Big Ideas

Historian, Margaret MacMillan, talks about the gamblers and risk takers of history

Margaret McMillan examines some of the key figures who have have shaped history and the role played by hubris

Margaret MacMillan, presents the first in her 2015 CBC Massey lecture series, History’s People

Bitcoin the “ would be” digital commodity has been plagued by scandal and struggles to gain acceptance but as Nathaniel Popper, author of Digital Gold, explains there's plenty of people and institutions very interested in it.

Authors Martina Sheehan and Susan Pearse explain how to train your mind to be present and pay attention to the things that matter.

Former British GP Iona Heath warns that greed, profit and fear is driving the health system towards ever increasing over-servicing.

Geo-engineering a cooler planet. A whole range of scientists are looking at engineering technologies to mitigate climate change. We could for example reflect more solar radiation back into space by making more reflective clouds; or we could trap carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and bury it underground, to diminish the “greenhouse” effect. Would such technologies work, and would there be side effects? And who would decide whether to do this, and when, if ever, to stop?

Few can claim to have lived a life as full and varied as Peter Garrett. He’s been a rock 'n' roll singer in an internationally successful band, a senior government minister and MP, and the head of one of nation’s leading conservation bodies. His time in politics was not without controversy and some suggest he 'sold out'—a criticism he vehemently rejects. Peter Garrett has returned to music, tinkering with some new songs. He talks to Paul Barclay about his life’s passions: music, politics, the environment and Indigenous Australia. Originally broadcast on November 2nd, 2015

Statistics tend to dominate the public debate around poverty. But that leaves the people affected feeling like they ‘count for nothing’. The stigma of ‘being poor’ hides a deeper problem: The lack of representational agency. A debate about poverty must first look at the experience of being poor, and acknowledge that poverty as a material nature as well as relational impacts.

How can we get back on the pathway to substantive living and develop a moral life? David Brooks discusses the importance of character.