#7 The writer of Catharsis: history, identity and thinking oneself free with Stan Grant

“Is our liberal democracy up to the task of meeting the ethical claims and challenges of [historical] truth? Are we up to it? Because if we are not, liberal democracy will fall. It won’t fall because China is more strong: it will fall because it is incapable of dealing with the ethical demands that are being placed on it from its own people; its own constituents.”

It is my great honour in this podcast to speak with Stan Grant: International Affairs Analyst at the ABC and award-winning author of books like Talking to My Country, Australia Day, and most recently, With the Falling of the Dusk.

In this wide ranging conversation, we grapple with the big ideas: thinking oneself free through writing and philosophy; the poisonous relationship between history and identity; the return of China and the challenges facing liberal democracy from within. Stan finishes with a clarion call to finish the work we are in: to bind up the nation's wounds for Australia's Indigenous peoples.