Time for Trust

Are you better off with university degree anymore? Who should pay for it, and what happens now that AI is in the picture? These are the questions Andrew Norton has been grappling with as a higher education commentator, and Professor of Education Policy at Monash Business School.

Australian universities are facing a squeeze. Financial and political pressure is mounting from every angle as international funding drops, government rules tighten, and universities manage the integration of AI.

Andrew has advised governments and university Vice Chancellors since the 1990s, and believes higher education might be in their most difficult era yet.

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Andrew Norton is Professor of higher education policy at Monash Business School.

To hear more on higher education, listen to our episodes with higher-ed journalist Julie Hare, and co-founder of HEDx, Martin Betts.

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The 24-hour news cycle and the endless scroll of social media means a single controversial headline can shatter your organisation’s credibility in seconds.

And yet leaders can’t avoid the need for communication either, especially if they’re trying to build brand credibility and consumer trust. Roger Christie says “online silence is a risk, you’re letting others fill the feed.” He’s the founder of digital reputation advisory firm Propel, and has worked with giants like CommBank, Coles, and Westpac.

So where is the sweet spot between risky silence and performative noise? And how do you build a genuine reputation that lasts?

Roger Christie breaks down why legacy public communication models are failing modern organisations, and gives practical strategies to align your online voice with your offline reality.

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Roger Chrisie is the founder of Propel. You can listen to his podcast here.

To hear more on building public trust and reputation, listen to our episode with Jim McNamara. Jim’s the Distinguished Professor of Public Communication at the University of Technology Sydney.

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AI is unavoidable in 2026, but higher education is caught between plummeting public trust and fear of disruption. In institutions where original thought is rewarded, how do you embrace an AI driven world?  

Martin Betts is the co-founder of HEDx, and has worked in the higher education sector for most of his life. He's not panicking. In fact, the opposite. Betts is a "techno-optimist". Universities have changed, and he believes they need a fundamentally updated model in order to transform our way of learning.  

Instead of handing educational AI structures to big tech giants, Betts breaks down how universities can collaborate to lead the change from within.  

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Martin Betts is the co-founder of HEDx. You can listen to his podcast here.

If trust in universities is on your radar, listen to our episode with higher education journalist Julie Hare. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How well do you remember your uni days? Chances are, whatever picture that came to mind - the lecture theatres, campus life, the idea of a place built to protect independent thought -  is a few steps removed from the more complicated reality. 

These days, that picture competes with leadership scandals, ballooning student debt, a model that relies on international students and a casualised workforce running on fumes. Somewhere along the way, the sector started looking less like an institution and more like an industry. 

Julie Hare has spent her career watching that transformation up close. Formerly the higher education editor at The Australian and the Australian Financial Review, she now writes The Hare Report, where she's turned her attention to governance failures at the top. 

With AI now rewriting the rules of teaching and assessment, Julie's asking the uncomfortable question - can this system reform itself, or has it too far gone? 

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The UK has followed Australia’s lead by banning social media for under-16s. In a parting move made by the Starmer government, it’s left public opinion divided. 

We all want children to be safe online. But is this global movement a necessary stand against Big Tech, or does it ignore how the modern world works?  

Julian Sefton-Green is a Professor of New Media and Education at Deakin University. He argues the ban is contradictory because we forbid a 15-year-old from using these apps, but expect them to log on the day they turn 16. As he puts it, "you can't attend a university without some form of social media relationship - you can't be in employment, you can't be on LinkedIn, every role that you occupy as a citizen is to some degree some kind of social media." 

Professor Sefton-Green explains both sides of the debate. He unpacks what you need to understand, and why this legislation could open the door to more regulations around algorithms and addictive app design. 

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Interested in hearing more about age restrictions on social media? Listen to our episode with Professor Sonia Livingstone, one of the global leading voices in this debate. 

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Communication is a two-way street. Or at least, it’s meant to be. So why don’t organisations ever seem to really listen to us? 

Jim Macnamara, the Distinguished Professor of Public Communication at the University of Technology Sydney, is a pioneer in the field of organisation listening, and he argues it’s the critical missing piece for nearly every institution trying to build and maintain trust. He explains why it’s so beneficial, and why so many organisations don’t do it even if it’s so effective. He also outlines how two-way communication has and will continue to change as digital technologies transform the way we talk to each other. 

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Why are companies racing to build dancing robots when human dancers are fighting harder than ever to earn a living? Why does it feel like technology is becoming rapidly more powerful, but so few people seem to actually gain anything from it? 

Institutions large and small are central to all democracies, and they’re anything but simple. A great institution can protect and increase knowledge across generations, but the very thing that keeps them alive can also make them stagnant.  

Sir Geoff Mulgan knows institutions better than almost anyone. He’s Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation at University College London, and from 2011 to 2019 he was Chief Executive at the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts. He explains why our biggest and most important institutions so often seem averse to innovation, and outlines how groups of people can be more (and sometimes less) than the sum of their parts.  

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As governments around the world move to restrict young people’s access to social media, a fundamental question emerges: do bans actually protect children or create new risks?  

Growing concern about youth mental health and the power of tech companies has driven policies such as Australia’s under-16 ban, which is now being closely watched around the world. 

But the evidence remains contested. Sonia Livingstone, Director of Digital Futures for Children, argues there are limits to the ban approach. She suggests we rethink how digital environments are designed and governed so they are safer for young people.

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“Podcasting is the medium of the moment.”  

But should we trust the creators and their content? 

With more than 600 million global listeners, podcasting is now central to journalism, commentary, and public debate. Many audiences see podcasts as more authentic and more intimate than radio, television, or social media — but why? 

When anyone can publish an episode, who deserves our trust? And how do we know when that trust is misplaced? 

Broadcaster and academic Dominic Knight – co-founder of The Chaser – shares his thoughts on trust, credibility, and misinformation in the podcast era. 

Hear more from Dominic Knight on his podcast The Chaser Report. 

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Is cinema a vehicle of truth or does it promote false beliefs? 

Associate Professor of Film Studies Bruce Isaacs doesn’t believe in historical truth in the film image.  

“I don't think cinema looks for that. What it seeks to show is a kind of aesthetic truth. Films straddle this very interesting tension between being truthful to history and yet in some way intensifying that experience.” 

Hollywood has a long and complicated relationship with trust, ideology, and reality. A relationship that has only intensified as the Trump administration polarises America and the world. 

Professor Isaacs explores whether film is corrosive of trust, why movies are such fertile ground for conspiracies, and the political anxieties driving recent Hollywood films like Civil War, Eddington, and One Battle After Another. 

Hear more from Professor Isaacs on his podcast Film Versus Film. 

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