A few days before I have the 2017 Brian Johns Lecture in Sydney on the future of public interest journalism, I had my second encounter with venerable broadcaster, Phillip Adams.

The first was decades ago when, as a copy kid for News Ltd in Melbourne, I would tool around the city in taxis collecting copy (typed stories that would then be faxed to head office for sub-editing for tomorrow’s paper) from journalists at Parliament House, the Stock Exchange and, in the case of one special columnist, from the offices of his advertising agency in St Kilda.

Needless to say, when we met again at the ABC Radio National’s studios in Ultimo, where Phillip interviewed me for Late Night Live about my upcoming lecture, he didn’t remember the copy kid.