It's been 60 years since then Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies sent Australians to fight in the Vietnam War. Since that time, the defence force has been involved in many armed conflicts and peace keeping missions around the world — but with varying degrees of public support. So how have successive Australian governments managed public consensus around military engagements? And with war once again a threat to global security, might they have to do so again?

These events were recorded at the Robert Menzies Institute at the University of Melbourne on 29 April 2025, and at the Australian Catholic University on 11 April 2025.

Speakers

Sir Peter CosgroveFormer Chief of the Australian Defence ForceFormer Australian Governor General

Georgina DownerChief Executive Officer, Robert Menzies Institute, University of Melbourne

Mia Martin HobbsAuthor, Return to Vietnam: An Oral History of American and Australian Veterans' JourneysPostdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University

If democracy is the will of the people, what does this federal election result say about Australia? In his election night victory speech, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australians had voted for Australian values, claiming these were fairness, aspiration and opportunity for all. But is this right message we should take from the election result?

This conversation was recorded live at the 2025 Melbourne Writers Festival in partnership with The Wheeler Centre. To explore more Melbourne Writers Festival talks, visit mwf.com.au

Speakers

Judith BrettPolitical historianAuthor, The Fearless Beatrice Faust, Robert Menzies' Forgotten People, Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class, and The Enigmatic Mr Deakin, (winner, 2018 National Biography award)

Cathy McGowanFormer Independent MP for IndiAuthor, Cathy Goes to Canberra: doing politics differently

Thomas MayoNational Indigenous Officer of the Maritime Union of Australia"Yes" campaigner in the Voice to Parliament referendumAuthor, Dear Son, Letters and Reflections from First Nations Fathers and Sons, Always Was, Always Will Be: The Campaign for Justice and Recognition Continues, and more

Sally Warhaft (host)Interviewer, broadcaster, anthropologist and writerHost, The Fifth Estate event series at The Wheeler CentreFormer editor, The Monthly magazineAuthor, Well May We Say: The speeches that made AustraliaAdjunct Senior Research Fellow, La Trobe University

Australians are now the biggest consumers per capita of clothes in the world. But just three per cent of clothing is made here in Australia. So is it time for a fashion rethink?

This event was held at the Melbourne Museum as part of Melbourne Fashion Festival's Fashion Talks program on 4 March 2025. 

Speakers

Tara MosesChief Operating Officer, RM Williams

Sarah SheridanCo-founder, Clothing the Gaps

Amy GallagherCo-founder, Kloke

Juanita PageFounder, Joseph and James

Jaana Quaintance-James (host)Chief Executive Officer, Australian Fashion Council

Meta's Mark Zuckerberg has said “a lot of the corporate world has become culturally neutered” and that it needs more “masculine energy”? Has it and does it? At Meta, he recently shut down initiatives that promote equity and diversity in his workplace. In the USA, so has Ford, Mcdonalds, Walmart, and the Trump administration. But in Australia, less than 5% of CEOs in private companies are women and the gender pay gap is slow to budge. Meanwhile, future male leaders are being courted online by manosphere influencers like Andrew Tate. Where is all this heading?  Join Natasha Mitchell and guests to consider the consequences for modern workplaces.

This event was produced by the 2025 Sorrento Writers Festival curated by festival director and founder Corrie Perkin.

Speakers

Catherine Fox AMAward-winning journalist, author, presenter, and commentator on women in the workforceAuthor, Breaking the Boss Bias: How to Get More Women Into Leadership (2024) and Stop Fixing Women (2017)Josh BornsteinLawyer specialising in employment and labour-relations law. Author, Working for the Brand: How Corporations are Destroying Free Speech (2024).

Democracies in retreat, attacks on science, border disputes, death and destruction. It can feel like we are living in unprecedented times - but here's the thing: world history has a habit of repeating itself. So what lessons does history teach us about this moment in which we find ourselves? Do we humans learn anything from the past, or are we destined to repeat the same mistakes?

This event was recorded at Adelaide Writers' Week on 5 May 2025.

Speakers

Orlando FigesHistorian of Russia and EuropeEmeritus Professor of History at the University of LondonAuthor, The Europeans: Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture, The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia and many more

Bettany HughesClassical historian, writer, broadcasterAuthor, Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Venus and Aphrodite: history of a goddess and many morePresenter, Bettany Hughes' Lost Worlds: The Nabataeans (SBS)

Matthew LongoPolitical scientistAuthor, The Politics of Borders: Sovereignty, Security, and the Citizen after 9/11, The Picnic: A dream of freedom and the collapse of the Iron Curtain (Winner of the 2024 Orwell Prize for political writing)Assistant Professor of Political Science, Leiden University (The Netherlands)

Dava SobelScience writer and historianAuthor, Longitude, Galileo's Daughter, The Elements of Marie Curie and many more

Annabelle Quince (host)Host, Rear Vision, ABC Radio National

After five nominations, Ruthie Foster has taken home the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album - affirming her status as an American music legend. In this intimate conversation, she shares what made her want to be a singer; the roles of her grandmother and mother in her life; why faith is so important to her and why she wants to sing about real people. And much more…

A Heartlands Conservation presented at the Blue Mountains Music Festival.

Speakers

Ruthie FosterAmerican singer-songwriter of blues and folk music. 2025 Grammy Award winner for Best Contemporary Blues Album

Gregg Borschmann (host)Writer, radio producer and oral historian for the National Library of Australia

The exiled founder of Russia's only independent television news channel, Mikhail Zygar, takes us inside Vladimir Putin's Russia, with a firsthand account of how the President has successfully silenced the media, opposition and Kremlin critics, to cement his hold on power.

The 2025 AN Smith Lecture: Journalism against autocracy: Putin, Trump and the future of news was recorded at the University of Melbourne's Centre for Advancing Journalism on 31 March 2025.

Speakers

Mikhail ZygarExiled Russian journalist and commentatorFounder of Russian TV channel Rain TVAuthor, War and Punishment: The Story of Russian Oppression and Ukrainian Resistance, All the Kremlin's Men: Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin and moreWinner, 2014 Committee to Protect Journalists International Press Freedom Award

Professor Andrew DoddDirector, Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne

A story of continents crashing and cleaving apart, the making of a civilisation, the language of the dead, and ... a mummified rat makes a cameo too. The Incan empire was vast and sophisticated. It built the stunning citadel in the clouds of Machu Picchu in the Andes mountains. But within a century its people were catastrophically wiped out by the onslaught of the Spanish conquistadors. Join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell with two intrepid researchers — an archaeologist and a leading mammalogist — to hear what amazing discoveries continue to be made in Peru and South America.

Thanks to the Australian Museum for hosting and producing this event.

Speakers

Professor Kris HelgenChief ScientistDirector of the Australian Museum Research InstituteAustralian Museum

Dr Jacob BongersArchaeologist University of Sydney 

Further information:

Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires exhibition

Assembling the dead: human vertebrae-on-posts in the Chincha Valley, PeruPainting personhood: Red pigment practices in southern Peru

The language used to talk about mental ill-health can play a key role in reducing or enforcing stigma. And it's constantly evolving. But what terms should be used and when? And by whom? The wrong word can not only deeply hurt a person's feelings. It can end careers, destroy relationships, cut access to support systems. This special World Mental Health Day PsychTalks event was presented by the Mental Ill-Health Stigma Researchers Australia Network (MISRA), the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, and the Melbourne School of Global and Population Health, with the support of SANE’s StigmaWatch program.

Speakers

Professor Nicola ReavleyPrincipal Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Centre for Mental Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health

Dr Michelle BlanchardChief Executive Officer of VANISH, Honorary Senior Fellow in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne

Professor Nick HaslamProfessor of Psychology, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences

Fay JacksonGeneral Manager of Inclusion at Flourish Australia

Sandy JeffsAuthor and poet, advocate in the mental health system for many years

Dr Chris Groot (host)Senior Lecturer in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne

What can a mosquito teach us about time? Noone likes a mosquito bite — but for a brief moment when it stings you, you know you are alive. Humans are temporal beings, but across cultures, our concepts of time are vastly different. This event explores what we can learn from science, philosophy and Indigenous perspectives that can alter experiences of and attitudes to time, to make better decisions for the future.

This event was recorded at the Sophia Club in London on 17 October 2024.

Speakers

Richard FisherAuthor, The Long View: Why We Need to Transform How the World Sees TimeSenior editor, Aeon Media

Ande SombyYoik singerAssociate Professor of Law, The Arctic University of Norway

Brigid Hains (host)Editorial director, Aeon Media