There is a dark side to clean energy and digital technologies Solar panels, wind turbines, mobile phones, and electric cars all depend on rare metals, But there are big problems with how these metals are mined, processed and traded. And there are profound economic and geopolitical impacts resulting from China’s dominance of the rare metals industry.

The French Revolution hasn’t only shaped our political ideologies to this day. It’s also been extremely influence in the field of science. Steve Jones explores the scientific advances made during this time and how they shape modern science. Many French scientists of that time literally devoted their lives to science with many of them being executed – for their new insights as much as for their involvement in politics.

Many of us are working from a home office or the kitchen table . The pandemic has boosted the popularity of remote work but we want to make sure it's good quality work and not lose the benefits of face to face contact with colleagues. One of the downsides is loneliness. Lockdowns and working alone can make you feel disconnected and lonely. Loneliness increases your risk of serious disease and the UK now has a Minster for Loneliness responsible for a government public health campaign.

Australian history stretches back 60,000 years but our written history is only 250 years old. Historians are restoring indigenous people to their proper place in the story of Australia but there’s much we still don’t know. An indigenous historian is leading an international team to discover how communities responded to other seafarers who arrived on our shores long before the British. And can indigenous fire management help contain contemporary bushfires?

Pro-democracy activists are urging Australia to impose sanctions on the military leaders in Myanmar. In February the Myanmar military suspended democratic government. They blocked the National League for Democracy from forming a government despite a landslide election victory. Protests are on-going but can they succeed without tough sanctions from the international community?

The Australian economy has taken a big hit from Covid. We’re now on the road to recovery but what should that look like? Is it enough to go back to the way we were or is it time for something different? In these final two Reset Lectures, economist Ross Garnaut says the time is right for major economic reform. He proposes changes to corporate tax, the introduction of a universal basic income scheme and fast tracking the transition to a zero carbon economy.

Compared to many other countries, the Australian economy is in a better place as far as Covid is concerned. Yet we know uncertain times are ahead. You don’t emerge unscathed from a global shock of this magnitude. Economist Ross Garnaut says now is the time for bold policy to achieve full employment and incomes growth. In the Reset Lectures, he sets out his plan for restoring Australia after the pandemic recession.

It’s 30 years since the fall of the Iron Curtain and the end of the Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev inherited a country that had many problems but was not on the verge of collapse. Six years later, he ended the Cold War and allowed the break-up of the USSR. What were the social, political and global forces that led this result? And how did the hero of glasnost end up 

being regarded a traitor by so many in his home country?

By tracking purchasing habits, online retailers can discover a teenager is pregnant, before her parents do. US police are rolling out intrusive surveillance technologies, in the name of crime fighting, with little oversight.  Virtually every online activity is subject to some form of surveillance. In real life, too, cameras film us as we walk down the street and enter buildings. Can we be free in an era of constant surveillance?

In a modern world of our own making, we find ourselves 'unfit for purpose'. Human evolution that’s created us as an extraordinary functioning species, has at the same time set us up to fail. Big Ideas explores the health and social implications of living a modern-day life in a stone-age body. Many of our current woes like obesity, stress or violence have evolutionary causes.