Are fermented foods really good for us? Do antibiotics destroy our gut flora? And have you heard about poo transplants? Our gut is teeming with trillions of microbial cells, and we are learning more all the time about how this affects everything from our digestion, to immunity, to mental health. So crack open your kombucha, because these leading researchers will cut through the noise with some hard facts and pioneering science about the microbiome. This event was recorded at the World Science Fe...
Dec 16, 2025•55 min
Doctor Who has acted as a mirror to more than six decades of social, technological and cultural change. It's been able to evolve and adapt more radically than any other fiction. Why we are so addicted to fiction, and why does this wonderful wandering time traveller mean so much to so many. This talk was provided by the York Festival of Ideas . The Festival is led by the University of York, UK. Original broadcast on July 21, 2025. Speaker John Higgs Author of Exterminate/Regenerate: The Story of ...
Dec 15, 2025•54 min
The connection between body and mind is well established. But mental health expert Daniel Fung also includes the soul in this 'ecosystem' that shapes your overall wellbeing. He envisions a future for mental health services, that is person-centred, holistic and consciously uses digital tools and social media. Beautiful minds, Loving hearts: Asian Mental Health Ecosystems in 2050 was presented at TheMHS (Mental Health Services) conference 2025 in Brisbane Listen to Big Ideas — How to overcome the ...
Dec 11, 2025•55 min
From innocently conning controversial radio duo Kyle and Jackie O as a kid, time in a Zambian convent as a teen, to nearly becoming an air traffic controller before finding her real passion - helping others find their voice - Astrid Jorgensen has quite a story to tell. Her new memoir is called Average At Best. She is anything but. She is anything but. On any one night, anywhere in the world, you’ll find Astrid on a stage in front of a few thousand people singing their hearts out. But to call Ast...
Dec 10, 2025•1 hr 4 min
Australia now has its first treaty with this country's first peoples. After nearly a decade of formal consultation and negotiation, the Victorian Statewide Treaty has become law, and will come into effect from early December. This address outlines the long road to achieving the treaty, why it's important, and what comes next. The 25th Dr Charles Perkins Oration was recorded on 28 October 2025 at the University of Sydney. Speakers Ngarra Murray Co-chair, Victorian First People's Assembly...
Dec 09, 2025•43 min
Humans are by nature creative, but how do we turn a spark of inspiration into something more tangible? Author Emily Maguire draws inspiration from some of the world's most creative minds — from Lin Manuel Miranda, to Susan Sontag, to explore the ingredients of a truly creative life. The 2025 Colin Roderick Memorial Lecture , hosted by the Foundation of Australian Literary Studies at James Cook University in partnership with the Australian Festival of Chamber Music , was recorded on 29th July 202...
Dec 08, 2025•55 min
As we grow older, changes to our bodies and minds are inevitable. But what if science could help us age better? Our experts on Big Ideas uncover the latest science behind healthy brain aging. What's possible in the fight against cognitive decline and dementia? How might you live a longer, healthier, and more meaningful life? Presented by Sydney Ideas , the talk program at the University of Sydney Speakers Associate Professor Eleanor Drummond Senior Lecturer (Neuroscience), School of Medical Scie...
Dec 04, 2025•55 min
When acclaimed Australia author Christos Tsiolkas was invited to give the 2025 Ray Mathew Lecture at the National Library of Australia , he had in mind what he wanted to say, as difficult as it was. Then he got a rage-filled message from a longtime friend. How did Christos respond? Is fence-sitting an indulgence in an ethically troubled, divisive, dislocated world? Or, is 'speaking across the fence' something writers and other creatives can offer us? "We're urged at all times — and for every occ...
Dec 03, 2025•54 min
From The Don to Warny, the Gabba to the G, from its legacy of British colonialism, to the Asian powerhouse nations of today — cricket is not just a sport, but also a reflection of the societies who play it. Drawing on a wealth of writing about the sport, including novels, biographies, and media reporting, this lecture explores the cultural and historical legacy of cricket. This event was recorded at the Australian Catholic University on 30 October 2025. Speakers Paul Giles Professor of English, ...
Dec 02, 2025•1 hr 10 min
Born in apartheid South Africa, she became the country's first female high court judge. She sat on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and helped to establish sexual violence and rape as war crimes in international law. At a time of global conflict and instability, the work and achievements of Navi Pillay are a reminder of what can be achieved when accountability trumps impunity, when the law defeats lawlessness, and justice prevails over injustice. The 2025 Sydney Peace Prize Lectur...
Dec 01, 2025•55 min
Young Australians are losing faith that our politics, our civic institutions and the mainstream media are working for them. Why is this? And how can our democracy adapt to win back the trust and engagement of new generations? The 2025 Speaker's Lecture was recorded at Parliament House on 27 October 2025. Speakers Holly Rankin - Musician and recording artist Jack River , founder, Sentiment , director, Teach Us Consent Milton Dick - Speaker of the House of Representatives, Labor Member for Oxley F...
Nov 27, 2025•54 min
Are our universities facing an existential crisis by trying to be too many things? Places for learning, research, the production of new knowledge, the production of job-ready graduates, and profit-making enterprises? Does everything they do have to produce a tangible, measurable, practical, or profitable outcome? Should they also foster intellectual life and the pursuit of ideas just for curiosity's sake? Or is that an elite, outdated mission? Who gets to judge what knowledge is deemed useless o...
Nov 26, 2025•55 min
We often hear about "failing schools", but what if it is us, the Australian community, who are failing them? Public school advocate Jane Caro argues that Australia's pursuit of school choice, and the tax payer funding that enables it, has come at a huge cost to the school system, to children's education, and to our broader society. The 2025 Dymphna Clark Lecture at Manning Clark House was recorded on 26 August 2025. Speakers Jane Caro — Author, The Mother, Lyrebird, What Makes a Good School? and...
Nov 25, 2025•59 min
Join ABC's Mon Schafter and four incredible speakers as they share honest, powerful stories about revealing their identities on their own terms. From fear to freedom, isolation to community - this is a conversation about truth, courage, and connection. Held in recognition of 40 years of ACON , it celebrates every journey of coming out and shines a light on personal stories, collective resilience, and the power of being seen. Support If this conversation raises any concerns for you, QLife is an A...
Nov 24, 2025•55 min
If you're a feminist, or pro-civil or gay rights, does that make you "woke"? And if you're not, does that mean you should be cancelled, or abused online, or lose your job? So many of our public debates nowadays are divided along these lines, but is there a better way? This event was recorded at the 2025 Melbourne Writers Festival . To explore more Melbourne Writers Festival talks, visit mwf.com.au . Speakers AC Grayling Philosopher, author, Discriminations: Making peace in the culture wars , and...
Nov 20, 2025•55 min
Friends are different from family. We choose them and they choose us. Philosophers long wondered about what makes friendship such a distinctive relationship in our lives. Is being a good friend a kind of moral virtue? Can friends help us find our true selves? What about the dark and difficult side of friendship — toxic friends and frenemies? How is the love between friends different from romantic love? Join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell and guests at the Sophia Club , a live philosophy event s...
Nov 19, 2025•1 hr 10 min
To deal with China as a major trading partner, and also a national security threat requires understanding the history that made China what it is today. That history is shaped by resistance and different waves of uprising. How have governments dealt with these movements? How do they influence politics today? China: Past, Present, Future was recorded live at the 2025 Sydney Writers' Festival. Listen to Big Ideas — Behrouz Boochani and Arnold Zable: The language of resistance Speakers Linda Jaivin ...
Nov 18, 2025•45 min
The United States has long been famous for its world leading universities. But in the face of research funding cuts, government attacks on free speech, DEI and the right to protest, and the persecution of foreign students, could all that be changing? The speech, Poison Ideas: Universities and other Antidotes to Authoritarianism, was recorded at the 2025 conference of the Australasian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (DASSH) representing 350 deans and associate deans from ...
Nov 17, 2025•55 min
The Western world is supposed to stand for values like freedom, justice and human rights, a commitment to meet wrongdoing with consequence, guided by rules and obligations. How then, do we reconcile that with Western governments' and media's support of and complicity in the horrors in Gaza? How do we witness the bloodshed and destruction, and yet look away? This conversation was recorded at the Canberra Writers Festival on 26 October 2025. Speakers Omar El Akkad Author, One Day, Everyone Will Ha...
Nov 13, 2025•55 min
Build more houses. That'll fix Australia's housing crisis won't it? If you listen to governments, you'd sure think so. Under the National Housing Accord, all governments have agreed to support a target of building 1.2 million new, well-located dwellings in 5 years. But will that increase housing affordability, availability, quality, security of tenure, and the growing gap between the haves and have-nots? What's missing from this picture? Join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell at the 2025 National ...
Nov 12, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Whitlam's dismissal and following double dissolution 50 years ago, was arguably the most tumultuous period in Australia's political and constitutional history. This political crisis raises key questions about constitutional change and the robustness of Australia's current democracy. What are the lessons? And could it happen again? Presented at the National Archives of Australia Speakers Anne Twomey Professor Emerita of Constitutional Law at the University of Sydney Law School Frank Bongiorno Pro...
Nov 11, 2025•55 min
In the 1930s, New Zealand-born, Cambridge educated Arthur Dale Trendall carved a niche for himself as the world's foremost expert in the study of ancient South Italian vase painting. How then, did he end up leading a crack team of code-breakers working in Melbourne to decipher Japanese messages for the Allies during the Second World War? This lecture was recorded at Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance in partnership with La Trobe University's Trendall Research Centre . Speakers Dr Gillian Shepherd...
Nov 10, 2025•55 min
When it was founded in 2015, openai — the company behind Chat GPT — had a mission to develop artificial intelligence tools that would benefit humanity. But somewhere along the way, that mission changed. While the use of AI in our daily lives is increasingly pervasive, the technology's toll on the environment, human rights, copyright, privacy and workers and resources in the global south is starting to mount. In her new book, leading AI reporter Karen Hao details the AI industry's pursuit of prog...
Nov 06, 2025•54 min
ABC Radio National's CITIZEN JURY takes hard, hot-button issues affecting a community — and places citizens at the centre of finding solutions. It's citizen-driven democracy in action! Tasmanian salmon is on dinner plates across Australia. It's a 1.4 billion-dollar industry producing jobs for Tasmanians, and more than 70, 000 tonnes of fish annually — with plans for expansion. But salmon farming has also become a lightning-rod for locals concerned about its environmental impact — on water qualit...
Nov 04, 2025•1 hr 11 min
In 1975, aged just 29, she wrote a bestselling book that changed Australia. Since then, she's courted controversy and acclaim, but Anne Summers has never given up the fight for gender equality. This conversation was recorded live at the 2025 Sydney Writers' Festival . Speakers Dr Anne Summers Author, Damned Whores and God's Police , Ducks on the Pond: An Autobiography 1945-1976, The Misogyny Factor, and many moreProfessor of domestic and family violence, University of Technology SydneyJournalist...
Nov 04, 2025•55 min
When people say or do the wrong thing, we have laws and a legal system that should be able to deliver consequences and, hopefully justice. But in this digital age, the human instinct to inflict punishment in the court of public opinion has reached fever pitch. So do we want to live by mob rule, or the rule of law? The 2025 James Merralls Fellowship in Law Lecture , hosted by the University of Melbourne Law School and the Victorian Bar, was recorded on 4 September 2025. Speakers Sue Chrysanthou D...
Nov 03, 2025•55 min
For all of human history, space has been a place of mystery, awe and fascination. But unless you're an astronaut, a billionaire, or a pop star, most of us will never have the opportunity to travel there — except in our minds. This conversation features two writers who've used the perspective of space to explore our humanity, Earth's place in the universe, and the meaning of it all. The conversation, Out of this World was recorded live at the 2025 Sydney Writers' Festival . Speakers Samantha Harv...
Oct 30, 2025•54 min
Have you ever visited an art gallery full of wonder, ready to be inspired, only to leave feeling like it was all a bit over your head? You're about to meet one writer whose new book of essays rejects the over-complication and gets to the messy, human heart of art. What Artists See is a collection of essays from award-winning arts writer and critic Quentin Sprague, canvassing twelve contemporary Australian artists whose works span sculpture, painting and architecture, and the stories are just as ...
Oct 29, 2025•55 min
When a child is born, so too is a mother. This idea, known as "matrescence", was first conceived in the 1970s by American medical anthropologist Dana Raphael. Parenting in 2025 looks very different in many ways, the scientific evidence now supports the theory that women undergo radical physiological, psychological and social changes during pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood. This conversation was presented by the Sydney Opera House at the 2025 All About Women Festival . Speakers Lucy Jones Sc...
Oct 28, 2025•55 min
He was undefeated in battle and established one of the largest empires in history. But his legacy goes beyond his military conquests. He increased trade between East and West, spread the Greek civilisation and founded cultural centres that still thrive today. Learn more about Alexander the Great's life, personality and impact with a fresh perspective on his reign, including the vital roles that other figures played in historical events and new insights into how and why historical interpretations...
Oct 27, 2025•43 min
