Curtin’s Cast
Welcome to Curtin’s Cast, the John Curtin Research Centre’s podcast of politics, culture and ideas brought to you by JCRC Executive Director Nick Dyrenfurth and Redbridge Director and former Victorian Labor assistant secretary Kos Samaras. Each fortnight we bring you the freshest and most challenging conversations from the world of Australian and global politics with leaders, activists, and thinkers.
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Episodes

Apr 30, 2025
Apr 30, 2025
1 hr 18 min
Curtin's Cast MEGA federal election preview!On tomorrow's episode of our podcast with Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras we are joined by psephological superstar Shaun Ratcliff of Accent Research. We discuss all things democracy sausage including who will win and why, the key seats to watch, does it matter whether party leaders know how much a carton of eggs cost, what respective campaign HQs will be up to in the final days and much more!

Apr 23, 2025
Apr 23, 2025
44 min
We have a fantastic episode of Curtin's Cast this week featuring Professor Drew Westen, well-known US political psychologist and author of the super influential 2007 book, 'The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation'. We spoke to Drew about his book – including receiving praise from Bill Clinton (which he initially thought was a hoax!) - why feelings trump facts every time, what the Left gets wrong about voters, Trumpism and much more!About Drew Westen
Drew Westen is a Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at Emory University and formerly taught at the University of Michigan and Harvard Medical School. He is founder of Westen Strategies a strategic messaging consulting firm that serves nonprofits and political organizations and the author of three books and countless scholarly articles, including The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation. The book has been widely used by political candidates and leaders around the world and is credited as having influenced campaign strategies in a number of races, beginning with the 2008 Presidential race. President Bill Clinton described it as one of the most significant books in politics he had read in a decade. He has advised a range of organizations, from presidential and prime ministerial campaigns in the US and internationally.

Apr 15, 2025
Apr 15, 2025
45 min
On Episode 8 of Curtin's Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kosmos Samaras take the pulse of the federal election halfway through the campaign. Kos gives us an update on what the polls are telling us drawing on his decades of experience, how campaign launches work, key seats watch from across the continent, what's behind Peter Dutton's seeming implosion and competing party machines, while Nick and Kos trade contrarian takes on housing policy and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price's MAGA-phone. Is this the worst federal election Liberal campaign in modern history? Listen to Curtin's Cast at your favourite streaming service to find out the answer!

Apr 9, 2025
Apr 9, 2025
48 min
We have a powerful, compelling episode of Curtin's Cast Episode 7 for your listening pleasure this week featuring the Independent MP for Fowler in in Sydney's outer southwestern suburbs, Dai Le Co-Hosts Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras chatted to Dai about her arresting back story, from her dramatic departure from Vietnam in April 1975, life as a refugee family first in the Philippines and then Australia, her career in journalism and finally becoming a politician at a local and then federal level, the first Vietnamese-Australian MP to sit in the nation's parliament.

Apr 2, 2025
Apr 2, 2025
37 min
On Episode 6 of Curtin's Cast, Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras unpack Week One of the federal election. Kos tells what to take from the avalanche of new polling, key seats to watch in the outer suburbs and inner-cities, Liberal woes and the "Trump bump", plus they deep dive into a major research project the John Curtin Research Centre and RedBridge Group are undertaking on right-wing populism. Listen to Curtin's Cast Episode 6 at your favourite streaming service!

Mar 26, 2025
Mar 26, 2025
41 min
On this week's episode of Curtin's Cast Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras deep dive into the looming federal election, what the polls are telling us, Donald Trump's tariff wars, the future of the two-party system in Australia and the 2025 Budget.Listen to Curtin's Cast Episode 5 at your favourite streaming service!

Mar 19, 2025
Mar 19, 2025
56 min
We have an amazing new episode of Curtin's Cast with the the brilliant Minister for Housing and Homelessness, Clare O'Neil MP.Nick Dyrenfurth and Kos Samaras yarned with Clare about family including her convict relatives, her childhood raised by publisher parents, modern life and being a working Mum of three in politics, and plenty of policy focusing (not surprisingly!) on housing. Some say if you want a friend in politics get a dog! We asked Clare if she had friends from the non-Labor side and response was super interesting!Listen to Curtin's Cast Episode 4 at your favourite streaming service:Applehttps://lnkd.in/gM8HyBjRSpotifyhttps://lnkd.in/gJRCtZPEYouTubehttps://lnkd.in/gJZrEdbH

Mar 12, 2025
Mar 12, 2025
53 min
Episode 3 of the John Curtin Research Centre's Curtin's Cast podcast has landed and it's a cracker! JCRC Executive Director Nick Dyrenfurth and RedBridge Director Kos Samaras yarn with Lord Glasman. We deep dive into Maurice's Blue Labour project, discuss the rise of Trump and his recent chat with MAGA 'Godfather' Steve Bannon, the follies of unchecked globalising capitalism and modern left-wing 'progressive' politics, the meaning of patriotism, AI and climate change, and what it will take for Labo(u)r parties to win back the affection of the working class.
Maurice Glasman is an English political theorist, academic, social commentator, and Labour life peer in the House of Lords. Baron Glasman is professor of politics at St Mary’s University, London, and director of the Common Good Foundation. Maurice is best known as a founder of the Blue Labour tendency, a term he coined in 2009, which advocates for a conservative form of socialism. He is the author of Blue Labour: The Politics of the Common Good and and Unnecessary Suffering: Managing Market Utopia.

Mar 5, 2025
Mar 5, 2025
41 min
On Episode 2 of the John Curtin Research Centre's Curtin's Cast podcast JCRC Executive Director Nick Dyrenfurth and RedBridge Director Kos Samaras chat to the Treasurer of Australia and Member for Rankin in suburban Brisbane, Jim Chalmers. We deep dive into what makes Jim tick and his passions, including what he does outside of the cut and thrust of political life, how he takes inspiration from Labor legend Paul Keating and where he differs in his 21st century approach, the big challenge of intergenerational responsibility, the fourth wave of economic transformation, and what is at stake at this year's election, and much more.

Feb 18, 2025
Feb 18, 2025
48 min
JCRC Executive Director Nick Dyrenfurth and Redbridge Director Kos Samaras look at the year ahead in Australian politics, deep diving into recent opinion polling, Trump and the global right-wing anti-establishment insurgency, how men and women are heading in different voting directions, upcoming West Australian election, and much more.



