Big Ideas

By ABC listen

Listen to a podcast, please open Podcast Republic app. Available on Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

Image by ABC listen

Category: Society & Culture

Open in Apple Podcasts


Open RSS feed


Open Website


Rate for this podcast

Subscribers: 1243
Reviews: 5
Episodes: 250

Calum
 Jun 1, 2024


 Mar 31, 2022

Dennis Murray
 May 18, 2020
Well presented podcast with detailed and informative discussions on wide range of relevant current topics.


 Sep 9, 2019


 Jun 11, 2019

Description

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.

Episode Date
Why we need to cancel cancel culture — with defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou
Nov 03, 2025
Out of this world — with Booker Prize winning author Samantha Harvey
Oct 30, 2025
What Artists See? Critic Quentin Sprague helps you get to the messy human heart of art
Oct 29, 2025
Matrescence — on the metamorphosis of motherhood
Oct 28, 2025
Alexander the Great — A genius? A tyrant? A visionary? A killer? A maniac?
Oct 27, 2025
Nobel laureate Donna Strickland on her life in lasers
Oct 23, 2025
Ziggy Ramo’s latest project asks what makes us human?
Oct 22, 2025
New legislation to protect you against invasion of your privacy
Oct 21, 2025
How to build a stock exchange — the past, present and future of finance
Oct 20, 2025
Is Jane Austen the greatest English novelist of all time?
Oct 16, 2025
We’re F**ed! It’s too late to avoid civilisational collapse. 2025 Beaker Street Festival Great Debate
Oct 15, 2025
Who killed the liberal international order (and what comes next)?
Oct 14, 2025
Can the Democrats save democracy in the US?
Oct 13, 2025
Maria Ressa on what Donald Trump learnt from Rodrigo Duterte and other strongman rulers
Oct 09, 2025
Prove It! Elizabeth Finkel's Scientific Guide for the Post-Truth Era
Oct 08, 2025
John Lennon and Paul McCartney — a partnership that changed cultural history
Oct 07, 2025
'Militarism gone mad' — Labor firebrand hits out at party’s support of AUKUS
Oct 06, 2025
Genocides are everyone's business, not no-one's business — Gareth Evans, Yassmin Khadra, Daniel Abot's urgent plea for peace
Oct 02, 2025
Vale Dr Jane Goodall — why the renowned primatologist and environmentalist held onto hope
Oct 02, 2025
Is AI the new coloniser? How to create more life-centred AI before it's too late
Oct 01, 2025
Condoleezza Rice on how to fix the break-up of global cooperation
Sep 30, 2025
The rise of Spotify and the costs of the perfect playlist — with music journalist Liz Pelly
Sep 29, 2025
Yolngu power — art, culture, country, law — with Marcia Langton and Clare Wright
Sep 25, 2025
Nobel scientist Jennifer Doudna with Natasha Mitchell — the gene editing revolution, radical ethics, and what's next? [Archive episode]
Sep 24, 2025
Helen Vatsikopoulos — when the stories of migrants in Australia are silenced it's bad for all of us
Sep 23, 2025
The power of essays — with David Marr, Esther Anatolitis, Brooke Boland and Ashleigh Wilson
Sep 22, 2025
Fleeced — unravelling the history of wool and war
Sep 18, 2025
What's up with dieting Doc? Rethinking the obesity obsession in healthcare
Sep 17, 2025
Doing business ethically in turbulent times — with Helen Clark
Sep 16, 2025
Jimmy Barnes – tells it all
Sep 15, 2025
Hanna Rosin on what’s happened to the end of men in Trump’s America
Sep 11, 2025
Nuked or not? The politics and power play over nuclear energy as a climate fix
Sep 10, 2025
Heart-to-heart with John Wamsley and David Lindenmayer — why these trailblazing environmentalists won't back off
Sep 09, 2025
Are the reading wars really over?
Sep 08, 2025
Is our university system broken?
Sep 04, 2025
The radicalisation of boys — Jess Hill, George Megalogenis, Thomas Mayo with Natasha Mitchell at Byron Writers Festival
Sep 03, 2025
The AI Con — unpacking the artificial intelligence hype machine
Sep 02, 2025
Barry Jones and Kerry O'Brien — on complexity, politics and love
Sep 01, 2025
Tradwives — cosy cottage core fantasy, or something more sinister? With Megan Agnew, Rosie Waterland, Beverley Wang and Nakkiah Lui
Aug 28, 2025
My Sister and Other Lovers — Esther Freud with Natasha Mitchell at Byron Writers Festival
Aug 27, 2025
When dreams speak truth — exploring the relationship between our realities and the subconscious
Aug 26, 2025
The US was meant to pivot to Asia — has Donald Trump changed course?
Aug 25, 2025
Alison Lester and Jane Godwin on how children’s books change lives
Aug 21, 2025
From devil horns to deep listening — Maxine Beneba Clark, Debra Dank, Damon Young on the power of communication
Aug 20, 2025
How a picnic started the fall of the Iron Curtain
Aug 19, 2025
Anna Funder — Bears out there, writing in the age of bots and broligarchs
Aug 18, 2025
The remarkable life of Marie Curie and the women scientists she inspired — with Dava Sobel
Aug 14, 2025
Wellness influencers will outlive us all! The Science Smackdown Debate at World Science Festival Brisbane
Aug 13, 2025
How to live an experimental life
Aug 12, 2025
Dugongs — up close and personal
Aug 11, 2025
Do you know the size of your material footprint? 
Aug 07, 2025
Sarah Wilson reckons with our civilisational collapse
Aug 06, 2025
Mike Burgess — Espionage is a growing and costly threat to Australia
Aug 05, 2025
Plummeting vaccination rates threaten public health
Aug 04, 2025
Not drowning waving, a modern media tale — with Geraldine Doogue
Jul 31, 2025
From Con the Fruiterer to East West 101 — the changing face of Australian TV
Jul 31, 2025
FAT is not an F-word! The radical practice of fat joy
Jul 30, 2025
How animals use natural medicine to heal themselves
Jul 29, 2025
The dark side of collaboration — when thinking together goes wrong
Jul 28, 2025
Adam Liaw on what spaghetti bolognese tells us about Australian life
Jul 24, 2025
Mao and Stalin — did they lead the way for tyrannical leaders like Trump?
Jul 23, 2025
One land, two laws, it’s black and white — with Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Social Justice Commissioner Katie Kiss
Jul 22, 2025
Doctor Who turns 60 — why the world still loves you
Jul 21, 2025
Is AI our modern-day Frankenstein? Jeanette Winterson and Toby Walsh
Jul 17, 2025
ABC's CITIZEN JURY — Would you live inside a modern power station? These people will, and want to be heard
Jul 16, 2025
Radical economics — what can we learn from the life of John Maynard Keynes
Jul 15, 2025
Life behind the lens — with photojournalists Lorrie Graham, Rick Stevens and Mike Bowers
Jul 14, 2025
Can citizen juries put the people back in democracy?
Jul 10, 2025
Join Jodi Edwards and her Sea Kin on a journey that flows like salt water — you won't see the sea in the same way
Jul 09, 2025
Behrouz Boochani and Arnold Zable on the radical act of friendship
Jul 08, 2025
Where to now — transforming anger into action after the Voice referendum
Jul 07, 2025
What would a feminist utopia look like?
Jul 03, 2025
Dark tourism, death, design, and the macabre — should some places stay untouched?
Jul 02, 2025
Is language power? With American linguist John McWhorter
Jul 01, 2025
Hard new world — our post-American future, with Hugh White and Allan Behm
Jun 30, 2025
Baby boycott — the fertility crisis and the big decision
Jun 26, 2025
Love your gut — understanding the microbiome
Jun 25, 2025
Adapt or collapse — can we meet the moment of environmental peril
Jun 24, 2025
Kate McClymont on the complete insanity of investigative journalism
Jun 23, 2025
The second coming of quantum — the next scientific revolution is here
Jun 19, 2025
The past is a foreign country — Santilla Chingaipe, Sita Sargeant, Steve Vizard with Natasha Mitchell
Jun 18, 2025
Will American democracy survive the Dark Enlightenment? Sarah Churchwell on Gone with the Wind and the roots of extremism
Jun 17, 2025
We are the evidence — empowering change in Indigenous Australia
Jun 16, 2025
From Bangalore to Balmain – Padma Raman’s lifelong advocacy for women and girls
Jun 12, 2025
Fashion's fails — we can fix its toxic legacy! Kit Willow, Natasha Mitchell, and guests 
Jun 11, 2025
Warren Ellis on why he bought a Sumatran wildlife sanctuary — with Justin Kurzel and Zan Rowe
Jun 10, 2025
To infinity – who's in charge of outer space?
Jun 09, 2025
Being Jewish after the destruction of Gaza — with Peter Beinart and Sarah Schwartz
Jun 05, 2025
We asked for workers and got people — inside the temporary visa scheme putting food on your plate
Jun 04, 2025
The unbearable intimacy of voicing someone’s words — with Forced Entertainment
Jun 03, 2025
Gina Chick on what dark nights of the soul can teach us about life and living
Jun 02, 2025
Safe at home – who profits when you’re afraid of your neighbours?
May 29, 2025
The ghosts are here — Tasma Walton, Darren Rix, Craig Cormick, Anthony Sharwood with Natasha Mitchell
May 28, 2025
Words to sing the world alive — waking up First Nations languages
May 27, 2025
From vulture bone flutes to ‘organised sound’— Andrew Ford's short history of music
May 26, 2025
If it bleeds it leads – Bruce Shapiro on documenting the violence of modern life
May 22, 2025
Live to 150? David Sinclair on why we age — and why he thinks we don't have to
May 21, 2025
Australia and the spectre of war — from Vietnam to today
May 20, 2025
Australia votes — what message should we take from this election result?
May 19, 2025
What are you wearing? Why we aren’t buying Australian made fashion
May 15, 2025
Mark Zuckerberg claims corporations are culturally neutered — are they? Men, women, work, and the manosphere
May 14, 2025
History lessons — historians Orlando Figes, Bettany Hughes, Matthew Longo and Dava Sobel with Annabelle Quince
May 13, 2025
Chatting with 2025 Grammy winner Ruthie Foster
May 12, 2025
Vladimir Putin’s Russia — with exiled journalist and author Mikhail Zygar
May 08, 2025
Rituals, rats, and reeded vertebrae! The mysteries of Machu Picchu and Ancient Peru revealed
May 07, 2025
Mental ill-health and the power of words
May 06, 2025
Worried about the future? A mosquito could help you to live in the present
May 05, 2025
Australia votes— are our political parties on the nose?
May 01, 2025
Has the world lost the plot? John Lyons, Greg Sheridan, Emma Shortis, Josh Taylor with Natasha Mitchell
Apr 30, 2025
The painting that changed Australia — the story of Blue Poles
Apr 29, 2025
Are Donald Trump and US politics bringing global health to its knees?
Apr 28, 2025
Sir Simon Schama — On antisemitism
Apr 24, 2025
How do we make cancer treatment worth it, work better, and less harmful?
Apr 23, 2025
Pankaj Mishra — the world after Gaza
Apr 22, 2025
Uncovering Pompeii — 300 years of archaeology
Apr 21, 2025
When women resist authoritarianism — what's happening in Iran, Afghanistan, Myanmar right now?
Apr 17, 2025
A season of death — with Raimond Gaita and Michelle Lesh
Apr 17, 2025
Where is the soul in science? Natasha Mitchell and guests on a humanity defining battle (Archive)
Apr 16, 2025
When the Tech Bros come to town — with Kara Swisher and Marc Fennell
Apr 15, 2025
The biggest threat to the planet is a story — an eye-opening insider account of Australian environmentalism
Apr 14, 2025
Supporting teenagers to thrive online
Apr 03, 2025
Can storytellers change the world? Tim Winton and Rachel Perkins join Natasha Mitchell
Apr 02, 2025
Populist rage in America — history, causes and impacts
Apr 01, 2025
Good conversations — with writer and poet Ian WIlliams (CBC Massey Lecture 5)
Mar 31, 2025
Who can speak for whom to whom about what? — with writer and poet Ian Williams (CBC Massey Lecture 4)
Mar 27, 2025
Personal conversations — with writer and poet Ian Williams (CBC Massey Lecture 3)
Mar 26, 2025
Public conversations — with writer and poet Ian Williams (CBC Massey Lecture 2)
Mar 25, 2025
Why we need to have a conversation about conversations — with writer and poet Ian Williams (CBC Massey Lecture 1)
Mar 24, 2025
Australians – the ‘aristocrats’ of Asia? The Lucky Country 60 years on
Mar 20, 2025
Choices created Australia's housing mess, what choices will fix it? Natasha Mitchell and guests
Mar 19, 2025
Free your attention — meditation and mindfulness in the digital age
Mar 18, 2025
Today YOU can choose your family
Mar 17, 2025
Riverhood — oral histories in the Murray Darling Basin
Mar 13, 2025
Vested interests vs public interest? How the fossil fuel industry captures Australian governments
Mar 12, 2025
France — a paradoxical country
Mar 11, 2025
Can the International Criminal Court deliver justice?
Mar 10, 2025
Helen Garner on footy, boys, and growing old
Mar 06, 2025
Is America on the cusp of collapse under Trump? Natasha Mitchell and guests at Adelaide Writers Week
Mar 05, 2025
What does the internet know about you?
Mar 04, 2025
Security in Europe hangs in the balance. Is NATO on the rocks?
Mar 03, 2025
Animals — Us and them? How does loving animals go together with industrial farming?
Feb 24, 2025
Animals — Us and them? Are you having a whale of a time?
Feb 24, 2025
Animals — Us and them? The cat catastrophe – pet or pest?
Feb 24, 2025
Animals — Us and them? What is the purpose of zoos in an extinction crisis?
Feb 24, 2025
Animals — Us and them? The true and the ugly of wildlife documentaries
Feb 20, 2025
Jem Bendell, the fake green fairytale, and how to survive civilisational collapse
Feb 19, 2025
A murder in Malta — how Daphne Caruana Galizia's fight for justice lives on in her son
Feb 18, 2025
Empireworld — Sathnam Sanghera on how British imperialism shaped the globe
Feb 18, 2025
Living out your mental illness in public paves the way to lasting change
Feb 17, 2025
Uncancelled culture — forgiveness and redemption in the digital age
Feb 13, 2025
I can change the world! How these changemakers found their superpower
Feb 12, 2025
Re-thinking the relationship between brain and machine
Feb 11, 2025
Video games — a new frontier in the fight for global influence?
Feb 10, 2025
Don’t be a D**khead — with musicians Kasey Chambers and Clare Bowditch
Feb 06, 2025
Should scientists stand up as things fall down? Advocacy, activism, impartiality and the risks
Feb 05, 2025
Minority report — the new shape of Australian politics, with George Megalogenis and Tory Shepherd
Feb 04, 2025
Why Australian politicians welcomed fascists after the Second World War
Feb 03, 2025
What’s the secret to governments making wise decisions?
Jan 30, 2025
Merlin Sheldrake's Entangled Life — how fungi do things differently, and inspire us to as well
Jan 29, 2025
Nicky Winmar and Rhoda Roberts − showing racism in sport the red card
Jan 28, 2025
Chopsticks or fork? — Jennifer Wong and Lin Jie Kong with Annabel Crabb
Jan 27, 2025
Writers who rock — on the art of music writing
Jan 23, 2025
How surfing writer Tim Baker and doctor Peter Goldsworthy learnt to live well and laugh with cancer
Jan 22, 2025
The fight to protect abortion in the United States — with Dr Angel Foster
Jan 21, 2025
The Knowledge Gene — the incredible story of the supergene that gives us human creativity
Jan 20, 2025
Is there life on Mars?
Jan 16, 2025
The delicate complexities of treating mental illness — Jonathan Rosen, Patrick McGorry with Natasha Mitchell
Jan 15, 2025
Mary Beard and the Roman Empire
Jan 14, 2025
Looking to a healthy future with Helen Clark
Jan 13, 2025
How traumatic stress hurts us — with Bessel van der Kolk
Jan 09, 2025
Are national deficits a myth? Stephanie Kelton explodes an economic holy cow
Jan 08, 2025
How to cut through political spin — Richard Denniss, Joelle Gergis, Yanis Varoufakis, Tom Keneally with Natasha Mitchell
Jan 07, 2025
Islands rising — life on the front lines of the climate crisis
Jan 06, 2025
Liberalism as the basis of life?
Jan 02, 2025
Thriving not just surviving with Tibetan master Mingyur Rinpoche, a Sufi scholar and Indian philosopher of mind
Jan 01, 2025
AC Grayling — How to live well, according to philosophy
Dec 31, 2024
Laurie Anderson on time and life
Dec 30, 2024
Hugh Mackay — Australian society in the 21st century
Dec 26, 2024
Holly Ringland helps you to get creative
Dec 25, 2024
Lifting the lid — the lost story of an extraordinary Egyptian coffin revealed
Dec 24, 2024
Andrew O'Hagan — Literature and truth in the era of fake news, algorithms and artificial intelligence
Dec 23, 2024
Eric Bogle tells it all — his songs and his life
Dec 19, 2024
The debate over shark nets: killers or life savers? With Natasha Mitchell and guests
Dec 18, 2024
Meet the mothers of Australia's women's refuge movement
Dec 17, 2024
Is Australia overrun by feral animals? With Gardening Australia's Costa Georgiadis
Dec 16, 2024
Benjamin Law’s butt, and the power and politics of portraiture
Dec 12, 2024
The surfer and circumnavigator — the gobsmacking feats of Pauline Menczer and Bonnie Hancock
Dec 11, 2024
President Petr Pavel – on why the war in Ukraine is a fight for geopolitical stability worldwide
Dec 10, 2024
Memory, refugees and the Vietnam War — with Pulitzer Prize winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen
Dec 09, 2024
Who gets to shape the story? Reporting on the conflict in the Middle East — with The Guardian’s Nour Haydar
Dec 05, 2024
50 years after Cyclone Tracy — powerful memories of horror and hope
Dec 04, 2024
Deaf defying: disability leadership as an act of resistance — with Dr Scott Avery
Dec 03, 2024
Trees, seeds, and ecotourism — the hidden histories Nature reveals about us
Dec 02, 2024
The right to discriminate? Religious schools and Australian human rights law
Nov 28, 2024
Is it still possible for empathy to trump hate? Here's how. Rhonda Magee and Mariam Tokhi with Natasha Mitchell
Nov 27, 2024
Busting the myths around menstruation and menopause, with Dr Jennifer Gunter
Nov 26, 2024
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, 30 years on
Nov 25, 2024
Together, or together alone? Teens and adults debate social media's good, bad and ugly
Nov 21, 2024
ADHD, autism, depression — is social media causing social contagion? Jean Twenge, Sonny Jane Wise, Alice Dawkins, Sandersan Onie with Natasha Mitchell
Nov 20, 2024
Negotiating peace against the odds can be murky business
Nov 19, 2024
The 4-Day-Week − creating a better work life balance or just more stress?
Nov 18, 2024
From Mumbai to Studio 54 — how Asha Puthli became India's first disco star
Nov 14, 2024
Joanna Murray-Smith — You’re Right, I’m Wrong: The Artist's Role in a Shifting World
Nov 13, 2024
The future of remembering wars past — school students speak frankly with Natasha Mitchell at the Shrine
Nov 11, 2024
Ending homelessness is possible
Nov 07, 2024
What's wrong with death? Sophia Club live philosophy with Natasha Mitchell and guests
Nov 06, 2024
From Gatsby to Huck Finn — American literature in an age of polarisation
Nov 04, 2024
Old, new, best, true — the joy, power and heartache of friends
Oct 31, 2024
Unconventional women — a hidden story of nuns with Natasha Mitchell and guests
Oct 30, 2024
Candice Fox, Matthew Conon, Benjamin Stevenson – on the ethics of crime writing
Oct 28, 2024
SOS Democracy with Jon Faine — Can democracy survive social media?
Oct 27, 2024
SOS Democracy with Niall Ferguson and Barrie Cassidy — Is democracy doomed?
Oct 25, 2024
SOS Democracy with Scott Stephens — Saving democracy with decency
Oct 25, 2024
Spielberg, a tuba, and a shark named Bruce — the cultural impact of Jaws
Oct 24, 2024
Brain amoeba, weird worms and the wild parasites (inside you too!) with Natasha Mitchell and guests
Oct 23, 2024
SOS Democracy with Fintan O’Toole — The US elections and the politics of self-pity
Oct 22, 2024
From pointe shoes to jockstraps – David McAllister lifts the curtain on the secrets of ballet
Oct 21, 2024
The dangerous rise in antisemitism – Sharon Nazarian
Oct 17, 2024
A plea for peace in the Middle East — Louise Adler and Nasser Mashni
Oct 16, 2024
SOS Democracy with Niki Savva — Can politicians and journalists do better?
Oct 15, 2024
What makes you a top athlete: science, training or talent?
Oct 14, 2024
Cemeteries − the parks and public spaces of the future
Oct 10, 2024
The case for controversial ideas — philosopher Peter Singer with Natasha Mitchell
Oct 09, 2024
How Edna Walling changed gardening — with Gardening Australia's Millie Ross
Oct 08, 2024
From Gaza to Ukraine — is it harder to build peace, than to start war?
Oct 07, 2024
Superheroes, pop stars, and “good enough tv” — The life of a culture critic in 2024
Oct 03, 2024
Gold, Galahs and the Milky Way: unlocking the universe 
Oct 02, 2024
Why autistic people make terrific employees
Oct 01, 2024
Is depression a form of jetlag? Understanding the circadian rhythm
Sep 30, 2024
Restoring the fine art of traditional trades
Sep 26, 2024
What rights for children in care?
Sep 25, 2024
Students win fight for climate justice before the world's highest court
Sep 24, 2024
Housing as a human right? With Alan Kohler and Kevin Bell
Sep 23, 2024
Saving winter — the future of snow in Australia's Alpine region
Sep 19, 2024
Busting single motherhood myths
Sep 18, 2024
How history shapes who we are — with Frank Bongiorno and Peter Stanley
Sep 17, 2024
Why a scary tale is good for you − Angela Slatter, Kathleen Jennings, Naomi Novik and Shelley Parker-Chan
Sep 16, 2024
Are we taking Orwell's name in vain?
Sep 12, 2024
How valid is the Australian Constitution today?
Sep 11, 2024
Gas, tax and the free market — with Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz
Sep 10, 2024
A maze with no exits — Ma Thida on Myanmar’s struggle for democracy
Sep 09, 2024
So you want to know what’s good for your kids?— with Norman Swan
Sep 05, 2024
Milk — a misunderstood, maligned, miracle food?
Sep 04, 2024
From landmines to killer robots — inside the campaigns to ban weapons of war
Sep 03, 2024
Richard Flanagan, Michael Robotham on the hidden costs of cheap books
Sep 02, 2024
Caribbean identity in Australia — with Maxine Beneba Clarke and Sienna Brown
Aug 29, 2024
Tim Flannery and the mystery of Big Meg — why did the world's largest predator disappear?
Aug 28, 2024
Intellectual influencers — the new generation of social media stars
Aug 27, 2024
Is bush tucker the future of food security?
Aug 26, 2024
Public broadcasting is not as simple as ABC — with Kim Williams and Kerry O’ Brien
Aug 22, 2024