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ABC Australia

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

We love hearing from you about the show or events you are planning. Get in touch!
Email: Bigideas@abc.net.au
SMS line for ABC Radio National: 0418 226 576

Airs Monday to Thursday 8pm, repeated Tuesday to Friday 12pm, on ABC Radio National.

Big Ideas

Over five decades, one single, sprawling dominion, from Yemen to Myanmar, became twelve modern nations. This is the story of how the actions of politicians in London and revolutionaries in Delhi, princes in remote palaces and soldiers in trenches, redrew the map of British India, uprooting millions, and leaving a legacy that explains much about the region today.

This conversation was recorded at the Ubud Writers Festival in Bali, Indonesia.

Speakers

Sam Dalrymple Author, Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern AsiaCo-founder, Project DastaanFilmmaker, Child of Empire, Lost Migrations

Husnara KhanomPoet, writer, and researcher

Shattered lands — Sam Dalrymple on the five partitions of British India

Nobel Prize winning work often happens in a young scientist's 20s or 30s — early in their careers. Are the conditions right in Australian universities today for young, hungry minds to do what Nobel laureates Brian Schmidt, Peter Doherty and Rolf Zinkernagel did in the 1990s and 1970s at the Australian National University in Canberra? The three join Big Ideas presenter Natasha Mitchell and a huge crowd at the ANU to talk curiosity, discovery, the future of science, and more.

This event was organised and hosted by the Australian National University and the Embassy of Switzerland in Australia

Speakers

Professor Peter DohertyImmunologist and winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine University of Melbourne

Professor Brian SchmidtAstrophysicist and winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize for PhysicsAustralian National University

Professor Rolf Zinkernagel Immunologist and winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine University of Zurich, Switzerland

With thanks to Swiss Ambassador His Excellency Mr Nikolas Stürchler, ANU Deputy Vice Chancellor (academic) Professor Joan Leach, and ANU's Jamie Kidston, Dharmesh Panvelkar, and technical team.

Further reading

Brian Schmidt on securing Australia's sovereign research capability, National Press Club, 2025

Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt is ‘scared’ about Australia’s research capacity – this is why (The Conversation, 2025)

Brian P. Schmidt's submission in response to the Australian Universities Accord Discussion Paper

The Knowledge Wars by Peter Doherty (Melbourne University Publishing, 2025)

Three Nobels! Are we backing young minds today to pull off what Brian Schmidt, Peter Doherty, Rolf Zinkernagel did?

Presenting a road map to a world with fewer Putins and Kim Jong Uns. Political scientist Marcel Dirsus exposes the precarious reality behind the façade of the dictator's absolute power, and the remarkable ways in which even the most ruthless despots can be felt. Gareth Evans, Geoffrey Robertson, Tobias Buck and Dorcy Rugama take a closer look at crimes against humanity. When is reconciliation possible? Are international courts still useful? How important is truth telling?

How Tyrants rise (and fall) was recorded live at the 2025 Sydney Writers' Festival at Sydney Town Hall.

Speaker

Dr Marcel DirsusPolitical scientist, author of How Tyrants Fall: And How Nations SurviveNon-Resident Fellow at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University (ISPK); member of the Standing Expert Committee Terrorism and Interior Security at the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Germany

Crimes against Humanity was presented at Adelaide Writers' Week

Speakers

Tobias BuckManaging Editor of the Financial TimesAuthor of Final Verdict: A Holocaust Trail in the Twenty-first Century

Geoffrey RobertsonAustralian-British barrister, academic, broadcaster and author — among others of Crimes Against Humanity

Dorcy RugambaRwandan writer, playwright, and director.Author of Hewa Rwanda, Letter to the Absent 

Gareth Evans AC (host)Former cabinet minister in the Hawke and Keating Labor governments, former president and CEO of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group

The secret of how to topple tyrants and dictators — and crimes against humanity under the microscope

The inaugural ABC National Forum is a live, televised panel discussion bringing together Jewish Australians to examine their lives in Australia in 2026, amid a sharp rise in antisemitism since October 7, 2023. Moderated by Insiders presenter and National Political Lead David Speers, the forum launches a new series designed to create a space for Australians to confront major national challenges and seek common ground.

ABC National Forum

The roots of antisemitism run deep. Christians and Muslims have told stories for centuries about Jewish people. Stories that have weaponised the relationships among these world religions. 

In a world of ongoing conflict, how do we recognise, and then bridge, the divide of religious prejudice? 

This is a special episode of Big Ideas, prepared by the ABC's specialist religion and ethics team.The best of talks, forums, debates, and festivals held in Australia and around the world.

Guests

Amy-Jill LevineRabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, Hartford International University for Religion and Peace.Magda Teter Shvidler Chair in Judaic Studies and Professor of History at Fordham University. 

Adis Duderija Associate Professor of Islam and Society at Griffith University. 

Geoffrey Levey Associate Professor of Political Science at University of New South Wales.

Rabbi Zalman KastelFounder of Together for Humanity.

Antisemitism's religious roots

A global pandemic, a foreign war, a failed referendum on Indigenous rights, increasing inequality and a fractured media — these and other forces have been causing deep divisions in Australian society. So how can we instead focus on the ties that bind this country together, to reconcile our differences and foster community? What can be done to strengthen our social cohesion?

The 2026 Menzies Oration was recorded at Federation University with the Menzies Leadership Foundation on 18 February 2026.

Speakers

Hugh de Kretser President, Australian Human Rights Commissioner

Liz Gillies (host) CEO, Menzies Leadership Foundation

In a time of division, how can we rebuild social cohesion? — with Australian Human Rights Commissioner Hugh de Kretser

In March 2021, Afghanistan's Taliban rulers banned female students over the age of 12 from singing in public. The prohibition sparked a wave of online protests across the country, with women and girls posting videos of themselves singing, using the hashtag "I am my song". Aged just 14, Nila Ibrahimi's song, Boro Bakhair Ba Maktab or "Go to school" became an anthem of the movement.

The 2025 Gandhi Oration was recorded at University of NSW Centre for Ideas on 2 October 2025.

Speakers

Nila IbrahimiAfghan refugee, advocate and activist, co-founder and president Herstory, winner of the 2024 International Children's Peace Prize, university student

Verity Firth (host) Professor of Practice at the School of Education, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, Vice-President Societal Impact, Equity and Engagement, University of New South Wales, former New South Wales Minister for Women and Minister for Education

Further information

Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia (CRSA) program, based on the Canadian model

Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot (CRISP)Support Association for the Women of Afghanistan (SAWA)

How a song became a movement for Afghanistan's women and girls — with International Children's Peace Prize winner Nila Ibrahimi

The Panopticon was a prison design by the famous philosopher and social reformer Jeremy Bentham which placed prison guards in a central tower overlooking inmates. So why does scientist and climate advocate Tim Flannery want us to re-imagine the Panopticon as a path towards a more compassionate society? And why does he find warmth and connection even in conflicted communities angry about climate change policies?

This event was hosted by RMIT University and Now or Never, Melbourne's festival of art, ideas, sound, technology.

Speaker

Tim FlanneryPaleontologist, climate and environment advocate, author, and former Australian of the Year.

Hilary Harper (host)ABC Radio National presenter

Scientist Tim Flannery — a Panopticon for our times?

Join acclaimed author and human rights advocate Thomas Mayo and media icon Ray Martin AM as they deliver two powerful orations on justice, reconciliation, and the future of Australia. Thomas Mayo invites us to imagine a reconciled Australia that has learned from its history and forged new pathways forward. Ray Martin is demanding we stop talking and start acting on social justice for Aboriginal people. Two voices. Two generations of advocacy. One urgent question: who will we become?

The Walyalup Oration is a centrepiece of the City of Fremantle's annual Truth-telling and Focus First Nation Films Program. In The Walyalup Oration leading thinkers in the fields of Indigenous/colonial relations offer their insights into creating a fairer, (re)conciled and more prosperous future for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

The Joan Kirner Social Justice Oration was hosted by the Institute of Community Directors Australia as part of the Communities in Control series.

Speakers

Thomas MayoKaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander human rights advocate and renowned author among other books of Always Was, Always Will Be (2024) and Dear Son: Letters and Reflections from First Nations Fathers and Sons (2021)

Ray MartinAward-winning journalist and television presenter who has reported for and/or presented some of TV's highest-profile current affairs and variety shows of recent decades.

Who can we become? Thomas Mayo and Ray Martin speak Black and White about Australia's future

Universities are under pressure — particularly the study of subjects like languages, history, social sciences and the creative arts. This lecture looks back to a time, post war, when governments turned to universities to transform Australia's economy and society, and backed it up with significant investment and oversight. In the face of contemporary challenges, is it time once again to rethink the purpose of universities — and particularly the study of the humanities — to equip Australia with the skills it needs to survive and thrive in the 21st century?

Stephen Garton's Australian Academy of the Humanities Annual Lecture "When Universities Mattered" was recorded on 12 November 2025.

An edited version of this lecture is published in the March issue of the Australian Book Review.

Speakers

Stephen Garton Professor of history, President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, former Vice-Chancellor, University of Sydney, former Dean of the Faculty of Arts

From the archives:

Is our university system broken? With Emeritus Professor Graeme Turner and Dr Ben Eltham, Big Ideas, 4 September 2025

Further information:

Vale Graeme Turner Australian Academy of the Humanities obituary, November 2025

Can an arts degree change the world? A defence of the study humanities at Australian universities

What is it really like to be an astronaut? How do you even become one? What happens when an argument breaks out on the International Space Station? And why are big fashion brands clamouring to design for space? As NASA prepares to return humans to the moon for the first time in 50 years, we hear from a panel of superstar astronauts about life in space.

This astronauts' forum was recorded at Sydney Science Festival on 2 October 2025, presented by Sydney's Powerhouse Museum.

Speakers

Katherine Bennell-Pegg Director Space Technology, Australian Space Agency, 2026 Australian of the Year

Joseph Acaba NASA's chief astronaut, member of NASA Artemis Mission

Koichi Wakata Chief technology officer, Asia-Pacific region, Axiom Space, first Japanese commander of the International Space Station

Tibor Kapu Astronaut, mechanical engineer, mission specialist for Axiom Mission 4

Rae Johnston (host) Science and technology journalist, presenter, Download This Show ABC Radio National

The life of astronauts — with 2026 Australian of the Year Katherine Bennell-Pegg

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