It's the story that sustainable environment regulation and programs ALWAYS come at the cost of jobs and prosperity. It doesn't matter whether it's true or not, talking about the risk to profits usually drowns out the alternative narrative of scientists and environmental campaigners. Peter Cosier was there, at the beginning — and talks about the wins and losses of environmental politics in Australia. Presented at the Lyrebird Festival Speakers Peter Cosier Chair of Accounting for NatureFounding M...
Apr 14, 2025•54 min
Is prison time for violent offenders mostly about appeasing a sense of revenge? And if so, are there better ways to rehabilitate perpetrators? Dr Gwen Adshead assesses the effectiveness and impact of therapeutic interventions and restorative justice - and she's looking at how Norway does it. The 2024 BBC Reith lecture series Speakers Dr Gwen Adshead Award-winning forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist, author of The Devil You Know. Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry Anita Anand (host)BBC Radio...
Apr 10, 2025•54 min
The long term impact of childhood trauma on your body and mind is profound and devastating. Many perpetrators of violent crimes have suffered abuse themselves. But is it as easy as to say that trauma causes violence? There are many more people who have lived through trauma and don’t start hurting others. The 2024 BBC Reith lecture Speakers Dr Gwen Adshead Award-winning forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist, author of The Devil You Know. Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry Olivia PhelpsGovernor...
Apr 09, 2025•54 min
You all have the capacity for evil behaviour in you — given the right mix of circumstances. Rigidity of thinking about others, egocentricity, setting your moral rule book and dehumanising victims are contributing factors. But just as innate to you is the antidote to evil: goodness. Find out how to maintain this fine balance on Big Ideas. This is the second 2024 BBC Reith lecture Speakers Dr Gwen Adshead Award-winning forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist, author of The Devil You Know. Encoun...
Apr 08, 2025•54 min
What then are the tipping points that drive some to kill? Is violence unnatural? Or is it normal because, deep down, we are all capable of cruelty and can experience, even briefly, the urge to hurt others? The daily news, as well as our cultural landscape, is filled with stories of acts of violence. The impact of violence on the individual, families and communities can be devastating. This is the first 2024 BBC Reith lecture in the series: Four questions about violence Speakers Dr Gwen Adshead A...
Apr 07, 2025•53 min
Teenagers 'live' online and on social media. How can they reap the many benefits that social media can offer? There are plenty of them: an endless pool of knowledge and curiosity. But parents need to help them navigate the risk and threats online — of which there're also plenty. On Big Ideas, we have a panel of experts with a plethora of valuable information, advice and resources. Presented by the Raising Children Network and hosted at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. Check out the ABC...
Apr 03, 2025•54 min
Two of Australia’s most influential and legendary storytellers, author Tim Winton and filmmaker Rachel Perkins, join Natasha Mitchell at WOMADelaide’s Planet Talks to discuss the power of stories and the role of artists to create change in the world. SpeakersRachel PerkinsMulti-award-winning filmmaker, and founder of Blackfella films Director, presenter, co-writer, co-producer The Australian Wars series (available on SBS On Demand)Co-director, co-writer, co-producer First Australians Tim WintonM...
Apr 02, 2025•54 min
Populism is part of American political history. It has been and still is the dominant vocabulary of dissent. But the current resurrection of authoritarian politics in the US is different. While the two parties could absorb populist movements in the past, this time populism has absorbed the party. Presented at the American Academy in Berlin Speaker Jefferson Cowie James G. Stahlman Professor in American History at Vanderbilt UniversityAmerican Academy in Berlin, Axel Springer Fellow — Class of Sp...
Apr 01, 2025•54 min
What makes a good conversation? And do good conversations have anything in common? Ian Williams studies his daily conversations and explores how our age has left many people in what he calls a "drought of loving voices." In searching for conversations that feel transcendent, not transactional, he argues that in great conversations, the content is less important than the interaction: the sincerity and openness of the engagement. Good conversation is an art, and you don't know how it will change y...
Mar 31, 2025•58 min
We're in an era where many people feel an ownership over certain words, and how a community expresses itself. The term "appropriation" has come to create guardrails around what can be said and by whom. Award-winning Canadian writer Ian Williams considers the role of speech and silence in reallocating power, and what it means to truly listen. The CBC Massey Lecture series What I mean to say — remaking conversation in our time was recorded live across Canada in November 2024. This fourth lecture W...
Mar 27, 2025•53 min
Bookstores are full of titles that are supposed to help us deal with difficult conversations — about emotions, misunderstandings and hurt feelings. The problem is that difficult conversations are almost always about something other than what they seem to be about. And what we're actually looking for in a conversation isn't always answers — it's communion. The CBC Massey Lecture series What I mean to say — remaking conversation in our time was recorded live across Canada in November 2024. This th...
Mar 26, 2025•53 min
Public space is important for democracy. This is where we articulate our values, and perhaps change our minds. So how do we open ourselves up to connection with strangers while safeguarding our personal sovereignty and resisting efforts to convert us? And what can we learn from our conversations with strangers and loved ones alike about how to navigate the murky waters of national conversations? The CBC Massey Lecture series What I mean to say — remaking conversation in our time was recorded liv...
Mar 25, 2025•52 min
Ever felt that no one is really listening? At a time when we're more connected than ever, why does it seem like we can barely talk to each other? Civic and civil discourse have deteriorated, and the air is raw with anger and misunderstanding on all sides. Award-winning Canadian author and poet Ian Williams is reviving the lost art of conversation in his CBC Massey Lecture series What I mean to say — remaking conversation in our time . These lectures were recorded live across Canada in November 2...
Mar 24, 2025•52 min
In his influential 1964 book The Lucky Country, Donald Horne wrote that Australians played an aristocratic role in Asia: "rich, self-centred, frivolous, blind". A lot has changed in 60 years, but does Australia still think it's better than its neighbours? Recorded at the Australian Academy of the Humanities annual symposium , The Ideas and Ideals of Australia — The Lucky Country turns 60, on 13 — 15 November 2024 at the Australian National University. Speakers Louise Edwards Emeritus Scientia Pr...
Mar 20, 2025•56 min
Australia's housing crisis hasn't always been with us. So what choices created it, and what choices are now needed to fix it? Buying a house is now out of reach if you're on an average wage, and rental options are expensive and precarious. If we don't address the issues urgently, generations to come will face homelessness or profound poverty paying rents on a pension. There are solutions. Are politicians courageous enough to try them? Join Natasha Mitchell and guests at Adelaide Writers Week . S...
Mar 19, 2025•58 min
Australia's housing crisis hasn't always been with us. So what choices created it, and what choices are now needed to fix it? Buying a house is now out of reach if you're on an average wage, and rental options are expensive and precarious. If we don't address the issues urgently, generations to come will face homelessness or profound poverty paying rents on a pension. There are solutions. Are politicians courageous enough to try them? Join Natasha Mitchell and guests at Adelaide Writers Week . S...
Mar 19, 2025•58 min
How many times have you checked your phone today? How many tabs are open in your web browser? Do you feel in control of your attention? In the digital age, attention is now a commodity. Can practices like meditation and mindfulness help us feel more free to focus on what really matters? This event was hosted at the Brunswick Ballroom by the Sophia Club in partnership with the University of Melbourne's Contemplative Studies Centre . Speakers Jess Huon Meditation trainer, authorised Dharma teacher...
Mar 18, 2025•54 min
The structures of families have gotten complex, even messy. Patchwork families are increasingly common. You can a birth mother, a genetic mother and a social mother. People choose friends as kin. How have families and communities changed? Presented at the Byron Writers Festival , supported by the Byron Shire Council. Speakers Kon Karapanagiotidis CEO and Founder of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre; author of A Seat at My Table: Philoxenia Marina Kamenev Former deputy arts editor of the Moscow T...
Mar 17, 2025•55 min
The Murray Darling Basin is the most important river system in Australia, and the most contested. What does it mean to live by those rivers, through the droughts, the floods, and the water politics that shape these communities. A beautiful and evocative history of the Murray Darling Basin, as told by people who live there. This speech was recorded at the History Council of Victoria's annual lecture at the State Library of Victoria on 14 November 2024. Speakers Katie Holmes Professor in History a...
Mar 13, 2025•54 min
How has the fossil fuel industry wielded influence over Australian governments and their policies? What does it take to make ambitious change in the public interest, without vested interests getting in way? Join Natasha Mitchell and guests at Adelaide Writers Week. Speakers Dr Richard Denniss Economist and Executive Director of The Australia Institute Author of BIG: The Role of the State in the Modern Economy (2022) Ross Garnaut EconomistProfessor Emeritus in business and economics, University o...
Mar 12, 2025•54 min
The citizens of France have a notoriously conflicted relationship with the state. Their suspicion, if not resentfulness, of state power has played out in myriad revolts over the centuries and continues with repeated protests and riots to this day. It shapes the country's political and social fabric … from the set-up of their local sports clubs to their global foreign politics ambitions. The picture that emerges is one of a nation struggling to reconcile its core political values with the realiti...
Mar 11, 2025•54 min
The International Criminal Court has issued high-profile arrests warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over their conduct in the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. But although the court's role is to end impunity for war crimes, many are now questioning whether it has the power to perform that vital duty. This event was recorded at the University of Tasmania on 11 February 2025. Speakers Alex Whiting Professor of Practice, Harvard Law SchoolFormer Act...
Mar 10, 2025•54 min
A "Homeric struggle", a desperate night-ballet, an ethical training ground for boys and men. Aussie Rules is a multimillion-dollar industry, but at its heart, to thousands of people, it's much more than that. Including to Australian literary great, Helen Garner. This event was recorded at the National Library of Australia on 20 February 2025. Speakers Helen GarnerAuthor, The Season, Monkey Grip, The Children's Bach, The First Stone, Joe Cinque's Consolation, The Spare Room, This House of Grief a...
Mar 06, 2025•54 min
Donald Trump's return to The White House is up-ending the way America works — at home and on the global stage. Does it herald the potential social, political, and constitutional collapse of United States? The world has watched nations sleepwalk into ultranationalist fascism before, is this that moment? Or is American democracy more resilient than any one demagogue? Are we on the cusp of new world order, and how will Australia play its cards if the USA no longer has our back? This event was prese...
Mar 05, 2025•54 min
A trip to Bunnings, a Medibank or Optus account, a new smart car or vacuum, every facet of our daily lives is now up for grabs. So should privacy continue to be our individual responsibility, or is it time for governments do more? This event was recorded at the State Library of Victoria on 19 November 2024. Speakers Hugh de Kretser President, Australian Human Rights Commission Lizzie O'Shea Founder and chair of Digital Rights Watch Principal lawyer at Maurice Blackburn Ed Santow Co-Director of t...
Mar 04, 2025•54 min
Europe needs to rethink its strategies and policies to protect the continent in the future. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, China's predatory mercantilism, and the rise of populist neoisolationism in the United States mean that depending on the status quo won't cut it anymore. But after decades of neglect, restoring Europe's military capacity, economic competitiveness, and strategic autonomy will be difficult. Can NATO evolve into a more balanced team, and may the time finally have come for a Euro...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 11 min
Humans have a conflicted relationship with animals: We love our pets and admire our wildlife. But we continue the industrial production of dairy, meat and eggs, that often leaves animal suffering in dreadful conditions. We create a division between US and THEM, if it suits us. What does that say about how we value animals in our lives? Presented at the Byron Writers Festival Speakers Peter Singer Bioethicist and author of Animal Liberation, Practical Ethics, and The Buddhist and the EthicistFoun...
Feb 24, 2025•44 min
Seeing a whale in the wild takes your breath away. But so much of what they do remains mysterious. Join Natasha Mitchell with two world leading whale researchers unearthing the secret world of cetaceans. You'll want to change jobs when you hear what they get up to! Thousands of humpback whales will soon leave their Summer feeding grounds in Antarctica with full bellies to begin the world's longest mammalian migration. How do they live, breed, behave, survive, thrive? Commercial whaling might hav...
Feb 24, 2025•54 min
Cherished companions, or cunning predators? Cats kill five million native animals in Australia every day — so how can we better manage our feline friends? Listen to the rest of our special series Animals — Us and Them? Speakers Alex Patton Invasive species ecologist and PhD candidate, University of Tasmania Noel Hunt CEO, Ten Lives Cat Centre Dr Catherine "Cat" Young Biodiversity coordinator, NRM South Dr Tiana Pirtle (host)Conservation officer, Invasive Species Council Further information: Cats...
Feb 24, 2025•54 min
Zoos are changing — they are no longer just places for us humans to gawk at animals in cages. In the midst of a global extinction crisis, they are now playing a vital role. So what is their future? This event was recorded at the International Society of Behavioural Ecology Congress in Melbourne on 2 October 2024, with thanks to organiser Professor Andy Bennett from the University of Melbourne. Listen to the rest of our special series Animals — Us and Them? Speakers Dr Sally Sherwin Director of W...
Feb 24, 2025•52 min
