Speaking with...

• Speaking with: Chris Ho and Edgar Liu about diversity and high density in our cities

  We can make conscious decisions about how we live together in closer proximity that allow for both cultural diversity and a shared sense of community. Ján Jakub Naništa/Unsplash This is a podcast discussing topics raised in our series, Australian Cities in the Asian Century. These articles draw on research, just published in a special issue of Geographical Research, into how Australian cities are being influenced by the rise of China and associated flows of people, ideas and capital between China and Australia. Migration and population growth are hot-button issues in Australian politics at the moment. State and federal election campaigns have and will focus on them for probably years to come, and it’s not just a local phenomenon: by 2030 it’s estimated 60% of the world’s population will live in cities. Most of the time discussions about the impacts are focused on external pressures – things like road congestion and infrastructure investment – but as more and more people are living in high-density housing, issues of cultural diversity and how we live together in such close proximity are just as important. How do we make sure we can live comfortably and respect each other? And how could policy change the sense of ownership we have over ever smaller personal spaces? Dallas Rogers speaks with Christina Ho and Edgar Liu about the changing ways we’re living in Australian cities, and how little attention has been given to what’s happening inside the apartment buildings of our cities. Music Free Music Archive: Ketsa - Catching Feathers Dallas Rogers recently received funding from The Henry Halloran Trust, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), Urban Growth NSW, Landcom, University of Sydney, Western Sydney University, and Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA).

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• Speaking with: ‘Everybody Lies’ author Seth Stephens-Davidowitz on why we tell the (sometimes disturbing) truth online

  According to Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, everybody lies to preserve social relations. www.shutterstock.com, CC BYHow much do you really know about your friends? Your co-workers? Your community and your country? The fact is that much of what we think we know about the people around us is likely to be skewed, because people tend to lie. We lie in conversation, on social media, and in surveys. But there exists an online trove of data that allows us to paint a much more accurate picture of who we really are. That’s the argument of US data scientist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, author of the book Everybody Lies and our guest on today’s episode of Speaking with. Stephens-Davidowitz says he uses data from the internet – what he calls “the traces of information that billions of people leave on Google, social media, dating, and even pornography sites” to tell us the surprising and sometimes disturbing truth about who we really are. Seth Stephens-Davidowitz spoke with David Tuffley, a senior lecturer in applied ethics and sociotechnical studies at Griffith University, to talk about what he learned. Edited by Dilpreet Kaur. Recorded by Michael Lund. Seth Stephens-Davidowitz is in Australia to speak at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney on this Sunday, November 4. He was also a speaker at Griffith University’s Integrity 20’18 event on October 24-26. Subscribe to The Conversation’s Speaking with podcast on Apple Podcasts, or follow on Tunein Radio. You can find more podcast episodes from The Conversation here. Music Free Music Archive: Blue Dot Sessions - Wisteria

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• Speaking with: Author Anita Heiss on Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia

  Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia is a compilation of 52 essays from First Nations authors, some of whom have never been published before. Rounak Amini/AAPAnita Heiss is one of the most prolific writers documenting Aboriginal experiences in Australia today through non-fiction, historical fiction, poetry and children’s literature. Her memoir, Am I Black Enough for You?, was a finalist in the 2012 Human Rights Awards. Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia. Black Inc. Books For her latest book, Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia, Heiss traded the role of writer for editor. The anthology includes 52 essays from First Nations writers spanning the breadth of society, from rural to urban, young to old, coastal regions to the country’s interior, well known authors to emerging writers. There’s even an essay by an opera singer, Don Bemrose, about his experience as what she calls a “double minority” – he’s both Aboriginal and gay. The result is a collection of stories that speaks to the strength of Aboriginal identity in Australia today, as well as the diversity of voices in the long marginalised Aboriginal literary community. For this episode of Speaking With, Professor Jacinta Elston, pro vice-chancellor (Indigenous) at Monash University, spoke with Heiss about the process of making the selections for the anthology, the main themes explored in the essays and how she envisions the book being used as a reference tool in classrooms across the country. Edited by Maggy Liu. Anita Heiss is speaking at the Brisbane Writers Festival on Sunday, 9 September. Read more: Love in the time of racism: ‘Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms’ explores the politics of romance Subscribe to The Conversation’s Speaking With podcasts on Apple Podcasts, or follow on Tunein Radio. You can find more podcast episodes from The Conversation here. Music Free Music Archive: Blue Dot Sessions - Wisteria Jacinta Elston does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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• Speaking with: law professor Cass Sunstein, on why behavioural science is always nudging us

  Governments can use nudges to influence our choices ShutterstockWhat can governments do to stop increasing obesity rates, help people save or get them to file their tax returns on time? The default answer used to be some kind of tax or penalty. Just make people pay more and they’ll do the right thing, right? But what if you could encourage certain behaviour without forcing the issue? That’s where nudges come in. These are small changes in design or presentation, like putting healthy food near the cash register, or sending reminders out around tax time. For this episode of Speaking with, The Conversation’s Josh Nicholas chats with Cass Sunstein, a Harvard professor who worked as a “regulatory czar” for years in the Obama administration. Sunstein literally wrote the book on nudges along with Richard Thaler, who won the 2017 economics Nobel Prize. The book is called Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness. Read more: The promise and perils of giving the public a policy 'nudge' As the controversial My Health Record has shown, behavioural science is now considered a standard part of the public policy toolkit. My Health Record was created to be “opt out”, in order to “nudge” people into remaining in the system. This takes advantage of a bias we have towards the default setting: many of us won’t expend the effort to opt out. Many governments – including Australia’s – now have professional “nudge units” stocked with behavioural scientists, working on problems such as tax avoidance and organ donation. Today on Speaking with, Professor Sunstein talks about nudges and public policy, when and where they work and how policymakers should use them. Subscribe to The Conversation’s Speaking With podcasts on Apple Podcasts, or follow on Tunein Radio. Music Free Music Archive: Blue Dot Sessions - Wisteria

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• Speaking with: journalist David Neiwert on the rise of the alt-right in Trump’s America

  A white supremacist holding a US flag over his face during a Unite the Right rally in Washington in August. Michael Reynolds/EPAThe rise of the radical right-wing movement in the US has become closely linked to Donald Trump’s presidency and the mainstreaming of ideas about race that were not so long ago found only on the furthest fringes of society. David Neiwert’s new book, Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump, charts the key political and social moments that have shaped these movements. He has spent more than two decades immersing himself in the strange, disturbing world of radical right-wing groups in the US, which are characterised by conspiracy theories unhinged from reality and a growing tendency to espouse violence against liberals as a solution to the world’s problems. Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump. Verso Books While many of the ideas championed by these groups are similar those propagated by the Ku Klux Klan of the past, the new radical right-wing groups have benefited from the internet and social media. This allows them to easily communicate their perceived grievances to a new generation of followers, predominantly young men. In some ways, this provides for a degree of anonymity, as well. Some of the more violent, racist and often misogynist views are promulgated by these groups online with little personal social cost. What is most concerning, and what Neiwert demonstrates in detail throughout the book, is the way in which the mainstream news media, in particular Fox News, has become a forum for mainstreaming some of these ideas about racial superiority, fuelling political division and partisanship. With the election of Trump, these once marginalised groups now have a clear figurehead – one who promotes their wild, and sometimes dangerous, conspiracy theories to the world. Neiwert’s book delves deep into the anxieties these people feel about their status in a changing and complex world. Issues like immigration, changing race relations, women’s rights and economic stagnation have all fuelled a desire to find someone to blame. When this is mixed with a pervasive gun culture, the result is a highly volatile mix of anger, paranoia and violence. Investigative journalist David Neiwert. Author provided The consequences have been deeply disturbing. Political rallies that end in frenzied screams of “lock her up”, alt-right rallies that result in death, and the growing toll of mass shootings that are disproportionately carried out by offenders influenced by the alt-right are a sign that something fundamentally twisted and nasty is colonising mainstream American politics. Edited by Maggy Liu. David Neiwert is appearing at the Word Christchurch Festival on Thursday, 30 August; the Antitode Festival in Sydney on Sunday, 2 September; and the Brisbane Writers Festival on Saturday, 8 September. Subscribe to The Conversation’s Speaking With podcasts on iTunes, or follow on Tunein Radio. See also: Trump’s First Year in Office: Bizarre and Sometimes Alarming Booksellers, the alt-right and Milos Yiannopolous The seeds of the alt-right, America’s emergent, right-wing populist movement Music Free Music Archive: Blue Dot Sessions - Wisteria Kumuda Simpson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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