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Born the son of a Congregational Church minister, he is a self-confessed atheist who sometimes talks about spiritual matters in his interviews, an Australian social icon (he is one of the Australian Living Treasures) who could also be described as an iconoclast, and a left-wing radical thinker.

1 Work

1.1 Current

He currently hosts Late Night Live, a well noted program for its serious discussion of world issues, often with a humorous and satirical bent. Adams has interviewed over 6000 of the world's most prominent people: scholars, politicians, philosophers, scientists, economists, and theologians. Adams addresses all listeners to the program as "Gladys" (a sort of half-humorous and half-serious way of saying that his program is not popular, and for a single listener, but neither is the case).

He also writes a weekly column in the broadsheet The Australian newspaper's weekend magazine.

He currently chairs:

• the Advisory Board of the Centre for the Mind at Sydney University and Australian National University.

His many board memberships include:

• Adelaide's Festival of Ideas, BrisbaneThis article is about the Australian city. For other uses of Brisbane, see Brisbane (disambiguation). Brisbane is the capital city of the state of Queensland, Australia. The city's name is pronounced "BRIZ-buhn" ( SAMPA: ["brIzb@n], IPA: [bzbn]). The City's "Ideas at the Powerhouse"
• the Families in Distress Foundation .

1.2 Past

Among his 20 books are: The Unspeakable Adams, Adams Versus God, Talkback, Retreat From Tolerance and A Billion Voices; and, with his partner Patrice Newell , he is the author of several joke books: The Penguin Book of Australian Jokes (1994), The Penguin Book of Jokes from Cyberspace (1995), The Penguin Book of More Australian Jokes (1996), The Penguin Book of Schoolyard Jokes (1997).

His films include The Adventures of Barry McKenzie , The Getting of Wisdom , Don's Party , Lonely Hearts and We of the Never Never . Adams' Australia was part of BBC TV's contribution to Australia's celebrations for its bicentenary . Other TV programs include two series of The Big Questions with Professor Paul DaviesPaul Charles William Davies (born April 22, 1946) is an Australian, an internationally acclaimed physicist, writer and broadcaster, who holds the position of Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Australian Centre for Astrobiology at Macquarie University, and Death and Destiny filmed in Egypt with Paul Cox.

He was:

• a foundation member of the Australia Council
• chairman of:
  • the Australian Film, Radio and Television Board
  • Australian Film InstituteThe Australian Film Institute (AFI) was established in 1958. Its role is to promote Australian film and television through the annual AFI Awards, a membership program and AFI film events throughout the year. Its address is: 49 Eastern Road, South Melbourn
  • Australian Film Commission
  • Film Australia
  • National Australia Day Council
  • foundation chairman of the Commission for the Future
• president of the Victorian Council for the Arts .

Other board memberships have included the Museum of Australia , Greenpeace Australia , CARE Australia , the Australian Children's Television Foundation , Film Victoria and the Anti-Football League . He was co-founder of the Australian Skeptics .

Phillip Adams:

• received two Orders of AustraliaThe Order of Australia is an order of chivalry "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service". The order was established on February 14, 1975, when Queen Elizabeth II signed L
• was Australian Humanist of the Year (1987)
• received the Longford Award , the Australian film industry's highest accolade, in 1981
• was appointed Senior ANZAC Fellow in 1981
• received the Henry LawsonHenry Lawson ( 17 June, 1867, Grenfell goldfields, New South Wales 2 September, 1922, Sydney) was an Australian writer and poet. Lawson and his contemporary Banjo Patterson are the best-known Australian fiction writers of the colonial period. His mother w Arts Award (1987)
• was elected as one of Australia's Living Treasures) by the National TrustThe National Trust of Australia is a community-based, non-government organisation, committed to promoting and conserving Australia's indigenous, natural and historic heritage through its advocacy work and its custodianship of heritage places and objects. in 1998
• has an honorary doctorateA doctorate is an academic degree of the highest level. Traditionally, the award of a doctorate implies recognition of the candidate as an equal by the university faculty under which he or she has studied. There are essentially three types of doctorates: from Griffith UniversityGriffith University is an Australian public university with five campuses in Brisbane and one at the Gold Coast. It currently has a total of some 27,000 students and 3000 staff. The University was named after the former premier of Queensland, Sir Samuel G