Big Ideas

A rundown t-shirt factory in Sydney's Surry Hills became the studio and home where Australian artist Brett Whiteley would spend the final years of his life. Now an art gallery, the building has recently reopened after an extensive two-year restoration, with a new exhibition celebrating Whiteley's life and legacy, Coming Home, featuring his artworks and personal items. His former wife, muse and champion, Wendy Whiteley, reflects on the history of the studio, her life with Brett Whiteley, and his artistic practice.This event was recorded at Brett Whiteley's Studio for Art Gallery of New South Wales on 24 July 2026.SpeakersWendy Whiteley Creator of Wendy's Secret Garden, Lavender Bay, artist, and former wife and muse of Brett WhiteleyWayne Tunnicliffe (host)Director of collections and exhibitions, Art Gallery of New South Wales

In a world where AI rules, what will it mean to be creative? First Nations poet and author Evelyn Araluen (The Rot, Dropbear) is already self-censoring because of AI theft. The characters in Steve Tolz's new novel A Rising of the Lights find weird ways to sabotage the robots amongst them. Digital safety expert and educator Kirra Pendergast is seeing AI reshape childhood - for better or worse - with an important warning for parents, carers, and educators. This event was organised by the 2026 Byron Writers Festival on Bundjalung Country.Speakers Dr Evelyn Araluen Goorie and Koori poet, editor, educator Stella Prize winning author, Dropbear (2021) and The Rot (2025) Co-editor, Overland literary journal Senior lecturer of Indigenous arts and culture, Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne Steve Tolz Booker Prize nominated author for A Fraction of Whole (2008) Author, A Rising of the Lights (2026) Screenwriter and producerKirra Pendergast Digital safety advisor and educator Co-founder, Safe on Social and Crlt/Shift Co-author with Maggie Dent of Digital Freedom: A guide to less screen time for safer, happier and healthier families (2026) Thanks to Artistic Director of the Byron Writers Festival Jessica Alice, and team.

From the fall of Rome to the climate crisis unfolding right now, history shows up a common pattern for how empires rise and fall. And two important factors are humans’ relationship with the natural world, as well as the unequal distribution of power and wealth. What can the wreckage of past civilisations teach us about avoiding our own? This event was recorded live at the 2026 Sydney Writers’ Festival at Carriageworks.Listen to Big Ideas – Why civilisations vanishSpeakersAmitav Ghosh Indian-born novelist, essayist, and public intellectualAuthor of The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis and Wild FictionsLuke KempResearch Affiliate, Centre for the Study of Existential Ris, University of CambridgeAuthor of Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal CollapseClare Wright (host)Professor of History and Professor of Public Engagement, La Trobe University and award-winning author

If authoritarianism was pressing in, what personal choices would you make to resist? Foreign correspondent Melissa Chan and artist-in-exile Badiucao have collaborated on the gobsmacking new graphic novel You Must Take Part in Revolution. It's set in a dystopian near future. A proto-fascist USA is at war with the full-throttled techno-surveillance state of China, with Taiwan wedged in the middle. Three young characters confront questions of loyalty, legacy, and courage. But for Melissa and Badiucao, their fictional scenario started to feel all to real. They know. They've lived it. They join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell at their Australian launch event in Naarm/Melbourne.SpeakersMelissa ChanEmmy nominated Hong Kong-Taiwanese-American foreign correspondentCo-author, You Must Take Part in Revolution (Simon and Schuster Australia, 2026)Former Beijing correspondent with Al JazeeraBadiucaoChinese-Australian artist-in-exile and activistWalkley-Award-winning cartoonist, The AgeCo-author, You Must Take Part in Revolution (Simon and Schuster Australia, 2026)Winner, Human Rights Foundation's Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent.Thank to Readings Bookshop events manager Christine Gordon.

From the blue-collar man, to the professional woman. From the multigenerational Australian born citizen, to a predominantly migrant nation. From the inner city to the suburbs to the bush. Australia has changed. But have our politicians?This event was recorded at the Hawke Centre at Adelaide University on 20 August 2026.Speakers:George MegalogenisPolitical journalist, author, Three Shocks: Who We Are Becoming in the 21st Century, The Australian Moment (winner the 2013 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Non-fiction and the 2012 Walkley Award for Non-fiction), four Quarterly Essays, and moreTory Shepherd (host)Senior Reporter, Guardian Australia

Australia's population is getting older. In fact, by 2076, 45 per cent of us - that's 18 million people - will be aged over 65. What will ageing look like in 50 years time? Will science keep us healthier for longer? What role will older people play in the workforce, in the economy, and in our communities? Will robots wipe our bottoms, or keep us company? How will we respond to major health challenges—like dementia, already our leading cause of death— and the growing burden of chronic disease? This conversation explores the ethical and social challenges facing our ageing country, and the planning, research and policy systems needed to ensure a dignified, safe and healthy life for older people by 2076. This event was recorded at the fiftieth National Ageing Research Institute annual summit with the theme Imagine Australia in 50 years on 22 July in Melbourne.Speakers: Mark Dreyfus Former Attorney General, MP Member for IsaacsProfessor Jenny Waycott Professor and Deputy Head of School (Research) in the School of Computing and Information Systems, Melbourne UniversityProfessor Andy Philp Head of the Centre for Healthy Ageing at the Centenary Institute and leads the healthy ageing research at the University of Technology Sydney where he leads the Biology of Ageing Laboratory in the School of Sport, Exercise and RehabilitationProfessor Tim Adair Demographer and Principal Research Fellow in the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health.Jacinta Parsons (host) Broadcaster, author and speaker

The Inter-Continental Hotel on a hilltop above Kabul has watched Afghanistan’s modern history unfold from its windows. Built in 1969, it has survived Soviet occupation, multiple coups, a civil war, a foreign invasion and waves of Taliban rule. This is the story of that hotel and of Afghanistan itself, told through forty years of visits, world-making headlines, and the people who called the finest hotel in Kabul home.This event was recorded live at the 2026 Sydney Writers’ Festival at Carriageworks.SpeakersLyse DoucetBBC Chief International Correspondent and author of The Finest Hotel in Kabul, A People’s History of Afghanistan, Hutchinson Heinemann (2025)Debbie Whitmont (host)ABC Journalist and author

The Future Library is filled with unpublished books written for readers yet to be born. Every year a new literary work is commissioned to be held in trust in a special room in the National Library of Norway. And in a forest just outside Oslo, 1,000 Spruce are growing - waiting until 2114 to fulfil their role: To be pulped and transform these unseen words into print. This hundred-year literary artwork by Scottish artist Katie Paterson is one of the most internationally acclaimed long-term cultural projects of our time. Presented at the National Library of Australia in partnership with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Canberra.SpeakersAnne Beate Hovind Norwegian urban developer, curator and cultural producer of Future Library (2014–2114) by Katie PatersonKathryn Favelle (host)Director of Community Engagement, National Library of Australia in Canberra

Alice Pung started writing her first published book as a teenager. Now, it's been read and studied by two generations of Australian teenagers through the school curriculum. On the 20th anniversary of her irreverent, loving memoir of her migrant family's 's everyday struggles and bittersweet triumphs, she reflects on the book's endurance and the various reactions it's provoked in her young readers.The 2026 EW Cole Lecture was recorded by 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 updatesSpeakers:Alice PungAuthor, Unpolished Gem, Her Father's Daughter, Laurinda, One Hundred Days, Growing Up Asian in Australia (editor) and moreRaina Tran15 year-old writerMarina SanoCo-creator and owner of Amplify Bookstore

Being poor has become big business in Australia, but not for people who need work. Billions spent. Millions of profits. But who's getting them? Why do unemployment and poverty continue to be stigmatised? And does the legacy of the Robodebt scandal live on? The Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research concluded in a new excoriating report Who’s rorting who? The failure of outsourced job services that the system is "filling the pockets of private equity and millionaires" while leaving job-seekers without work. Three people close to the coalface join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell to weigh in.This event was held at the 2026 Festival of Dangerous Ideas on Gadigal Country in Sydney. SpeakerRick Morton Investigative journalist Multi-award-winning author, Mean Streak, My Year of Living Vulnerably, On Money, and One Hundred Years of Dirt.Mark Considine Political scientist and Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor Co-Director of the Australian Welfare and Work Lab, University of Melbourne Author, The Careless State Co-author, Buying and Selling the Poor: Inside Australia's privatised welfare-to-work marketEmily Roy Chief Executive OfficerNot-for-profit employment services provider JobLink Plus Thanks to Danielle Harvey, Lauren Bennett, and the whole Festival of Dangerous Ideas team.Further reading Report: Who's rorting who? The failure of outsourced job services (Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research, 2026) Australia's jobseeker system fails workers and enriches millionaires, report says The Shaping the future of employment services Discussion Paper (Australian Government, 2026) Senate Committee Report: Rebuilding Employment Services (2023)

Foraging and eating wild food is nothing new in Australia. First Nations people have done it for over 50,000 years. Even your grandparents often still used to search for eatable weeds, mushrooms and nuts at the edge of their fields and in the woods. This knowledge is lost today. But attitudes to weeds have also changed. We don’t see weeds as a valuable resource anymore, only as a pest to get rid of. Is it time to change that and to rediscover the traditional knowledge of foraging? And what would that mean for how we manage our farmland in the future?Presented at the Lyrebird FestivalSpeakersDiego Bonetto Edible weeds advocate, forager and author of EAT WEEDS, A field guide to foragingGregg Borschmann (host)Writer, radio producer and oral historian for the National Library of Australia