John Safran in conversation with Kim Huynh

ANU/CANBERRA TIMES MEET THE AUTHOR EVENT

John Safran in conversation with Kim Huynh on John's new book Depends What You Mean by Extremist. Going Rogue with Australian Deplorables.

"John Safran, a Paladin dwarf and an ISIS supporter walk into a Catholic Church. Neo-Nazis are on the same side as the Jews. Pauline Hanson denies she was ever against Asian immigration… Welcome to Australia 2016. If it sounds mad, that’s because it is. And funny. But apparently that’s a dangerous thing now too – as Safran has just found out. Join us for this entertaining event, as John Safran reveals his alarming adventures in a weird world of misfits whose extremist views (and behaviour) have helped propel the rise of the alt-right. Welcome to a place in time where blonde-haired, blue-eyed boys grow-up aspiring to be ISIS freedom fighters, an Islamic preacher quotes Monty Python and newly arrived immigrants oppose multiculturalism. Yep, that’s right. It all depends what you mean by extremist.

Populated by an extraordinary cast of ‘ordinary’ Australians, Depends What You Mean by Extremist is a startling, confronting portrait of contemporary Australia. We all think we know what’s going on in our own country, but this larger-than-life, timely, and alarmingly insightful true story will make you think again . . . Drinking shots with nationalists and gobbling falafel with radicals, John Safran was there the year the extreme became the mainstream."

John Safran is an author, broadcaster, satirist and documentary maker. John first hit TV screens in 1997, shooting and presenting ten mini-documentaries for Race Around the World (ABC), who then commissioned two Safran specials including John Safran: Media Tycoon, satirising the world of foot-in-door journalism. His first ten-part series John Safran’s Music Jamboree (SBS) ripped the lid off the music industry and his next John Safran vs. God( SBS) saw John diving into the most extreme religious experiences and earning him four Australian Film Institute awards and two Logie nominations.

John’s first book, Murder In Mississippi won the Ned Kelly Award for Best True Crime (2014), the iTunes iBook Best Non-Fiction (2013) and was shortlisted for the Melbourne Prize for Literature, the Indie Awards and the Australian Book Industry Awards. In 2015 John hung up his headphones after co-hosting Sunday Night Safran (Triple J) for ten years with Father Bob Maguire, and he returned to our screens in 2016 with The Goddam Election! Special for SBS, focusing on the minor parties in Australia and the role that religion plays in setting their agendas.

Kim Huynh teaches politics and international relations at the ANU. His most recent book is Vietnam as if... Tales of youth, love and destiny, a collection of political novellas. His biography of his parents, Where the Sea Takes Us: A Vietnamese-Australian Story was short-listed for the Australian Society of Author’s prize and ACT Book of the Year. Kim’s academic books include co-authoring Children and Global Conflict and co-editing The Culture Wars: Australian and American Politics in the 21st Century. Kim is a part-time presenter on the ABC Radio Canberra Drive Program, writes a column for the RiotACT and inIn 2016 ran as an independent candidate in the ACT election (GoKimbo.com.au).

This event is free. Pre-book signings at 6pm and after the conversation from 7.30pm.