approach to a...

Jennifer and Jacques continue their reflections on the latest events in the US, clearly demonstrating a new Authoritarianism that shouldn't be ignored. They talk about the implications for Australia as well as people in the US, the selective silence of our leaders, and how the new wave of Trumpist Authoritarianism is reported across our media. Lastly they make a call to be both alert and active. R...

Jennifer and Jacques reflect on recent world trends toward Authoritarianism, and what we need to take good notice of. Quoting Henry Giroux, they argue that our task is to refuse the limits imposed by neoliberal fatalism and authoritarian rule - but not only to resist but to widen the horizon of the possible. Henry Giroux (19/02/2025) Neoliberalism's Embrace of Cruelty and its Assault on Social Bon...

Jacques and Jennifer talk about the recent roller coaster of international events, led by US President Trump. Chief among these are the incredible public shouting match between the US Trump-Vance duo and Ukrainian Presient Zelensky, and Trump's idea for the Palestinians to evacuate Gaza permanently giving up their land for a high-priced seaside resort. Overall, the US has dropped its mask of benev...

For this episode Jennifer interviews Jacques about the results of the latest German election, with surpises including a worrying boost for right wing racist party AfD, but also, more hopefully, for left wing progressive party Die Linke. Jacques talks about trends in German politics from WW2, to give some context for latest voting results. He finishes with some linking this to international trends....

Teachers are key agents of changes and improvements in their classrooms. Yet spaces and opportunities for teachers, and others in the human services, to have control over their working lives and professional learning, have drastically diminished. Janette and Mary talk to Marie about their project to address this, by supporting teachers' reflection and self-directed learning and improvement. The ev...

Jacques and Jennifer talk about some of the unravellings happening in our society, with reactionary forces being unleashed in the US and rippling into Australian politics. The unravelling of Australian society Allan PatienceAmid President Donald Trump’s rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion programs throughout government and the Defense Department declaring “identity months dead,” concern gr...

Jacques interviews Josh Bornstein about his new book: Working for the brand: How corporations are destroying free speech.  (2024 - Scribe Publishers)Josh explains how corporations are exercising unprecedented power over what we say, in a way that we wouldn't accept from our governments. He offers examples of lots of large corporations including Qantas and our universities...Other books recently ap...

Jacques and Jennifer continue their exploration of possible and probable political developments in 2025, started the previous week. They include some 'highlights' (or low lights) from current events, and touch on how we need to change direction.

Jacques and Jennifer discuss unfolding developments internationally and what we might expect in 2025, especially relating to the US-centred vortex, a vortex that has been smouldering since the early-1800shttps://johnmenadue.com/jeffrey-sachs-and-joanna-lei-on-taiwan-and-us-china-conflict/https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/200-years-of-the-monroe-doctrine?utm_source=Common+Dreams&utm_campaign=d1a...

Jennifer and Jacques cover the latest events in the Middle East, with Israel's expansionism and its opportunistic bombing of Syria. They comment on the one-sided local response in the media and by our politicians, evidently cowardly responding to a strident Zionist lobby and to the demands of Australia's hegemonic 'biggest friend' the US.References:https://johnmenadue.com/how-the-us-and-israel-des...

Looking back over an almost 40 years-long academic career, moving from Melbourne (Melbourne and Monash Universities) to the UK in 2016 (Bath University) and since 2022 in Germany, as Chair of the University of Cologne Research Hub for Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities, Kate Rigby talks with Jacques about the evolution of her endeavours to integrate our ways and means of bei...

Jennifer and Jacques talk about how we have taken on the administration burden once carried by government bodies and companies, including utilities, services and financial institutions. After all, we already pay for those utilities and services but are now required to 'manage' them ourselves... and spending hours at doing it being punished when we don't... This trend is being accelerated with new...

Lew Zipin and Jacques have a conversation about the variety of politcal and economic and personal 'troubles' we experience presently and how a different more active, reflective and engaged approach to schooling and education more generally would assist innot only dealing with them but better prepare 'us' for changing the conditions under which those troubles arise...Below a full list of suggestion...

Jacques and Jennifer do some post-Trump analysis, looking at how Trump's victory in the US elections could even happen. They argue that the rot has been there for centuries, with an individualist ideology embedded in the psyche of the people from the US's inception. Conditions have ripened for the triumph of a cult figure like Trump in more recent times, including a poorly educated populace, strug...

Andy Schmulow, Associate Professor in the School of Law at the University of Wollongong, talks about the deliberate tax evasion strategies of mega rich corporations, robbing the public purse of much-needed billions of dollars. Meanwhile the Australia Tax Office (ATO) takes a softly softly approach to bringing these corporations to heel. In fact, Andy believes the ATO's approach could actually be e...

Ben Rivers talks about the play he wrote and performs, 'The invaders' fear of memories: A play about the colonisation of Palestine'.The play is based on the diaries of his great-grandfather, Yousef Nachmani, who fled Tsarist Russia in 1907 for Ottoman Palestine. Full of Zionist ideals, he became complicit in the displacement of thousands of Palestinian people. Ben's father (Yousef's grandson) beca...

Jacques' guest, Suzan Saka, talks about the fascinating history and rich culture of the Alevi people, and their substantial presence in Australia. We wonder why we don't hear more about them! For those who want to learn more and have a good day out, there is an Anatolian Alevi Festival at Coburg Lake Reserve (metropolitan Melbourne) Sunday 17 November from 11am. You can also learn more about the A...

Jacques and Jennifer ruminate on the state of politics in Australia and the role of independents in disrupting the dominant duopoly of Labor and Coalition. They talk about how community development fits in with this, and they hark back to their very first program on relationality - the idea that we exist and thrive within a living network of relationships. This certainly explains a lot of the succ...

Jacques and Jennifer talk about Israel's denial of its genocidal onslaughts on the Palestinian people and the different ways it seeks to mask the truth in strategies of 'occlusion'.Examples include the planting of forests over 'emptied out' Palestinian villages in a mass exercise of 'green washing', the building of a 'Museum of Tolerance' on the site of the largest and most important Muslim cemete...

Jennifer and Jacques continue their conversation about the Australian political system as we approach municipal and state elections at the end of this month, and a federal election before May 2025.Our two-party system comes under fire, especially the unrepresentative nature of the two main parties, and their use of power to keep out other players. Jacques and Jennifer also express their disappoint...

Jennifer and Jacques discuss the dominance and convergence of the two main parties, and how neither are able or willing to make the substantial changes we so badly need. They give a potted history of bold reformist Labor policies of the past, and they contrast this with the current timid and skittish federal Labor Party, currently in government.