The Alicia McKay Show

This week, Alicia talks about how to live your values and put weight behind them, taking a look at two recent stories in New Zealand current events. We look at the Starship Foundation's rejection of a donation from gambling proceeds, and pay parity for the Black Ferns, to ask: what does it mean to really live your values? How do we accept challenges and failures as opportunities to make a stand? What happens when we don't? Enjoy!

In this episode, Alicia talks about littering - what it means to shed our detritus, physically, digitally or even emotionally...

What is diversity washing - and why is it such a problem? Alicia talks about the difference between visible and substantive diversity and why the latter is so important in society, media and the workplaces. She calls bullsh*t on corporate diversity and inclusion, makes an impassioned case for bringing class into the conversation and recommends throwing out the table, rather than saving a place at it. Also features: Lizzo chat, COVID book recommendations. Book recommendation 1: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara Book recommendation 2: My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh Bonus recommendation: Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be by Steven Pressfield Article mentioned: The Problem With Professionalism by Alicia McKay

Alicia McKay tackles the media madness surrounding the death of QEII, gets under the skin of royalism and exposes the irony and hypocrisy of declaring a public holiday for the Queen in Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori. Constitutional monarchy is dead. Long live Aotearoa.

Alicia talks about how pointing fingers at people, while letting systems operate unchecked, is damaging all of us. This week we're talking about patriarchy, politics and infidelity through a systems lens - and getting under the skin of unchallenged morality like table manners. You can read the Family Man article here And a recent article about why women are so exhausted here. Also, check out these great resources on systems thinking and problem solving: If Dr Russell Ackoff had given a Ted Talk The Systems Thinker Guide to Daily Systems Thinking Practice Fix the System, Not the Women: Laura Bates

This week, Alicia tackles the guilt of conscious consumerism in a world designed for bad behaviour. the hypocritical way we treat cults and gangs, domestic labour inequity, Leonardo DiCaprio and Louis CK. 

Alicia channels her best rant energy on this week's show, tackling: - Sickness, and the idea that lifting restrictions will help businesses - Simplified nostalgia and the problem with the good old days - Low-rate political rhetoric that hates on the poor - Cruel optimism and toxic positivity. If you need a good rant in your life, this is the episode for you.

Today we discuss the deep shame of being caught in an act of petty shenanigans, the great human meatball, and the perils of being blacklisted by both the Russian government and a retailer in Dunedin.

Alicia rants about internet trolls with the audacity to correct people's lived experience, Callum shares some controversial public art and we contemplate the power of language and social media.

In a stormy week of disrupted travel, the gang talk about things we take for granted, the Samuel Vines Boots theory of poverty and the dangers of romanticising past poverty through the distorted lens of nostalgia. 

Keep up with Alicia's prolific reading habits in this special episode on books. In June 2022, Alicia read 14 books - and in this episode, she covers off her favourite picks. Enjoy! Bullshit Jobs The Rise of Pointless Work, and What We Can Do About It Author: David Graeber Here Goes Nothing Author: Steve Toltz Klara and the Sun Author: Kazuo Ishiguro Ghost Lover Author: Lisa Taddeo Boys Will Be Boys Power, Patriarchy and the Toxic Bonds of Mateship Clementine Ford Young Mungo Author: Douglas Stuart Bloody Woman Author: Lana Lopesi Four Thousand Weeks Author: Oliver Burkeman

Callum recalls the time Boris Johnson sang him a song, following a frozen-turd induced flight delay.  We also chat about slurping from the money river, winning some skin in a trolley problem, and taking the hint on when it's time to go. Books God Bless You, Mr Rosewater Author: Kurt Vonnegut  

An outbreak of feral chickens disrupts the news cycle, and their language is everywhere. We chat about Alicia's slow burn love for Wordle and its many variants, and CV guides us through life under a lunatic. Happy Friday!

We talk kiwi accents, how you fut in the mux, and how a deckless vessel nearly caused an international incident. We explore Terry Pratchett's idea of substitions - the opposite of superstitions. Callum talks make-up for men, and describes an experience of being his unusual self.

Today we ponder what's fair snooze-button policy in a partnership, how many questions you should be asking on a first date, and what do do if your job is complete bullshit. Also, we discuss the papal death hammer. Books Bullshit Jobs The Rise of Pointless Work, and What We Can Do About It

Join Alicia, Cam and special guest CV as we talk political change in Australia, the queen and retribution, health and health behaviours!

Cam and Alicia chat from their respective locations across the Tasman. Alicia is pretty sure she's contracted as a human over the last two years, and Cam wonders how the chances of being eaten by a 2017 crocodile will influence Australia's federal election. Oh and Alicia has well and truly taken the swearing shackles off.

Join us today as we discuss going analogue in a digital world, why does Christchurch smell weird...  the phenomenon that is The Streisand Effect, and more! 

Alicia and the gang discuss passwords and privacy, life accountability, and wonder if you make your own luck. 🤔 Are we mainly the product of our environment? 📖 Dan Eggers rollicking novel The Every 💡 A question of free will 😭 An unappreciated friend And more! And don't forget to check out our authors of the week... Margin Richard Swenson The Every Dave Eggers The Trouble With Passion How Searching for Fulfillment at Work Fosters Inequality Erin Cech Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut Strange Planet Nathan Pyle

Alicia and producer Cam traverse the discomfort of hypocrisy, and wonder what life would be like if you didn't know what to do with your arms.