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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

October 7 has become synonymous with the Hamas attacks on Israel in 2023, in which more than 1200 Jewish people were murdered. What has followed — the hostage crisis, the war in Gaza, and the global response — has reverberated in communities far beyond the Middle East, including here in Australia. For Jewish Australians, it has turned their lives, their careers, their relationships and their identities upside-down. Four Jewish Australian women share their personal experiences of the profound rift they've felt in the wake of that day, and their hopes and attempts to mend it.

This conversation was recorded at Manly Writers' Festival on 22 March 2026.

Speakers

Joanne FedlerAuthor of The Whale's Last Song and more, writing teacher, former lawyer

Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert Research Fellow in Security Studies, Macquarie UniversityAuthor, The Uncaged SkyFormer political prisoner in Iran

Elana Benjamin Author of Indian-Jewish Food, Recipes and Stories from the Back Streets of Bondi, and more

Lee KofmanAuthor of The Writer Laid Bare: Mastering Emotional Honesty in a Writer's Art, Craft and Life and more, writing coach and co-editor, Ruptured: Jewish Women in Australia Reflect on Life Post-October 7

Suellen Dainty (host) Journalist and author, An Invisible Tattoo and more

"Here I am, here we are" Jewish Australian women reflect on the rupture of October 7 2023

Through the stories of five women across three generations of his family, the influential Greek economist, author, politician and public intellectual Yanis Varoufakis tells the tumultuous tale of Greece's modern history, and reflects on its parallels with the once again global rising tides of fascism, authoritarianism, and the actions of those who resist.

This conversation was recorded on 6 March 2026 at the Sydney Greek Festival.

Speakers

Yanis VaroufakisEconomist, former Greek Finance Minister (2015), founder and General Secretary MeRA25Author, Raise your soul: A Personal History of Resistance, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism? and more

Dr Helen Vatsikopoulos (host)Journalist, Doctor of Creative Arts University of Technology Sydney

Resistance — Yanis Varoufakis with Helen Vatsikopoulos on the people who fought back against fascism

Every scientist dreams of a breakthrough — a new discovery that will change everything. Professor Georgina Long is someone who has done it — as a pioneer of life saving cancer treatments. So what are the ingredients for breakthroughs to occur? And why are the conditions that can lead to new discoveries under threat right now?

The 2026 Ann Moyal lecture When groundbreaking cancer treatments save 50% of patients, what happens to the other half? was recorded at the National Library of Australia on 19 March 2026.

Speakers

Professor Georgina LongMedical Director of the Melanoma Institute of AustraliaChair of Melanoma Medical Oncology and Translational Research, University of SydneyCo-recipient (with Professor Richard Scolyer) of the 2024 Australian of the Year Award

Further information:

Patient Zero - Richard Scolyer - Australian Story 2024

Dr Richard Scolyer speaks on his fight with brain cancer - ABC 730, 30 October 2025

Immunotherapy trailblazer Georgina Long on the hidden ingredients in cancer medicine

What happens to a community when it punishes its most vulnerable instead of protecting them Drawing on her own story of addiction, imprisonment, and recovery, as well as her frontline work supporting women behind bars and post-release, Tahlia Issac challenges the "tough on crime" narrative. The typical incarcerated woman in Australia is First Nations, a mother, a survivor of violence, and imprisoned for a low-level offence. Locking her up doesn't make communities safer — it makes them more fragile.

This is the 2025 International Women's Day Address at the National Press Club of Australia.

Speakers

Tahlia IsaacFounder and CEO of Project: herself with lived experience as a woman in prison

Emma MacdonaldAssociate Editor or Her Canberra, an online media company, magazine, and community hub tailored specifically for women, and Canberra Convenor of Women in Media

Australia's broken social contract — Tahlia Isaac wants to protect women in prison

The explosion of reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is not only a story of the past. Right now, nuclear plants are weaponised in the Iran war. It happened in 2022 when Russian forces occupied the Chernobyl exclusion zone. A new way of weaponising nuclear power. What have we learned from the worst nuclear accident in history — and what have we failed to learn?

This conversation was presented by the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and the Ukrainian Institute London.

Speakers

Serhii PlokhyMykhailo S. Hrushevs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian History; Director, Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University

Eglė RindzevičiūtėProfessor of Criminology and Sociology at Kingston University London

Jonathon TurnbullAssistant Professor of Human Geography at Durham University

Dr Sasha Dovzhyk (host)Writer, Curator and Head of INDEX: Institute for Documentation and Exchange (Lviv, Ukraine). Editor of the London Ukrainian Review

40 years after Chernobyl we face a new nuclear risk — this time as a weapon of war

Is President Trump a new Nero, or a contemporary Caligula? The Roman Empire was full of merchants of chaos, power-hungry emperors, epic wars, backstabbing, betrayals — the whole horror show. And it was a time of civilisational scale change. As we grapple with a rewriting of the world order, does Ancient Rome have lessons for us today — about the building and breaking of empires, or the rise and fall of autocrats? Or are these sorts of comparisons with the past fraught with complication? 

Join Natasha Mitchell and guests at this Melbourne Museum event to coincide with the opening of the ROME: Empire, Power, People exhibition.

Speakers

Rhiannon EvansCo-host of the Emperors of Rome podcastAuthor, Utopia Antiqua: Readings of the Golden Age and decline at Rome (Routledge, 2007)Adjunct Associate Professor of Classics and Ancient HistoryLa Trobe University 

Nick BisleyAuthor, Asian Crucible: Globalization, Geopolitics and the Contest for the Future (Bristol University Press, 2026); The Belt and Road Initiative and the Future of Regional Order in the Indo-Pacific (Rowman and Littlefield, 2020), Issues in 21st Century World Politics, 3rd Edition (Palgrave, 2017) and Great Powers in the Changing International Order (Lynne Rienner, 2012)Professor of International RelationsPro Vice-Chancellor ResearchLa Trobe University 

Thanks to event producer Jennifer Brookings, Nick Marchand (Director of Global Engagement at Museums Victoria), and team the Melbourne Museum.

Is Trump a new Nero, Caligula, Caesar? Can the Roman Empire help us make sense of today's chaos? And other burning questions

Australians love a holiday in Southeast Asia. But our proximity to this region also makes it key to our national security and prosperity. Yet Australia has hitched its security and foreign policy wagon to an increasingly unpredictable United States, while China asserts in dominance in our own backyard. So are we taking Southeast Asia for granted?

This conversation was recorded at Readings Bookshop on 23 March 2026.

Speakers

Michael WesleyProfessor of International Relations and Deputy Vice Chancellor, Global Culture and Engagement, University of MelbourneFormer head of the Lowy Institute, former dean of ANU's College of Asia and the PacificAuthor, Blind spot: Southeast Asia and Australia's Future (Quarterly Essay # 101) and more

Geoff RabyFormer Australian diplomat to China 2007 — 2011Author, Great Game On: The Contest for Central Asia and Global Supremacy and more

Is Southeast Asia Australia's blind spot? — with Michael Wesley and Geoff Raby

Artificial intelligence has been defined as a cluster of technologies of and for the future. But like most humans, AI is built using what has happened in the past — scraping behaviours, experiences and other data to shape its outputs. In this sense, AI is a new kind of historian — but operating without guardrails, ethics, or any sense of doubt.

This annual lecture for the History Council of Victoria, Can I Help You? Recognising and Improving Artificial Intelligence as History Maker was recorded on 16 October 2025.

Speakers

Marnie Hughes-WarringtonBradley Distinguished Professor at the University of AdelaideCo-editor, History from Loss and The Routledge Companion to History and the Moving Image

The future of the past — how artificial intelligence is changing history

It's Team 'Aliens Alive' versus Team 'Earthlings United'. Get out of this world, hear the arguments, and you decide. Was the X-Files really a documentary, or was Mulder deluded? Join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell from the stage of the 2026 World Science Festival Brisbane for an hilarious hour of science and comedy.

TEAM ALIENS ALIVE

Dr Joel Gilmore (Team Captain)Energy specialist, physicist, science communicator, improv theatre buff, dancer

Dr Sara WebbAstrophysicist, author, and science communicatorAuthor of The Little Book of Cosmic CatastrophesSwinburne University

Georgina HumphriesComedian, two time Raw Comedy finalistGeorgina's show Rogue at the 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival

TEAM EARTHLINGS UNITED

Professor Tamara Davis (Team Captain)AstrophysicistPrincipal Investigator, OzDES (Dark Energy Survey)ABC TV documentary presenter, ultimate Frisbee and triathlon competitorUniversity of Queensland

Nate ByrneMeteorologist, oceanographer. science communicatorABC TV Breakfast host and weatherman

Sean ChoolburraComedian, dancer, actor

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

Aliens exist (and the truth is out there)!? Science Smackdown at World Science Festival Brisbane 2026

Former BBC presenter and host of the hit podcast The News Agents, Emily Maitlis, gives a fearless assessment of modern news coverage, public broadcasting, and the royal family's handling of Andrew Mountbatten-Windor's arrest. 

The event No Spin, No Compromise was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House for the 2026 All About Women festival.

Speakers

Emily MaitlisCo-host, The News Agents and The News Agents USA podcastsAuthor, Airhead: The Imperfect Art of Making NewsFormer BBC journalist and longtime anchor of BBC Newsnight

Janine Perrett (host)Finance and foreign affairs journalist and presenter, The Australian, Channel 9, Sky News, ABC

Further information:

Emily Maitlis full interview with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, BBC Newsnight, 2019

British journalist Emily Maitlis on THAT Prince Andrew interview and news in a post truth world

Comedians are increasingly being forced to navigate a world where the right punchline at the expense of the wrong politician carries the risk of personal and professional consequences. So when poking fun at the powerful could get you cancelled, sued, land you in jail — or worse — who's afraid of a joke?

This episode was recorded on 28th March 2026 as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in partnership with The Wheeler Centre, Australia's first dedicated centre for Books, Writing and Ideas. Explore more discussions like this one on The Wheeler Centre podcast — available wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow @wheelercentre for updates.

Speakers

Sam JayComedian, TV writer Saturday Night Live, host of HBO's Pause with Sam Jay, 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival show We the People

Bahaa DabbaghStand-up comedian, Syrian refugee advocate, 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Comedy Zone

Leon FilewoodStand-up comedian, winner, Deadly Funny, 2018 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, 2026 Moosehead Recipient, 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival show Holding Space

Tom Ballard (host)Comedian, broadcaster, writer, former host of ABC TV's Tonightly with Tom Ballard and Triple J's Breakfast with Tom and Alex, 2026 Melbourne International Comedy Festival show Be Funny Challenge (Impossible)

Further information:

Jon Stewart acceptance speech, 2022 Mark Twain Prize, Kennedy Centre

Who's afraid of a joke? Comedy in an authoritarian age — with comedians Sam Jay, Tom Ballard, Bahaa Dabbagh and Leon Filewood

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