Uncomfortable Conversations substack

Playback speed × Share post Share post at current time Share from 0:00 0:00 / Free speech, hate speech, and the limits of Liberal tolerance with Sami Shah What do we actually owe each other in a society trying to hold pluralism, free speech, and real religious and ethnic tension together at the same time?

The world has never been more connected. Yet never more divided. We yell at each other from inside our echo chambers. But change doesn’t happen inside an echo chamber. It’s time to get out, to stretch our legs, to step on some land mines. It's time to have an uncomfortable conversation with Josh Szeps. The world has never been more connected. Yet never more divided. We yell at each other from inside our echo chambers. But change doesn’t happen inside an echo chamber.

Jonathan Haidt is considered one of the world’s most influential living psychologists. He joins Josh on this new instalment of Permission To Think - a collaboration with The University of Technology Sydney School of Social Sciences. This episode is part of The Best Of series and was originally posted on 20th April, 2026.

What do our modern-day culture wars have to teach us about cult-like thinking, moral puritanism, judgment and compassion? And if you lose religious faith, how are you left thinking about agnosticism, atheism, the purpose of the cosmos, and the meaning of life? What, if anything, is worth keeping from the Bible? Megan Phelps-Roper was raised in the Westbor…

Is there any room left for the political centre, or has it been swallowed by two competing extremes with nothing but contempt for the middle? Josh chats with comedy writer and author of I Might Be Wrong, Jeff Maurer, for a wide-ranging conversation about the collapse of moderate politics in America.

The world has never been more connected. Yet never more divided. We yell at each other from inside our echo chambers. But change doesn’t happen inside an echo chamber. It’s time to get out, to stretch our legs, to step on some land mines. It's time to have an uncomfortable conversation with Josh Szeps. The world has never been more connected. Yet never more divided. We yell at each other from inside our echo chambers. But change doesn’t happen inside an echo chamber.

It’s your safe space for dangerous ideas. A refuge from groupthink, and tiptoeing around sensitive issues. With your subscription, it’s up to 3 episodes a week of sane, no-bullshit conversations. Lively and unexpected, it’s the podcast where the world’s most interesting minds come to make sense. With this guy.

Has a secret in your ancestry ever changed who you are? Imagine being a non-Jewish comedian who suddenly finds out he’s Jewish. What do you do? You put on a comedy show on the site of the worst antisemitic terrorist attack in the country’s history. Of course. David Rose found out his great-grandfather was a famous 19th-century caricature of the stereotypical “Hebrew comic”, who performed with the Marx Brothers. Suddenly, David found that audiences expected him to account for Gaza.

The world has never been more connected. Yet never more divided. We yell at each other from inside our echo chambers. But change doesn’t happen inside an echo chamber. It’s time to get out, to stretch our legs, to step on some land mines. It's time to have an uncomfortable conversation with Josh Szeps. The world has never been more connected. Yet never more divided. We yell at each other from inside our echo chambers. But change doesn’t happen inside an echo chamber.

You may not realise it, but humankind is on the cusp of an extraordinary space race. Are we about to become a multi-planetary civilisation? Do we really need a super-fuel-tanker floating in space? Just how many A.I. data centers does Elon want floating high above your head? Anthony Colangelois a proud space nerd who knows anything and everything about the latest state of play between SpaceX, Blue Origin, NASA and the Mars mission.