The Shot Podcast

Jo and Ronni get enjoyably down in the weeds with George Megalogenis to discuss all matters electoral: the Albanese Government’s prospects for a second term, Dutton’s efforts to thwart them and the disruption of our political duopoly as outlined in George’s new Quarterly Essay, Minority Report: The New Shape of Australian Politics.

Jo and Dave talk to Zack Beauchamp, senior political writer at Vox and author of The Reactionary Spirit: How America’s Most Insidious Political Tradition Swept the World about the fragility of democracy and the autocratic agenda to destroy it from within.

Jo and Dave talk to lawyer and author Josh Bornstein about his book Working for the Brand, an analysis of how corporations force staff to uphold their “values” and “integrity” or face being sacked on one hand while they gleefully destroy the world on the other. And how much are we loving Blue Sky?

Jo and Ronni speak with Rick Morton about his definitive account of the great Government shakedown that was Robodebt, the immensely readable Mean Streak, and speculate on how long National Anti-Corruption Commissioner Paul Brereton can cling on to his job.

Jo and Dave are joined by Joel Jenkins of Bogan Intelligentsia to discuss how the world-beating concentration of Australia’s media - third behind only China and Egypt - leads to a desperately distorted image and narrative of the carnage in Gaza.

Ronni and Jo talk to New York Times journalists Kate Conger and Ryan Mac about their revelatory new book, Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter, a cracking read about a story close to the hearts of many of our listeners: a page-turner that fills in all the jaw-dropping details about how our beloved Global Townplace became the plaything of the one of the world’s richest and most mercurial men.

Dave is back behind the microphone, joining Jo and Ronni to discuss the shrinking prime ministership of Anthony Albanese and echo the title of Ronni’s latest article for the Shot: “What was it all for, Anthony?”

On the day we learned that no-one would be punished or be otherwise held accountable for the Robodebt catastrophe, Jo is joined by Anthony Klan, Founder and Editor of The Klaxon, to discuss the Klaxon’s ongoing series into the National Anti-Corruption Commission: its mishandling of the Royal Commission’s referrals, its counter-intuitive lack of transparency and the “recusal” that wasn’t.

Jo and Ronni stage a Shot takeover to discuss the collapse of brainworm-infested RFK Jr’s US presidential campaign and the apparently-not-brainworm-infested Linda Reynolds' inexplicable campaign of cruelty against rape survivor Brittany Higgins.