Big Ideas

Is a pandemic the right time to change careers or extend your working life? A career change expert talks about the way to reinvent yourself, business analysts discuss career change over an extended working life and gender equity advocates outline the special needs of working women in the economic recovery after the pandemic.

The fallout from one dreadful day when he seven years old, and the realisation his father was incapable of loving him, traumatised writer Rick Morton in a way he’s never truly understood.

Rick discusses his Complex PTSD diagnosis, and how, as a result, he’s decided to live life as he has never lived it before: openly and vulnerably.

Following the first light to the dawn of the cosmos. New technology allows us to glimpse more of the earliest beginnings of the universe and with that it helps us to predict the future. Join a constellation of astrophysicists as they explore what the first stars looked like, the nature of dark energy and how the acceleration of the universe might end.

Modern slavery takes many forms. There's forced marriage , child labour and workers toiling in sweatshop conditions. Poorly paid workers are often behind the cheap consumer goods we buy and some of those workers will be in bondage to traffickers. Human trafficking is a feature of many global industries and we know that the victims we find are just the tip of the iceberg.

How do you feel about the Evil Queen in Snow White? Yes - she tried to kill her stepdaughter three times, but is she really the villain? The evil witches in fairy tales reflect cultural anxieties and they fight against set norms of society. The aging witch against the virgin beauty – did it ever occur to you that the Evil Queen and Snow White might be the same person?

Victoria was the first state in Australia to legalise Voluntary Assisted Dying. The law came into effect in 2019.  Western Australian and Tasmania have now passed similar laws, but they are yet to take effect.  After nearly two years of operation in Victoria, how are the laws working, and where is the debate at?

The extent of sexual abuse in our society has been laid bare in recent months. Survivors of abuse have courageously stepped forward to tell their stories in the media and on social media. One of those people is Australian of the Year, Grace Tame , recognized for her campaign to shine a light on the way we deal with sexual assault. Grace speaks to Kerry O'Brien about her personal experience and her call for a national taskforce to deal with this issue.

Stress is one of the big health and wellbeing problems of modern life. It seems there is no way to escape it: too many work demands, social tensions, juggling all the tasks in your day done, financial pressures - even your leisure time can get too busy. On Big Ideas, three experts explain the science of stress: How our bodies and brains react to it and how we can improve coping with it.

The Treaty of Versailles was supposed to bring ‘peace without victory’ and end all wars. Far from it, most conflicts of the past century can be traced back to that unprecedented peace conference in Paris. Big Ideas a panel of historians discusses the shortcomings of the Treaty of Versailles and explain how it more or less laid out the roadmap for the 20th century.

Writer, Monica Dux, grew up a devout Catholic, once telling a high school friend she wanted to be a nun. But, over time, she lost her religion, and eventually became so disillusioned with the Catholic Church she decided to quit. She discovered, “you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave”.