The 9pm Edict

It's all about artificial intelligence as the spring series continues with one of the leaders in the field, Scientia Professor Toby Walsh, chief scientist at the UNSW AI Institute. We talk about the potential for AI to become an existential threat to humanity, where you would or wouldn't want a human-shaped robot, whether AI constructs should be labelled as such, the ethics of feeding copies of bo...

Stilgherrian returns after a three-month break to kick off a six-episode spring series of The 9pm Edict podcast. In this solo episode he's somewhat reflective, but hey he thinks you'll still like it. We talk about the nature of Time, cheese, ageing, railway ticketing, Naomi Wolf, PTSD, bestiality, and death. Full podcast details and credits at: https://the9pmedict.com/edict/00200/ Please support t...

Stilgherrian is joined by Snarky Platypus, who's recently returned to the socials after a two-year break, for a long conversation about everything from food to conspiracy theories to stupid names for Sydney suburbs. Quite a lot about food, actually. In this episode we talk about Singapore's famous Merlion, airline food and other airline opinions, Sydney nightlife, dodgy Australian rice recipes fro...

The pilot episode of potential weekly podcast of news and opinion about Elon Musk, the world's most annoying billionaire. I'm currently surveying my podcast listeners to find out what you'd prefer listening to. Please go to The 9pm Quick Survey 2: Whaddyawant? before 30 June 2023. https://the9pmedict.com/thesurvey Full podcast details and credits at: https://the9pmedict.com/edict/rws0 Stock media...

Stilgherrian returns with a solo episode of the Edict in which he has quite a long rant about some of the changes at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. But there's more. In this episode he also talk about Nazis, flat earthers, Republicans, Rishi Sunak, the Metaverse, gas stoves, Boris Johnson, Tony the Tiger, and demanding meat at gunpoint. I'm currently surveying my podcast listeners to fin...

Google’s Pixel 7a is here (as is Google I/O), but is the Pixel 7a a worthwhile phone? How is Australia's Federal budget fighting scammers and cybercrime? Are blue skies already turning grey at Bluesky Social? I was on this week's Vertical Hold: Behind The Tech News and this is an updated version. "Australian technology news podcast Vertical Hold dives into the big stories of the week. Joined by Au...

In the first Pubic House Forum episode of the The 9pm Edict since 2018, I was joined by Sydney Morning Herald cartoonist Cathy Wilcox and satirist Mark Humphries at Sydney's Royal Exhibition Hotel in Surry Hills with an enthusiastic live audience. There's also a video version of this episode on YouTube . In this episode we begin with our audience rating Anthony Albanese's first year as prime minis...

Is a cow a thing? Is the ocean a thing? We ponder these and other important questions with Justin Warren, "consultant, freedom of information tragic, hexagon enthusiast, and creator of the CyberRating™ labelling scheme". He's also chair of Electronic Frontiers Australia, but I'm sure they'll disown him. In this episode we talk about robodebt and ministerial responsibility, cyber weapons, the littl...

In the news this week we've been reminded that so-called "superbugs" are going to kill millions of us, so I thought we should talk once more with infectious disease physician Dr Trent Yarwood. In this episode we talk about antibiotic-resistant microorganisms, but also some interesting research relating to Alzheimer's disease, the nature of research journalism, Victoria's plans to put everyone's he...

As the war in Ukraine continues, Russian disinformation is becoming somewhat unhinged. Joining me to explore that further is Elise Thomas, freelance journalist and OSINT analyst with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. In this episode we also talk about Russian disinformation operations in Africa, the future of open-source intelligence, the Russian bureaucracy in occupied Ukraine, and why the Fr...

Happy New Year! The Premier of NSW once dressed as a Nazi and people are losing their minds. It's the perfect start to 2023. We also talk about the demise of conservative dating site The Right Stuff, Prince Harry's willy, Bill Gates' opinion of cryptocurrency, and some stories from the early days of interactive computers. Full podcast details and credits at: https://the9pmedict.com/edict/00193/ Pl...

The spring series of The 9pm Edict comes to a belated finale with special guest Yun Jiang, the inaugural China Matters Fellow at the Australian Institute of International Affairs. And guess what? We're discussing news from China. In this episode we talk about the historic meeting between Australia's foreign minister Senator Penny Wong and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, the lifting of China's zer...

Once again there’s so many things happening, but in this episode of The 9pm Edict podcast we simply must talk about Space Karen and his bizarre management style at his new $44 billion plaything, Twitter. We also talk about artificial intelligence conversation generator ChatGTP, Peter Dutton's inability to say anything other than "Mr Speaker", Pancake Kitchen, and much more. Full podcast details an...

Finally, it's time to talk about submarines. The spring series of The 9pm Edict continues with a conversation about what submarines in the 21st century can and can't do with defence analyst and illustrator H I Sutton of Covert Shores. Before we can answer questions about whether Australia "really needs" nuclear submarines, we need to step back a bit. So in this episode we compare nuclear subs with...

Elon Musk finally owns Twitter, but is the social media giant circling the drain or about to become something entirely new? Should Medibank pay the ransom to keep customers’ sensitive medical data safe? I was on this week's Vertical Hold: Behind The Tech News and this is an updated version. "Australian technology news podcast Vertical Hold dives into the big stories of the week. Joined by Australi...

As the spring series of The 9pm Edict continues, Rishi Sunak becomes the new prime minister of the UK — at least at the time of recording — so who better to join us than Scottish author and social researcher David F Porteous? In this episode we talk about the joy that is British politics, plus Elon Musk's imminent purchase of Twitter, Vegemite, poetry, hope, transparency, the concept of a "wellbei...

There's so much happening at once! In this episode of The 9pm Edict podcast, it's all the excitement of history being made — for 45 days. We talk about the political chaos in the UK, especially the magnificent possibility of the return of Boris Johnson. But we also talk about Donald Trump and his allies, and Scott Morrison (sorry). Full podcast details and credits at: https://the9pmedict.com/edict...

The spring series of The 9pm Edict continues with another visit from author, columnist, and man of words in so many, many dubious contexts, John Birmingham. We talk about food crimes, JB's Big Green Egg, Margaret Thatcher, Australian opposition leader Peter Dutton, custard, trickle-down economics, how the world has changed since Peter Dutton became opposition leader, the war in Ukraine, Liz Truss,...

As the world, and in particular the UK, emerges from the period of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II, regular service is resumed — by which I mean the usual mix of the stupid and the bizarre. [Update: This episode was edited on 25 September 2022 to reflect developments across the weekend in the Optus data breach story. If you're after just that update, scroll in to 55m02s.] In this episode we talk a...

The first special-guest episode in the spring series is a fascinating chat about artificial intelligence, killer robots, and more with UNSW Scientia Professor Toby Walsh, chief scientist of the brand new UNSW AI Institute. In this episode we talk about neural networks, the dangers of algorithmic policing, Google Duplex, cryptocurrency, HAL 9000 (obviously) and other disembodied computers, tribbles...

The spring series of The 9pm Edict kicks off in a strange week, especially in British politics and the monarchy. This episode is a disjointed set of personal observations and complaints. We talk about Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, drugs, space, the metaverse, mental health, mediocre Australian politicians including Angus Taylor and Tim Smith, our JobSeeker p...

The winter series of The 9pm Edict concludes with another look at all the plagues and many other things — some of them fun — with infectious diseases physician Dr Trent Yarwood. In this episode we talk about COVID-19, of course, but also ebola, monkeypox, Scott Morrison's secret ministries, the sexual proclivities of backpackers, leeches, dinosaurs, William Shatner, Langya henipavirus, how we deci...

The winter series of The 9pm Edict continues with the return of Justin Warren, "consultant, freedom of information tragic, hexagon enthusiast, and creator of the CyberRating™ labelling scheme". He's also chair of Electronic Frontiers Australia, but I'm sure they'll disown him. In this episode we talk about the disaster that was the Australian government's COVIDSafe app, as well the wonders of elec...

The winter series of The 9pm Edict continues with astrophysicist Rami Mandow, founder of SpaceAustralia.com. There's a new telescope to talk about, and much more. In this episode we talk about the imagery from the James Webb Space Telescope, pulsars, how declassified military data is aiding science, water on mars, orbital mechanics, adaptive optics, Assyria, rainbow lorikeets, space junk, junk sci...

A family in Florida is shocked by some unusual behaviour. Bob Katter talks about his cunning nature. And Scott Morrison continues to be Scott Morrison, telling us he doesn’t trust governments In this episode we talk about Angus Taylor, George Christensen, pronouns, fruit flies, nudity, and former ABC Adelaide broadcaster, the late Philip Satchell. Full podcast details and credits at: https://the9p...