Big Ideas

What can a mosquito teach us about time? Noone likes a mosquito bite — but for a brief moment when it stings you, you know you are alive. Humans are temporal beings, but across cultures, our concepts of time are vastly different. This event explores what we can learn from science, philosophy and Indigenous perspectives that can alter experiences of and attitudes to time, to make better decisions for the future.

This event was recorded at the Sophia Club in London on 17 October 2024.

Speakers

Richard FisherAuthor, The Long View: Why We Need to Transform How the World Sees TimeSenior editor, Aeon Media

Ande SombyYoik singerAssociate Professor of Law, The Arctic University of Norway

Brigid Hains (host)Editorial director, Aeon Media

This election has been described as a boring campaign, but with some fascinating contests. So just what is going on in the minds of voters as Australia heads to the polls this weekend?

This event was recorded at the Sorrento Writers Festival on 27 May 2025.

Speakers

Frank BongiornoProfessor of History, Australian National UniversityPresident, Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, and the Australian Historical AssociationAuthor, Dreamers and Schemers: A Political History of Australia, The Sex lives of Australians: a history

Paul KellyEditor-at-Large, The AustralianAuthor, Triumph and Demise: The Broken Promise of a Labor Generation and The March of Patriots: The Struggle for Modern Australia

Kim CarrLongest serving Victoria Labor Senator (1993 — 2022)Vice Chancellor's Professorial Fellow at Monash UniversityDirector of the Made in Australia Campaign LimitedAuthor, A Long March

Jo Dyer (host)Writer, literary curator and producer of theatre and filmFormer director, Adelaide Writers Week, former CEO, Sydney Writers FestivalIndependent candidate for Boothby at the 2022 federal electionAuthor, Burning Down the House: Reconstructing Modern Politics

Are we living through a key turning point in world history? How do we make sense of this present moment, and what's on the horizon?Trump's trade wars, long-held alliances dismantled, the deadly conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, the rise and rise of AI, the tech oligarch takeover, China's military build-up, NATO's demise, and much more. It's a confusing time. Four seasoned analysts and journalists with their finger on the pulse join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell to share their prognoses. 

This event was hosted and organised by the 2025 Sorrento Writers Festival curated by festival director Corrie Perkin.

Speakers

John LyonsWalkley award winning foreign correspondentABC Editor, AmericasABC Washington bureau chief

Greg SheridanForeign editor, The AustralianJournalist and author, Christians, the urgent case for Jesus in our world (2021)

Emma ShortisDirector, The Australia Institute's International and Security Affairs program. Author, Our Exceptional Friend: Australia's Fatal Alliance with the United States (2021),  After America: Australia and the New World Order (2025)

Josh TaylorAward-winning journalist specialising in technology and politicsThe Guardian

It's been called a coming-of-age story for a nation. The Whitlam Government's purchase of Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles in 1973 helped to bring down the government. So how did this abstract expressionist masterpiece become the most famous, most controversial artwork in Australia?

Then: how does political portraiture affect how we feel about politicians — and how we vote? Jacqueline Maley looks at The Art in the Optics — and explains why political portraiture is more important than ever today.

These events were recorded at the National Library of Australia on 3 March 2025 and the National Portrait Gallery on 20 March 2025.

Speakers

Tom McIlroyAuthor, Blue Poles: Jackson Pollock, Gough Whitlam and the painting that changed the nationPolitical correspondent, Australian Financial Review

Niki SavvaPolitical commentator and columnist, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age

Jacqueline MaleyColumnist, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age

Until recently, the USA provided about 30% of global health funding. It was dominant in supplying HIV/AIDS medication and funded a major part of medical research. Much of this has now stopped with Donald Trump restricting gender affirming care, withdrawing from the WHO and holding funds from USAID - and the list goes on. What are the impacts on pandemic preparedness, future global  health priorities and  resource mobilisation?

This conversation has been presented by the The Australian Institute for Infectious Disease (AIID) and the Australian Global Health Alliance.

Speakers

Dr Nina SchwalbeCEO and founder of Spark Street Advisors

Professor Brendan CrabbDirector and CEO Burnet Institute

Professor Sharon LewinDirector Doherty Institute

Dr Selina Namchee Lo (host)Executive Director, Australian Global Health Alliance

Acclaimed British historian Sir Simon Schama reflects on the history of antisemitism, the Holocaust and contemporary culture. He says that for millennia Jewish people have been "the other of convenience. We are the dark mirror in which the wish fulfilment of other societies takes it out on people who are said to represent its opposite."

Presented at the Adelaide Writers Festival in partnership with the University of Sydney.

Speaker

Sir Simon SchamaBritish historian and television presenterProfessor of Art History and History, Columbia University

Cancer is common and chemo and radiotherapies can save or extend our lives. But sometimes they don't, or they stop working, or they come with disabling long-term side effects. In a state of desperation, some of us seek out unproven alternatives which might even put us at greater risk of cancer. Join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell and guests to find out how scientists are attacking the problem of cancer treatment.

This event was organised by the Australasian Society of Stem Cell Research, University of Adelaide, and National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia.

Speakers

Professor Mark DawsonHaematologist and clinician-scientistAssociate Director of ResearchPeter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the University of Melbourne.

Associate Professor David ElliotStem cell researcher and leader of the Heart Disease group, Murdoch Children's Research InstitutePrincipal investigator, Novo Nordisk Foundation for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW). 

Professor Megan MunsieImmediate Past President, Australasian Society of Stem Cell Research (ASSCR)Professor of Emerging Technologies (Stem Cells) Murdoch Children's Research Institute and the University of Melbourne

Thank also to Tanya Ha from Science in Public and Dr Luke Isbel from the South Australian immunoGENomics Cancer Institute.

Further listening

How surfing writer Tim Baker and doctor Peter Goldsworthy learnt to live well and laugh with cancer (Big Ideas, 2025)

For the past 18 months, Israel's war in Gaza has polarised the world. The Indian author and essayist Pankaj Mishra reckons with the conflict through the lens of colonialism, morality and history.

This event was recorded at the University of NSW Centre for Ideas on 27 February 2025.

Speakers

Pankaj MishraAuthor, The World After Gaza, From the Ruins of Empire and Age of Anger: A History of the PresentEssayist, New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, The New Yorker and more

Simon LongstaffDirector, The Ethics CentreCo-founder, Festival of Dangerous IdeasAdjunct Professor, Australian Graduate School of Management at University of NSW

Further information:

The Shoah after Gaza by Pankaj Mishra - London Review of Books, 24 March 2024

Two thousand years ago, life in Pompeii stood still when Mount Vesuvius erupted, preserving the town in volcanic ash for centuries. Today, this ancient Roman city captures the imagination like few others.

This event was recorded at the National Museum of Australia on 14 December 2024.

Speakers

Dr Sophie HayRoman archaeologist, press and communications officer, Paco archeological de Pompeii

Professor Steven EllisProfessor of Classics and Roman Archaeology at the University of Cincinnati

Dr Lily WithycombeCurator at the National Museum of Australia

Virginia Trioli (host)Journalist, broadcaster and author, A Bit on the SideHost, ABC TV's Creative Types

Further information:

The exhibition Pompeii is on at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra until 4 May 2025.

Authoritarian regimes are threatened by women who fight for their freedom — and are pushing back in even more extreme and deadly ways. The world watched wide-eyed as Iranians took to the streets and social media for the #WomenLifeFreedom movement. We watched Afghan women and children run towards American planes taking off from Kabul as the Taliban returned to power. In Myanmar, women have taken up arms against the military junta. What do women at these front-lines need you to know right now? Join Natasha Mitchell and guests.

This event was hosted by Monash University's Maureen Brunt Women and Democratic Change program and the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence against Women

Speakers

Dr Farkondeh AkbariResearch FellowAustralian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence against WomenMonash University

Dr Rana DadpourResearch Fellow in Social and Economic RiskThe Cairns InstituteJames Cook University

Dr Isabella (Bella) AungResearch FellowMyanmar Policy & Community Knowledge Hub, University of TorontoMyanmar Initiative Fellow, University of British ColombiaHead of Comparative Politics Diploma Program, Spring University Myanmar (SUM)

Professor Jacqui TruePolitical scientist and Professor of International Relations Director, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence against Women (CEVAW)Monash UniversityGlobal Fellow, Peace Research Institute, OsloAuthor, Violence against Women: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2021)

Special thanks to Daniela Philipson Garcia, Program Manager for the Women and Democratic Change Initiative and PhD candidate.