Acclaimed British historian Sir Simon Schama reflects on the history of antisemitism, the Holocaust and contemporary culture. He says that for millennia Jewish people have been "the other of convenience. We are the dark mirror in which the wish fulfilment of other societies takes it out on people who are said to represent its opposite."

Presented at the Adelaide Writers Festival in partnership with the University of Sydney.

Speaker

Sir Simon SchamaBritish historian and television presenterProfessor of Art History and History, Columbia University

Cancer is common and chemo and radiotherapies can save or extend our lives. But sometimes they don't, or they stop working, or they come with disabling long-term side effects. In a state of desperation, some of us seek out unproven alternatives which might even put us at greater risk of cancer. Join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell and guests to find out how scientists are attacking the problem of cancer treatment.

This event was organised by the Australasian Society of Stem Cell Research, University of Adelaide, and National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia.

Speakers

Professor Mark DawsonHaematologist and clinician-scientistAssociate Director of ResearchPeter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the University of Melbourne.

Associate Professor David ElliotStem cell researcher and leader of the Heart Disease group, Murdoch Children's Research InstitutePrincipal investigator, Novo Nordisk Foundation for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW). 

Professor Megan MunsieImmediate Past President, Australasian Society of Stem Cell Research (ASSCR)Professor of Emerging Technologies (Stem Cells) Murdoch Children's Research Institute and the University of Melbourne

Thank also to Tanya Ha from Science in Public and Dr Luke Isbel from the South Australian immunoGENomics Cancer Institute.

Further listening

How surfing writer Tim Baker and doctor Peter Goldsworthy learnt to live well and laugh with cancer (Big Ideas, 2025)

For the past 18 months, Israel's war in Gaza has polarised the world. The Indian author and essayist Pankaj Mishra reckons with the conflict through the lens of colonialism, morality and history.

This event was recorded at the University of NSW Centre for Ideas on 27 February 2025.

Speakers

Pankaj MishraAuthor, The World After Gaza, From the Ruins of Empire and Age of Anger: A History of the PresentEssayist, New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, The New Yorker and more

Simon LongstaffDirector, The Ethics CentreCo-founder, Festival of Dangerous IdeasAdjunct Professor, Australian Graduate School of Management at University of NSW

Further information:

The Shoah after Gaza by Pankaj Mishra - London Review of Books, 24 March 2024

Two thousand years ago, life in Pompeii stood still when Mount Vesuvius erupted, preserving the town in volcanic ash for centuries. Today, this ancient Roman city captures the imagination like few others.

This event was recorded at the National Museum of Australia on 14 December 2024.

Speakers

Dr Sophie HayRoman archaeologist, press and communications officer, Paco archeological de Pompeii

Professor Steven EllisProfessor of Classics and Roman Archaeology at the University of Cincinnati

Dr Lily WithycombeCurator at the National Museum of Australia

Virginia Trioli (host)Journalist, broadcaster and author, A Bit on the SideHost, ABC TV's Creative Types

Further information:

The exhibition Pompeii is on at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra until 4 May 2025.

Authoritarian regimes are threatened by women who fight for their freedom — and are pushing back in even more extreme and deadly ways. The world watched wide-eyed as Iranians took to the streets and social media for the #WomenLifeFreedom movement. We watched Afghan women and children run towards American planes taking off from Kabul as the Taliban returned to power. In Myanmar, women have taken up arms against the military junta. What do women at these front-lines need you to know right now? Join Natasha Mitchell and guests.

This event was hosted by Monash University's Maureen Brunt Women and Democratic Change program and the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence against Women

Speakers

Dr Farkondeh AkbariResearch FellowAustralian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence against WomenMonash University

Dr Rana DadpourResearch Fellow in Social and Economic RiskThe Cairns InstituteJames Cook University

Dr Isabella (Bella) AungResearch FellowMyanmar Policy & Community Knowledge Hub, University of TorontoMyanmar Initiative Fellow, University of British ColombiaHead of Comparative Politics Diploma Program, Spring University Myanmar (SUM)

Professor Jacqui TruePolitical scientist and Professor of International Relations Director, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence against Women (CEVAW)Monash UniversityGlobal Fellow, Peace Research Institute, OsloAuthor, Violence against Women: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2021)

Special thanks to Daniela Philipson Garcia, Program Manager for the Women and Democratic Change Initiative and PhD candidate.

The only certainty in life is that we will all some day die. Most of us don't know when that day will come. But others must face their mortality front on. Mark Rafael Baker was no stranger to death, losing three loved ones in seven years — and then he was confronted with his own.

This event was recorded at Readings Bookshop Melbourne in October 2024.

Speakers

Michelle LeshLecturer at Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne

Raimond GaitaEmeritus Professor of Moral Philosophy, King's College LondonHonorary Professorial Fellow, Melbourne Law School, University of MelbourneAuthor, Romulus, My Father, Justice and Hope, and more

Paul Barclay (host)Journalist, broadcaster and moderatorFormer host, Big Ideas

Join Natasha Mitchell and guests to grapple with some gritty paradoxes about science and religion, and in this era of misinformation, conspiracy theories, and existential angst — are they serving the needs they used to? Science drives much of modern life, and yet fewer people are drawn to studying it at school putting scientific literacy at risk. There's been a rise in anti-science sentiment and a questioning the authority of scientific expertise. Many societies are becoming more secular with fewer people claiming to follow a formal religion, yet religious fundamentalists and populists are being elected to power throughout the world.

This episode was first published on 29 May 2024

Speakers

Peter HarrisonHead, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of QueenslandAuthor, Some New World: Myths of Supernatural Belief in a Secular Age

Anik WaldowProfessor of Philosophy, University of SydneyAuthor, Experience Embodied: Early Modern Accounts of the Human Place in Nature

Charles WolfeProfessor of Philosophy, University of Toulouse-2 Jean-JauresAuthor, The Philosophy of Biology Before Biology: A History of Vitalism

This event was hosted by the University of Sydney's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Department of Philosophy at a conference in honour of the eminent scholar of history of philosophy of science, the late Stephen Gaukroger.

We know them as Zuckerberg, Musk, Bezos, Gates, Jobs. But to Kara Swisher, they're Mark, Elon, Jeff, Bill, and Steve. She was once a Silicon Valley insider, but now she's one of big tech's most vocal critics.

This event was recorded at Adelaide Writers Week on Monday 3 March 2025.

Speakers

Kara SwisherAuthor, Burn Book: A Tech Love Story, aol.com: How Steve Case Beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads and Made Millions in the War for the Web and There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere: The AOL Time Warner Debacle and the Quest for a Digital FutureHost of podcast On with Kara Swisher, and co-host of podcast, Pivot (with NYU Professor Scott Galloway)Former tech journalist with Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, contributing opinion editor New York Times

Marc Fennell (host)Host of new podcast, Noone saw it coming ABC Radio NationalCreator and host Stuff the British Stole ABC Radio National and ABC TVFormer host, Download this Show ABC Radio National

Jobs vs the environment. Profits vs environmental protection.  One pitted against the other. That dominant story has defined environmental regulation in Australia, drowning out the stories scientists or environmental campaigners want to tell.  Scientist, environmentalist, and government insider, Peter Cosier, has worn all the hats and he wants to change how we think and talk about Nature. An eye opening account of Australian environmentalism and its politics.

Presented at the Lyrebird Festival

Speakers

Peter CosierChair of Accounting for NatureFounding Member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, Former Policy Adviser to the Australian Environment Minister Robert Hill

Gregg BorschmannOral Historian for the National Library of Australia, Writer & Radio Producer

Is prison time for violent offenders mostly about appeasing a sense of revenge? And if so, are there better ways to rehabilitate perpetrators? Dr Gwen Adshead assesses the effectiveness and impact of therapeutic interventions and restorative justice - and she's looking at how Norway does it.

The 2024 BBC Reith lecture series

Speakers

Dr Gwen AdsheadAward-winning forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist, author of The Devil You Know. Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry

Anita Anand (host)BBC Radio presenter and journalist

Further information

Transcript of this Reith lecture