Bogan Intelligentsia

Anthony Klan is an Australian investigative journalist and founder of The Klaxon, known for rigorous reporting on political funding, institutional power, and accountability in Australian public life. He has spent years documenting the financial and political networks behind major parties, donors, and influence operations. 

Anthony joins us for a wide-ranging conversation that opens with the 2026 US midterms and the scale of the Democratic gains, then turns to the Australian political landscape. We examine the attempted revival of the Australian Democrats, the recent anti-immigration rally headlined by One Nation that drew neo-Nazi attendance, the party’s racist stickers tar...

 ussein al-Bukhaiti is a Yemeni journalist and political commentator based in Sana’a, the capital held by the Ansarullah-led government since the September 2014 revolution. He has appeared extensively on international media including Al Jazeera, the BBC, Press TV, The Cradle, and others, offering a perspective from inside Yemen that is almost entirely absent from Western and Australian coverage. Drawing on the history of Saudi interventions, the 2014 takeover of the capital, and the subsequent blockade and war, he challenges the standard framing of the conflict as “Houthi rebels” versus a legitimate “Yemeni government” based in Riyadh.

al-Bukhaiti joins us to exami...

David N. Gibbs is Professor of History and Political Science at the University of Arizona, specialising in U.S. foreign policy, intervention, and the political economy of alliances. Drawing on declassified documents, he has shown how post-Cold War U.S. strategy treated European autonomy as a problem to be managed, using the Yugoslav wars to lock in NATO primacy and block independent European security arrangements. 

Gibbs joins us to examine how the same dominance logic that subordinated Europe in the 1990s is now being applied in the Pacific through AUKUS, expanded base access, and force-posture integration. He a...

Marco de Jong is a Pacific historian and lecturer in the AUT Law School, specialising in New Zealand foreign policy, Pacific regionalism, and the history of regional security. Drawing on declassified archives, he has traced the deeper roots of strategic denial in the Pacific and the contested “community” approaches that once sat alongside it. He is also known for his recent analysis of the Treaty of Rarotonga and New Zealand’s growing military-technical alignment with Australia and the United States.

Marco joins us to examine the Blue Pacific Ocean of Peace and whether it functions as a genuin...

Gurridyula is a Wangan and Jagalingou man and representative of Waddananggu, living on country at the camp established on the Adani Carmichael mine lease in central Queensland. He has maintained a continuous presence there as part of cultural resistance and ceremony, and is also known as Coedie McAvoy.

Gurridyula joins us on the growing public friction around Aboriginal protocols in Australia, starting with the boos that met a Welcome to Country at a recent soccer final. The conversation examines why a significant portion of Australians appear to have hardened against these practices, the deliberate cultural and institutional...

Dr. Jay Chako is a geopolitical analyst and political economist with a PhD from the University of Sydney. His research focuses on imperialism, currency hegemony, and the long-term conditions that produce geopolitical conflict. He has written and spoken extensively on the Middle East, including previous work on Syria and Yemen.

Chako joins us for a full crash course on Yemen — a country most Australians know almost nothing about. The conversation covers Yemen’s unique history and people, the North–South divide and 1990 unification under Saleh, the Arab Spring and the rise of the Houthis, the outbreak of the ci...

Tony Kevin is a former Australian ambassador to Poland and Cambodia, and the author of Return to Moscow (2017). He served in Moscow from 1969 to 1971 and has returned to Russia several times since 2016.

Kevin joins us on a war he says Kiev has already lost, and that the West is still prolonging. The conversation runs from his Cold War posting and the decay of the Soviet system, through Maidan, Bandera’s afterlife in Ukrainian politics, the Donbass fighting from 2014, and the Minsk accords as a ceasefire that also bought time. It then turns on Russophobia in Australia and th...

Bryant Harris is a former journalist with more than a decade covering U.S. foreign and defense policy from the White House and Capitol Hill. He is now pursuing a Master of Strategic Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, and is the author of Rebuilding New Zealand’s Navy for Security, Not Aggression (Center for International Policy, 17 September 2026).

Harris joins us on the sliding-doors decision in front of New Zealand: replace the aging ANZAC frigates Te Kaha and Te Mana with new high-end warships, or build a navy for home waters, the Pacific, and disaster relief instead of...

On Episode 82 of Bogan Intelligentsia, Ambassador John Lander returns for an episode on Australia as a US military colony and sovereignty gone via the 2014 Force Posture Agreement and AUKUS. He outlines a China war not of our making, asking what veto is left if Washington uses our bases over Taiwan, and sets Albanese’s UNGA appearance and words against the realities of the decisions made in Canberra.

Podcast Details: 1 hr 24 min | Released 1 October, 2026 | John Lander – Retired Australian diplomat; former Deputy Ambassador to China; three-time Head of DFAT’s China section; Australia’s first Ambassador to the Islamic Republic...

On Episode 81 of Bogan Intelligentsia, journalist, author and Australia Institute chief political analyst Amy Remeikis joins the program to discuss Screw Nice, the politics of civility, and how manners became a tool for keeping Australia’s real arguments off the table. 

Podcast Details:  55 min | Released 27 September, 2026 | Amy Remeikis – Author, journalist and chief political analyst, The Australia Institute

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On Episode 80 of Bogan Intelligentsia, Adelaide journalist and climate researcher Royce Kurmelovs joins the program to discuss the climate crisis and the impact of the deteriorating global political situation on effective solutions and consensus driven outcomes. Climate action was pinned to an international system that assumed law, consensus, and enough peace for complex work; war and the wrecking of those mechanisms did not just distract attention, they removed the furniture. Royce details this clash of these counterintuitive priorities. 

Podcast Details:  71 min | Released 20 September, 2026 | Royce Kurmelovs –  Author, journalist and climate researcher 

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On Episode 79 of Bogan Intelligentsia, Lebanese-Canadian journalist and Free Palestine TV founder Laith Marouf returns for a unique discussion on resistance, the United States empire, and the last Western outpost in the Levant. Marouf also speaks on the untold story of the fully colonised states like Australia: conquest so complete that the settlers themselves became the most captured subjects of a new empire, rear bases with votes, weapons, and the feeling of freedom because the chain does not look like a checkpoint.

Podcast Details: : 63 min | Released 09 September 2026 | Released 13 September 2026 | Laith Marouf – Lebanese-Canadian journalist and political commentator; founder of...

On Episode 78 of Bogan Intelligentsia, retired Australian diplomat, former Deputy Ambassador to China and first Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Iran John Lander joins us for a tight, unsermonic hour on sovereignty, and AUKUS through the lens of the Force Posture Agreement.

Lander walks through what Australia conceded on unimpeded US access to bases and facilities, why he says that arrangement surrenders operational control, and how submarine rotations at HMAS Stirling, bomber deployments and “interchangeable” forces lock the country into US strategy.

Podcast Details: : 63 min | Released 09 September 2026 | John Lander – retired Australian diplomat; former Deputy Ambass...

 On Episode 77 of Bogan Intelligentsia, Australian human rights lawyer, former Human Rights Commissioner and UN commission of inquiry member Chris Sidoti joins us for a tight, unsermonic hour on law, visas, the IDF running the Sydney Marathon,and the killing of Zomi Frankcom.

Starting from Israel’s decision to close the Zomi Frankcom file and refuse criminal charges days before the Sydney Marathon, Sidoti walks through the details surrounding the event, looking at what Australia failed to do at the border, and how the whole thing was allowed to happen if the first place. Sidoti questions what Hom...

On Episode 76 of Bogan Intelligentsia, American-born IR scholar, Un-Diplomatic host and Victoria University of Wellington associate professor Van Jackson joins us for a sharp conversation on empire and Australia's role within it. Starting from Mark Carney’s Davos “rupture” speech and his August address after Canada walked away from U.S. trade talks, Van unpacks last-minute American demands Canada, and what it means when Washington treats even its closest partner as a subsidiary. From there he turns to alliances as instruments that launder coercion, like Australia's, via the 2026 Iran campaign and US strategic failures. Under the theme Alliances, Primacy and th...

On Episode 75 of Bogan Intelligentsia, Australian-Palestinian writer, director and filmmaker Ala’a Al Qaisi joins us for a deep and moving conversation on storytelling as memory, resistance and healing. Drawing on her upbringing with her grandmother’s stories of a Palestine she has never seen, Ala’a examines diaspora identity and the homeland, the shift from screen to theatre as soft power, the genesis of a work born from one family’s grief, the creation of a “second reality through imagination,” the responsibility of embodying real loss on stage, art that humanises against dehumanising narratives, and healing as a communal and...

On Episode 74 of Bogan Intelligentsia, Yorta Yorta journalist, broadcaster and 7am co-host Daniel James joins us for a wide-ranging and unflinching conversation on Australia’s unfinished business with its First Peoples.

Drawing on his work hosting The Mission on 3RRR and his sharp political analysis, Daniel examines the post-Voice landscape, the vacuum of truth-telling, the battle over national identity, Blak sovereignty versus mainstream leadership. 

Under the theme National Identity and sovereignty, Daniel reflects on what the country still refuses to face, where genuine agency is being built, and what a deeper, more honest Australian story mig...

On Episode 73 of Bogan Intelligentsia, former South Australian Senator, Royal Australian Navy submariner and transparency warrior Rex Patrick joins us for an excellent analysis into the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal.

Drawing on his recent testimony to the AUKUS Public Inquiry, ongoing FOI battles and sharp analysis of the June 2026 shift to second-hand Virginia-class boats, Rex examines the growing undersea capability gap, the US industrial base shortfalls that forced Australia onto used subs, the government’s aggressive secrecy over nuclear waste storage sites and costs, and the absence of clawbacks or a credible Plan B.

Podcast De...

On Episode 72 of Bogan Intelligentsia, Beirut-based Palestinian-Syrian journalist, media producer and founder of Free Palestine TV, Laith Marouf, joins us for an update on the war in southern Lebanon.

Drawing on his continuous on-the-ground reporting from Beirut and the south since our last conversation in early June, Laith examines the limited Israeli withdrawals and the widening gap between official ceasefire announcements and the actual control map south of the Litani.

Laith then reflects on whether the current phase marks a genuine strategic turning point, the biggest media distortions still shaping Western coverage, and what comes...

On Episode 71 of Bogan Intelligentsia, Dr Yousef AlKhouri, Academic Dean and Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Bethlehem Bible College, Gazan-born Palestinian Christian theologian and board member of Kairos Palestine, joins us for a powerful conversation on the living Christian presence in Palestine.

Dr AlKhouri unpacks Christianity’s ancient and continuous presence in Gaza, the concept of ecclesiocide, Christian Zionism as a form of theological terrorism, and the accelerating demographic decline and pressures facing Palestinian Christians. He reflects on theology from the rubble, Western Christian silence, and what costly peacemaking demands of the global Church.

Po...

On Episode 70 of Bogan Intelligentsia, Honorary Professor of Modern European History at the University of Newcastle and leading expert on Russian and Soviet history, Roger Markwick, joins us to unpack the often omitted historical elements that impact on the Ukraine war.

Drawing on decades of scholarship, Professor Markwick examines the post-1945 roots of the conflict, NATO expansion, the 2014 Maidan events and Donbas war, and Putin’s strategic calculus compared to Soviet-era approaches. He analyses whether 2026 marks a potential turning point, Ukraine’s intensified long-range drone campaign against Russian oil infrastructure, tankers, and logistics centres.

Podcast Deta...

In a sharp and revealing conversation on Bogan Intelligentsia, investigative journalist and editor of The Klaxon, Anthony Klan, joins us to pull back the curtain on the pro-Israel lobby’s influence in Australian politics, media and public institutions.

Drawing on his recent reporting, Anthony dives deep into Jillian Segal’s dual role as Antisemitism Envoy while tied to pro-Israel lobby groups, her family trust donations to the far-right Advance network, and her high-profile appearances at the Royal Commission. He also covers the savage attacks on Sarah Schwartz of the Jewish Council of Australia, the Australian Jewish News arti...

Podcast Details: : 45 min | Released 05 July, 2026 |  Wendy Bacon – Investigative Journalist & Activist  

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In this hard-hitting episode of Bogan Intelligentsia (Episode 67), we sit down with Michael West — one of Australia’s most fearless independent journalists and founder of Michael West Media — for a no-holds-barred look at power, influence, and the battle for truth in Australian media. Michael unpacks the explosive BHP court case against MWM and injured whistleblower Simon Turner, exposing how corporations weaponise the legal system to silence reporting. West dives deep into fossil fuel money shaping media and politics, the staggering flow of public funds to the Israel lobby and speaks frankly on transparency, disparities, and influence.

Podcast Detail...

In this powerful and timely episode of Bogan Intelligentsia, we sit down with Laith Marouf — Beirut-based journalist, founder of ⁨@tvfreepalestine⁩ and one of the most consistent on-the-ground voices reporting from Lebanon and the resistance front. Laith delivers a hard-hitting update on the situation in southern Lebanon, exposing Israeli ceasefire violations, double-tap strikes in Tyre, the symbolic occupation of Beaufort Castle, and the game-changing impact of Hezbollah’s FPV drones. He breaks down the reality behind the so-called ceasefire, signs of Israeli desperation, and the critical crossroads ahead: full withdrawal or a wider war involving Iran.

Podcast Details: 67 min | Re...

In this episode of Bogan Intelligentsia, we sit down with Anneke Demanuele — Victorian Socialists Upper House candidate for Western Metropolitan in the 2026 Victorian state election, co-host of The Party Line podcast, Red Flag contributor, and leading anti-far-right organiser. 

Anneke talks about socialism in Australia today, the mission and strategy of Victorian Socialists, and how the left can fight back against neoliberal decay, the rise of One Nation and the far-right, and Labor’s rightward shift. 

Podcast Details: 68 min | Released 30 May 2026 | Anneke Demanuele – Victorian Socialists Upper House candidate, The Party Line co-host & Red Flag contributor

Su...

In this powerful episode of Bogan Intelligentsia, we sit down with Marcus Strom — veteran science journalist, former Sydney Morning Herald science editor, ex-MEAA president, and national convener of Labor Against War. As editor of the new Labor Tribune and a leading socialist voice in the ALP, Marcus delivers a sharp analysis of the left’s crisis, union failures, and anti-imperialist politics in Australia.He discusses the Labor Tribune vision, why green capitalism is a con exposed by the Iran war, strategies to stop AUKUS, union shortcomings on Gaza, the complex relationship with Israel’s union movemet, internal ALP tensions, and wh...

In this powerful and timely episode of Bogan Intelligentsia, we sit down with one of Australia’s leading criminal defence lawyers and civil liberties advocate, Nick Hanna. As principal of Hanna Legal and Chairperson of the newly launched Civil Liberties Defence Centre, Nick has been at the forefront of the fight for protest rights. Fresh from his major victory in the NSW Court of Appeal striking down the post-Bondi anti-protest laws, he delivers a hard-hitting analysis of the current assault on free speech and civil liberties in Australia.

Podcast Details: 79 min | Released 10 May 2026 | Nick Hanna – Leading Criminal Defe...

In this timely episode 62 of Bogan Intelligentsia, Joel Jenkins speaks with veteran Australian political journalist and publisher of New Politics, Eddy Jokovich. Fresh off his latest article “The Continuing Failure of Politics,” Eddy breaks down the deepening crisis in Australian governance exposed by the Royal Commission interim report, the Albanese government’s handling of the US/Israel war on Iran, and a directionless federal budget. 

Eddy delivers unfiltered analysis on the Royal Commission’s secret recommendations, ASIO and AFP failures leading up to the Bondi attack, the secrecy protecting intelligence agencies, Australia’s lockstep alignment with a faltering U...

In this timely interview, James Godfrey — Steering Committee member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and long-time Australian activist with Free Gaza Australia — joins us for a discussion on the historic Spring 2026 Gaza Freedom Flotilla. 

Podcast Details: 40 min | Released 23 April, 2026 | James Godfrey – Inside the Largest Gaza Freedom Flotilla, Israeli Attacks & Breaking the Siege 

Support the Launch:
Subscribe for free on Substack at boganintel.com to get episodes and show notes, or go paid ($5/month). 

Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. 

Watch the video version on our YouTube channel. Subscribe for updates. <...

In episode 60 of Bogan Intelligentsia, Joel Jenkins sits down with Australian Greens Senator David Shoebridge for a no-holds-barred discussion on Australia’s foreign policy, national sovereignty, and the escalating conflicts in West Asia. Senator Shoebridge delivers a sharp critique of Australia’s rush to back the war in West Asia, the shifting US alliance under Trump, the future of AUKUS, and the bipartisan reflex for supporting imperial wars.

Essential listening for anyone concerned about Australia’s strategic independence, the human and sovereign costs of endless wars, and what a more independent Australian foreign policy could look like.

P...

 In this hard-hitting episode of Bogan Intelligentsia, we sit down with Beirut-based Palestinian-Syrian journalist, media producer, and founder of  Free Palestine TV, Laith Marouf. From his direct on-the-ground reporting in southern Lebanon, Laith delivers raw, unfiltered truth about the ongoing Israeli occupation, the resistance, and the human reality in Lebanon today. Laith shares what makes on-the-ground reporting in this period unique, especially covering resistance operations, civilian impacts, and massacres in the south.We go deep into the human cost: the daily plight of displaced families, children growing up without homes, destroyed villages, and the constant fear under continued Israeli st...

In this hard-hitting episode of Bogan Intelligentsia, we sit down with independent Lebanese journalist Hussein Assaf, known as “Hussein of the South”. From his roots in southern Lebanon, Hussein delivers unfiltered ground truth about the current situation in Lebanon under ongoing Israeli occupation. We explore Lebanon’s complex history — its sectarian divisions rooted in colonial design, the legacy of Sykes-Picot, Syria’s impact, and how the country has evolved since the 2005 Hariri assassination and the 2006 war. Hussein details the dramatic shifts after October 7, 2023, the central role of Hezbollah, the enduring legacy of Hassan Nasrallah, and the current condition and morale of...

In this episode of Bogan Intelligentsia, we sit down with Shaiel ben Ephraim, a former IDF officer and veteran of Israel’s notorious Unit 8200 intelligence corps. With Israel engaged in simultaneous wars against Iran and a brutal ground invasion of Lebanon, Shaiel cuts through the official narratives and media blackouts to deliver a rare insider’s assessment of what’s really happening. We discuss the unreported damage inside Israel from Iranian missile barrages , the true costs of the war, and whether Israel has dangerously underestimated Iran’s resilience and US ability. Shaiel addresses internal warnings of IDF collapse, growing criticis...

In Episode 56 of Bogan Intelligentsia, we sit down with former Australian Defence Force officer and experienced war planner Stuart McCarthy. On the eve of potential boots-on-the-ground escalation in Iran, Stuart cuts through the media blackouts and misreporting to reveal what’s really happening on the ground. Major McCarthy unpacks the developments and suggests that Australia is now at war. 

Duration: ~70m | Release Date: Monday, March 23, 2026 | Stuart McCarthy – Former ADF War Planner & Ex-Major

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L...

In Episode 45 of Bogan Intelligentsia, we sit down with MUDRAT — the explosive Australian artist delivering raw, confrontational, and cathartic music with a clear working-class edge and a cutting political message. The conversation explores how all art is political, the contrast between their high-energy shows and Australia’s cultural wasteland, and the band’s journey from liberal views to class consciousness. MUDRAT breaks down how class defines modern Australian society, the growing impact on youth, wealth inequality, and the meaning behind their album Social Cohesion. We discuss racism in the Australian DNA, national shame and ignorance, the links between Australian settle...

In Episode 44 of Bogan Intelligentsia, we sit down with Renee Davidson — founder of the fast-growing independent platform Mssing Context — for a sharp, unflinching look at how Australian media has covered (and often distorted) the Palestine-Israel conflict. Renee launched Mssing Context in July 2025 to directly challenge misleading narratives in mainstream Australian outlets. Renee shares insights from her regular “West Bank Weekly” monitoring series and draws on her own lived experience living in the West Bank to highlight the wide gap between on-the-ground reality and how it’s reported back in Australia. We also look at some of the issues with the Austra...

In Episode 53 of Bogan Intelligentsia, we sit down with Dr Warwick Powell — adjunct professor, supply-chain veteran, blockchain pioneer, and author of the brand-new book Thermoeconomics in a Time of Monsters: Rethinking Theory, China and International Geopolitical Economy (released March 15, 2026) — for a breakdown of why energy is the real foundation of value in economies.

Dr Powell lays out his groundbreaking Systemic Exchange Value (SEV) framework, showing how human economies are open metabolic systems governed by thermodynamics: they must fight constant entropy through "negentropic" moves like better energy systems, tighter supply chains, and viable information. He explains declining EROEI (Ener...

In Episode 52 of Bogan Intelligentsia, we sit down with Major Cameron Leckie — retired ADF officer, strategic analyst, and outspoken critic of Australia's overseas military entanglements — for a no-holds-barred critique of Australia's decision to deploy the E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning aircraft (with ~85 personnel) to the Gulf amid the escalating Iran conflict. The discussion explores diplomatic limits this creates, echoes of Suez-style imperial overreach, Australia's place in an "end of empire" world as a US junior partner, and medium-to-long-term economic hits: oil price spikes, supply disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz, inflation pressures, trade vulnerabilities, and risks to energy secu...

In this eye-opening Episode 51, we sit down with Senator Rex Patrick — former Australian Senator for South Australia, submariner, and renowned Transparency Warrior — for a hard-hitting discussion on Australia's critical fuel security crisis amid the escalating Iran war. Patrick reveals how government assurances of "no shortage" and secure supplies clash with reality, drawing on his FOI-obtained National Liquid Fuel Emergency Response Plan (exposed after Canberra spent over $150,000 trying to keep it secret). He breaks down dwindling reserves (just 25-29 days for petrol/diesel, far below IEA's 90-day mandate), the risks of Strait of Hormuz disruptions, foreign multinational dominance, overseas-held strategic stoc...