Big Ideas

Charles Taylor explains how a flawed understanding of secularism has produced a backlash against multicultural policies and religious minorities

The first two Boyer lectures look at the social determinants of health: the conditions in which people are born, grow, live and work; and inequities in power and resources

Ink from bacteria and vegan cheese from casein genes. Are DIY biological labs something we should be worried about?

Australian history is replete with instances of frontier violence. But the establishment and operation of the Native Police, which was responsible for the brutal killing of thousands of indigenous men, women and children, is a particularly chilling example of this. Some believe they committed genocide. 2016 marks the 150h anniversary of the gazettal of regulations, in Queensland, that imposed a "duty" on armed Native Police officers to “disperse" any "large assembly of blacks without unnecessary violence”.  Paul Barclay speaks to a historian, a legal academic and an indigenous activist about this shameful chapter in the nation's past. What can be done to right the wrongs of history

Love and attachment, nature and the human body - How are the boundaries changing ?

The first two Boyer lectures look at the social determinants of health: the conditions in which people are born, grow, live and work; and inequities in power and resources

How can we know how many species preceded our own? Can we tell which of those species are our ancestors, and which are non-ancestral close relatives?

In the future United States of Lionel Shriver’s imagination, the nation is virtually bankrupt by the year 2029. The US dollar is worthless. Gold is confiscated by the government. A cabbage costs more than 20 dollars. This is the dystopian future she presents in her speculative novel, "The Mandibles". Lionel Shriver recently delivered a provocative speech at the Brisbane Writers Festival, ridiculing the concept of cultural appropriation. In this wide ranging conversation, she talks to Paul Barclay about free speech, identity, the future of America and how it’s governed, as well as Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton.

Is the wealthiest Australian demographic of all time impoverishing today's youth: an intelligence squared debate

It can make us do strange things but can money really make us happier?