Afleveringen
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It may be the least worst form of government, but faith in its leaders and its institutions is waning. From the US to the UK to Australia, democracy has also paradoxically delivered representatives who are proudly anti-democratic and openly undermine democratic institutions like electoral systems, the judiciary and a free media. So why do people see the likes of Donald Trump, Nigel Farage, and Pauline Hanson as the answer?
The Future of Democracy was recorded at the 2026 Sydney Writers Festival in partnership with the Resilient Democracy Lab at the University of New South Wales.
Speakers:
Jon SopelCo-host The News AgentsAuthor, Strangeland: How Britain Stopped Making Sense, UnPresidented: Politics, Pandemics and the Race that Trumped All Others and moreFormer editor, BBC North America
Nick Bryant (co-host)Host, Saturday Extra, ABC Radio NationalAuthor, The Forever War: America's Unending Conflict with Itself and moreFormer BBC Washington Correspondent
Rosalind DixonProfessor of Law, University of New South WalesFounder, Resilient Democracy LabAuthor, A People's Guide to the Australian Constitution
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A power panel on the future of truth. In a world of AI hallucinations and corporate algorithms, state-sponsored disinformation campaigns, and misinformation spreading like wildfire on social media — the truth feels more elusive than ever. What can we do to get the truth out of trouble? Join Natasha Mitchell with guests at this event recorded live at the 2026 Sydney Writers Festival at Carriageworks on Gadigal Country.
Speakers
Jimmy WalesEntrepreneur and Founder of Wikipedia: the free encyclopediaAuthor, The Seven Rules of Trust: Why It Is Today's Most Essential Superpower (2025)
Barbara DemickJournalist, former Beijing and Korea bureau chief for the LA TimesAuthor, Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins (2025); Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea (2010), Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town (2021);
Professor A.C GraylingPhilosopher and founder of Northeastern University London.Author, The Challenge of the Future: What Should We Keep from Yesterday as We Rush into Tomorrow? (2026); For The People: Fighting Authoritarianism, Saving Democracy (2025)
Professor Toby WalshScientist, Scientia Professor and head of the UNSW AI Institute, University of New South WalesAuthor, Faking It: Artificial Intelligence in a Human World (2023), The Shortest History of AI (2025)
Thanks to Artistic Director Ann Mossop and team at the Sydney Writers Festival.
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The fabric of multicultural Australia is under a kind of pressure it hasn't faced in a long time. Can it be renewed? And what role do artists, activists, and migrants have to shape what comes next? The landmark work The Elgar Companion to the Arts and Global Multiculturalism is asking exactly those questions. It traces multiculturalism from its origins as a political philosophy and as lived cultural practice right through to the complicated present. And it makes a case that the arts have been central to this story all along.
Presented at the Greek Australian Writers Festival
Speakers
Professor Nikos PapastergiadisDirector of the Research Unit in Public Cultures at the University of Melbourne Co-editor of the book The Elgar Companion to the Arts and Global Multiculturalism
Dr Alexandra DelliosSenior Lecturer, Centre for Heritage & Museum Studies, Australian National University
Andrew JakubowiczEmeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Technology Sydney
Dr Helen Vatsikopoulos (host)Journalist, academic and Director of the Greek Australian Writers Festival
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Two authors. Two books. Two very different histories of Australia. Tony Abbott's Australia: A history and Mark McKenna's The Shortest History of Australia were released within weeks of each other. They share similar references, but diverge in key areas, especially when it comes to how the country should reconcile with its Indigenous past. So what is the real story of Australia?
The conversation Australian history's great divide: how writers view our past was recorded at the Sorrento Writers Festival on 23 April 2026.
Speakers:
Tony AbbottAuthor Australia: A history and moreAustralian Prime Minister 2013 to 2015President, Australian Liberal Party
Mark McKennaAuthor, The Shortest History of Australia and moreProfessor of History at the University of New South Wales
Sally Warhaft (host)Anthropologist, writer and broadcasterEditor, Well May We Say…The Speeches That Made Australia
Further information:
The Australian Wars with Rachel Perkins and Henry Reynolds — a watershed event at the Australia War MemorialBig Ideas, ABC Radio National, 4 February 2026
Who can we become? Thomas Mayo and Ray Martin speak Black and White about Australia's futureBig Ideas, ABC Radio National, 3 March 2026
Victoria's new treaty with First Peoples — a turning point for Australia?Big Ideas, ABC Radio National, 9 December 2025
A new future for Black and White Australia — Thomas Mayo, Margo Neale, David Marr with Natasha MitchellBig Ideas, ABC Radio National, 15 May 2024
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Has the Iran War got you thinking about changing to an electric vehicle? Did government subsidies help you go solar or install a home battery? When renewable energy makes good economic sense, and eases cost of living pressures, people want in. As the public's desire for action on climate change is eclipsed by other concerns, and beset by vested interests and mis and dis information, how does climate policy win back ordinary people to galvanise progress once again?
This event was recorded at Readings bookshop on 20 May 2026.
Speakers:
Thom WoodroofeSenior International Fellow, Smart Energy CouncilAuthor, Power, Prosperity & Planet: Climate & Energy Policy for All (In the National Interest, Monash University Publishing)Principal Advisor to Kevin Rudd during his tenure as Australian Ambassador to the United States, and Chief of Staff during his tenure as the Asia Society's President in New YorkDiplomatic adviser to the Marshall Islands in the negotiations of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change
Zoe DanielFormer Independent Member for GoldsteinFormer ABC journalist and foreign correspondentIndependent chair, Mental Health Victoria
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What's the toll when your story becomes the story? What these journalists endured for their work beggars belief, but it hasn't stopped them believing in the role of journalism to hold power to account. Locked in a Chinese jail under 24/7 surveillance for more than 3 years — Cheng Lei is now determined to speak out about freedom and the long tendrils of Chinese state control because others can't or won't. Charlotte Grieve's investigation of a superstar surgeon and his patients' horrifying experiences was subject to one of the longest defamation trials in Australian history — a major test case for the public interest defence.
Hear their extraordinary stories. They join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell at this Sorrento Writers Festival event.
Speakers
Cheng LeiAuthor, Cheng Lei: A Memoir of FreedomJournalist and Sky News presenter
Charlotte GrieveInvestigative journalist, ABC Investigations Unit.Former journalist with Nine mediaAuthor, Duty to Warn: Dr Munjed Al Muderis promised hope. A daughter saw danger — and fought for the truth.
Thanks to Sorrento Writers Festival director and curator Corrie Perkin
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Three leaders of three different countries, who decided they would no longer accept the limits placed upon them by the international rules based order. That's all it took for the world as we have known it to unravel. Thomas Wright, a former Senior National Security Council official in the administration of US President Joe Biden, delivers a clear-eyed assessment of the deliberate decisions that have led us here, and weighs up the possible roads ahead.
This event After the unravelling: Confronting the new world order was recorded on 6 May 2026 for the Lowy Institute in Melbourne.
Speakers:
Thomas WrightFormer senior US National Security Council advisor (during the Biden administration)Senior fellow with the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology at the Brookings InstitutionNonresident Fellow, Lowy InstituteAuthor, Inflection Point: Biden, Trump, and the Future World Order
Sam RoggeveenProgram Director, International Security Program, Lowy InstituteAuthor, The Echidna Strategy: Australia's Search for Power and Peace
Further information:
How Trump got Iran wrong - by Thomas Wright, published 7 May 2026, The Interpreter, Lowy Institute
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Donor-sperm conception has become even more difficult in Australia. Would-be parents are now facing a shortage of sperm. That's on top of an already complex end confusing process. For solo parents, queer couples, and people navigating fertility the path to parenthood often begins with long clinic waitlists, overseas donor profiles, shady Facebook groups or delicate conversations with friends.
Presented by Sydney Opera House at the All About Women Festival 2026
Speakers
Alisha BurnsFounder of Solo Mum Society, host of the No Need for Prince Charming podcast, author of the children's book My Perfect Family
Maeve MarsdenWriter, Creative Director of Varuna, the National Writers' House, and the Blue Mountains Writers' Festival
Dr Melanie SawardBigambul and Wakka Wakka woman, writer, editor and lecturer of Australian Studies, University of Queensland
Edwina Storie (host)Journalist and the lead for The Feed, SBS's youth media brand
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From embracing the future of new technologies, materials and innovations, to returning to past times of multigenerational and communal living, architecture and design has plenty to offer when it comes to solving Australia's housing crisis. While debate rages about tax settings, government policy, and urban planning, design solutions are there to create the homes, the communities and the lives we need to make us happier and healthier — but is the will?
This event was recorded at Curiosities Live at the University of Technology Sydney on 2 March 2026.
Speakers:
Anthony BurkeProfessor of Architecture at the University of Technology SydneyHost of ABC TV's Grand Designs Australia Grand Designs Transformations and Restoration AustraliaHost of Anthony Burke's By Design ABC Radio National
Tim RossComedianPresenter, ABC TV's Streets of Your Town, Designing A Legacy and moreAuthor, What A Ripper! 60 everyday objects that shaped Australia, Motel — Images of Australia on Holidays and moreCo-host, with Kevin McCloud, Tim & Kev's Big Design Adventure podcastAdjunct Professor at the University of CanberraHonorary member of the Australian Institute of Architects
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Join Bruce Pascoe and Professor Ray Norris with Natasha Mitchell to discuss their eye-opening new book Big Sky: When the Emu Left the Earth. Then go outside, look up, and wonder about what connects humans rather than divides us. Humans have always gazed at the night sky, and (when we could) into the far reaches of our galaxy, to make meaning and sense of life here on Earth. The stories we tell about stars, planets, the Sun, the Moon, and more offer powerful lessons for us all — and for our relationships.
This event was hosted by the Melbourne Writers Festival (find out more at mwf.com.au), Scienceworks, Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre on the country of the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation and the Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation.
Speakers
Bruce PascoeAuthor, poet, Aboriginal farmer based on Yuin CountryAuthor of Dark Emu and coauthor, Big Sky: When the Emu Left the Earth (Magabala Books, 2006)
Professor Ray NorrisAstrophysicist and honorary fellow at CSIROCoauthor, Big Sky: When the Emu Left the Earth (Magabala Books, 2006)
Thanks to Dr Tanya Hill, Senior Curator of Astronomy at the Scienceworks, and Veronica Sullivan, CEO and Director of the Melbourne Writers Festival.
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Rising authoritarianism, splintering alliances and an organised backlash against women's rights, gender equality and international development are threatening progress towards justice and equality. Can the United Nations' women, peace, and security agenda still help ensure stable international relations? Does it need to be modernised?
Feminist Answers in a Dangerous World: Gender, Peace and Security in a Precarious Geopolitics — the 2026 Pamela Denoon Lecture was presented by National Foundation for Australian Women and the Gender Institute at the ANU.
Speakers
Caroline MillarFormer Australian Ambassador to the European Union, NATO, Belgium and Luxembourg; former Deputy Secretary for National Security, in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Dr Elise StephensonDeputy Director at the Global Institute for Women's leadership at the ANU
Asha ClementiPrincipal of the Persephone Network, 2022 ACT Young Women of the Year
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From GP appointments and hospital procedures, to medical research and clinical trials, for centuries, women's health has historically been dismissed, diminished, or misdiagnosed. But in recent years, there are some signs that the medical system is slowly coming to terms with the fact that women — their bodies, their symptoms, their experiences, are different from men's, and need to be treated as such.
This event was recorded at All About Women at Sydney Opera House on 8 March.
Speakers:
Dr Zoe WainerInaugural Director General of the Australian Centre for Disease ControlCardiothoracic surgeonFormer deputy secretary, Victorian health department, conducted Australia's first ever public inquiry into women's pain
Summer May Finlay Associate Professor in Indigenous Health, University of Wollongong
Gabrielle Jackson (host)Deputy editor, Guardian AustraliaAuthor, Pain and Prejudice: How the Medical System Ignores Women and What We Can Do About It
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Australia's 29th Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull joins former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland to deliver a candid appraisal of the shifting sands of global politics, from Donald Trump to AUKUS to rising right wing populism in liberal democracies.
This conversation was recorded at the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University on 16 April 2026.
Speakers:
Malcom TurnbullAustralian Prime Minister, 2015 to 2018President of the International Hydropower Association
Chrystia Freeland (host)Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard UniversityEconomic advisor to the President of UkraineFormer Canadian deputy prime minister and finance minister 2019 to 2024Author, Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else, and Sale of the Century: Russia's Wild Ride from Communism to Capitalism
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The untold story of Evelyn Marsden and the woman who rowed against the tide. You've heard of the Titanic disaster. Luxury ship. Largest ever. Impossible to sink. Hits iceberg. Catastrophic. Few survivors. Wreckage still under the sea 114 years later. Hollywood film starring Kate Winslet. But have you heard of Evelyn, the Titanic's only Australian survivor? She was a young nurse from rural South Australia with a sense of adventure. Journalist and former The Today Show and The Project co-host Lisa Wilkinson went digging, and what she unearthed is gobsmacking.
Lisa joins Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell at this event organised by Northern Books in Castlemaine, Victoria.
Speaker
Lisa WilkinsonJournalist, TV presenter, former co-host of The Project and Today ShowAuthor, The Titanic Story of Evelyn (Hachette Australia, 2026).
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Democracy is on the decline, so could Plato help? Irish scholar Dr David Horan spent 16 years translating Plato's complete works, including his dialogues on the world's first democracy in ancient Greece. So what lessons can we learn from Plato today?
This event was recorded at the School of Practical Philosophy in Sydney.
Speakers:
Dr David HoranLeader of the School of Philosophy and Economic Science in IrelandMember of the Plato Centre at Trinity College DublinAuthor/ translator, The Dialogues of Plato
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Communities that once built their future around coal and agriculture are asking: what do we become next? Regional Australia usually gets left behind when industries change and young people leave. But it's also — quietly, persistently — reinventing itself. Remote work is reshaping where jobs can be done. AI and digital innovation are opening new doors.
Presented at the SEGRA National Regional and Economic Development Summit in Lithgow, New South Wales, in partnership with the City of Lithgow and their Lithgow Emerging Economy Project (LEEP)
Speakers
Jackie SchirmerDirector of Environmental Governance, University of Canberra. Founded the Regional Wellbeing Survey in 2013
Dr Jess JenningsRegional and Rural Consultant and former mayor of Bathurst regional council
Bjorn JarvisHead of Workforce Futures Program at Jobs and Skills Australia
Ashley Bland (host)Chair of the SEGRA Foundation Board; Associate Partner and Business Development Manager for Green Homes International
Further information
Regional Wellbeing Survey
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From running a massage clinic for homeless men to running the largest independent human rights organisation in the country, Kon Karapanagiortidis has always had a strong sense of his moral duty to help the people around him. Not just his friends and family, but anyone that might be called a neighbour. He even named his bestselling cookbook Philoxenia, a Greek word that means having love for the stranger. Kon's life has been defined by refusing to turn his back on those in need but that comes with a cost. Every year he receives thousands of hateful messages from people that he says have allowed themselves to become numb to the plight of others. Hear how he maintains his empathy and motivation while helping thousands of refugees through The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre with the radical simplicity of seeing the humanity in everyone.
The conversation Compassion in Action, was recorded at the Centre for a Compassionate Society on 15 March, 2026
Speakers
Petrina BarsonDirector of the Centre for a Compassionate Society
Kon Karapanagiotidis OAM Founder and CEO of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre Author, The Power of Hope and Philoxenia - A Seat At My Table
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Some say Russian president Vladimir Putin is growing increasingly paranoid, as his war with Ukraine wages on. It's hard to know from the outside looking in. What makes the elusive Putin tick? How has he changed during his 26 years in power? And where will it all end? Putin's not a fan of Soviet era communism, so what's drives him? And what's his thing with Trump?
Join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell with two seasoned Russia watchers at the 2026 Sorrento Writers Festival.
Speakers
Associate Professor Will PartlettMelbourne Law SchoolFellow, Centre for Public IntegrityAuthor, Why the Russian Constitution Matters: The Constitutional Dark ArtsCoauthor, The Post-Soviet as Post-Colonial and The People's Guide to the Australian Constitution.
Dr Elizabeth BuchananSenior fellow, Australian Strategic Policy InstituteCo-founder and co-director of polar warfare studies at West Point Military Academy's Modern War InstituteFormer, Head of Research for the Royal Australian Navy’s Sea Power Centre, Department of Defence.Author, Red Arctic: Russian Strategy under Putin and So you want to own Greenland: Lessons from the Vikings to Trump.
Thanks to Corrie Perkin, founding director and programmer of the Sorrento Writers Festival.
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The global treaty for preventing nuclear proliferation is under serious strain. The last review conferences for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty have ended in deadlock. And this year, last treaty limiting U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals has expired. This new risk comes at a moment when new nuclear actors are asserting themselves, and the diplomatic tools that once managed these dangers are weakening. What's at stake when the nuclear guardrails come down?
Presented by the Institute of Politics (IOP), Harvard Kennedy School; Co-Organizer Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Speakers
Rose GottemoellerWilliam J. Perry Lecturer, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University; former Deputy Secretary General of NATO
Laura S. H. HolgateSenior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School; former U.S. Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations Office in Vienna
Graham AllisonDouglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School; Former Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Matthew BunnJames R. Schlesinger Professor of the Practice of Energy, National Security, and Foreign Policy, Harvard Kennedy School; Co‑Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Meghan L. O'Sullivan (host)Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs and Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Further Information
Taskforce Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Nuclear Threat Initiative — Preventing an Era of Nuclear Anarchy: Nuclear Proliferation and American Security
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Have you ever heard of something called Chatfishing? From to AI profiles to cat-face filters, finding true love has never felt more difficult. And yet, dating is still fundamentally unchanged. It relies on good communication and mutual respect. After creating the social media juggernaut Bad Dates of Melbourne, who better to help you navigate the pitfalls and dealbreakers of dating in the modern world than Alita Brydon. Her first book is called How To Date Like A Dangerous Woman and it is full of straight talk with radical self-love at the heart of it all.
This event was hosted at the Brimbank Writers and Readers Festival
Speakers
Alita BrydonRelationships expert, author of How To Date Like A Dangerous Woman and Bad Dates of Melbourne founder
Nelly ThomasComedian, MC and host of the Dear Nelly Podcast
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