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PODCAST

Big Ideas

Feed your mind. Be provoked. One big idea at a time. Your brain will love you for it. Grab your front row seat to the best live forums and festivals with Natasha Mitchell.

society & culture politics

All Episodes

0:53:28

BBC Reith lecture 1 − Is violence normal?

Big Ideas ·

2025/04/07

What then are the tipping points that drive some to kill? Is violence unnatural? Or is it normal because, deep down, we are all capable of cruelty and can experience, even briefly, the urge to hurt others? The daily news, as well as our cultural landscape, is filled with stories of acts of violence. The impact of violence on the individual, families and communities can be devastating.This is the first 2024 BBC Reith lecture in the series: Four questions about violenceSpeakersDr

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0:54:14

Supporting teenagers to thrive online

Big Ideas ·

2025/04/03

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 pool of knowledge and curiosity. But parents need to help them navigate the risk and threats online — of which there're also plenty.On Big Ideas, we have a panel of experts with a plethora of valuable information, advice and resources.Presented by the Raising Children Network and hosted at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.Check

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0:53:31

Can storytellers change the world? Tim Winton and...

Big Ideas ·

2025/04/02

Two of Australia’s most influential and legendary storytellers, author Tim Winton and filmmaker Rachel Perkins, join Natasha Mitchell at WOMADelaide’s Planet Talks to discuss the power of stories and the role of artists to create change in the world.SpeakersRachel PerkinsMulti-award-winning filmmaker, and founder of Blackfella filmsDirector, presenter, co-writer, co-producer The Australian Wars series (available on SBS On Demand)Co-director, co-writer, co-producer First

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0:54:07

Populist rage in America — history, causes and impacts

Big Ideas ·

2025/04/01

Populism is part of American political history. It has been and still is the dominant vocabulary of dissent. But the current resurrection of authoritarian politics in the US is different. While the two parties could absorb populist movements in the past, this time populism has absorbed the party.Presented at the American Academy in BerlinSpeakerJefferson CowieJames G. Stahlman Professor in American History at Vanderbilt UniversityAmerican Academy in Berlin, Axel Springer Fellow —

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0:58:22

Good conversations — with writer and poet Ian...

Big Ideas ·

2025/03/31

What makes a good conversation? And do good conversations have anything in common? Ian Williams studies his daily conversations and explores how our age has left many people in what he calls a "drought of loving voices." In searching for conversations that feel transcendent, not transactional, he argues that in great conversations, the content is less important than the interaction: the sincerity and openness of the engagement. Good conversation is an art, and you don't know how it

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0:53:00

Who can speak for whom to whom about what? — with...

Big Ideas ·

2025/03/27

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 create guardrails around what can be said and by whom. Award-winning Canadian writer Ian Williams considers the role of speech and silence in reallocating power, and what it means to truly listen.The CBC Massey Lecture series What I mean to say — remaking conversation in our time was recorded live across Canada in November 2024. This

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0:53:07

Personal conversations — with writer and poet Ian...

Big Ideas ·

2025/03/26

Bookstores are full of titles that are supposed to help us deal with difficult conversations — about emotions, misunderstandings and hurt feelings. The problem is that difficult conversations are almost always about something other than what they seem to be about. And what we're actually looking for in a conversation isn't always answers — it's communion.The CBC Massey Lecture series What I mean to say — remaking conversation in our time was recorded live across Canada in November

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0:52:12

Public conversations — with writer and poet Ian...

Big Ideas ·

2025/03/25

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 connection with strangers while safeguarding our personal sovereignty and resisting efforts to convert us? And what can we learn from our conversations with strangers and loved ones alike about how to navigate the murky waters of national conversations?The CBC Massey Lecture series What I mean to say — remaking conversation in our time was

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0:52:27

Why we need to have a conversation about...

Big Ideas ·

2025/03/24

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? Civic and civil discourse have deteriorated, and the air is raw with anger and misunderstanding on all sides.Award-winning Canadian author and poet Ian Williams is reviving the lost art of conversation in his CBC Massey Lecture series What I mean to say — remaking conversation in our time.These lectures were recorded live across Canada in

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0:55:36

Australians – the ‘aristocrats’ of Asia? The Lucky...

Big Ideas ·

2025/03/20

In his influential 1964 book The Lucky Country, Donald Horne wrote that Australians played an aristocratic role in Asia: "rich, self-centred, frivolous, blind". A lot has changed in 60 years, but does Australia still think it's better than its neighbours?Recorded at the Australian Academy of the Humanities annual symposium, The Ideas and Ideals of Australia — The Lucky Country turns 60, on 13 — 15 November 2024 at the Australian National University.SpeakersLouise EdwardsEmeritus

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0:58:09

Choices created Australia's housing mess, what...

Big Ideas ·

2025/03/19

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 out of reach if you're on an average wage, and rental options are expensive and precarious. If we don't address the issues urgently, generations to come will face homelessness or profound poverty paying rents on a pension. There are solutions. Are politicians courageous enough to try them? Join Natasha Mitchell and guests at Adelaide

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0:58:09

Choices created Australia's housing mess, what...

Big Ideas ·

2025/03/19

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 out of reach if you're on an average wage, and rental options are expensive and precarious. If we don't address the issues urgently, generations to come will face homelessness or profound poverty paying rents on a pension. There are solutions. Are politicians courageous enough to try them? Join Natasha Mitchell and guests at Adelaide

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0:54:05

Free your attention — meditation and mindfulness in...

Big Ideas ·

2025/03/18

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 digital age, attention is now a commodity. Can practices like meditation and mindfulness help us feel more free to focus on what really matters?This event was hosted at the Brunswick Ballroom by the Sophia Club in partnership with the University of Melbourne's Contemplative Studies Centre.SpeakersJess HuonMeditation trainer, authorised

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0:54:40

Today — you choose your family

Big Ideas ·

2025/03/17

The structures of families have gotten complex, even messy. Patchwork families are increasingly common. You can a birth mother, a genetic mother and a social mother. People choose friends as kin. How have families and communities changed? Presented at the Byron Writers Festival, supported by the Byron Shire Council.SpeakersKon KarapanagiotidisCEO and Founder of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre; author of A Seat at My Table: PhiloxeniaMarina KamenevFormer deputy arts editor of the

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0:53:53

Riverhood — oral histories in the Murray Darling Basin

Big Ideas ·

2025/03/13

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 the droughts, the floods, and the water politics that shape these communities. A beautiful and evocative history of the Murray Darling Basin, as told by people who live there.This speech was recorded at the History Council of Victoria's annual lecture at the State Library of Victoria on 14 November 2024.SpeakersKatie HolmesProfessor in

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0:54:06

Vested interests vs public interest? How the fossil...

Big Ideas ·

2025/03/12

How has the fossil fuel industry wielded influence over Australian governments and their policies? What does it take to make ambitious change in the public interest, without vested interests getting in way? Join Natasha Mitchell and guests at Adelaide Writers Week.SpeakersDr Richard DennissEconomist and Executive Director of The Australia InstituteAuthor of BIG: The Role of the State in the Modern Economy (2022)Ross GarnautEconomistProfessor Emeritus in business and economics,

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0:54:05

France — a paradoxical country

Big Ideas ·

2025/03/11

The citizens of France have a notoriously conflicted relationship with the state. Their suspicion, if not resentfulness, of state power has played out in myriad revolts over the centuries and continues with repeated protests and riots to this day. It shapes the country's political and social fabric … from the set-up of their local sports clubs to their global foreign politics ambitions. The picture that emerges is one of a nation struggling to reconcile its core political values

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0:54:11

Can the International Criminal Court deliver justice?

Big Ideas ·

2025/03/10

The International Criminal Court has issued high-profile arrests warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over their conduct in the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. But although the court's role is to end impunity for war crimes, many are now questioning whether it has the power to perform that vital duty.This event was recorded at the University of Tasmania on 11 February 2025.SpeakersAlex WhitingProfessor of Practice, Harvard Law

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0:54:05

Helen Garner on footy, boys, and growing old

Big Ideas ·

2025/03/06

A "Homeric struggle", a desperate night-ballet, an ethical training ground for boys and men. Aussie Rules is a multimillion-dollar industry, but at its heart, to thousands of people, it's much more than that. Including to Australian literary great, Helen Garner.This event was recorded at the National Library of Australia on 20 February 2025.SpeakersHelen GarnerAuthor, The Season, Monkey Grip, The Children's Bach, The First Stone, Joe Cinque's Consolation, The Spare Room, This House

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0:53:31

Is America on the cusp of collapse under Trump?...

Big Ideas ·

2025/03/05

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, political, and constitutional collapse of United States? The world has watched nations sleepwalk into ultranationalist fascism before, is this that moment? Or is American democracy more resilient than any one demagogue? Are we on the cusp of new world order, and how will Australia play its cards if the USA no longer has our back?This

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