Big Ideas

Are fermented foods really good for us? Do antibiotics destroy our gut flora? And have you heard about poo transplants?

Our gut is teeming with trillions of microbial cells, and we are learning more all the time about how this affects everything from our digestion, to immunity, to mental health.

So crack open your kombucha, because these leading researchers will cut through the noise with some hard facts and pioneering science about the microbiome.

This event was recorded at the World Science Festival Brisbane 30 March 2025.

Speakers

Paul GriffinProfessor of Medicine, Clinical Unit Head and Director of Infectious Diseases, University of Queensland and Mater Hospital

Felice JackaDistinguished Professor in Nutritional PsychiatryFounder and director, Food and Mood Centre Deakin UniversityAuthor, There's a Zoo in my Poo

Gene TysonMicrobial ecologist, bioinformatician, and founder, Centre for Microbiome research, Queensland University of Technology

Dr Norman Swan (host)Presenter, Health Report and What's That Rash? ABC Radio National

Do humans really have what it takes to change our lives – our world – to arrest climate collapse?It might be the defining question we face as a society, and the panellists from this WOMADelaide Festival discussion are throwing everything they’ve got at this intractable issue, drawing on knowledge from the oldest continuing culture in the world and the fields of architecture, urban planning and of course, community organising to avoid collapse.   This episode was recorded live at the annual 2025 WOMADelaide festival, produced and presented as part of their Planet Talks program, held on the traditional lands of the Kuarna people. 

Speakers

Bhiamie WilliamsonLeader of the National Indigenous Disaster Resilience research program and a senior lecturer at Monash University  

Elizabeth MossopDean of the UTS School of Design, Architecture and Building 

Emma BaconFounder and Executive Director of Sweltering Cities 

Julia LesterFormer ABC journalist and broadcaster (host) 

Murderers, fraudsters, mobsters, dodgy doctors, and corrupt politicians. Kate McClymont has exposed all manner of shady characters, and lives to tell the tale. Here, she reveals some of the perils of investigative journalism over her career, and what she sees are the threats and promises for its future.

The 2025 Brian Johns Lecture, in partnership with the Copyright Agency and Macquarie University, was recorded at the State Library of NSW on 1 May 2025.

Speakers

Kate McClymontChief investigative journalist, Sydney Morning HeraldAuthor, Dead Man Walking: The murky world of Michael McGurk and Ron Medich and He Who Must Be Obeid (with co-author Linton Besser)

John Potts (host)Professor of Media, Macquarie University

There are some leaps in science and technology that change everything. Scientists say we’re living through the second quantum revolution, so we're going deep into the quantum world with leaders at the forefront of this field. If you think quantum is all about computers think again – like how could this vast science help female athletes reach their peak?  Thanks to the World Science Festival for this talk “Welcome to the Second Quantum Revolution”. 

Speakers 

Belinda SmithABC Science host  

Associate Professor Chris FerrieLecturer in quantum sciences at the University of Technology in Sydney

Dr. Clare MinahanAssociate Professor of Exercise and Sport at Griffith University 

Geoff PrydeChief Technical Director for PsiQuantum

Associate Professor Tim GouldInternational leader and researcher in the quantum theory of chemistry at Griffith University

When Santilla Chingaipe stumbled on the names of enslaved Africans who arrived on the First Fleet in 1788 she couldn't look away. For Steve Vizard, an argument with his adult kids lead him to the battlefields of Gallipoli. When Sita Sargeant threw a mattress in a car and drove around Australia, what hidden herstories did she unearth?At school, the history we learn is often incomplete, mythologised, or is riddled with silences and absences. But when you start looking, the ghosts of lives past start speaking.

They join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell live at the 2025 Melbourne Writers Festival. Explore more of the festival at mwf.com.au 

SpeakersSantilla ChingaipeZambian-Australian film-maker, historian, writerAuthor, Black Convicts: How Slavery Shaped Australia

Steve VizardPofessor, Monash University and University of AdelaideAuthor, Nation, Memory Myth: Gallipoli and the Australia Imagination

Sita SargeantFounder of the history walking tour social enterprise She Shapes HistoryAuthor of She Shapes History

Thanks to Veronica Sullivan, director of the Melbourne Writers Festival, for curating this event.

Sarah Churchwell takes you on a gripping and confronting journey into America's recent past to explain its extraordinary present, starting with dark story at the heart of that American classic Gone with the Wind. Knowledge lies at the heart of a healthy democracy, and its many custodians include libraries, universities, cultural institutions, and a free and independent media. So what happens when these institutions are intimidated, dismantled or destroyed, as is happening in America right now, under the government of President Donald Trump?

This event was recorded at the University of Technology Sydney's Vice Chancellor's Democracy Forum on 14 May 2025.

Speakers

Sarah ChurchwellProfessor of American Literature and Chair of Public Understanding of the Humanities at the University of LondonAuthor, The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and The Invention of The Great Gatsby, Behold, America: A History of America First and the American Dream, and The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and the Lies America TellsDirector, Being Human festival and Living Literature event seriesJudge, Man Booker Prize

Anna Funder (host)Author, Wifedom, Stasiland and All That I AmLuminary and Ambassador, University of Technology Sydney

Roy Green (host)Emeritus Professor and Special Innovation Advisor at University of Technology SydneyFormer Dean of the UTS Business SchoolChair of the UTS Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Hub

Further information:

From Gatsby to Huck Finn — American literature in an age of polarisation  - Sarah Churchwell on Big Ideas, ABC Radio National 4 November 2024

In 2017, the Uluru Statement called for Voice, Treaty and Truth as a roadmap to reconciliation. With the Voice defeated, what is the path now to meaningful reform that will improve the lives of Indigenous Australians?

From the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, to Victoria's truth-telling Yoorook Justice Commission, two Indigenous leaders argue that their people must be given the power, the resources and the authority to make decisions about the issues that affect their lives.

The 18th annual Lowitja O'Donoghue Oration was recorded at the Don Dunstan Foundation at the University of Adelaide on Wednesday 28 May 2025. Eleanor Bourke's address to the Melbourne Press Club was recorded on Tuesday 13 May 2025.

Speakers

Eleanor Bourke Chair, Yoorook Justice Commission

Romlie Mokak Former Productivity Commissioner

Further information:

Yoorrook Justice Commission - watch clips of the hearings here

Read the Producivity Commission's review into Closing the Gap here

The racism and resilience Padma Raman’s parents experienced lit a social justice fire in her early on. She landed on the sunny shores of Sydney in the 1980s and watched both her parents face racism and discrimination seeking work.  She’s gone on to dedicate her career to making the world a better place for women and girls. It’s taken her to the halls of Federal Parliament and the United Nations. The Pamela Denoon lecture is presented by the ANU Gender Institute and the National Foundation for Australian Women. 

Speakers

Padma Raman PSMExecutive Director Office for Women at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

Akrti TyagiHead of Digital at Girls Run the World 

Sally MoyleDeputy Chair of the National Foundation for Australian Women

Australians have a hardcore addiction to fast fashion. That means dyes in our waterways, microplastics in our bodies, and hundreds of thousands of tonnes of textiles dumped in landfill. Fashionista or not, do you feel powerless to change an industry dominated by global fashion giants making giant profits? Meet four passionate crusaders with fashion, finance, tech, textile, and industry know-how who are already finding ways.

They join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell at the 2025 Ocean Lovers Festival at the Bondi Pavilion on Gadigal Country.

Speakers

Dr Christopher HurrenAssociate Professor in Textile ResearchInstitute for Frontier MaterialsDeakin UniversityDanielle Haj-MoussaInvestor, technologist, and co-founder of Tech for Social Good non-profitLeader of Fashion Collective portfolio with deep tech fund Main Sequence Ventures

Dr Lisa LakeDirector, Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Fashion + TextilesUniversity of Technology Sydney and TAFE NSW

Kit WillowFashion designer and sustainable fashion pioneerCreator of international labels Willow and KitXFounder, Cirkit

Thanks to Lorna Parry and Carolyn Grant at the Ocean Lovers Festival for curating this event.

Further information:

Alt.leather (start-up company developing 'leather' made from plants)

Samsara eco (start-up company developing plastic eating enzymes)

Xefco (start-up company developing new ways of dying and processing materials)

Newera Bio (start-up company developing new dyes and pigments for textiles)

Nanollose (company turning liquid waste into rayon fibres for clothes)

Blocktexx (company recovering polyester and cellulose from textiles and clothing)

Project Boomerang (plans for a textile recycling plant run by the Salvos)

Warren Ellis is best known as the charismatic violinist with legendary Australian instrumental rock trio Dirty Three and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Justin Kurzel's new documentary Ellis Park is a both portrait of Ellis as he comes to terms with his Ballarat childhood, and a film about the devastating impacts of wildlife trafficking, and why Ellis was driven to buy land in Sumatra to home rescued animals.

The pair join the ABC's Zan Rowe at the film's premiere to talk about their collaboration, the act of creation, and of giving back.

This conversation was recorded at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

Speakers

Warren EllisMusician, Dirty Three, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and moreFilm score composerAuthor, Nina Simone's Gum: A Memoir of Things Lost and Found

Justin KurzelDirector, Ellis Park, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, True History of the Kelly Gang, Snowtown and more

Zan Rowe (host)Presenter, Take 5, Double J and ABC TV