Bloom

Dr. Paul Monk on Democracy, the Classical World, Geopolitics, and Finding One’s Purpose

In this episode cross-posted from the Oxford Policy Podcast, Nick Fabbri and Dr. Paul Monk discuss the crises facing the liberal democracies today, and the lessons that the Roman Republic and Greek democracies may hold for the 21st century. We cover Paul's recent papers delivered to the Institute of Law and Strategy, and his tours of Finland, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia discussing the wars in Ukraine, the Middle East, and the broader geopolitical situation.

Dr Paul Monk is a writer, poet, and highly regarded Australian public intellectual with a background in security, intelligence, and consulting. His writing regularly appears in the Australian press, and he has written an extraordinary range of books, from Sonnets to a Promiscuous Beauty, to reflective essays on the riches of Western civilisation in The West in a Nutshell, to a prescient treatise on the rise of China in Thunder from the Silent Zone: Rethinking China.

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Dr. Paul Monk on Poetry, Science, and the Classics

Originally published with transcript at: https://www.nickfabbri.com/bloom/paulmonkpoetryscienceandclassics

In this podcast, Dr Paul Monk and Nick Fabbri discuss the relationship between poetry, science, and the classics, and how these subjects inform Paul’s poetry, and what it means to live poetically. This conversation includes readings of a number of Paul’s poems from Red Ochre for the Moon Goddess, The Three Graces, and Wine on the Flames. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Dr Paul Monk is a poet, polymath and highly regarded Australian public intellectual. He has written an extraordinary range of books, from Sonnets to a Promiscuous Beauty (which resides in former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s library), to reflective essays on the riches of Western civilisation in The West in a Nutshell, to a prescient 2005 treatise on the rise of China in Thunder from the Silent Zone: Rethinking China. 

Dr. Paul Monk: Reflections on the Defence of Australia

Originally published with transcript at: https://www.nickfabbri.com/bloom/paulmonkdefenceofaustralia

 

In this podcast, Dr Paul Monk and Nick Fabbri discuss Sam Roggeveen’s new book The Echidna Strategy: Australia’s Search for Power and Peace, Australia's geopolitical and security context, the rise of China and its increasing militarisation, what the Australian Defence Force force posture would look like under an ‘Echidna Strategy’, what the economic, political, diplomatic, bureaucratic, and social demands of such a transition would be on Australia, the ongoing role of the United States in the Indo-Pacific, and what the Echidna Strategy might teach us about the need to bolster our defensive or ‘spiny’ capabilities while maintaining attacking capabilities through AUKUS and our current alliance systems.

Dr Paul Monk is a poet, polymath and highly regarded Australian public intellectual. He has written an extraordinary range of books, from Sonnets to a Promiscuous Beauty (which resides in former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s library), to reflective essays on the riches of Western civilisation in The West in a Nutshell, to a prescient 2005 treatise on the rise of China in Thunder from the Silent Zone: Rethinking China. 

Shane Fitzsimmons on the 2019-20 Australian Bushfires, Leadership, and Natural Disaster Resilience

Shane Fitzsimmons currently leads Resilience NSW - the peak disaster management and recovery agency in NSW - as its inaugural Commissioner, following a long and distinguished career with the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS). Shane came to national prominence in Australia through his role as Commissioner of the NSW RFS during the 2019-2020 bushfires, where he led NSW’s response to the fires which raged across South Australia, Queensland, Victoria, and most severely in NSW and the ACT. These fires tragically caused the loss of 33 lives, destroyed over 3000 homes and damaged thousands more, burnt 30 million hectares of land, and caused over a billion animals to perish. Shane’s leadership throughout the bushfires received universal acclaim for his empathy, calmness, trust, care, and clarity of communications as the nation endured unprecedented natural disasters.

In this podcast, Nick and Shane discuss:

• Shane’s early life in Sydney’s northern beaches, and how he found his way to volunteer firefighting

• His 35 year career with the NSW RFS, the modernisation of the emergency management sector, and the remarkable spirit and humanity of volunteers and staff working in disaster management

• Shane’s experience of the 2019-20 Australian bushfire season: its devastating scale and impacts, and the remarkable stories of hope, spirit, and community resilience that emerged through shared hardship

• Leadership qualities, including authenticity, humility, care, and communication

• The creation and work of Resilience NSW, and how communities are faring amidst the compound disasters of drought, fires, floods, storms, and mouse plagues

• How government agencies can ensure that recovery is community-led

• How to ensure community groups who are disproportionately impacted by disasters, such as women, First Nations peoples, the elderly, and migrants, are able to participate in resilience and recovery activities

• The outlook for the 2021-22 bushfire season, and how organizations can look after their fatigued and exhausted workforces after years of continuous responses to disasters          

Tú Lê on Cultural Diversity, Social Justice, Politics, Identity, and Australia

Tú Lê is a young lawyer, community worker, and political advocate. Tú recently came to national and international prominence, with articles recently published in The New York Times, in the wake of the Australian Labor Party’s decision to nominate the former Premier of NSW and current federal Senator Kristina Keneally for preselection in the Western Sydney electorate of Fowler, ahead of Tú as the locally preferred candidate. The backroom political decision sparked a national conversation about cultural diversity within our representative institutions, multiculturalism in Australia, the disconnect of the political class from everyday people, and cultural and socio-economic barriers to participation in civic and economic life.

In this podcast, Nick and Tú discuss:

• Tú's family journey as refugees from Vietnam to Australia in the wake of the Vietnam War, her early life in Adelaide and Western Sydney, and the importance of her Buddhist faith and community

• Tú’s current work as a lawyer and coordinator at the Marrickville Legal Centre, working across migration, employment, and criminal law

• Tú’s experience nominating for Labor Party preselection in the electorate of Fowler, and the controversy that emerged after Labor’s national executive parachuted Senator Kristina Keneally into the seat

• The importance of cultural diversity in our representative institutions, where a quarter of the population is non-white and minority groups constitute six percent of the federal parliament

• “The Bamboo ceiling” in the Australian workforce and across society more generally

• Australian identity, what it means to be an “Aussie”, and how we can adopt more inclusive understandings of national identity and history

• The electorate of Fowler and Western Sydney more broadly, and what these communities represent and reflect about modern Australia

• Some of the political issues Tú would prioritise in Parliament, including a constitutionally-entrenched “voice to Parliament” for First Nations Peoples, climate action, and reforming Australian immigration policy

Dr. Paul Monk on the 'Addressable You' in Lyric Poetry

Originally published with transcript at https://www.nickfabbri.com/bloom/paulmonklyricpoetry

 

In this podcast, Nick and Paul discuss:

• Poetry’s Touch by Professor William Waters and its influence on Paul’s approach to lyric poetry

• The ‘addressable you’ in poetry

• Reflections on communicative intimacy and the idea of authentic understanding between people in romantic or other relationships

• A number of Paul’s poems from his published works Lyrical Epigrams, All The Bad Things, and Delphic Deixis

• Paul’s relationship with Claudia Alvarez

• Artwork in the Chauvet Caves, and human civilization and beings across time

• Paul’s experience of being catfished, and the creative inspiration that this generated

• New infatuations, muses and poems

Dr Paul Monk is a poet, polymath and highly regarded Australian public intellectual. He has written an extraordinary range of books, from Sonnets to a Promiscuous Beauty (which resides in former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s library), to reflective essays on the riches of Western civilization in The West in a Nutshell, to a prescient 2005 treatise on the rise of China in Thunder from the Silent Zone: Rethinking China. 

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Dr. Paul Monk on Overcoming Cancer

Originally published with transcript at https://www.nickfabbri.com/bloom/paulmonkoncancer

 

In this podcast, Nick and Paul discuss:

• Paul's cancer journey and the odds of his survival

• The development of immunotherapy and other revolutionary cancer treatments

• Cancer research and the medical establishment

• The examples and books of Jimmy Stynes, Lance Armstrong, and Christopher Hitchens

• Reflections on mortality, death, and existential meaning and purpose

• The impact of Paul’s cancer journey on his relationships

• The 2016 International Cancer Conference in Brazil, and conversations with Dr. David Speakman, Chief Medical Officer of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

• Reframing one’s priorities after living with cancer

Dr Paul Monk is a poet, polymath and highly regarded Australian public intellectual. He has written an extraordinary range of books, from Sonnets to a Promiscuous Beauty (which resides in former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s library), to reflective essays on the riches of Western civilization in The West in a Nutshell, to a prescient 2005 treatise on the rise of China in Thunder from the Silent Zone: Rethinking China. 

Follow Paul on Twitter

 

 

Dr. Paul Monk on Mortality and Meaning

Originally published with transcript at https://www.nickfabbri.com/bloom/paulmonkmortalityandmeaning

 

In this podcast, Nick and Paul discuss:

• The commemoration of the dead through religious rituals, such as the Kaddish

• Representations of mortality, death, and dying as expressed in poetry and literature

• Why death exists in the world at all, as a function of life and natural selection

• The intersection of the biological process of death and religious rituals around and for death

• Concern for the dead in classical works such as The Iliad and Antigone

• Paul’s journey with metastatic cancer and contemporary literature on mortality

• Reviewing one’s priorities after confronting one’s mortality

• Reflections on death and dying through everyday encounters with our built environment, such as cemeteries

• Oliver Sacks and gratitude for the gift of life and consciousness

Dr Paul Monk is a poet, polymath and highly regarded Australian public intellectual. He has written an extraordinary range of books, from Sonnets to a Promiscuous Beauty (which resides in former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s library), to reflective essays on the riches of Western civilization in The West in a Nutshell, to a prescient 2005 treatise on the rise of China in Thunder from the Silent Zone: Rethinking China. 

Follow Paul on Twitter

Dr. Paul Monk on the rise of Xi's China

Originally published with transcript at https://www.nickfabbri.com/bloom/paulmonkonchina

In this episode, Nick and Paul discuss:

• Paul’s book Thunder From the Silent Zone, and four possible futures for China

• The history and legacy of Hu Yaobang, the "conscience" of the Chinese Communist Party

• The history of democracy in China, and the possibility of political reform or democratisation

• Xi Jinping and his designs on Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet, and Taiwan

• China’s rapid militarisation under Xi, and implications for Australia and the regional order

• Exercises in thinking: adopting the world view and perspectives of Chinese communist nationalists in regard to the current geopolitical order

• The Thucydides Trap, and the prospect of conflict between China and the United States

• The COVID-19 pandemic and China

• The diplomatic and trade war between China and Australia

• Literature on the implications of China’s rise

Dr Paul Monk is a poet, polymath and highly regarded Australian public intellectual. He has written an extraordinary range of books, from Sonnets to a Promiscuous Beauty (which resides in former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s library), to reflective essays on the riches of Western civilization in The West in a Nutshell, to a prescient 2005 treatise on the rise of China in Thunder from the Silent Zone: Rethinking China. 

Follow Paul on Twitter

 

 

Father Frank Brennan SJ AO on Faith, Law, Social Justice, and Australia

Originally published with transcript at https://www.nickfabbri.com/bloom/frankbrennan

 

In this interview, Nick and Frank discuss:

• Frank’s early life and education in Queensland, and the influences of his mother and father on his life

• Frank’s ordination within the Catholic Church and the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits)

• The impact of Jesuit Pope Francis on the Catholic Church, particularly with regard to environmental issues

• The future of the Catholic Church globally

• Frank’s early work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in Redfern, Sydney, and the influence of Father Ted Kennedy on Frank’s formation

• The development of Australian land law, with reference to the Australian High Court’s Mabo and Wik Peoples decisions

• Practical policy steps towards Reconciliation, the Australian Constitution, and First Nations Peoples

• Frank’s work with refugees and asylum seekers, and his experiences in East Timor and with the 2001 Tampa case

• Migration policy changes for a more humane and ethical Australia

• Frank’s understanding of Jesus Christ, and how this has informed his work with the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in our communities

• The daily work of a priest, and death and dying in the COVID-19 pandemic

• Frank’s views on education in the 21st century, and his hopes and vision for Newman College

Follow Fr Frank Brennan on Facebook and Twitter

 

Father Frank Brennan is a Jesuit priest and the current Rector of Newman College within the University of Melbourne. He is a man of many talents and interests, having worked variously as a Jesuit priest within the Catholic Church, a human rights lawyer, a professor of law at Australian Catholic University, and CEO of Catholic Social Services Australia. He is a National Living Treasure, and widely known to the Australian public through his long career of leadership and advocacy on a range of human rights and social justice issues relating to asylum seekers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and the poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged both in Australia and abroad.