Join notorious Guardian columnist Van Badham and her labour activist co-host (and partner!) Ben Davison. As they deep-dive into the big news themes of the week and provide fresh, irreverent analysis about what's really going on in Australia and around the world.
Episodes
Sunday Jan 10, 2021
Sunday Jan 10, 2021
Violent insurrection in the USA, Brisbane has a lockdown, Albo’s in a car crash & people are going back to work. Plus a freshly washed Germanicus reflects on the death of a dachshund lover.
Wednesday Jan 06, 2021
Wednesday Jan 06, 2021
Van Badham and Ben Davison are BACK after two weeks off, a Christmas turkey and a dog with a knee injury (!), bringing you an update on the ongoing political fallout of coronavirus around the world, why Scott Morrison is wrong, wrong, absolutely wrong to be cutting JobKeeper and JobSeeker... and some GOOD NEWS about electric cars and the sexy Viking people of beautiful (social democratic) Norway. We love you and we missed you, so listen to our podcast!
Wednesday Dec 16, 2020
Wednesday Dec 16, 2020
Van Badham & Ben Davison discuss the big things of 2020.
Morrison using the Commonwealth as a form of opposition to state Labor governments, the importance of secure work to everyone and the economy at large, how Morrison is failing Australia, what Labor needs to do to start winning and the good news is about plastics, buried treasure and Bison.
Also the best news is Germanicus, our dog, is feeling a lot better.
Sunday Dec 13, 2020
Sunday Dec 13, 2020
The Weekend Wrap. The Ominous Omnibus IR Bill (Workchoices 2.0), Morrison tries to Americanise our elections, The world doesn’t want to hear from Morrison on climate change & Paul Fletcher is running the political agenda against the ABC. 10 minutes to bring you up to date before your Monday morning commute.
Wednesday Dec 09, 2020
Wednesday Dec 09, 2020
Van Badham and Ben Davison tell you the truth about the Liberal government's "IR Omnibus Bill" (yes, you will be left worse off), they discuss Scott Morrison and the art of dressing up like a person who doesn't live in a taxpayer-funded harbourside mansion AND Van has three pieces of good news that DO NOT involve Danish Zombie Mink.
Germanicus spends this episode outside in the sunshine, chasing butterflies. You can't hear it, but it is very cute.
Wednesday Dec 02, 2020
Wednesday Dec 02, 2020
Van Badham and Ben Davison explore what the latest GDP figures and OECD forecasts might mean for Morrison's approach to the economic recovery from COVID and try to answer the question;
Are we heading for a brighter future or just returning to a dark past?
There's also a deeper dive on the "cashless debit card" and what that says about policy in Australia.
Van Badham look at the bin fire of Brexit while Ben learns that they actually grow fruit in the UK.
There is good news about plastics. Yes, plastics!
And Germanicus, our dachshund, is up to something. Possibly involving birds, neighbours and impacting local elections...
Wednesday Nov 25, 2020
Wednesday Nov 25, 2020
Van Badham and Ben Davison breakdown the Andrews government budget measures for jobs, sick leave, supporting women, acting on climate, wages growth and how it contrasts to the failures of the Morrison budget to the point of Victoria acting more like the federal government than the Morrison federal government.
Van and Ben take apart how digital sham contracting is killing people and we need to regulate platforms while collectively deciding not to tolerate exploitation.
Van drops some great news about electric vehicles and the opportunities for Australian manufacturing.
Germanicus, our dog, plays with the birds and joins in the shout outs to unions, economists, think tanks and friends of the show who are working on these issues.
Wednesday Nov 18, 2020
Wednesday Nov 18, 2020
Van Badham breaks down how the Liberal Party lack of integrity in NSW and in the Morrison government is holding back a national integrity commission while spurring more anti-union raids, Ben Davison examines the social housing revolution in Dan Andrew's Victoria and the good news involves bees!
Plus, our dog Germanicus gets fired up about certain Liberal Party MP's ideological obsessions.
Wednesday Nov 11, 2020
Wednesday Nov 11, 2020
Van takes on the misogyny & hypocrisy of the Morrison government, Ben talks about the ideological blinders undermining our economic recovery and punishing Australian's looking for work.
The good news, for a change, is from the USA.
Also Germanicus responds to some of the more outrageous stories of the week.
Thursday Nov 05, 2020
Thursday Nov 05, 2020
In this US Election special: Van and Ben discuss the chaos of the American election, the Trump tantrums, the accidental humour of the CNN 3am shift, the shifts in votes and how John McCain's ghost might have played a part.
The good news is at least one confederate flag has been taken down forever & maybe the next President can end the war on drugs?
And Germanicus decides to chase the birds and generally make noise.