Big Ideas

Travelling is fun — but does it have a deeper purpose? It helps us cultivate connections in the world, it shapes our own identity and makes us understand other cultures. But has modern technology made it too easy and fast-paced? What does 'good-travelling' involve? How do you fit into the places you visit?

The Coppolas are one of cinema's great family dynasties. The patriarch is Francis Ford Coppola, the Oscar-award winning director of the Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now, and many others.

His children, Sophia and Roman, have charted creative paths in their own right. Roman — an award-winning music video director and regular collaborator of Wes Anderson — was a recent guest of Melbourne's inaugural Now or Never Festival.

He's currently on a mission to democratise film funding through blockchain, and cites Luna Park as a recent source of Australian inspiration.

On the same day as her historic misogyny speech, Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard introduced a policy that would plunge tens of thousands of single parents into poverty. It had significant consequences for single mothers. 

Single parents whose children turned eight no longer had access to the single parent payment, a move many experts believe increased child poverty.

But in May, that law was reformed, bumping up payment cut-off to 14. 

Join influential feminist campaigners, including Anne Summers, as they reveal the inside story behind that reform: what worked, what didn't, and what other campaigners could learn from their methods.

David Suzuki says the global environmental movement – of which he has been an influential figurehead - has failed. His breathtaking book The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering our Place in Nature has just been released as a 25th Anniversary edition.  Now he’s calling for some radical truth telling. Especially from corporate executives and elders. Let his now or never battle-cry galvanise you. He joined Big Ideas presenter Natasha Mitchell as part of the Now or Never festival at the Melbourne Museum.

There are certain sensory experiences that bind us to place. It might be the scent of the city after rain, the way light moves through a street tree canopy, or the texture of a handrail as you move through the day.

It is these small details that the field of placemaking is trying to help us rediscover. And it's something that an increasing number of governments and urban planning firms are integrating into their work.

But beyond the buzzwords and 'activation' sites, can placemaking deliver on its pitch?

In the mind of Veena Sahajwalla, the way we think about waste is rubbish. The award-winning scientist — who's also been dubbed Australia's "queen of waste" — wants to start a revolution in recycling.

For her, recycling doesn't need to replace like-for-like.

Instead, she wants us to imagine a future where all things can be unmade into their component parts, like turning old tyres into steel (something Professor Sahajwalla's pioneered).

In this talk from the Australian Museum, the inventor of green steel tells us why we're on the cusp of a recycling revolution.

For Cathy McGowan, change doesn't come about by waiting for government. Nor for that matter, perfecting theories… it's simply doing. And sticking it out when the work isn't sexy, incremental, and the outcome seems unlikely.

It's something she learnt around this time a decade ago when she toppled a long-standing incumbent in the Victorian seat of Indi — and became Australia's first-elected female independent.

In this National Museum of Australia address, McGowan explains her success wasn't about her. Instead, why it was her community that was central to her campaign, and subsequent parliamentary terms.

Seeing is only one way of sensing the world. When you don't have sight, your brain develops another set of sensory superpowers. Meet three trailblazers in design, art, architecture, and advocacy to discover how the world unseen can be so much better for the seen and seeing. 

Pitting innovation against equitable access to medicine: Should drugs and vaccines have patents and fall under intellectual property laws? It's a particularly difficult question in times of a public health crisis. On Big Ideas, a panel of experts will draw on their own experiences and re-think vaccine creation, production and distribution. Do we need to change IP laws, or should we be looking at other measures to ensure those who need vaccines and medication, can access them - regardless of cost, or which country they live in?

What if every law, process, or government department decision was mandated for the well-being of citizens and future generations in mind? That is the case in Wales in the UK. Meet Sophie Howe, the world's first Future Generations Commissioner.