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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.

Big Ideas

A brass band, goulash cooking in giant pots over open flames, people dancing around a bonfire — a pan-European picnic at the border between Hungary and Austria in 1989 was the beginning of the end of the Cold War. Suddenly hundreds of East Germans stormed the border into the West and freedom. It's a moment in history where the power of ordinary people changed the world.

An Escape to Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain was presented at the Adelaide Writers' Week

Speakers

Matthew LongoAuthor of The Picnic: A Dream of Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron CurtainAssistant Professor of Political Science at Leiden University

Annabelle Quince (host)ABC broadcaster and presenter of ABC Radio National's Rear Vision

How a picnic started the fall of the Iron Curtain

Without permission, or payment, artificial intelligence has stolen the published words of thousands of Australian writers, and it seems that they have little power to stop it. What does this mean for the future of human creativity?

Anna Funder's speech was recorded live at the 2025 Sydney Writers Festival.

The panel discussion, Can Australian literature survive in the age of streamers & AI? was recorded at Readings bookshop in Hawthorn.

Speakers

Anna Funder - Author, Wifedom, Stasiland, All that I Am

Sophie Cunningham - Writer, artist, teacher, speaker and advocate, Chair of the Board of the Australian Society of Authors, non- executive director of the Copyright Agency

Emily Bitto - Author, The Strays (2015 Stella Prize winner), Wild Abandon

Jenny Darling - Literary agent, Jenny Darling & Associates

Ben Eltham (host) - Arts, media and cultural critic, commentator and journalist

Anna Funder — Bears out there, writing in the age of bots and broligarchs

Marie Curie is arguably the most famous scientist in history, for her breakthroughs in the field of radioactivity. But Curie also redefined what was possible for women in science, inspiring generations to follow her.

Dava Sobel's 2025 For Future Reference Lecture A woman's word (about science) was recorded at the State Library of Victoria.

Speakers

Dava SobelAuthor, The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science and many more

Belinda Smith (host)

Award-winning science journalist, Host, Labnotes, ABC Radio National

The remarkable life of Marie Curie and the women scientists she inspired — with Dava Sobel

It's Team Wellness Warriors versus Team Medical Miracles. Hear the arguments and you decide! The wellness industry is booming. It's worth billions and its influencers are all over social media spruiking miracle pills and mystery remedies, crystal healing and cancer cures. Some are even steaming their vaginas (hellooooo Gywneth Paltrow!). Have they done the research that mainstream medicine refuses to? Is your doctor really the best person to help you be the healthiest you can be? Or ... are many wellness influencers shysters and swindlers, selling hoax cures, making unproven claims, and putting your bank balance and your health at serious risk? Join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell from the stage of the 2025 World Science Festival Brisbane for an hilarious hour of science and comedy. Laughing is good for your health, that's for sure.

Speakers

TEAM WELLNESS WARRIORSDr Joel Gilmore Clean energy expert, physicist, and science communicatorAssociate professor, Griffith University

Dr Lily BentleyMarine biologistUniversity of Queensland

Ting LimStand-up comic and star of ABC TV's Fisk

TEAM MEDICAL MIRACLESStacey Thomson aka TV's Ranger StaceyHost of the former long-running TV show Totally Wild

Dr Mike TodorovichMedical educator and host of the Dr Matt and Dr Mike Youtube channelAssociate Professor of Medicine, Bond University

Steven OliverComedian, poet, playwright, cabaret performer, and star of ABC TV's Black Comedy

Thanks to event producers Jane O'Hara, Dr Rob Bell, and the whole World Science Festival Brisbane team.

Wellness influencers will outlive us all! The Science Smackdown Debate at World Science Festival Brisbane

The American essayist, philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson famously said that all life is an experiment, and the more experiments you make, the better. So can experimenting with your career, your health, where you live or who you love, improve your life, by helping you to make better decisions?

This event Test and learn: living an experimental life was recorded at the University of Sydney's Raising the Bar night.

Speakers

May Samali - Founder and CEO of the Human Leadership Lab

How to live an experimental life

Their closest relative is the elephant; they eat about 60 kg of sea grass per day; and there are only three dugongs in captivity in the world. One in the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium. Big Ideas deep dives into the mysterious world of dugongs — with fascinating stories and surprising insights.

Presented at the World Science Festival Brisbane in the Queensland Museum.

Big Ideas — Turning a third of our oceans into marine parks. A good idea?

Speakers

Dr Janet LanyonWorld authority on dugongs, Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Queensland

Dr Merrick EkinsCollection Manager of Sessile Marine Invertebrates at the Queensland Museum

Brooke WitherbySea World Marine Education Officer

Michael Balk (host)Actor, and television & radio presenter

Further Information

Sea World Dugong Population Research

The Sea World Rescue Team: call on 07 5588 2222 (9:00am to 5:00pm) or 07 5588 2177 (After Hours)

Dugong Pig at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium

Dugongs — up close and personal

In your daily life you use more material than you think: metals, stones, wood, ceramics – the list goes on. We have sufficient resources to support growth, but not enough to support greed. A circular economy could support a more sustainable resource management. 

Presented by Planet Ark's Australian Circular Economy Hub (ACE Hub)

Speaker

Janez PotočnikCo-Chair of UN Environment International Resource Panel, former EU Commissioner for responsible for Science and Research and for Environment

Dr Nicole Garofano (host)Head of Circular Economy Development for Planet Ark

Further information

Report: Global resource outlook 2024

Do you know the size of your material footprint?

If you knew the world as we know it was on the verge of collapse, would that change the way you live your life? Author, activist and podcaster Sarah Wilson has found many reasons to believe our post-industrial civilisation is nearing its end. So how does she live with this confronting reality?

This conversation was recorded at the 2025 Melbourne Writers Festival. To explore more Melbourne Writers Festival talks, visit mwf.com.au.

Speakers

Sarah Wilson - Author, First, We Make the Beast Beautiful and This One Wild and Precious Life: A Hopeful Path Forward in a Fractured World

Carody Culver (host) - Editor, Griffith Review

Further information:

Read the Collapse Book on Sarah's Substack This is Precious

Sarah Wilson reckons with our civilisational collapse

Foreign spies attempt to infiltrate media organisations, break into restricted laboratories, target public servants on sites such as LinkedIn, approach academics at conferences … the list goes on. On Big Ideas, you have the rare opportunity to hear Mike Burgess give an unfiltered look at the threats of espionage and reveal for the first time the true costs it has on the Australian economy.

Counting and Countering the Cost of Espionage, the 26th annual Hawke Lecture presented by The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, University of South Australia.

Speaker

Mike Burgess Director-General of Security, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) 

Further information

Why national security and intelligence is women’s work Big Ideas, 22 October 2022

Mike Burgess — Espionage is a growing and costly threat to Australia

For the ﬁrst time in human history, we have the scientific know-how to vaccinate against most of the infectious diseases that killed our ancestors. But an explosion of pseudoscience and disinformation makes people hesitate to accept the shot. And so once contained diseases like measles is on the rise again. Hear why we have to act now, or risk losing centuries of gains that vaccines have brought to the world.

Presented at Gleebooks

Speakers

Raina MacIntyreProfessor of Global Biosecurity at UNSW and an NHMRC Research FellowAuthor of Vaccine Nation: Science, reason and the threat to 200 years of progress

Dr Norman Swan (host)Host of Radio National's The Health Report and co-host of What's That Rash

Plummeting vaccination rates threaten public health

Are fermented foods really good for us? Do antibiotics destroy our gut flora? And have you heard about poo transplants?

Our gut is teeming with trillions of microbial cells, and we are learning more all the time about how this affects everything from our digestion, to immunity, to mental health.

So crack open your kombucha, because these leading researchers will cut through the noise with some hard facts and pioneering science about the microbiome.

This event was recorded at the World Science Festival Brisbane 30 March 2025.

Speakers

Paul GriffinProfessor of Medicine, Clinical Unit Head and Director of Infectious Diseases, University of Queensland and Mater Hospital

Felice JackaDistinguished Professor in Nutritional PsychiatryFounder and director, Food and Mood Centre Deakin UniversityAuthor, There's a Zoo in my Poo

Gene TysonMicrobial ecologist, bioinformatician, and founder, Centre for Microbiome research, Queensland University of Technology

Dr Norman Swan (host)Presenter, Health Report and What's That Rash? ABC Radio National

Love your gut — understanding the microbiome

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