Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps (private feed for ccravensands@gmail.com)

"How Not to Feel Like a Failure (When Fame & Fortune Aren't Enough)" with TV Host Osher Günsberg

How do you avoid the hamster wheel of hoping that your next success will deliver happiness? How do you escape mental ruts, anxious spirals and critical self-talk?Osher is a superstar in Australia. He was the face of Australian Idol, The Masked Singer, The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. He also happens to have, as he politely calls it, "a different brain" -- a brain prone to depression, social anxiety, obsessive compulsion, psychosis and addiction. His podcast, Better Than Yesterday, discusses sanity, recovery, parenting, and what it means to grow older without growing rigid.This episode was recorded as a Szeps Live stream. Thank you Bob Morse, Jimmy Barr, Feldsher, Eva, Dennis McCarthy, and everyone else for tuning in.And just a heads-up to stay across Uncomfortable Conversations in the next few months because, as we discuss in this episode, Josh is about to deliver some killer livestreamed celebrity content during an imminent Szeps Live around-the-world tour. If you've been putting off figuring out how to download the Substack app, do it now in one click and follow this show to keep abreast of what'll be a delightful tsunami of mind-expanding chats. Osher’s new illustrated book about mental wellness is called "So What, Now What?” This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

PREMIUM: "How to Raise an Awesome Kid (and be an Awesome Grown-Up)" with Dr Billy Garvey

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit uncomfortableconversations.substack.comIt's one of the most persistent, perplexing and provocative questions to plague our culture: What explains the explosion in ADHD, anxiety and autism in kids? Is it too much Instagram? Not enough Ritalin? Or are one-of-a-kind kids being failed by a one-size-fits-all model of schooling and parenting?Dr Billy Garvey is one of Australia's leading developmen…

"The Case for Nuclear Power" with Aidan Morrison

Have rich democracies been hoodwinked into chasing a mirage of green energy? Are renewables leading us into a dead-end of brown-outs, white-elephant wind farms, and costly, dodgy electricity? Are the "smart homes" and "smart grids" actually overly-complicated patchwork solutions to a problem that has a safe, affordable, reliable, carbon-free solution - nuclear? And what the hell is "baseload" power, anyway?Aidan Morrison is the Director of Energy Research at the classical-liberal Centre for Independent Studies. He's a data scientist with postgrad qualifications in physics who leads the centre's energy systems research. He argues that most assessments of renewable energy are incomplete or misleading.If you missed Josh's chat with the renewable-energy engineer and entrepreneur Saul Griffith on June 10th, you might want to give it a listen first here. Here, Aidan and Josh debate how to think about generating and supplying cheap power to a high-tech society... and whether the answer to our growing energy needs is staring us right in the face. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

PREMIUM: "In-Groups & Out-Groups" with social psychologist Jolanda Jetten

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit uncomfortableconversations.substack.comAre you defined by your identities? Where do you rank in the hierarchy of your social group, either online or in real life? How are the boundaries of your communities policed? By whom?In an era of social-media mobs, splintering communities and anti-immigrant ideas, the way we sort ourselves into in-groups and out-groups is a fascinating field of social …

“Josh vs the Anti-Gay-Parenting Activist” Katy Faust

Katy Faust is a family-values activist who campaigns against all families that don't contain a biological mother and father. A rockstar among American conservatives, she's the founder of the children's rights organization, Them Before Us. On shows like Jordan Peterson's - and in her lobbying of lawmakers - she argues for prioritising every baby's right to its biological parents over the right of adults to start a family.At a time when Republican support for same-sex marriage is dropping fast thanks to discomfort with parts of the LGBTQIA+ agenda (especially relating to kids and transgenderism), Katy's ideas are gaining traction. Her policies would revolutionise - and in some case, criminalise - IVF, surrogacy, adoption, sperm donation, egg donation, and even divorce.The group most targeted by biological-parenting laws would, of course, be gay parents - who, by definition, subvert the nuclear biological family.While Katy was touring Australia, she was kind enough to stop by the Uncomfortable Conversations studios to make her case against gay parenting to one of Australia's most prominent gay dads, the host of this show. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe