Overnight With Michael Mclaren

Listen to the full show podcast with Michael McLaren. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Associate Professor Sally Gainsbury, Director of the Gambling Treatment & Research Clinic at Sydney University, joins Michael regarding the calls for a cashless gaming card to stamp out money laundering & problem gambling.   80 per cent of an individual's welfare payments are quarantined on a card that cannot be used to purchase alcohol or gambling products under the Cashless Debit Card programme where researchers found short-term evidence that the CDC helped reduce gambling, with positive impacts in family and social life.   The latest numbers from Liquor & gaming NSW revealed that Clubs and Pubs profit from pokies in the last six months of 2020, during the pandemic, was over $4.3 Billion. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael is joined by Sue Thompson, President of the Lilydale & District Historical Society, regarding the life and legacy of Dame Nellie Melba who died 90 years ago today.   Dame Melba was born Helen Porter Mitchell on 19 May 1861 in Melbourne, the daughter of David Mitchell, a building constructor with musical interests.      She studied singing in Melbourne making a modest success in performances and while there took the pseudonym "Melba", from Melbourne, her hometown.   After a brief and unsuccessful marriage, Melba moved to Europe in search of a singing career.  Failing to find engagements in London in 1886, she studied in Paris and soon made a great success there and in Brussels.   Returning to London she quickly established herself as the leading lyric soprano at Covent Garden from 1888 and soon achieved further success in Paris and elsewhere in Europe, then later at the Metropolitan Opera in New York debuting in 1893.   Her repertoire was small; in her whole career she sang no more than 25 ro

Listen to the full show podcast with Michael McLaren. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every Monday morning Michael Mclaren talks movies and entertainment with Managing Editor of Screen-Space, Simon Foster. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Robert Parker, member of the Australian Nuclear Association & Founder of Nuclear For Climate Australia, joins Michael to discuss the momentum gaining for Australia to explore nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage.   This follows the entire Nationals Senate team announcing last week that they would seek amendments to the 'Clean Energy Finance Corporation bill' to allow it to invest in the two technologies.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael is joined by Dr Chris Moy, AMA Vice President (Australian Medical Association), regarding the COVID vaccine rollout which begins today.   Around 240 aged care facilities in nearly 200 towns across the country will be some of the first places to receive the jab after 142,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine arrived in Australia last week. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen to the full show podcast with Luke Grant     See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael McLaren has a weekly chat with Sue Dodd from the Sydney Markets about what bargains are on offer at the markets this week… See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Luke Grant is joined by Matthew Nguyen, Reset Australia’s Policy Lead, regarding Facebook’s decision to pull news from its Australian users which they say reveals just how little the platform cares about stopping misinformation.   Facebook blocking news in the middle of a pandemic, when accurate information is a key plank of the public health response really tells you all you need know about how much Zuckerberg cares about Australian society and cohesion, says Reset Australia.   Throughout the News Media Bargaining Code process Big Tech has dismissed 'news' as nothing more than a line item on a balance sheet.   Facebook is telling Australians that rather than participate meaningfully in regulatory efforts, it would prefer to operate a platform in which real news has been abandoned or de-prioritised, leaving misinformation to fill the void.   “The difference between information and misinformation and the value of the news to the functioning of democracy doesn’t matter to Facebook. Regulation is an inco

Associate Professor Patrice Rey, School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney joins Luke Grant regarding the small piece of Australia that will arrive on Mars with the NASA Perseverance rover, scheduled to land at the Jezero crater today.   Chiselled from the Australian outback, a bit of desert rock is on board to help the rover look for signs of early microbial life in ancient rocks on Mars.   The sample was provided by Luke’s guest Professor Rey, who excavated a small piece of the Pilbara in Western Australia five years ago, sent it overseas to colleagues – then forgot about it – only to be informed last year it was headed to Mars.   That bit of Australia is geologically similar to the area being explored by Perseverance and is now on board the rover to assist in the hunt for evidence of early life Mars.   “Whether or not life once emerged on Mars is the focus of the NASA Perseverance Mission”, says Professor Rey.   “With seven mini-laboratories and the drone Ingenuity, it will scan, probe an

Listen to the full show podcast with Michael McLaren. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael is joined by Brendan O’Neill, journalist & Editor of ‘Spiked’ and host of the ‘Spiked’ podcast, to dissect the stories making headlines in the U.K. & the world over the past week.   You can keep up to date with Brendan’s most recent work by visiting the ‘Spiked’ website www.spiked-online.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael McLaren's weekly political chat with Terry Barnes 18/02/21 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Craig Kelly MP, Liberal Member for Hughes, joins Michael regarding his suspension from Facebook for at least seven days over his promotion of unorthodox COVID-19 treatments and theories.   The social media giant booted the backbencher for a series of posts to his popular public page regarding the use of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a cure for COVID-19. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael is joined by Professor Ian Plimer, Emeritus Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne & author of ‘The Climate Change Delusion and The Great Electricity Rip-Off’, regarding the rolling blackouts that struck Texas, a state that is awash in gas and oil, earlier this week after an Arctic blast froze their wind turbines.   Nearly half of the state’s installed wind power generation capacity has been offline as the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees the state’s wholesale power market, urged residents to conserve power to avoid power outages.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Michael is joined by David Shoebridge, Greens MP in the NSW Legislative Council, who slams Arts Minister Don Harwin for claiming the government will be “relocating’’ the historic Italianette villa Willow Grove and “faithfully reassembling’’ it into a better condition.   Mr Shoebridge blasted Mr Harwin, saying there was no planning approval to rebuild Willow Grove because “you bloody don’t know where you want to do it’’ and relocation was a poor heritage outcome.    He also points out that the 188 conditions of consent approved by the Department of Planning did not explicitly guarantee the rebuilding of Willow Grove   The state government is ignoring Parramatta’s heritage and Mr Harwin is yet to provide details about the exact site it would be relocated, says Mr Shoebridge.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen to the full show podcast with Michael McLaren. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael is joined by Gareth Aird, CBA’s head of Australian economics, for his insight into the predictions that Sydney’s house prices will climb 7.5 per cent this year and 5.8 per cent in 2022.  Also tipped is Melbourne prices to increase 7 per cent in 2021 and another 5 per cent the following year.   Commonwealth Bank economists believe a new housing boom will push home prices in Sydney and Melbourne up by at least 12 per cent over the next two years as banks drive lending rates below 2 per cent. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Garth O'Connell, Australian War Memorial Curator | Military Heraldry and Technology, joins Michael for the 80th anniversary of Australia’s WW2 troops shipping out to Singapore and the 79th anniversary of the Fall of Singapore - which British prime minister Winston Churchill called the "worst disaster" in British military history.   In February 1941, with the threat of an impending war with Japan, Australia dispatched the Eighth Division, four RAAF squadrons and eight warships to Singapore and Malaya.  Australian pilots were some of the first to engage with the Japanese when the Imperial Army invaded Malaya on 8 December 1941.   The Fall of Singapore was fought in the South–East Asian theatre of the Pacific War when the Empire of Japan invaded the British stronghold of Singapore - nicknamed the "Gibraltar of the East".   Prior to the invasion, Singapore was a major British military base and economic trading port in South–East Asia and was the key to British imperial interwar defence planning for South-Ea