MaxMarten Chats

Trump, Saudi Money and the Selling of Adelaide What do Donald Trump, Saudi sovereign wealth, LIV Golf, and the destruction of Adelaide’s public parklands have in common? According to Max Marten, far more than most people are willing to admit. In this explosive episode of Max Marten Chats , Max pulls apart the political spectacle surrounding LIV Golf, the South Australian Government’s obsession wit...

Was Donald Trump ever really “pro-Russia”? Or is the truth far darker and far more ordinary? In this explosive episode of Max Marten Chats , Latvian/Australian commentator Max Marten examines the long shadow cast by Russian money, post-Soviet oligarch networks, NATO instability and Donald Trump’s decades-long financial entanglements. Drawing on Eastern European historical memory, Cold War legacy,...

What happens when a nation boos a welcome? In this provocative episode of Max Marten Chats , Latvian-Australian author and commentator Max Marten explores the controversy around Welcome to Country ceremonies, Anzac Day booing, Indigenous recognition, multicultural identity, nationalism and the deeper crisis facing plural democracies. But this episode goes far beyond Australia. Drawing on personal...

What happens when the political left starts sounding like the conspiracy machine it claims to oppose? In this explosive episode of Max Marten Chats , Max takes aim at the growing reflex to label every act of political violence a psy-op , false flag , or staged event without evidence — and argues that this habit is not resistance, but self-sabotage. Using the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shoo...

Polonium. Novichok. Now epibatidine. As Europe marks four years of war in Ukraine, explosive claims about Alexei Navalny’s death raise a darker question: Is conspicuous poison part of Russia’s playbook? Four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Europe marks an anniversary defined by trench warfare, drone strikes and geopolitical stalemate. But while the world focuses on the battlef...

#TRUMPzwela has just happened, Max will watch for a few days and then weigh in. for now there's No Peace on Offer: Ukraine, Russia, and the Lie of Negotiated Peace In this episode of Max Marten Chats , Max examines why peace talks with Russia so often fail, and why the idea that the war in Ukraine can be ended by compromise alone is not just wrong, but dangerous. Drawing on history, doctrine, and...

When the World Stole a Survival Song We like to pretend art is harmless. Decorative. Seasonal. Something to hum while shopping or to soundtrack a family movie night. That illusion collapses the moment you understand where Shchedryk came from. In this episode of Max Marten Chats , Max dismantles the comforting myth surrounding Carol of the Bells and exposes it for what it really is: a Ukrainian sur...

In this episode of Max Marten Chats , journalist and commentator Max Marten examines how silence operates as the oldest and most effective form of corruption in Australia, with a particular focus on South Australia’s history of institutional failure, unsolved crimes, and suppressed accountability. From unanswered criminal cases to political and policing systems that reward discretion over truth, t...

This wasn’t meant to be Episode One. But Bondi happened, and when events rupture public life, you don’t stick to a run sheet. You respond. In the launch episode of Max Marten Chats , Max Marten examines the Bondi attack through a disciplined fusion of credible left- and right-leaning media coverage, cutting through slogans, panic, and political avoidance to ask the question Australia keeps dodging...