Big Ideas

As the great powers renegotiate their alliances and priorities, Africa is reshaping its future. From the promise of digital economies and homegrown innovation to the complex legacies of foreign aid, debt and dependency — this is a conversation about power, possibility, and the remaking of a continent on its own terms. What needs to change in policy, in investment, in the stories we tell for Africa...

The decisions being made right now, in parliament, in budget lock-ups, in policy debates, will shape the lives of your kids and their kids. Think: Climate. Housing. Aged care. AI., But in many cases, those decisions are being deferred. There's a name for it: policrastination. The habit of delaying what we know needs doing because the short-term political incentives reward inaction, even when the l...

Meet the tenacious Papua New Guineans who won't give up on holding Australian mining giants to account, despite the enormous personal toll of doing so. Emmanuel Peni is fighting to protect the world's "second Amazon"- the pristine Sepik River. Theonila Roka Matbob won the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize for campaigning against the toxic legacy of Rio Tinto's Panguna copper-gold mine. This event w...

From the Frontier Wars, to foreign wars experienced by migrant Australians, to the threat of Australia's involvement in future conflict, war means many different things to different people. So as Australian society evolves, should our culture of war commemoration change too?  The 2026 Wilks Oration was recorded at the Effective Living Centre , at Christ Church Uniting in Wayville, Adelaide. Speake...

Pacific communities have long led the global climate fight — not from the margins, but from the front. Australia's hopes of co-hosting COP31 alongside Pacific Island nations have been dashed. So, what does genuine partnership now look like and what does it demands of Australia?  This live conversation was recorded at the 2026 WOMADelaide festival, produced and presented as part of their Planet Tal...

He was there at the birth of a movement. He's been a champion for the rights of gay people both in Australia and abroad ever since. The son of Jewish refugees, he's also been forced to reckon with other parts of his identity, especially since 7 October 2023. Dennis Altman looks back at 50 years of activism, writing, and social change. This event was recorded at the Williamstown Literary Festival o...

Think of a history textbook you had at school. Could you relate to the characters inside its pages? These women are proving Australian history contains multitudes. You just have to go looking for the version of Australia that never made it into the textbooks. Meet four women reshaping how and whose history is told. Hidden histories with a Wiradjuri woman and nurse turned oral historian, a South In...

The conversation around men's mental health, identity and emotional lives is changing. Literature is one of the places where that shift is happening. On the page, writers are exploring what it costs men to conform, to hide, to perform strength they don't always feel. Masculinity and Mental Health was presented at the Newcastle Writers Festival . Listen to Big Ideas: The radicalisation of boys — Je...

The ocean sustains all life on Earth, yet we know remarkably little about it. Now, because of technological advances, we could be on the cusp of a new age of exploration. But the ocean is in trouble. As National Geographic's Chief Science and Exploration Officer and deputy administrator for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Terry Garcia has seen the worst humans can inflict o...

It's the greatest power you all have as human beings — a healing power: to make others feel safe and welcome. It's so powerful because it puts a stop to their fears. The way to do this is learning to regulate your own fear responses. It's crucial to any relationship, but nowhere more so than in the therapy room. Fear makes or breaks successful therapy. Recorded at the York Festival of Ideas and pr...

Is it too late to escape the rage bait machine? And why are its roots ancient and evolutionary? Leading strategist Ed Coper has used all the tricks of the trade to change hearts and minds. He's run some of Australia's and the world's most effective campaigns, advised change-makers like Sir Richard Branson, Shakira, Greta Thunberg, Malala Yousafzai and other Nobel Laureates. Now Ed is ringing an al...

Globalisation has powered the extraordinary economic rise of Asia. But the same components that built this success — open trade, deep supply chains, interdependence — are now fuelling the rivalries threatening to pull the region apart. Globalisation and geopolitics are now moving in different directions, and it will define the future of Asia and the role Australia plays in the region.   Speakers ...

From Robodebt to the banks, KPMG to the NDIS, whistleblowers have exposed egregious cases of corruption and misconduct. But it's often come at great personal cost, including risks to personal safety, liberty, relationships and reputations. So how could Australia's whistleblower protections be strengthened so that more people speak up when they witness wrongdoing? This event was recorded at the Cen...

The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wants AI in Australia's interests, and has announced steps to regulate the technology. So can Australia get the balance right between the opportunities offered by AI, and the risks? Australia's former Chief Scientist Alan Finkel, a serial tech entrepreneur, has some ideas — and argues governments have been asleep at the wheel on AI regulation. This event was rec...

Jack Toohey was flying high. Then he crashed. But from despair came renewal, and a rebellious hope. In 2023, when his social media post about housing affordability attracted over 20 million views — he knew he was onto something. He joins BIG IDEAS host Natasha Mitchell at the Make Good Festival at Bundanon , NSW to talk about the big ideas in his new book Better Things Are Possible: How Rebellious...

The ocean calms us. It terrifies us. It heals us. Sometimes all at once. We explore the sea's complex hold on your mental health — from the fear of shark attacks and the medicine of a morning swim to how immersive ocean soundscapes work on the nervous system and ocean grief as part of climate change anxiety. Presented at the Ocean Lovers Festival Listen to Big Ideas — The shark net controversy — h...

We are seeing seismic shifts in our politics, as more people than ever turn away from the major parties. Could public policy failures be to blame? Former politician Dr Susan Close has spent her career in the engine room of democracy, and she believes this trend has been caused by successive government policies that have left people behind, created winners and losers and segregated our community —...

Palestinians and Israelis are building common ground for peace where most say there is none. Since October 7 and the war in Gaza, the idea of cross-community dialogue seems impossible. But behind the headlines, more than 550 leaders from both communities, across politics, security, business, media, and civil society have come together to shape a peaceful future - for both peoples. What does a just...

When writer Hiroko Yoda's mother died, she found herself unmoored. They'd argued a fair bit over the years — as daughters and their mothers can — some things were unresolved. So now what? She found herself setting off an odyssey to understand Japan's surprisingly flexible, practical, pluralistic approach to spirituality, its infinite number of spiritual beings, its affection for angry ghosts, and...

Writers have access to endless worlds, perspectives and experiences — both real and imagined. So what should they do with that privilege? Do they have a responsibility to try to change the world? To cultivate empathy and understanding? Or to simply bear witness? The Melbourne Writers Festival closing night address was recorded on Sunday 10 May 2026. Speakers: Professor Tony Birch Author, The White...

What if the way we think about rivers as resources to be allocated, infrastructure to be managed, problems to be solved, is just fundamentally wrong. What if they are in fact living entities with rights? From Indigenous law to ecological soundscapes to frontline water justice, this panel of Indigenous leaders, scientists and artists share stories, sounds and strategies for protecting and changing...

Forget climate change, forget nuclear Armageddon, did you know that the universe is unravelling? It's probably aeons away, but according to physics, dark energy could end us all. Join award winning theoretical physicist Tony Padilla at this Sophia Club live philosophy event, to explore the torrid birth of the early universe, traverse the twisted hearts of black holes, skip through the harmonic vib...

Need a mid-Winter pick me up? Well this is the conversation for you!  You could call Astrid Jorgensen a choir conductor, but that really doesn’t capture what she does and the global phenomenon she’s created. On any one night, anywhere in the world, you’ll find Astrid on a stage in front of a few thousand people singing their hearts out. She’s the founder, the composer, and the host of Pub Choir —...

The gambling industry is targeting young people through digital platforms, personalised algorithms and the blurring line between gaming and betting. But also off-line, at the pokies, we see younger faces. We explore the strategies behind this trend, the human costs and what it would actually take to change the culture and the regulation around gambling in Australia. This conversation is a cooperat...

The arc of the moral universe may bend toward justice, but not without a whole lot of committed individuals doggedly banging on about it. Even when no one's listening, even when it's boring, even when it takes years or even lifetimes. So in this time of division and fracture, when hearts and minds seem out of reach, is there still value in preaching to the like-minded? The 2026 Sheila Drummond Mem...