Big Ideas

History of populist rage in America

30 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Populism is part of American political history. It has been and still is the dominant vocabulary of dissent. But the current resurrection of authori...

Meditation and mindfulness in the digital age

29 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How many times have you checked your phone today? How many tabs are open in your web browser? Do you feel in control of your attention? In the digit...

The secrets of wildlife documentaries

25 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Satyajit Das presents a provocative examination of the use and abuse of images of wild animals, and how they shape our relationships with the natural...

The Knowledge Gene — an incredible story of the origins of human creativity

24 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Prepare to have your mind blown with a sweeping saga that connects human evolution, brains, genes, art, music, creativity, knowledge, dyslexia, autis...

Sarah Churchwell asks — Will American democracy survive the Dark Enlightenment?

23 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Historian Sarah Churchwell takes you on a gripping and confronting journey into America's recent past to explain its extraordinary present, starting ...

2025 Grammy winner Ruthie Foster talks about her life and music

22 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After five nominations, Ruthie Foster has taken home the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album - affirming her status as an American mu...

Childless on purpose — the fertility crisis and the big decision

18 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When you enter your childbearing years, it can feel like everyone from the treasurer, your mum, and probably your Instagram reels really wants you to...

Surfer Tim Baker and doctor Peter Goldsworthy on living well with cancer

17 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Meet two men who will change the way you think about an experience most of us fear but will be touched by in some way.  In Patting the Shark, surfi...

Understand your microbiome

16 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Are fermented foods really good for us? Do antibiotics destroy our gut flora? And have you heard about poo transplants?Our gut is teeming with trilli...

Doctor Who at 60 — still as attractive as ever

15 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Doctor Who has acted as a mirror to more than six decades of social, technological and cultural change. It's been able to evolve and adapt more rad...

The role of spirituality and religion in mental health care

11 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The connection between body and mind is well established. But mental health expert Daniel Fung also includes the soul in this 'ecosystem' that shapes...

A song for every feeling? Pub Choir's Astrid Jorgensen with Natasha Mitchell

10 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From innocently conning controversial radio duo Kyle and Jackie O as a kid, time in a Zambian convent as a teen, to nearly becoming an air traffic co...

Victoria's new treaty with First Peoples — a turning point for Australia?

09 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Australia now has its first treaty with this country's first peoples. After nearly a decade of formal consultation and negotiation, the Victorian Sta...

Pay attention — writer Emily Maguire finds promiscuous curiosity and cultural receptivity in the creative process

08 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Humans are by nature creative, but how do we turn a spark of inspiration into something more tangible? Author Emily Maguire draws inspiration from so...

Can science keep dementia at bay and keep your brain sharper − for longer?

04 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As we grow older, changes to our bodies and minds are inevitable. But what if science could help us age better? Our experts on Big Ideas uncover the ...

Acclaimed author Christos Tsiolkas on fence-sitting in a time of fracture

03 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When acclaimed Australia author Christos Tsiolkas was invited to give the 2025 Ray Mathew Lecture at the National Library of Australia, he had in min...

The stories we tell about cricket — with Paul Giles and Gideon Haigh

02 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From The Don to Warny, the Gabba to the G,  the bodyline controversy to the ball tampering affair, from its legacy of British colonialism, to the As...

Judge Navi Pillay on the fight for human rights, justice and accountability

01 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Born in apartheid South Africa, she became the country's first female high court judge. She sat on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, an...

Musician Holly Rankin on why young Australians feel that politics isn't delivering for them

27 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Young Australians are losing faith that our politics, our civic institutions and the mainstream media are working for them. Why is this? And how can ...

What are universities for today? The usefulness of "useless" knowledge

26 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Are our universities facing an existential crisis by trying to be too many things? Places for learning, research, the production of new knowledge, th...

Jane Caro — why Australia is failing our school system

25 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We often hear about "failing schools", but what if it is us, the Australian community, who are failing them?  Public school advocate Jane Caro argue...

Coming Out and Inviting In — with Zoe Terakes, Nina Oyama, Mon Schafter, Atari Metcalf, Ji Wallace

24 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Join ABC's Mon Schafter and four incredible speakers as they share honest, powerful stories about revealing their identities on their own terms. From...

Searching for convivencia — philosopher AC Grayling makes peace in the culture wars

20 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If you're a feminist, or pro-civil or gay rights, does that make you "woke"? And if you're not, does that mean you should be cancelled, or abused onl...

The Sophia Club live philosophy — what are friends for?

19 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Friends are different from family. We choose them and they choose us. Philosophers long wondered about what makes friendship such a distinctive relat...

Understanding China's history is crucial for Australia

18 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

To deal with China as a major trading partner, and also a national security threat requires understanding the history that made China what it is toda...

Universities and other antidotes to authoritarianism

17 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The United States has long been famous for its world leading universities. But in the face of research funding cuts, government attacks on free speec...

One day, everyone will have always been against this — Omar El Akkad and Peter Greste reckon with Western hypocrisy over Israel's war on Gaza

13 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Western world is supposed to stand for values like freedom, justice and human rights, a commitment to meet wrongdoing with consequence, guided by...

Fixing Australia's housing crisis — is increasing supply really a silver bullet?

12 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Build more houses. That'll fix Australia's housing crisis won't it?  If you listen to governments, you'd sure think so. Under the National Housing A...

Gough Whitlam's dismissal — why is it still relevant today?

11 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Whitlam's dismissal and following double dissolution 50 years ago, was arguably the most tumultuous period in Australia's political and constitutiona...

An intriguing story of art and espionage — how a classical scholar turned codebreaker during World War 2

10 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1930s, New Zealand-born, Cambridge educated Arthur Dale Trendall carved a niche for himself as the world's foremost expert in the study of anc...

Empire of AI — Karen Hao goes inside the reckless race for total world domination

06 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When it was founded in 2015, openai — the company behind Chat GPT — had a mission to develop artificial intelligence tools that would benefit hum...

ABC's CITIZEN JURY — Fixing salmon farming's environmental harms in Tasmania

04 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

ABC Radio National's CITIZEN JURY takes hard, hot-button issues affecting a community — and places citizens at the centre of finding solutions. It'...

Anne Summers — 50 Years of Damned Whores and God’s Police

04 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1975, aged just 29, she wrote a bestselling book that changed Australia. Since then, she's courted controversy and acclaim, but Anne Summers has n...

Why we need to cancel cancel culture — with defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou

03 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When people say or do the wrong thing, we have laws and a legal system that should be able to deliver consequences and, hopefully justice. But in thi...

Out of this world — with Booker Prize winning author Samantha Harvey

30 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For all of human history, space has been a place of mystery, awe and fascination. But unless you're an astronaut, a billionaire, or a pop star, most ...

What Artists See? Critic Quentin Sprague helps you get to the messy human heart of art

29 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever visited an art gallery full of wonder, ready to be inspired, only to leave feeling like it was all a bit over your head? You're about t...

Matrescence — on the metamorphosis of motherhood

28 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When a child is born, so too is a mother. This idea, known as "matrescence", was first conceived in the 1970s by American medical anthropologist Dana...

Alexander the Great — A genius? A tyrant? A visionary? A killer? A maniac?

27 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

He was undefeated in battle and established one of the largest empires in history. But his legacy goes beyond his military conquests. He increased tr...

Nobel laureate Donna Strickland on her life in lasers

23 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

She became the third ever woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018, and the first in 50 years. This is the story of how Donna Strickland became ...

Ziggy Ramo’s latest project asks what makes us human?

22 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ziggy Ramo is an award-winning musician and author whose latest book titled Human?: A lie that has been killing us since 1788 weaves song, visual art...

New legislation to protect you against invasion of your privacy

21 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

2025 is a landmark year for Australian privacy law. The new statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy came into effect in June this year. This ...

How to build a stock exchange — the past, present and future of finance

20 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This rollicking history traces the evolution of the London stock exchange, from the Transatlantic slave trade to modern day missions to Mars, arguing...

Is Jane Austen the greatest English novelist of all time?

16 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

She's on a bank note (British 10 pounds), and a bath soap (Suds and Sensibility), and she also wrote some of the most beloved novels in English liter...

We’re F**ed! It’s too late to avoid civilisational collapse. 2025 Beaker Street Festival Great Debate

15 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Is the end of the world nigh, or just the end of the world as we know it? Are we set to doom-scroll our way to apocalypse? Or is this the moment we w...

Who killed the liberal international order (and what comes next)?

14 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Conflict and great power rivalries are on the rise, democracy is in retreat, and multilateral institutions created to maintain global cooperation app...

Can the Democrats save democracy in the US?

13 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Democratic Party in America is in an identity crisis. It's shifting priorities to claw back grounds from the Republicans. But is it too little, t...

Maria Ressa on what Donald Trump learnt from Rodrigo Duterte and other strongman rulers

09 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From Rodrigo Duterte, to Narendra Modi, to Donald Trump, strongman leaders around the world are harnessing big tech to consolidate their power. Socia...

Prove It! Elizabeth Finkel's Scientific Guide for the Post-Truth Era

08 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If a stiff dose of medical misinformation is what you're after, look no further than the White House right now. And, on social media and in online fo...

John Lennon and Paul McCartney — a partnership that changed cultural history

07 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Beatles shook the world to its core in the 1960's and, to this day, new generations continue to fall in love with their songs and their story. At...

'Militarism gone mad' — Labor firebrand hits out at party’s support of AUKUS

06 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The world feels more dangerous and unpredictable, but with Australia wedged between our traditional ally, America, and our biggest trading partner, C...

Genocides are everyone's business, not no-one's business — Gareth Evans, Yassmin Khadra, Daniel Abot's urgent plea for peace

02 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A frank and impassioned plea for peace by Gareth Evans. As Australia's former Foreign Minister and former president of the International Crisis Group...

Vale Dr Jane Goodall — why the renowned primatologist and environmentalist held onto hope

02 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Primatologist Jane Goodall once said: "It actually doesn't take much to be a difficult woman. That's why there are so many of us." She spoke up. For ...

Is AI the new coloniser? How to create more life-centred AI before it's too late

01 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

AI is an incredible tool, but is AI also a new coloniser? Is there actually anything new or artificial about artificial intelligence? Join Natasha Mi...

Condoleezza Rice on how to fix the break-up of global cooperation

30 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice assesses the break-up of globalisation and the world order. The way in which countries such as the Unit...

The rise of Spotify and the costs of the perfect playlist — with music journalist Liz Pelly

29 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

American music journalist Liz Pelly interrogates the ways Spotify and other streaming giants are reshaping music, not just for listeners, but also fo...

Yolngu power — art, culture, country, law — with Marcia Langton and Clare Wright

25 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Australian Indigenous art is celebrated around the world – but how much is understood about its pivotal role in Indigenous culture, country, politi...

Nobel scientist Jennifer Doudna with Natasha Mitchell — the gene editing revolution, radical ethics, and what's next? [Archive episode]

24 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Join a full house at the Sydney Opera House with Nobel winning scientist Jennifer Doudna and Big Ideas' presenter Natasha Mitchell to discuss the hug...

Helen Vatsikopoulos — when the stories of migrants in Australia are silenced it's bad for all of us

23 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Stories help us to understand what is happening in the world and how it impacts us. Stories help us to relate to the experience of 'the Other' and th...

The power of essays — with David Marr, Esther Anatolitis, Brooke Boland and Ashleigh Wilson

22 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For 85 years, Meanjin has published the essays of Australian writers. The magazine's founding editor, Clem Christesen, wanted Meanjin's writers 'to r...

Fleeced — unravelling the history of wool and war

18 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's water and fireproof, versatile, warm and tough wearing. Wool not only expanded the British Empire, and created prosperity in the colonies, it al...

What's up with dieting Doc? Rethinking the obesity obsession in healthcare

17 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Has your doctor ever told you to go on a diet? Does that conversation put you off going to them in the first place, even if you need treatment for so...

Doing business ethically in turbulent times — with Helen Clark

16 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In a world where rules are increasingly being broken, what role should business play in upholding human rights, international and domestic law, and e...

Jimmy Barnes – tells it all

15 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Rock star and maverick Jimmy Barnes celebrates heritage, family, friends, music and the adventure of a grand life on stage. Get up close to the lead ...

Hanna Rosin on what’s happened to the end of men in Trump’s America

11 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Thirteen years ago, US political journalist Hanna Roisin wrote a book called The End of Men: and the Rise of Women. Since then, there's been Presiden...

Nuked or not? The politics and power play over nuclear energy as a climate fix

10 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Nuclear power is banned in Australia, and has been for decades, whilst some countries tilt towards nuclear energy again. Should or could Australia? ...

Heart-to-heart with John Wamsley and David Lindenmayer — why these trailblazing environmentalists won't back off

09 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Meet two men on a lifelong mission. They've ruffled a lot of feathers along the way. Some revere them, others revile them. John Wamsley set up Austra...

Are the reading wars really over?

08 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's estimated that one third of Australian school children can't read proficiently, and debates about the best way to teach reading have raged for y...

Is our university system broken?

04 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Students are dropping out, academics are burning out, so is enough being done to save higher education? It's a multibillion-dollar sector, employing ...

The radicalisation of boys — Jess Hill, George Megalogenis, Thomas Mayo with Natasha Mitchell at Byron Writers Festival

03 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Some boys are being radicalised by misogynist online subcultures like the 'Manosphere' and the 'incel' (involuntarily celibate) scene. Parents are an...

The AI Con — unpacking the artificial intelligence hype machine

02 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Is the world really in the midst of an AI revolution, or is it all just clever marketing, powered by immense amounts of money, capital and hype? This...

Barry Jones and Kerry O'Brien — on complexity, politics and love

01 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Barry Jones and Kerry O'Brien - Two titans of Australian political and social commentary share insights into how to think well, how to act well and h...

Tradwives — cosy cottage core fantasy, or something more sinister? With Megan Agnew, Rosie Waterland, Beverley Wang and Nakkiah Lui

28 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

They cook, make babies, and look impossibly perfect while doing it.Tradwives are using social media to redefine femininity and womanhood… or are th...

My Sister and Other Lovers — Esther Freud with Natasha Mitchell at Byron Writers Festival

27 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Esther Freud’s first semi-autobiographical novel Hideous Kinky became a film starring Kate Winslet and told the wild story of two little girls livi...

When dreams speak truth — exploring the relationship between our realities and the subconscious

26 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when the harsh realities of our daily lives — death, war, illness, hardship — invade that most private of realms — our sleep? Four...

The US was meant to pivot to Asia — has Donald Trump changed course?

25 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

With Donald Trump mediating conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, what has become of the United States' strategy in the Asia Pacific region?The ev...

Alison Lester and Jane Godwin on how children’s books change lives

21 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Even years later, children's books can hold a special place in our hearts, and they also teach, comfort, inspire, and grow young minds, and set kids ...

From devil horns to deep listening — Maxine Beneba Clark, Debra Dank, Damon Young on the power of communication

20 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From  finding the right language to connect to Country, making the world a more poetic place for kids, to a Vulcan salute between two lovers — com...

How a picnic started the fall of the Iron Curtain

19 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A brass band, goulash cooking in giant pots over open flames, people dancing around a bonfire — a pan-European picnic at the border between Hungary...

Anna Funder — Bears out there, writing in the age of bots and broligarchs

18 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Without permission, or payment, artificial intelligence has stolen the published words of thousands of Australian writers, and it seems that they hav...

The remarkable life of Marie Curie and the women scientists she inspired — with Dava Sobel

14 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Marie Curie is arguably the most famous scientist in history, for her breakthroughs in the field of radioactivity. But Curie also redefined what was ...

Wellness influencers will outlive us all! The Science Smackdown Debate at World Science Festival Brisbane

13 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's Team Wellness Warriors versus Team Medical Miracles. Hear the arguments and you decide! The wellness industry is booming. It's worth billions an...

How to live an experimental life

12 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The American essayist, philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson famously said that all life is an experiment, and the more experiments you make, the ...

Dugongs — up close and personal

11 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Their closest relative is the elephant; they eat about 60 kg of sea grass per day; and there are only three dugongs in captivity in the world. One in...

Do you know the size of your material footprint? 

07 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In your daily life you use more material than you think: metals, stones, wood, ceramics – the list goes on. We have sufficient resources to support...

Sarah Wilson reckons with our civilisational collapse

06 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If you knew the world as we know it was on the verge of collapse, would that change the way you live your life? Author, activist and podcaster Sarah ...

Mike Burgess — Espionage is a growing and costly threat to Australia

05 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Foreign spies attempt to infiltrate media organisations, break into restricted laboratories, target public servants on sites such as LinkedIn, approa...

Plummeting vaccination rates threaten public health

04 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For the first time in human history, we have the scientific know-how to vaccinate against most of the infectious diseases that killed our ancestors....

Not drowning waving, a modern media tale — with Geraldine Doogue

31 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The decline of the mainstream media has forced many outlets to try new things to keep audiences engaged and informed. So what works, and what is the ...

From Con the Fruiterer to East West 101 — the changing face of Australian TV

31 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Australia is a multicultural country, but up until recently, when you turned on the telly, you wouldn't know it. So what role has TV played in Austra...

FAT is not an F-word! The radical practice of fat joy

30 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell with three women embracing the radical practice of finding joy in big bodies. Fat bodies are often stigmatised, ...

How animals use natural medicine to heal themselves

29 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Meet apes that swallow leaves to dislodge worms and sparrows that use cigarette butts to repel parasites. Many animals use medicine to treat themselv...

The dark side of collaboration — when thinking together goes wrong

28 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At face value, collaboration sounds like a good thing: collaboration in the classroom, with colleagues, or between nations. But throughout history, c...

Adam Liaw on what spaghetti bolognese tells us about Australian life

24 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Food is essential to human life, but are we taking it for granted? Popular chef, writer and broadcaster Adam Liaw is an advocate for good food for ev...

Mao and Stalin — did they lead the way for tyrannical leaders like Trump?

23 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Books on tyrants, dictators, and authoritarian leaders are suddenly bestsellers again as we all try to make sense of the tilt towards tyrannical lead...

One land, two laws, it’s black and white — with Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Social Justice Commissioner Katie Kiss

22 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At a time when governments are retreating from promises of progress for First Nations people, what can be achieved through legal and human rights mec...

Doctor Who turns 60 — why the world still loves you

21 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Doctor Who has acted as a mirror to more than six decades of social, technological and cultural change. It's been able to evolve and adapt more rad...

Is AI our modern-day Frankenstein? Jeanette Winterson and Toby Walsh

17 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Acclaimed British author Jeanette Winterson argues that 200 years ago, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, was a message in a bottle, a prophesy, of today's...

ABC's CITIZEN JURY — Would you live inside a modern power station? These people will, and want to be heard

16 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Citizen Jury is ABC Radio National's experiment in citizen-led democracy. The ingredients? A gnarly issue + a jury of citizens = conversations + idea...

Radical economics — what can we learn from the life of John Maynard Keynes

15 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

John Maynard Keynes was an economist whose dreams went beyond balance sheets and into political ideas and cultural movements.He advised world leaders...

Life behind the lens — with photojournalists Lorrie Graham, Rick Stevens and Mike Bowers

14 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Photojournalism can define a moment, a movement, an era or even a whole generation. It can lift a weary spirit, move opinions, or change the way we v...