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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

0:57:05

From Con the Fruiterer to East West 101 — the...

Big Ideas ·

2025/07/31

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 Australia's diverse communities, on screen, behind the scenes and in the living rooms across this country, over the past 70 years?This event was recorded at Sydney's Gleebooks on Friday 11 July 2025.SpeakersKate Darian-SmithProfessorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne, President of the Academy of Social Sciences in AustraliaKyle

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0:56:56

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

Big Ideas ·

2025/07/30

Join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell with three women embracing the radical practice of finding joy in big bodies. Fat bodies are often stigmatised, stereotyped, shamed, medicalised, and politicised. Even the word F.A.T gets denigrated. But there is another way. Reckoning with eating disorders and society's limitations, Dani, Evie, and Kalpana are no longer holding back from the delights of food, fashion, dance, ocean swimming, and more. Hear why, for them, the personal is

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0:44:03

How animals use natural medicine to heal themselves

Big Ideas ·

2025/07/29

Meet apes that swallow leaves to dislodge worms and sparrows that use cigarette butts to repel parasites. Many animals use medicine to treat themselves — something that for a long time has been thought to be the exclusive domain of humans. Now scientists are turning to the medical knowledge of the animal kingdom to improve agriculture, create better lives for our pets, and develop new pharmaceutical drugs.Presented at the Free Library of PhiladelphiaListen to Big Ideas: SpeakerJaap

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0:58:45

The dark side of collaboration — when thinking...

Big Ideas ·

2025/07/28

At face value, collaboration sounds like a good thing: collaboration in the classroom, with colleagues, or between nations. But throughout history, collaboration was not always considered a virtuous act, and those who were identified as collaborators were shunned, humiliated or worse. This talk explores how people justify their involvement in wrongdoing, and how when collaboration devolves into conformity, it risks silencing dissent.This event was recorded at the Bundanon Art

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0:54:36

Adam Liaw on what spaghetti bolognese tells us about...

Big Ideas ·

2025/07/24

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 everyone. He takes us on a journey through the history and science of food, and its place in our societies, economies and cultures throughout time, arguing that food should play a central role in government policy making.The 2025 Hugh Stretton Oration was recorded at the University of Adelaide on 14 May 2025.SpeakersAdam LiawCook,

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0:54:00

Mao and Stalin — did they lead the way for tyrannical...

Big Ideas ·

2025/07/23

Books on tyrants, dictators, and authoritarian leaders are suddenly bestsellers again as we all try to make sense of the tilt towards tyrannical leadership around the world, the mass compliance it commands, and its use of terror, fear, and often violence, to govern. Two of Australia's leading scholars on China and the Soviet Union, Linda Jaivin (author of BOMBARD THE HEADQUARTERS! The Cultural Revolution in China) and Sheila Fitzpatrick (author of The Death of Stalin) join Big

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0:55:11

One land, two laws, it’s black and white — with...

Big Ideas ·

2025/07/22

At a time when governments are retreating from promises of progress for First Nations people, what can be achieved through legal and human rights mechanisms?The 2025 Mabo Oration was recorded at the Cairns Performing Arts Centre on 30 May 2025, with thanks to the Queensland Human Rights Commission and QPAC.SpeakersKatie KissAboriginal and Torres Strait islander Social Justice CommissionerGail MaboVisual Artist, Artistic Director, Choreographer, Writer and Actor

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0:54:29

Doctor Who turns 60 — why the world still loves you

Big Ideas ·

2025/07/21

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 radically than any other fiction. Why we are so addicted to fiction, and why does this wonderful wandering time traveller mean so much to so many. This talk was provided by the York Festival of Ideas. The Festival is led by the University of York, UK.SpeakerJohn HiggsAuthor of Exterminate/Regenerate: The Story of Doctor Who (Weidenfeld

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0:53:01

Is AI our modern-day Frankenstein? Jeanette Winterson...

Big Ideas ·

2025/07/17

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 AI revolution.This conversation was recorded at the Sydney Writers' Festival, in partnership with the University of New South Wales's Centre for Ideas on 21 May 2025.SpeakersJeanette WintersonAuthor, 12 Bytes: How artificial intelligence will change the way we live and love, Oranges are not the only fruit, and many moreProfessor of

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0:54:04

ABC's CITIZEN JURY — Would you live inside a modern...

Big Ideas ·

2025/07/16

Citizen Jury is ABC Radio National's experiment in citizen-led democracy. The ingredients? A gnarly issue + a jury of citizens = conversations + ideas for solutions + a public event to share them. Join Big Ideas presenter Natasha Mitchell in Dubbo, NSW for our first Citizen Jury. We all want electricity at the flick of a switch, but who bears the brunt of making that happen? Join citizens who live in Australia's first official Renewable Energy Zone or REZ where millions of solar

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0:53:59

Radical economics — what can we learn from the life...

Big Ideas ·

2025/07/15

John Maynard Keynes was an economist whose dreams went beyond balance sheets and into political ideas and cultural movements.He advised world leaders during world wars, witnessed the great depression first hand and counted himself as one of the Bloomsbury group, a set of London's most influential writers and intellectuals like Virginia Woolf.This discussion from CUNY Graduate Center is an in depth look at the life of JohnMaynard Keynes and explores his influence on 20th century

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0:54:41

Life behind the lens — with photojournalists Lorrie...

Big Ideas ·

2025/07/14

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 view the world. Three of Australia's best photojournalists tell the stories behind some of Australia's most iconic photographs, and reflect on the profession's past, present and future.This event was recorded at the National Library of Australia on 27 May 2025.SpeakersLorrie GrahamPhotojournalistRick StevensPhotojournalistMike Bowers

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1:01:11

Can citizen juries put the people back in democracy?

Big Ideas ·

2025/07/10

Australia faces many big challenges, but is our democracy up to the job of solving these, or are we experiencing a decision deadlock?One process that could help governments meet the moment is known as citizen jury or assembly, where a cross section of ordinary people deliberate together over a thorny policy issue, then provide advice.How do these work, are they effective, and should they play a more central role in Australia's democracy?The session, The Place for Citizens

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0:53:11

Join Jodi Edwards and her Sea Kin on a journey that...

Big Ideas ·

2025/07/09

We bathe in the amniotic fluid our mother's womb. Our cells are full of water. For Walbanja woman, artist, educator and researcher Dr Jodi Edwards, this ocean-within intimately connects her to the ocean she grew up with on Sea Country. From saving the Sea kin to sensing the Gaia imperative — join Jodi with Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell, and also hear from award-winning author James Bradley and CEO-turned-climate-action advocate Mark Rowland as they explore why the ocean's

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0:53:22

Behrouz Boochani and Arnold Zable on the radical act...

Big Ideas ·

2025/07/08

The Kurdish poet Behrouz Boochani and the Australian writer Arnold Zable explore the power of friendship as an act of resistance, nourishment and healing.This event was recorded with the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne 29 April 2025.SpeakersBehrouz BoochaniKurdish-Iranian writer, journalist, scholar, cultural advocate, filmmaker, and public advocate for human rightsAuthor, No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison, and Freedom Only FreedomAdjunct

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0:53:44

Where to now — transforming anger into action after...

Big Ideas ·

2025/07/07

In October 2023, Australians voted no to a Voice to Parliament for First Nations people. In this panel from the 2025 Melbourne Writers Festival, four speakers who saw the campaign up close discuss what went wrong, and even whether the whole endeavour was worth it. Ultimately they’re all trying to answer the question, where do we go from here? Speakers Thomas MayoKaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander, author, activist and 'yes' campaignerBen

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0:54:13

What would a feminist utopia look like?

Big Ideas ·

2025/07/03

What would religion, work, sex or technology look like if we lived in a truly feminist world? In a perfect world would the messy stuff make the cut? Or would stuff that makes us human be left in the real world? Join two big thinkers who unpack it all as they build their own feminist utopia in this episode of Big Ideas. This was a live philosophy event presented in London at the Sophia Club, from the creators of Aeon and Psyche magazines. You can find out more about the series at

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0:57:19

Dark tourism, death, design, and the macabre — should...

Big Ideas ·

2025/07/02

Dark tourism is increasingly popular. Sites of suffering like old gaols, asylums, orphanages hold a certain allure. Can we honour their dark heart and histories, whilst also re-imagining their future? Should some 'traumascapes' be left untouched so the scars of the past are never forgotten, or can we turn them into happier settings with sensitivity? How do designers, developers, and historians tread such tricky terrain? This event was organised by Open House Melbourne and held in

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0:54:08

Is language power? With American linguist John McWhorter

Big Ideas ·

2025/07/01

Language is always evolving, and reflecting back to us our society, politics and identity. From profanity, to personal pronouns, to the politics of translation and cultural appropriation, why do we use the words we do?This event was recorded at the University of Sydney.SpeakersJohn McWhorterAssociate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Colombia UniversityAuthor, Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words, Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter, Woke

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0:52:56

Hard new world — our post-American future, with Hugh...

Big Ideas ·

2025/06/30

Under Donald Trump's second presidency, America's retreat from global leadership has been swift and erratic. With Russia's war in Ukraine still raging on Europe's doorstep, and China and India on the move, how is the international rules based order being reshaped? And how should Australia position itself in this dangerous, volatile, hard new world?This conversation was recorded at the Australian National University on Tuesday 17 June 2025.SpeakersHugh WhiteEmeritus Professor of

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