ShortHand: Julian Assange

Hannah Maguire (0:13)

Hello.

Suruthi Bala (0:14)

And welcome to Shorthand, where order has been restored. We are back in our correct seats.

Hannah Maguire (0:18)

Thank god for that. In case anyone's wondering why we were swapped around, and probably in an episode that came out ages ago, or hasn't come out, because we are in a jumble of when we're recording things and when we're releasing them because of all of the bloody reactive episodes we keep doing because we're crazy.

It was just because Hannah's laptop wasn't charged. That was it. But we're back in the right places now, where we belong, and we've got a case.

Suruthi Bala (0:44)

A companion, one might say.

Hannah Maguire (0:46)

Yes. For a case is coming out this week on Main Feed RedHanded, because we can do what we want.

Suruthi Bala (0:53)

For centuries, politics has happened behind closed doors, with people like Machiavelli swishing his cape all over this. A government secrets would consist of furtive conversations and reams of physical documents sealed in impenetrable vaults.

And then the Internet happened, and thank God it did, or we'd both be out of a job.

Hannah Maguire (1:14)

Quite.

Suruthi Bala (1:16)

And with the dawn of the interwebs, the amount of information that could be stored, and the likelihood of it spilling out, significantly increased.

Hannah Maguire (1:26)

And I know this has nothing to do with anything.

Well, it does, but nothing to do with this particular case. Just much better fire safety now that we have the Internet.

Suruthi Bala (1:35)

Very good point.

Hannah Maguire (1:36)

Because offices just filled with reams and reams and reams and boxes and boxes and cupboards full of paper is one of the reasons that, other than the fact that, you know, two planes flew into those buildings. Like why 9-11 was like such an inferno? Because the offices were just filled with paper and paper likes to be satellite.

Suruthi Bala (1:54)

It certainly does.

Hannah Maguire (1:55)

Please continue.

Suruthi Bala (1:56)

And for some people, the dawn of the Internet and the likelihood of spillage spelled opportunity.

Today, we've got the story of one organization that sought to rewrite how states interact with their people forever. And one man who outsmarted, humiliated and exposed the most powerful institutions in the whole world. Here is the shorthand.

Hannah Maguire (2:22)

Julian Paul Hawkins was born on the 3rd of July, 1971

Suruthi Bala (2:26)

Into a cult.

Hannah Maguire (2:28)

Go listen to our episode on the family, which I have helpfully put in here. A story we covered years back in episode XXXXXX, because I was going to go look up which episode number it was, and I forgot to do that. But yes, we'll get back to that. He was born in an even more fucking mental sounding place than how the cult of the family sounds, because he was born in the definitely not made up town of Townsville, Queensland, Australia.

Australia, this I feel like is just a flex on how big you are.

Suruthi Bala (3:00)

Yeah, they weren't trying.

Hannah Maguire (3:01)

Townsville, run out of names, it's just called Townsville. And young Julian's parents were a visual artist and a builder who separated before he was even born.

So when he was just a year old, Julian's mother married actor Brett Assange, and they started a travelling theatre troupe, like the people from The Sound of Music. Is that what happens in The Sound of Music?

Suruthi Bala (3:28)

No.

Hannah Maguire (3:29)

I've never seen The Sound of Music.

Suruthi Bala (3:30)

It's not what happens in The Sound of Music at all.

Hannah Maguire (3:34)

Is it not even a side plot?

Suruthi Bala (3:36)

No.

Hannah Maguire (3:36)

Oh, well.

Suruthi Bala (3:38)

No, they escaped the Nazis.

Hannah Maguire (3:40)

What am I thinking of? Who are the Von Trapps?

Suruthi Bala (3:42)

That's The Sound of Music.

Hannah Maguire (3:44)

They're not a travelling theatre troupe? No, no.

Suruthi Bala (3:45)

She just teaches them songs.

Hannah Maguire (3:47)

Okay. Whatever.

Suruthi Bala (3:49)

And then they're like, thank you for my blossoming personality. Let's not take this show on the road because there are Nazis.

Hannah Maguire (3:56)

I see.

Suruthi Bala (3:56)

No, they were never a troupe. They're far too high class to be a travelling troupe.

Hannah Maguire (3:59)

Never mind. So Julian Assange, unlike the Von Trapps, was in a family of travelling theatre people.

And this woman, his mother, stayed with actor Brett Assange until Julian was nine years old, by which time Julian had decided that Assange was a much better name than Hawkins. And so he took it. And his mom actually went on to marry Laif Maynell, a member of the New Age cult that we've already alluded to, the family, which you don't need the episode number, just go search RedHanded the family and you'll find it, and they are fucking nuts.