UNSW Centre for Ideas

Most whistleblowers are unknown and ordinary people shedding light on corruption and misconduct. They rarely make the front page; many pay a devastating personal price. Australia’s whistleblowing protections are failing them.  Hear two of the foremost experts in Australia on protecting and defending the rights of whistleblowers, Kieran Pender and Gabriel Shipton alongside leading commen...

Following the historic appointment of Sue-Anne Hunter as the inaugural National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People, Australia finds itself on a new journey but an old and critical road to mend.   From the over-representation of Indigenous kids in child protection and youth detention systems to the inordinately high rates of incarceration, family s...

The ongoing conflict between Iran, the US and Israel has not only led to the deaths of many thousands of people, it has destabilised the global world order. As a middle power, Australia is being drawn into the conflict amid global pressures and strategic resource dependencies. Closer to home, the conflict is having a destabilising impact on Australia’s economy and enhancing other ongoing iss...

When Nila Ibrahimi posted a video of herself online, singing proudly in protest of the ban on girls over 12 singing in public, she hoped the music would inspire young girls to continue their education. It was 2021 and the Taliban’s return to Afghanistan had come down swiftly on women's freedom. The video went viral and the ban was reversed, sending a powerful message across social media &nda...

Dr Karaitiana Taiuru is a leading global voice at the forefront of Māori data sovereignty and AI ethics. His practice draws on tikanga Māori and mātauranga Māori to facilitate conversations about the ways emerging technologies must uplift, protect and empower Indigenous knowledge, culture and communities. Hear him in conversation with Dr Sue Keay, where he explores why protecting Māori knowledge a...

Angie Abdilla creates video installations interrogating Indigenous deeptime knowledges, automation and AI, focusing on technology as cultural practice. Her research, artworks and films have been exhibited at premier cultural institutions, including the current Data Dreams: Art and AI exhibition at the MCA, and previously, the United Nations; Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria; the International Docume...

Every day, generative AI is pumping millions of new pictures into existence. Researcher and UNSW lecturer Dr Charu Maithani is redefining how we think about the images flooding our world, exposing how they capture only the narrowest sliver of human experience. Her work reveals how reimagining the way AI is trained – what it sees, learns, and absorbs from culture – defines our visual vo...

Richard Holden | Alan Kohler Australia, a land of sweeping plains, has one of the lowest population densities on the planet. So, how did we end up with a housing shortage?  In conversation with economist and author Richard Holden, veteran finance journalist Alan Kohler’s new  Quarterly Essay ,  The Great Divide: Australia’s Housing Crisis and How to Fix It , investigates...

Since its 2025 publication, Laurie Woolever’s Care and Feeding was an immediate New York Times bestseller, tracing her path from small-town childhood to working with two of the most powerful men in the food business, chefs Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain. The book’s success is no surprise. Laurie doesn't sugarcoat the consequences of a life where desire has been met with opportunity...

As one of the world’s leading researchers in artificial intelligence, Toby Walsh has been awarded the Humbolt Research Award and elected as a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of AI. In  The Shortest History of AI , Toby outlines the six key ideas for understanding artificial intelligence today.  Hear Toby trace the origins of artificial intelligence in science and cult...

Programs like ChatGPT have become ubiquitous with AI, promising to kick start the next industrial evolution. But the scale of resources needed to support AI are staggering, with the cost largely being levied on the marginalised. From energy demands eclipsing whole cities, to labour exploitation in the global south, this behaviour bodes poorly for an equitable future. In  Empire of AI , award-...

Many people would recognise Australian actress Yael Stone from her breakout role as the red-lipped Lorna Morello in TV series  Orange is the New Black.  But, in 2020 she gave up her green card, and her acting career in the United States, unable to reconcile the carbon emissions of the jet-setting lifestyle wi...

Within today's social media landscape, a finely tuned content algorithm is serving up often unhealthy and sometimes extreme views on masculinity. For boys, in particular, the injection of vitriol into playgrounds, classrooms, backyards and wider society has turned the question of what it means to be a man on its head. This is also having far-reaching consequences for young girls and women.  S...

Hear acclaimed political biographer Troy Bramston in conversation with UNSW’s Verity Firth and delve into his latest book Gough Whitlam: The Vista of the New . From Whitlam’s rise through the Labor party to Prime Minister, to his family, upbringing and life after politics, Troy lifts the lid on new revelations behind the man and his polices. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy info...

We’ve come a long way since references to lesbians could potentially land you jail-time and lesbian culture was less visible in literature and the arts, social commentary and public life. From anthemic pop icons Chappell Roan and Billie Eilish to commercially successful flicks like  Bottoms&nb...

With Australia on track to be among the first countries in the world to eliminate the transmission of HIV, there is a lot to be optimistic about. Yet globally the rates of transmission and AIDS-related deaths are predicted to rise, disproportionately impacting marginalised communities and people living in low and middle income countries.    Weakening US political commitment and recent funding...

In an era of increasing productivity, efficiency and automation it’s important not to lose sight that education – the learning and teaching that we all pursue – is about human connection and transformation.    Tune in to learn from Dr Gabi Nudelman, a Senior Lecturer in business sustainability and ethics, on how kindness could be our secret weapons against disconnection...

The blood-brain barrier prevents 98% of medicines from reaching the brain. This prevents the effective treatment of neurological disorders, from cancer to Alzheimer’s. If we knew how to create drugs that could pass through this barrier, then we’d be able to create targeted, effective treatments. But doing so requires a lot of trial and error, and there aren’t a lot of effective,...

As natural disasters increase in frequency and severity, we are all at risk of one day having our homes and our lives being in danger from fire or flood. Right now, we are seeing an unprecedented level of people needing rescue in the midst of disaster. But rescue shouldn’t just be after the point of no return, when people must evacuate their homes because hazardous conditions overwhelm commu...

Our coastal marine habitats are suffering from the man-made degradation of climate change. From coral reefs to seagrass meadows, oyster reefs and kelp forests, these ecosystems are vital nurseries for marine life and natural coastal buffers against storms and we’re losing them at a rapid pace. But all is not lost. We have the tools and the know-how to restore these environments.   Tune...

Within today's social media landscape, a finely tuned content algorithm is serving up often unhealthy and sometimes extreme views on masculinity. For boys, in particular, the injection of vitriol into playgrounds, classrooms, backyards and wider society has turned the question of what it means to be a man on its head. This is also having far-reaching consequences for young girls and women.  S...

Light has unlocked many technologies over the course of human history. The more we learn about what light is and what it can do, the more applications we find to advance our lives. When we study light at the smallest scale possible, at the atomic level, we can unlock some pretty amazing, pretty weird capabilities.  Find out from Dr Alison Goldingay, an award-winning Postdoctoral Fellow at UNS...

Ask any AI image generator to create an image of a garden and you’re likely to receive a very specific type; manicured English or French, colourful plants, geometric forms and a winding pathway made of stone or gravel. Why is this such a big deal? Millions of AI images are generated every week but they only represent a narrow view of real life because the technology is trained off western-ce...

More than 400,000 children and adolescents will be diagnosed with cancer worldwide this year. Many treatments that are meant to save a child can leave them with lifelong side-effects, including heart damage, infertility and cognitive issues. But for the first time, precision medicine is using the tiniest tools – nanoparticles – to design tailor-made treatments to beat childhood cancer....

The scintillating chronicler of human weakness, Oscar Wilde, once said, “True friends stab you in the front”.   In this popular event, writer and presenter Annabel Crabb and writer David Marr lead opposing teams in a rollicking debate on the legitimacy of this aphorism about friends who betray each other.    Featuring debaters Matilda Boseley, Rhys Nicholson, Justine Rogers a...