Interior designer Mary Featherston is famous for many things. Her trailblazing creations with her late husband Grant Featherston. Their extraordinary Melbourne house designed by the iconic modernist architect Robin Boyd, which has housed four generations of their family. But what Mary's most driven by is her 50-year mission to change the face, feel, and function of Australian classrooms. Classrooms, not just teachers, can be educators too! She joins Big Ideas' host Natasha Mitchell.

Legendary designer Mary Featherston: how school classrooms stunt our wondrous natural-born curiosity

Feed your mind. Be provoked. One big idea at a time. Your brain will love you for it. Grab your front row seat to the best live forums and festivals with Natasha Mitchell.

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Australians love a drink, or at least, that's a perception that's deeply ingrained in our national identity. But how true is it, these days? This Big Ideas explores the politics, problems, and pleasures of Australia's long and chequered relationship with alcohol.

This event was recorded at Clunes Booktown Festival on Saturday March 23 2024.

Speakers

Alex Ettling Author, Knocking the Top off: A People's History of Alcohol in Australia

Sarah MacLean Professor of Social Work and Social Policy at La Trobe University

Richard Gilbert Author, Thirst for Gold

Bill Garner (host) Writer, actor, academic, author Born in a Tent

Why we drink — the past and present of Australia’s relationship to alcohol

Join Natasha Mitchell and guests to grapple with some gritty paradoxes about science and religion. In this era of misinformation, conspiracy theories, and existential angst — are they serving the needs they used to?

Where is the soul in science?

When you're faced with the reality that your home, livelihoods and culture will be swallowed up by the rising seas of a warming climate, how do you respond?

Not drowning, fighting — life on the front lines of the climate crisis

You might think humans have escaped biology and evolution altogether with our strange and different ways: Women live well past their reproductive years, and we have baffling long childhoods as a species. We display a dazzling mix of selfishness and altruism, and gossiping can in fact be a strategy for survival.

Evolution can explain why humans are such weird animals

As violence continues in Europe and the Middle East and as positive collective action on urgent global-scale issues seems out of reach, do we need new forms of international cooperation? How can Global South and Global North nations work together more effectively? What roadblocks hinder joint action on crucial issues such as security, development, climate, and AI? How can ethical reflection and engagement pave the way for a more inclusive and equitable multilateralism? A panel of international policy experts believes it's possible: There are shared values and shared interests that can serve as the basis for effective and inclusive forms of cooperation; we merely need to activate them.

Legendary designer Mary Featherston: how school classrooms stunt our wondrous natural-born curiosity

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