Take Me To Your Leader!

Oct 03 2024 16 ep. 28 mins 649
Take Me To Your Leader! Podcast artwork

From autocratic strongmen to democratic internationalists, Hamish Macdonald examines the cultural, historical, and personal motives of people on the world stage. What would we uncover if we ask the friends, enemies, colleagues and observers to 'Take me to Your Leader!'

  Society & Culture  Government
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Dictators & Demagogues 07: Rwanda's Paul Kagame

Oct 03 2024 28 mins  
To many in the West, Paul Kagame is Rwanda’s saviour, the man who restored the country after its recent genocide. But those who have dealt with him inside and outside the country paint a very different and much darker picture. Guests: Noel Zihabamwe - Survivor of 1994 genocide, now a leading member of Sydney's Rwandan community Phil Clarke - Professor of International Po

Dictators & Demagogues 06: Javier Milei – Argentina’s ‘mad man’

Oct 03 2024 28 mins  
Make Argentina Great Again. That's the catchcry Javier Milei has borrowed from his friend, Donald Trump. Wildly brash (like Trump) deliberately unkempt (like Boris Johnson), Milei has made his way to the top job with no government experience and a whole lot of chutzpah. And you won’t believe who – or what – set him on this path... Guests: Dr Constanza Sanhueza - Lec

Dictators & Demagogues 05: Iran's Ali Khamenei

Oct 03 2024 28 mins  
He’s leader for life, his word is final in the highly factionalised theocratic regime of Iran and his influence extends across the flashpoints of the Middle East. Yet we know almost nothing about the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. And as you’ll hear, his loyalists defend him as stridently as his critics attack him. Guests: John Limbert – One of the 55 American hostages held

Dictators & Demagogues 04: Hungary's Viktor Orban

Oct 03 2024 28 mins  
At just 35 Viktor Orban, then a fiery radical, became Europe's youngest prime minister. Since then, his political brand has undergone an astonishing change. So how did the student dissident become a 21st Century demagogue? Guests: Zsuzsanna Szelenyi - Program director at the CEU Democracy Institute, former Hungarian politician and author, Tainted Democracy Viktor Orban and

Dictators & Demagogues 03: Indonesia's Prabowo Subianto

Oct 03 2024 28 mins  
He’s Indonesia’s hard man of politics - Prabowo Subianto is a former military leader who stands accused of human rights abuses. But in the latest election campaign he pitched himself as a cute, dancing Grandpa. Now he’s the country’s newest president. So, what kind of leader will he be? Guests: Yoes Kenawas - Research Fellow at the Atma Jaya Catholic University in Ja

Dictators & Demagogues 02: Yahya Sinwar

Sep 29 2024 28 mins  
Believed to be ‘the mastermind’ behind the October 7th attack on southern Israel, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in an IDF attack in Gaza in October 2024. So who was he and how did he rise to power? Three observers, including one who has met Sinwar, grapple with the factors that led to the man and the leader he became. This episode was recorded before Yahya Sinwar was k

Dictators & Demagogues 01: Kim Jong Un

Sep 22 2024 28 mins  
He’s more ruthless than his father and more chilling than his grandfather, and his regime has been called a "model dictatorship". Meet North Korea's reclusive Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Un, and enter his world of missiles, murders, oppression and secrecy. Guests: Anna Fifield - Asia-Pacific editor for The Washington Post Hyun-seung Lee - North Korean defector and forme

INTRODUCING Season 3: Dictators & Demagogues

Sep 15 2024 2 mins  
Democracy is under threat more than ever right now. Around the world, we’re seeing populism and nationalism taking hold and strongman leaders grabbing power. So, is this the era of dictators and demagogues? Who are they and what makes them so appealing? Our third season dives into the lives and times of seven autocrats from North Korea to Gaza to Hungary. Host: Hamish Mac

06 | Bongbong Marcos: the return of a disgraced dynasty

Oct 10 2023 33 mins  
Ferdinand Marcos Jr, better known as “Bongbong”, is the president of the Philippines. His popularity skyrocketed in recent years, particularly among Gen Z, thanks to his stardom on tiktok. But it was almost 40 years ago that he fled the country as a young governor when his father’s authoritarian and corrupt government was overturned in a dramatic coup.

05 | Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: The Shapeshifting Sultan

Oct 03 2023 35 mins  
Recep Tayip Erdoğan’s maintained power for over 20 years by being all things to all people. Turkey’s president is at once a Western ally and a close friend of Vladimir Putin, a hardline Islamist and a leader that evokes the golden age of the Ottoman Empire. He is adored by his supporters and feared by his critics. So who is he really and what future does he envision for Tu