Speaking Bluntly (2024) - Antoinette Lattouf, Andy Mills & Josh Szeps

Speaking Bluntly (2024) - Antoinette Lattouf, Andy Mills & Josh Szeps

Author: Festival of Dangerous Ideas May 15, 2025 Duration: 1:03:13

Journalists play a vital role in a democracy, holding power to account. The traditional model of journalism sees journalists as disinterested seekers of the truth, striving for 'objectivity' and suppressing their own opinions. But as newsrooms and editorial pages previously staffed only by white male journalists have evolved, and as the internet has driven the rise of opinion journalism, we are faced with two important questions: Does it matter who journalists are? And does it matter what they think? At a time when media business models are in crisis, how should we think about bias, representation, truth and opinion? What happens when journalists themselves become 'the story'? And if we can't talk about these thorny questions in the media itself, can the media do its job at all? 

Antoinette Lattouf is a broadcaster, columnist, author, speaker, human rights advocate, mental health ambassador who dabbles in satire and is terrible at reverse parking. She is the creator and co-host of The Antoinettes podcast, a weekly commentary and comedy podcast. She is also the co-host of news and analysis podcast The Briefing. The multi-award-winning journalist is the co-founder of Media Diversity Australia – a not-for-profit organisation working towards increasing cultural and linguistic diversity in the media.

Andy Mills is an American reporter and podcast producer who co-created The Daily at The New York TimesReflector and several documentary series including Rabbit Hole and The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling.

Josh Szeps is one of Australia's most influential and innovative interviewers. In New York, he was a founding host-producer of the revolutionary US streaming news network, HuffPost Live. He won a Webby Award while the organisation won a Pulitzer. Josh also appeared regularly with Al Roker as a contributor on the NBC TODAY Show. On his return to Australia, he co-anchored the national morning television show, Weekend Breakfast, and became a fixture of ABC Radio Sydney. Afternoons with Josh Szeps launched in 2021, a three-hour daily talkback radio show. In 2024, Josh left the legacy media to wrestle freely with ideas in a spicier way. Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps took off as a podcast, Substack publication, live touring enterprise and YouTube channel.

Chaired by Louise Adler, Director of Adelaide Writers' Week, who has spent over 30 years in the culture business and continues to be committed to the dissemination of dangerous ideas.


For more than a decade, the Festival of Dangerous Ideas has curated a space where provocative thinking isn't just welcomed, it's the entire point. This podcast is a direct line to that stage, offering an archive of talks that deliberately unsettle comfortable opinions and interrogate the stubborn problems we often agree to ignore. Each episode captures a live conversation from Australia's original disruptive ideas festival, presenting arguments that can be exhilarating, uncomfortable, and vitally important. You’ll hear from a compelling roster of festival alumni-including leading experts, intellectual troublemakers, and visionary authors-who share perspectives that conventional discourse frequently sidelines. The discussions here aren't theoretical exercises; they grapple with the pressing and difficult issues shaping our society and culture right now. Tuning in means granting yourself access to a decade-long tradition of intellectual courage, where the core assumption is that some truths are only reached by first entertaining a dangerous idea. It’s a chance to listen as boundaries are pushed, not for shock value, but for clarity. The result is a consistently challenging and refreshing audio experience that complicates simple narratives and expands what feels possible to talk about.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Festival of Dangerous Ideas
Podcast Episodes
FODI: The In-Between | Trailer [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08
FODI: The In-Between is an audio time capsule recording this moment in time. It asks: Are we in-between two eras? And if so, what does this mean about the past and the future? 8 conversations between 16 of the world's bi…
Elizabeth Pisani (2014) | Corruption Makes the World Go Round [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:54
When it comes to good governance, conventional wisdom has it that less corruption would translate into more economic growth, a healthier body politic and reduced likelihood of conflict. But what if this isn't always the…
A.C. Grayling (2015) | Bad Education [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:24
A.C. Grayling says "to read is to fly". The distinguished philosopher who has dedicated his life to examining knowledge believes we need a revolution in education. But many of us grapple with the question: what is educat…
Chris Berg (2015) | Nanny State [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:20
If we don't think our fellow citizens are capable of making the right choices about what they eat and drink, why do we think they are capable of voting? Since researcher Chris Berg presented this 2015 FODI talk, this que…
Erwin James (2013) | A Killer Can Be a Good Neighbour [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:21
When someone commits a crime, we want them punished. If wrongdoers go to prison more often and for longer, everyone seems happy. But we live in a system where people do eventually come out of prison and rejoin the commun…
Satyajit Das (2016) | The Bill Is Due [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:45
Today the human race faces existential challenges. Our prosperity has been built on unsustainable economic and environmental practices — but our social and political processes seem incapable of fixing anything. Why are w…
Lionel Shriver (2016) | Break A Rule A Day [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:19
When you're on a bicycle at a red light with no car or pedestrian in sight, do you still wait for the green? Do you obey every single law? Surely fearful compliance with every niggling regulation defies the much-vaunted…