The 9pm Edict

The summer series of The 9pm Edict kicks off today with our special guest, the wonderful Andrew P Street -- journalist, commentator, raconteur, and bearded person. We talk about many things, including parenting, poetry, pubic lice, productivity, journalism, capsicums, mullets, the Vaccine Police, the Bishop of Worcester, urine therapy, NFTs, and of course the continuing global pandemic. And, of co...

At last 2021 is coming to a close, so in this episode I look back at this shambles of a year, and maybe generate some hope for 2022. I'll call this the first episode of the summer series, for obscure but sensible reasons which I won't explain. We talk about a whole bunch of things, including COVID-19, obviously, procrastination, people who compare things to the Holocaust which are not at all like...

The Australian government made many changes to the regulation of the online world during 2021. They were the subject earlier this month when I was a guest on the new podcast Talking Tech Policy from the new Tech Policy Design Centre at the Australian National University. The podcast is hosted by Johanna Weaver, the centre's Director, who I know from her previous gig as a senior policy adviser an A...

Is Australia ready to embrace an official digital currency? How is the government cracking down on crypto and Buy Now, Pay Later payment systems? I was the special guest on this week's Vertical Hold: Behind The Tech News. "Australian technology news podcast Vertical Hold dives into the big stories of the week. Joined by Australia's leading tech journalists every Friday, co-hosts @adam_turner and @...

It's the last day of spring so it's time for the final episode of the Edict's Spring Series. Our special guest is the marvellous Alex Lee, TV writer, actor, comedian, Dragon Friend, and creator of comedy on SBS TV's The Feed. We talk about many things, including the comedy of climate change, a sport called mashball, Australia's plan to tackle defamation via social media, Dungeons & Dragons, hope,...

The Spring Series of the Edict continues with space archaeologist Dr Alice Gorman aka Dr Space Junk and a conversation that covers many curious possibilities. We talk about many things, including some unusual ways of launching things into space, the destruction of Cosmos 1408, Percy Grainger, inter-species romance, the Family D'Alembert science fiction series, telepresence, whether humans will bec...

For this episode of the Spring Series 2021 I caught the train to Orange in the Central Tablelands of NSW to chat once again with Father Karl Sinclair, a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Bathurst. We spoke about many things, including truth in journalism, real estate prices, a certain opinion piece by Pru Goward, golf, dreams, politics, Kerala and the story of Doubting Thomas, the fate of the poor...

Australian author and reprobate John Birmingham joins me yet again for another conversation about everything from journalism to turnips. In fact, journalism and turnips. Yes, it's another episode of the Spring Series 2021. We talk about Generation Z, adding chimpanzee hormones to chickens, #ThisIsNotJournalism, dreams, logarithms, how to organise your work, the simulation hypothesis, the Fitzgeral...

You may well have thought that a certain once-potent political party, the Australian Democrats, imploded around the turn of the 21st century, and you'd be right. But they're back, with a podcast titled Keep the Bastards Honest. This week I became their first non-party guest. We spoke about a bunch of cybersecurity and other internet-related legislation that's either recently been passed or is in t...

You know him from ABC TV's 7.30. You knew him from The Feed and The Roast and Pointless Australia and more. Yes, the spring series continues with satirist Mark Humphries. On Wednesday afternoon morning we spoke about the magic of television, about Mark Zuckerberg, the hole in the ozone layer, accidental television, CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Bert Newton, the return of John F Kennedy Jr, Hey Hey It's Satu...

In the first episode of the Edict’s Spring Series 2021, we meet Justin Warren, "consultant, freedom of information tragic, hexagon enthusiast, and creator of the CyberRating™ labelling scheme". We talk about freedom of information and hexagons, naturally. But we also talk about systems, surveillance, cybersecurity, robodebt, regulating the internet, bullying and the elite private school experience...

No that isn't a typo. Isn't the new Premier of New South Wales a piece of work. And oh so sexy! In these trying times, you need to know about my new crowdfunding campaign. And about Dominic Perrottet. Press play to hear a few of my initial thoughts about our new state leader. Then click through to The 9pm Spring Series 2021 and consider pledging your support for more special episodes of this podca...

In this episode we simply have to hear about the plight of Nicki Minaj’s cousin’s friend. There’s some unbiased news from America. And there’s a compulsory mention of submarines. We also talk about pillows, hexagons, the Royal Navy, American media, dreams, Australia as a communist dictatorship, testicles, and cranberry juice. Full podcast details and credits at: https://the9pmedict.com/edict/00146...

In the final episode of the Edict’s Late Winter Series, we discuss Antarctic geopolitics with Dr Elizabeth Buchanan from the Australian War College. There's a lot more to it than snow, penguins, and coloured lights in the sky. We talk about krill, the secret Nazi bunkers, illegal fishing, the Antarctic Treaty System, China's interest in Antarctic resources, and how one Russian fishing vessel was f...

Tonight is the end of official winter in Australia, although spring has already arrived in the Blue Mountains. So to mark the end (almost) of the Late Winter Series of this podcast, the recording of this episode was streamed live. You'll hear about one American's plan to solve the evacuation from Afghanistan, the worst news story ever written, risk calculations and COVID-19, and Wilson's Law of th...

Technically this episode isn't part of the Late Winter Series, because there's no special guest and it wasn't scheduled, but here it is. It's the Full Moon, and I'm in a mood. We talk about dodgy energy-healing services, a little bit about Afghanistan, a little bit about climate, about people's responses to the COVID-19 response, and more. Full podcast details and credits at: https://the9pmedict.c...

The Late Winter Series 2021 of the Edict continues as Planet Earth continues to burn. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is calling it a "code red for humanity". We dig into that with Ketan Joshi. He's a communications consultant working with NGOs in Europe, and also a freelance writer covering climate and energy. We talk about how the policies and actions of the Australian go...

The Late Winter Series 2021 of the Edict continues with a look at how Australia is handling the COVID-19 pandemic. Our guests are science communicator and medical researcher Upulie Divisekera and infectious diseases physician Dr Trent Yarwood. We talk about the snappily-titled "National Plan to transition Australia’s National COVID-19 Response", the supporting modelling from Doherty Epidemiology,...

The Late Winter Series 2021 of the Edict continues with technology journalist and disinformation analyst Ariel Bogle from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's International Cyber Policy Centre. We talk about many things, including Dan Andrew's supposedly fake back injury, COVID-19 disinformation, cold showers, far-right political video activists, imaginary bullfighting, content moderation,...

The Late Winter Series 2021 of the Edict kicks off with self-described "investigative humorist" Dan Ilic, producer of the award-winning podcast "A Rational Fear", and a man known for shows ranging from "Hungry Beast" to "At Home Alone Together" and much more. We talk about many things and indeed many people, including Ray Martin, Scott Morrison, Rowan Dean, Andrew Denton, Craig Kelly, John Safran,...

This is my fourth outing as guest co-host of Well May We Say, the Australian progressive politics podcast from Jeremy Sear-Pirko in Melbourne. This episode is titled "Anti-Vicsers" because... well I assume you've been following the COVID-19 news. We also solve Australia's housing affordability crisis with some of Jeremy's modest proposals, and wonder whether there's actually a point to any of this...

We wrap up the Spring Series 2021 — finally — by solving most of the world's mysteries with journalist and all-round raconteur Andrew P Street. We talk about many things including UFOs, a poo-eating dog, public health education in the times of both COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS, the magic of Gummi Worm Day, bad housekeeping, and the physical impossibility of eating more than four pancakes. We also deliver...

Did you know that you can now buy gendered "wine cocktails"? Such fragile masculinity! Anyway, you need to know about my new crowdfunding campaign, and the bonus episode of The 8pm Quiz tomorrow night. Press play to hear about the "wine cocktail". Meanwhile, there's two things you have to do right now: 1. Click through to The 9pm Late Winter Series 2021 and consider pledging your support for more...

More than a year into Australia's COVID-19 pandemic response, Prime Minister Scott Morrison finally produces a plan that includes vaccinating people — with no targets and no deadlines. In this episode also hear about Labor’s bold and exciting plan, we hear some great advice from the NSW health minister, and we hear a few thoughts about critical race theory. Full podcast details and credits at: htt...

You know him from ABC TV's 7.30. You know him from The Feed and The Roast and Pointless Australia and more. Yes, the autumn series continues with satirist Mark Humphries. On Friday morning we talked about Australia's coming decade of Scott Morrison as prime minister, magnets, Milo Yiannopoulos, Hyacinth Bucket, our wealth of political cartoonists, the sleeping patterns of snails, the first 20 elem...