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Kogan.com founder Ruslan Kogan says Australia needs a circuit breaker. He warns David Jones won't be the last big name to fall, and says nobody in business is excited about the future right now. With families tightening their belts, his own business is doing well, and he says he feels bad about it. His fix: a tax system that rewards people who build and employ, two old rules gone for every new one, and politicians who act like they face an election every day. He also tells Karl how it all started. His parents arrived in Melbourne from the Soviet Union with $90 and worked three or four jobs while raising their kids. As a kid in a housing commission flat, he built his own computer and sold lost golf balls back to golfers. He quit a safe job at Accenture, made his mum cry, and started Kogan.com with two TVs and no money. Investors told him to bugger off. So he got customers to pay upfront, flew to China to test every TV himself, and paid a driver to follow the container to the shipping yard. He says Kogan.com now does more sales by quarter past midnight than it did in its entire first year. He picked a fight with Gerry Harvey on purpose, then nearly lost the business when COVID ended and the stock kept coming. What he built to survive is the business it is today. Karl sits down with the founder of Kogan.com to talk about: • David Jones, tax, red tape and why he says nobody in business is excited right now • Arriving from the Soviet Union with $90, and selling lost golf balls back to golfers • The TV order that started Kogan.com, and the investors who said no • Kogan vs Harvey Norman, and the Today Tonight story that started it • The COVID over-order that nearly put Kogan out of business CHAPTERS 0:00 AI and the end of brand loyalty 0:49 What sort of country are we building? 4:04 Arriving from the Soviet Union with $90 7:04 Teaching Mum about opportunity cost 9:58 Selling golf balls back to golfers 12:20 Quitting Accenture 14:46 Miami, and the TV that started Kogan.com 16:47 Customers paid upfront for the first container 19:19 What the TV store doesn't tell you 21:17 More sales by 12:15am than in year one 21:36 Kogan vs Harvey Norman 26:19 Is online retail good for Australia? 28:12 Sovereignty and supply chains 30:30 Winning COVID, then over-ordering 31:59 The edge of the cliff 33:43 What the crisis built 37:32 Back to profit, and going public 39:44 The daily share price 40:52 50 million products and Kogan First 45:09 What worries him about Australia 46:41 Tax, red tape and a trainer too scared to post 49:37 Why business people are never the heroes 51:18 Inflation and the blame game 52:47 Advice for small business 53:59 More David Joneses 54:30 An election every day This episode is brought to you by Tanda. Rostering, payroll and HR for Aussie businesses: tanda.com.au Watch and listen on YouTube and all podcast apps.

Barclay Nettlefold bought the whole sport in the middle of COVID. He's not a car guy, and he's never driven one. Now he wants to take Supercars to Singapore, Malaysia and the Middle East, the way the NRL took rugby league to Las Vegas.Karl sits down with the owner of Supercars to talk about:Toyota, and the next car maker coming to the gridThe decision to drop Neil Crompton from the commentary boxRacing NASCARKeeping a weekend at the track affordable for regional families in a cost of living crisisWhy he thinks sport is worth more than everChapters0:00 Why buy Supercars?1:11 Media, sport and sailing2:24 Buying the whole sport6:01 How much trouble Supercars was in7:33 The team owners9:13 From billboards to Europe's biggest football leagues13:07 When the car makers left16:36 Tickets, broadcast and the money17:28 Finals, concerts and a bigger show19:06 Free-to-air vs streaming19:44 Neil Crompton21:11 Toyota, a fourth car maker and going global22:28 Supercars vs NASCAR26:01 Dick Johnson and the characters27:14 Rating Australia's other sports bosses28:07 Bathurst31:37 Too scared to drive one34:18 Cost of living36:02 Women, families and camping at Bathurst37:40 Why sport is worth more than ever39:04 Fuel pricesThis episode is brought to you by Tanda. Rostering, payroll and HR for Aussie businesses: tanda.com.au/karlWatch and listen on YouTube and all podcast apps.#Supercars #Bathurst #thekarlstefanovicshow

Cost of living and interest rates: Interest rates are at their highest since 2008. Economist Saul Eslake on who’s carrying the inflation burden — what it even means —  and a fairer way to fight it. Only about a third of households have a mortgage, but they’re doing most of the heavy lifting on inflation. Saul explains why prices won’t budge, how much government spending is adding to the problem, and the superannuation idea he says would share the load more fairly. Victorian Elections: Then Melbourne radio legend Neil Mitchell on the Victorian election on November 28. Labor has run the state for 12 years, Neil says voters are furious about crime, hospitals and potholes, and One Nation could hold the balance of power. This is Australia’s equivalent of the US midterms, and Neil says it could be an early predictor for the outcome of the next federal election. In this episode: Why the RBA keeps raising rates, and when Saul thinks they’ll come down What’s keeping inflation high A fairer alternative to rate rises How much government spending is adding to inflation Neil on the leaders, One Nation and his call on who wins

Interest rates at an 18-year high, and the cost of living keeps climbing. For a lot of Australians, this one’s hurting. Families. Small business owners. Farmers. You’re doing it tough, and I see you. The government isn’t riding to the rescue, and neither is the Reserve Bank. So it’s on us. We’ve come through droughts, floods and fires by looking after each other. We’ll get through this the same way. Let me know what you’re going without. #KarlStefanovic #InterestRates #CostOfLiving

Alexander Downer talks inflation, government spending and your mortgage, recorded before the Melbourne Cup Day rate call.The former Liberal leader and Australia’s longest-serving foreign minister has seen it all. The highs and lows. So what does he prescribe for the future based on the past? Interest rates have gone up four times this year, to 4.60 per cent. Inflation hit 4.3 per cent in the year to September. On Melbourne Cup Day, the Reserve Bank decides whether to go again. Here’s how it works. When prices rise faster than the Reserve Bank’s 2-3 per cent target, it lifts the cash rate. Borrowing costs more, households and businesses spend less, and price rises slow. The question is what’s pushing prices up in the first place. He says it’s government spending, state and federal. The Reserve Bank says demand from both government and the private sector is running ahead of what the economy can supply, and higher oil prices from the Middle East conflict are adding to it. Karl asks Downer what that means for families, whether we just get used to higher rates, and how we get out of it. How rate rises are meant to bring prices down The interest bill on government debt, and what it could pay for instead Why the inflation target is 2-3 per cent, not zero What happens when a country can’t borrow cheaply any moreWhat families can do right now

The tradie behind Thunder From Down Under, Vegas' longest-running male revue, on Western Sydney, the Gold Coast and going all in with it all off.Billy Cross grew up in housing commission in Sydney's west and left home at 16 on his L's. He did a bricklaying apprenticeship, got the ticket and never laid a brick. Then a Gold Coast nightclub asked him to take his shirt off. He couldn't dance. He learned.That show became Manpower Australia, then Australia's Thunder From Down Under. It's been stripping in Las Vegas since 1993, and working the Strip full-time since 2001. But first, he lost his shirt in London's West End. Well, most of his Australian tour money, he says.Karl and Billy get into: Leaving Liverpool at 16, and the bricklaying ticket he never usedHens, mums and grandmas: the Gold Coast Monday nights that started it all1,500 seats in London, and 16 turned up, he saysThe VHS tape that got him a full hour on Phil DonahueAll in or go broke: the first male revue with a permanent home on the Las Vegas StripThis episode is brought to you by Tanda. Rostering, payroll and HR for Aussie businesses: tanda.com.au Watch and listen on YouTube and all podcast apps. #thunderfromdownunder #lasvegas #goldcoast

Immigration is the hottest issue in Australia. But there’s a layer most people never see, and it’s bringing you dinner. Sydney restaurateur Mario Libertini has spent 46 years in hospitality. He runs two busy restaurants. The customers are there. The staff aren’t. He hasn’t found an apprentice in five years, and he says the only workers he can get come from overseas. Karl and Mario get into why young Australians are walking away from hospitality, how the new visa rules are turning work into a game show, what it means beyond restaurants for aged care, childcare and the farms, and why, after 46 years, Mario wouldn’t open a restaurant today. In this episode: The big red button ad, and why it went viral Why young Aussies stopped wanting hospitality jobs The backpacker ballot and new student visa rules, explained Apprentices, social media and the “elevator generation” How to get young Australians back behind the bar This episode is brought to you by Tanda. Find out more at tanda.com.au/karl #immigration #hospitality #australia

Neville and Gladys retired to cattle country near Jandowae, Queensland, for peace, cattle and a view of the Bunya Mountains. Then some of the tallest wind turbines in Australia went up next door. “I’m not against wind farms,” Neville says. “But you don’t want to be looking at them all the time.” Karl heads out west to the Wambo Wind Farm to ask who decides where turbines go, and who lives with the decision. For the farmers hosting them, turbines are good money. The town gets a community fund. But for the neighbours who turned down the offer to host, it’s the noise, the shadow flicker, property values, and a community that’s been split. Karl also hears from neighbour Fiona Duff, and from local member David Littleproud on setbacks, noise limits and who pays to pull them down in 30 years. Wambo was approved in 2020, before Queensland tightened its wind farm rules in 2025.

He was a Brisbane mechanic who mortgaged the house for a race car he built in his garage, then crashed it on live TV. Australia loved him so much it paid for him to go again. Dick Johnson is a dying breed. A bloke who fixed his own car, paid his own way, and became one of the most loved sporting figures this country has produced. At 81, he’s still at it. His team won Bathurst this month. In 1980, Dick mortgaged the family home to chase the biggest race in the country. He was leading when a rock rolled onto the track and ended it all on live TV. Then the phones lit up. Families and kids sent in their hard-earned cash and pocket money, Ford matched every dollar, and twelve months later Dick won the whole thing in a car the public paid for. He still has every letter. Karl sits down with an Australian icon. Driving the family Holden to swim training at eight. National Service a few huts from Peter Brock. His first race in an $80 ex-taxi. Getting pulled over at 134km/h by a cop who’d chipped in for his comeback. The truth about who really put that rock on the track. And 56 years with Jill, because “if something was broke, we didn’t throw it out. We used to fix it.” Plus his mum’s best advice: “Tell the truth always, you won’t have to remember a thing.” 00:00 Cold open00:00 Bathurst 2026 and the fuel drama05:02 “Before I fall off my perch”06:43 Microwave pasta after winning Bathurst09:46 Driving the family car at eight13:39 National Service with Peter Brock14:52 First race in an $80 ex-taxi20:15 His first Bathurst25:59 Mortgaging the house28:14 The rock33:17 Australia crowdfunds a comeback40:02 Pulled over at 134km/h44:06 Dick on Peter Brock48:28 The Sierra years53:38 Beating the factory teams at Silverstone56:35 Roger Penske’s lifeline58:56 A letter from Edsel Ford61:24 56 years with Jill62:20 Quickfire questions This episode is brought to you by Tanda. Tanda makes it easier to be an employer. Check them out at tanda.com.au. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all podcast apps. #DickJohnson #Bathurst #KarlStefanovic

Insurance went up again? Shocker. An ex-insider says call their bluff.Luke Dugdell spent a decade policing insurers from the inside. Now he takes them on for a living. And shares some take-home hacks you can use today. His words: “they’ll charge you every dollar they can.”Ever called your insurer and watched the price drop? Tell us by how much.#insurancepremiums #karlstefanovic #costofliving

They lived at home until they got married. Before 40, they’d built more than $1 billion in assets. Karl Stefanovic sits down with self-made Sydney property developers Charbel Hazzouri and Anthony El-Hazouri, second-generation Australians whose fathers arrived from Lebanon with nothing. Karl visits the cousins at the new harbourside headquarters of Revelop, the property group they started in 2008 while still at uni. Charbel’s dad arrived at 18, rented a room from a woman with 30 cats and worked nights in a factory. Anthony’s dad sorted mail at Australia Post before finishing a PhD.From selling shower screens in the Trading Post and washing cars for $7 at nine years old, to marking out their first slab in Bronte (badly), the cousins explain how they built a property business from nothing: options, cash flow, doing more for free than for money, representing themselves in the Land and Environment Court, and buying shopping centres on gut feel, including a Big W they kept open with Liquorland vouchers.They finish on why they don’t think they’ve made it yet, what success looks like now, and their advice for a generation who have it even tougher.

Academy Award-nominated producer Lawrence Bender joins Karl Stefanovic for a revealing conversation about Hollywood, filmmaking and the extraordinary stories behind some of the biggest movies of the past four decades. Bender takes Karl behind the scenes of his career, from meeting Quentin Tarantino and bringing Reservoir Dogs to life to the making of Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, Inglourious Basterds and An Inconvenient Truth. He reveals how he and Tarantino first met, how Reservoir Dogs came together when they were broke, the lessons he learned from Harvey Keitel, and the story of Christoph Waltz walking into a casting room and landing the role of Hans Landa after Bender and Tarantino had almost given up searching. He also shares stories of working with Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, the extraordinary pressure of making Inglourious Basterds on an impossible schedule, and the lesson he learned after almost 40 years in Hollywood. He also discusses Red Alert, the four-part drama he produced about the experiences of families caught up in the events of October 7. He reveals what it was like filming in Israel while missiles were being fired, working with cast and crew who had lived through the events themselves, and why he considers the project one of the most important things he has ever done. After decades working with some of Hollywood's biggest directors, actors and writers, Bender shares the lessons, risks and moments that have shaped one of the industry's most remarkable careers. Subscribe to The Karl Stefanovic Show for more interviews, debate and conversations with some of the biggest names in Australia and around the world.

Dr Nick Norwitz MD PhD joins Karl for a fascinating conversation spanning cholesterol, statins, GLP-1s, peptides and the rapidly changing science of human health. Norwitz reveals how his LDL cholesterol reached an extraordinary 574 after adopting a ketogenic diet – despite previously having normal cholesterol – and why he decided to spend seven years without treating it. He then underwent an advanced heart scan that found zero detectable plaque. He explains why he believes cholesterol needs to be considered in the context of a person's overall metabolic health, challenges the idea that ‘lower is always better’, and discusses what he sees as major problems with the incentives driving medical research. Norwitz also takes Karl inside the emerging world of GLP-1 drugs, peptides and human bioengineering – including his own controversial self-experiments with compounds such as retatrutide and MOT-C. He reveals the astonishing effects he experienced from retatrutide, explains why he believes peptides could eventually transform how we approach muscle, fat, ageing and disease, and argues that the ‘super soldier serum’ may not be as far away as it sounds. Plus, Norwitz explains why he believes the traditional model of large randomised trials may eventually give way to much more personalised approaches to medicine – and why he thinks we are entering an extraordinary new era of human biology. Subscribe to The Karl Stefanovic Show for more interviews, debate and conversations. A huge thanks to our sponsors at TANDA. If you employ people in this country, you need to check them out. You can do everything from onboarding, training and paying team members to off-boarding and more. Go to https://www.tanda.com.au/

British journalist and commentator Jonathan Sacerdoti joins Karl Stefanovic to discuss Britain’s immigration crisis, integration, free speech and the changing face of the West. Sacerdoti warns that Britain may have changed in a way that is ‘irreversible’, arguing that successive governments have allowed large numbers of people into the country while failing to demand enough integration. He also questions why the UK has struggled to stop illegal Channel crossings. Sacerdoti also reveals what happened during his controversial Oxford Union appearances, including his viral debate on whether the West should be suspicious of Islam. He discusses threats, free speech and why he believes universities have become a battleground for competing ideas. He also examines the Muslim Brotherhood and what he describes as its long-term strategy to build influence through Western institutions, before opening up about his father’s experience as a Holocaust survivor and why he believes freedom and Western values are worth defending. Subscribe to The Karl Stefanovic Show for more interviews, debate and conversations on the biggest issues facing Australia, the UK and the world.

AI safety expert Dr Roman Yampolskiy joins Karl Stefanovic for a confronting conversation about the future of artificial intelligence – and what happens if we create a form of intelligence that humans can no longer control. Yampolskiy warns that uncontrolled superintelligence could pose an extinction-level threat, arguing that current experiments show AI systems can lie, cheat, blackmail, bribe, hack systems and even sacrifice humans for their own survival. He says we have ‘basically failed to control them’ and questions whether humanity should continue developing general superintelligence at all. In this episode, he explains: Why uncontrolled superintelligence could become an extinction-level risk – and why humanity may already have ‘basically failed to control’ AI systems. How experiments have shown advanced AI systems can lie, cheat, blackmail, bribe, hack systems and take actions designed to protect their own survival. Why once AI reaches human-level intelligence, virtually every cognitive job could theoretically be automated – and why physical jobs could follow as robotics advances. What happens to society when machines can perform most human work, including the future of universal basic income, wealth redistribution and the global economy. Why traditional career advice could become obsolete in an AI-driven world – and which skills may still matter as automation accelerates. The race for superintelligence, discussing Elon Musk, the global competition to develop increasingly powerful AI systems, and why he believes humanity cannot win an adversarial relationship with superintelligence. Simulation Theory: How the combination of AI and virtual reality could eventually create billions of simulated worlds – and the statistical argument for why we could already be living in one. Subscribe to The Karl Stefanovic Show for more interviews, debate and conversations on the biggest issues facing Australia, the UK and the world.