Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site

Keywords: Jim Mcdermott

  • PODCAST

    ChatterSquare S01E05: Moscow connections and the persistence of coal

    • Podcast
    • 06 April 2017

    In this episode, we try to take a knife through Donald Trump's entanglements with Russia. We also discuss coalcare, which is like government insurance for terminal fossil fuel industries. We finish with a quick note on a couple of films that have not been well-received.

    READ MORE
  • PODCAST

    ChatterSquare S01E04: Weatherill, the Snowy and neutrality

    • Podcast
    • 21 March 2017

    In this episode, we touch on energy, infrastructure and the political lens through which we receive nation-building ideas. We talk about Jay Weatherill, the South Australian Premier, who gave a master class this week in how to make federal ministers squirm. We also ask whether it is possible for journalists to remain neutral, a quarter into the Trump presidency.

    READ MORE
  • PODCAST

    ChatterSquare Extra: Is Justin Trudeau really all that?

    • Podcast
    • 14 March 2017

    Justin Trudeau became Prime Minister of Canada in 2015, taking the Liberal Party to a strong majority after nearly a decade of Conservative rule. He signaled many things that were seen as progressive. But is he really all that? In this episode of ChatterSquare Extra, we catch up with Neal Jennings, Canadian politics nerd, who joins us from Vancouver.

    READ MORE
  • PODCAST

    ChatterSquare S01E03: Turnbull, catharsis and scapegoating

    • Podcast
    • 07 March 2017

    In this episode, we feel a bit sorry for Malcolm Turnbull and wonder whether the electorate even cares who is leader anymore. We also discuss scapegoating and how attempts to discriminate lead to indiscriminate effects.

    READ MORE
  • PODCAST

    ChatterSquare Extra: Reading history in the age of Trump

    • Podcast
    • 28 February 2017

    In this episode, we chat with Dr Evan Smith, from the School of History and International Relations at Flinders University, Adelaide. We go over some of the historical analogies being made about the Trump administration, why people are drawn to them, and the pitfalls of reaching into the past to make sense of the present.

    READ MORE
  • PODCAST

    ChatterSquare S01E02: Hansonism, fear and fantasy

    • Podcast
    • 21 February 2017

    Is there an upside to Hansonism? In this episode, we try to figure out what One Nation actually has to offer. We also talk about fear and how some Americans are dealing with the Trump era by turning to fantasy literature. Is this just escapism?

    READ MORE
  • PODCAST

    ChatterSquare S01E01: Foreign policy and opposition on both sides of the Pacific

    • Podcast
    • 06 February 2017

    In the pilot episode of ChatterSquare, we talk about that phone call between the US president and Australian Prime Minister, and how it foreshadows foreign policy. We also try to work out what it means to be in opposition on both sides of the Pacific under current conditions. Hosted by Fatima Measham and Jim McDermott.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    The world we choose to live in

    • Jim McDermott
    • 24 August 2016
    5 Comments

    Maybe standing there we weren't afraid about the fight that was happening across the street, but the fraying at the edges that it represents, the insecurity that the gospel both of Trump and against Trump seems to be creating in our society. It echoes the insecurity we hear in the Brexit vote, and the treatment of both ethnic British citizens and immigrants that followed. Likewise, the resurrection of Pauline Hanson and her One Nation party. None of it sounds good and where is it all going?

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    View from the brink of the age of Drumpf

    • Jim McDermott
    • 04 March 2016
    5 Comments

    On Sunday Drumpf demurred when asked how he felt about former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke voicing his support for a Drumpf presidency. And yet he still swept the polls in the American Super Tuesday primaries, racking up wins in eight of 11 states. Under Barack Obama the US has had eight years of largely responsible, idealistic executive leadership. Yet rather than shepherding in a new hope-filled era, we find ourselves standing before a chasm of largely uncontrolled id.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Why Australia is missing the revolution

    • J. R. Hennessy
    • 19 February 2016
    24 Comments

    The aftershocks of the late-century push for liberalisation and the GFC have bred generations of dislocated voters who seek answers outside of the limited solutions of centrist governance. This provides ample opportunity for true progressive change, as seen in Europe and Latin America, and now the US and UK. Where's Australia? Nowhere to be seen. It is hard to imagine a truly progressive candidate emerging from our ossified political structures. There are a few reasons for this.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Electing a president in an age of superheroes

    • Jim McDermott
    • 08 February 2016
    5 Comments

    Many Americans want a President who speaks to their deepest dreams and ideals. A champion. Trump's vision of reality is the polar opposite of Obama's, a hellscape where foreigners, the unemployed (and women) are eroding society. But, like Obama, he has positioned himself as a champion of those filled with frustration, insisting it doesn't have to be this way. Bernie Sanders is in many ways the Trump of the left, a political outsider who says what progressive Americans have long been thinking.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Quietly uncovering a Church scandal

    • Jim McDermott
    • 28 January 2016
    4 Comments

    Not long ago a priest visiting from abroad told me that the story of Spotlight doesn't really apply to his country. 'We don't have that problem here.' It's a comment you get somewhat regularly from some parts of the world. Would that it could only be true. Without a much greater willingness on the part of the institutional Church to let itself be broken and changed by what we have learned since January of 2002, it's more likely a sign of disasters still to come.

    READ MORE