Julie Szego is a writer of the popular Substack blog Szego Unplugged, and a former senior journalist at The Age and other major Australian publications. She has authored a book titled The Tainted Trial of Farah Jama which was shortlisted for both the VIC and NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.

Our conversation spans a number of topics including taking risks, activist journalism, liberals versus progressives, Islamism, Jewish identity, the state of liberal Jewry today, advice for writing and more.

Julie’s Substack: Szego Unplugged

Buy Julie’s book today: The Tainted Trial of Farah Jama

Articles and other resources mentioned in today’s conversation:

• Matti Friedman: An Insider’s Guide to the Most Important Story on Earth

• RAND Corporation think-tank report on journalism

• The Cass Review (UK) on gender identity services

• Tom Holland interview on the relationship between Wokeism and Christianity

• Jeremy Corbyn speech describing “friends from Hezbollah and friends from Hamas”

• Julie’s article on the “bikini ban” at a public swimming pool in Dandenong

• Julie’s article on wearing the Star of David as battle gear

• Call Me Back podcast by Dan Senor

Podcast Info:

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Nathan Wolski is a lecturer in the Australian Centre of Jewish Civilisation at Monash University who has a special interest in the Zohar and Yiddish. He’s an author, translator and member of Di Farborgene Khalyastre (“The Hidden Group”).

Our conversation meanders through a range of topics including reality and the mystical experience, professional dreamers, Kabbalistic conceptions of God, rationalism vs mysticism, Aaron and Hillel Zeitlin, the overlap between physics and the Zohar, and more.

Books and concepts mentioned in today’s conversation:

• Esh Kodesh

• Midrash Tanchuma

• Menachem Mendel of Kotzh

• Mah (What) vs Mi (Who) in the Hakdama (Introduction) to the Zohar

• Wallace Stevens: Notes Towards a Supreme Fiction

• Encounters at the End of the World (A Werner Herzog film)

• Tetragrammaton

• Blue Octavo Notebooks by Franz Kafka

• A River Flows from Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar by Melila Hellner-Eshed

• Seekers of the Face Secrets of the Idra Rabba (The Great Assembly) of the Zohar by Melila Hellner-Eshed

• God and the Big Bang by Daniel C. Matt

• “Revenge of Myth” from Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism by Gershom Scholem

• Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking by Michael Fishbane

Podcast Info:

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This episode has been proudly supported by Beit Midrash Oz.

Ghil'ad Zuckermann is a professor of linguistics who invented the field of revivalistics, a trans-disciplinary field of enquiry exploring "the dynamics and problematics inherent in spoken language reclamation, revitalization, and reinvigoration". He was named in 2024 as one of Australia’s Top 30 “Living Legends of Research” by The Australian newspaper.

This conversation spans a number of topics including hyperpolyglotism, revivalistics, his classification of Modern Hebrew as Israeli, reviving the ancient Aboriginal language of Barngarla, the future of language in an increasingly globalised and online world, and much more. Buy Ghil'ad's book today using promo code AAFLYG6 to receive a 30% discount

Link to Ghil'ad's resources:

• Website
• MOOC

Books and concepts mentioned in this conversation:

• Revivalistics
• Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry
• Ladino
• Bourekas film
• Barngarla
• The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig
• Adam Jacot de Boinod

Podcast Info:

• Instagram
• Website
• YouTube