Festival of Dangerous Ideas

In a time of turmoil, what happens when art and politics collide? From prisons, refugee camps and war zones, artist and journalist Molly Crabapple has documented the astounding courage of people living in the worst possible circumstances.    Crabapple wonders whether art is sharp enough to cut through razor wires. Is it time to move art out of galleries and use i t as a real agent for change? Moll...

We all have assumptions of what citizenship means. However, in recent years we are starting to see the envelop pushed with more common law rights being taken away. From Australia shutting its doors during the pandemic to authoritarian regimes acquiring the habit of turning travellers into political prisoners, where is it becoming too dangerous to go? And if an Australian passport does not protect...

Drawing truth to power is more dangerous in some parts of the world than others. The combination of satire and anger can make the best political cartoons lethal to politicians, unveiling truths around human rights, leadership and freedom. But where do we draw the line between humour, offence and legality? And for cartoonists trapped between censorship and cancellation, what is there still left to...

Are the ideals of the Enlightenment – reason, science and humanism – and the progress they can deliver being undermined by a cynical desire to burn it all down? Pre-eminent psychologist Steven Pinker explains why problems are inevitable and not a reason to destroy the institutions of modernity, with all the resulting chaos and carnage. The use of knowledge to enhance human flourishing will never b...

Australia is facing a child sexual abuse epidemic.  Brought to light by The Royal Commission and stories of high-profile survivor s , the numbers are shocking, and the online world is even worse. But this is not a crimewave we can arrest our way out of.  Criminal justice is not enough, and the revulsion child sexual abuse inspires can paralyse more effective responses. However, there is a window f...

From musical borrowings and dance moves, to clothing, art and stories, it's time to talk about where to draw the line between legitimate cultur al exchange and damaging cultural appropriation. As we see more clearly how power shapes culture , the relationships between artistic freedom and protecting culture is shifting rapidly.   It's time for a bigger discussion about who owns culture, who's stea...

Stories define who we are, our history  and  they can be weaponised. Stories can  erase a n entire  culture.  History is nothing but a  story.  Noongar woman and author Claire G. Coleman invites you to consider that  Australia   has   been  defined  by  a  story that  hasn't been  built on truth.  T hat t he stories  Australia  tells itself about itself are  actually  dangerous ; they disenfranchi...

In 1970 , Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman famously said that 'the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits'. And much of western corporate culture has lived by that credo , allowing businesses to ravage the environment and trash the rights of workers.   However i n more recent times, corporations have seemingly grow n a political and social conscious . Is wo ke ca...

Our m odern society is dependent on extraordinary levels of abuse and violence towards non - human animals. While w e may love animals , we continue to interact with them in thoughtless, violent and cruel ways. W e destroy their habitats, regulate their slaughter , farm and exploit them , and even in extreme circumstances , sexually abuse them.   Historian Joanna Bourke asks us how we can love and...

Former Facebook product manager, Frances Haugen did not set out to be a whistleblower, but when it became a question of saving lives, she knew it was time to tell the truth. On top of her concerns about mental health and hate speech, finding out that the Facebook platform was being used by human traffickers in Ethiopia tipped the balance. With almost half the people in the world using Meta's platf...

As we confront the challenges of the 21st century, we've been encouraged to think that we can innovate our way out of anything, or that coding and technology are the answers. But what if the most important tools for our time are human skills like compassion, creativity and collaboration? To protect our own futures, it's time to stop relying on technology to save us and focus on the things that mak...

The last few years have seen courageous sexual assault survivors become heroines and heroes, conquering the forces that have silenced them for so long. While laws are changing and we continue to unravel the culture of shame that has protected perpetrators and punished survivors – how can we evolve the conversation?  Can we ever get to  the heart of the matter , and think about a world without rape...

Our obsession with true crime is everywhere – from news stories and podcasts to the big screen. However in recent decades, rates of almost all crime around the world have declined dramatically, with the notable exception of sexual assault. Meanwhile the number of people in prison has increased alarmingly.   TV and film critic Wenlei Ma, journalist Kate McClymont, and former Executive Director of t...

Australia is professed to be the most successful multicultural society in the world . However , with our treatment of multicultural communi ties throughout the pandemic , a selective immigration progress and fraught ongoing Indigenous relations – Australia continues to deliver some sharp lessons about race. W hy is it that some lives are remembered, commemorated and valued more than others?     De...

In a world where the internet saturates everything, where does the internet stop and our human selves begin? As we're nudged and pushed by an endless stream of alerts, notifications and recommendations, our attention and money are pulled in directions that seem to only serve the interests of the platforms.   As we're inevitably drifting towards automation, NY Times tech columnist and host of the R...

From Russia and China to America, Turkey and beyond, illiberal leaders have used corruption, machismo, disinformation, propaganda and violence to stay in power and expand their influence for decades.    With authoritarianism now governing over 60% of the world's population, are we witnessing a backslide in democracy and a more efficient model of governance emerging?     Join historian Ruth Ben-Ghi...

While we've all watched the rise of the US in our lifetimes, its recent decline has been a hot topic of conversation – with ballooning inequality, military overreach, gun violence and police shootings, the great recession , and a dramatic slide into decadence and division provided by recent politics and structures of power . While the idea of a slightly less-powerful America might be attractive to...

The 21st century was supposed to be better than this.  As we confront the impacts of climate change, wars old and new, the pandemic and its aftermath, and a dangerously fragile global financial system, it's time to ask 'Why can't we get our act together and solve the issues that matter?' As we find ourselves dealing with a multitude of challenges that we predicted would arrive, but seem unable to...

Known as one of the most fierce and outspoken politicians in the country, Jacqui Lambie does not hold back. Not with her opinion, her work ethic, or her convictions. And she's done the unthinkable, for a politician, she's changed her mind and admitted to it. Rising to public office with the Palmer United Party in 2013, she quickly struck out on her own in 2014 as an independent for Tasmania in the...

It's been over 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union and 22 years since Vladimir Putin came to power. Now in the throes of a Ukraine invasion, the Russian regime combats any conflict with an utter disregard for internal opposition and external western pressure.   From the inside, fighting Putin is the only option for Russian activists. From the outside,...

We may not want to admit it, but there is a spectrum of perversion along which we all sit. Whether it's voyeurism, exhibitionism, or your run-of-the-mill foot fetish, we all possess a suite of sexual tastes as unique as our fingerprints—and as secret as the rest of the skeletons we've hidden in our closets.     In his 2012 talk Jesse Bering humanises so-called deviants while at the same time askin...

A playerless piano performs a repeating piece of music in which every note of a scale is played on every beat of the bar. The melody is absorbed into chaos, as the words of Noami Klein and Waleed Aly speak of our interconnectedness and entanglements. Produced by The Festival of Dangerous Ideas, The Ethics Centre and Audiocraft.

On the precipice of a new age, what are the forces that will bring us together, and what is driving us apart? Simon Longstaff sits between Waleed Aly and Naomi Klein as they discuss the decline of meta-narratives in society and politics, reconciling coloniser and Indigenous histories and narratives, and trends of hyper-individualism and conspiracy. Neither are wholly optimistic nor pessimistic abo...

CellF is a cybernetic musician and the world's first neural synthesiser, created by Perth-based artist and researcher, Guy Ben-Ary. Its 'brain' is made of biological neural networks bio-engineered from the artist's own cells, that grow in a petri dish and control in real time its 'body' – an array of synthesizers that play music live with human musicians. Revivification is a short piece that respo...

From the ancient tale of Gilgamesh to Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, the dream of immortality has long captured the imagination of writers and scientists. But how close are we to conquering death? In a conversation moderated by Simon Longstaff, neuro-ethicist S. Matthew Liao speaks with stem cell-researcher John Rasko about the age of regenerative medicine, the heroes and fraudsters of the past, and...