Big Ideas

Do you feel like the world is increasingly destabilising? We have a war in Europe; curtailing of freedoms in China and growing tensions around Taiwan's position; we see the subjugation of women's rights in the US. That's on top of ongoing famines and conflicts in Africa; dire reports about the state of global warming; and a world economy that's bracing for recession and down turns in many countries. What's Australia's role in all of this? And how can we make sense of a world order in flux?

Bacteria are getting increasingly resistant against antibiotics and that means people could be at risk of dying in the millions. But new research uses viruses to fight bacterial infections – the so-called phase therapy. It's a practice that was used for centuries until antibiotics became available. It proves to be highly successful, and local sewage water may be key to solving the looming superbug crisis.

Transgender Australians, and sexual minorities, face exclusion and discrimination, including at work.

To encourage diversity, support, and inclusion in the workplace, a number of organisations, and public institutions, including the ABC, have signed on to ACON's 'Pride in Diversity' Australian Workplace Equality Index.

But not everybody is supportive of the AWEI program

As with a similar scheme run by the LGBTQ charity, Stonewall, in the UK, some are questioning the role it plays.

Big Ideas takes you on a trip down Christmas's unique and emotionally complex memory lane with Christmas carols. These songs bring back childhood experiences like few others. But Christmas carols are a quite recent tradition - only about 100 years old. The early ones sounded very different to the songs you hear everywhere today.

How much do you like casting your vote in elections? Australia has one of the best electoral systems in the world - with more equal access for everyone and less political spite than many other countries. Judith Brett assesses achievements of our elections and considers some arguments for improvement.

How do you live in a community facing suppression and violence every day? How do you live through an ongoing war? Or how do you cope with having to leave your home and family behind – for good? In a conflicted world, hope seems to be what gets people to cope with desperate situations. But it's not that straight forward. Hope can get you only so far – then you need more practical support.

Who doesn’t love a koala? Foreign dignitaries visiting our shores are almost obliged to have their photo taken with a cuddly koala. But koalas are now on the endangered list and, if we’re not careful, in coming decades koalas will only be found in zoos and wildlife parks. They could be extinct in the wild. In the Blue Mountains west of Sydney scientists are hard at work to ensure koala survival.

The Australian Antarctic Division will soon commence drilling a 3-kilometre-deep hole, to extract a million years' worth of glacial ice.

Hidden in this ice are secrets of the earth's climate past.

Discovering these secrets will help us better understand our changing climate, and the impact it's having, and will continue to have, on the planet.

Paul Barclay speaks to two scientists and a writer about importance of Antarctic research.

Respectful conversations are vital for democracy yet public discourse is increasingly polarized making it harder to bridge social and political divides. How can we breathe new life into our shared humanity? Scott Stephens tackles this question in his Simone Weil Lecture on Human Value, named in honour of the French philosopher.

What is truth? How has it evolved? And what is its impact anyway? Evolutionary science shows that subtle social manipulation of fellow group members was a key driver of intelligence in the human lineage. And even animals use trickery to their advantage. Big Ideas looks at why we lie and why deception is so widespread in modern public discourse.