Big Ideas

Who sets the agenda when it comes to designing houses? More often than not wealthy developers call the shots. The result is cheaply-made hot boxes, unaffordable to live in, and poorly designed for human habitation. How did it come to this, and how can citizens and architects seize control? Meet 3 international trailblazers who want to change who controls what we get to call home — including an architect from Barcelona who needed an affordable place to call home and had social change on their mind.

In its simplest definition, orientalism refers to the patronising depictions of the 'Eastern world' — a term that encompasses North Africa, the Middle East and Asia — by writers and artists from the West. And it's no stranger to the Australian stage.

Major commercial musicals with orientalist underpinnings such as The King and I, Madame Butterfly, or Miss Saigon regularly grace Australian stages, which give a vital leg-up to emerging stage workers. But as more of these workers reflect the multiculturalism of modern Australia, it's prompting a revision of the orientalism embedded in the canon.

Where once photography gave us images of the world as seen by machines, photography under AI gives us images of machine images… seen by machines.

Major global companies including Bing and Adobe are heavily investing in generative image models to produce the next AI advance in photography. But in this moment, what has become of the still image? Does it begin with the shutter, or is it now traced from computational models that power the AI-generated image? Hear from a researcher who's made it her mission to consider the value of photography amid the dawn of artificial intelligence. 

While Australian women were among the first to get the vote in the world, their lives were still constrained for decades afterward. It was only until 1966 when the marriage bar was removed, which forced women to give up their careers once they married.

But despite these constraints, generations of Australian women were able to subvert the system. Australia's first female scientists were among them. It's a history that's recently been collated in a new book. But the question remains… how much has changed for women in STEM?

Your internal experience of consciousness – your rich inner life — has had scientists and philosophers completely perplexed for centuries. How does your brain's 100 billion neurons conjure up that distinct sense you have of being YOU? Is it different to your dog's sense of being a 'doggish'? Could that sense be reproduced in artificial intelligence? What happens when you experience altered states of consciousness - take a psychedelic, go under an anaesthetic, or hallucinate? Neuroscientist and bestselling author Anil Seth and psychologist Olivia Carter are on the case, and join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell.

In 1963, as the space race was taking off, the influential political philosopher Hannah Arrendt challenged scientists over their shift away from a humanistic focus to worlds beyond. She was responding to a question posed by the Encyclopedia Britannica: "Has man’s conquest of space increased or diminished his stature?". Replace man with human, and let's ask that question again 60 years on. As we penetrate, populate, and plumb the depths of space evermore.

Mental health problems and chronic diseases are plaguing societies around the world. Both fields need new solutions. We know that lifestyle and obesity contribute to chronic diseases; they can shorten your life by 11 years! But can you use lifestyle to stay chronically healthy? And are we ignoring human rights and social factors in mental health policies and services? For over 40 years a popular response is to prescribe medication. But we are seeing a paradigm shift.

Australians on average chuck out 7.6 billion tonnes of food per year. That amounts to 312 kilos per person, or about $2,500 per household. It's bananas. But in a world that has long prioritised convenience and abundance, disposability has been baked into food chains. But this wasn't always so.

In this Melbourne Conversations and RMIT Culture panel, hear from a zero-waste advocates, artists, and foodies about how we got into this mess, and what we could do to get out of it.

In a world of hyper-connectivity and social media, why do so many of us feel so damn lonely? Being lonely isn’t the same as being alone, and some people love their solitude. But loneliness is widespread, growing, affects all ages, and seriously sucks for your physical and mental health. Why are we so ashamed to talk about it, and what can help? Four guests join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell for a frank, fearless and moving conversation about a very modern challenge.

Many people embark on a journey to discover their family's past in order to contextualise their present. But what happens when that journey uncovers something unwelcome?

This was the case for the award-winning Australian writer David Marr. His great great grandfather, Reginald, was an officer of the Queensland Native Police — a force whose task it was to hunt and kill Indigenous people. This discovery has informed David's latest book, Killing for Country: A family story, which traces the structures that supported the violence of Australian settlement. Join David in dialogue with anthropologist and geographer, Marcia Langton, whose ancestors were murdered by the Native Police.

Please note this discussion features distressing discussions of massacres against First Nations Australians. For further assistance, contact the free, 24-hour Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander counselling line 13 YARN (13 92 76).