Big Ideas
Episodes
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...
Andrew O'Hagan — Literature and truth in the era of fake news, algorithms and artificial intelligence
23 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The internet was supposed to make the world more open and connected, but things seem to have taken a dark turn. Scottish author Andrew O'Hagan makes ...
Eric Bogle tells it all — his songs and his life
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Folk legend Eric Bogle is opening up and talks about his life, his thoughts about death, friendship and love and why having a deeper message for writ...
The debate over shark nets: killers or life savers? With Natasha Mitchell and guests
18 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
They use of shark nets to protect us from sharks is highly controversial. Do they work, what do they do to marine life, are there alternatives, and...
Meet the mothers of Australia's women's refuge movement
17 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At a time when family violence wasn't even recognised by the law, a group of women broke into two vacant houses in Sydney and claimed squatters' righ...
Is Australia overrun by feral animals? With Gardening Australia's Costa Georgiadis
16 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Australia's unique biodiversity, a product of almost 50 million years of glorious evolutionary isolation, is in freefall. The threats are not just th...
Benjamin Law’s butt, and the power and politics of portraiture
12 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From Vincent Namatjira's painting of Gina Rinehart, to Jonathan Yeo's take on King Charles, what do portraits say about those they represent, those w...
The surfer and circumnavigator — the gobsmacking feats of Pauline Menczer and Bonnie Hancock
11 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A freckle-faced kid from Bondi, Pauline Menczer fought the entrenched sexism of the pro-surfing scene to became women's world surfing champion and pa...
President Petr Pavel – on why the war in Ukraine is a fight for geopolitical stability worldwide
10 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Do you want to live in Putin’s vision of a world in which ‘the big boys’ dominate …. or in one in which smaller nations have a voice? If it’...
Memory, refugees and the Vietnam War — with Pulitzer Prize winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen
09 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Born a refugee of the Vietnam War, and now a Pulitzer Prize winning American author, Viet Thanh Nguyen unpacks the refugee experience, and the politi...
Who gets to shape the story? Reporting on the conflict in the Middle East — with The Guardian’s Nour Haydar
05 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There's been a move by Australian newsrooms to foster and champion the diversity of their staff. But when it comes to covering the conflict between I...
50 years after Cyclone Tracy — powerful memories of horror and hope
04 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Don't miss these previously unheard and powerful stories of ordinary people surviving extraordinary circumstances. Cyclone Tracy destroyed 80 perce...
Deaf defying: disability leadership as an act of resistance — with Dr Scott Avery
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In outback New South Wales, on the dried up, ancient clay shores of Lake Mungo, is a story that has become emblematic for profoundly deaf Worimi man ...
Trees, seeds, and ecotourism — the hidden histories Nature reveals about us
02 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Can a single seed tell the story of a civilisation? What do the scars on the skins of 200-year old whales tell about our ancestors? Can ancient trees...
The right to discriminate? Religious schools and Australian human rights law
28 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Human rights are meant to be universal, but what happens when those rights conflict with one another? For example, a religious school's right to prac...
Is it still possible for empathy to trump hate? Here's how. Rhonda Magee and Mariam Tokhi with Natasha Mitchell
27 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rhonda Magee grew up in segregated North Carolina in an abusive household. She knows firsthand the deep divides that define America right now. She ...
Busting the myths around menstruation and menopause, with Dr Jennifer Gunter
26 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Is menstruation linked to the moon? Do women's periods sync up when they live together? Are girls getting their first period younger? Why don't we ta...
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, 30 years on
25 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Back in 1994, it was a pretty wild pitch for a movie: a troupe of drag queens road tripping across the Australian outback, in a lavender bus named Pr...
Together, or together alone? Teens and adults debate social media's good, bad and ugly
21 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Australian federal government wants to restrict social media to those aged over 16. Would that work? Adult and teen experts mount their arguments...
ADHD, autism, depression — is social media causing social contagion? Jean Twenge, Sonny Jane Wise, Alice Dawkins, Sandersan Onie with Natasha Mitchell
20 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Is social media a contagious force harming young minds, a life saver helping people find their neurodiverse tribes and support, or, for better or wor...
Negotiating peace against the odds can be murky business
19 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Mediation in armed conflicts means sitting down with brutal war lords, hiding your true values and in an open dialogue trying to really understand ...
The 4-Day-Week − creating a better work life balance or just more stress?
18 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Pressing a full-time workload into four days sounds like simply adding more stress to your job – even if you keep your pay. But many people who h...
From Mumbai to Studio 54 — how Asha Puthli became India's first disco star
14 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
She was Andy Warhol's muse, she's been sampled by Notorious BIG, and her music was once voted on the ten best songs to dry-hump to. This is the amazi...
Joanna Murray-Smith — You’re Right, I’m Wrong: The Artist's Role in a Shifting World
13 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The leading playwright Joanna Murray-Smith makes a powerful case for the role of the arts in Australian public life, arguing that moral righteousness...
The future of remembering wars past — school students speak frankly with Natasha Mitchell at the Shrine
11 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How should we reflect on wars, past and present? Do the rituals of Remembrance Day and Anzac Day hold meaning for young people?Natasha Mitchell is jo...
Ending homelessness is possible
07 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It needs strong leadership and good coordination. But most of all, it needs public opinion to rise up and push policy makers to tackle this crisis. C...
What's wrong with death? Sophia Club live philosophy with Natasha Mitchell and guests
06 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When you're alive, the idea of dying feels weird, remote, alien. Yet it's the one experience we will all have. Can philosophy help us make sense of t...
From Gatsby to Huck Finn — American literature in an age of polarisation
04 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From To Kill a Mockingbird to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, there are no shortage of options to include on those lists of "The Great American N...
Old, new, best, true — the joy, power and heartache of friends
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends are among the most important relationships we will have in our lives. So what makes someone a friend, how do we hold on to them, and how do t...
Unconventional women — a hidden story of nuns with Natasha Mitchell and guests
30 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Why did acclaimed actor Melissa Jaffer step away from the spotlight and the swinging 60s to enter a strict cloister of Australian nuns for 4 years? S...
Candice Fox, Matthew Conon, Benjamin Stevenson – on the ethics of crime writing
28 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Literature on crime is huge. Many of you just love to read about a good murder. But do you prefer a soft touch around violent scenes? Or do you want ...
SOS Democracy with Jon Faine — Can democracy survive social media?
27 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From mis and disinformation to election interference, parts of the internet have become dystopian, due to a lack of regulation. What is this doing to...
SOS Democracy with Niall Ferguson and Barrie Cassidy — Is democracy doomed?
25 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ninety years ago, in the face of communism, fascism, and the Great Depression, Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies, asked the question 'Is democ...
SOS Democracy with Scott Stephens — Saving democracy with decency
25 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Democracy is in retreat, authoritarianism on the rise. But this has happened before. So how did big thinkers of the past respond to the threats to de...
Spielberg, a tuba, and a shark named Bruce — the cultural impact of Jaws
24 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When you're swimming in the ocean, do you ever startle at a piece of seaweed? Mistake a wave for a fin? Does the thought of sharks cross your mind at...