The Solutionists, with Mark Scott

We always thought that when the robots arrived, they’d be cold and calculating like The Terminator... But they’re mostly charming and inaccurate. We also thought they’d do away with the drudgery of our most boring work... But it’s writing songs and sonnets instead. Or is it? At a Sydney Ideas live talk hosted at the Opera House, Sophie Gee, Kai Riemer and Sandra Peter tell...

Your phone knows how many steps you’ve taken today, how long you’ve been outside, how much social interaction you’ve had... It can be scary, but what if it could be the path to a better way of managing mental health? Rates of anxiety and depression continue to rise, but even if we could double the workforce of mental health professionals, we still wouldn’t keep up. Dr Frank...

Society feels more divided than ever. We seem to be talking about this all the time, but it’s exactly these discussions that are pulling us further apart. Professor Betina Szkudlarek says it’s worse than differences of opinion. Today, people are less likely than ever to even hear out someone who’s different to them in some way. So what do we do? Betina points to refugee employmen...

Would you want a robot to look after you in your later years? What if it treated you like a child? That’s exactly what’s happening to some older people subject to an influx of high-tech solutions to a struggling aged care system in Australia. Our population is ageing and staff are burning out, so tech companies are trying to enter the space with their own 'fixes.’ But what if the...

Humans are constantly getting better at fighting cancer. Our understanding of the suite of diseases is more robust, our technology is more advanced, and our public health systems are more efficient. But cancer epidemiologist Professor Karen Canfell says Australia will still see more and more incidences of cancer over time.   But Australia’s also on track to become the first country...

Our growing population has a huge number of impacts, but the simplest and most pressing is that we have more mouths to feed than ever before. At the same time, though, climate change is threatening farmland worldwide. That means crops like wheat, which account for 20% of daily calories consumed worldwide, are plateauing. Enter: Richard Trethowan and the Plant Breeding Institute. Richard and his te...

Professor Greg Neely says pain is a good thing. This might worry you when you find out he’s studying some of the deadliest snakes on the planet, but it’s all about trying to understand pain as a mechanism – and Greg’s long-term goal is to address chronic pain, which afflicts more than one billion people. After studying infectious disease at the start of his career, Greg&rsq...

We’re told to eat better, sleep more, train our bodies and our brains — all in the name of ageing well.   But how much of that advice is actually backed by science? How might we all live – and stay – well, for longer, at any stage of life? And how much of ageing is really up to us?  Researcher  Gilbert Knaggs , neuroscientist  Eleanor Drummond , and...

What if the cure everyone’s waiting for already exists — but patients can’t access it?  With AI transforming medicine, breakthroughs are no longer science fiction. They’re happening now. But innovation alone isn’t enough. So how do discoveries escape the lab to reach patients?   Leading researchers  Michael Bowen ,  Victoria Cogger  and&n...

Australia has more homes per adult than at any point in our history. So why is our housing crisis worse than ever?  Professor Nicole Gurran’s been studying housing for 15 years, and she says the solutions to Australia's housing crisis are obvious – it’s the execution that’s failing, and most Australians are being distracted by media and politicians.  Nicole explai...

What if the simple act of tapping your card could put your identity at risk?  Every day, we trust encryption to protect our money, data, and digital lives. But quantum computers are advancing fast, and soon they could crack today’s security in seconds, making our current “digital locks” obsolete.  So how do we protect ourselves in a quantum world?  On this epi...

"I can't just grab my keys and leave the house. I have to make sure I have something with me in case my glucose levels go too low. I have to make sure that I have spare insulin pump consumables. There's lots of parts of having type one diabetes that isn't just what we eat."  Michelle's lived with type 1 diabetes for 31 years. She has to plan everything: what she eats, when she drives, whether...

Walk down the cereal aisle. Pick up a box of cereal. The front says "real nourishment" and shows a 4.5-star health rating. Flip it over. It's 25% sugar, packed with emulsifiers, flavors, and protein isolates – it’s full of ingredients you probably can’t even pronounce if you’ve ever heard of them before.  Welcome to Australia's national diet: ultra-processed.  Ass...

You probably think TB is a disease of the past. But that’s not because we’ve beat it. It’s because we’ve moved it elsewhere. Every year, over 10 million people fall ill with tuberculosis and it's concentrated where people are poorest, where overcrowding helps it spread, and where a six-month treatment course can mean losing your job, or even your social life.  Professo...

A new generation has become addicted to nicotine.   Australia almost had smoking beaten. Thanks to decades of education, regulation and cultural change, smoking rates plummeted. And then: vaping.   Lily started vaping at 17 and hasn't been able to stop. Social vaping quickly became a daily dependency, and now it affects every aspect of her life - from her health, sleep and appe...

Whether it’s watching your kids play their local club fixtures or gathering around the telly for the grand final, sport brings Australians together more than almost anything else. But there’s a hidden – and potentially deadly – cost.  Lydia loves Aussie Rules football, but she was forced to retire from the sport before turning 30. After a series of head knocks, the ris...

When Professor Jioji Ravulo speaks at conferences overseas, he knows one piece of information about his work will shock just about everyone. He tells them that in some parts of Australia, children as young as 10 years old can be charged as adults for particular crimes. As predicted, jaws drop.  Meanwhile, some politicians insist that Australia needs to be even tougher on youth crime, despite...

Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of death worldwide – thankfully, we’re getting better at treating it, and more people than ever are surviving major events like heart attacks. But it’s a double-edged sword: with more people living for longer with cardiovascular disease, our hospital system is overburdened.   Cardiologist Dr Clara Chow says this imbala...

Our bodies have an innate ability to tell the time – it evolved so that we were inclined to rest when it was safe, and were keener on travelling or hunting and gathering when food was plentiful. The sun and our body’s ability to perceive its light kept our internal clocks ticking along consistently.   But today, many of us spend most of our days indoors, and much of our night...

Growing food is one of our most fundamental human activities, and it’s the core puzzle underlying our societies. As more people are freed up from farm work, our societies grow and we need yet more food.   Today, that tricky equation also includes robots. Australia faces a labour shortage in the agriculture sector for a variety of reasons, and the already razor-thin margins on many...

Can you be friends with someone who doesn’t know you exist? It’s a legitimate question for members of fandoms – groups of people brought together by a shared passion for an artist, sports team, celebrity or piece of media. At the centre of these groups is a parasocial relationship: a one-sided connection with a public figure. If you’ve heard the term before, it probably has...

Your biology’s been hacked. Your naturally evolved appetite would allow you to eat exactly the right amount of food every day, except that most of us live in highly industrialised food environments today. Two of nutrition’s most productive scientists explain how we ended up here, and how you can eat healthier in an imbalanced food environment. ~~~ Why don’t animals need calorie t...

Loneliness is becoming more common, and it’s making us sick. But why? Professor Melody Ding studies loneliness from a public health perspective, and she wants us to design communities where everyone has access to a flourishing social life. ~~~ There have never been more people living on the planet than now. And yet loneliness has become a major health concern worldwide – it’s ser...

What makes a childhood good? Every parent wants their kids to be safe, and for their childhoods to set them up for a productive and fulfilling adulthood. But what about the childhood itself? How do we make sure every child in Australia gets to truly be a kid? Universal childcare might be the answer...  ~~~ Do you ever wish you could be a kid again?   Remember the freedom of childhoo...

The widespread problem of substance abuse has plagued humans throughout history. It robs potential, ruins lives. Yet nothing we’ve tried has ever solved addiction. Professor Michael Bowen wants to change this. He went looking for a solution not in the human body, but in the brain.  And what he’s found could change the way we treat addiction forever.  ~~~ Addiction – sub...