Big Ideas

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

Surveys constantly reveal that a huge number of us are not sleeping well. What is that doing to our mental and physical health?

This event was recorded at the University of Sydney's Raising the Bar night, on 9 April 2024.

Speaker

Dr Jacob Crouse Research fellow, Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney

Further information

ABC Sleeptember

The art and ethics of artisanal trades, from stone masonry to roof plumbing to limestone mortar plastering. What can be done to revive many of these traditional trades and bring them sustainably into the 21st century?

Recorded Melbourne Design Week — presented by the Heritage Council of Victoria and the National Trust of Victoria

Speakers

Glen RundellWindsor Chair maker from the Central Highlands Co-Founder Lost Trades Fair, Kyneton Victoria 

Samantha WestbrookeExecutive Manager, Advocacy & Conservation National Trust Victoria 

Rebecca RobertsStone Mason, Doctoral Candidate with the University of Melbourne

Ruth Redden (host)Architect and heritage consultant 

Further Information

Traditional Trades Exposition

Conservation program at the National Trust in Victoria

Centre for Rare Arts and Forgotten Trades

Liana Buchanan is a guardian of the rights of our most precious asset - our children. In a keynote speech, the Principal Commissioner for Children and Young People, Victoria, presents some brutal realities of the failures in some systems that are meant to protect children at risk in Victoria. But there is hope. Amelia Hunt, a young person who has experienced out of home care describes how young people are raising their voices and having direct input into reforms.  Recorded at the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law Conference, State Library of VictoriaSpeakersLiana BuchananPrincipal Commissioner for Children and Young People, Victoria 

Amelia HuntVictorian Commission for Children and Young People, Student Law and Global Studies, ABC Hey Wire winner 2023   Further Information Commission for Children and Young people.

Amelia Hunt - Kids in out-of-home care deserve better

Student activists from the Pacific Islands successfully got the International Court of Justice to define the responsibilities of nations to combat climate change, and the legal consequences of failing to do so.

This is the story of their win.

Seeing first-hand the dire impact of climate change in their countries, they want to ensure nations around the world understand their obligations to take positive climate action.

The 2024 Talbot Oration presented by the Australia Museum

Speakers

Chynthia HouniuhiPresident of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change

Craig ReucasselWriter, director and comedian, known for his work with The Chaser and for The War on Waste; currently the host of 702 ABC Sydney Breakfast

Richie MerzianInternational Director at the Smart Energy Council, a peak renewable energy industry group

Narelda JacobsWhadjuk Noongar journalist and presenter of 10 News First: Midday, and 10 News First