Curtin's Cast Episode 34 - 22 October 2025 - From Basra to 🇦🇺 Aussie Boardrooms: JCRC Chair Sam Almaliki
🎙️ Our guest today has lived the Australian story from the inside out. Born in Basra, Iraq, arriving to Australia as an asylum seeker aged nine including spending time in Villawood Detention Centre, and now a lawyer, chairperson and entrepreneur — Sam Almaliki’s journey is one of hope, hardship and renewal. From learning English behind fences to leading in business and community, Sam’s story captures the resilience and reinvention that define the Australian project. In this episode Nick and Kos yarn with Sam about:
🏠 Growing up in public housing & the power of aspiration
🏏 From Cricket Australia to navigating boardrooms
🤝 Migration, belonging & social cohesion
🎧 Listen to Curtin’s Cast with Sam Almaliki wherever you get your podcast goodies!
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Curtin's Cast Episode 33 - 15 October 2025 - Historic major party vote lows, One Nation support rising and Greens' Gaza gaffes
🎙️ New Curtin’s Cast episode! Kos and Nick dive into explosive new polling showing the combined major party primary vote at historic lows. The Liberals are haemorrhaging votes on their right flank while collapsing among Gen Z, millennials, women and CALD voters.
They unpack the immigration debate, the rise of Advance Australia and right-wing online grifters, and ask: who exactly is voting for One Nation in 2025? (Spoiler: not the people who matter in marginal swing seats). Plus: how the Greens’ extremist rhetoric around the Middle East is backfiring with mainstream progressives.
🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Curtin's Cast Episode 32 - 1 October 2025 - Kos and Nick on MAGA politics, Andrew Hastie and much more
🎧 New #CurtinsCast episode - Kos Samaras is back with Brisbane Lions tragic & premiership celebrator Nick Dyrenfurth to dissect the week in politics:
🇬🇧 The rise of alt-right & MAGA politics in the UK and Australia
🛠️ Andrew Hastie on migration, housing & slaying the neo-liberal dragon
⚠️ Wayne Swan’s warning to Labor on its shallow base in a time of electoral volatility… and much more besides.
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Curtin's Cast Episode 31 - 24 September 2025 - Dr Shireen Morris (JCRC Board Member, Constitutional Lawyer and Author)
🎧 New Curtin’s Cast Episode
With Nick Dyrenfurth still away, JCRC board member & leading constitutional lawyer Dr Shireen Morris joins Kos Samaras for a rich, personal and political conversation. 🌏⚖️
💡 From her Indian-Fijian family roots and early acting dreams to the frontlines of law and advocacy, Shireen shares the journey that shaped her fight for justice and belonging.
🗳️ They dive deep into the Uluru Statement and the Voice referendum:
• Lessons from working with First Nations leaders
• Why constitutional design matters more than slogans
• A frank autopsy of the 2023 Yes campaign—what worked, what didn’t
• Where recognition, treaty & reform go next
A candid, insightful episode on law, culture and the future of Australia’s democracy.
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Curtin's Cast Episode 30 - 17 September 2025 - Dr Stephen Parnis
#CurtinsCast host Nick Dyrenfurth takes a well-earned spell from the microphone as John Curtin Research Centre board member and constitutional lawyer Dr Shireen Morris joins Kos Samaras to lead a searching conversation with "proud Westie" and emergency physician Dr Stephen Parnis.
From the frontlines of emergency medicine to the fraught politics of end-of-life care, Dr Parnis reflects on the class politics of medical care, dealing with dying patents and what makes for a “good death,” the limits of autonomy, and why Victoria’s voluntary assisted-dying safeguards still trouble him.
The discussion widens to COVID’s class divides and the paradox of highly-educated, generally affluent anti-vax movement. It’s a candid, compassionate exploration of clinical ethics, public policy, and how we might rewrite the script on death and care in Australia.
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.
Australia