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Big Ideas

ABC

EN333 episodes
societyculturenewspolitics

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.

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Each time Big Ideas publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.

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Episodes (333)

Surfer Tim Baker and doctor Peter Goldsworthy on living well with cancer

Big Ideas

Dec 17, 202554:34pending

Understand your microbiome

Big Ideas

Dec 16, 202554:34pending

Doctor Who at 60 — still as attractive as ever

Big Ideas

Dec 15, 202553:59pending

The role of spirituality and religion in mental health care

Big Ideas

Dec 11, 202554:36pending

A song for every feeling? Pub Choir's Astrid Jorgensen with Natasha Mitchell

Big Ideas

Dec 10, 20251:04:17pending

Victoria's new treaty with First Peoples — a turning point for Australia?

Big Ideas

Dec 9, 202542:51pending

Pay attention — writer Emily Maguire finds promiscuous curiosity and cultural re...

Big Ideas

Dec 8, 202554:35pending

Can science keep dementia at bay and keep your brain sharper − for longer?

Big Ideas

Dec 4, 202554:36pending

Acclaimed author Christos Tsiolkas on fence-sitting in a time of fracture

Big Ideas

Dec 3, 202553:54pending

The stories we tell about cricket — with Paul Giles and Gideon Haigh

Big Ideas

Dec 2, 20251:09:58pending

Judge Navi Pillay on the fight for human rights, justice and accountability

Big Ideas

Dec 1, 202554:36pending

Musician Holly Rankin on why young Australians feel that politics isn't deliveri...

Big Ideas

Nov 27, 202553:51pending

What are universities for today? The usefulness of "useless" knowledge

Big Ideas

Nov 26, 202554:36pending

Jane Caro — why Australia is failing our school system

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Nov 25, 202559:27pending

Coming Out and Inviting In — with Zoe Terakes, Nina Oyama, Mon Schafter, Atari M...

Big Ideas

Nov 24, 202554:35pending

Searching for convivencia — philosopher AC Grayling makes peace in the culture w...

Big Ideas

Nov 20, 202554:36pending

The Sophia Club live philosophy — what are friends for?

Big Ideas

Nov 19, 20251:10:05pending

Understanding China's history is crucial for Australia

Big Ideas

Nov 18, 202544:48pending

Universities and other antidotes to authoritarianism

Big Ideas

Nov 17, 202555:15pending

One day, everyone will have always been against this — Omar El Akkad and Peter G...

Big Ideas

Nov 13, 202554:36pending

Fixing Australia's housing crisis — is increasing supply really a silver bullet?

Big Ideas

Nov 12, 20251:03:07pending

Gough Whitlam's dismissal — why is it still relevant today?

Big Ideas

Nov 11, 202554:35pending

An intriguing story of art and espionage — how a classical scholar turned codebr...

Big Ideas

Nov 10, 202554:36pending

Empire of AI — Karen Hao goes inside the reckless race for total world dominatio...

Big Ideas

Nov 6, 202553:59pending

ABC's CITIZEN JURY — Fixing salmon farming's environmental harms in Tasmania

Big Ideas

Nov 4, 20251:11:15pending

Anne Summers — 50 Years of Damned Whores and God’s Police

Big Ideas

Nov 4, 202554:35pending

Why we need to cancel cancel culture — with defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou

Big Ideas

Nov 3, 202554:34pending

Out of this world — with Booker Prize winning author Samantha Harvey

Big Ideas

Oct 30, 202554:09pending

What Artists See? Critic Quentin Sprague helps you get to the messy human heart...

Big Ideas

Oct 29, 202554:34pending

Matrescence — on the metamorphosis of motherhood

Big Ideas

Oct 28, 202554:58pending

Alexander the Great — A genius? A tyrant? A visionary? A killer? A maniac?

Big Ideas

Oct 27, 202542:52pending

Nobel laureate Donna Strickland on her life in lasers

Big Ideas

Oct 23, 202557:39pending

Ziggy Ramo’s latest project asks what makes us human?

Big Ideas

Oct 22, 202554:34pending

New legislation to protect you against invasion of your privacy

Big Ideas

Oct 21, 202554:36pending

How to build a stock exchange — the past, present and future of finance

Big Ideas

Oct 20, 202558:35pending

Is Jane Austen the greatest English novelist of all time?

Big Ideas

Oct 16, 20251:00:55pending

We’re F**ed! It’s too late to avoid civilisational collapse. 2025 Beaker Street...

Big Ideas

Oct 15, 202552:49pending

Who killed the liberal international order (and what comes next)?

Big Ideas

Oct 14, 202555:37pending

Can the Democrats save democracy in the US?

Big Ideas

Oct 13, 202554:36pending

Maria Ressa on what Donald Trump learnt from Rodrigo Duterte and other strongman...

Big Ideas

Oct 9, 202555:35pending

Prove It! Elizabeth Finkel's Scientific Guide for the Post-Truth Era

Big Ideas

Oct 8, 20251:01:11pending

John Lennon and Paul McCartney — a partnership that changed cultural history

Big Ideas

Oct 7, 202554:35pending

'Militarism gone mad' — Labor firebrand hits out at party’s support of AUKUS

Big Ideas

Oct 6, 202554:02pending

Genocides are everyone's business, not no-one's business — Gareth Evans, Yassmin...

Big Ideas

Oct 2, 202554:35pending

Vale Dr Jane Goodall — why the renowned primatologist and environmentalist held...

Big Ideas

Oct 2, 202527:02pending

Is AI the new coloniser? How to create more life-centred AI before it's too late

Big Ideas

Oct 1, 202557:00pending

Condoleezza Rice on how to fix the break-up of global cooperation

Big Ideas

Sep 30, 202554:35pending

The rise of Spotify and the costs of the perfect playlist — with music journali...

Big Ideas

Sep 29, 202558:26pending

Yolngu power — art, culture, country, law — with Marcia Langton and Clare Wright

Big Ideas

Sep 25, 202554:33pending

Nobel scientist Jennifer Doudna with Natasha Mitchell — the gene editing revolut...

Big Ideas

Sep 24, 202554:33pending