Joe McCarthy is the figurehead of the anti-communist crusades of the 1950s-era. Thousands of Americans were investigated as alleged communists and Soviet agents during the 'Red Scare'. McCarthyism became the synonym for hysterical intolerance – and some say it’s prevalent again today. Historian Richard Norton Smith explores the rise of Joe McCarthy and the dangerous legacy he left behind.

It’s over 50 years since the equal pay decision when the Arbitration Commission endorsed the principle of equal pay for equal work. But 50 years on there’s still a gender pay gap. Despite campaigns for gender equality Australian women earn ,  on average , 13.4 percent less than men.

So why is there this persistent gap and how can we fix it? The Director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency wants employers to be agents of change.

Former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, talks to Paul Barclay about how to diversify the news media, the dominance of the Murdoch papers, why Australian needs a big population and larger defence force, China, and how Labor can win government, nationally.

Mata Hari - the erotic dancer was executed during World War I as one of several ‘evil female spies’. The ‘spy-mania’ at the time was influenced by the assumption that women were innately deceptive. It was also believed that women exploited the war to gain social and economic privileges that belonged previously for men only. Historian Joanne Bourke explains what made Mata Hari the perfect scape goat.

Europeans well know the risks of ultra nationalism and authoritarian leaders. So why is populism making a comeback? That’s what American historian Anne Applebaum sets out to discover. Living for a time in Poland she witnessed first-hand conservative friends moving further to the right to embrace populist politics. Why are these movements so seductive and how can we protect democracy?

The Covid pandemic has been a lonely time for many people. Physically distanced we’ve reached out to each other online but it’s not the same as being together in the same space. The Night of Ideas is a global conversation where speakers on arts, science and culture propose ways to bring us closer together.

What makes a city great, and how do we conserve it? Paul Barclay asks architect and writer, Elizabeth Farrelly, what it was she fell in love with, when she first arrived in Sydney in the late 1970s, and what concerns she has about the city's future. They are in conversation about Elizabeth's book, Killing Sydney

Recent events in Hong Kong, the Philippines and also Australia suggest media freedom in the Asia-Pacific region is declining. Despite intimidation, trolling on social media, detention and even death, journalists and publishers continue to report stories and publish news. On Big Ideas a panel of prominent journalists and academics analyse the crisis of journalism in the Asia-Pacific region, ask why it matters and what might be done to try and safeguard it.

Are you able to forgive and forget or are there some things that are simply unforgiveable? Almost all religious teachings preach the power of forgiveness and Mahatma Gandhi said that the strong person is the one able to forgive. So should the law be more forgiving? Two eminent lawyers discuss the law, justice and forgiveness in the annual Gandhi Lecture.

The 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded for research into black holes and divided between Roger Penrose for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity and Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy. So what does this reveal about our universe? And the story of our solar system contained within the Murchison meteorite.