Cam & Ray's Cold War Podcast

Rangan Srikhanta is the Executive Director, One Laptop per Child Australia. On this show he chats with me about their efforts to get laptops into the hands of kids living in remote regions of Australia. The idea to speak with OLPC came out of a recent Geeks Who Care meeting we had in Brisbane. OLPC have a terrific program running called the "Window of Opportunity Initiative" which enables all of us to contribute to getting these wonderful devices out where they are needed.

Yvonne Adele (aka Ms Megabyte) is a Melbourne-based entrepreneur and founder of Ideas While You Sleep, an overnight brainstorming service for business utilising hundreds of clever global brains. It's a brilliant idea for helping small and large businesses around the globe leverage the power of crowd-sourcing. It's so terrific I'm embarrassed I didn't think of it first. 

Episode 1 of the new show! The No Illusions Podcast examines the truth about how we're living our lives. Today's guest is Fiona Patten, the founder of The Australian Sex Party. That's a political party, not a tupperware party. And they are SERIOUS. They have a great set of policies that I endorse, including ending the internet filter and holding a Royal Commission into child sexual abuse by religious institutions. They have two candidates in upcoming elections and Fiona herself is running for Peter Costello's old seat of Higgins in Victoria. Fiona is running against the Greens Candidate - THE Clive Hamilton, architect of the Rudd Govt's evil internet filtering plan. Keep up to date on their progress by following the Aust Sex Party on Twitter.

Bill Liao is one of those people who makes you realize that you aren't trying hard enough. He chatted with me recently about two of his current projects - neo.org and WeForest.com. Bill explains how he is building a new organization with resources and partners to reforest 20 Million Square Kilometers of the Earth in order to cool the planet. Check out the videos on WeForest.com and the Voices Of Neo podcast as well. If you want to support independent media and this show, please click on the link below to learn how you can become part of the TPN500! The Podcast Network is supported by: neo.org - a social network with a purpose - to transform the world by enabling people to transform themselves and our first TPN Patron - Tony Kynaston.

I was an early follower of @GayMarriageAus because I'm a big supporter of gay marriage rights. I was delightfully surprised, though, to find out that the person behind it is a 17 year old high school student, Rebecca. I chatted with her recently about why she's supporting gay rights. We also talked about The Australian Sex Party (who will be guests on the show in coming weeks) and the current legislation in Australia pertaining to gay rights. If you want to support independent media and this show, please click on the link below to learn how you can become part of the TPN500! The Podcast Network is supported by: neo.org - a social network with a purpose - to transform the world by enabling people to transform themselves and our first TPN Patron - Tony Kynaston.

My guest today is David Nicholls, the President of the Atheist Foundation of Australia and the co-ordinator of the 2010 Global Atheist Conference which is being held in Melbourne in March 2010. Do you want an independent media? The Podcast Network is supported by: neo.org - a social network with a purpose - to transform the world by enabling people to transform themselves and our first TPN Patron - Tony Kynaston.

Today my guest is Mike Snyder (@mambomike282), a listener of the show who owns a security firm in Washington state. As a Christian, he wanted to challenge me on the subject of evolution and religion, and so we went for it. :-) Do you want an independent media? The Podcast Network is supported by: neo.org - a social network with a purpose - to transform the world by enabling people to transform themselves and our first TPN Patron - Tony Kynaston.

A few days ago I had a chance to chat with Jon Dee, founder of Planet Ark and the new Do Something! initiative, about his life and goals. We talked about everything from his involvement in Rock Aid Armenia (where he pulled together a list of top Brit Rockers to perform a charity concert and record a new version of Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water" to raise funds for earthquake victims in Armenia) to deciding, with friend Aussie tennis pro Pat Cash, to start Planet Ark, and his new venture Do Something!, which aims to create positive social and environmental change. Here's the version of Smoke On The Water that Jon produced back in 1992! Do you want an independent media? The Podcast Network is supported by: neo.org - a social network with a purpose - to transform the world by enabling people to transform themselves and our first TPN Patron - Tony Kynaston.

David Horn works with Microsoft in Seattle and is one of the organisers of the 2009 Space Elevator Conference. What is a "space elevator", I hear you ask? Only the coolest idea you've ever heard! Imagine a day in the not-too-distant future where getting into space involves jumping into something like a luxury train that travels VERTICALLY - up into the air - traveling along a 'ribbon' made of carbon nanotubes - for a week until you get outside of the earth's gravitational pull and THEN you jump in your space vehicle, which is attached to the other end of the ribbon, detach, and get flung into space via centrifugal force! Links: Wikipedia entry on Space Elevators. Book your ticket for the 2009 Space Elevator Conference here. Music: Chris Garneau "Fireflies" (mp3) from "El Radio" (Absolutely Kosher) Buy at iTunes Music Store Buy at Rhapsody Buy at Napster Stream from Rhapsody More On This Album

Wolfgang Puck is one of the most famous chefs in the world. Antony Van Couvering is the founder of Minds + Machines. On today's show they chat with me about their bid to own the new "top level domain" - .FOOD. Do you want an independent media? The Podcast Network is supported by: neo.org - a social network with a purpose - to transform the world by enabling people to transform themselves and our first TPN Patron - Tony Kynaston.

I am privileged today to have, as guests on the show, the director and subject of the film that won the Grand Jury Prize award in the U.S. documentary category at the Sundance Film Festival this year (which makes Ondi the first and only two time Grand Jury Prize winner in Sundance history!). The film is called "We Live In Public", "the story of the Internets revolutionary impact on human interaction as told through the eyes of internet pioneer and visionary Josh Harris. As far back as the early 90s, Harris predicted a future dominated by life online and created the companies that were direct predecessors to MySpace, Facebook and YouTube. The tale turns ugly when his underground NYC bunker housing dozens of permanent “citizens” and outfitted with hundreds of surveillance cameras is busted by FEMA as a millennial cult — Harris decides to take the experiment a step further and in doing so becomes a media casualty." We Live In Public (Official Site) Do you want an independent media? Delicate Noise "Filmezza" (mp3) from "Filmezza" (Lens Records) Buy at iTunes Music Store

Tim Freke is the co-author (with his writing partner Peter Gandy) of many books about the Jesus myth - including THE JESUS MYSTERIES and THE LAUGHING JESUS. I chatted with him recently about one of their books "The Gospel of the Second Coming", a marvelous book that manages to combine humour and insight - it explains the Jesus myth as a Gnostic parable. As Tim points out during our chat - nobody really thinks there was an historical "good Samaritan" or "prodigal son". They are understood to be parables. Tim explains that the whole Jesus story is a series of parables wrapped up in another parable - the parable of Jesus himself. Click on the above image to order your copy today from BookDepository (free shipping!). Do you want an independent media?

My guests today help me explore some of the alternatives to the "Big Four" banks in Australia. Let's say that you, like me, want to completely disassociate yourself from the Big Four - where do you turn? Are there alternatives in Australia? Yes, say my guests: Andrew Hadley, COO, Credit Union Australia Tony Beck, Group Manager, Corporate Affairs, ME Bank (Members Equity) They both belong to organisations that can provide all of the same services that you get from your bank - and they will do it with less fees and with much more customer service. Why? Both organisations are owned by their members instead of shareholders. In CUA's case, they are owned by their customers. In ME's case, they are owned by a group of superannuation firms which, in turn, are owned by their members. So both organisations exist to provide good service - not solely for the sake of returning profits to shareholders. And, judging by their NPS scores, it makes a difference. Do you want an independent media? Today's music is by: Rick Estrin & The Nightcats "U B U" (mp3) from "Twisted" (Alligator Records) Buy at Amazon

In this, the latest show in my series trying to show that the Jesus story is probably a myth or hoax, my guest is a PhD student at the University of Helsinki in the field of biblical study. He chatted with me recently about the evidence to support the theory that there once was a man called Jesus about whom the stories we know of as the Christian bible were constructed around. Interestingly, Francis doesn't seem to believe the biblical stories and yet considers himself a Catholic. If you want to hear my other shows about the historicity of Jesus, check out this page. Do you want an independent media? Abigail Washburn & The Shanghai Restoration Project "Sala" (mp3) from "Afterquake" (Undercover Culture Music) Buy at iTunes Music Store Buy at Rhapsody Buy at Napster Stream from Rhapsody Buy at Puretracks More On This Album

My guest on today's show is Michael Doneman - one part business coach, one part social activist, one part guru. Over the last few months his name has come up in a startling variety of conversations I've had with people. These people have a few things in common - they are very bright, have a sparkle in their eye, are entrepreneurs, think they can change the world - and they are students of Doneman. Michael explains the basis of his business / school, Edgeware, where he teaches something he calls "ethical entrepreneurship" and we discuss the future of capitalism. This is also the first interview in my series where I intend to interview Brisbane's Best Minds. If you want to nominate someone to be interviewed as part of this series, please submit their details here. Further links: John Gray video Edgeware site Follow Michael Doneman on Twitter Do you want an independent media? Abigail Washburn & The Shanghai Restoration Project "Sala" (mp3) from "Afterquake" (Undercover Culture Music) Buy at iTunes Music Store Buy at Rhapsody Buy at Napster Stream from Rhapsody Buy at Puretracks More On This Album