Big Ideas

It may be the least worst form of government, but faith in its leaders and its institutions is waning. From the US to the UK to Australia, democracy has also paradoxically delivered representatives who are proudly anti-democratic and openly undermine democratic institutions like electoral systems, the judiciary and a free media. So why do people see the likes of Donald Trump, Nigel Farage, and Pauline Hanson as the answer?

The Future of Democracy was recorded at the 2026 Sydney Writers Festival in partnership with the Resilient Democracy Lab at the University of New South Wales.

Speakers:

Jon SopelCo-host The News AgentsAuthor, Strangeland: How Britain Stopped Making Sense, UnPresidented: Politics, Pandemics and the Race that Trumped All Others and moreFormer editor, BBC North America

Nick Bryant (co-host)Host, Saturday Extra, ABC Radio NationalAuthor, The Forever War: America's Unending Conflict with Itself and moreFormer BBC Washington Correspondent

Rosalind DixonProfessor of Law, University of New South WalesFounder, Resilient Democracy LabAuthor, A People's Guide to the Australian Constitution

A power panel on the future of truth. In a world of AI hallucinations and corporate algorithms, state-sponsored disinformation campaigns, and misinformation spreading like wildfire on social media — the truth feels more elusive than ever. What can we do to get the truth out of trouble? Join Natasha Mitchell with guests at this event recorded live at the 2026 Sydney Writers Festival at Carriageworks on Gadigal Country.

Speakers

Jimmy WalesEntrepreneur and Founder of Wikipedia: the free encyclopediaAuthor, The Seven Rules of Trust: Why It Is Today's Most Essential Superpower (2025)

Barbara DemickJournalist, former Beijing and Korea bureau chief for the LA TimesAuthor, Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins (2025); Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea (2010), Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town (2021);

Professor A.C GraylingPhilosopher and founder of Northeastern University London.Author, The Challenge of the Future: What Should We Keep from Yesterday as We Rush into Tomorrow? (2026); For The People: Fighting Authoritarianism, Saving Democracy (2025)

Professor Toby WalshScientist, Scientia Professor and head of the UNSW AI Institute, University of New South WalesAuthor, Faking It: Artificial Intelligence in a Human World (2023), The Shortest History of AI (2025)

Thanks to Artistic Director Ann Mossop and team at the Sydney Writers Festival.

The fabric of multicultural Australia is under a kind of pressure it hasn't faced in a long time. Can it be renewed? And what role do artists, activists, and migrants have to shape what comes next? The landmark work The Elgar Companion to the Arts and Global Multiculturalism is asking exactly those questions. It traces multiculturalism from its origins as a political philosophy and as lived cultural practice right through to the complicated present. And it makes a case that the arts have been central to this story all along. 

Presented at the Greek Australian Writers Festival

Speakers

Professor Nikos PapastergiadisDirector of the Research Unit in Public Cultures at the University of Melbourne Co-editor of the book The Elgar Companion to the Arts and Global Multiculturalism

Dr Alexandra DelliosSenior Lecturer, Centre for Heritage & Museum Studies, Australian National University

Andrew JakubowiczEmeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Technology Sydney

Dr Helen Vatsikopoulos (host)Journalist, academic and Director of the Greek Australian Writers Festival

Two authors. Two books. Two very different histories of Australia. Tony Abbott's Australia: A history and Mark McKenna's The Shortest History of Australia were released within weeks of each other. They share similar references, but diverge in key areas, especially when it comes to how the country should reconcile with its Indigenous past. So what is the real story of Australia?

The conversation Australian history's great divide: how writers view our past was recorded at the Sorrento Writers Festival on 23 April 2026.

Speakers:

Tony AbbottAuthor Australia: A history and moreAustralian Prime Minister 2013 to 2015President, Australian Liberal Party

Mark McKennaAuthor, The Shortest History of Australia and moreProfessor of History at the University of New South Wales

Sally Warhaft (host)Anthropologist, writer and broadcasterEditor, Well May We Say…The Speeches That Made Australia

Further information:

The Australian Wars with Rachel Perkins and Henry Reynolds — a watershed event at the Australia War MemorialBig Ideas, ABC Radio National, 4 February 2026

Who can we become? Thomas Mayo and Ray Martin speak Black and White about Australia's futureBig Ideas, ABC Radio National, 3 March 2026

Victoria's new treaty with First Peoples — a turning point for Australia?Big Ideas, ABC Radio National, 9 December 2025

A new future for Black and White Australia — Thomas Mayo, Margo Neale, David Marr with Natasha MitchellBig Ideas, ABC Radio National, 15 May 2024

Has the Iran War got you thinking about changing to an electric vehicle? Did government subsidies help you go solar or install a home battery? When renewable energy makes good economic sense, and eases cost of living pressures, people want in. As the public's desire for action on climate change is eclipsed by other concerns, and beset by vested interests and mis and dis information, how does climate policy win back ordinary people to galvanise progress once again?

This event was recorded at Readings bookshop on 20 May 2026.

Speakers:

Thom WoodroofeSenior International Fellow, Smart Energy CouncilAuthor, Power, Prosperity & Planet: Climate & Energy Policy for All (In the National Interest, Monash University Publishing)Principal Advisor to Kevin Rudd during his tenure as Australian Ambassador to the United States, and Chief of Staff during his tenure as the Asia Society's President in New YorkDiplomatic adviser to the Marshall Islands in the negotiations of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change

Zoe DanielFormer Independent Member for GoldsteinFormer ABC journalist and foreign correspondentIndependent chair, Mental Health Victoria

What's the toll when your story becomes the story? What these journalists endured for their work beggars belief, but it hasn't stopped them believing in the role of journalism to hold power to account. Locked in a Chinese jail under 24/7 surveillance for more than 3 years — Cheng Lei is now determined to speak out about freedom and the long tendrils of Chinese state control because others can't or won't. Charlotte Grieve's investigation of a superstar surgeon and his patients' horrifying experiences was subject to one of the longest defamation trials in Australian history — a major test case for the public interest defence. 

Hear their extraordinary stories. They join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell at this Sorrento Writers Festival event.

Speakers

Cheng LeiAuthor, Cheng Lei: A Memoir of FreedomJournalist and Sky News presenter

Charlotte GrieveInvestigative journalist, ABC Investigations Unit.Former journalist with Nine mediaAuthor, Duty to Warn: Dr Munjed Al Muderis promised hope. A daughter saw danger — and fought for the truth.

Thanks to Sorrento Writers Festival director and curator Corrie Perkin

Three leaders of three different countries, who decided they would no longer accept the limits placed upon them by the international rules based order. That's all it took for the world as we have known it to unravel. Thomas Wright, a former Senior National Security Council official in the administration of US President Joe Biden, delivers a clear-eyed assessment of the deliberate decisions that have led us here, and weighs up the possible roads ahead.

This event After the unravelling: Confronting the new world order was recorded on 6 May 2026 for the Lowy Institute in Melbourne.

Speakers:

Thomas WrightFormer senior US National Security Council advisor (during the Biden administration)Senior fellow with the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology at the Brookings InstitutionNonresident Fellow, Lowy InstituteAuthor, Inflection Point: Biden, Trump, and the Future World Order

Sam RoggeveenProgram Director, International Security Program, Lowy InstituteAuthor, The Echidna Strategy: Australia's Search for Power and Peace

Further information:

How Trump got Iran wrong - by Thomas Wright, published 7 May 2026, The Interpreter, Lowy Institute

Donor-sperm conception has become even more difficult in Australia. Would-be parents are now facing a shortage of sperm. That's on top of an already complex end confusing process. For solo parents, queer couples, and people navigating fertility the path to parenthood often begins with long clinic waitlists, overseas donor profiles, shady Facebook groups or delicate conversations with friends.

Presented by Sydney Opera House at the All About Women Festival 2026

Speakers

Alisha BurnsFounder of Solo Mum Society, host of the No Need for Prince Charming podcast, author of  the children's book My Perfect Family

Maeve MarsdenWriter, Creative Director of Varuna, the National Writers' House, and the Blue Mountains Writers' Festival

Dr Melanie SawardBigambul and Wakka Wakka woman, writer, editor and lecturer of Australian Studies, University of Queensland

Edwina Storie (host)Journalist and the lead for The Feed, SBS's youth media brand

From embracing the future of new technologies, materials and innovations, to returning to past times of multigenerational and communal living, architecture and design has plenty to offer when it comes to solving Australia's housing crisis. While debate rages about tax settings, government policy, and urban planning, design solutions are there to create the homes, the communities and the lives we need to make us happier and healthier — but is the will?

This event was recorded at Curiosities Live at the University of Technology Sydney on 2 March 2026.

Speakers:

Anthony BurkeProfessor of Architecture at the University of Technology SydneyHost of ABC TV's Grand Designs Australia Grand Designs Transformations and Restoration AustraliaHost of Anthony Burke's By Design ABC Radio National

Tim RossComedianPresenter, ABC TV's Streets of Your Town, Designing A Legacy and moreAuthor, What A Ripper! 60 everyday objects that shaped Australia, Motel — Images of Australia on Holidays and moreCo-host, with Kevin McCloud, Tim & Kev's Big Design Adventure podcastAdjunct Professor at the University of CanberraHonorary member of the Australian Institute of Architects

Join Bruce Pascoe and Professor Ray Norris with Natasha Mitchell to discuss their eye-opening new book Big Sky: When the Emu Left the Earth. Then go outside, look up, and wonder about what connects humans rather than divides us. Humans have always gazed at the night sky, and (when we could) into the far reaches of our galaxy, to make meaning and sense of life here on Earth. The stories we tell about stars, planets, the Sun, the Moon, and more offer powerful lessons for us all — and for our relationships.

This event was hosted by the Melbourne Writers Festival (find out more at mwf.com.au), Scienceworks, Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre on the country of the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation and the Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation.

Speakers

Bruce PascoeAuthor, poet, Aboriginal farmer based on Yuin CountryAuthor of Dark Emu and coauthor, Big Sky: When the Emu Left the Earth (Magabala Books, 2006)

Professor Ray NorrisAstrophysicist and honorary fellow at CSIROCoauthor, Big Sky: When the Emu Left the Earth (Magabala Books, 2006)

Thanks to Dr Tanya Hill, Senior Curator of Astronomy at the Scienceworks, and Veronica Sullivan, CEO and Director of the Melbourne Writers Festival.