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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

Philosopher Roman Krznaric, author of History for Tomorrow: Inspiration from the Past for the Future of Humanity, The Good Ancestor, and founder of the Empathy Museum has been looking backwards to help us all find a way forward. What he discovered in the global history of human solidarity and social movements was a wellspring of brilliant solutions to current challenges — democracy, fossil fuels, hyper-consumerism, water, AI, racism, even rage bait on social media, and more. Join Roman with Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell at the 2026 Byron Writers Festival to challenge the 'tyranny of the now' with an exciting view of history as a source of radical hope. 

Speaker

Dr Roman KrznaricAuthor, History for Tomorrow (2024), The Good Ancestor (2020), What the Rich Don't Tell The Poor (2022), The Wonder Box (2011), Empathy (2014), How to Find Fulfilling Work (2012)Senior Research Fellow, Oxford University’s Centre for Eudaimonia and Human FlourishingResearch Fellow, Long Now FoundationMember, Club of RomeFounder, world’s first Empathy Museum.

Thanks to Jessica Alice, artistic director and CEO of the Byron Writers Festival, and the festival team.

Roman Krznaric on why the history of human solidarity offers us radical hope, even now

Since 1996, The Cooks Companion has been a bible for Australian kitchens, a reliable friend who can tell you how to boil an egg, bake some bread, roast a chook, whip up a lemon delicious pudding — and much, much more. What is it about this book that's made it such an enduring go-to for household cooks for generations?

This event was recorded live at the Sydney Writers' Festival at Carriageworks on 21 May 2026.

Vote now in ABC Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books.

Speakers:

Stephanie AlexanderAuthor of 18 books including The Cooks CompanionFounder of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden FoundationChef

Adam Liaw (host)Author of Two Asian Kitchens, Asian After Work: Simple Food for Every Day, Adam's Big Pot series, and moreHost, The Cook Up with Adam Liaw (SBS)Recipe writer — The Good WeekendWinner, Masterchef (2010)

Stephanie Alexander with Adam Liaw on 30 years of The Cook's Companion

When a book becomes a hit TV series, or a play becomes a Hollywood film, what makes it a great adaptation? Meet the creators of these international smash hits as they take you behind the scenes, into the writers' rooms, and inside their creative minds. Suzie Miller's award-winning play Prima Facie has just become a Hollywood film starring Cynthia Erivo, while the sixth season of television's Slow Horses, based on Mick Herron's bestselling spy novels, starts next month. 

This event was recorded live at the 2026 Sydney Writers' Festival at Carriageworks.

Speakers:

Mick HerronAuthor, Slough House series, Down Cemetary Road series and more

Suzie MillerPlaywright, novelist and screen writer, Prima Facie, Interalia, Strong is the New Pretty and more

Benjamin Law (host)Journalist, columnist, TV screenwriter and author of The Family Law, Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East and Quarterly Essay 67: Moral Panic 101Creator and co-writer of award-winning SBS TV series The Family Law

Mick Herron, Suzie Miller and Benjamin Law on great adaptations — from the page to the stage to the screen, and back again

Interesting idea or nanny-state gone way too far? If babies weren't born to doom scroll, why do we think grown-ups are? Don't miss our hilarious annual battle of brains and bravado with two teams and Big Ideas' host Natasha Mitchell at the Beaker Street Festival: where science meets art. Australia was the first country in the world to ban under-16s from social media. France just struck down a push for the same. Are adults immune to all the harms of these platforms? Should OVER-16s be banned too!? 

TEAM AFFIRMATIVE: "THE VIRAL INFLUENZAS"

Dr Esmé Louise James, sex historianReturning debate champion and sex historian, creator of the book and viral TikTok phenomenon Kinky History, co-host with her mathematician mother of two seasons of the Sextistics series on Youtube, and her first novel Becoming Venus is out on September 1, 2026.

Saul Eslake, economistSaul has been chief economist at the big end of town with big banks, he now runs his own consultancy, is a Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Tasmania, advises Australia's Parliamentary Budget Office, serves on the Council on the Ageing, and is a regular expert chatterbox in the media.

Dr Meredith Castles, human-computer interaction researcher and lecturer Meredith is a science communicator and a lecturer in human-computer interaction at the University of Tasmania's School of Information and Communication Technology. She's interested in ethical, accessible, inclusive, and human-centred technology — and how to design it so it's nice, not nasty.

TEAM NEGATIVE: "THE YAPPERS"

Professor Barbara Holland, statisticianFormer reigning Beaker Street debate champion, Barbara is a mathematician in the School of Natural Sciences at the University of Tasmania. She fell in love with the power of statistics, made it her life's work, and works with biologists and uses stats to unravel the big biological puzzle that is the evolution of life on Earth.

Dr Kirsten BanksYou know her as AstroKirsten on the socials, youtube, on screens and stages everywhere. Kirsten is an astrophysicist, science communicator, and proud Wiradjuri woman who mixes science with humour — and her passion for the cosmos — to help us all reach the stars.

Dr Tim NugentTim is a co-founder of Yarn Spinner, a spin-off of the award-winning Tasmanian grown gaming studio Secret Lab. He and his team build games and narrative tools for games for both indie and major studio releases. He is the co-author of a stack of computery, programmy books, and he did a PhD on mobile human computer interaction and information flow in public spaces.

Thanks to Dr Margo Adler, Rosie Pidd, Stevie and the Bunsen Burners, and the whole festival team.

Should social media be banned for over-16s too!? The 2026 Beaker Street Festival Great Debate

Acclaimed journalist Kerry O'Brien has seen it all, but nothing like right now. And he's not mincing his words. On AI, neoliberalism, education, equality, gutless governments, and more. For over 50 years, he covered the world's biggest stories and changemakers, and asked tough questions of power. Hear why he thinks a perfect storm threatens our society and our politics, and what he thinks can be done about it.

The 2026 Thea Astley Address was recorded at the Byron Writers Festival on Saturday 15 August 2026.

Speakers:

Kerry O'BrienFormer ABC journalist, host, 7.30 Report, Four Corners, Lateline and more, six-time Walkley award winner

Richard FlanaganMan Booker Prize and Baille Gifford award winning author of The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Heresies, and more

Kerry O'Brien on the perfect storm destroying our politics — with Richard Flanagan

It's estimated that one in three Australian households have experienced food insecurity. At the same time, one third of all food produced in Australia gets thrown out. For more than two decades, Ronni Kahn has been fighting these dual challenges as head of food rescue charity OzHarvest. She argues these ongoing dual challenges show a failure of imagination and of will.

The 2026 Kenneth Myer Lecture was recorded at the National Library of Australia in Canberra on 4 August and in Melbourne on 6 August.

Speakers:

Ronni KahnFounder, OzHarvest

Why Oz Harvest's Ronni Kahn wants you to join the "Order of the Teaspoon" to end food insecurity and waste

Australia is home to some 25,000 plant species. And nine out of 10 Australian plants occur nowhere else on Earth. But many are under threat. So why does that matter? This National Science Week, we meet a plant ecologist with a message.

This conversation was recorded at the Lyrebird Festival in the Blue Mountains of NSW.

Speakers:

Rachael GallagherProfessor in Plant Ecology and Conservation, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University

Gregg Borschmann (host)Oral historian, journalist and writer

Further information: 

What is Australia's most amazing wildflower? Vote now - ABC Science Week
The Australasian Virtual Herbarium

Protecting Australia’s native plants

Dystopia or utopia? How do you imagine the future? In films and books, the future is often filled with alien invasions, nuclear war or the zombie apocalypse. But a movement of Indigenous storytellers is reshaping traditional science fiction tropes based on their own storytelling cultures and experiences.

This event was recorded at the Melbourne Writers Festival on 10 May 2026.

Speakers:

Chelsea VowelCandian Metis language instructor, public intellectual, writer, and activist educatorAuthor, Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis & Inuit in Canada and the short-story collection Buffalo is the New BuffaloCo-host, Métis in Space podcast

Mykaela SaundersKoori and Lebanese award-winning writerAuthor of Always Will BePost-doctoral research fellow on First Nations speculative fiction at Macquarie University

Indigenous speculative fiction takes on the apocalypse — with Canadian sci-fi Indiginerd Chelsea Vowel

We're going extraterrestrial with a panel of super star space scientists who are exploring the solar system and beyond. Will they find life out there? Which is the universe's best planet? And what's Matt Damon got to do with it? Incredible tales from Mars, Jupiter, and more.

This event was recorded at the World Science Festival Brisbane on 29 March 2026.

Speakers:

Tracy DrainChief Engineer with NASA's Europa Clipper Mission to Jupiter

David FlanneryAssociate Professor of astrobiology, Queensland University of Technology

Sara Webb Author, science communicator and astrophysicist, Swinburne University

Brian SchmidtDistinguished Professor of astrophysics, Australian National University, 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics

Tamara Davis (host) Professor of Astrophysics, University of Queensland

Blast off! Exploring our solar system and beyond

Think about the person whose politics you find most baffling, or most infuriating. Now imagine you must make a decision together. Actually negotiate, project forward, find common ground. That's democracy. And it turns out our brains aren't especially well-built for it.

In an era shaped by inequality, environmental crisis and the decline of democratic institutions understanding how we make political decisions might be one of the most urgent questions we face.

Recorded live at the Melbourne Writers Festival as part of the Wheeler Centre's The Fifth Estate series.

Speakers

Dr David MoscropPolitics columnist for The Washington Post, The Walrus, Time Magazine, The Globe, The Guardian and othersAuthor of Too Dumb For Democracy: Why We Make Bad Political Decisions And How We Can Make Better Ones

Dr Sally WarhaftMelbourne based freelance broadcaster, anthropologist and writer. Host of The Wheeler Centre's series The Fifth Estate

Too Dumb for Democracy? Why your brain struggles with good political decision-making

From rags, to riches, to a prison cell. He could have stayed wealthy and silent, but chose not to. Hong Kong's Jimmy Lai launched newspapers that dared to challenge Beijing, advocate for democracy, and report the truth when the truth was dangerous. Now Jimmy Lai faces a life sentence under China's crackdown on press freedom. But his story sends a warning to us all, everywhere.What happens when power decides that a free press is a threat? 

This event, The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, and China's Most Feared Critic was presented by the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center

Speakers

Mark CliffordPresident of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong FoundationAuthor of The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, and China's Most Feared Critic

Evan Osnos (host)Staff writer at The New Yorker

Why jailed Jimmy Lai's plight is a warning for press freedom and us all, everywhere

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