Big Ideas ABC listen

Author, essayist and speechwriter Don Watson says that the price of democracy is energy, imagination, and unstinting hard work. Through the lens of Trump's America, and the malaise of Australian politics, Watson questions whether our modern democracies are up to the job. This event was recorded on Bunurong country at the Sorrento Writers' Festival on April 25 2024.

Speaker

Don Watson, Author, essayist and speechwriter

On the doorstep of Gaza comes the remarkable story of the world's first peace treaty — a 3200-year-old text. Egyptologist Dr Camilla Di Biase-Dyson joins Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell to share a political and personal soap opera that brought an enduring peace to a region now suffering from a bloody war.

Speaker:

Dr Camilla Di Biase-Dyson
Linguist and Egyptologist
Senior Lecturer, Macquarie University

Disadvantaged and marginalised students often don't get the financial and teaching support that they need. Equity everyone, regardless of their background, is one of the most pressing challenges facing out higher education sector. 

The government released the Universities Accord Final Report earlier this year – and it recommends sweeping changes.

What are the main recommendations? And are they any good?

Access, Achievement, Accord 2024 was presented at The Australian Student Equity Symposium, Curtin University.

Speakers

Dr Kylie Austin
President for Equity Practitioners in Higher Education Australasia

Professor Verity Firth
Vice President Societal Impact, Equity and Engagement at the University of New South Wales

Professor Barney Glover
Commissioner of Jobs and Skills Australia

Professor Harlene Hayne
Vice-Chancellor of Curtin University

Professor Mary O'Kane
Chair of the Universities Accord Review; director and executive chairman of the consultancy O'Kane Associates

Professor Shamit Saggar (host)
Executive Director Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success, Curtin University

Further information

Australian Universities Accord Final Report Document

Award winning playwright S. Shakthidharan has described his groundbreaking theatre work Counting and Cracking as "a radical act of belonging". The epic, three-act, three-hour tale captures the Australian migrant experience through the story of one Sri Lankan family across four generations. To celebrate the play's return to the stage, we hear from four Sri Lankan Australians about the role creativity has played in their lives, culture and community.

This event was recorded at the University of Melbourne (UMAC) in partnership with Rising Festival and The Wheeler Centre on June 2, 2024.

Speakers

S. Shakthidharan Writer, Director, Producer and composer of original music
Author, Counting and Cracking
Co-Founder and Co-Director, Kurinji

Minoli De Silva Owner, Ella by Minoli
Finalist, Masterchef Australia

Suren Jayemanne Comedian, writer, presenter

Bhakthi Puvanenthiran (host) Entertainment and Features Editor, ABC

Further information

How writing the epic play Counting and Cracking helped Tamil playwright S. Shakthidharan's mum face her trauma
ABC Online, May 27, 2024

'We are here, we belong' — The unifying impact of Counting and Cracking 
The Stage Show, ABC RN, June 11, 2024

Drawing on his experiences working across continents in the "shatter zones" of society — jails, war zones, refugee shelters – Andre de Quadros explains how music and creativity can be used to build peace, reconciliation and empowerment in a troubled world. Later, Anne-Marie Forbes explains how music improves mental, physical and community well-being.

These events were recorded at the 2024 Miegunyah Lecture at the University of Melbourne on April 11, 2024, and Melodies as Medicine at the University of Tasmania on April 10, 2024.

Speakers

Andre de Quadros Professor of Music, Boston University
2024 Miegunyah Visiting Fellow, University of Melbourne

Anne-Marie Forbes Associate Professor Musicology, University of Tasmania
Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health.

Nourish Women's Choir

Join Natasha Mitchell and guests at the 2024 Ocean Lovers Festival in Bondi. From deep sea mining to illegal fishing on the high seas, who is the boss of the ocean? And why are scientists-turned-entrepreneurs singing the praises of seaweed?  Two panels of big thinkers exploring new frontiers for ocean exploitation — and inspiration — the risks, the rewards, and the regulation of this vast wilderness which covers 70% of the planet's surface

Panel 1 - Who owns the high seas and deep seas? Deep sea mining and illegal fishing 

Associate Professor Aline Jaeckel
Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS)
University of Wollongong

Captain Peter Hammarstedt
Director of Campaigns and Chairman of Sea Shepherd Australia

Mattheiu Rytz
Director of the film Deep Rising

Panel 2 - Is algae the new gold?

Dr Michael Askew
Executive Director and co-founder
Algae Co

Dr Pia Winberg
Founder and chief scientist
Venus Shell Systems

Dr Alexandra Thomson,
Industry Engagement Manager
Climate Change Cluster (C3) Research Institute
University of Technology Sydney