Big Ideas ABC listen

Australians love a drink, or at least, that's a perception that's deeply ingrained in our national identity. But how true is it, these days? This Big Ideas explores the politics, problems, and pleasures of Australia's long and chequered relationship with alcohol.

This event was recorded at Clunes Booktown Festival on Saturday March 23 2024.

Speakers

Alex Ettling Author, Knocking the Top off: A People's History of Alcohol in Australia

Sarah MacLean Professor of Social Work and Social Policy at La Trobe University

Richard Gilbert Author, Thirst for Gold

Bill Garner (host) Writer, actor, academic, author Born in a Tent

Join Natasha Mitchell and guests to grapple with some gritty paradoxes about science and religion. In this era of misinformation, conspiracy theories, and existential angst — are they serving the needs they used to?

When you're faced with the reality that your home, livelihoods and culture will be swallowed up by the rising seas of a warming climate, how do you respond?

You might think humans have escaped biology and evolution altogether with our strange and different ways: Women live well past their reproductive years, and we have baffling long childhoods as a species. We display a dazzling mix of selfishness and altruism, and gossiping can in fact be a strategy for survival.

As violence continues in Europe and the Middle East and as positive collective action on urgent global-scale issues seems out of reach, do we need new forms of international cooperation? How can Global South and Global North nations work together more effectively? What roadblocks hinder joint action on crucial issues such as security, development, climate, and AI? How can ethical reflection and engagement pave the way for a more inclusive and equitable multilateralism? A panel of international policy experts believes it's possible: There are shared values and shared interests that can serve as the basis for effective and inclusive forms of cooperation; we merely need to activate them.

Join Natasha Mitchell as she speaks to Tibetan master Venerable Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, along with an Indian philosopher of mind and a Sufi scholar, to wrestle with the self and its dissolution.