Gahy humans. Welcome to the safe space for dangerous ideas. And making people uncomfortable,

including himself, is pretty much the job description of today's guest. He's a provocateur.

He's a journalist. He's a comedian. He's a household name in Australia. When I was in my teens,

he shot to incredible notoriety and superstardom in Australia. When I was in my teens, he shot to incredible notoriety and superstardom in

Australia as a contestant in an experimental television show called Race Around the World.

The idea was you get 10 ordinary people, young people, you give them a video camera,

and you send them around the world. And each week

they submit a four minute long documentary that they have to shoot and host and voice and edit

from the road. And they send it back and it gets judged both by a panel of judges in the studio

and also by the Australian people. and then a winner is crowned.

And remember, this is at a time in the late 90s when we didn't have smartphones,

and we weren't used to the idea of filming ourselves.

There was no such thing as a selfie.

It was really the first moment where you could affordably,

and with some sort of logistical capacity, have a small enough camera to just give a teenager this sort

of technology. And John went around shocking Australia, shocking the world, shocking himself.

He was smart, young, Jewish. He pushed back against taboos. It was quite groundbreaking. And for the rest of

his career, he has always found things to prod and poke at. He did a television series called

John Safran versus God. And I suppose he occupies a place in the Australian consciousness

a little akin to Louis Theroux in the United Kingdom, a smart fish out of water.

His latest book is about his experience trying to figure out what's going on with anti-Semitism,

specifically in the context of Kanye West or Ye.

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