Boyer Lectures

In this second lecture of the Boyer series, John Bell discusses what Shakespeare can teach us about governance, about politics and power.

In the first lecture of the 2021 Boyer series, John Bell opens our eyes and our ears to how relevant William Shakespeare is in today's world and what he can teach us through his own observations from four hundred years ago.

In the third Boyer lecture, Dr Andrew Forrest discusses how inequality manifests in our modern capitalist system — through intergenerational dependence on welfare, lack of access to finance, a lack of policy focus on early childhood development in vulnerable communities and through modern slavery.

In the second of his 2020 Boyer Lectures, Andrew Forrest mounts a passionate defence of our oceans. Dr Forrest argues the key issues facing our oceans — deoxygenation, overfishing and plastic pollution — are our fault, and it's us who must fix them. He says it's philanthropic and government interventions, at a scale not yet seen, that will save our seas.

In this first Boyer lecture, leading philanthropist and businessman Andrew Forrest calls for an urgent move to green hydrogen "on a global scale". For Dr Forrest, the question is not whether green hydrogen will become the next global energy form, but who will be the first to mass-produce it?

In Rachel Perkins final Boyer lecture she details the dual proposal for a Makarrata Commission and a process of truth telling about our nation.

From colonial times to the present, Indigenous people have wanted a say about the laws and policies that affect them. Rachel Perkins discusses what needs to be done to guarantee that the Indigenous voice is heard.

Rachel Perkins reminds us of the significance of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and why it's the most important message Indigenous people have sent to their fellow Australians in over four decades.

How advances in genetics and biomedicine have quietly brought eugenics back from exile.

Human GMOs already walk amongst us and the implications of this are enormous.

There's a dark side of stem cell research — John Rasko shines a light on the low points and scandals of unproven cell therapies.

In the fields of gene and cell therapies we've already crossed many thresholds — but do we really understand the consequences of what we're doing?

Professor Genevieve Bell outlines her proposal for how Australia should build its digital future. This talk was recorded in front of a live audience in Studio 22 at ABC Ultimo on Saturday 21 October, 2017, and features questions from former Boyer lecturer and sociologist Eva Cox and chief commissioner of the Greater Sydney Commission Lucy Turnbull.

We asked what your hopes and fears are for where technology is heading, and here's what you told us.

Professor Genevieve Bell reveals how new technologies change life, but rarely in the ways we anticipate. How might the origin stories of the typewriter, the robot and electricity equip us to invent the future?

Professor Genevieve Bell looks at how personal computers and the internet have reshaped our lives, and the possibilities we’ve imagined for ourselves and each other.

Professor Genevieve Bell explains why she’s returned home after decades in Silicon Valley, and explores Australia’s role in building our current digital world.

What does it mean to be human, and Australian, in a digital world?

There are examples from around the world, of community and government actions that make a difference to health inequalities. Creating the conditions for individuals to take control over their lives will enable social flourishing of all members of society.

Unemployment is bad for health, but work can damage health, too. When work is no longer the way out of poverty, health suffers.

Absence of the nurturing and presence of the harmful are important for the whole of life and are strong contributors to inequalities in adult health. There is much we can do to make things better at both the level of national policy and at the local level supporting families and children.

There are large inequalities in health within and between countries. To explain this we have to look at the social determinants of health—the conditions in which people are born, grow, live work and age; and inequities in power, money and resources.

There are examples from around the world, of community and government actions that make a difference to health inequalities. Creating the conditions for individuals to take control over their lives will enable social flourishing of all members of society.

Unemployment is bad for health, but work can damage health, too. When work is no longer the way out of poverty, health suffers.

Absence of the nurturing and presence of the harmful are important for the whole of life and are strong contributors to inequalities in adult health. There is much we can do to make things better at both the level of national policy and at the local level supporting families and children.