In a world marked by wicked social problems, The Minefield helps you negotiate the ethical dilemmas, contradictory claims and unacknowledged complicities of modern life.
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MINEFIELD with Fernando Hessel showcases incisive commentary from the journalist and Chief Observer of the White House and Pentagon on global issues. With over 30 years in television journalism, Hessel is renowned for his outspoken insights.
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Medical Minefield is a new health podcast where we talk about the ethical dilemmas at the heart of the health stories that matter the most. Join Barney Calman, the Mail on Sunday's health editor and deputy Health Editor Eve Simmons every week for a podcast tackling the big questions in health. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The Recruitment Minefield podcast. Hosted by Kevin Marney and Hannah Jarvis, we share our insight, experience and industry trends within recruitment. Specifically focused within the tech and gaming industry. Podcast is aimed for hiring managers, HR practices, founders and candidates. Recruitment can be a minefield. Our mission is to make sure you successfully recruit in niche markets. Maintaining a strong reputation and brand within the industry. Kevin Marney - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ke ...
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Should revenge have any place in our politics?
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There is something undeniably satisfying about revenge. When we feel we have been aggrieved, harmed or humiliated, it is natural to want payback. In ancient Greece, to inflict such an injury was conceived of as incurring a debt — and the only way to make the perpetrator “whole” was to have the injury repaid in kind. The paradox — as Socrates, Sopho…
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Can democracy survive the perfect storm of disinformation?
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Just weeks before a US presidential election, a combination of political mendacity, the perverse incentives offered by social media platforms, and opportunism on the part of content creators/consumers, have come together to form a perfect storm. The tragic irony is that the devastating consequences of these forces have become apparent in the afterm…
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What is “populism” – and what kind of problem does it pose?
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After the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and the outcome of the Brexit referendum, “populism” became the catch-all diagnosis for everything the ails democratic politics. But its polemical use has tended to obscure rather than clarify the meaning of the term.Av Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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What is it that makes “negative gearing” such a divisive tax policy?
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The policy of negative gearing — which gives the owners of investment properties an unlimited ability to deduct losses from their overall taxable income — has come to symbolise the disparity between the different ways Australians see home ownership: for some, it is a means of wealth creation; for others, it represents the ever-receding promise of s…
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“Truths that lie too deep for taint”: Wilfred Owen’s war poetry in our blood-soaked present
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The war poetry of Wilfred Owen refuses the comfort of hollow consolation in response to the mass loss of life — it also urges the sacrifice of the kind of bellicose pride that sees nothing but territorial gain and national self-interest, and is prepared to offer up the lives of the young to these ends. In a time of heightened violence and bloodshed…
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With the US presidential election on the horizon, to say nothing of a number of Australian elections, our airwaves, news sites and social media feeds are filled with political rhetoric. Many of us have come to accept political rhetoric — with its obfuscations, generalisations, exaggerations and outright evasions — as the price of doing business wit…
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Will Australia’s proposed cap on international students do more harm than good?
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Given the dependence of many Australian universities on international student fees, a significant drop in enrolments with no corresponding increase in government funding will likely yield a decline in the quality of teaching and research, a reduction in academic staff, and a precipitous tumble down the world university rankings. This would do consi…
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Festival of Dangerous Ideas: Is Australia breaking?
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One of Australia’s greatest strengths has been the remarkable diversity of its multicultural society. But is this also a potential source of weakness? In this live recording at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Waleed Aly and Scott Stephens, along with guest Stan Grant, explore the internal and external forces that risk undermining our sense of soci…
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“Freedom!”: Why can’t US politics agree on the meaning of its most basic principle?
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Even for a nation obsessed with the concept of “freedom” — or perhaps it would be better to say, concepts, not all of them easily reconciled, some of them utterly incommensurable — the prominence it was given during the recent Democratic National Convention was arresting. It was as though the Democratic Party vaulted the presidencies of Ronald Reag…
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Coleman Hughes, “colourblindness”, and the contentious politics of race
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In democracies with a history of racial injustice, are “colourblindness” and recognition of a “common humanity” — which were at the heart of the moral philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr. — desirable as expressions of our commitment to justice as equality?Av Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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“We live in a society!”: Seinfeld’s “Bizarro” comedy of morals
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When the first episode of Seinfeld went to air in 1989, it faced stiff competition from a packed field of American sitcoms. By its finale in 1998, the “show about nothing” had redefined the sitcom genre and conquered comedy. Critical to its success was the unlikely alchemy of the four central characters — their navigation of the interpersonal confl…
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“I don’t want to join any club that would have me as a member”: How funny is irony meant to be?
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Humour can often be a response to the sense of being ill-at-home in society — perhaps even ill-at-home in the world. But whether it takes the form of fatalism or self-deprecation, all such forms of ironic self-distancing have a sting in the tail.Av Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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“Time now for just a bit of fun”: Shaun Micallef on the importance of being silly
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In one form or another, comedy often proceeds from a certain exaggeration of life — exaggerated bodily movements, or facial expressions, or scenarios, or reactions. These exaggerations have an unreality to them, but still maintain an uncanny relationship to more “normal” life. Put another way: sometimes comedy is just plain silly, the art of relish…
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Minefield with Fernando Hessel offers insights on the backdrop of the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France. Meanwhile, missile attacks on the Israeli border are claiming civilian lives. Minefield with Fernando Hessel is available to over 320 million monthly active users in the USA through Spotify, iHeartMedia, and PLAYER FM. #2024Olympics #Paris2024 #Cur…
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“And now for something completely different”: Why do surprises provoke laughter?
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Immanuel Kant called laughter a form of the disappointment of the understanding — which is to say, surprise — for which the body then compensates: “Whatever is to arouse lively, convulsive laughter must contain something absurd … Laughter is an affect that arises if a tense expectation is transformed into a nothing.” But surprises, it turns out, co…
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Political violence — why is it so corrosive to democratic life?
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The attempted assassination of former US President Donald Trump, while undeniably shocking, was not altogether surprising. It was just the latest blow in a steady drumbeat of political violence that has only grown louder over the last decade. This reflects the fact that political violence is “in the air”, and is increasingly being regarded by many …
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“There’s a crack in everything”: Richard Fidler on the art of absurdity
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Comedy happens when something occurs that makes visible just how futile are our most earnest efforts, and how superficial are our solemnities, our moments of greatest seriousness and decorum — hence the deep connection between comedy, absurdity and tragedy.Av Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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One of the central themes of the episode is the prevalence of scams and false promises targeting hopeful immigrants. Hessel underscores the importance of vigilance and awareness, providing practical advice on identifying and avoiding fraudulent schemes. He shares real-life stories of victims who fell prey to these scams, emphasizing the severe cons…
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In a bespoke and individualistic age, are we losing a sense of “the common”?
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Because our lives are increasingly tailor-made, we are constantly seeking ways of distinguishing ourselves from others. What is being lost through is our sense of a humanity whose inherent vulnerability to misfortune, malfeasance and violence makes us dependent on one another.Av Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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Beatlemania at 60: Why was the band so popular before they were even great?
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The Beatles composed their best music in the years after 1965 — so what could account for the ecstatic response the band received in the United States and Australia in 1964? Why were they “big” before they were “good”?Av Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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INNOCENT PALESTINIAN DEATHS CONTINUE IN GAZA
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The Chief Observer of the White House, Fernando Hessel, makes striking comments on MINEFIELD. He discusses the attacks that killed 39 Palestinians north of the Gaza Strip and addresses the escalating violence in the West Bank.Av hessel3
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Right verdict, wrong case? The political dangers of Trump’s felony conviction
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On 30 May 2024, after two days of deliberation following a five-week trial and hearing the testimony of 22 witnesses, a jury of 12 New Yorkers found former President Donald Trump guilty of 34 felony charges. But do the facts of the case brought against him, and the overriding fact it was brought in an election year, present insurmountable political…
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Is the rise of the far right in Europe inevitable? It’s complicated
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The results of the recent European Parliament elections have only fuelled the growing concern across the member nations of the European Union that far-right, radical right, Eurosceptic and otherwise anti-immigrant parties are, once again, on the rise.Av Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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Apple Music recently released its list of the “100 Best Albums”. It was, without question, a clever marketing technique — but one that raises the problem of whether it’s appropriate to rank works of high human achievement in the first place.Av Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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Is international law powerless in the face of conflicts like Gaza?
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At a time when so many eyes are on international courts, is their apparent failure to protect civilians in Gaza — or to punish the perpetrators of 7 October — further damaging an already shaky public confidence in the concept of international law?Av Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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If chatbots are polluting the commons of human communication, what are the moral consequences?
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It’s 18 months since the technology company OpenAI made its wildly popular interface with an advanced large language model — GPT-4 — available to the public. What has ChatGPT done to the habits of thought and consideration that produce distinctly human expression?Av Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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What are the ethical, and legal, limits of protests at Australian universities?
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Protests are, by their nature, unequivocal and univocal. They tend to avoid nuance or fine distinctions, and most often do not invite dialogue. They make demands. Does the particular vocation of universities place ethical limits on the forms of expression available to protestors?Av Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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