Big Ideas

Meet two men who will change the way you think about an experience most of us fear but will be touched by in some way.  In Patting the Shark, surfing writer Tim Baker describes his wild ride to reclaim a sense of control and agency after a cancer diagnosis. Celebrated author and GP Peter Goldsworthy’s memoir The Cancer Finishing School started out as a journal but became so much more.They join Natasha Mitchell for intimate an intimate, revelatory, funny, and generous conversation about the Big C and how medicine needs to change. 

This event was hosted by the 2024 Queenscliffe Literary Festival

Speakers

Tim BakerJournalist, editor, patient advocate, PhD candidateAuthor, Patting the Shark: A surfer's journey — learning to live well with cancer (Ebury Australia/Penguin, 2022)

Dr Peter GoldsworthyGP, author, librettist, poetAuthor, The Cancer Finishing School —lessons in laughter, love, resilience (Penguin, 2024)

For 50 years, women in the United States had a constitutionally enshrined right to abortion. But in 2022, that right was overturned, and now one third of American women live in a state where abortion is banned. So what does Donald Trump's return to the White House mean for reproductive health in America?

This event was recorded at Macquarie University in Sydney on Wednesday 13 November 2024.

Speaker

Dr Angel Foster Professor, University of OttawaCo-founder, Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project

Prepare to have your mind blown with a sweeping saga that connects human evolution, brains, genes, art, music, creativity, knowledge, dyslexia, autism, Indigenous memory systems, and more. A big, beautiful and biological saga about how to learn like a human again. Joining Natasha Mitchell are Australian Senior Memory Champion, scientist and author Dr Lynne Kelly with artist Jane Rusden and musician and educator Hilary Blackshaw. 

This event was hosted by the 2024 Mountain Festival in Macedon, Victoria.

Speakers

Dr Lynne KellyScience writerAuthor, The Knowledge Gene: the incredible story of the supergene that gives us human creativity (Allen and Unwin, 2024)Author, The Memory Code (Allen and Unwin, 2016) Adjunct Research Fellow, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe UniversityHonorary Fellow, School of Physics, University of MelbourneHilary BlackshawMusician and musical educatorBendigo Musical Instrumental Program

Jane RusdenArtist

It's a question that has focused the minds of astronauts, scientists, space entrepreneurs and enthusiasts alike — is there, could there be, life on Mars? The race is on to find out, with NASA hoping to land astronauts there by the late 2030s. Because of its similar conditions to Earth, they're hoping the red planet could hold clues to the enduring mysteries of how life began, and whether we are alone in the universe.

This event was recorded at the World Science Festival Brisbane in partnership with the Queensland Museum and the Big Questions Institute on March 22, 2024. Original Big Ideas broadcast on 16 April 2024.

Speakers

Professor Tamara Davis Astrophysicist, University of Queensland

Professor Kathleen Campbell Astrobiologist, University of Auckland

Professor Martin Van Kranendonk Astrobiologist and geologist, Head of the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University

Dr Jorge Vago ExoMars Project Scientist, European Space Agency

Dr Graham Phillips (host) Astrophysicist, science journalist, former host of Catalyst (ABC)

New York writer Jonathan Rosen’s memoir The Best Minds: a story of friendship, madness, and the tragedy of good intentions is a story of tenderness, heartache, and horror as he explores the vexed tensions between civil rights, medical power, and the complexities of recognising and treating severe psychotic illness. 

He joins Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell with psychiatrist Patrick McGorry for a powerful, moving conversation at the 2024 Adelaide Writers Week

Original broadcast on May 1, 2024

Speakers:

Jonathan RosenWriter and editorAuthor, The Best Minds: a story of friendship, madness, and the tragedy of good intentions

Patrick McGorryPsychiatristExecutive Director, OrygenProfessor of Youth Mental Health, University of MelbourneFounding Director, Headspace (National Youth Mental Health Foundation)

Further information and support services:

Lifeline Australia24x7 Crisis Support line on 13 11 14

Beyond Blue

MensLine Australia

SANE Australia

ReachOut Australia

AFRAFMI - supporting friends and carers of people with mental illness

One Door Mental Health (formerly the Schizophrenia Fellowship of NSW)

Hearing Voices Network

Mental Health First Aid Australia

Australians for Mental Health - advocating for better mental health policy and services in Australia

For decades, Mary Beard has forged her own path through the male dominated field of academia, from the ruins of Rome to the trenches of Twitter, to become "the world's most famous classicist". From the wise Augustus to the hypocritical Tiberius and the barking mad Caligula, Mary Beard uses these Roman rulers as a lens to examine life in their empire, and asks what lessons they can teach us about the world today.

This event was recorded at Adelaide Writers' Week and originally broadcast on Big Ideas on 9 April 2024.

Speakers

Mary BeardAuthor Emperor of Rome, (also Pompeii, Confronting the Classics, SPQR, Women & Power, Twelve Caesars)Professor Emerita of Classics at Cambridge University

Jonty ClaypoleWriter, documentary producer and arts administratorCEO, Red Room PoetryFormer Director of Arts, BBC

We are living in an "age of crises," says former New Zealand prime minister, Helen Clark. With her leadership experience and expertise in governance, politics, and policy, Helen Clark and a panel of health and international relation experts explore the challenges facing the world today and what is needed to achieve a healthier and thriving future for all. proWhile it's easy to feel overwhelmed by complex problems, speaking up about inequality can make a difference. Helen Clark urged everyone to "raise the issues, never give up, and relentlessly campaign".

Politics, policy, and a healthy human future was hosted by ANU College of Health and Medicine with the Australian Global Health Alliance

Original broadcast on May 7, 2024

Speakers

Helen ClarkFormer Prime Minister of New Zealand and former UNDP Administrator

Sharon FrielProfessor of Health Equity and an ARC Laureate Fellow in Planetary Health Equity at the ANU School of Regulation and Global Governance

Bina D'CostaProfessor at the Department of International Relations, ANU Coral Bell School of Asia-Pacific Affairs

Dr Arnagretta Hunter (host)Human Futures Fellow at ANU College of Health and Medicine, a cardiologist, a physician, and a Senior Clinical Lecturer at ANU Medical School

Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world's foremost experts on trauma, discusses his pioneering research into traumatic stress and its impact on our brains and bodies. Traumatised people experience incomprehensible anxiety, numbing and intolerable rage. Trauma affects their capacity to concentrate, to remember, to form trusting relationships, and even to feel at home in their own bodies. And he explains promising treatments, including neurofeedback, psychedelic therapy, psychodrama … and dance.

This talk was presented by the Sydney Opera House

Original broadcast on March 26, 2024

Speakers

Dr Bessel van der KolkDutch psychiatrist, author, researcher and educatorAuthor of The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking Press, 2014

Sarah KanowskiPresenter of Conversations on RN

Helplines

1800 737 732 / 1800RESPECT or visit https://www.1800respect.org.au

Blue Knot Helpline and Redress Support Service 1300 657 380 or visit

https://blueknot.org.au/survivors/blue-knot-helpline-redress-support-service/

When governments say they can't afford to fix climate change or lift kids out of poverty are they speaking the truth? American economist Stephanie Kelton challenges economic orthodoxy in her book The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy. She joins Natasha Mitchell in conversation at this 2024 National Sustainability Festival event.

Join host Natasha Mitchell and guests for some straight talk that cuts through spin and jargon. Has the way politicians speak ever made you shout at the television, feel bamboozled, helpless,  or shut out of democratic debate over our shared future? Pollie-talk can make important issues opaque, the inequitable seem fair, and the fair seem inequitable. Hear from Richard Denniss (author of Econobabble: How to decode political spin and economic nonsense), Yanis Varoufakis (author of Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism),  Joelle Gergis (author of Humanity's Moment: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope) and Thomas Keneally (Schindler's List). 

Original broadcast on April 24, 2024.