About Jamie, in his own words: In my PhD I tried to develop a model to explain the nature of good and evil. I drew on literature and philosophy (Plato, Conrad, Tolsoy, Nietzsche - amongst others) to explore how people do badthings for the sake of power and belonging to the group. I learned thatnothing ever really changes - the way the academics around me behaved fitted very closely with what I read in various classic works of literature and philosophy. The PhD experience (2005-2009) was pretty grim. There was more miserable ID Pol and idiot Postmodernism - and morecruel arts academics. I was so disillusioned with academia I got a job teaching academic skills at the University of New South Wales. This was unambitious of me, but I was able to do a lot of teaching, which I stilllove, and essentially teach people to think critically and write coherently. In 2020 I became an academic at Sydney University in the department of Politics and International Relations. At USYD I taught International Relations / International Security and Politics and Popular Culture, and I wrote The Way of the Intellectual Dark Web. The Identity Politics was always bad there, but it has got worse in recent years - so no, I don't think we are past peak woke yet. Honestly, despite many high points with teaching, for the most part, my whole being recoils at how intellectually corrupt university is. Working thereis very much like sticking with an abusive relationship. I'm actually currently on personal leave because it has all become too much - the bullying superiors, the censorious students. It's very hard to do my job; i.e. pursue truth. I'm always balancing my commitment to truth withmy own fears about how much I will be attacked if I step out of line (and the attacks are quite regular).

Outside all this, I write novels - nothing published yet. I also write music. And I am starting to build a vast art environment on some land that I own - my dream has always been to do this (The Wollemi Art Farm).My heart lies with art: literature, music and whatever I'm doing on my land, but also with teaching. I hope to bring people out to my land and teach them about the classics: Shakespeare, Shelley, Carroll, Sterne, Larkin, Forster. I also run quests on my land - like Zelda, but in real life.

Oh, and I also spend a lot of my time with my two children - I love going on adventures with them. There's nothing better, really.

Here is the link to my 'suspended' book about the IDW:

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003318033/way-intellectual-dark-web-jamie-roberts

Here are some links to a few recent articles:

https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-shakespeares-hamlet-the-everest-of-literature-164070

https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-confessions-of-an-english-opium-eater-by-thomas-de-quincey-a-dense-strange-journey-through-addiction-190435

https://www.amazon.com.au/Essentials-Essay-Writing-What-Markers/dp/1137575840

Here are links to two academic skills books I wrote:

https://www.amazon.com.au/Essentials-Essay-Writing-What-Markers/dp/1137575840

https://www.amazon.com.au/Reading-University-Improve-Focus-Better/dp/1352009161

Here are links to a couple of my songs:

https://youtu.be/hOlYNBu0M2w?si=EgggOAmpSRuE8uEX

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLaerTvzDEo

Here is a link to my business / art enterprise:

https://wollemiartfarm.com.au/_____________________________________________________________________If you would like to contact me, my website is: https://theradicalcenterconsulting.com/ and I am on twitter @JLeslieElliott And if you appreciate this ongoing project and would like to support my continued work in this area you can chip in at any of the following (thank you very much!): https://www.paypal.me/jleslieelliott https://www.buymeacoffee.com/radicalcenterhttps://www.patreon.com/theradicalcenter

---

Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theradicalcenter/support