The Joe Walker Podcast
By Joe Walker
Categories: Society & Culture
Well-researched interviews on ideas, technology, and policy. (Plus a recurring series on Australian public policy.)
137 episodes indexed on podsearch.
Recent episodes
- The Most Amazing Technology, the Worst Business in the World — John Hempton [Compute Series]
Part 4 of a multi-part series: 'Compute in Australia'. More episodes to follow. Series announcement here: https://joewalker.substack.com/p/compute-in-australia John Hempton is the founder and chief investment officer of Bronte Capital, a Sydney-based global hedge fund, and Australia's most…
- AI Factories in the Outback — Tim Nelson [Compute Series]
This episode is best watched on video, as we often refer to some calculations I wrote on a whiteboard. [Recorded 30 September 2026.] Over the past few weeks, I've been trying to work out what it would take, on the energy side, for Australia to build 10 to 15 gigawatts of AI compute by 2030. So I…
- The Geostrategic Case for Compute in Australia — Janet Egan [Compute Series]
This is the second episode in a multi-part series called 'Compute in Australia'. Series announcement here. More episodes to follow over the coming month. [Recorded 24 August 2026.] Janet Egan is Senior Fellow and Deputy Director of the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a…
- Australia's Plan to Turn Compute Into Sovereign AI — Dr Andrew Charlton MP [Compute Series]
This is the first episode in a multi-part series called 'Compute in Australia'. Series announcement here. More episodes to follow over the coming month. [Recorded 7 August 2026.] Dr Andrew Charlton MP is an Australian economist, entrepreneur and politician. As Cabinet Secretary and Australia's…
- Compute in Australia: Announcing my new podcast series
https://josephnoelwalker.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- "Just because I consulted doesn't mean I didn't dominate": How prime ministers really govern — Patrick Weller
Patrick Weller is emeritus professor of politics and public policy at Griffith University and the author or editor of some forty books. Pat wrote what was the first (and may still be the only) Westminster-system equivalent to Robert Caro's epic meditation on Lyndon Johnson: a detailed study of how…
- How Can Australia Get a Piece of the AI Action? — Danielle Wood
Danielle Wood is an Australian economist and the current chair of the Australian Productivity Commission. Had a lot of fun chatting with Dani about how she's making sense of AI and its implications for policy. We discuss: whether AI will be more like the internet or the Industrial Revolution…
- How Australia Actually Selects and Integrates Migrants — Mike Pezzullo [Immigration Series]
Part 3 of a three-part immigration series this week. Martin Parkinson (economics) available here; Mark Cully (history) available here. Mike Pezzullo ran the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (2013-2014), then the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (2014-2017), then the…
- "Bigger and Different": The Six Decades That Remade Australia — Mark Cully [Immigration Series]
Part 2 of a three-part immigration series this week. Martin Parkinson (economics) available here; Mike Pezzullo (acculturation, social cohesion, security) drops Friday. Mark Cully was the inaugural chief economist at the Australian Department of Immigration (2009-2012). His forthcoming book, Waves…
- "We've built an economy that requires 2 million temporary migrants" — Martin Parkinson [Immigration Series]
Part 1 of a three-part immigration series this week. Mark Cully (history) drops Thursday; Mike Pezzullo (acculturation, social cohesion, security) drops Friday. Martin Parkinson ran the Australian Treasury (2011-2014), then the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet (2015-2019). He's also thought…
- 2025 Retrospective — A Listener (Zac Gross) Interviews Me
In this special end-of-year episode, the tables are turned: I’m the guest, and I’m interviewed by Zac Gross — an Australian macroeconomist and long-time listener of the show. We reflect on what I learned on the podcast in 2025 and what I changed my mind about. We also discuss the behind-the-scenes…
- Cabinet is Australia's Operating System — Here's How It Works (Glyn Davis & Terry Moran)
Glyn Davis and Terry Moran are two of the very small number of Australians who have literally sat in the Cabinet Room, week after week, watching the machinery of government operate from the inside. Both served as Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) — the most…
- Why Great Powers Sleepwalk to War — A Masterclass with Prof. Hugh White
2,500 years of strategic history, 11 books, one afternoon. Hugh White is Australia's foremost strategic thinker: former senior adviser to Defence Minister Kim Beazley and Prime Minister Bob Hawke, Deputy Secretary for Strategy and Intelligence in Defence, inaugural Director of ASPI, and principal…
- Australia's last great act of economic courage — Peter Costello
Peter Costello is the longest-serving Treasurer of Australia (1996–2007). He led the most complex overhaul of Australia's tax system in the postwar era: introducing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) — a value-added consumption tax — while abolishing a range of indirect taxes (notably wholesale…
- The Discovery of The Bacterium Behind 5% of All Cancers — Barry Marshall
One bacterium causes roughly 1 in 20 cancer cases worldwide. It’s the most cancer-causing pathogen we’ve found—and the main cause of peptic ulcers. Its discovery overturned an ironclad medical dogma that the stomach was sterile. Despite infecting about half of humanity, Helicobacter pylori wasn't…
- Australia’s ‘Great Stagnation’: Everything You Need to Know About The Productivity Crisis — Greg Kaplan & Michael Brennan
Stagnation! The 2010s witnessed Australia’s weakest productivity growth in six decades. How much of the slowdown is homegrown? How much reflects the broader “great stagnation” plaguing the West? How much is simply an artefact of the way “productivity” is measured? And what would a credible new…
- Francis Fukuyama — AGI and the Recommencement of History
Francis Fukuyama is a Stanford political scientist and the author of (among many other works) The End of History and the Last Man—arguably the most influential work in political science of the past half-century. If “History” is driven by technology, how does Fukuyama now view biotech and AI—and…
- Laura Deming — On Pausing Biological Time & Preserving the Continuous Self
Laura Deming is a technologist and venture capitalist focused on anti-ageing and life extension. At 17, she founded The Longevity Fund (followed by age1), the first VC firm dedicated to longevity biotech, after being selected in the initial cohort of Thiel fellows (2011). Today she is also CEO and…
- Eight Things I Learned From My Aussie Policy Series
I share the 8 biggest things I learned from my Australian policy series. The conversations totaled more than 12 hours of discussion. Grateful to my guests and to everyone who attended the live events. Was really fun to meet and hang out with you all! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy…
- Ken Henry — What Killed the Reform Era? [Aus. Policy Series - LIVE]
This episode is the seventh instalment of my Australian policy series, recorded live in Sydney on April 29, 2025. I speak with Ken Henry—former Treasury Secretary and chair of the landmark Henry Tax Review—about why Australia hasn’t achieved major economic reform since the GST, and what must…
- Sam Roggeveen — Why the US Won't Fight China for Dominance (and What it Means for Australia) [Aus. Policy Series - LIVE]
This episode is the sixth instalment of my Australian policy series, recorded live in Sydney on February 26, 2025. I speak with Sam Roggeveen—Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program, and a former senior analyst at the Office of National Assessments—about why the United…
- Peter Tulip — What Will It Actually Take to Solve the Housing Crisis? [Aus. Policy Series - LIVE]
This episode is the fifth instalment of my Australian policy series, recorded live in Sydney on February 12, 2025. I speak with Peter Tulip—Chief Economist at the Centre for Independent Studies, and a former senior researcher at both the Reserve Bank of Australia and the US Federal Reserve. We go…
- Judith Brett — How a Benthamite Political Culture Shaped Australia's Electoral System [Aus. Policy Series - LIVE]
Australia stands alone among English-speaking democracies with its compulsory, preferential voting system. But why? This episode is the fourth instalment of my Australian policy series. It was recorded in Melbourne on March 6, 2025. I speak with Judith Brett—Emeritus Professor of Politics at La…
- Richard Holden & Steven Hamilton — How Australia Gets It Done [Aus. Policy Series - LIVE]
This episode is the third of my live policy salons. It was recorded in Sydney on February 5, 2025. We explore the concept of state capacity—the ability of governments to achieve their policy goals—and ask why Australia outperforms almost every other country in the world in this domain. For the…
- Andrew Leigh — Inequality and Egalitarianism [Aus. Policy Series - LIVE]
This episode is the second of my live policy salons. It was recorded in Sydney on January 29, 2025. What is the relationship between economic equality and egalitarianism in the cultural sense? Where does Australia's egalitarian tradition come from? Are we too egalitarian? Is economic inequality…
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