Welcome to Curtin’s Cast, the John Curtin Research Centre’s podcast of politics, culture and ideas brought to you by JCRC Executive Director Nick Dyrenfurth and Redbridge Director and former Victorian Labor assistant secretary Kos Samaras. Each fortnight we bring you the freshest and most challenging conversations from the world of Australian and global politics with leaders, activists, and thinkers.
🚨 WE'RE BACK! Curtin's Cast returns – EARLY RELEASE 🎙️ Victoria's election campaign has just been blown wide open. In a dramatic day of escalating political tension, Deputy Premier Ben Carroll has advised Premier Jacinta Allan that he intends to be a candidate for the Labor leadership should a spill occur. With just four months until polling day, is Victoria now heading towards both an election and a Labor leadership crisis? In Episode 63, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras break down: 🔴 The latest Victorian polling 📉 Labor's deteriorating position ⚠️ The leadership speculation engulfing Spring Street 📈 One Nation's extraordinary surge and whether it holds 🔵 Why the Liberals still can't put the election away 🇦🇺 A quick federal polling check-in and what it means for Anthony Albanese This is one of the most timely Curtin's Cast episodes we've recorded. 🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts. #CurtinsCast #VicPol #SpringSt #AusPol #VictorianElection #Labor #OneNation #Polling #Politics
Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined by acclaimed author, pianist and incoming ANAM Artistic Director Anna Goldsworthy to discuss her new Quarterly Essay, The God We Made: The Threat and Promise of Artificial Intelligence out now with Schwartz Media Is AI another technological revolution, or something far more profound? What remains uniquely human in an age of machines? Why do we still crave imperfection, authenticity and live experience? And are we repeating the mistakes we made with the industrial revolution and social media? From music, art and education to work, politics and existential risk, this wide-ranging conversation explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping our world — and what it means to remain human within it. Listen wherever you get your podcast goodies!
Could the 2026 Victorian election mark the beginning of the end of Australia's century-old two-party system? One Nation is now leading or tied in most national polls. Leadership whispers around Victorian Labor Premier Jacinta Allan are growing. But is this bigger than one premier — or even one party? On Curtin's Cast Episode 61 Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras unpack: 🔥 Why replacing leaders won't stop deeper political forces 📊 What Redbridge modelling reveals about Labor & Coalition heartland seats 🗳️ Why One Nation's rise threatens BOTH major parties 💥 Why moral denunciation alone won't reconnect voters 🚨 If Victoria can produce a One Nation breakthrough, nowhere in Australia is immune. Episode 61 of Curtin's Cast is out now! 🎧
This week on Curtin’s Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth sits down with political strategist and campaigner Ed Coper, author of the new book Angertainment: How Social Media Outrage Ruined Everything. Over more than two decades, Ed has worked with an extraordinary range of political, civic and business leaders and movements, from Malala Yousafzai and Richard Branson to trade unions, climate campaigns, advocacy organisations and the Teal independents. He was also part of the team that helped build GetUp into one of Australia's most influential grassroots campaigning organisations. In this conversation, Nick and Ed explore how social media platforms, algorithms and the attention economy have transformed politics, media and public life, rewarding outrage over persuasion and division over dialogue. They discuss: • What exactly is “angertainment” and why outrage has become a business model; • Whether both Left and Right are vulnerable to the attention economy; • Young men, identity, Andrew Tate and algorithmic rabbit holes; • Which politicians understand social media best — and why; Can democracy survive the age of angertainment? Ed Coper joins Curtin’s Cast to unpack one of the defining political and cultural challenges of our time. Buy Ed's book here: https://www.readings.com.au/product/9781761636691/angertainment--ed-coper--2026--9781761636691
One Nation is now Australia's most popular political party. Pauline Hanson is Australia's most popular political leader. And new RedBridge–Accent MRP modelling suggests the Australian political system may be fragmenting faster than either major party understands. This week on Curtin's Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras unpack the extraordinary polling behind One Nation's rise, the collapse of traditional party loyalties, and what it means for Labor, the Coalition and Australia's political future. Is this simply another protest vote, or are we witnessing the biggest political realignment in modern Australian history? They explore why millions of Australians feel they're getting poorer in silence, how housing insecurity and falling living standards are reshaping political behaviour, why Labor's budget reforms have produced such a complicated reaction, and why the Coalition is failing to benefit from Labor's losses. Plus: could Pauline Hanson really become prime minister? What would need to happen for One Nation to become a governing force? And is Victoria about to provide a preview of Australia's fragmented political future? A provocative conversation about economic insecurity, political dealignment and realignment, institutional distrust and the forces reshaping Australian democracy. Check out Episode 59 via Apple, Spotify and Youtube
No Kos this week — but Nick Dyrenfurth is joined by one of Australia’s leading public intellectuals and scholars of political leadership, Professor Paul Strangio, to unpack one of the defining political questions of our age: Why has democratic politics become so chaotic — and why has Australia, so far at least, resisted full-scale democratic rupture? Drawing on Paul Strangio’s new book ‘The Alchemy of Leadership: Seven Australian Prime Ministers in a Turbulent Twenty-First Century’ (Melbourne University Publishing), this wide-ranging conversation explores the collapse of old political loyalties, revolving-door prime ministers, media fragmentation, hyper-politics, populism, culture wars and the emotional exhaustion now embedded in modern democratic life. From Howard, Rudd and Gillard to Abbott, Morrison, Albanese and the post-2025 political landscape, Nick and Paul examine how leadership itself has changed in the twenty-first century — and whether traditional democratic authority can still survive in the age of algorithms, permanent campaigning and anti-politics. They discuss: Why Australian politics became permanently unstable after 2007 John Howard’s role in “smuggling” conservative populism into the mainstream Pauline Hanson, Trumpism and why Australia avoided full MAGA-style collapse Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.
Is Australian politics finally exiting the dead zone of managerialism and re-entering an era of genuine ideological conflict? In Episode 57 of Curtin’s Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth and Australia’s "revered pollster” Kos Samaras unpack the political shockwaves from Labor’s 2026 budget — and why much of the legacy media may be completely misunderstanding what is happening. As newspapers scream “political suicide” and compare the budget to the disastrous 2014 Hockey Budget, Nick and Kos explore why this is not 2001 or 2004 politics anymore. Millennials and Gen Z do not expect miracles — they want proof governments are finally willing to “touch the architecture” on housing, tax and intergenerational fairness. Nick and Kos dive deep into: why Labor now openly sees under-45s as its electoral base the collapse of the old Howard-era political settlement how this is the first serious reform battle in decades Angus Taylor’s high-risk budget reply and the risks of chasing Pauline Hanson why the Coalition’s proposal to strip non-citizens of welfare, NDIS and other benefits could detonate support among Chinese-Australian households how “household voting” works politically in migrant communities and why anti-Dan Andrews politics is a dead-end for the Victorian Libs Plus: Kos hints at a bombshell new Redbridge/Australian Financial Review poll, predictions on Andrew Hastie and November's Victorian state election
For years politics and media have obsessed over angry young men, the manosphere and figures like Andrew Tate. But what if the bigger political story is the radicalisation — and growing pessimism — of ‘Angry Young Women’? This week Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined by New Statesman staff writer Emily Lawford to discuss her major recent cover story on the rise of the Gen Z “femosphere” and the widening political divide between young men and women. They discuss: ▪️ How young women are becoming more politically engaged, but more anxious and pessimistic ▪️ Why these young women are so down on young men, capitalism and animated by issues like Gaza ▪️ The rise of online feminist identity and activism ▪️ TikTok, social media and radicalisation pathways ▪️ Why young men and women are increasingly diverging politically ▪️ The impact on relationships, trust and social cohesion ▪️ What this means for Labor, the Greens and the future of democratic politics Featuring Australian polling and focus-group insights from Kos Samaras and the team at RedBridge. A serious conversation about one of the biggest — and least understood — political shifts reshaping the Anglosphere. Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
One year on from the 2025 federal election, the political landscape is shifting again — and not in ways either major legacy party can fully control. In this episode, Kos Samaras and Nick Dyrenfurth unpack the latest RedBridge/Accent/AFR polling and the fallout from the Nepean by-election. Has One Nation’s surge peaked? And is there a “Trump dump” effect — where getting too close to Trump and MAGA begins to turn voters off? Nick and Kos also explore Pauline Hanson’s emerging dilemma: a choice between battlers and billionaires, as her party draws support from working Australians while benefiting from the backing of right-wing figures like Gina Rinehart. We also preview the looming Farrer by-election and examine what Nepean signals for both Labor and the Liberals — and the Victorian election ahead.
In this episode, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras break down why AI anxiety is already political — not hypothetical — and why governments are at risk of repeating the biggest mistake of the last economic transition. We’ve seen this movie before. It didn’t end well. Over 70% of Australians think AI will cost jobs — and this time, the fear hits before the impact. Based off new Redbridge polling and the John Curtin Research Centre's new policy report, 'For All of Us: Making Artificial Intelligence Work for Working People', the argument is simple: if workers don’t share in the gains, they won’t accept the change. And if they don’t accept it, they’ll vote against it.
On this episode, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined by leading scholars of nationalism and European politics expert Associate Professor Ben Wellings (Monash University) to unpack the forces reshaping the UK and Europe. From the collapse of the political centre to the rise of populists and Greens alike, this is a continent in flux. We cover: ▪️ The UK’s shift to five-party fragmentation with Greens and Reform surging ▪️ Trump Bump 2.0 reshaping European politics in real time ▪️ Hungary after Orbán — liberal reset or just a populist pause? ▪️ Scottish and Welsh elections and Keir Starmer’s future Essential listening for anyone trying to understand where Western politics is heading — and why the old rules no longer apply.
Australia isn’t experiencing one populist surge, but two. In this episode of Curtin’s Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras unpack new RedBridge and Accent Research polling revealing a striking political reality: under the same economic pressures, different generations are breaking in completely different directions. Among financially stressed Gen X voters, One Nation is surging. Among Gen Z voters under that same pressure, the Greens are rising just as sharply. Same system. Same frustration. Completely different political outcomes. This isn’t just volatility — it’s something deeper. The unravelling of the class-based political system that has defined Australia for more than a century. But here’s the paradox: as the system fragments, Labor remains dominant. Why? Drawing on Nick’s ‘Trump Bump 2.0’ thesis, the episode explores how voters are shifting from blaming governments to asking a different question — who looks like the “adult in the room” in an age of global instability. Nick and Kos break down: Why Australia now has two competing populisms The generational divide reshaping politics Why One Nation is insurgent but not a governing force The Coalition’s accelerating collapse How Labor is holding on amid fragmentation Is class politics is being replaced by generation and education This is a conversation about a political system coming apart — and what might replace it.
Has World War 3 already begun — just without a declaration? This week on Curtin’s Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined by the excellent Misha Zelinsky — Fulbright Scholar, economist, lawyer, and national security expert — to unpack a confronting idea: We may already be living through the early stages of the third great global conflict of modern times. From Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine to chaos in the Middle East and rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific, Misha argues we are witnessing an unevenly distributed, undeclared world war — driven by a loose but dangerous alignment of authoritarian powers. On episode 51 we cover: Why historical analogies (1930s, WWI, Cold War) only go so far Why defence experts now see a 20–30% chance of global conflict this decade The rise of a “bad guys club”: Russia, China, Iran, North Korea How Western democratic deterrence failed — slowly, then all at once How modern warfare contains multiple overlapping theatres — military, economic, cyber — along with the familiar use of proxies Whether democracies are strong enough — including internally — to prevail This is a serious, sobering conversation about power, geopolitics, and whether the world has already crossed a threshold we don’t yet recognise.
This week, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined by arguably Australia’s finest historian and public intellectual, Professor Frank Bongiorno, for our landmark 50th episode — and a big question at the heart of Australian politics: Is Bob Hawke really the “gold standard”… or a myth we can’t escape? Our conversation is anchored in the new book Gold Standard? Remembering the Hawke Government, edited by Frank, Carolyn Holbrook and Joshua Black — a major reassessment of Hawke’s record and reputation. We unpack: ▪️ Why Hawke still dominates how we judge governments ▪️ What actually made the Hawke model work ▪️ Why reform feels harder today ▪️ Whether Labor is misreading its own history What matters now is what Albanese Labor can realistically learn from Hawke — and what his record tells students of Australian politics about the limits and possibilities of reform today.
A seismic election result in South Australia — but was it a Labor landslide, or a structural collapse of the Liberals? Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras unpack: The Liberals finishing third and fourth across large parts of the state One Nation’s 22% surge and what it really means The critical importance of SA Premier Peter Malinauskas Why this could be a warning shot for Victoria 2026 This is a deep dive into fragmentation, realignment, and the future of the two party system. Check out episode 49 wherever you get your podcasts.
This week on Curtin’s Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras break down the most striking polling shift in a generation — and what it means for Australian politics. Victoria is no longer a conventional contest. Both major parties are struggling to reach 30%. One Nation is now polling in the mid-20s. The next Victorian election won’t be one election at all. It’ll be eighty-eight by-elections happening simultaneously across the state. In this episode we explore: 📊 RedBridge/Accent Victorian state election polling 👥 Generational and class realignment playing out in real time 🗳️ Check in on South Australia ahead of March 21 🌍 Whether Middle East conflict influences domestic voting behaviour This is a deep dive into the end of the old electoral map — and what replaces it.
This week co-hosts Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined by Dr Kylie Gilbert-Moore — Middle East scholar, columnist and former political prisoner in Iran. After spending 804 days jailed in Tehran’s Evin Prison, Kylie offers a rare perspective on how the Iranian regime works and how ordinary Iranians see the world. In this episode we unpack: • Iran’s widening war in the Middle East • The death of Ali Khamenei and rise of his son • Whether authoritarian regimes are stronger or more fragile during war • What Iranians actually think about the conflict • How the region might change if Iran’s regime falls 🎧 Listen now via Apple, Spotify or YouTube
This week Curtin's Cast is joined in the studio by Peter Khalil — Labor member for the federal seat of Wills in Melbourne, Assistant Minister for Defence, former Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee, ex-national security adviser to Kevin Rudd, and previously the government’s former Special Envoy for Social Cohesion. From public housing in Melbourne’s north to junior tennis glory, from working as an executive with SBS to the frontline of Australia’s national security debate — Peter’s story is as global as it is grounded. And Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras go deep with Peter, exploring: 🎾 Growing up in Melbourne’s north to immigrant parents — and what a good working-class boy was doing playing tennis ✝️ Who are the Egyptian Copts? Peter gives us a history lesson — one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, tracing their lineage back to the early Church, shaped by centuries of survival, faith and minority resilience in the Middle East 🧭 Why Peter chose the brutal occupation of parliamentary politics over a a successful and comfortable executive career 🏘️ On the ground in Wills — what voters are actually saying at the doors 🤝 Social cohesion beyond the slogan — what happens when trust frays? ⚠️ Extremism — left and right — protest, grievance, and social media accelerant 🌏 Geo-political volatility — what does middle-power strategy look like now? All killer, no filler. Catch Episode 46 wherever you get your podcasts.
This week it’s a one-on-one Kos vs Nick deep dive. No guests. No niceties. Just a hard look at the polling — and some of the rubbish floating around. We unpack: 📊 The latest federal and state polls — what’s real and what’s noise 🔵 The new Liberal leadership — and why it’s not generational renewal 🗳️ The same free-market fundamentalism dressed up with culture-war garnish 📰 The same campaign/media tactics including obligatory News Corp sit-down 🏙️ A leader who doesn’t hold an urban metropolitan seat 💥 And the deeper truth: the problem isn’t just the leader — it’s the party We also dig into: 📍 Victorian and South Australian polling 🎤 The Mally campaign launch: One Nation is the real threat ⚠️ How One Nation can eat into Labor’s base especially in Victoria Then: 🏗️ Why issues like the CFMEU saga are viewed by voters as intra-elite squabbles 🧍♂️🧍♀️ The widening gender divide and growing generational fracture — Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z — and how each tells a different political story If you want to know where Australian politics is actually heading — beyond the hot takes — this is the episode for you!
🎙️ New Curtin’s Cast: Alastair Campbell on democracy in the age of Trumpism Politics everywhere feels simultaneously stuck and combustible — in the US, the UK and here in Australia. This week Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras are joined by Alastair Campbell — former Director of Communications and Strategy to Tony Blair, co-host of The Rest Is Politics, and one of the sharpest observers of modern democratic politics — for a wide-ranging and unsparing conversation. We explore: Why UK Labour PM Keir Starmer governs with a commanding majority yet struggles to project purpose How Anthony Albanese’s Australian Labor and Canada’s Mark Carney are resisting the right-wing populist surge The global ecosystem of right-wing media, influencers and big money amplifying grievance and normalising transgressive politics of the MAGA, Reform UK and Aussie One Nation variety Why figures like Donald Trump, Nigel Farage and Pauline Hanson can get away with behaviour mainstream politicians cannot What New Labour got wrong - namely the downsides of globalization Housing, intergenerational equality and climate are the means by which the social democratic centre-left can beat back the populist Alt-Right Alastair also speaks candidly about his own reaction to Trump — even joking about how he has “Trump Derangement Syndrome” — and what that reveals about the emotional intensity of contemporary politics 🎧 Listen to episode 44 wherever you get your podcasts.
