Courageous talk radio for contested public life.
The Cheryl Lacey Show pairs civic anxiety with long-form interviews on Australian politics, legal authority, religion, schooling, and leadership. Its conversations often press guests to test official narratives, especially around elections, law, security, and public trust.
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The Cheryl Lacey Show is a blunt Australian interview program organized around the phrase “curiosity meets courage.” Its recent episodes treat that motto less as branding than as a working method. The show asks direct, sometimes heated questions about public authority, democratic process, religious identity, school systems, and national security. It is often political. It is also frequently legalistic, returning to constitutional language, rule-of-law arguments, party discipline, elections, and the gap between formal democratic ideals and everyday political practice. Episodes with Mike Holt focus on ISIS repatriation, Ben Roberts-Smith, common law arguments, and anger over government and military institutions. Those conversations are intense and can include extreme claims or inflammatory rhetoric. Episodes with Lawrence Rojak connect Donald Trump, political violence, media narratives, Washington power, and security failures. The show’s international scope is usually filtered through Australian concern: what does this mean for law, families, sovereignty, or public trust at home? Not every episode runs at that temperature. Brad Gaynor’s leadership conversation is more reflective, using school principals, mentoring, burnout, communication, trust, and compliance as a way into institutional pressure. Andrew Lua’s independent schools episode looks at UK education policy through taxation, private schooling, and the future of the sector. Bernie Power’s appearance shifts toward Islam and Christianity, asking how religious terms and traditions should be understood in public conversation. Chris Merritt’s episode on equality and the rule of law centers on democracy education, arbitrary rule, political parties, and the principles behind modern Australia. Across the feed, the show favors guests who are willing to make firm claims and be challenged in real time. It does not operate like a polished policy briefing. It feels closer to talk radio with a civic grievance engine: urgent openings, long questions, named public figures, and a repeated insistence that listeners should pay attention before institutions drift further from accountability. For some listeners, that directness will be the attraction. For others, the sharper episodes will require caution because they include hostile generalizations, allegations, and charged references to violence, war, terrorism, religion, sexuality, and political assassination attempts.
Made for: Best suited to listeners who follow Australian politics, rule-of-law debates, religious questions, education policy, and confrontational interview radio. It will appeal most to those comfortable with strongly argued, skeptical conversations about institutions and power.
What sets it apart: The show’s signature is its mix of Australian local politics, constitutional language, religious debate, and emotionally charged talk-radio questioning. It moves quickly from headline events to first-principles arguments about law, sovereignty, schooling, and trust.
Where curiosity meets courage. The Cheryl Lacey Show. When truth matters share it.
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded conversation on leadership fatigue, mentorship, and the systems that help principals avoid carrying the role alone.
Leadership fatigue is given a practical systems frame in Cheryl Lacey's conversation with Brad Gaynor, an educational leader in the primary sector and author of Burnout to Breakthrough: The Leadership Reset.
A charged radio debate about war-crimes allegations, military loyalty, and political power.
An arrest on allegations of war crimes involving Ben Roberts-Smith, a former SAS soldier and Victoria Cross winner, sets up a heated discussion about military service, loyalty, and the reach of government power.
Comedy, books, road dust, and grace.
Sam Harris interviews scientists and journalists on AI risk, religion, and US politics.
WSJ reporters unpack the Epstein files, surrogacy industry abuses, and true-crime court battles.
Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway argue through tech, media, and Trump-era politics twice weekly.
Dan Carlin's solo essays connecting executive power, historical collapse, and American democracy.
Sharp political debate with policy detail and real disagreement.
The Cheryl Lacey Show interviews Mike Holt about Pauline Hanson’s popularity, Australian constitutional history, and dissatisfaction with federal politics.
On The Cheryl Lacey Show, Cheryl Lacey interviews Brad Gaynor, a New South Wales principal and author of Burnout to Breakthrough: The Leadership Reset, about leadership fatigue in schools.
Paul Dunstan argues that UK independent schools must explain their strengths beyond examination league tables.
This episode discusses the crisis facing British independent schools following the 2024 general election, focusing on the imposition of VAT on private education and its implications.
Christine Niven explains how EAs in Education grew from five LinkedIn members to more than 100 members across Australia and New Zealand.
Mike Holt argues the August 29, 2012 Afghan insider attack fits “perfidy” under Article 37 of Additional Protocol I.
This episode features an interview with Bernie Power, an expert on Islam and Christianity, discussing his background and the importance of understanding key aspects of Islam.