Big Ideas

One day Ariane Beeston looked at her baby son in his pram and saw a dragon looking back at her. In her memoir Because I am Not Myself You See: A memoir of madness, motherhood and coming back from the brink Ariane takes us inside her visceral experience of postnatal psychosis. Her extraordinary book could save lives — and cleaves open the secrets and stigma around maternal mental health, perfectionism, eating disorders, maternal love, dance school culture, and much more. She joins Natasha Mitchell at the 2024 Williamstown Literature Festival. 

Speaker:

Ariane Beeston Author, I am Not Myself You See: A memoir of madness, motherhood and coming back from the brink (BlackInc Books, 2024)Communications and content manager, COPE: Centre of Perinatal ExcellenceWriter, psychologist, perinatal mental health advocate, dancer, choreographer, mother

Further information:

COPE: Centre of Perinatal Excellence

Support lines and resources recommended by COPE

PANDA National Helpline 1300 726 306 — available Monday to Friday 9am to 7.30pm, Saturday  9am to 4pm AEST/AEDT

PANDA: Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Australia post natal psychosis information

Pregnancy Birth Baby information on postpartum psychosis (Australian Government website)

Gidget Foundation Australia (focuses on emotional wellbeing of expectant parents)

Postpartum psychosis fact sheet from COPE

Postpartum psychosis information (Royal Women's Hospital Melbourne)

A vintage ute, a novelty cheque, shearing prize ribbons, a household trunk and blanket – even the simplest of things can tell a powerful story, connect a community and showcase our history.

In the ABC TV series 'Extraordinary Things', Tony Armstrong is on a journey to discover and celebrate the things we treasure. And an exhibition at the National Museum of Australia brings together the objects Tony found, the people who cherish them and the extraordinary stories they reveal.

The exhibition is running until October 13th, 2024.

Presented by the National Museum of Australia

Tony Armstrong's Extra-Ordinary Things on ABC iview.

Speakers

Tony ArmstrongAward-winning tv presenter, podcaster, writer and creator; Gamilario man from rural NSW

Dr Martha SearSenior Curator at the National Museum of Australia

Lucy Small'Object owner'; professional surfer, activist, writer and film producer; co-founder of a campaign for gender equality in sport called Equal Pay for Equal Play

Dr Liz Killen'Object owner'; Research Director, Social Research Centre and Visiting Fellow, Australian National University; she currently serves as Assistant Manager in the science policy team of the Office of Australia's Chief Scientist

Dan Bourchier (host)Multi-award winning journalist and broadcaster with the ABC

Jimmy Lai was once considered Hong Kong's quintessential rags to riches success story. But now, the newspaper publisher and democracy supporter is facing a life sentence in jail under China's crackdown on press freedom and opposition in the city. How did it come to this? And what does it mean for Hong Kong?

This event was recorded on Thursday July 4 with the Melbourne Press Cub and PEN Melbourne, supported by the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne.

Speakers

Sebastian Lai Jimmy Lai's son and lead campaigner on the #FreeJimmyLai campaign

Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC Lead lawyer, Jimmy Lai's international legal teamCommissioner, Irish Human Rights and Equality CommissionIreland's Special Rapporteur on Child ProtectionAdjunct Full Professor, University College DublinFellow, Royal Society of Arts

Jennifer Robinson Human rights lawyerBarrister, Doughty Street Chambers (London)Co-author, How Many More Women? Exposing how the law silences women (Allen & Unwin)

Louisa Lim (host) JournalistAssociate Professor in Journalism, University of MelbourneAuthor, Indelible City: Dispossession and defiance in Hong Kong (Text Publishing)

It's only eight years until the torch will be passed on to Brisbane. The countdown is on: Are we prepared? What are the challenges? What is the politics involved? And how important is children participating in sport to ensure that the games have a future?

Presented at the Bond Business Leaders Forum, Bond University.

Speakers

Ian ChestermanPresident of the Australian Olympic Committee

Pat HowardFormer rugby international player and coach for the Leicester Tigers; Executive General Manager of Strategy, Insights & Innovation at the Australian Sports Commission

Patrick JohnsonKaanju man from Far North Queensland, Olympian, Commonwealth Games Bronze Medallist in the 4x 100 metres relay; board member for the Brisbane 2032 Organising Committee; Chair of Australian Olympic Committee Indigenous Advisory Council

Elia HillDirector, Commercial Opportunities and Investment, at the Queensland Department of Tourism and Sport

William Tuffley (host)Partner, Business Services at the audit and accounting consultancy BDO Australia

Join a full house at the Sydney Opera House with Nobel winning scientist Jennifer Doudna and Big Ideas' host Natasha Mitchell to discuss the huge social, ethical, and scientific implications of the CRISPR gene editing revolution. From curative therapies to gene edited babies - will we use it to hack our own evolution?

This event was presented by the Sydney Opera House, Big Questions Institute (BQI), Sydney Writers’ Festival, UNSW Sydney.

Speaker:

Professor Jennifer Doudna2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry co-winner Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s ChairProfessor, Departments of Chemistry and of Molecular and Cell BiologyFounder, Innovative Genomics InstituteUniversity of California, BerkeleyInvestigator, Howard Hughes Medical InstituteSenior investigator, Gladstone Institutes

Further information and listens:

Doudna Lab

Jennifer Doudna in conversation with Natasha Mitchell at an event in 2018

World's first CRISPR gene edited babies born - are we ready?(2018 Science Friction episode with Natasha Mitchell)

The CRISPR gene-edited babies and the doctor who made them - what really happened? (2019 Science Friction episode with Natasha Mitchell)

Out of jail, is the CRISPR-baby scandal scientist at it again? (2023 Science Friction episode with Natasha Mitchell)

Feral science or solution? Unleashing gene drives (Science Friction episode with Natasha Mitchell)Making happier animals? Gene editing in the farmyard (Science Friction episode with Natasha Mitchell)

Hear Natasha Mitchell learn how to do CRISPR gene editing (as part of her 4-part Earshot series The Hidden History of Eugenics (2016))

The science and ethics of genome editing with Jennifer Doudna and Kevin Esvelt (video of event hosted by Natasha Mitchell in 2018)

Natasha Mitchell's review of Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Gene: An Intimate History

Who's watching your local council, keeping you abreast of issues in your neighbourhood, and celebrating your community's achievements? That used to be the role of your local newspaper, but now many of us don't have one.

This event was recorded at the Willy Lit Fest on Sunday 16 June 2024.

Speakers

Margaret Simons Honorary Professorial Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of MelbourneAuthor, Tanya Plibersek: on her own terms, Penny Wong: Passion and Principle, and others

Josie Vine Senior Lecturer, School of Media and Communication, RMIT UniversityAuthor, Larrikins, Rebels and Journalistic Freedom in AustraliaRates, roads and rubbish reporter, The Westsider community newspaper

Alice Pung Author, Unpolished Gem, Her Father's Daughter, Laurinda, Close to HomeEditor, Growing Up Asian in AustraliaAdjunct Professor in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT

John Weldon (host) Associate Professor, Victoria University

Moral philosopher and writer Raimond Gaita wrestles with the moral and ethical dimensions of the Israel-Gaza war to try to make sense of the incomprehensible.

The Jim Carlton Integrity Lecture, "The Urgency of Ethical Challenges Facing the World" was recorded at the Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne on May 8, 2024.

Speaker

Raimond Gaita Honorary professorial fellow, Melbourne Law School, University of MelbourneEmeritus Professor of Moral Philosophy, King's College LondonFellow, Australian Academy of the HumanitiesAuthor, Justice and Hope: Essays, Lectures and Other Writings, (and many other books)Editor Gaza: Morality, Law and Politics

In the shadow of the AI revolution, as the tech giants vie for our data, our attention, and our money, beloved Scottish author Andrew O'Hagan makes an impassioned case for the role of readers and writers as "frontline workers" in the fight for reality.

These events were recorded at the Margaret River Readers & Writers Festival on 17 and 19 May 2024.

Speakers

Andrew O'Hagan Author, Caledonian Road, Mayflies,and many moreEssayist, editor-at-large of the London Review of Books

Gillian O'Shaughnessy (host) Writer, moderator, journalist, broadcaster

Join Natasha Mitchell and guests for a conversation full of surprises on the bonds that make us and sometimes break us. Bad dates, spaceships, surviving cults, the creature within, mother love, loss, and more — how do our attachments shape our minds and lives?

Thanks to Griffith Review and the Brisbane Writers Festival for organising this event.

Speakers:

Anna McGahanActor, playwright, screenwriter, Vogel Award winnerAuthor, Immaculate (Allen and Unwin 2023), and Metanoia: a memoir of a body, born again (Acorn Press, 2020)

Ceridwen DoveyAuthor, Only the Astronauts (Penguin, 2024), Only the Animals (Penguin, 2015), and other titles.

Dr Ahona GuhaClinical and forensic psychologist, writerAuthor, Life Skills for a Broken World (Scribe Publications, 2024) and Reclaim: Understanding complex trauma and those who abuse (Scribe Publications, 2023)

Further information:

Griffith Review: Edition 84 Attachment Styles

Griffith Review's editor Carody Culver on getting attached

For many Indigenous performers publicity comes with the burden of being a role model. Their only options seem to be a pedestal or oblivion, particularly if they are women.

What are the challenges for them to find their place on stage and in life?

Who has the right to be 'bad' in a society that expects women to be flawless?

A panel of Indigenous cultural commentators explores stereotypes and puts them in the bin.

Presented at the All About Women Festival by the Sydney Opera House.

Speakers

BarkaaMalyangapa, Barkindji rapper from Western New South Wales, now living in South West Sydney on Gandangara land

Steph TisdellYdinji comedian and actress

Rudi Bremer (host)Gamilaraay woman, broadcaster and presenter of RN's Awaye!

Listen to Big Ideas – Indigenous arts