Saturday Morning for Saturday 26 March 2022

8.10 Julian Walker: who is the man dubbed ‘Putin’s brain’?

Most people would not have heard of Aleksandr Dugin, the Russian philosopher and geopolitical strategist who is sometimes referred to as “Putin’s brain”. Dugin promotes Traditionalist views that blend ultranationalism and anti-modernist thinking, speaking to fascist political leaders around the world. His 1997 opus The Foundations of Geopolitics, has been taught to Russian military heads since the fall of the USSR.

Julian Walker is the co-host of the podcast Conspirituality, which recently dedicated an episode to Dugin and his ideologies. Walker says Dugin is on the precipice of becoming a “blood-stained household name” and that those trying to understand Putin’s motives should look to Dugin.

Walker is also the co-author of forthcoming book Conspirituality.

 

8.40 Dr Wijnand Van Tilburg: what makes someone boring?

A recent study conducted at the University of Essex has examined the characteristics that can lead to someone being chalked up as ‘boring’. Led by experimental social psychologist Dr Wijnand Van Tilburg, the study examined the occupations, hobbies, and personality traits that people ascribe to being stereotypically dull - such as watching television, being religious, or watching birds.

Van Tilburg says studying boredom is ironically very interesting and has many real-life impacts. People thought of as boring were also perceived as having low competence and low interpersonal warmth, and thus might be at greater risk of harm, addiction and mental health issues.

 

9.05 Kevin Rudd: detainment of Nauru refugees ‘an act of monumental cruelty’

While holding office in 2013, former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd took a tough approach to asylum seekers. Following in the footsteps of an earlier arrangement with Papua New Guinea, Rudd signed an agreement with the Republic of Nauru that denied asylum seekers the chance to resettle in Australia, allowing them to only be processed and settled in the tiny Pacific Island nation.

This week the Australian government announced that it would accept New Zealand’s long-standing offer to resettle boat refugees held in Nauru and other facilities, nine years after it was first made.

Rudd now says the fact that it has dragged out so long is against the spirit in which his government signed in 2013.

Rudd recently released his new book The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping's China.

 

10.05 John Darnielle: the 'Satanic Panic' in words and song 

John Darnielle’s latest novel Devil House looks back to the 'Satanic Panic’ of the 1980s, a period of moral hysteria in the US that he has often touched on musically with his indie rock group The Mountain Goats. Darnielle’s protagonist Gage Chandler is a true-crime writer who is offered the chance to move into a house where a pair of murders occurred; thought to have been the work of disaffected teens.

Devil House is Darnielle’s third novel, his first, Wolf in White Van was a New York Times bestseller and National Book Award nominee. His band The Mountain Goats has racked up an impressive 20 studio albums, the latest of which is Dark in Here, released in 2021.

Darnielle lives in North Carolina with his wife and sons.

11.05 Prof David Hayman: hunting for the next pandemic virus

As the world wrestles with trying to end the Covid-19, professor David Hayman is on the hunt for our next pandemic foe. An infectious disease ecologist at Massey University, Hayman has travelled the globe looking at the spread of pathogens between wildlife and humans. He says Covid-19 has highlighted just how connected the world really is, and points out that modern lifestyles — which are dependent on bulk resource extraction, deforestation and mono-cultural farming — have created prime conditions for a new threat to emerge.

Professor Hayman holds numerous international roles including being a member of the newly established One Health High-Level Expert Panel. He was recently appointed the inaugural Percival Carmine Chair in Epidemiology and Public Health at Massey University.

 

11.40 Robert Leonard: the surprising photographs of a young Jane Campion 

With her filmmaking Dame Jane Campion has often surprised - as she also did with comments at the recent Critics Choice Awards, for which she has apologised. And she surprises again with photos from her early years when she was the muse of photographer John Lethbridge.

Shot during the late 1970s and early 80s, the images were taken by Lethbridge on the Campion family farm north of Wellington and on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, with Campion credited as ‘performer-assistant’. As theatrically camp and comic as they are dark and glamorous, the photographs blend performance art and fashion. Originally from New Zealand, Lethbridge went on to be a key artistic figure in Australia during the 80s.

Former senior curator at City Gallery Wellington, Robert Leonard curated the exhibition John Lethbridge. Divination: Performance Photographs 1978-82 which is showing at Webb’s new Wellington-based gallery from 30 March to 23 April.

 

Books mentioned in this show:

The Avoidable War
By Kevin Rudd
Published by Hachette
ISBN: 9780733648502
 

Devil House
By John Darnielle
Published by MCD
ISBN: 9780374212230

 

Songs featured in the show:

I'm Bored
Iggy Pop
Played at 8.55am

Let me Bathe in Demonic Light
The Mountain Goats
Played at 10.07am

No Children
The Mountain Goats
Played at 10.47am

That's Just the Way that I Feel
Purple Mountains
Played at 10.50am

They're Shooting at You
Belle and Sebastian
Played at 10.57am