Big Ideas
Episodes
The past is a foreign country — Santilla Chingaipe, Sita Sargeant, Steve Vizard with Natasha Mitchell
18 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Santilla Chingaipe stumbled on the names of enslaved Africans who arrived on the First Fleet in 1788 she couldn't look away. For Steve Vizard, a...
Will American democracy survive the Dark Enlightenment? Sarah Churchwell on Gone with the Wind and the roots of extremism
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah Churchwell takes you on a gripping and confronting journey into America's recent past to explain its extraordinary present, starting with dark ...
We are the evidence — empowering change in Indigenous Australia
16 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2017, the Uluru Statement called for Voice, Treaty and Truth as a roadmap to reconciliation. With the Voice defeated, what is the path now to mean...
From Bangalore to Balmain – Padma Raman’s lifelong advocacy for women and girls
12 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The racism and resilience Padma Raman’s parents experienced lit a social justice fire in her early on. She landed on the sunny shores of Sydney in ...
Fashion's fails — we can fix its toxic legacy! Kit Willow, Natasha Mitchell, and guests
11 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Australians have a hardcore addiction to fast fashion. That means dyes in our waterways, microplastics in our bodies, and hundreds of thousands of to...
Warren Ellis on why he bought a Sumatran wildlife sanctuary — with Justin Kurzel and Zan Rowe
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Warren Ellis is best known as the charismatic violinist with legendary Australian instrumental rock trio Dirty Three and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds....
To infinity – who's in charge of outer space?
09 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How do nations work together to control access to our vast universe, negotiate who gets what resources, or even who gets to set up new colonies on fa...
Being Jewish after the destruction of Gaza — with Peter Beinart and Sarah Schwartz
05 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What's happening in Gaza is horrifying and shocking. As the world watches on, how are different Jewish communities reckoning with a war being waged i...
We asked for workers and got people — inside the temporary visa scheme putting food on your plate
04 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A workforce we rarely hear about, lives in limbo, and stories from the coalface. From economic gains and cultural exchanges to exploitation and absco...
The unbearable intimacy of voicing someone’s words — with Forced Entertainment
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Words can mean everything, or nothing at all: it all depends on how they're delivered. This relationship between writer, script, actor and audience c...
Gina Chick on what dark nights of the soul can teach us about life and living
02 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Gina Chick made her name as the inaugural winner of Alone Australia, but her story begins a long time before that. It involves unimaginable hardship,...
Safe at home – who profits when you’re afraid of your neighbours?
29 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Your personal safety is big business, so much so that it’s given rise to “security capitalism”, a phenomenon where attempts to buy personal saf...
The ghosts are here — Tasma Walton, Darren Rix, Craig Cormick, Anthony Sharwood with Natasha Mitchell
28 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The ghost people arrived by boat. They never left. But the stories of first encounters and what came next live large, 250 years later, in First Natio...
Words to sing the world alive — waking up First Nations languages
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At the time of colonisation, there were more than 250 Indigenous languages spoken in Australia, but these days, all are considered endangered. Many F...
From vulture bone flutes to ‘organised sound’— Andrew Ford's short history of music
26 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Music has been around for at least as long as humans, and possibly even longer. How have forces like religion, the economy, society and technology, s...
If it bleeds it leads – Bruce Shapiro on documenting the violence of modern life
22 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From wars with global consequences to violent crimes in the suburbs, trauma underpins so much of the news cycle. It’s something award-winning journ...
Live to 150? David Sinclair on why we age — and why he thinks we don't have to
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if we could turn back time on our biological clock and slow down — even reverse — aging? High profile Harvard scientist David Sinclair is co...
Australia and the spectre of war — from Vietnam to today
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's been 60 years since then Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies sent Australians to fight in the Vietnam War. Since that time, the defence for...
Australia votes — what message should we take from this election result?
19 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If democracy is the will of the people, what does this federal election result say about Australia? In his election night victory speech, Prime Minis...
What are you wearing? Why we aren’t buying Australian made fashion
15 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Australians are now the biggest consumers per capita of clothes in the world. But just three per cent of clothing is made here in Australia. So is it...
Mark Zuckerberg claims corporations are culturally neutered — are they? Men, women, work, and the manosphere
14 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Meta's Mark Zuckerberg has said “a lot of the corporate world has become culturally neutered” and that it needs more “masculine energy”? Has ...
History lessons — historians Orlando Figes, Bettany Hughes, Matthew Longo and Dava Sobel with Annabelle Quince
13 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Democracies in retreat, attacks on science, border disputes, death and destruction. It can feel like we are living in unprecedented times - but here'...
Chatting with 2025 Grammy winner Ruthie Foster
12 May 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...
Vladimir Putin’s Russia — with exiled journalist and author Mikhail Zygar
08 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The exiled founder of Russia's only independent television news channel, Mikhail Zygar, takes us inside Vladimir Putin's Russia, with a firsthand acc...
Rituals, rats, and reeded vertebrae! The mysteries of Machu Picchu and Ancient Peru revealed
07 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A story of continents crashing and cleaving apart, the making of a civilisation, the language of the dead, and ... a mummified rat makes a cameo too....
Mental ill-health and the power of words
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The language used to talk about mental ill-health can play a key role in reducing or enforcing stigma. And it's constantly evolving. But what terms s...
Worried about the future? A mosquito could help you to live in the present
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What can a mosquito teach us about time? Noone likes a mosquito bite — but for a brief moment when it stings you, you know you are alive. Humans ar...
Australia votes— are our political parties on the nose?
01 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This election has been described as a boring campaign, but with some fascinating contests. So just what is going on in the minds of voters as Austral...
Has the world lost the plot? John Lyons, Greg Sheridan, Emma Shortis, Josh Taylor with Natasha Mitchell
30 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Are we living through a key turning point in world history? How do we make sense of this present moment, and what's on the horizon?Trump's trade wars...
The painting that changed Australia — the story of Blue Poles
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's been called a coming-of-age story for a nation. The Whitlam Government's purchase of Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles in 1973 helped to bring down t...
Are Donald Trump and US politics bringing global health to its knees?
28 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Until recently, the USA provided about 30% of global health funding. It was dominant in supplying HIV/AIDS medication and funded a major part of medi...
Sir Simon Schama — On antisemitism
24 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Acclaimed British historian Sir Simon Schama reflects on the history of antisemitism, the Holocaust and contemporary culture. He says that for millen...
How do we make cancer treatment worth it, work better, and less harmful?
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cancer is common and chemo and radiotherapies can save or extend our lives. But sometimes they don't, or they stop working, or they come with disabli...
Pankaj Mishra — the world after Gaza
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For the past 18 months, Israel's war in Gaza has polarised the world. The Indian author and essayist Pankaj Mishra reckons with the conflict through ...
Uncovering Pompeii — 300 years of archaeology
21 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Two thousand years ago, life in Pompeii stood still when Mount Vesuvius erupted, preserving the town in volcanic ash for centuries. Today, this ancie...
When women resist authoritarianism — what's happening in Iran, Afghanistan, Myanmar right now?
17 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Authoritarian regimes are threatened by women who fight for their freedom — and are pushing back in even more extreme and deadly ways. The world wa...
A season of death — with Raimond Gaita and Michelle Lesh
17 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The only certainty in life is that we will all some day die. Most of us don't know when that day will come. But others must face their mortality fron...
Where is the soul in science? Natasha Mitchell and guests on a humanity defining battle (Archive)
16 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Join Natasha Mitchell and guests to grapple with some gritty paradoxes about science and religion, and in this era of misinformation, conspiracy theo...
When the Tech Bros come to town — with Kara Swisher and Marc Fennell
15 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We know them as Zuckerberg, Musk, Bezos, Gates, Jobs. But to Kara Swisher, they're Mark, Elon, Jeff, Bill, and Steve. She was once a Silicon Valley i...
The biggest threat to the planet is a story — an eye-opening insider account of Australian environmentalism
14 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jobs vs the environment. Profits vs environmental protection. One pitted against the other. That dominant story has defined environmental regulatio...
Supporting teenagers to thrive online
03 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Teenagers 'live' online and on social media. How can they reap the many benefits that social media can offer? There are plenty of them: an endless po...
Can storytellers change the world? Tim Winton and Rachel Perkins join Natasha Mitchell
02 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Two of Australia’s most influential and legendary storytellers, author Tim Winton and filmmaker Rachel Perkins, join Natasha Mitchell at WOMADelaid...
Populist rage in America — history, causes and impacts
01 Apr 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 authorit...
Good conversations — with writer and poet Ian WIlliams (CBC Massey Lecture 5)
31 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What makes a good conversation? And do good conversations have anything in common? Ian Williams studies his daily conversations and explores how our ...
Who can speak for whom to whom about what? — with writer and poet Ian Williams (CBC Massey Lecture 4)
27 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We're in an era where many people feel an ownership over certain words, and how a community expresses itself. The term "appropriation" has come to cr...
Personal conversations — with writer and poet Ian Williams (CBC Massey Lecture 3)
26 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bookstores are full of titles that are supposed to help us deal with difficult conversations — about emotions, misunderstandings and hurt feelings....
Public conversations — with writer and poet Ian Williams (CBC Massey Lecture 2)
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Public space is important for democracy. This is where we articulate our values, and perhaps change our minds. So how do we open ourselves up to conn...
Why we need to have a conversation about conversations — with writer and poet Ian Williams (CBC Massey Lecture 1)
24 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ever felt that no one is really listening? At a time when we're more connected than ever, why does it seem like we can barely talk to each other? Civ...
Australians – the ‘aristocrats’ of Asia? The Lucky Country 60 years on
20 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In his influential 1964 book The Lucky Country, Donald Horne wrote that Australians played an aristocratic role in Asia: "rich, self-centred, frivolo...
Choices created Australia's housing mess, what choices will fix it? Natasha Mitchell and guests
19 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Australia's housing crisis hasn't always been with us. So what choices created it, and what choices are now needed to fix it? Buying a house is now...
Free your attention — meditation and mindfulness in the digital age
18 Mar 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...
Today YOU can choose your family
17 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The structures of our families have become more bespoke, complex, sometimes messier. Some find comfort in a 'chosen family', choosing friends over bl...
Riverhood — oral histories in the Murray Darling Basin
13 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Murray Darling Basin is the most important river system in Australia, and the most contested. What does it mean to live by those rivers, through ...
Vested interests vs public interest? How the fossil fuel industry captures Australian governments
12 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How has the fossil fuel industry wielded influence over Australian governments and their policies? What does it take to make ambitious change in the ...
France — a paradoxical country
11 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The citizens of France have a notoriously conflicted relationship with the state. Their suspicion, if not resentfulness, of state power has played ou...
Can the International Criminal Court deliver justice?
10 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The International Criminal Court has issued high-profile arrests warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Ne...
Helen Garner on footy, boys, and growing old
06 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A "Homeric struggle", a desperate night-ballet, an ethical training ground for boys and men. Aussie Rules is a multimillion-dollar industry, but at i...
Is America on the cusp of collapse under Trump? Natasha Mitchell and guests at Adelaide Writers Week
05 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump's return to The White House is up-ending the way America works — at home and on the global stage. Does it herald the potential social,...
What does the internet know about you?
04 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A trip to Bunnings, a Medibank or Optus account, a new smart car or vacuum, every facet of our daily lives is now up for grabs. So should privacy con...
Security in Europe hangs in the balance. Is NATO on the rocks?
03 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Europe needs to rethink its strategies and policies to protect the continent in the future. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, China's predatory mercantil...
Animals — Us and them? How does loving animals go together with industrial farming?
24 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Humans have a conflicted relationship with animals: We love our pets and admire our wildlife. But we continue the industrial production of dairy, mea...
Animals — Us and them? Are you having a whale of a time?
24 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Seeing a whale in the wild takes your breath away. But so much of what they do remains mysterious. Join Natasha Mitchell with two world leading whale...
Animals — Us and them? The cat catastrophe – pet or pest?
24 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cherished companions, or cunning predators? Cats kill five million native animals in Australia every day — so how can we better manage our feline f...
Animals — Us and them? What is the purpose of zoos in an extinction crisis?
24 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Zoos are changing — they are no longer just places for us humans to gawk at animals in cages. In the midst of a global extinction crisis, they are ...
Animals — Us and them? The true and the ugly of wildlife documentaries
20 Feb 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...
Jem Bendell, the fake green fairytale, and how to survive civilisational collapse
19 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We’re past the brink of civilisational collapse. And many environmentalists are pushing a “fake green fairytale”. Jem Bendell’s arguments hav...
A murder in Malta — how Daphne Caruana Galizia's fight for justice lives on in her son
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For 30 years, Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia exposed corruption and wrong doing in her country. Her youngest son, Paul Carua...
Empireworld — Sathnam Sanghera on how British imperialism shaped the globe
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The British Empire was once the biggest in the world. But now, some countries are cutting ties, and some want reparations. So just what is the legacy...
Living out your mental illness in public paves the way to lasting change
17 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Being who we are in public (with our mental illness) is the only way to create lasting change. Amanda Tattersall, co-founder of the campaigning organ...
Uncancelled culture — forgiveness and redemption in the digital age
13 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cancel culture has ruined careers and lives — but did they deserve it? What consequences should people face for what they say and do? And what does...
I can change the world! How these changemakers found their superpower
12 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sara Shams had both legs amputated at age six — it became her superpower. 15-year-old Taylor Ladd-Hudson turned a shark experience into something b...
Re-thinking the relationship between brain and machine
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine a world where your brain is enhanced through cutting-edge technologies and next-generation AI, blurring the lines between organic and digital...
Video games — a new frontier in the fight for global influence?
10 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With more than 3 billion people playing video games worldwide, they have the potential to wield tremendous power and influence. So is it time to take...
Don’t be a D**khead — with musicians Kasey Chambers and Clare Bowditch
06 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Kasey Chambers was growing up, her dad had one simple, yet profound piece of advice. Just don't be a d***head.This event was recorded at the Ath...
Should scientists stand up as things fall down? Advocacy, activism, impartiality and the risks
05 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump’s administration is already muzzling government-funded scientists. Closer to home, Australian scientists have their own stor...
Minority report — the new shape of Australian politics, with George Megalogenis and Tory Shepherd
04 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From the inner cities to the outer suburbs, to rural and regional Australia, just what is going on in minds of voters as we embark on another federal...
Why Australian politicians welcomed fascists after the Second World War
03 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Australia resettled fascists, even war criminals after World War II as part of a worldwide program led by the International Refugee Organisation. Th...
What’s the secret to governments making wise decisions?
30 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Take folly, friction, pain and empathy … mix well, and you get wise governmental decisions. If only it was that simple. Zachary Shore looks at the ...
Merlin Sheldrake's Entangled Life — how fungi do things differently, and inspire us to as well
29 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Have you noticed mushrooms are having a moment? Merlin Sheldrake's New York Times bestselling bookEntangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change O...
Nicky Winmar and Rhoda Roberts − showing racism in sport the red card
28 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nicky Winmar's iconic stand against racism was a wakeup call more than 30 years ago. But how much has really changed? Racism on and off the field con...
Chopsticks or fork? — Jennifer Wong and Lin Jie Kong with Annabel Crabb
27 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Almost every country town across Australia has a Chinese restaurant. Why is that? And what role do they play in the story of immigration and multicul...
Writers who rock — on the art of music writing
23 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
You've got half an hour with Lou Reed/ Nick Cave/ Courtney Love: what do you ask them? Three of Australia's best music writers share their craft, and...
How surfing writer Tim Baker and doctor Peter Goldsworthy learnt to live well and laugh with cancer
22 Jan 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...
The fight to protect abortion in the United States — with Dr Angel Foster
21 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For 50 years, women in the United States had a constitutionally enshrined right to abortion. But in 2022, that right was overturned, and now one thir...
The Knowledge Gene — the incredible story of the supergene that gives us human creativity
20 Jan 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...
Is there life on Mars?
16 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's a question that has focused the minds of astronauts, scientists, space entrepreneurs and enthusiasts alike — is there, could there be, life on...
The delicate complexities of treating mental illness — Jonathan Rosen, Patrick McGorry with Natasha Mitchell
15 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
New York writer Jonathan Rosen’s memoir The Best Minds: a story of friendship, madness, and the tragedy of good intentions is a story of tenderness...
Mary Beard and the Roman Empire
14 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, Mary Beard has forged her own path through the male dominated field of academia, from the ruins of Rome to the trenches of Twitter, to b...
Looking to a healthy future with Helen Clark
13 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We are living in an "age of crises," says former New Zealand prime minister, Helen Clark. With her leadership experience and expertise in governance,...
How traumatic stress hurts us — with Bessel van der Kolk
09 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world's foremost experts on trauma, discusses his pioneering research into traumatic stress and its impact on our bra...
Are national deficits a myth? Stephanie Kelton explodes an economic holy cow
08 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When governments say they can't afford to fix climate change or lift kids out of poverty are they speaking the truth? American economist Stephanie Ke...
How to cut through political spin — Richard Denniss, Joelle Gergis, Yanis Varoufakis, Tom Keneally with Natasha Mitchell
07 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Join host Natasha Mitchell and guests for some straight talk that cuts through spin and jargon. Has the way politicians speak ever made you shout at...
Islands rising — life on the front lines of the climate crisis
06 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Residents of the Pacific and Torres Strait Islands face an existential threat from climate change, as rising sea levels threaten to swallow up their ...
Liberalism as the basis of life?
02 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Liberalism isn't just a political philosophy but the basis of a truly meaningful life. That's the bold statement of philosopher Alexandre Lefebvre, a...
Thriving not just surviving with Tibetan master Mingyur Rinpoche, a Sufi scholar and Indian philosopher of mind
01 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tibetan master Venerable Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche experienced terrifying panic attacks as a little boy. What did he learn about suffering, the Self, a...
AC Grayling — How to live well, according to philosophy
31 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
You wouldn't be human if you hadn't from time to time wondered what the meaning is of all of this. Who am I? Is there a purpose? Why am I here? And h...
Laurie Anderson on time and life
30 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Pioneering electronic musician and performer Laurie Anderson invites you contemplate the wonders of time. Time is one of the most impermanent forms o...
Hugh Mackay — Australian society in the 21st century
26 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From loneliness, to our technology addiction, growing inequality and our shrinking middle class, our faith in God, to the complex legacy of the Baby ...
Holly Ringland helps you to get creative
25 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Best-selling author Holly Ringland says that everyone can be creative – yes, even you! Be it painting, cooking, knitting a jumper or writing a song...
Lifting the lid — the lost story of an extraordinary Egyptian coffin revealed
24 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A wooden sarcophogas is sold in a Cairo market in the 1800s, transported to Australia, and held in a University of Sydney collection. It remains clos...