Jack the Insider and Joel Hill are co-hosts of The Conditional Release Program – a podcast that looks into the netherworld of cookers, cults, criminals and con artists. And not necessarily in that order. 

Jack the Insider, otherwise known as Peter Hoysted, is a journalist and author with deep connections in the halls of parliament and the criminal underground alike. He also supports Carlton, which is why he is never at peace in the world. 

Jack is a cancer survivor which makes him especially incensed by bullshit snake oil salesmen and hacks that persuade otherwise reasonable people to swap the chemo for a coffee enema. He has a particular interest in the sovereign citizen/pseudolaw movement – which has gone from very funny to very concerning. 

He is the author of several books including Unholy Trinity, which sought justice for victims of horrific CSA in the Ballarat diocese perpetrated by priests and protected by police.

Joel Hill is a former (mostly) conspiracy theorist with insights into the modern right wing fringe from a left of centre perspective. An IT professional with a degree in political economy and half a degree in law, he’s a law talkin’ Keynesian type that finds the modern conspiratorial movement laughably stupid. Emphasis on laughable. 

Joel was also brought up by astrologers, psychics and various peddlers of mystical wonders. As a child he was warned that skeptics were a force of evil – those who wanted to undermine astrology and clairvoyancy for their own sick pleasure. Well, now he’s speaking at Skepticon. He can hear their collective disappointment. In his chakras, of course. 

Joel supports North Melbourne which is why he is devoid of any sense of hope or pleasure in this world.

The Conditional Release Program will perform a live podcast prepared exclusively for Skepticon.