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Different Matters by Damien Grant

Damien Grant

I have been incredibly fortunate, and also incredibly reckless, over my nearly six decades.

For reasons that are unclear to me a number of wonderful New Zealander’s have been willing to give up an hour of their time to talk to me.

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20 episodes
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S4 · E6
July 22 · 1 hr 20 min
Julie Glamuzina on Different Matters, Hjilmar Dannevill, Lies and Spies
Julie Glamuzina is the author of Perfectly Natural, Out Front: Lesbian Political Activity in Aotearoa 1962-85, and co-author of Parker and Hulme: A Lesbian View. She has also written for the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Women Together, and Spiral magazine. In 2021 she published Lies and Spies, on the curious life of Hjilmar Dannevill. Hjilmar Dannevill travelled the world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, sometimes using aliases, sometimes disguised as a male, and claiming to be researching venereal diseases on behalf of a wealthy Austrian businessman. She arrived in New Zealand in 1911 and falsely presented herself as a qualified medical professional while helping to set up a private health home run by women. In the hostile anti-foreigner environment of World War 1, doubts about her sex, identity, qualifications and motivations, as well as suspicions about her relationships with women, drew the attention of police and military authorities. Tune in as I interview a wide selection of interesting individuals, authors, businesspeople, politicians and anyone else willing to talk to me. For more interviews visit: https://www.differentmatters.co.nz/
S4 · E5
July 6 · 1 hr
Daniel Kalderimis on Different Matters, Zest, depression and Philosophy
Daniel is a leading barrister who lives with his family in Wellington. He has lived in New York and London, taught at Columbio University, and practises internationally. With degrees in law, English and philosophy, he has always been interested in unravelling the layers of meaning behind ordinary things. This book is about what happened when that search, in his own life, became pressing rathe than a pastime. Tune in as I interview a wide selection of interesting individuals, authors, businesspeople, politicians and anyone else willing to talk to me. For more interviews visit: https://www.differentmatters.co.nz/
S4 · E4
May 7 · 57 min
Nevil Gibson on Different Mattters, the business of Ron Brierley
Freelance writer and editor Nevil Gibson has been a journalist since 1968, including in the positions of Managing Editor and Editor-in-Chief at the National Business Review, for which he now reviews books. Following a review of Ron Brierly's book, The History of Brierley Investments Ltd, 1961- 2021, I interview him about the life and business of Ron Brierley. Tune in as I interview a wide selection of interesting individuals, authors, businesspeople, politicians and anyone else willing to talk to me. For more interviews visit: https://www.differentmatters.co.nz/
S4 · E3
April 30 · 1 hr 1 min
Sarah McLaughlin on Different Matters and Authoritarians in the Academy
Sarah McLaughlin is Senior Scholar, Global Expression at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. She studies the relationship between authoritarianism, free nations, and global censorship. She recently published a book about transnational repression in higher education, titled Authoritarians in the Academy. Her other writings have been featured in outlets including Foreign Policy, MSNBC, The Independent, The Daily Beast, Newsweek, New York Daily News, and l'Opinion. In this interview Serah and I discuss how tertiary institutions' engagement with China has impacted free speech. Tune in as I interview a wide selection of interesting individuals, authors, businesspeople, politicians and anyone else willing to talk to me. For more interviews visit: https://www.differentmatters.co.nz/
S4 · E2
February 17 · 1 hr 14 min
Dr Hartwich on Different Matters, world order, risks to democracy & Donald Trump's role in it.
Oliver is the Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative. Before joining the Initiative, he was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, the Chief Economist at the Policy Exchange in London, and an advisor in the UK House of Lords. In this episode, Dr Hartwich and Damien discuss the Acceleration in decline of world order, risks to democracy, and the Dimise of the Liberal world order, which may or may not be attributed to Donald Trump. Tune in as controversial writer and podcast host, Damien Grant, interviews a wide selection of interesting individuals, authors, businesspeople, politicians and anyone else willing to talk to him. For more interviews visit: https://www.differentmatters.co.nz/
S4 · E1
January 29 · 1 hr 32 min
Dr Matthew Hooten on Different Matters, conservatism, its principles and conservatists in government
Matthew Hooton is a respected centre-right commentator on New Zealand politics and its political economy, including as one of the best-read weekly columnists for the New Zealand Herald. He recently completed his PhD in Philosophy at the University of Auckland on the topic is “Groundwork & Principles of Applied Conservatism”. His thesis is about conservatism in a general sense, drawing on conservatism in political philosophy, conservatism in ethics and metaethics, epistemic conservatism and ontological conservatism. The thesis is thus about how we can decide what to think, believe and do when we can never know with certainty what to think, believe or do. You can read Matthew’s thesis here: https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/items/26952dcc-a8a0-4c38-a634-33001c77f418 Tune in as controversial writer and podcast host, Damien Grant, interviews a wide selection of interesting individuals, authors, business people, politicians and anyone else actually willing to talk to him. For more interviews visit: https://www.differentmatters.co.nz/
S3 · E14
Dec 3, 2025 · 1 hr 14 min
David Cohen on Different Matters, Jacinda and The Untold Stories
David Cohen is a Wellington writer and the author of eight books. In 2025 he released his political biography, Jacinda: The Untold Stories, co-authored by Rebecca Keillor, in November 2025. After Jacinda turned down Cohen's request to interview her for the book, he decided to create a platform for the voices that haven't been heard. Drawing on more than 100 interviews and extensive research, David and co-author, Rebecca Keillor track the rise, fall and re-emergence of former NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern onto the global stage. Tune in as controversial writer and podcast host, Damien Grant, interviews a wide selection of interesting individuals, authors, business people, politicians and anyone else actually willing to talk to him. For more interviews visit: https://www.differentmatters.co.nz/
S3 · E13
Nov 10, 2025 · 1 hr 5 min
Stephen Rowe on Different Matters, liberterianism, AI in politics and AI in Porn
Stephen Rowe is full-stack digital strategist by profession, innovator by passion, and a storyteller at heart. With over a decade of experience under his belt, he has mastered the art of bridging and blending cutting-edge technology with human connection. After graduating in 2015, he left Montana to join Charlie Kirk’s newly founded organization, Turning Point USA, at its headquarters in the Chicago area. Within a month, he was promoted to Editor-in-Chief of Hypeline News, a new digital platform that served as the early foundation of Turning Point USA’s influencer program. In just one year, he scaled the site from startup to over 12.8 million page views and millions more across social media. By September 2016, the newsroom had over 200 contributors nationwide. Tune in as controversial writer and podcast host, Damien Grant, interviews a wide selection of interesting individuals, authors, business people, politicians and anyone else actually willing to talk to him. *correction - Stephen Rowe hosted in New Zealand by the The Taxpayers' Union, not the Free Speech Union as stated in the interview. For more interviews visit: https://www.differentmatters.co.nz/
S3 · E12
Nov 5, 2025 · 56 min
Helen Joyce on Different Matters, the trans movement and why it is uniquely poisonous
Helen Janeith Joyce is an Irish journalist and gender critical activist. She studied as a mathematician and worked in academia before becoming a journalist. Joyce began working for The Economist as education correspondent for its Britain section in 2005 and has since held several senior positions, including finance editor and international editor. She published her book Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality in 2021. In April 2022, Joyce took a leave of absence from The Economist to become the director of advocacy for Sex Matters. She wrote an opinion piece for the Guardian arguing that gender identity change efforts should not be included in a bill banning conversion therapy. Recently Joyce visited New Zealand as a speaker invited by New Zealand Free Speech Union and The New Zealand Women's Rights Party. Tune in as controversial writer and podcast host, Damien Grant, interviews a wide selection of interesting individuals, authors, business people, politicians and anyone else actually willing to talk to him. For more interviews visit: https://www.differentmatters.co.nz/
S3 · E11
Nov 4, 2025 · 1 hr 45 min
Bariz Shah on Different Matters, Beyond Hope, and Islam
Bariz Shah, originally from Afghanistan, grew up in New Zealand in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, grappling with a sense of identity shaped by the tension between his cultural roots and his new environment. At age 18, Bariz ended up in an Auckland prison. He spiralled from schoolyard fights into crime and drugs - until prison made him rethink the story of his life. Years later, in Christchurch, Bariz had turned everything around when a terrorist walked into the local mosque and took the lives of 51 people in his community. Driven by a new purpose, Bariz and his wife Saba raised money to return to Afghanistan and establish 51 small businesses in honour of those they lost. In his memoir, Beyond Hope, he deals with finding self-belief, belonging and positive change. Tune in as controversial writer and podcast host, Damien Grant, interviews a wide selection of interesting individuals, authors, business people, politicians and anyone else actually willing to talk to him. For more interviews visit: https://www.differentmatters.co.nz/
S3 · E10
Oct 23, 2025 · 1 hr 1 min
Dr James Kierstead on Different Matters, Grade Inflation and its links
Dr James Kierstead is a Research Fellow at The New Zealand Initiative focusing on higher education policy, including academic freedom. James holds a BA in Classics from Oxford, an MA in Ancient History from the University of London, an MA in Political Science from Stanford and a PhD in Classics from Stanford. He is also the co-host, along with Michael Johnston, of Free Kiwis!, a podcast dedicated to discussing free speech in a New Zealand context. In his recent report, Amazing Grades, Kierstead shows that Grade Inflation at New Zealand Universities is a problem.  Between 2006 and 2024, the percentage of A grades (A+, A, A-) grew by 13 percentage points, from 22% of all grades to 35%. A grades spiked during COVID, with almost half (49%) of grades awarded at the University of Auckland in 2020 in the A range.  Tune in as controversial writer and podcast host, Damien Grant, interviews a wide selection of interesting individuals, authors, business people, politicians and anyone else actually willing to talk to him. For more interviews visit: https://www.differentmatters.co.nz/
S3 · E9
Oct 1, 2025 · 1 hr 2 min
Mike McRoberts on Different Matters, reflections in the water, Te Reo Maori and Speaking my Language
One of New Zealand's most recognisable faces, Mike McRoberts was the TV anchor of the six o'clock news bulletin on Newshub for over two decades. Damien Grant interviews Mike McRoberts about his book, Speaking My Language. For much of his life, Mike felt burdened by not knowing his own language - te reo Maori. Growing up at a time when te reo was scarcely spoken in daily conversations, and within a mixed-race family with little connection to Maoritanga, his experience mirrored that of many other New Zealanders. Tune in as controversial writer and podcast host, Damien Grant, interviews a wide selection of interesting individuals, authors, business people, politicians and anyone else actually willing to talk to him. For more interviews visit: https://www.differentmatters.co.nz/
S3 · E8
Sep 25, 2025 · 1 hr
Dr Oliver Hartwich on Different Matters, Leonardo da Vinci, the enlightened world and where it's headed.
Oliver is the Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative. Before joining the Initiative, he was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, the Chief Economist at the Policy Exchange in London, and an advisor in the UK House of Lords. According to Hartwich, "...more than half of New Zealanders think the country is going in the wrong direction. Trust in Parliament, the courts and the Reserve Bank has fallen sharply since 2021. What is broken?" "The answer lies in the foundations we rarely notice. Prosperity rests on an invisible architecture. We notice air only when it is hard to breathe. We see institutions only when they fail." Tune in as controversial writer and podcast host, Damien Grant, interviews a wide selection of interesting and entertaining individuals, authors, business people, politicians and anyone else actually willing to talk to him. For more interviews visit: https://www.differentmatters.co.nz/
S3 · E7
Aug 14, 2025 · 54 min
Benedict Collins on Different Matters, Meth, and how New Zealand got hooked.
Benedict Collins is a political journalist working for 1News in the press gallery in Wellington. From his first days as a reporter, he's had a strong interest in covering anything to do with illicit drugs and enforcement. He's covered punitive drug-testing sanctions applied to beneficiaries, the battle to legalise pill-testing at festivals, the 2020 cannabis referendum, and in 2018, helped expose a meth-testing scandal that had government, landlords and homeowners wasting hundreds of millions of dollars. Benedict's book on the subject, Mad on Meth: How New Zealand Got Hooked on P was published in 2023. Tune in as controversial writer and podcast host, Damien Grant, interviews a wide selection of interesting and entertaining individuals, authors, business people, politicians and anyone else actually willing to talk to him. For more interviews visit: https://www.differentmatters.co.nz/
S3 · E6
Aug 4, 2025 · 1 hr 1 min
Barbera Oakley on Different Matters, psychopaths, sociopaths, Machiavellianism and the evil genes behind them
Dr Barbara Oakley is a Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Oakland University. She conducts research on learning, cognition, and educational practices, bringing insights from neuroscience and psychology into the classroom. A New York Times bestselling author, she has written and co-authored numerous books, including A Mind for Numbers, Learning How to Learn, Mindshift, and Uncommon Sense Teaching. Her work has been featured in outlets as varied as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. In her book, Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend, Barbera with psychology as a frame of reference, Oakley uses cutting-edge images of the working brain to provide startling support for the idea that “evil” people act the way they do mainly as the result of a dysfunction. In fact, some deceitful, manipulative, and even sadistic behavior appears to be programmed genetically—suggesting that some people really are born to be bad. Tune in as controversial writer and podcast host, Damien Grant, interviews a wide selection of interesting and entertaining individuals, authors, business people, politicians and anyone else actually willing to talk to him. For more interviews visit: https://www.differentmatters.co.nz/ For the interview video visit: https://www.youtube.com/@DifferentMattersbyDamienGrant
S3 · E5
Jul 16, 2025 · 1 hr 2 min
Musa al-Gharbi on Different Matters, the origins of woke ideology, symbolic capitalism and the new "woke" elite
Musa al-Gharbi is an American sociologist. He is an assistant professor in the School of Communication and Journalism at Stony Brook University. Al-Gharbi is the author of the 2024 book We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite, a study of the history and political economy of the knowledge professions from the interwar period through the present, published by Princeton University Press. Tune in as controversial writer and podcast host, Damien Grant, interviews a wide selection of interesting and entertaining individuals, authors, business people, politicians and anyone else actually willing to talk to him.
S3 · E4
Jun 27, 2025 · 1 hr 3 min
Dr Paul Wood on Different Matters, Cowboy, and How to Escape from Prison
Wood left high school early, associating with drugs and violence, committing crimes to maintain his habit. At 18 years old, he went to prison in Paremoremo Prison for murdering his 42 year old drug dealer, after he attempted to sexually assault Wood. Wood was convicted of murder and served 11 years in prison. Wood's mother passed away three days before the murder. He served part of his sentence in Paremoremo Prison, which he described as "New Zealand’s toughest facility." Wood completed his undergraduate and master's degrees while imprisoned, and he commenced a PhD, which he completed in 2011. He is the first New Zealander to have achieved both feats. In 2019 he published a biography titled, How to Escape from Prison. Tune in as controversial writer and podcast host, Damien Grant, interviews a wide selection of interesting and entertaining individuals, authors, business people, politicians and anyone else actually willing to talk to him.
S3 · E3
Jun 4, 2025 · 1 hr 5 min
Detective Sergeant David "Chook" Henwood on Different Matters, Unmasked Monsters and Teina Pora
David "Chook" Henwood is one of the country's most decorated and respected police officers, who served for 37 years in South Auckland before retiring in 2007. He held the rank of Detective Sergeant and was awarded a record three silver merit awards during his time as an officer. Henwood was an early and, for a time, relatively lone voice in proclaiming the innocence of Teina Pora for the 1992 rape and murder of Susan Burdett - whose conviction would, 20 years later, be overturned in one of the country's most high profile cases of a miscarriage of justice. Tune in as controversial writer and podcast host, Damien Grant, interviews a wide selection of interesting and entertaining individuals, authors, business people, politicians and anyone else actually willing to talk to him.
S3 · E2
May 29, 2025 · 59 min
Jonathan Ayling on on Different Matters and free speech
Jonathan Ayling, Chief Executive of the Free Speech Union (New Zealand) has worked in Wellington for 8 years across roles as a Beehive staffer, senior political advisor, and in the NGO sector. Tune in as controversial writer and podcast host, Damien Grant, interviews a wide selection of interesting and entertaining individuals, authors, business people, politicians and anyone else actually willing to talk to him.
S3 · E1
Mar 19, 2025 · 1 hr 6 min
James Lindsay on Different Matters, postmodernism and the three perspectives
Dr. Lindsay is an American-born author, mathematician, founder of New Discourses, and self-described professional troublemaker. Known for his sharp wit and thought-provoking insights, he is a leading critic of Critical Race Theory and "Woke" ideology. His bestselling books, including Cynical Theories and Race Marxism, have sparked global dialogue and been translated into over a dozen languages. Through his podcast, speaking engagements, and media appearances on platforms like The Joe Rogan Experience, Fox News, and NPR, Dr. Lindsay challenges divisive ideologies and invites audiences to think critically and engage meaningfully with today’s cultural issues. Tune in as controversial writer and podcast host, Damien Grant, interviews a wide selection of interesting and entertaining individuals, authors, business people, politicians and anyone else actually willing to talk to him.

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