Big Ideas

Food is essential to human life, but are we taking it for granted? Popular chef, writer and broadcaster Adam Liaw is an advocate for good food for everyone. He takes us on a journey through the history and science of food, and its place in our societies, economies and cultures throughout time, arguing that food should play a central role in government policy making. The 2025 Hugh Stretton Oration...

Books on tyrants, dictators, and authoritarian leaders are suddenly bestsellers again as we all try to make sense of the tilt towards tyrannical leadership around the world, the mass compliance it commands, and its use of terror, fear, and often violence, to govern. Two of Australia's leading scholars on China and the Soviet Union, Linda Jaivin (author of BOMBARD THE HEADQUARTERS! The Cultural Rev...

At a time when governments are retreating from promises of progress for First Nations people, what can be achieved through legal and human rights mechanisms? The 2025 Mabo Oration was recorded at the Cairns Performing Arts Centre on 30 May 2025, with thanks to the Queensland Human Rights Commission and QPAC. Speakers Katie Kiss Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Social Justice Commissioner Gail...

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. Spe...

Acclaimed British author Jeanette Winterson argues that 200 years ago, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, was a message in a bottle, a prophesy, of today's AI revolution. This conversation was recorded at the Sydney Writers' Festival , in partnership with the University of New South Wales's Centre for Ideas on 21 May 2025. Speakers Jeanette Winterson Author, 12 Bytes: How artificial intelligence will ch...

Citizen Jury is ABC Radio National's experiment in citizen-led democracy. The ingredients? A gnarly issue + a jury of citizens = conversations + ideas for solutions + a public event to share them. Join Big Ideas presenter Natasha Mitchell in Dubbo, NSW for our first Citizen Jury. We all want electricity at the flick of a switch, but who bears the brunt of making that happen? Join citizens who live...

John Maynard Keynes was an economist whose dreams went beyond balance sheets and into political ideas and cultural movements. He advised world leaders during world wars, witnessed the great depression first hand and counted himself as one of the Bloomsbury group, a set of London's most influential writers and intellectuals like Virginia Woolf. This discussion from CUNY Graduate Center is an in dep...

Photojournalism can define a moment, a movement, an era or even a whole generation. It can lift a weary spirit, move opinions, or change the way we view the world. Three of Australia's best photojournalists tell the stories behind some of Australia's most iconic photographs, and reflect on the profession's past, present and future. This event was recorded at the National Library of Australia on 27...

Australia faces many big challenges, but is our democracy up to the job of solving these, or are we experiencing a decision deadlock? One process that could help governments meet the moment is known as citizen jury or assembly, where a cross section of ordinary people deliberate together over a thorny policy issue, then provide advice. How do these work, are they effective, and should they play a...

We bathe in the amniotic fluid our mother's womb. Our cells are full of water. For Walbanja woman, artist, educator and researcher Dr Jodi Edwards, this ocean-within intimately connects her to the ocean she grew up with on Sea Country. From saving the Sea kin to sensing the Gaia imperative — join Jodi with Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell, and also hear from award-winning author James Bradley and C...

The Kurdish poet Behrouz Boochani and the Australian writer Arnold Zable explore the power of friendship as an act of resistance, nourishment and healing. This event was recorded with the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne 29 April 2025. Speakers Behrouz Boochani Kurdish-Iranian writer, journalist, scholar, cultural advocate, filmmaker, and public advocate for human rightsAuthor, No Fr...

In October 2023, Australians voted no to a Voice to Parliament for First Nations people. In this panel from the 2025 Melbourne Writers Festival , four speakers who saw the campaign up close discuss what went wrong, and even whether the whole endeavour was worth it. Ultimately they’re all trying to answer the question, where do we go from here?  Speakers  Thomas Mayo Kaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalg...

What would religion, work, sex or technology look like if we lived in a truly feminist world? In a perfect world would the messy stuff make the cut? Or would stuff that makes us human be left in the real world? Join two big thinkers who unpack it all as they build their own feminist utopia in this episode of Big Ideas. This was a live philosophy event presented in London at the Sophia Club, from t...

Dark tourism is increasingly popular. Sites of suffering like old gaols, asylums, orphanages hold a certain allure. Can we honour their dark heart and histories, whilst also re-imagining their future? Should some 'traumascapes' be left untouched so the scars of the past are never forgotten, or can we turn them into happier settings with sensitivity? How do designers, developers, and historians tre...

Language is always evolving, and reflecting back to us our society, politics and identity. From profanity, to personal pronouns, to the politics of translation and cultural appropriation, why do we use the words we do? This event was recorded at the University of Sydney. Speakers John McWhorter Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Colombia UniversityAuthor, Pronoun Trouble: T...

Under Donald Trump's second presidency, America's retreat from global leadership has been swift and erratic. With Russia's war in Ukraine still raging on Europe's doorstep, and China and India on the move, how is the international rules based order being reshaped? And how should Australia position itself in this dangerous, volatile, hard new world? This conversation was recorded at the Australian...

When you enter your childbearing years, it can feel like everyone from the treasurer, your mum, and probably your Instagram reels really wants you to have a kid. But is it the right decision? Few women escape this conundrum of modern family-making, and unfortunately there is no easy or simple answer. But in this talk presented by the Sydney Opera House at the All About Women Festival 2025 , you’ll...

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 har...

Do humans really have what it takes to change our lives – our world – to arrest climate collapse? It might be the defining question we face as a society, and the panellists from this WOMADelaide Festival discussion are throwing everything they’ve got at this intractable issue, drawing on knowledge from the oldest continuing culture in the world and the fields of architecture, urban planning and of...

Murderers, fraudsters, mobsters, dodgy doctors, and corrupt politicians. Kate McClymont has exposed all manner of shady characters, and lives to tell the tale. Here, she reveals some of the perils of investigative journalism over her career, and what she sees are the threats and promises for its future. The 2025 Brian Johns Lecture , in partnership with the Copyright Agency and Macquarie Universit...

There are some leaps in science and technology that change everything. Scientists say we’re living through the second quantum revolution, so we're going deep into the quantum world with leaders at the forefront of this field. If you think quantum is all about computers think again – like how could this vast science help female athletes reach their peak?  Thanks to the World Science Festival for th...

When Santilla Chingaipe stumbled on the names of enslaved Africans who arrived on the First Fleet in 1788 she couldn't look away. For Steve Vizard, an argument with his adult kids lead him to the battlefields of Gallipoli. When Sita Sargeant threw a mattress in a car and drove around Australia, what hidden herstories did she unearth? At school, the history we learn is often incomplete, mythologise...

Sarah Churchwell takes you on a gripping and confronting journey into America's recent past to explain its extraordinary present, starting with dark story at the heart of that American classic Gone with the Wind. Knowledge lies at the heart of a healthy democracy, and its many custodians include libraries, universities, cultural institutions, and a free and independent media. So what happens when...

In 2017, the Uluru Statement called for Voice, Treaty and Truth as a roadmap to reconciliation. With the Voice defeated, what is the path now to meaningful reform that will improve the lives of Indigenous Australians? From the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, to Victoria's truth-telling Yoorook Justice Commission, two Indigenous leaders argue that their people must be given the power, the re...

The racism and resilience Padma Raman’s parents experienced lit a social justice fire in her early on. She landed on the sunny shores of Sydney in the 1980s and watched both her parents face racism and discrimination seeking work.  She’s gone on to dedicate her career to making the world a better place for women and girls. It’s taken her to the halls of Federal Parliament and the United Nations. T...