Big Brain Channel

Knifemaking is a special interest of David's, as a collector of fine handmade knives, he is especially interested in the tactile qualities of a well-made knife. Our guest Karim Haddad heads one of Australia's most creative and constructive workshops, Tharwa Valley Forge . The intricacies and details of the knifemaking world make it one deep hobby to get into and give plenty of options for collecto...

In this episode of STRATEGIKON, we examine the ongoings in Belarus and the likely fate of Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko. Also up for discussion, changes to European security caused by the recent decision of President Trump to relocate US forces from Germany to Poland. And finally, Europe’s southeast in the Eastern Mediterranean, tensions rise between NATO members and long-time reg...

Social media sometimes gets a bad rap; well, what if we used it more constructively? Chloe Grayling is the perfect example of using social media constructively and positively, as a means of enhancing her own life and the lives of others. David and Tim talk to Chloe (@lovechloejane) about her work as an influencer and as a consultant with small businesses to uncover methods of improving social medi...

Stephanie Kelton, professor of economics and public policy at Stony Brook University and Author of The Deficit Myth , Joins Tim and David to discuss her new book, globally rising unemployment rates, and the misconceptions of trade wars. These typically dry issues are explained with such elegance and passion that they feel imminently relevant and fascinating, which they truly are. This episode of B...

Plato's "The Republic" calls for rulers who are wise, intelligent, and humble in their lifestyle, where philosophers are kings. The question is, would you vote for us as Philosopher kings? Would we vote for us? Our society as advanced as it is, and for all the good we have by comparison to even recent history, is dissatisfactory to all of us in many ways. What would you do if you had the power to...

The Adelaide Show is a fantastic podcast covering the fantastic culture, arts, food, and history of Adelaide, our home town! David's appearances on the podcast instigated Nigel and Steve's appearance on ours. So where should we house these kings of Adelaide Culture? Perhaps the best Cafe in Adelaide, Fare and Square , where nice food and amazing wines were had over our discussion, including offeri...

It is a scary world out there in the cyber-universe, and while we have covered many of the public sector concerns from a political level, what are the threats facing every Australian from citizens to business owners? Cynch Security is a cybersecurity service for small business, and are at the forefront of the cyber-fitness, or indeed, lack thereof in the Australian community. Joining John, David,...

David and Tim have a beloved guest explaining her Quadrant Theory of choosing a life partner, that's right, Jess Freund is back! It is difficult to make a very hefty decision in today's world where we are given more choice, and more change is necessary over the course of our lives, perhaps life partners are the biggest commitments we make. Given the enormity of such a decision, our only guides can...

David is an avid reader of the very active author of both fiction and non-fiction military books, Damien Lewis . His works have been hailed as some of the most important books in uncovering secrets and insights to the special forces throughout history. Damien has reported from many war and conflict zones prior to becoming an incredibly well-established author who has accessed some pretty incredibl...

If you're making the effort to listen to this podcast, you're a learner, so reading and absorbing information should come naturally to you, right? Well, it doesn't for Tim and David, not conventionally, but David still reads a lot of books and Tim could stand to read a few more. In the 21st century books are dying out and maybe there's something lost in that, but what is a curious person to do wit...

Blind drunk is back! Available wherever you drink and pod. A short announcement to tell listeners that blind drunk is back on track and helping bring back the conviviality of drinking post-lockdown. https://omny.fm/shows/blind-insights/blind-drunk-marijuana-mahouts-and-motivation-with See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Drinking whatever was in the COVID cabinet, David and Tim are joined with honourary Blind ___ host Peter Thomson to discuss a variety of matters pertaining to the lockdown experience without actually addressing the Novel Corona Virus for at least an hour... This is kickstart back into the Blind Drunk tradition of intending to talk sh*t and ending up discussing very deep and meaningful things, such...

Have you seen Blade Runner, Terminator, Altered Carbon, Gattaca, Robocop, or Ironman? These are fun movies but even better thought-experiments that delve into the dark world of transhumanism. Between uploading your consciousness to another body or computer, to altering your body to contain computers or robotics within it, the technological possibilities are putting into question what being human r...

Part 2 of a two-part discussion: On June 19th Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Australia announced that many public services were experiencing a hack from a 'state player' without giving any details as to who it may have been behind the attack. With many commentators speculating that China may be behind the attack and with their history of these tactics of information gathering it is a very real...

Money is an object we all use and yet is something many of us do not fully understand. Blind Insights has had many guests to explain the function of money in modern currency sovereign nations over the past year and this is fresh perspective that adds to the work of the many enlightened economists who have appeared on the show. David and Tim have some very general questions to ask Warren Mosler, a...

Sean, Alex and Amy take almost a third of the episode to get to the point. Which is kind of the point. This week they're discussing the fine art of procrastination: procrastishopping, procrastibaking, Wikisurfing, how not to follow a recipe, stealing other people's nostalgia, and how great Frank Langella's eye performance is in the 80s classic Masters of the Universe.  Sean is outraged by Ale...

Part 1 of a two part discussion: On June 19th Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Australia announced that many public services were experiencing a hack from a 'state player' without giving any details as to who it may have been behind the attack. With many commentators speculating that China may be behind the attack and with their history of these tactics of information gathering it is a very real...

A recent episode of The Mikhaila Peterson Podcast has inspired David to discuss the human side of self-help and the dangers of devoting life learnings to one source. Peterson himself will admit that he is not the source of all knowledge, and in this case isn't qualified to prescribe drugs, so it comes as no surprise that during the chaos of his life that he was prescribed with a hell of a drug cal...

This week Alex, Amy and Sean interview their colleague Dr Lisa Bennett/Lisa L Hannett about her eerily beautiful dark fantasy fiction, her first draft agonies and second draft ecstasies, and her obsession with writing on trains. Turtles and tableaux, fine art and flying flips, Canadians, Scandinavians, and hillbillies from the Deep South - what more can you ask for? Writing talk? Oh yeah, we've go...

This episode of Blind Insights discusses the masterful book that touts being part biography and part political and economic commentary by Zach D. Carter , a reporter at the Huffington Post in the US. "The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes" is a fantastic read for anyone, no economics interest or understanding required. Though the book tells a riveting story abou...

Will Sean ever achieve his life's ambition of getting his work on the banned book list? Will Amy give in and write a book without rude bits? Will Alex stop slandering salamanders already! Or will they just ignore all the critics and push on, puritans, prudes and salamanders be damned! This week, the Word Docs discuss criticism: the good, the bad, and the medium. We'll be exposing all our scars and...

In this episode of Blind Insights, David and Tim are joined by James Nestor, author of Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and what the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves David has been fascinated by James Nestor's work in a part science, part anthropology, part philosophy, and utter genius book that is a fantastic social commentary and looks into the fascinating sport of freediving. The book draws on...

Whether you're opposed to phrases like the 'new normal', or you're optimistic about how the world will look after COVID-19, the world is going to be very different, at least for a while. Of particular interest is the shifting in tensions in the strategy and international relations world, which has been affected perhaps more than any other academic field as borders are closed and blame is thrown fo...

They always say you should kill your darlings...but have Amy, Alex and Sean taken this too literally? Tune in as the Word Docs discuss all the (fictional) people they've murdered. From mythological creatures to wagon trains, hellish high schools to doppelgängers, it's an intergalactic bloodbath. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Inspired by Timothy Wilson's Social Science experiment involving a voluntary 15 minutes of boredom in a plain room or an electric shock, a 'shocking' amount of people, especially men, chose the pain option over sitting with their thoughts for a short time. With the many possible causes and implications of these findings, David and Tim just had to talk about it and consider the dangers of distracti...