Big Ideas

Join Natasha Mitchell and guests for a poetic discussion on the ways you can create space to grieve for species that are going, going, gone. Powerful interests collude to tell us that expressing emotion is hysterical, and that humans are separate from Nature, but proper mourning paves the way for what to do next — and places us right back where we belong.

Speakers

Professor Thom van Dooren Environmental philosopherProfessor of Environmental HumanitiesDeputy Director of the Sydney Environment Institute, University of SydneyAuthor, Flight Ways: Life and Loss at the Edge of ExtinctionThe Wake of Crows: Living and Dying in Shared WorldsA World in a Shell: Snail Stories for a Time of Extinctions

Dr Blanche VerlieClimate change educator, sociologistLecturer in Gender and Cultural StudiesSydney Horizon Fellow, University of Sydney.Author, Learning to Live With Climate Change: From Anxiety to Transformation

Associate Professor Zoe SadokierskiBook designer, writer, creative producerCo-director, Visualisation Institute, University of Technology Sydney.Author, Father, Son and Other Animals

Leading Australian climate scientist Dr Joelle Gergis takes a timely look at Australia's perilous future in a warming world.

"Most Australians aren't aware how bad things are and how much worse they will get." — Joelle Gergis

This event was recorded at Gleebooks in Sydney on Tuesday June 4, 2024.

Speakers

Dr Joelle Gergis Climate scientistAuthor, Highway to Hell — Climate Change and Australia's Future (Quarterly Essay #94, Black Inc Books)

Marian Wilkinson Journalist and author

A huge number of ancient artefacts, First Nations' ceremonial objects and precious art sits in museums, galleries, private collections all over the world — with polite plaques. But their history is often messier than the plaques suggest. Throughout its reign, the British Empire 'stole' a lot of stuff. One of the arguably most controversial examples are the Parthenon Marbles, a collection of sculptural reliefs from the temple of Athena (the Parthenon) on the Acropolis in Greece. The second season of the TV documentary Stuff The British Stole has started on ABC TV and ABC iView. This discussion was presented by the National Gallery of Australia. The ABC acknowledges the National Gallery of Australia for their support with setting up this event and their assistance to guest speakers and ABC staff.

Speakers

Marc FennellHost of the podcast and TV series Stuff the British StoleWakely-award winning journalist and documentary-maker

Adjunct Professor Margo Ngawa NealeEmeritus Curatorial Fellow: First Nations at the National Museum of Australia, former Head of the Centre for Indigenous Knowledges. Born and raised on Gunai/ Kurnai country with other clan affiliations to Gumbaynggirr and Wiradjuri nations

Dr Nick MitzevitchDirector of the National Gallery of Australia

Santilla Chingaipe (host)Zambian-born Australian historian, journalist, and filmmaker

Author, essayist and speechwriter Don Watson says that the price of democracy is energy, imagination, and unstinting hard work. Through the lens of Trump's America, and the malaise of Australian politics, Watson questions whether our modern democracies are up to the job. This event was recorded on Bunurong country at the Sorrento Writers' Festival on April 25 2024.

Speaker

Don Watson, Author, essayist and speechwriter

On the doorstep of Gaza comes the remarkable story of the world's first peace treaty — a 3200-year-old text. Egyptologist Dr Camilla Di Biase-Dyson joins Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell to share a political and personal soap opera that brought an enduring peace to a region now suffering from a bloody war.

Speaker:Dr Camilla Di Biase-DysonLinguist and EgyptologistSenior Lecturer, Macquarie University

Disadvantaged and marginalised students often don't get the financial and teaching support that they need. Equity everyone, regardless of their background, is one of the most pressing challenges facing out higher education sector. 

The government released the Universities Accord Final Report earlier this year – and it recommends sweeping changes.

What are the main recommendations? And are they any good?

Access, Achievement, Accord 2024 was presented at The Australian Student Equity Symposium, Curtin University.

Speakers

Dr Kylie AustinPresident for Equity Practitioners in Higher Education Australasia

Professor Verity FirthVice President Societal Impact, Equity and Engagement at the University of New South Wales

Professor Barney GloverCommissioner of Jobs and Skills Australia

Professor Harlene HayneVice-Chancellor of Curtin University

Professor Mary O'KaneChair of the Universities Accord Review; director and executive chairman of the consultancy O'Kane Associates

Professor Shamit Saggar (host)Executive Director Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success, Curtin University

Further information

Australian Universities Accord Final Report Document

Award winning playwright S. Shakthidharan has described his groundbreaking theatre work Counting and Cracking as "a radical act of belonging". The epic, three-act, three-hour tale captures the Australian migrant experience through the story of one Sri Lankan family across four generations. To celebrate the play's return to the stage, we hear from four Sri Lankan Australians about the role creativity has played in their lives, culture and community.

This event was recorded at the University of Melbourne (UMAC) in partnership with Rising Festival and The Wheeler Centre on June 2, 2024.

Speakers

S. Shakthidharan Writer, Director, Producer and composer of original musicAuthor, Counting and CrackingCo-Founder and Co-Director, Kurinji

Minoli De Silva Owner, Ella by MinoliFinalist, Masterchef Australia

Suren Jayemanne Comedian, writer, presenter

Bhakthi Puvanenthiran (host) Entertainment and Features Editor, ABC

Further information

How writing the epic play Counting and Cracking helped Tamil playwright S. Shakthidharan's mum face her traumaABC Online, May 27, 2024

'We are here, we belong' — The unifying impact of Counting and Cracking The Stage Show, ABC RN, June 11, 2024

Drawing on his experiences working across continents in the "shatter zones" of society — jails, war zones, refugee shelters – Andre de Quadros explains how music and creativity can be used to build peace, reconciliation and empowerment in a troubled world. Later, Anne-Marie Forbes explains how music improves mental, physical and community well-being.

These events were recorded at the 2024 Miegunyah Lecture at the University of Melbourne on April 11, 2024, and Melodies as Medicine at the University of Tasmania on April 10, 2024.

Speakers

Andre de Quadros Professor of Music, Boston University2024 Miegunyah Visiting Fellow, University of Melbourne

Anne-Marie Forbes Associate Professor Musicology, University of TasmaniaFellow of the Royal Society of Public Health.

Nourish Women's Choir

Join Natasha Mitchell and guests at the 2024 Ocean Lovers Festival in Bondi. From deep sea mining to illegal fishing on the high seas, who is the boss of the ocean? And why are scientists-turned-entrepreneurs singing the praises of seaweed?  Two panels of big thinkers exploring new frontiers for ocean exploitation — and inspiration — the risks, the rewards, and the regulation of this vast wilderness which covers 70% of the planet's surface

Panel 1 - Who owns the high seas and deep seas? Deep sea mining and illegal fishing 

Associate Professor Aline JaeckelAustralian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS)University of Wollongong

Captain Peter HammarstedtDirector of Campaigns and Chairman of Sea Shepherd Australia

Mattheiu RytzDirector of the film Deep Rising

Panel 2 - Is algae the new gold?

Dr Michael AskewExecutive Director and co-founderAlgae Co

Dr Pia WinbergFounder and chief scientistVenus Shell Systems

Dr Alexandra Thomson,Industry Engagement ManagerClimate Change Cluster (C3) Research InstituteUniversity of Technology Sydney

It took until the late 1990s for Australia to decriminalise homosexuality. Since then, the law has changed and evolved in a multitude of ways for LGBTQIA+ people, but not without a fight virtually every step of the way. 

This event was recorded as part of Victorian Law Week on May 22, 2024.

Speakers

Elizabeth Bennett SC, BarristerVice President, Victorian Barristers Network

Sam Elkin Author, Detachable Penis: A queer legal saga (Upswell publishing)Legal aid lawyer (inaugural lawyer for Victoria's first Queer legal service)Host, Queer View Mirror, Triple R

Yves Rees (host) Senior Lecturer in History, La Trobe University