Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps5 Mar

‘The Iran Conversation No One Is Having’ with David Frum

David Frum had a front-row seat the last time America went to war against a Middle Eastern adversary. He was in the George W. Bush administration in the lead-up to the Iraq War. In fact, as one of Bush's speechwriters, he wrote the line that came to define American foreign policy for the first decade of the 21st century. Four months after the World Trade Center towers were turned to rubble, President Bush channelled Frum in his State of the Union speech, saying that rogue states which harbored, financed and aided terrorists -- like North Korea, Iraq and Iran -- "constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world." This idea, of America being at war with an alliance of dangerous terrorist states, provided the rationale for going to war with one of them, Iraq. In fact, David Frum went on to write a book in 2004 with a fellow neoconservative, Richard Perle, a chief architect of the Iraq War, entitled "An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror". It became a bible of neoconservative foreign policy, in which Frum and Perle argued, among other things, for taking immediate, decisive action against Iran. Fast-forward 22 years and David Frum is one of the most prominent and persuasive conservative voices against Donald Trump. He has written two anti-Trump books, "Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic", and "Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy". He's a staff writer at The Atlantic and the host of the podcast The David Frum Show. And since the invasion of Iraq, his view of American power has grown more nuanced. David joins Josh to explain the precarious position in which war with Iran puts not just the Middle East... but American democracy itself.

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Episoder(498)

Who's hacking you right now? with ethical hacker Assadi Youssef

When you read news about a data breach which might have exposed your information, do you even care? Who’s behind all this hacking: China, Russia, or a nerd in his parents’ basement? Are our water and ...

24 Sep 1h 22min

William Shatner Doesn’t Want to Die, from The Moynihan Report

Today we’re sharing a bonus episode from The Moynihan Report. William Shatner sits down with Michael Moynihan in Los Angeles for a conversation about life, time, and knowledge. They talk about death...

22 Sep 54min

Social media broke our ability to agree with Jonathan Haidt

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 S...

21 Sep 58min

“So… Does God Hate F*gs?” with Megan Phelps-Roper

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, ...

17 Sep 19min

Is there any Room left for moderates? With Jeff Maurer

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 Wr...

14 Sep 1h 16min

JUST JOSH: The Unlearned Lesson of 9/11

It's a quarter-century since 9/11. What do we need to understand about its legacy, so as to handle the next quarter-century better? Josh was a college student visiting the World Trade Towers the summe...

10 Sep 2h 39min

Jewish Comedy at the Bondi Attack

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 antise...

7 Sep 1h 20min

Are Men Toxic?

A sex scandal involving star players for the Sydney Swans has rocked Australia. Coinciding with a spate of violence against women, the country is revisiting its all-too-familiar conversation about how...

3 Sep 26min