Big Ideas

Comedians are increasingly being forced to navigate a world where the right punchline at the expense of the wrong politician carries the risk of personal and professional consequences. So when poking fun at the powerful could get you cancelled, sued, land you in jail — or worse — who's afraid of a joke?

This episode was recorded on 28th March 2026 as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in partnership with The Wheeler Centre, Australia's first dedicated centre for Books, Writing and Ideas. Explore more discussions like this one on The Wheeler Centre podcast — available wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow @wheelercentre for updates.

Speakers

Sam JayComedian, TV writer Saturday Night Live, host of HBO's Pause with Sam Jay, 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival show We the People

Bahaa DabbaghStand-up comedian, Syrian refugee advocate, 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Comedy Zone

Leon FilewoodStand-up comedian, winner, Deadly Funny, 2018 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, 2026 Moosehead Recipient, 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival show Holding Space

Tom Ballard (host)Comedian, broadcaster, writer, former host of ABC TV's Tonightly with Tom Ballard and Triple J's Breakfast with Tom and Alex, 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival show Be Funny Challenge (Impossible)

Further information:

Jon Stewart acceptance speech, 2022 Mark Twain Prize, Kennedy Centre

Get bonkers on bonking with Natasha Mitchell and guests at the 2026 World Science Festival Brisbane. It’s a sexy, fun, and educational – what's not to love?! Sex historian Dr Esme Louise James is creator of the viral Kinky History TikTok series and does a Sextistics show with her mathematician mother. The complexity of the human clitoris can no longer be ignored by science, thanks to the world-changing work of urologist and surgeon Professor Helen O’Connell. And biologist Professor Robbie Wilson will help you channel your inner animal – masturbating monkeys, tiny testicled-gorillas, amorous antechinus and more. 

This event was hosted at the 2026 World Science Festival Brisbane/Meanjin.

Speakers

Dr Esme Louise JamesHistorian, perfomer, author, Kinky History: A Rollicking Journey Through Our Sexual Past, Present, and Future (2024)Creator, the viral Kinky History TikTok series.

Professor Helen O'Connell A.OUrologist and urological surgeonUniversity of Melbourne

Professor Robbie WilsonBiologist, head of The Performance LabUniversity of Queensland

Thanks to World Science Festival Brisbane producer and maestros Dr Rob Bell, Jane O'Hara, Bec Redsell.

Further reading

Anatomy of the clitoris Helen E O'Connell, Kalavampara V Sanjeevan, John M HutsonJournal of Urology, Volume 174(4 Pt 1): October 2005, Pages1189-95

Anatomical Relationship Between Urethra And ClitorisHelen E. O'connell, John M. Hutson, Colin R. Anderson, Robert J. PlenterThe Journal of Urology, Volume 159, Issue 6, June 1998, Pages 1892-1897

Magnetic resonance imaging of male and female genitals during coitus and female sexual arousal Willibrord Weijmar Schultz, Pek van Andel, Ida Sabelis, Eduard MooyaartBMJ, 1999

The Anatomy of the Distal Vagina: Towards Unity Helen E. O'Connell , Norm Eizenberg, Marzia Rahman, Joan CleeveThe Journal of Sexual Medicine, Volume 5, Issue 8, August 2008, Pages 1883–1891

Magnetic resonance imaging of male and female genitals during coitus and female sexual arousal Willibrord Weijmar Schultz, Pek van Andel, Ida Sabelis, Eduard MooyaartBMJ, 1999

You often hear that forgiveness is the key to healing and moving on — but is it always the right thing to do? This conversation explores how forgiveness is something far more complex than a simple act of letting go. Is it a generous moral gift, or a burden placed on those who've been wronged? What really happens when we forgive? And is sometimes withholding forgiveness the more honest response?

2025 Anderson Fellows Lecture — Forgiveness: Do We Really Need it? presented by the University of Sydney

Speakers

Lucy AllaisProfessor of Philosophy at both the University of the Witwatersrand and Johns Hopkins University

Luke RussellProfessor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia has some 120 embassies, high commissions, consulates-general and representative offices located across five continents. So when an Australian gets into trouble overseas, or a politician travels abroad on government business, or other countries take actions that damage Australia's national interest, it's likely a diplomat is not far away. In their recent books, two former diplomats reveal what the job is really like as Australia's representatives abroad.

This event was recorded at the 2025 Canberra Writers Festival.

Speakers

Lachlan StrahanFormer Australian diplomatAuthor, The Curious Diplomat: A Memoir from the Frontlines of Diplomacy

Grant DooleyFormer Australian diplomatAuthor, Bomb Season in Jakarta — A personal account of a turbulent period in Australian diplomacy

Karen Middleton (host)Political journalistAuthor, Albanese: Telling it Straight

Failure is a part of life, whether we like it or not. While most of us don't ever want to fail, failure does have things to teach us — about ourselves, about resilience, about persistence, and about doing the things we love. Over six years, Siang Lu received more than 200 rejections from publishers for three manuscripts — before going on to publish a Miles Franklin award winning novel. What did he learn about failure, and what did it teach him about success?

The 2025 E.W Cole Lecture was recorded on 20 November 2025 at The Wheeler Centre, Australia's first dedicated centre for books, writing and ideas. Explore more discussions like this one on The Wheeler Centre podcast — available wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow @wheelercentre for updates.

Speakers

Siang LuAuthor, Ghost Cities (2025 Miles Franklin Award), The WhitewashCo-founder (with Jonathan O'Brien), The Beige Index

Toni Jordan (host)Author, Tenderfoot, Addition, Dinner with the Schnabels and more

Misinformation, disinformation, deep fakes,  false news — do you feel confident spotting them? They’re doing real harm to our relationships, our communities, our health, even to the future health of our democracy. New research has found 73% of Australians believe disinformation will be a major threat to our national security in the next decade. Former Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers believes we can’t afford to be complacent. Australia is only one of 29 fully fledged democracies in the world and three quarters of the global population lives in autocracies, the highest since the 1980s. Join Natasha Mitchell and guests to discuss why media literacy matters. 

This event was organised by ABC Education with the Australian Media Literacy Alliance. 

Watch The Matter of Facts with Hamish Macdonald on ABC Iview.

Speakers

Tom Rogers Former Australian Electoral Commissioner  Distinguished advisor, ANU National security College Australia’s advisor to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). 

Professor Michael Dezuanni Chair of the Australian Media Literacy Alliance Chief investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child Program Leader, Digital Inclusion and Participation QUT Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology 

Paula Kruger CEO, Media Diversity Australia Former journalist and broadcaster Former manager, community radio station 2SER. 

Thanks to head of ABC Education Annabel Astbury and event producer Grace Ernestine.

In more than 40 years on the front lines of international human rights Alex Neve has heard Canada described as ‘the land of human rights’ — and seen the profound ways Canada has failed to uphold universal human rights, both at home and abroad. In his final Massey Lecture, he lays out his vision for a way forward.

Lecture five and last of the 2025 CBC Massey Lecture series: Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World

Speaker

Alex NeveSecretary-General of Amnesty International Canada (2000 to 2020); adjunct Professor in international human rights, University of Ottawa, Human rights lawyerAuthor of Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World

Eleanor Roosevelt once said that universal human rights begin in “small places, close to home — so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world.” In his fourth Massey Lecture, Alex Neve reflects on moments when people power won the 

Lecture four of the 2025 CBC Massey Lecture series: Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World

Speaker

Alex NeveSecretary-General of Amnesty International Canada (2000 to 2020); adjunct Professor in international human rights, University of Ottawa, Human rights lawyerAuthor of Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World

Our inherent human rights belong to us from the moment we are born. There is nothing we need to do to earn them, and they are supposed to apply to us until the day we die. But in his third Massey Lecture, Alex Neve argues the powerful have made human rights a ‘club.’

Lecture three of the 2025 CBC Massey Lecture series: Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World

Speaker

Alex NeveSecretary-General of Amnesty International Canada (2000 to 2020); adjunct Professor in international human rights, University of Ottawa, Human rights lawyerAuthor of Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World

The ideals behind the concept of human rights — such as the sacredness of life, reciprocity, justice and fairness — have millennia-old histories. After the carnage of the Second World War and the Holocaust, these ideas took a new legal form. In his second Massey Lecture, Alex Neve considers six dizzying years that laid out a blueprint for a new world.

Lecture two of the 2025 CBC Massey Lecture series: Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World

Speaker

Alex NeveSecretary-General of Amnesty International Canada (2000 to 2020); adjunct Professor in international human rights, University of Ottawa, Human rights lawyerAuthor of Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World