Episódios
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The ghost people arrived by boat. They never left. But the stories of first encounters and what came next live large, 250 years later, in First Nations families and communities. An ambitious journey to reclaim the names and stories disappeared by Captain James Cook, but never lost. A deeply personal excavation of herstories and the women wrenched from their Country by colonial sealers. A Polish freedom fighter and the fight for the mountain that bears his name. Join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell to talk ghosts, reclaimation and revival with four authors at the 2025 Sorrento Writers Festival.
Speakers
Darren Rix and Dr Craig Cormick, co-authors of Warra Warra Wai: How indigenous Australians discovered Captain Cook and what they tell about the coming of the Ghost People (Scribner Australia. 2024)
Tasma Walton, actor, screenwriter, novelist and author of I am Nannertgarrook (S&S Bundyi, 2025) Anthony Sharwood, journalist and author of Kosciuszko: The Incredible Life of the Man Behind The Mountain (Hachette Australia, 2024)
Thanks to festival founder and director Corrie Perkin and the Sorrento Festival production team.
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At the time of colonisation, there were more than 250 Indigenous languages spoken in Australia, but these days, all are considered endangered. Many First Nations people are working hard to revive and reclaim their mother tongues. In the anthology, Words to Sing the World Alive: Celebrating First Nations Languages, 40 Indigenous Australians share words and phrases that are meaningful to them.
This event was recorded at the Clunes Booktown Festival on on Dja Dja Wurrung Country on 22 March 2025.
Speakers
Evelyn AraleunPoet, researcher, and co-editor of Overland Literary magazineAuthor, Dropbear (Stella Prize winner 2022)Bundjalung speaker
Vicki CouzensSenior Knowledge Custodian for Possum Skin Cloak Story and Language Reclamation and Revival in her Keerray Woorroong mother tongue
Jeanine LeanePoet, essayist and criticPoetry editor for Meanjin magazineAuthor, Purple Threads (2010 David Unaipon Award for Indigenous Writing), Gawimarra: Gathering (winner, 2025 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Poetry)Wiradjuri speaker
Jane Harrison (host)Playwright and novelist, Stolen, Rainbow's End and The VisitorsFormer director, Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival
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Music has been around for at least as long as humans, and possibly even longer. How have forces like religion, the economy, society and technology, shaped music over time? And why, in lullabies and concert halls, songlines and streaming services, have humans always been irresistibly drawn to making it?
This event was recorded at Sydney's Gleebooks.
Speakers
Andrew FordHost, The Music Show, ABC Radio NationalAuthor, The Shortest History of Music, and moreAward-winning composer
Kirsty McCahon (host)Double bassistStrategic Relations Manager, Sydney Conservatorium of Music
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From wars with global consequences to violent crimes in the suburbs, trauma underpins so much of the news cycle. It’s something award-winning journalist Bruce Shapiro came to understand intimately when, as a young crime reporter, he was stabbed. It changed his whole perspective on his profession, dedicating a large part of his career to the question of how trauma in yourself - or your source - changes the way you approach a story. Hear how trauma became newsworthy, how reporters learned to better tell those stories, and what it all means in 2025.
The Annual Humanities Horizons Lecture is organised by Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. The Lecture was established in 2013 to provide reflection on and advocacy for the Arts and Humanities. The content of the lecture is the intellectual property of the speaker Bruce Shapiro.
Speaker
Bruce ShapiroExecutive Director of the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma at the Columbia Journalism School
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What if we could turn back time on our biological clock and slow down — even reverse — aging? High profile Harvard scientist David Sinclair is co-author of the New York Times bestseller Lifespan: Why We Age and Why We Don’t Have To. His lab’s work is as ambitious as it is controversial. He wants to radically change the way we live our lives — and push at the boundary of what it means to be human. Professor Sinclair joins Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell at the 2025 World Science Festival Brisbane.
Speaker
David A SinclairProfessor of GeneticsAuthor (with Matthew D. LaPlante) of Lifespan: Why We Age and Why We Don’t Have To (Atria Book, 2019)Blavatnik Institute, Harvard Medical SchoolPaul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research Harvard University
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It's been 60 years since then Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies sent Australians to fight in the Vietnam War. Since that time, the defence force has been involved in many armed conflicts and peace keeping missions around the world — but with varying degrees of public support. So how have successive Australian governments managed public consensus around military engagements? And with war once again a threat to global security, might they have to do so again?
These events were recorded at the Robert Menzies Institute at the University of Melbourne on 29 April 2025, and at the Australian Catholic University on 11 April 2025.
Speakers
Sir Peter CosgroveFormer Chief of the Australian Defence ForceFormer Australian Governor General
Georgina DownerChief Executive Officer, Robert Menzies Institute, University of Melbourne
Mia Martin HobbsAuthor, Return to Vietnam: An Oral History of American and Australian Veterans' JourneysPostdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University
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If democracy is the will of the people, what does this federal election result say about Australia? In his election night victory speech, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australians had voted for Australian values, claiming these were fairness, aspiration and opportunity for all. But is this right message we should take from the election result?
This conversation was recorded live at the 2025 Melbourne Writers Festival in partnership with The Wheeler Centre. To explore more Melbourne Writers Festival talks, visit mwf.com.au
Speakers
Judith BrettPolitical historianAuthor, The Fearless Beatrice Faust, Robert Menzies' Forgotten People, Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class, and The Enigmatic Mr Deakin, (winner, 2018 National Biography award)
Cathy McGowanFormer Independent MP for IndiAuthor, Cathy Goes to Canberra: doing politics differently
Thomas MayoNational Indigenous Officer of the Maritime Union of Australia"Yes" campaigner in the Voice to Parliament referendumAuthor, Dear Son, Letters and Reflections from First Nations Fathers and Sons, Always Was, Always Will Be: The Campaign for Justice and Recognition Continues, and more
Sally Warhaft (host)Interviewer, broadcaster, anthropologist and writerHost, The Fifth Estate event series at The Wheeler CentreFormer editor, The Monthly magazineAuthor, Well May We Say: The speeches that made AustraliaAdjunct Senior Research Fellow, La Trobe University
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Australians are now the biggest consumers per capita of clothes in the world. But just three per cent of clothing is made here in Australia. So is it time for a fashion rethink?
This event was held at the Melbourne Museum as part of Melbourne Fashion Festival's Fashion Talks program on 4 March 2025.
Speakers
Tara MosesChief Operating Officer, RM Williams
Sarah SheridanCo-founder, Clothing the Gaps
Amy GallagherCo-founder, Kloke
Juanita PageFounder, Joseph and James
Jaana Quaintance-James (host)Chief Executive Officer, Australian Fashion Council
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Meta's Mark Zuckerberg has said “a lot of the corporate world has become culturally neutered” and that it needs more “masculine energy”? Has it and does it? At Meta, he recently shut down initiatives that promote equity and diversity in his workplace. In the USA, so has Ford, Mcdonalds, Walmart, and the Trump administration. But in Australia, less than 5% of CEOs in private companies are women and the gender pay gap is slow to budge. Meanwhile, future male leaders are being courted online by manosphere influencers like Andrew Tate. Where is all this heading? Join Natasha Mitchell and guests to consider the consequences for modern workplaces.
This event was produced by the 2025 Sorrento Writers Festival curated by festival director and founder Corrie Perkin.
Speakers
Catherine Fox AMAward-winning journalist, author, presenter, and commentator on women in the workforceAuthor, Breaking the Boss Bias: How to Get More Women Into Leadership (2024) and Stop Fixing Women (2017)Josh BornsteinLawyer specialising in employment and labour-relations law. Author, Working for the Brand: How Corporations are Destroying Free Speech (2024).
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Democracies in retreat, attacks on science, border disputes, death and destruction. It can feel like we are living in unprecedented times - but here's the thing: world history has a habit of repeating itself. So what lessons does history teach us about this moment in which we find ourselves? Do we humans learn anything from the past, or are we destined to repeat the same mistakes?
This event was recorded at Adelaide Writers' Week on 5 May 2025.
Speakers
Orlando FigesHistorian of Russia and EuropeEmeritus Professor of History at the University of LondonAuthor, The Europeans: Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture, The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia and many more
Bettany HughesClassical historian, writer, broadcasterAuthor, Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Venus and Aphrodite: history of a goddess and many morePresenter, Bettany Hughes' Lost Worlds: The Nabataeans (SBS)
Matthew LongoPolitical scientistAuthor, The Politics of Borders: Sovereignty, Security, and the Citizen after 9/11, The Picnic: A dream of freedom and the collapse of the Iron Curtain (Winner of the 2024 Orwell Prize for political writing)Assistant Professor of Political Science, Leiden University (The Netherlands)
Dava SobelScience writer and historianAuthor, Longitude, Galileo's Daughter, The Elements of Marie Curie and many more
Annabelle Quince (host)Host, Rear Vision, ABC Radio National
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After five nominations, Ruthie Foster has taken home the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album - affirming her status as an American music legend. In this intimate conversation, she shares what made her want to be a singer; the roles of her grandmother and mother in her life; why faith is so important to her and why she wants to sing about real people. And much more…
A Heartlands Conservation presented at the Blue Mountains Music Festival.
Speakers
Ruthie FosterAmerican singer-songwriter of blues and folk music. 2025 Grammy Award winner for Best Contemporary Blues Album
Gregg Borschmann (host)Writer, radio producer and oral historian for the National Library of Australia
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The exiled founder of Russia's only independent television news channel, Mikhail Zygar, takes us inside Vladimir Putin's Russia, with a firsthand account of how the President has successfully silenced the media, opposition and Kremlin critics, to cement his hold on power.
The 2025 AN Smith Lecture: Journalism against autocracy: Putin, Trump and the future of news was recorded at the University of Melbourne's Centre for Advancing Journalism on 31 March 2025.
Speakers
Mikhail ZygarExiled Russian journalist and commentatorFounder of Russian TV channel Rain TVAuthor, War and Punishment: The Story of Russian Oppression and Ukrainian Resistance, All the Kremlin's Men: Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin and moreWinner, 2014 Committee to Protect Journalists International Press Freedom Award
Professor Andrew DoddDirector, Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne
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A story of continents crashing and cleaving apart, the making of a civilisation, the language of the dead, and ... a mummified rat makes a cameo too. The Incan empire was vast and sophisticated. It built the stunning citadel in the clouds of Machu Picchu in the Andes mountains. But within a century its people were catastrophically wiped out by the onslaught of the Spanish conquistadors. Join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell with two intrepid researchers — an archaeologist and a leading mammalogist — to hear what amazing discoveries continue to be made in Peru and South America.
Thanks to the Australian Museum for hosting and producing this event.
Speakers
Professor Kris HelgenChief ScientistDirector of the Australian Museum Research InstituteAustralian Museum
Dr Jacob BongersArchaeologist University of Sydney
Further information:
Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires exhibition
Assembling the dead: human vertebrae-on-posts in the Chincha Valley, PeruPainting personhood: Red pigment practices in southern Peru
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The language used to talk about mental ill-health can play a key role in reducing or enforcing stigma. And it's constantly evolving. But what terms should be used and when? And by whom? The wrong word can not only deeply hurt a person's feelings. It can end careers, destroy relationships, cut access to support systems. This special World Mental Health Day PsychTalks event was presented by the Mental Ill-Health Stigma Researchers Australia Network (MISRA), the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, and the Melbourne School of Global and Population Health, with the support of SANE’s StigmaWatch program.
Speakers
Professor Nicola ReavleyPrincipal Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Centre for Mental Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health
Dr Michelle BlanchardChief Executive Officer of VANISH, Honorary Senior Fellow in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne
Professor Nick HaslamProfessor of Psychology, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences
Fay JacksonGeneral Manager of Inclusion at Flourish Australia
Sandy JeffsAuthor and poet, advocate in the mental health system for many years
Dr Chris Groot (host)Senior Lecturer in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne
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What can a mosquito teach us about time? Noone likes a mosquito bite — but for a brief moment when it stings you, you know you are alive. Humans are temporal beings, but across cultures, our concepts of time are vastly different. This event explores what we can learn from science, philosophy and Indigenous perspectives that can alter experiences of and attitudes to time, to make better decisions for the future.
This event was recorded at the Sophia Club in London on 17 October 2024.
Speakers
Richard FisherAuthor, The Long View: Why We Need to Transform How the World Sees TimeSenior editor, Aeon Media
Ande SombyYoik singerAssociate Professor of Law, The Arctic University of Norway
Brigid Hains (host)Editorial director, Aeon Media
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This election has been described as a boring campaign, but with some fascinating contests. So just what is going on in the minds of voters as Australia heads to the polls this weekend?
This event was recorded at the Sorrento Writers Festival on 27 May 2025.
Speakers
Frank BongiornoProfessor of History, Australian National UniversityPresident, Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, and the Australian Historical AssociationAuthor, Dreamers and Schemers: A Political History of Australia, The Sex lives of Australians: a history
Paul KellyEditor-at-Large, The AustralianAuthor, Triumph and Demise: The Broken Promise of a Labor Generation and The March of Patriots: The Struggle for Modern Australia
Kim CarrLongest serving Victoria Labor Senator (1993 — 2022)Vice Chancellor's Professorial Fellow at Monash UniversityDirector of the Made in Australia Campaign LimitedAuthor, A Long March
Jo Dyer (host)Writer, literary curator and producer of theatre and filmFormer director, Adelaide Writers Week, former CEO, Sydney Writers FestivalIndependent candidate for Boothby at the 2022 federal electionAuthor, Burning Down the House: Reconstructing Modern Politics
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Are we living through a key turning point in world history? How do we make sense of this present moment, and what's on the horizon?Trump's trade wars, long-held alliances dismantled, the deadly conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, the rise and rise of AI, the tech oligarch takeover, China's military build-up, NATO's demise, and much more. It's a confusing time. Four seasoned analysts and journalists with their finger on the pulse join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell to share their prognoses.
This event was hosted and organised by the 2025 Sorrento Writers Festival curated by festival director Corrie Perkin.
Speakers
John LyonsWalkley award winning foreign correspondentABC Editor, AmericasABC Washington bureau chief
Greg SheridanForeign editor, The AustralianJournalist and author, Christians, the urgent case for Jesus in our world (2021)
Emma ShortisDirector, The Australia Institute's International and Security Affairs program. Author, Our Exceptional Friend: Australia's Fatal Alliance with the United States (2021), After America: Australia and the New World Order (2025)
Josh TaylorAward-winning journalist specialising in technology and politicsThe Guardian
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It's been called a coming-of-age story for a nation. The Whitlam Government's purchase of Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles in 1973 helped to bring down the government. So how did this abstract expressionist masterpiece become the most famous, most controversial artwork in Australia?
Then: how does political portraiture affect how we feel about politicians — and how we vote? Jacqueline Maley looks at The Art in the Optics — and explains why political portraiture is more important than ever today.
These events were recorded at the National Library of Australia on 3 March 2025 and the National Portrait Gallery on 20 March 2025.
Speakers
Tom McIlroyAuthor, Blue Poles: Jackson Pollock, Gough Whitlam and the painting that changed the nationPolitical correspondent, Australian Financial Review
Niki SavvaPolitical commentator and columnist, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age
Jacqueline MaleyColumnist, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age
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Until recently, the USA provided about 30% of global health funding. It was dominant in supplying HIV/AIDS medication and funded a major part of medical research. Much of this has now stopped with Donald Trump restricting gender affirming care, withdrawing from the WHO and holding funds from USAID - and the list goes on. What are the impacts on pandemic preparedness, future global health priorities and resource mobilisation?
This conversation has been presented by the The Australian Institute for Infectious Disease (AIID) and the Australian Global Health Alliance.
Speakers
Dr Nina SchwalbeCEO and founder of Spark Street Advisors
Professor Brendan CrabbDirector and CEO Burnet Institute
Professor Sharon LewinDirector Doherty Institute
Dr Selina Namchee Lo (host)Executive Director, Australian Global Health Alliance
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Acclaimed British historian Sir Simon Schama reflects on the history of antisemitism, the Holocaust and contemporary culture. He says that for millennia Jewish people have been "the other of convenience. We are the dark mirror in which the wish fulfilment of other societies takes it out on people who are said to represent its opposite."
Presented at the Adelaide Writers Festival in partnership with the University of Sydney.
Speaker
Sir Simon SchamaBritish historian and television presenterProfessor of Art History and History, Columbia University
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