Curtin’s Cast

John Curtin Research Centre
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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.

  1. 20H AGO

    Curtin's Cast Episode 44 - 19 February 2026 - Alastair Campbell on Trumpism and why Australia gives him hope

    🎙️ 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.

    54 min

  2. FEB 9

    Curtin's Cast Episode 43 - 9 February 2026 - Coalition implosion, One Nation surging and risks for Labor

    🎙 Curtin’s Cast returns for 2026 Episode 43 | Polling shocks, Coalition fracture and the new politics of grievance Australian politics is realigning in real time. In the first Curtin’s Cast episode of 2026, co-hosts Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras unpack a turbulent political summer — from polling shocks and Coalition breakdown to the surge of One Nation, the Gen X revolt, and the risks now facing a dominant but vulnerable Labor government. We discuss: • What the polling is really telling us • Why the Coalition’s break-up (and make-up) doesn’t fix the right • One Nation’s consolidation and electoral prospects • Gen X as the new grievance cohort • How legacy media built a populist right-wing Frankenstein it can’t control • Why the Greens are stuck in neutral • Why Labor’s next term must be about delivery, not luck • What the 2026 SA and Victorian elections will reveal about federal politics 🎧 Listen now on Apple, Spotify and YouTube

    51 min

  3. 12/16/2025

    Curtin’s Cast EOY Special - Nine Media’s Sean Kelly on Quarterly Essay #100: The Good Fight

    As we wrap up Curtin’s Cast for 2025, a big thank you to everyone who’s tuned in this year — and a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and season’s greetings to all our listeners. Your support has helped make Curtin’s Cast one of the most widely listened-to political podcasts in the country, and we’re deeply grateful. To close out the year, we couldn’t ask for a better conversation. Quarterly Essay has reached its 100th edition — a remarkable milestone for long-form political writing in Australia. And to mark it, Kos and Nick sit down with Sean Kelly, author of The Good Fight: What Does Labor Stand For? — an essay that asks an important, and uncomfortable, question in Australian politics. Sean argues Labor’s challenge today isn’t simply electoral, but moral: a crisis of purpose, confidence and imagination. Why has the party that once reshaped the nation struggled to articulate what it stands for heading into 2026? What replaced the old sense of mission? And can a politics built on “kindness” survive a harsher, more unequal era? 📘 Buy Sean Kelly’s Quarterly Essay #100 here: 👉 https://www.quarterlyessay.com.au/essay/2025/11/the-good-fight Thanks again for listening in 2025. We’ll see you in 2026 — with plenty more to talk about.

    55 min

  4. 12/09/2025

    Curtin's Cast Episode 41 - 10 December 2025 - Kos and Nick on One Nation surge, Barnaby and much more

    On this week’s Curtin’s Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras go one-on-one on what the latest Redbridge and Resolve polling is really telling us about Australian politics heading into a huge 2026 calendar. With two state elections looming in South Australia and Victoria, and federal pressures building, we unpack what to expect at state level, how federal factors are cutting through, and why One Nation’s surge is no longer a side story. The conversation then turns to the deeper question behind the numbers: who is actually experiencing material decline in living standards, and how that economic anxiety is reshaping voting behaviour across One Nation, Labor, Liberals and the Greens. With inflation risks still live and global instability rising, we also ask what kind of nation-building agenda Labor will need to put on the table in 2026 to hold the political centre.

    42 min

  5. 12/02/2025

    Curtin's Cast Episode 40 - 3 December 2025 - Alex Vynokur (United Ukraine Appeal) and Dom Meagher (JCRC)

    🎧 NEW EPISODE | CURTIN’S CAST 🇺🇦🇦🇺 Recorded live from Parliament House, Canberra Winning the Peace: Why Ukraine’s Reconstruction Is Australia’s Test Too This episode features one of the most powerful voices in Australia’s Ukraine community. Alex Vynokur didn’t become an advocate by choice — history chose him. A Ukrainian Jew whose family endured antisemitism and world war, Alex's family have built an incredibly successful life in Australia. When Russia invaded, he didn’t look away. He built the United Ukraine Appeal into a lifeline for hospitals, families and frontline communities under fire. Now he joins Curtin’s Cast — just minutes after the launch of our new report in Parliament along with report author Dr Dominic Meagher and hosts Kos Samaras and Nick Dyrenfurth  — to argue that rebuilding Ukraine is not charity, it is solidarity and strategy to serve Australia's national interest.

    37 min

  6. 11/25/2025

    Curtin's Cast Episode 39 - 26 November 2025 - Paul Sakkal (Nine Media Chief Political Correspondent)

    Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras sit down with Nine Media’s Chief Political Correspondent, Paul Sakkal, for one of the sharpest political conversations we’ve had all year. We cover everything reshaping Australian politics right now: • The latest polling — and what it really means • Liberal Party chaos & whether Sussan Ley can hang on? • The rise and rise of One Nation: who’s voting for them? Why? • Whether Pauline Hanson has finally hit her ceiling • Andrew Hastie — principled conservative or emerging Messiah figure? • Why the Liberals’ national future runs through fixing Victoria first • And what to expect from new Victorian Opposition Leader Jess Wilson It’s a wide-ranging, data-rich, brutally honest breakdown direct from the corridors of power.

    47 min

  7. 11/18/2025

    Curtin's Cast Episode 38 - 19 November 2025 - Nick and Emma Dawson on the Revolt Against Politics As Usual

    With Kung Fu Kos away, Nick Dyrenfurth teams up with guest co-host Emma Dawson (Chifley Research Centre) to tackle a huge few weeks in politics: 📊 What the latest federal polling really says 🌆 Mamdani’s NYC upset + outsider politics 🇬🇧 UK Labour turmoil, Reform & Greens surge 📱 Australia’s under-16 social media ban Is a new generation rejecting “politics-as-usual”? And what should Australian Labor, indeed political parties of all stripes, learn before it’s too late? Listen on Apple, Spotify and YouTube.

    50 min
  8. Curtin's Cast Episode 37 - 11 November 2025 - Troy Bramston on Gough Whitlam

    11/11/2025

    Curtin's Cast Episode 37 - 11 November 2025 - Troy Bramston on Gough Whitlam

    Fifty years to the day after the Dismissal, this week on Curtin’s Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth and guest co-host Emma Dawson talk to acclaimed historian and political biographer Troy Bramston about his stunning new biography Gough Whitlam: The Vista of the New. 700+ pages of reform, chaos, and vision — from Gough’s youthful poem to the tumultuous events of 11 November 1975. What does Whitlam still mean to Labor today? Listen now on Apple, Spotify and YouTube. Buy Troy's book: https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781460716137/gough-whitlam-the-vista-of-the-new-the-definitive-and-most-up-to-date-biography-from-australias-leading-political-biographer/

    52 min
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About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    John Curtin Research Centre
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    44
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Curtin’s Cast

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