It's life but not as you know it. If you’ve had enough of the pandemic,  time to look for life on other planets! We hear from an astronomer and an astrobiologist about the search for life in our solar system and beyond. There’s billions of stars out there. How do we know where to look and will we recognize life if, and when , we find it?

We have ten years to halve global greenhouse gas emissions, and move toward zero emissions. Failure to do so will lead to environmental catastrophe.  So believes Christiana Figueres, former head of the UN convention on climate change, who helped deliver the Paris agreement. She explains to Paul Barclay why she is optimistic.

Kerry O’Brien and Sally McManus look at changes to work and workplaces and the roles of unions in the future. Business leaders and union representatives are currently negotiating what could be landmark industrial relations reforms. They will shape what the future of work looks like in Australia. And they also come at a time of drastic changes brought on by the pandemic crisis and new technologies

Young Australians complain they’ve been locked out of the property market and expect to live their life in the private rental market . Wages haven’t kept up with house prices. Secure full-time jobs are harder to find and not everyone can rely on an inheritance .With Covid 19 , the situation is even more precarious. Home ownership is a marker of a growing generational and class divide in Australia.

Journalist Stan Grant looks at the impact of the pandemic on international relations and democratic freedoms. The pandemic is increasing tension within and between nations . Will the repression of civil liberties and authoritarian governments be a lasting legacy and has the strategic rivalry between the USA and China reached a dangerous new phase ?

Writer, Ashley Kalagian Blunt, came to Australia from Canada intending to stay a year, but never went home. Nearly a decade later, she is now a citizen, but remains bewildered by some of our cultural quirks. Paul Barclay talks to Ashley about identity, the challenges of moving to a new country, and how to be "Australian".

Australia recently boosted its defence spending with the Prime Minister warning that, after Covid,  we need to prepare for a world that is "poorer, more dangerous and more disorderly”. In particular,  the risk of being caught in a conflict between the United States and an assertive China.  China is also extending its presence in the Pacific which is a traditional sphere of influence for Australia.

What do climate deniers, anti-vaccination activists and COVID-19 conspiracy theorists have in common? Why are they so resistant to ‘facts’? When the truth has no currency anymore and rational arguments don’t count for anything, it seems like there is no winning against conspiracy theories. But that’s not quite right. On Big Ideas, a panel of experts looks behind the concept of a conspiracy theory: what feeds them and what can kill them.

As humans travel to new parts of the natural environment, we are exposed to viruses our bodies have never seen before. Enter COVID-19, which animals can manage but humans cannot. Scientists are working furiously to contain and treat this coronavirus, but the task is made harder by the lack of precedent. While we wait for a vaccine, how can we reduce the damage?

COVID 19 may have physically cut Australia off from Europe - for the time being - but we have a long and deep history of cultural exchange with the countries of the European continent. European migrants and refugees have helped shape modern Australia, and the European gap year has long been a rite of passage for younger Australians. In this wide ranging discussion, Paul Barclay talks to three Australians, with a connection to Europe, about the 'European exchange': politics, art, food Brexit, immigration, and a whole lot more.