The United States Studies Centre
236 episodes listed below
Policy rooms, recorded in full.
USSC Live is a recorded events feed from the United States Studies Centre, built around panels, book talks, report launches, and strategy forums. It suits listeners who want serious, room-tone policy discussion rather than edited punditry.
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USSC Live is the event archive of a policy institution, and it behaves like one. It is not built around banter, personality rhythm, or a single recurring host. Instead, it records public conversations where moderators, scholars, journalists, former officials, researchers, and authors gather at the United States Studies Centre to work through questions with institutional weight. The mood is serious but not sealed off. There are welcomes, acknowledgements, introductions, weather jokes, report launches, and moments when the mechanics of a live room remain audible. Then the substance takes over. Recent episodes range from Trump 2.0 and Quad polling to the Iran war, the Strait of Hormuz, Australia-India maritime cooperation, Indian Ocean security, US-China competition, Pacific diplomacy, and the cultural afterlife of Errol Flynn. The show often begins with a specific premise and then expands. A maritime partnership discussion becomes a way to think about logistics, exercises, submarine rescue, and regional defence arrangements. A forum on Iran becomes a debate about whether US commitments in the Gulf drain attention and munitions from the Indo-Pacific. A strategy forum panel uses named Washington experience to test how much America has changed at home and abroad. The conversations can be long and layered. They assume the audience is willing to sit with detail, but they usually provide enough framing for non-specialists to follow the stakes. The best episodes carry the feel of policy work in public: careful introductions, competing emphases, institutional memory, and occasional dry humor. There is also room for moral gravity, especially when discussions turn to civilian harm, accountability, abuse, war, or coercive power. USSC Live is most useful for listeners who want to hear how Australian and American policy communities talk when the goal is not a hot take, but a shared map of risk, strategic management, and strategic consequence.
Made for: For listeners interested in US politics, foreign policy, Indo-Pacific strategy, strategic management, and public scholarship. It is best for people who prefer substantive event audio over tightly edited commentary.
What sets it apart: USSC Live keeps the texture of live policy forums intact, including the introductions and institutional framing that explain why each topic matters. That makes it more documentary and procedural than most current-affairs podcasts.
Catch up with events produced by the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney with USSC Live. These events offer new insights and perspectives on topics including American foreign policy, economics, politics and culture.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
USSC Live connects American power and global conflict to the strategic choices facing Australia.
USSC Live preserves the shape of a public event: introductions establish who is speaking, moderators set a precise question, and panels or fireside conversations work through the consequences.
Washington keeps bumping into Sydney, giving your headline habit some badly needed alliance arithmetic.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A celebrity story that becomes a clear-eyed look at power, denial, and selective accountability.
At the University of Sydney, the conversation around Errol Flynn widens into a study of celebrity, gender, and accountability. Patty O'Brien and Michael Green use his story to show how public appetite, myth, and commercial success can soften serious allegations, while the trial…
A serious live briefing on how Iran, the Gulf, and U.S. strategy collide.
USSC Live frames the Iran war as more than a regional flashpoint. It follows the surprise attack on Iran, the widening violence across the region, and the Strait of Hormuz, where energy and food security concerns surface alongside U.S. credibility.
A measured forum conversation that treats Australia as central to Indo-Pacific strategy.
A forum conversation gives Dr. Kurt Campbell room to lay out the Indo-Pacific as a live strategic problem, with Australia squarely in the middle of it. It reads more like a public briefing than a loose interview, and that is part of the appeal.
A sober look at Ukraine, alliance obligations, and how war is changing.
This episode treats Ukraine as more than a distant crisis. It frames the war as a test of how the U.S.-Australia alliance, and the wider rules-based order, are supposed to hold up when conflict drags on.
A live panel on the US election and what it means for Australia.
This live subscriber forum keeps its focus on the US election and what it means for Australia, with the Indo-Pacific angle staying clear all the way through.
Small things, real markets, strange incentives.
Markets, money, and Germany in motion.
Michael Green opens at the University of Sydney and frames Patty O'Brien's book as a trans-Pacific history centered on Errol Flynn, whom he says was from Tasmania rather than England.
The evening opens to a packed room and a thank-you to the audience for toughing out terrible weather.
This episode features a panel discussion moderated by Matthew Knott on the future of the Quad alliance in the context of Trump's presidency, following a day-long think tank session.
This episode introduces a report launch on securing the Indian Ocean through India-Australia maritime partnership, featuring researcher Rushali Saha and her background.
This episode reflects on the first year of Trump's second presidential term, discussing key events and presenting new polling data from the Quad countries (US, Australia, Japan, India) on attitudes toward Trump, security, and Indo-Pacific issues.
A webinar discussing Australia-India maritime collaboration in the Indian Ocean region, featuring expert panelists.
Dr.
A discussion with former Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on whether China is winning in the Indo-Pacific, covering economic, military, and technological competition.
A panel of experts discusses U.S.
A panel discussion on navigating disruption in global trade and finance, featuring experts on US economic policy and geopolitics.
A panel discussion on whether China is winning in the Indo-Pacific, featuring a retired US Marine Corps general and a former Biden administration official.
A keynote speech by General David Berger on US military strategy in the Pacific, introduced with historical context.
A discussion on Japan's recent strategic defense documents and its evolving role in the Indo-Pacific.
The session starts as a live forum on Ukraine, and what that means for alliance politics and the U.S.-Australia relationship.
A book launch event discussing Katie Gallagher's new book on the hidden history of interracial marriage in the segregated South.
An interview with space policy expert Audrey Schaefer discussing challenges in space sustainability and U.S.
A live event at the University of Sydney discussing geopolitics, US-Australia relations, and a recent plane crash near Reagan Airport.
A discussion on the future of the Quad alliance among Japan, US, India, and Australia in the context of strategic competition.
Bevan Shields opens a live forum with subscribers in the room.
An academic event at the US Studies Centre introducing a lecture on political dissent in the American context, with an acknowledgement of country and cultural references.
A symposium session on economic security strategies featuring a leading geoeconomics expert from Japan.
This session explores energy security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region and Australia's role in the energy transition, featuring insights from energy expert Dr.
This episode features a keynote address by Jan Adams, Secretary of Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, discussing the challenges of balancing economic security and prosperity in global affairs from a practitioner's perspective.
Former Australian ambassador Arthur Sinodinos discusses the fragmentation of globalization, supply chain pressures, and the rise of geopolitical considerations in economic policy.
A keynote speech by Australia's Treasury Secretary on integrating economic security with prosperity, introduced by a US Studies Centre expert.
A conference dinner opening with acknowledgments and introduction to a discussion on reconciling security and prosperity amid strategic competition.
A keynote address on trade policy and political economy, featuring Alan Beattie discussing UK trade and economic governance.
A conference session discussing US-China strategic competition and its economic implications, featuring a keynote by Dr.
A panel discussion on technology and economic security hosted by the United States Studies Centre.
A discussion on Japan's economic security strategy and infrastructure financing in the Indo-Pacific, featuring the chairman of JBIC.
This episode features a discussion with NATO's Deputy Assistant Secretary General for cyber and emerging technology, focusing on lessons from Russia's war in Ukraine regarding cyber threats, disinformation, and sabotage.
This episode features a discussion of Frances Clarke's award-winning book 'Of Age: Boy Soldiers and the American Civil War', exploring its historical insights and contemporary relevance.