Show Notes
What unites Trump and Obama, Pepsi and Coca-Cola, the far right and the far left? They’re all brilliant at defining their brands. They have a clear narrative. They can tell a compelling story about the world and their place in it.
So much of life, of business, of social media, of political parties and social movements is shaped, these days, not by facts but by “alternative facts”, by feelings, by storylines. You, yourself, may even have a personal brand: the disrupter, the carer, the loyalist, the contrarian, the lover.
Matt Jones was a political strategist and speechwriter for the British Conservative party in the early 2000s. He went on to deploy his brand expertise in the private sector, where he co-created a small gin company which was sold for a fortune less than a decade later on the strength of its brand reputation.
Matt joins Josh to explore how storytelling is shaping your life more than you realise, from the supermarket to the ballot box, and how we might bring sanity back to public life. Matt’s new podcast is StoryWork.
More from Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps
Is the exhausted majority stuck choosing between two extremes that can’t be satisfied, and what happens when the far left and far right go head to head? Josh chats with comedy writer and author of I Might Be Wrong, Jeff Maurer, live from a Washington, DC, hotel room, about why centrists keep losing the argument on both sides. They dig into the chaos in France, where a nation that riots over a modest rise in the retirement age may now face a runoff between an old-school communist and Marine Le Pen, and why Jeff thinks the far right wins that contest almost every time. They also cover the motte-and-bailey fallacy, Australia’s superannuation fix versus America’s looming Social Security cliff, why the left needs its own “Nixon goes to China” moment, the illiberal turn in progressive race politics, and the case for a really basic version of Medicare for All.
Is it more ethical to prosecute your moral beliefs, or to understand people who disagree? Who, exactly, is fomenting polarisation? Who is capable, potentially, of political violence? Is it, perhaps, all of us? Especially those of us convinced we’re doing good? Several months ago, Josh hosted an Uncomfortable Conversations panel event at a black-tie gala in the nation’s capital with the federal member of parliament Helen Haines. This week, Haines was intentionally rammed by a car. She has lost both her legs. The prime minister is trying to soothe a shocked nation by encouraging “people in positions [of influence]… to join in the call to turn [the] temperature down.” Josh knows a thing or two about fostering conversations across ideological divides. In this ad-libbed editorial from New York, Josh argues that telling other people to turn the temperature down is worse than useless. Nobody thinks their own temperature is set too high. Rather, we believe that less passionate people are feckless or corrupt. This points a way forward, towards how we all might participate in creating a more cohesive society. Our thoughts are with Helen, her family and her loved ones. We hope that in some tiny way, this helps.
This episode is part of The Best Of series and was originally posted in 2021. Tim Urban’s first appearance on this show remains one of my all-time favourites. Why are you here? Are we alone in the universe? Will we extinguish ourselves? Why do you procrastinate? And what does social media reveal about your chimpanzee mind? Tens of millions of viewers watch philosopher-blogger king Tim Urban wrestle with these questions in TED Talks and on his comic blog, 'Wait But Why'. Spark up a reefer and join Josh on a cosmic journey into a genius mind.
This episode is from the You’re A Good Kid podcast, featuring your humble host, Josh Szeps. This is a candid look into the life and mind of a boy who grew up in Sydney's inner suburbs and how love, family, and creativity shaped his strong self-confidence. This episode was originally published on the You’re A Good Kid podcast in July 2026.
A.I. is unleashing a “judgment day” on everything from algebra and geometry to probability and logic. What happens to human knowledge when it's dropped in our laps instead of being understood? It was just days ago that OpenAI dumped 722 new mathematics papers online, claiming extraordinary mathematical breakthroughs. Professional mathematicians are stupefied. Many of them are worried that A.I. risks prematurely shutting down lines of inquiry. Will humans receive ready-made insights with no new techniques, questions or, ultimately, understanding? One leading mathematician even needed to use A.I. to read the A.I.’s proof of the problem she spent years working on. Adam Spencer is a mathematics communicator and broadcaster whose Substack, NerdNews, discusses math, A.I. and general geekiness. He joins Josh to describe the shockwaves in the field and to wrestle with the pros and cons of super-intelligent machines solving humankind's deepest questions for us. Read Adam Spencer’s Substack https://adambspencer.substack.com/