Thorn in Your Side

Episode 12 - m* celebrates his birthday with Living the Dream

m* celebrates their birthday by recording an episode with the podcast that  serves as primary inspiration for TIYS. m* speaks with Dave Eden from the Living the Dream podcast, with both running the fair gamut of present major political economic discussions to be had within Australia in times of COVID-19. All exhaustively fit within 50-odd minutes of juicy analytical candour!

Episode links:

Living the Dream podcast page: https://livingthedream.podbean.com/

Dave's recent Jacobin article that Jacobinites went and jumped all over: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/10/australia-neo-keynesianism-capitalism-alp-greens-economics

Home page for the ACTU's current 'For the workers' campaign: https://fortheworkers.australianunions.org.au/home

And once again, because it is so darned fascinating, the Leftisms FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/391245808382954 

Episode 11 - m* finds an American

The first episode where this podcast can be unashamedly named! Also, the US appears to be going to shit. Consequently m* thought it proper to speak with an American on this, and found Ruth Oskolkoff, writer and with the podcast 'Eating Cake'. We both find these are interesting times for the US and the world, and we give it a red n black go of it!

Ruth's podcast Eating Cake: https://anchor.fm/eatingcake

A very viral blog Ruth has written: https://ruthoskolkoff.wordpress.com/2016/12/26/%e2%80%8bmy-apology-to-the-world-as-a-us-citizen/?fbclid=IwAR3DsU_5PXkoT-CvYMTMA8pUlQ78W4STX-77aJN9MxygDigZOXkXvRUWiFE

Facebook group that Ruth administers which appears to be attracting every shade of lefty in the US: https://www.facebook.com/groups/391245808382954

Episode 10 - 10 episodes in and finally a podcast name!

A lone wolf episode recognising the ten episode milestone, celebrated through the official naming of this podcast, to be henceforth known as Thorn in Your Side!

m* also rants about getting his masters in the midst of a crumbling uni institution, which proves to be quite a therapeutic exercise.

The podcast name may or may not have been inspired by the following song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AmkmqYEarw 

Episode 9 - This sporting life under COVID-19 (wazzup Roy and HG!)

Podcast mainstayer John returns to chat on the relationship between sports and the COVID-19 pandemic. Not surprisingly, both m* and John find clear political implications for the role that sport has played within pandemic times, most notably in the US through connections between the NBA and Black Lives Matter movement.

John has requested to talk more about politics and sports in future episodes and its a commitment to hold to!

A link to the 1908 Jack Johnson vs Tommy Burns fight held in Sydney, referred to within the episode - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i4YtsnMvIM.

And also, if you haven't voted on a name for this podcasting thingo being done here, then vote! Please go here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1257282307997615/.

 

  

Episode 8 - Precarious work in the platform economy, as observed at the local Maccas and rando taxi lane

m* chats with Fiona Alamyar, a legal professional who has previously written an Honours thesis on the experiences of Uber workers and the implications of this work towards greater emergence of the new platform economy.

While a matter of convenience to some workers, to other workers Fiona finds in this thesis a great deal of insecure work, particularly amongst those truly reliant on gaining income from work of this kind. Labour is changing, and the start is looking at what has changed and what are new forms of labour. Here is one such new thing.

 

Fiona's thesis can be found here: https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/17724

 

Links to key union bodies mentioned in the episode urgently requiring affiliation to the Australian Council of Trade Unions:

Ride Share Drivers' Association of Australia - www.rsdaa.org.au 

Retail and Fast Food Workers' Union - www.raffwu.org.au

Scarlett Alliance - www.scarletalliance.org.au/

Australian Unemployed Workers' Union - www.unemployedworkersunion.com/

Episode 7 - Time to raise the rate!

m* interviews Pas, a campaign organiser with the Australian Council Of Social Service (ACOSS) to discuss the Raise the Rate campaign, how the campaign has been influenced by COVID-19, and the relationship of the campaign to social and labour movements overall.

Geez, COVID-19 is coming up a lot in these episodes, isn't it?

Links:

Raise the Rate campaign website - https://raisetherate.org.au/

Campaign FB page - https://www.facebook.com/raisetherate

Episode 6 - m* interviews Peter (again!)

Peter drops by again to talk social housing matters, while also lurching into union and south west Sydney issues. You could listen if such info intrigues you, but what really should be celebrated is the finest production of an episode on this podcast yet! Listen to it in your car and everything!

Links:

Peter refers to the efforts of the late Don Syme, a CPA man (the old CPA, not the new one [yuk]) who had significant active ties to Western Sydney and more particularly Liverpool City Council. Here is Don's obituary may they RIP: https://www.smh.com.au/national/lifelong-view-from-the-left-20130918-2tzbq.html?fbclid=IwAR3WGODETqlpiDcI3-SFkyNRueHsT2o-qPYLNJe_UvSSOE5Pc67M0gtKM8Y

 

Also referred to in this episode is my soon-to-be submitted thesis on the policy analysis of current NSW social housing policy. I will try to figure out a way of getting a pdf link of my thesis on social housing policy onto here once i submit it to uni. But in the meantime, for those really keen here's a link to said policy: https://www.facs.nsw.gov.au/about/reforms/future-directions

Episode 5 - m* and m', a night of the M People (deep cut 90s pop reference intended)

Our usual guy m* chats with another Michael, but in this episode Michael wishes to go by m' so both can have separate internet names. As well as this utter breakthrough in nomenclature both talk politics, particularly the possibilities of democratised gig economy work.

m' knows a handy site for this very thing - platform.coop, a group promoting digital co-ops.

Mutual aid groups mentioned:

Sydney COVID-19 mutual aid network:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/205299920727385/

 

South-west Sydney group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/839122473250457/

 

Inner-west group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/142634903715594/

 

Will this podcast ever get a proper name?? At least the audio quality is improving!

Episode 4 - A creepy lone wolf episode, and yes conversation turns to chatter about men in trenchcoats

m* decides to do a one-person episode to lay down what the podcast channel is about, how people might like to involve themselves in the podcast, and then complains about how m*'s personal information is being handled by restauranteurs during COVID-19 contact tracing measures.

The letter received by Australian Government on the issue of privacy with contact tracing info when m* ranted to The Man - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10157620369001814&set=a.10151168153451814&type=3&theater

 

The cool TV show m* is now watching and mentioned edgewise during this episode - https://www.hbo.com/the-deuce. 

Episode 3 - Who do you sing for?

m* interviews Carlo, and as two ardent Western Sydney Wanderers fans and lefties both irresistibly find themselves making connections between what Wanderers fans experience with what is encountered within the Black Lives Matter movement and in social housing communities.

m* and Carlo also chat about life and times in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trigger warning for indigenous listeners - mentioned within this episode are names of the deceased and graphic content involving deceased peoples.

And here's what Carlo mainly gets up to these days as a performer - https://theunaustralian.net/.