Ideas at the House

What is art if not a place where we can push the boundaries of what we know, what we do and what we can say? As his pioneering dance company DV8 developed and broke boundaries, choreographer Lloyd Newson found out that even in art there are limits, and times when no-one wants to speak out. What don’t we want art to talk about? Born in Australia, Lloyd Newson studied psychology and social work at M...

Shaken by a court's decision to acquit George Zimmerman over the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, Alicia Garza wrote, "Black people, I love you. I love us. Our lives matter." From there, the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter was born and then a social movement. It is a world away from the life she had growing up with her mother, stepfather, and brother, where they ran an antique shop in Marin County in S...

Everything about the Arctic Inuit communities’ way of life depends on ice and snow, so is the failure of the world to act on climate change a gross violation of Inuit human rights? Sheila Watt-Cloutier currently resides in Iqaluit, Nunavut. She was born in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik (northern Quebec), and was raised traditionally in her early years before attending school in southern Canada and in Manitoba...

When is political advertising actually propaganda? And how do we tell the difference? In a fractured media environment with innumerable advocates clamouring for our attention, is it all propaganda now?  Chaired by Michael Williams  A high school teacher by trade, Dee Madigan joined the world of advertising in 1996 and since has been winner or finalist at most major ad awards, including Cannes. If...

Do Asian-Australians experience a particular kind of racism? When Asian stereotypes are positive, are they still damaging? How can we break through the bamboo ceiling? Sarah Dingle is a dual Walkley Award-winning investigative reporter and presenter with the ABC, working across radio and TV current affairs, news and documentary. Her work has also won the UN's Media Peace Prize, the Voiceless Media...

Whichever way we vote, politicians say the electorate always gets it right at the ballot box. Cynics are more inclined to think that we get the government we deserve. Did we get it right this time? What does the election tell us about our faith in our political leaders? Are we a nation that can't make up its mind? Annabel Crabb is one of Australia’s most popular political commentators, is the pres...

Henry Rollins discusses his tumultuous childhood growing up in Washington DC, and how he transitioned from scooping ice cream at Haagen Dazs to fronting punk rock band Black Flag. A turning point came for Henry Rollins about a decade ago, marked by a departure from music into activism and spoken word performance,  "For me, music was a time and a place. I never really enjoyed being in a band. It wa...

What galvanised African American activist Alicia Garza to co-found #BlackLivesMatter? How did Henry Rollins make the jump from shift manager at Häagen-Dazs to lead singer of US punk rock band Black Flag? How does NSW Australian of the Year Deng Thiak Adut’s former life as a Sudanese refugee and child soldier inform his practice of the law?   Find the answer to these questions and more in a new Syd...

All around us, military spending is up. Are our neighbours arming for superpower confrontation over territory and influence? What does this mean for the peace and prosperity of Australia and our region? Dr Bates Gill is Professor of Asia Pacific Strategic Studies with the Australian National University Strategic and Defence Studies Centre and one of the world's leading experts on Asia-Pacific secu...

Is it time to forget about ‘border protection’? What would happen if we just opened our borders? Could it be the best response to all of our concerns about refugees and economic growth? Philippe Legrain is a critically acclaimed thinker and communicator who has also been a senior policy adviser. A senior visiting fellow at the London School of Economics’ European Institute, he is the founder of Op...

Why do Indigenous people kill themselves in such numbers? What do we know about suicide that can help us understand this? Can we overcome the tragedy of young people dying in a suicide epidemic? Jesse Bering is an award-winning science writer. His "Bering in Mind" column at Scientific American was a 2010 Webby Award Honoree. Bering's first book, The Belief Instinct (2011), was included on the Amer...

Another sport, another drug scandal; are anti-doping efforts doomed? Would legalising drugs in sport actually protect athletes from harm? Is this radical idea the only way to create a level playing field? Stephen Dank is an Australian biochemist who has worked as a sports scientist with National Rugby League clubs such as the Manly Sea Eagles and Australian rules football clubs such as Essendon Fo...

Head of Sydney Opera House Talks and Ideas Ann Mossop sits down with internationally renowned economist Thomas Piketty to discuss his book "Capital in the 21st Century"and whether increasing inequality is inevitable.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is Hindu fundamentalism becoming a dangerous force in India? Is the world’s largest democracy becoming less secular and less democratic? What does this mean for India’s future? Priyamvada Gopal is a Reader at the University of Cambridge in Anglophone and Related Literature. Her new book, Insurgent Empire , is due out with Verso in 2017 and follows Literary Radicalism in India: Gender, Nation and t...

Alexei Sayle’s comedy career kicked off as Thatcherism took hold in Britain and generated unprecedented political conflict and protest. Was this part of what made him one of the funniest voices of his generation? What does his comic persona – full of rage, and with a dark and dangerous edge – owe to the politics of the time? And how does he make Stalin and Thatcher funny? Alexei David Sayle was bo...

Living with Asperger’s, John Elder Robison had come to terms with the way he was different, riding life’s ups and downs. But what if it was possible to unlock the emotional insight that we assume is ‘missing’ in people living with Aspergers – if only you undertook an experimental brain therapy? Is that fixing?  Chaired by Van Badham John Elder Robison is The New York Times bestselling author of Lo...

Why are young people worse off than their parents? Why is the gap between older and younger Australians – in terms of work, wealth and wellbeing – growing wider? Is Australia cheating the young?  Chaired by Van Badham Jennifer Rayner was born into aspirational Australian suburbia during the Hawke years and came of age in the long boom of the Howard era. Her lifetime tracks the yawning inequalities...

Suddenly it’s not queer to hear people talking about 'gender fluidity’, ‘gender transition’ or a spectrum of gender identity – did the world conversation decide gender no longer matters? And if the biological constraints of gender have been loosened, how do we deal with enduring gender-based social inequality and injustice? Jesse Bering is an award-winning science writer. His "Bering in Mind" colu...

Are scientists the new gods? As we increasingly rely on science to solve our problems, are we stretching scientific method to mystique? If scientists are not infallible, can we trust what they tell us? And if we can’t trust scientists, can we still trust science? Tim Flannery is one of Australia’s leading writers on climate change. An internationally acclaimed scientist, explorer and conservationi...

As the recent nuclear deal transforms geopolitical relationships with the Islamic Republic of Iran, what do Westerners need to understand of the past and the future of Iran’s dissenting voices? Laura Secor has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Foreign Affairs, and other publications and has worked at The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The American Prospect and Lingua Fran...

The scale of the Middle East refugee crisis is overwhelming authorities. But war, failed states and climate change seem to be the new world normal – and so does the global flow of desperate people. What does it mean for the future? Philippe Legrain is a critically acclaimed thinker and communicator who has also been a senior policy adviser. A senior visiting fellow at the London School of Economic...

The tumultuous 17th century Enlightenment created the modern mind. What were the radical forces that shaped this intellectual world view we still share? And how is this under threat today? A.C. Grayling is the Master of the New College of the Humanities, London, and its Professor of Philosophy, and the author of over thirty books of philosophy, biography, history of ideas, and essays. His new book...

In a time of turmoil, what happens when art and politics collide? Molly Crabapple is an artist and journalist who has covered Occupy Wall Street, Guantanamo Bay, migrant workers in Abu Dhabi, the US prison system, and the Syrian civil war.  Is it time for art to get out of the galleries and back on to the street? Molly Crabapple is an artist, journalist, author of the memoir, Drawing Blood and, ac...

When you're on a bicycle at a red light with no car or pedestrian in sight, do you still wait for the green? Do you obey every single law? Surely fearful compliance with every niggling regulation defies the much-vaunted "freedom" that is the premise of democracy. Maybe that’s what drives our fascination with film and fiction criminality: we envy renegades. Is breaking a rule a day better than an a...

Have we entered the golden age of surveillance? With our own devices recording everything we do, have we brought this on ourselves? Does the Apple vs the FBI case expose our underlying tensions about privacy, technology and national security? Lev Grossman is the author of five novels, including the #1 New York Times bestselling Magicians trilogy, published in 25 countries and made into an hour-lon...