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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

Thirteen years ago, US political journalist Hanna Roisin wrote a book called The End of Men: and the Rise of Women. Since then, there's been President Donald Trump x 2, the manosphere, the broligarchy, and more. So what happened?

This event was recorded at the 2025 Women in Media Conference on 15 August 2025.

Speakers

Hanna Rosin — Senior Editor, The Atlantic, host Radio Atlantic, author, The End of Men: and the Rise of Women

Edwina Bartholomew — Host, Sunrise, Channel 7

Hanna Rosin on what’s happened to the end of men in Trump’s America

Nuclear power is banned in Australia, and has been for decades, whilst some countries tilt towards nuclear energy again. Should or could Australia? The politics and power play over nuclear in the Sunburnt country, why the Coalition failed with the nuclear card at the last federal election, and what next? Join Big Ideas host and science journalist Natasha Mitchell and guests Simon Holmes à Court, Geoff Cousins, and Royce Kurmelovs at the Byron Writers Festival. Guess the nuclear nerd in this discussion. You might be surprised. 

Speakers

Simon Holmes à CourtEnergy analyst, clean tech investor, climate philanthropist, and founder of Climate200

Geoff CousinsBusinessman, board member, environmentalist, former president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, former consultant to former prime minister John Howard.

Royce KurmelovsJournalist and author of Slick: Australia's Toxic Relationship with Big Oil

Thank you to Festival artistic director Jessica Alice and team at the Byron Writers Festival.

Nuked or not? The politics and power play over nuclear energy as a climate fix

Meet two men on a lifelong mission. They've ruffled a lot of feathers along the way. Some revere them, others revile them. John Wamsley set up Australia's first wildlife sanctuary, but he's perhaps best known as the "cat-hat-man" (sorry, cat lovers!). World renowned forest ecologist David Lindenmeyer has copped heat from Australia's forestry industry for his science. But these two trailblazing environmentalists aren't afraid of their critics - to them it's a case of life-or-death for Australia's extraordinary species. Join them with oral historian Greg Borschmann as part of his Heartlands Conversations series presented at the Blue Mountains Music Festival.

Speakers

John WamsleyEnvironmentalist

David LindenmayerDistinguished Professor of Ecology and Conservation Biology, Australian National UniversityAuthor of The Forest Wars: The ugly truth about what's happening in our tall forests

Gregg Borschmann (host)Writer, radio producer and oral historian for the National Library of Australia

Heart-to-heart with John Wamsley and David Lindenmayer — why these trailblazing environmentalists won't back off

It's estimated that one third of Australian school children can't read proficiently, and debates about the best way to teach reading have raged for years. Now, for the first time, explicit instruction is official policy in all states and territories - so can it turn things around?

This speech was recorded at the Advancing Effective Education Summit hosted by Multilit on 30 May 2025. 

Speakers

Jenny Donovan CEO, Australian Education Research Organisation

Are the reading wars really over?

Students are dropping out, academics are burning out, so is enough being done to save higher education? It's a multibillion-dollar sector, employing and educating millions, with expectations it can deliver the solutions and the workers Australia needs. But Emeritus Professor Graeme Turner says universities are in serious trouble.

This conversation was recorded at Readings Books on 15 July 2025.

Speakers

Graeme Turner Emeritus Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of QueenslandAuthor of 30 books including Broken: Universities, politics and the public good (From Monash University Publishing's In the National Interest series)

Dr Ben Eltham (host) Lecturer in the School of Media, Film and Journalism at Monash UniversityNTEU delegate, journalist and commentator

From the Big Ideas archive:

Higher education for everyone in Australia — is it doable? - Big Ideas, ABC Radio National, 18 June 2024

Is our university system broken?

Some boys are being radicalised by misogynist online subcultures like the 'Manosphere' and the 'incel' (involuntarily celibate) scene. Parents are anxious and boys are confused. What's happening, why, and what can be done? Join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell and guests at the 2025 Byron Writers Festival for an insightful exploration with three influential Australians.

Speakers

Jess Hill, investigative journalist specialising in gendered violence, author of See What You Made Me Do, and the Quarterly Essay Losing it: Can We Stop Violence Against Women and Children?

Thomas Mayo, Indigenous rights activist, maritime union leader, author of Always Was, Always Will Be, editor of Dear Son: Letters and Reflections from First Nations Fathers and Sons.

George Megalogenis, journalist, political and social commentator, and author of the Quarterly Essay Minority Report: the New Shape of Australian Politics.

Thanks to Byron Writers Festival artistic director Jessica Alice and team.

The radicalisation of boys — Jess Hill, George Megalogenis, Thomas Mayo with Natasha Mitchell at Byron Writers Festival

Is the world really in the midst of an AI revolution, or is it all just clever marketing, powered by immense amounts of money, capital and hype? This episode arms you to spot AI hype in all its guises, expose the exploitation and power-grabs it aims to hide, and push back against it at work and daily life.

The conversation with Emily M Bender was recorded at RMIT University in partnership with Readings books on 1 July 2025.

The panel discussion Reboot the Narrative was recorded at the Rose Scott Women Writers Festival on 27 June.

Speakers

Emily M Bender — Professor of Linguistics and Adjunct Professor in the School of Computer Science and the Information School at the University of WashingtonCo-author (with Alex Hanna), The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We WantCo-host, Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 podcast

Kobi Leins (host) — Digital ethics and human rights lawyerAuthor, New War Technologies and International Law: The Legal Limits to Weaponising Nanomaterials

Tracey Spicer — Journalist and broadcaster, author of Man-Made: How the bias of the past is being built into the future

Paula Bray — Chief Digital officer at the State Library of Victoria

Lucy Hayward — Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Society of Authors

Ally Burnham (host) — Screen writer and novelist, author, Swallow

The AI Con — unpacking the artificial intelligence hype machine

Barry Jones and Kerry O'Brien - Two titans of Australian political and social commentary share insights into how to think well, how to act well and how to make sense of politics, history, the fragility of civilisation, science and love.

Presented at the Byron Writers Festival

Speakers

Barry JonesFormer science minister, Labor member of the Victorian and Commonwealth parliaments, author

Kerry O'Brien (host)Award-winning journalist and broadcaster

Barry Jones and Kerry O'Brien — on complexity, politics and love

They cook, make babies, and look impossibly perfect while doing it.Tradwives are using social media to redefine femininity and womanhood… or are they just setting it waaaayyy back?

The Tradwives Club was recorded at the All About Women festival at Sydney Opera House.

Speakers

Megan Agnew — Senior Features Writer (New York), The Times of London

Rosie Waterland — Comedian, author of Broken Brains (with Jamila Rizvi), The Anti-Cool Girl and Every Lie I've Ever Told, host of podcasts Mum Says My Memoir is a Lie and Just the Gist

Beverley Wang — National Culture Correspondent, ABC and host of Stop Everything! and Life Matters ABC Radio National

Nakkiah Lui (host) — Writer, actor, director, producer, Black Comedy, Kiki & Kitty, Preppers, Total Control and more

Further information:

Meet the queen of the 'trad wives' (and her eight children) — article by Megan Agnew, The Times

Tradwives — cosy cottage core fantasy, or something more sinister? With Megan Agnew, Rosie Waterland, Beverley Wang and Nakkiah Lui

Esther Freud’s first semi-autobiographical novel Hideous Kinky became a film starring Kate Winslet and told the wild story of two little girls living in Morocco with their bohemian mother. More than 30 years on, those girls are back and growing up fast in her sequel, My Sister and Other Lovers. Esther joins Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell at the Byron Writers Festival to explore the ties that bind, that tether, and that can traumatise in complicated families. Esther’s great-grandfather was the psychologist Sigmund Freud, her late father was the artist Lucian Freud, and her sister is the fashion designer Bella Freud. How has fiction helped her make sense of her own family? And what is it about sisterly love that can sustain through it all? 

Speaker

Esther FreudNovelist and playwrightAuthor, My Sister and Other Lovers (2025) Thanks to festival director Jessica Alice and team.

The Byron Writers Festival has a series of author events throughout the year. See their website for details.

Thanks to festival director Jessica Alice and team.

My Sister and Other Lovers — Esther Freud with Natasha Mitchell at Byron Writers Festival

When Santilla Chingaipe stumbled on the names of enslaved Africans who arrived on the First Fleet in 1788 she couldn't look away. For Steve Vizard, an argument with his adult kids lead him to the battlefields of Gallipoli. When Sita Sargeant threw a mattress in a car and drove around Australia, what hidden herstories did she unearth?At school, the history we learn is often incomplete, mythologised, or is riddled with silences and absences. But when you start looking, the ghosts of lives past start speaking.

They join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell live at the 2025 Melbourne Writers Festival. Explore more of the festival at mwf.com.au 

SpeakersSantilla ChingaipeZambian-Australian film-maker, historian, writerAuthor, Black Convicts: How Slavery Shaped Australia

Steve VizardPofessor, Monash University and University of AdelaideAuthor, Nation, Memory Myth: Gallipoli and the Australia Imagination

Sita SargeantFounder of the history walking tour social enterprise She Shapes HistoryAuthor of She Shapes History

Thanks to Veronica Sullivan, director of the Melbourne Writers Festival, for curating this event.

The past is a foreign country — Santilla Chingaipe, Sita Sargeant, Steve Vizard with Natasha Mitchell

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