Two Australians who are intimately connected to the conflict in the Middle East, one Jewish, one Palestinian, make their pleas for peace, and share their deeply personal stories of how it has affected them.

The 13th annual UN International Day of Peace Brisbane lecture was recorded at St John's Anglican Cathedral on September 21, 2024.

Speakers

Peter CatDean, St John's Cathedral Brisbane

Louise AdlerDirector, Adelaide Writers Week

Nasser MashniPresident, Australians for Palestine

Further information

Olive Kids

One of Australia's most seasoned political journalists Niki Savva has seen the fractures in our democracy up closer than most. Hear her timely advice for journalists, politicians and citizens.

This 2024 Speaker's Lecture was recorded at Parliament House in Canberra on 9 September 2024.

SOS DEMOCRACY airs on Tuesdays 8pm and Saturdays 10pm in October and November, and on the ABC Listen app.

Speakers

Niki Savva Columnist, Nine NewspapersAuthor, The Road to Ruin, Plots and Prayers and Bulldozed

Milton Dick Speaker of the House of Representatives, Labor MP

Are you a gazelle or a grizzly bear when you run? The bounce in your step defines whether you're a stronger sprinter or long-distance runner — and choosing the right sport for your biomechanics determines whether you can get to the top of the podium. Find out more about the secret weapon of biomechanics, the theory of optimal speed control within racing endurance, and how performance psychology has an impact both on and off the track.

The Science of Sport was presented at the York Festival of Ideas. The Festival is led by the University of York, UK.

Speakers

Professor Amandine AftalionMathematician and a senior scientist, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)Author of Be a Champion: 40 Facts You Didn't Know About Sports and Science

Dr Brian HanleyReader in Sport and Exercise Biomechanics, Leeds Beckett University

Colonel Dame Kelly HolmesBritish athlete, double Olympic gold medallist at the 2004 Athens Olympics Games for the 800m and 1500m

Adam NichollsProfessor of Psychology within the School of Sport, Exercise, and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Hull

Sharon Shortle (host)BBC Radio York

Can you have a wedding between the graves? Why not! – as long as it's respectful. The future of cemetery design is multi-functional, as public spaces just like our gardens and parks. And also as a refuge for animals in the midst of our cities and suburbs. They can be places for the living as well as the dead. How can cemeteries play a broader role in our communities?

Six Feed Under: Design and Death Symposium, Melbourne Design Week. Presented by Open House Melbourne.

Speakers

Hamish CoatesPrincipal Designer, Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust 

Bec LyonsPresident, Natural Death Advocacy Network

Bjorn NansenSenior Lecturer, Media and Communications, and member of the DeathTech research team, University of Melbourne 

Tania Davidge (host)Executive Director, Open House Melbourne

Listen to Big Ideas: Talking about death

Renowned and controversial Australian philosopher and bioethicist Peter Singer is no stranger to contentious ideas — wrestling with the ethics of how we treat each other and other species — infanticide, altruism, veganism and more. He joins Big Ideas' host Natasha Mitchell to talk about why.

This event was organised by The Wheeler Centre and Montalto Winery

Speaker: 

Professor Peter SingerBioethicist and authorFounder of The Life You Can Save

Further information:

The Life You Can Save 

Oxford University's Centre for Effective Altruism

GiveWell

Giving What We Can 

Big Ideas celebrates the blooming daphne with a look at the life, work and legacy of a pioneer of Australian landscape gardening, Edna Walling.

This event was recorded on April 16, 2024 at the State Library of Victoria.

Speakers

Trisha Dixon Writer, photographer, tour guide leaderCo-author (with Jennie Churchill) The Vision of Edna Walling: Garden Plans 1920-1951 (1998), and Gardens in Time: In the Footsteps of Edna Walling (1988)

Sara Hardy Biographer, playwright, former actorAuthor, The Unusual Life of Edna Walling, and A Secretive Life

Millie Ross (host) Presenter, Gardening Australia, professional horticulturist, garden designer, writer and broadcasterAuthor The Thrifty Gardener

The United Nations was established after World War II in an attempt to maintain international peace, security, and cooperation. So why now, in the face once again of rising global conflicts, are the UN, and other world bodies, laws, and mechanisms, so unable to address these crises?

This event was recorded at the University of Melbourne on 29 August 2024.

Speakers

Professor Alison Duxbury Deputy Dean, University of Melbourne Law School

Dr Tania Miletic Co-Director, Initiative for Peacebuilding, University of Melbourne

Dr Carrie McDougall Senior Lecturer, University of Melbourne Law SchoolFormer legal specialist and Assistant Director of the International Law Section, Department of Foreign Affairs and TradeFormer Legal Adviser at Australia's Mission to the United Nations in New York

Jon Faine (host) Vice-Chancellor's Fellow, University of Melbourne Law SchoolFormer long-time presenter, Mornings, ABC Radio Melbourne

We've lived through the age of peak TV, (and wasn't it glorious). Then cinema was BACK, thanks to the hype of Barbenheimer. So, in this post Hollywood writers' strike world, how do we define the era of culture we are now consuming?

This event was recorded at the Melbourne International Film Festival on 17 August 2024.

Speakers

Jared Richards ABC Entertainment reporter

Alison Willmore Film critic, Vulture and New York magazines

Hannah Diviney Disability advocate, actress, screenwriter and author

Brodie Lancaster (host) Author, essayist, and pop culture podcaster

Does the Milky Way have a sibling and how are stars formed? How can a telescope go back over 13 billion years ago to the Cosmic Dawn? The ASTRO 3D Centre of Excellence are unlocking some of the deepest mysteries of our universe and produced perhaps the clearest and most comprehensive picture of how matter, chemical elements, and energy evolved. Some of the astronomers and astrophysicists involved share their insights.

Presented by ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D)

Listen to Big Ideas - Night Sky LIVE – a wondrous encounter with the dark sky 

Speakers

Emma Ryan-WeberDirector of ASTRO 3D, the Centre of Excellence in Astrophysics

Dr Nichole BarryScienta Lecturer at UNSW

Amanda KarakasAssociate Professor, School of Physics and Astronomy Monash University 

Jesse Van De SandeAstronomer, lecturer in Astrophysics UNSW 

Jonathan Webb (host)ABC's Science Editor

Every autistic person is different, with their own strengths and challenges. We shouldn’t be asking what jobs are suitable for them. Rather: How can we make this specific job suitable for this autistic person? The result is a thriving employee with unique abilities. On Big Ideas, we’ll debunk myths like that autistic people don’t recognise emotion or don’t have social skills. You can see how wrong this perception is in the ABC TV series The Assembly.

The Assembly on ABC iview

Speakers

Diana TanMacquarie University Autism and Education Researcher

Kate HalpinNeurodiversity Consultant and advocate with lived experience. Kate is the Director of Employ for Ability

Bill Shorten Minister for the NDIS 

Mel MacLeanHelium Pictures; Executive Producer of the ABC TV series The Assembly

Leigh Sales (host)Walkley award-winning journalist and broadcaster