Big Ideas - Full Program Podcast

Coal, oil and gas currently drive most of our electricity generation, manufacturing and transport systems. If we’re to achieve zero emissions then green alternatives are vital. And we need green energy at scale. Solar panels on your roof will only go part of the way to producing enough electricity . This discussion, from the World Science Festival, tackles the challenge of making the transition to green energy.

The pandemic has opened a window of opportunity for us to "build back better", and create a healthy, sustainable and equitable future, according to public health expert, Dr Sandro Demaio. He says we have a once-in-a-lifetime shot at achieving "health for all". Sandro joins Cassandra Goldie and Professor Sharon Friel for a discussion about health equity.

What is truth? How has it evolved? And what is its impact anyway? Evolutionary science shows that subtle social manipulation of fellow group members was a key driver of intelligence in the human lineage. And even animals use trickery to their advantage. Big Ideas looks at why we lie and why deception is so widespread in modern public discourse.

After Covid do we need to invest more in the not-for-profit sector which has demonstrated its vital role in keeping communities together? And a financial journalist puts her anthropology training to good use as she maps the tribal norms which shape how teams operate in different workplaces.

Stop playing around and start playing seriously. Our deep drive to play has shaped our cultures and our philosophies, our working lives, and our civilizations since we first started playing. AND – women’s soccer in Australia. Fighting for more equality on and off the field, women's football is a story of community, endurance and success. A celebration of the sport and The Matildas.

Journalist, Simon Akam, investigates the failures of the British Army, including alleged war crimes, in his provocative book, The Changing of the Guard. He examines what has gone wrong with the British Army since 9/11, how it has changed, and what it has learnt from unsuccessful campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Modern parents juggle work and home and try to meet high expectations about each child reaching their potential. Two parenting experts talk about the particular demands of raising teenage girls and raising boys with a healthy masculinity. And is striving for personal happiness a worthwhile goal or does trying to be happy all the time create more anxiety?

International negotiations on climate change and biodiversity often put the scientific case behind economic and political interests. So, people increasingly turn to the courts to get justice for the environment. What makes those court cases successful? And what does a new form of environmental justice that connects nature with economic and social rights looks like? The new way of getting just rights for nature is to fall back on the very old legal tradition of Chthonic law.

There is a dark side to clean energy and digital technologies Solar panels, wind turbines, mobile phones, and electric cars all depend on rare metals, But there are big problems with how these metals are mined, processed and traded. And there are profound economic and geopolitical impacts resulting from China’s dominance of the rare metals industry.

The French Revolution hasn’t only shaped our political ideologies to this day. It’s also been extremely influence in the field of science. Steve Jones explores the scientific advances made during this time and how they shape modern science. Many French scientists of that time literally devoted their lives to science with many of them being executed – for their new insights as much as for their involvement in politics.

Many of us are working from a home office or the kitchen table . The pandemic has boosted the popularity of remote work but we want to make sure it's good quality work and not lose the benefits of face to face contact with colleagues. One of the downsides is loneliness. Lockdowns and working alone can make you feel disconnected and lonely. Loneliness increases your risk of serious disease and the UK now has a Minster for Loneliness responsible for a government public health campaign.

Australian history stretches back 60,000 years but our written history is only 250 years old. Historians are restoring indigenous people to their proper place in the story of Australia but there’s much we still don’t know. An indigenous historian is leading an international team to discover how communities responded to other seafarers who arrived on our shores long before the British. And can indigenous fire management help contain contemporary bushfires?

Pro-democracy activists are urging Australia to impose sanctions on the military leaders in Myanmar. In February the Myanmar military suspended democratic government. They blocked the National League for Democracy from forming a government despite a landslide election victory. Protests are on-going but can they succeed without tough sanctions from the international community?

The Australian economy has taken a big hit from Covid. We’re now on the road to recovery but what should that look like? Is it enough to go back to the way we were or is it time for something different? In these final two Reset Lectures, economist Ross Garnaut says the time is right for major economic reform. He proposes changes to corporate tax, the introduction of a universal basic income scheme and fast tracking the transition to a zero carbon economy.

Compared to many other countries, the Australian economy is in a better place as far as Covid is concerned. Yet we know uncertain times are ahead. You don’t emerge unscathed from a global shock of this magnitude. Economist Ross Garnaut says now is the time for bold policy to achieve full employment and incomes growth. In the Reset Lectures, he sets out his plan for restoring Australia after the pandemic recession.

It’s 30 years since the fall of the Iron Curtain and the end of the Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev inherited a country that had many problems but was not on the verge of collapse. Six years later, he ended the Cold War and allowed the break-up of the USSR. What were the social, political and global forces that led this result? And how did the hero of glasnost end up  being regarded a traitor by so many in his home country?  

By tracking purchasing habits, online retailers can discover a teenager is pregnant, before her parents do. US police are rolling out intrusive surveillance technologies, in the name of crime fighting, with little oversight.  Virtually every online activity is subject to some form of surveillance. In real life, too, cameras film us as we walk down the street and enter buildings. Can we be free in an era of constant surveillance?

In a modern world of our own making, we find ourselves 'unfit for purpose'. Human evolution that’s created us as an extraordinary functioning species, has at the same time set us up to fail. Big Ideas explores the health and social implications of living a modern-day life in a stone-age body. Many of our current woes like obesity, stress or violence have evolutionary causes.

Australia is on thin ice with China and struggling to rebuild the relationship. We disagree over many issues and China is pushing back against, what it sees , as unfair criticism and hostility to its national interest. So how are Chinese Australians responding to the tensions between the two countries? And how does Taiwan see its future as China restates its commitment to reunification?

It’s difficult to initiate social change - not only to make people understand that change is needed, but to get them to alter their behaviour and maybe even to get them to give up some things. Two young activists discuss strategies of how to motivate crowds and the power of taking action.