Future Perfect

 Kae Tempest is a person of deep feeling, with a rare ability to channel life's beauty, pain, and mysteries into moving works of art. From his roots as an MC and spoken word artist on the London scene, he rose to critical acclaim in 2013 by winning the coveted Ted Hughes Prize for Poetry for the work Brand New Ancients . The following year, he was named the Next Generation Poet by the Poetry Book...

In late 2023, Antoinette Lattouf had a five day contract to host the mornings program on ABC radio Sydney. It’d normally be a light and breezy week of broadcasting in the pre-Christmas wind down. Instead, it became the central flashpoint in a legal saga – when she was taken off air by management two days early, after reposting a Human Rights Watch report about Israel’s use of starvation as a weapo...

Francesca Albanese is a human rights expert, legal scholar, and one of the world's most significant voices on Palestinian struggle. As the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, she has spent years documenting what she and others, including the International Court of Justice, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International have described as genocide. This has made...

Louis Theroux's new Netflix documentary Inside the Manosphere has refocused public attention on how toxic masculinity is incubated online. But what whappens when these often violent, sexist attitudes towards women and girls enter the schoolyard? Dr Stephanie Wescott is a lecturer at Monash University who researches how manosphere figures like Andrew Tate influence gender attitudes in schools. Her...

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia written collaboratively by volunteers across the world, has grown to become one of the most visited sites on the internet. Dylan Bird is joined by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales to reflect on the origins of the website, how a radical idea of crowd-sourcing knowledge worked, toxicity on the internet, and what lessons we can draw from Wikipedia in countering divisio...

Yanis Varoufakis is an economist and former Greek finance minister. He’s also a best-selling author of titles including Talking to My Daughter: A Brief History of Capitalism , Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism , and his latest: Raise Your Soul: A Personal History of Resistance . During his recent visit to Australia, Yanis sat down with Dylan Bird in the Triple R studios to share his thoughts...

On this year’s final episode of Future Perfect, Dylan is joined by David Manne, Executive Director of Refugee Legal, to explore the federal government's new suite of measures cracking down on refugees and asylum seekers. (1:06) Dr Jordana Silverstein, Senior Research Fellow in the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness at The University of Melbourne, gives an overview of her new podcast Being Stat...

Content warning: this episode contains discussion of gendered violence. If you find any of this distressing, you can seek support via 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732. Dylan is joined by Dr Stephanie Wescott, Lecturer in the School of Education, Culture and Society at Monash University, to discuss the interventions that could address young men and boys being susceptible to the manosphere and its ties t...

Dylan is joined by Jeff Sparrow to walk us through what Donald Trump’s election win could mean for politics in Australia. (1:02) Psychologist, author and educator Dr Chris Cheers chats all things loneliness ahead of his appearance at the in-conversation event Solving Loneliness Together at Federation Square in Melbourne on November 20. (19:04) Lisa Given, Professor of Information Sciences and Dire...

Dylan is joined by Cam Walker, campaigns coordinator at Friends of the Earth, to unpack what the re-election of Donald Trump could mean for global climate and environmental policy amid the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference. (0:56) Clinton Fernandes, Professor of International and Political Studies at the University of New South Wales, takes us through the geopolitical implications of...

Dylan is joined by Dave Nichols, Professor of Urban Planning at the University of Melbourne, to dive into the history of The Age after the newspaper marked 170 years of publication, and pay tribute to Melbourne musician Ollie Olsen following his recent passing. (1:07) Journalist Antony Loewenstein unpacks his new podcast series The Palestine Laboratory , based on his 2023 book of the same name tha...

Dylan is joined by Benita Kolovos, Victorian state correspondent for Guardian Australia, to bring us up to date on what’s going on in the race for Melbourne’s next Lord Mayor ahead of the Melbourne City Council election this month, and the current leadership tension within the Victorian Liberal Party. (1:03) Lawyer and author Josh Bornstein visits to discuss his new book Working for the Brand whic...

Dylan is joined by Paul Strangio, Emeritus Professor of Politics at Monash University, to discuss Anthony Albanese’s Prime Ministership and the key issues ahead of early next year’s election. (0:57) Writer, Triple R broadcaster and Yorta Yorta man Daniel James visits to unpack his recent piece for The Monthly that covered his visit to Alice Springs and the social issues and government failures fac...

Dylan is joined by Cam Walker, campaigns coordinator at Friends of the Earth, to talk through the decommissioning of aging oil and gas infrastructure in the Bass Strait and ahead of a Victorian Parliamentary inquiry, and the impact of the upcoming US election on global climate action. (0:59) Rebecca Johnston Ryan, Director and Principal Lawyer of Night Service at Fitzroy Legal Service, drops by to...

Dylan is joined by American author and political analyst Thomas Frank to break down what we can expect in the lead-up to the US election, and what he experienced attending the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. (0:57) Psychiatrist and author Dr Mark Cross unpacks his new book  Mental State , outlining a range of systemic problems in how we currently treat and manage mental ill health...

Guest host Ben Harrington is joined by Dr Karinna Saxby, Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, to make sense of the recent controversy around the federal government’s original move not to include questions about gender diversity and sexual orientation in the 2026 census, and why having this data on a national scale is so important. (1:01) Nicole Gurran, Professor of Urban and Regional Pl...

Content warning: this episode contains discussion of sexual assault and violence. If you find any of this distressing, you can seek support via 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732 and the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491. Dylan is joined by author and food journalist Dani Valent to take a further look at the issues tackled in her new piece for The Age , which shines a light on sexual abuse and assa...

Dylan is joined by Charles Livingstone, Associate Professor at Monash University and gambling reform expert, to discuss the federal government’s imminent response to the parliamentary inquiry into online gambling and why a partial ban won’t work. (1:05) Ika Trijsburg, Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, unpacks how cities can help to address disinformation and prevent discrimation in l...

Dylan is joined by Laura Davy, social policy expert and lecturer at ANU, to dig into the federal government’s response to the Disability Royal Commission, and its acceptance in full of just 13 out of the report’s 172 recommendations for which it has responsibility. (0:51) Amelia Leavesley, Researcher at the University of Melbourne, visits to break down the ongoing investigation into the role ‘Big...

Dylan is joined by Jana Favero, Head of Systemic Change at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, and former Nauru detainee Betelhem Tibedu, to explore the health crisis in Australia’s offshore detention camps in PNG and Nauru, as highlighted in the ASRC’s  new report . (0:56) Matt Byrne, Politics Lead at the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, visits to discuss the threat that AI poses to journ...

On this special bonus episode of Future Perfect, former Breakfaster Jeff Sparrow and cartoonist Sam Wallman join Dylan for an RRR In Conversation event from Triple R's Performance Space, to discuss the release of their new comic-book guide 12 Rules for Strife . You can check out a preview gallery of 12 Rules For Strife here: https://www.rrr.org.au/explore/news-articles/preview-gallery-12-rules-for...

Content warning: this episode contains discussion of sexual assault and violence. If you find any of this distressing, you can seek support via 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 and the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491. Dylan is joined by Mark Willacy, journalist and reporter for ABC Investigations, to take us inside Retribution , his 2-part series for Four Corners on what a second Trump presidenc...

Dylan is joined by David Mejia-Canales, Senior Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, to break down his new report ‘ Protest in Peril ’, which looks at anti-protest trends across various jurisdictions in Australia. (1:11) Juanita Sherwood, Professor in Indigenous Policy at the University of Technology Sydney, discusses the snap curfews recently imposed to curb youth violence in Alice Springs, and...

Dylan is joined by Ben Wellings, Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations at Monash University, to dig into France’s political future following the leftist coalition beating out Marine Le Pen’s far-right party in the country’s parliamentary election. (1:14) Clare Corbould, Associate Professor of History at Deakin University, discusses the uncertain path ahead in US politics amid...

Guest host Ben Harrington is joined by Sam Whiting, lecturer in Creative Industries at the University of South Australia, to discuss the financial crisis facing Australian musicians and the live music sector, and the role Triple J and commercial radio has to play in it all. (1:09) Tricia Malowney, Chief Accessibility Advocate at the Department of Transport and Planning, talks all things public tra...