Ideas at the House: Recent Episodes
Sydney Opera House
Talks and conversations from the Sydney Opera House featuring the world’s greatest minds and culture creators.
The term “heterofatalism” has gone mainstream, capturing a growing pessimism around straight romance, and it’s influencing everything from dating app use to the quiet rise of celibacy.
Straight women are exhausted by underwhelming dates, constant safety calculations and endless emotional labour. As disappointing swipes, draining dates and “embarrassing” boyfriends multiply, a new mood is taking hold — a rising belief that heterosexual relationships are inherently flawed.
Chanté Joseph, Dr Lisa Portolan and moderator, Lucy Smith unpack this cultural moment with humour, sharp analysis and hard truths. Chanté, who blew the lid off the embarrassment of boyfriends in British Vogue, brings her insider lens on contemporary dating culture, while Lisa, an academic, researcher and author shine a light on how gender, power and emotional labour shape modern digital romance. Together, they explore how women and gender diverse people are reshaping their romantic lives.
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Deborah Cheetham Fraillon is an Australian arts trailblazer, but a career in music was not something her family had imagined for her. Growing up in Sydney, Deborah always loved music, but when she experienced Opera for the first time — everything changed.
Deborah went on to have an expansive global career as a soprano across the globe, and as a writer and composer of countless new works premiered all around Australia. She is the founder of Short Black Opera Company, with a mission to develop First Nations opera singers and uses her artforms as vehicles for radical truth-telling about untold Indigenous stories.
This intimate chat, moderated by Santilla Chingaipe, looks at the formidable career that took Debroah from Stolen Generation to opera star, to writer and composer of the first Australian Indigenous opera, Pecan Summer.
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New Motherhood is a time of overwhelming joy and love — but alongside those experiences, many new mothers also face exhaustion, emotional extremes, anxiety and profound changes in their mental health.
The much rarer cousin of postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis affects one to two in every 1,000 mothers. The early signs can look deceptively ordinary and be difficult to identify, but delayed diagnosis can lead to devastating consequences.
Moderator Lauren Novak (Meltdown) joins Ariane Beeston, Anne Buist and Rachel Skillington to break down the stigma surrounding motherhood’s misunderstood crises, unpack the warning signs with compassion, and look to solutions.
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Don’t Ask the Trees for Their Names, a recently published collection of stories,brings together nine Arab-Australian women who have had to start over in a new country, carrying the weight of home and the promise of possibility.
In this talk Contributors Loubna Haikal, Oula Ghannoum, Mariam Maatooq and Sivine Tabbouch join moderator Antoinette Lattouf to share their intimate, sometimes raw, often joyful stories of migration, identity and belonging.
From the legacies of homelands to the surprises of new communities, these voices reveal the courage, creativity and resilience it takes to forge a life from scratch. Their stories confront political injustices, celebrate cultural heritage and illuminate what it means to build family, community and selfhood in a new land.
Warm, urgent and unapologetically human, this conversation is a powerful celebration of women, storytelling and the transformative power of shared experience.
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Jane Birkin was synonymous with chic. An unlikely icon of French cinema, her effortless style and artistic legacy have been immortalised through her music and film career. And, of course, this British babe was the inspiration behind one of the world’s most coveted handbags — the Hermès Birkin. But who was the real woman behind the muse?
Join writer, critic and film curator, Kate Jinx and New York Times bestselling author Marisa Meltzer for an in-depth discussion about Birkin’s extraordinary life, times and legacy, inspired by Meltzer’s newly published biography, It Girl.
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Real talk on money, power, financial safety and securing your future
Saddle up for a no-nonsense conversation about women, money and the systems shaping our financial futures. Learn practical skills, gain confidence and rewrite your path to independence.
This frank, practical conversation brings together leading voices shaping the future of women’s financial literacy and security: Tasnia Alam Hannan, Zee Heart and Catherine Fitzpatrick, with Angela Priestley moderating.
From navigating personalised debt traps to the new realities of retirement, this panel offers clear guidance, real talk and empowering pathways forward.
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Laila Lalami’s eerily prophetic new book imagines a world where AI can punish us for “potential crimes”.
Known for her razor-sharp explorations of the immigrant experience, Lalami once again proves the power of fiction to illuminate and anticipate the world around us.
From her celebrated essay collection Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America to her acclaimed novels, she has long interrogated power and national belonging.
Enjoy this rare chance to hear Lalami unpack identity, belonging, justice and the power of storytelling.
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You might be familiar with the concept of the “second shift” — the domestic burden that awaits a woman when she returns home from work. Then there’s the third shift (emotional labour) and the fourth shift (nighttime caregiving). Now we ask: is sex just the so-called “fifth shift”?
Join Yumi Stynes, Chanté Joseph and Aleks Trkulja for an engaging chat about whether keeping the spark alive in long-term relationships is totally hot… or just another unpaid shift women are expected to clock into.
Is maintaining a sex life in log-term relationships a labour of love, or just… labour?
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Bringing up boys isn’t getting any less complicated. One minute they’re sweet, funny little humans. The next, they’re parroting some podcast bro who insists “patriarchy isn’t real” and “grindset” is a personality.
Shows like Adolescence and books like The Anxious Generation tapped a nerve. As toxic masculinity is loudly (and often rightly) called out, a generation of boys is confused and ashamed — and the algorithm is happy to lead them down dark alt-right rabbit holes. It’s part of the reason the Australian government introduced age restrictions for social media accounts.
So how do we cut through the bro-fluencer noise to raise resilient, emotionally literate boys?
Investigative journalist Jess Hill (See What You Made Me Do) and men’s mental health researcher Zac Seidler unpack the cultural forces shaping boys today and how adults can guide them with compassion.
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Miranda July’s “great perimenopause novel”, All Fours tells the story of a woman who abandons routine suburban life for a reckless road trip and an extramarital affair.
All Fours has hit a real-world nerve and since its release in 2024 has been blamed for the break down of both book clubs and marriages. It has become a catalyst for women re-examining their desires, their compromises and their lives.
In “The All Fours Effect”, distinguished panellists Neha Kale, Melanie Kembrey, Jacqueline Maley and Marisa Meltzer dissect this novel and unpack the art, the uproar and the questions we can’t un-ask.
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For solo parents, queer couples and people experiencing fertility issues the path to parenthood often comes with extra steps. Today, finding donor sperm is harder than ever — It’s the drought Australia is not talking about!
As Australian fertility clinics scramble to meet demand, the search for sperm becomes an unexpectedly intimate chapter in the story of forming a family. Some navigate year-long clinic waitlists. Others sift through overseas profiles or have delicate conversations with friends. And some, like our moderator Edwina Storie, find themselves trawling unexpected corners of Facebook.
Bringing together lived experience, this panel unswaddles the messy truth of modern conception — from awkward donor conversations and legal grey zones to financial burdens, cultural complexities and what donor-conceived people wish their parents knew.
Join Melanie Saward, Alisha Burns, Maeve Marsden and Edwina Storie for an eye-opening conversation about what it really takes to make a baby today.
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Women’s pain isn’t “mysterious”. Medicine is failing us.
For centuries, women’s symptoms have been misunderstood, minimised or dismissed, from wandering wombs and so-called “hysteria” to modern-day misdiagnosis, mistreatment and delayed care.
Medical science made extraordinary advances in the 20th and 21st centuries, but gender bias remains stubbornly embedded in healthcare, from a body of scientific research based largely on male experience, to a medical culture that can still see women dismissed or even belittled.
An increasing body of testimony shows how dangerous this is for women — particularly First Nations women, women of colour and gender-diverse people — with poorer health outcomes across cardiovascular, neurological, reproductive and autoimmune conditions.
Against this backdrop, studies like Australia’s first-ever Inquiry into Women’s Pain — drawing on the lived experiences of more than 13,000 women, girls, carers, healthcare professionals, peak bodies and researchers — point to the urgent need for reform.
Join this expert panel as they put medical misogyny under the microscope and, crucially, map out what meaningful change could finally look like.
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What if ageing wasn’t something to avoid, but something to embrace?
Right now, a revolution is gathering force. Middle-aged and older women are refusing to fade out, shrink back or apologise for taking up space.
Jacinta Parsons’ new book, A Wisdom of Age, was sparked by conversations with women across the country who are rewriting the rules and living with unapologetic confidence.
Jacinta is joined by some of the formidable women whose humour, tenderness and rebellious wisdom shaped the book. This uplifting talk is a celebration of ageing with agency, and we’re just getting started.
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When Emily Maitlis grilled then-Prince Andrew in that now-infamous BBC interview, she ignited “the worst PR crisis for the royal family since the death of Diana”. Ending the Duke’s royal career, the encounter also inspired several television adaptations including Amazon Prime’s A Very Royal Scandal (with Ruth Wilson as Maitlis).
Since then, she’s only turned up the heat – challenging political spin, dismantling “both-sides” journalism, hosting one of the UK’s most-listened-to podcasts and putting pressure on the US Department of Justice to release the “Epstein Files”.
Maitlis brings her signature fearlessness to All About Women to talk politics, power, journalism’s critical role in seeking justice and holding power to account – and what it takes to expose the truth when the stakes couldn’t be higher.
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When justice is redacted, women pay the price.
The Epstein Files are not just about one man’s crimes, but about the systems that protected him and failed women — and girls — for decades.
American journalist and writer Amy Wallace collaborated with Epstein survivor Virginia Roberts Giuffre on her memoir Nobody’s Girl, published months after her death, while British journalist Emily Maitlis famously put Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on the record about his involvement with Epstein’s dark world. Join them for a critically important discussion that looks beyond spectacle to examine the institutions that turned a blind eye, the lawsuits now seeking redress and what justice looks like when perpetrators evade consequences but survivors live with lasting harm.
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The overturning of Roe v. Wade by the US Supreme Court sent shock waves around the world. And while abortion rights seemed to be settled in Australia, there have been attempts - on both sides of politics - to undermine them here. Abortion restrictions were proposed in at least two Australian states, while debate continues about whether publicly funded hospitals can refuse to perform the procedure.
In this podcast, Jane Caro, Summer May Finlay and Charlotte Mortlock canvass the current state of debate in Australia and examine how seriously to take these recent threats. Could it really happen here?
This event was hosted by Gina Rushton and recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 9 March 2025
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An inspirational force for positive action, Nyamal woman and renowned psychologist Dr Tracy Westerman is making waves in the treatment of Indigenous women’s trauma. As the first Aboriginal person in Australia to complete a PhD in Clinical Psychology, Dr Westerman has opened the floodgates, inspiring others to follow her into a professional field truly in need of community-based Indigenous psychologists.
Drawing from her decades working with clients, Dr Westerman explores the deep racial trauma affecting Aboriginal women across generations. In this powerful talk, she reveals how hope and optimism fuel the resilience of the world’s oldest living culture.
This event was recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 9 March 2025.
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Rachel Kushner’s latest novel Creation Lake, a French noir eco-espionage thriller, was an instant New York Times bestseller, shortlisted for the Booker, and hailed as a blend of John le Carré’s intrigue with the wit of Kill Bill and the style of Killing Eve.
It’s the latest in a career that has dazzled her fans - whether she is taking on the art and radicalism in 1970s New York (The Flamethrowers), the horrors of the US carceral system (The Mars Room) or American expatriates caught up in the Cuban revolution (Telex from Cuba).
Find out how this author creates stories and characters that always feel so brilliantly and bracingly alive.
This event was recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 9 March 2025.
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From the Matilda’s Effect to the AFL commitment to close the gender pay gap, cross-code support for female athletes is at an all-time high. With record attendance, huge broadcast viewership and glass ceilings shattering, elite players are finally being taken seriously. None of this happened overnight. How far off is something that looks like parity?
Join Kirby Bentley, Bec Goddard, Ann Odong, Lydia Williams and Tracey Holmes from on and off the pitch to hear first-hand experiences of the peaks and pitfalls that have come with the growing emphasis on women’s sport, and learn about the role intersectionality needs to play.
This event was recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 9 March 2025.
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After spending their early years together in conflict zones as foreign correspondents, Geraldine Brooks and her husband Tony Horwitz settled down for a quiet life. This came to an abrupt end on Memorial Day 2019 with the sudden death of Brooks' beloved husband. Without space to grieve, her loss became a yawning gulf.
Her profoundly moving memoir, Memorial Days, is a portrait of a larger-than-life man and a timeless love between intertwined souls that captures the joy, agony and mystery of life. In this touching talk, Brooks is joined by Jennifer Byrne to discuss how to honour a person, endure their absence in ways both new and old, and rebuild a life after loss.
This event was recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 9 March 2025.
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Despite decades of legislative reform and workplace protections in other industries, some claim there is a persistent shadowy underbelly in Australian music, with female artists alleging bullying, harassment as well as sexist and racist abuse. Speaking from lived experience, Australian artists BARKAA and Jaguar Jonze argue for their rights at work and challenge the lack of accountability from those at the top.
This event was recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 9 March 2025.
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Embracing her misfit nature early on, Gina Chick found grounding in the rhythms of the natural world. With an innate ability to bring barefoot wisdom into her daily life, Gina has dedicated her time to help others be guided by their internal authority.
Her extraordinary journey includes surviving cancer, losing her only child to the same illness, and spending 67 days alone in the Tasmanian wilderness and ultimately becoming the first winner of Alone Australia. Gina shares her story in her memoir, We Are The Stars.
With humour and unshakable spirit, she invites you into an intimate journey of possibility through story and song.
This event was recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 9 March 2025.
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Acclaimed science journalist and author Lucy Jones (UK), explores the emerging concept of matrescence and how motherhood causes more physiological and psychological changes than we have been led to believe.
Part memoir and part journalism, her latest book – named ‘Book of the Year’ by The New Yorker, the New Statesman and the Daily Mail – is an urgent examination of motherhood and mental health. Join Jones in conversation with reproductive rights journalist and author of The Most Important Job in the World, Gina Rushton as they radically reveal the science of motherhood.
This event was recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 9 March 2025.
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Journalist and survivor Lucia Osborne-Crowley goes beyond the headlines in this gripping podcast, sharing the untold stories of the women victimised by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Drawing from her acclaimed book The Lasting Harm, she reveals the emotional toll of the trial, the strength of survivor testimony, and the systemic failures that continue to persist, even after countless convictions. A powerful exploration of justice, trauma, and the courage it takes to speak out — and keep surviving.
This event was moderated by Grace Tame and recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 9 March 2025.
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What happens when a natural phase of life becomes a trending topic—and a business opportunity? In this sharp, funny, and deeply insightful conversation, our panel dives into the realities of perimenopause and menopause. From mood swings to hot flushes, hormone therapy to healthcare ‘goopification’, they unpack the confusion, stigma, and skyrocketing market around women’s health. With personal stories and expert insights, this podcast cuts through the noise to bring clarity, solidarity, and a few laughs.
This event was recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 9 March 2025.
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The Ladies, We Need to Talk podcast goes deep on the personal stuff that's hard to talk about, even with your closest mates. With sensitivity, hilarity, personal stories and serious smarts, it tries to work out what normal is by talking to real women about their real experiences.
Relive Yumi Stynes bringing her hit ABC podcast to the Opera House, with a panel of frank and funny women answering the question: is everyone having more interesting sex than me?
This event was recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 9 March 2025.
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Human rights lawyer Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts brings her fight for justice for First Nations people and children to this powerful episode. Drawing from her own childhood trauma, forcibly removed at the tender age of ten and only began to heal when she fled the out-of-home care system to reconnect with kin and return to country.
Her unflinching exposé uncovers the ongoing violence institutions are inflicting on children and their communities – from racist family policing and shameful rates of child removals to the steady pipeline of First Nations children into the criminal justice system. Listen to this conversation of bold truth-telling that poses an important challenge to us all.
This event was recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 9 March 2025.
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Deciding whether to have kids is more complex than ever. This thoughtful conversation unpacks the deeply personal choice of parenthood alongside its broader political, financial, and environmental implications. With birth rates falling and uncertainty rising, more women are choosing not to have children. Plug in and hear candid conversations about climate anxiety, economic pressures, and social expectations—and why opting out of parenthood is becoming an increasingly common decision.
This event was recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 9 March 2025.
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Wondering what’s behind ballerina farms, #mormonmoms and the simple life? As the Trad Wife phenomenon rises up the algorithm, clips of women collecting newly laid eggs and baking bread are finding their way into “For You” pages everywhere. Jump down the rabbit hole as this conversation examines how these influencers perform the roles of wife and mother for public consumption and how feminism fits into this story.
This event was recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 9 March 2025.
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An urgent panel discussion on Australia’s escalating crisis of violence against women. Experts share personal accounts and professional insights into the rise in partner homicides, tech-enabled abuse, and the disproportionate impact on First Nations women. As governments acknowledge the issue but fail to act effectively, this conversation asks: why is the danger increasing, and what must be done to protect women and children across the country?
This event was recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 9 March 2025.
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Co-Medical Director of the Melanoma Institute Australia, Professor Richard Scolyer AO is a world-leading clinician and researcher who has spent years alongside his colleagues transforming melanoma treatment, Australia’s deadliest cancer. At the peak of his career, his world was turned upside down when he was diagnosed with an incurable Grade 4 glioblastoma.
Refusing to accept the status quo—where treatment options had remained unchanged for nearly two decades—he made the courageous decision to become “patient zero” in a world-first experimental immunotherapy.
Moderated by Jamila Rizvi, this fascinating conversation follows Richard’s remarkable journey and celebrates the publication of his latest book Brainstorm.
This event was recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 17 November 2024
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From humble beginnings in the remote Pilbara, Dr Tracy Westerman was the first Aboriginal person in Australia to complete a PhD in Clinical Psychology and has risen to become one of the country’s leading psychologists.
In an event that marked the publication of her powerful memoir Jilya, Westerman spoke to journalist and Wiradjuri man Stan Grant, and drew on decades of client stories of trauma and heartbreak, explaining how mental health professions’ one-size-fits-all approach is creating irreparable damage and how a different approach can help to heal the wounds of intergenerational trauma.
This event was recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 10 September 2024
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A future where artificial intelligence intersects with human cognition, consciousness, and even life itself couldn’t actually become a reality anytime soon…right?
Esteemed experts including renowned quantum physicist and cosmologist Paul Davies AM, cognitive scientist Inês Hipólito and neuroscientist Brett Kagan sat down with University of Sydney's AI expert Sandra Peter to unveil life-altering developments that will reshape our future sooner than you think.
This event was recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 17 August 2024
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He’s a global household name who needs no introduction - from the famous moment of discovery at London’s River Café to selling 50 million books 24 years later, Jamie Oliver popped into Sydney for an Australian exclusive conversation covering the breadth of his career.
Moderated by former Masterchef Australia judge Melissa Leong, hear Jamie’s insights into his triumphs and challenges, the meaning of family and being a dad, and his pledge to create a happier, healthier world by inspiring the love of cooking in children.
This event was recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 11 November 2023.
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The world is on the cusp of extraordinary changes - from cures for intractable illnesses to dramatic reductions in greenhouse gasses - thanks to Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna. Listen to her thoughts in this fascinating discussion with Natasha Mitchell and learn about the benefits and threats in the revolution of gene editing.
This event was recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 21 May 2024.
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In this Australian exclusive event, psychiatrist and trauma research pioneer Bessel van der Kolk, MD, sat down with Sarah Kanowski and discussed his New York Times best selling book The Body Keeps The Score.
Hear his insights into how traumatic experiences can disconnect our body and mind leaving us with a physical imprint of our psychic wounds, and explore the treatments proving effective, including MDMA-assisted therapy, recently approved for use in Australia.
This event was recorded live at Sydney Opera House on 9 March 2024.
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For a long time, the word 'influencer' conjured stereotypes of activewear and dubious hot takes. But it's 2024 and social media has well-and-truly revolutionised the public square. Today, the word influencer can refer to an activist or academic who shares short videos on TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram to explain complex concepts on niche subjects for a global audience.
From Substack to Twitter threads, podcasting to Patreon, there are many opportunities to monetise knowledge-sharing. What does it mean for women to be able to build audiences free from traditional gatekeepers? Or are the gatekeepers now just the shady algorithms of BigTech bros? This All About Women panel of influencers including: Hannah Ferguson, Mary Mcgillivray, Sisonke Msimang and moderator Bri Lee features a lively and entertaining debate unpacking the implications of the new gatekeepers.
This event was recorded at All About Women Festival at the Sydney Opera House on March 10, 2024.
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Pop culture has embraced a surge of complex female anti-heroes, from con-women to avengers, challenging traditional narratives of female perfection with their flaws and moral ambiguity. However, this trend predominantly features white women, leaving Women of Colour marginalized as exceptions rather than the rule.
Featuring an all-star First Nations panel, Steph Tisdell, Barkaa and moderator Rudi Bremer, this panel sheds light on the burden of representation and the narrow pathways for Women of Colour to navigate between societal expectations of excellence and the right to embrace imperfection.
This event was recorded at All About Women festival at the Sydney Opera House on March 10, 2024.
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When Anna Funder turned to her literary hero, George Orwell, for inspiration, she discovered not just that Eileen O’Shaughnessy, his first wife's, contribution had been ignored by his biographers but that Orwell himself had blatantly downplayed both her work and her contribution.
In her book Wifedom, Funder forensically proves Orwell’s deliberate erasure of his wife and not only puts O’Shaughnessy back in the story, but in the process comes face to face with the doublethink of patriarchy and how it continues to shape women’s lives today. Funder is joined by Jemma Birrell for this conversation, as she unpacks Orwell's double-edged legacy and her latest masterpiece.
This event was recorded at All About Women festival at the Sydney Opera House on March 10, 2024.
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In an era where porn is omnipresent and often celebrated as a symbol of empowerment and personal freedom, Chanel Contos argues that it also perpetuates harmful norms of objectification and violence.
Contos is the creator of the Teach Us Consent movement and author of Consent Laid Bare. In this discussion with Jess Hill she interrogates how the porn industry infiltrates real-life sexual dynamics and expectations.
This podcast includes discussion about violence and other sensitive issues. If you or someone you know needs support, contact 1800 RESPECT, a free helpline which supports people impacted by domestic, family
This event was recorded at All About Women Festival at the Sydney Opera House on March 10, 2024.
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For the first time, Sydney audiences heard directly from Cambridge Professor Emerita Dame Mary Beard in an event that delved into the broad range of her career - from the ruins of ancient Rome to the trenches of Twitter.
Dame Mary joins Bri Lee in a broad reaching discussion about how power is skewed along gender lines, her latest book, Emperor of Rome, which gives a nuanced understanding of sex, class, race, and politics in the ancient world, and whose astute observations of modern political power have shone a light on the remarkably persistent patterns of patriarchy today.
This event was recorded at All About Women Festival at the Sydney Opera House on March 10, 2024.
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Hot on the heels of her satirical literary sensation Yellowface crushing the bestseller lists, American author Rebecca F. Kuang was joined by Nakkiah Lui for a conversation exploring the complexities of diversity, racism and cultural appropriation today – both through her own eyes and those of her book’s protagonist Juniper Hayward.
This event was recorded at All About Women festival at the Sydney Opera House on March 10, 2024.
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It was the ultimate roast session at All About Women, but this time, the target wan't a person—it was feminism itself! From suffrage struggles to the #MeToo movement, no aspect of feminist history or ideology was safe from the scathing wit of our roasters. A interrogation of gender and power, this special event was filled with laughs, irreverence, and maybe even a few moments of introspection.
In an All about Women first, six of the wittiest voices—Michelle Law, Jane Caro, Jan Fran, Zoe Coombs Marr, Nakkiah Lui and host Steph Tisdell took aim at feminism, from its earliest roots to its modern-day iterations.
This event was recorded at the All About Women Festival at the Sydney Opera House on March 10, 2024.
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For All About Women in 2024, audiences embarkedon a journey through the complex landscape of the human body, where strength meets vulnerability, pleasure intertwines with pain, and empowerment dances with trauma. This captivating conversation explored the political battleground that our bodies often become and tackled the societal challenges deeply rooted in our physical forms.
The distinguished panel included: Grace Tame, Tanya Hosch, Madison Griffiths and Tara Rae Moss, alongside moderator Jamila Rizvi.
This event was recorded at the All About Women Festival at the Sydney Opera House on March 10, 2024.
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Motherhood is known as one of life’s greatest joys but the complexities that come with raising a child solo, battling through ableism and racism, or facing systemic barriers can turn it into an uphill battle.
Indigenous rapper, Barkaa and writer Karen Pickering were joined by moderator Edwina Throsby for a thought-provoking discussion at All About Women, where they unravelled the challenges society throws at mothers.
This podcast includes discussion about violence and other sensitive issues. If you or someone you know needs support, contact 1800 RESPECT, a free helpline which supports people impacted by domestic, family or sexual violence.
This event was recorded at the All About Women Festival at the Sydney Opera House on March 10, 2024.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The beauty industry is stuck in a push-pull dynamic with society. We're encouraged to embrace natural looks, yet bombarded with countless products promising to conceal or enhance our features. Additionally, we express a desire to champion entrepreneurial women, but when they relinquish control to men or conform to conventional business standards, they often face criticism.
Fashion, beauty, and wellness journalist Marisa Meltzer explored the impact of social media-driven hyper consumerism on the beauty industry, in All About Women 2024, alongside moderator Bridie Jabour.
This event was recorded at the All About Women Festival at the Sydney Opera House on March 10, 2024.
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The ‘Sad Girl Novel’ has officially reached market saturation. Privileged young female protagonists are portrayed as unfulfilled by sex and their careers; they are deeply entrenched in their complicated thoughts and feelings, filled with self-loathing and self-absorbed.
It’s as if they have stumbled upon some great insight that the rest of us fail to see, except perhaps the millions of us who buy these books.
This All About Women panel, with authors and critics Jessie Tu, Madeleine Gray, Neha Kale and moderator Bridie Jabour, delved into the themes of ‘Sad Girl Novels’ and discussed why they resonated with audiences.
This event was recorded at the All About Women Festival at the Sydney Opera House on March 10, 2024.
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In days gone by, raising kids was considered a woman’s job, while men were the breadwinners. Fast forward to 2024, and women are now expected to work, but men are still only taking 12% of primary carer’s leave.
Addressing stereotypes of absent fathers, a panel of dads, including Sean Szeps, Osher Gunsberg and Amar Singh, joined Jamila Rizvi at All About Women in 2024, to discuss their commitment to equality in the household and encourage men to take on more responsibilities.
This event was recorded at the All About Women Festival at the Sydney Opera House on March 10, 2024.
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Our justice system is not functioning as it should. Over 90% of women in prison have faced domestic violence, sexual assault or abuse. One-third of women incarcerated have yet to be found guilty of a crime. First Nations women are disproportionately represented in incarcerated populations. Additionally, there's the issue of mothers and pregnant individuals behind bars.
Eleni Psillakis, Ashlee Donohue, Frances Drake and Tabitha Lean joined moderator Kirsten Gray at All About Women to share their experiences with the hope of reform.
This event was recorded at the All About Women Festival at the Sydney Opera House on March 10, 2024.
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Booker Prize-winning author Anne Enright’s latest novel, The Wren is a multigenerational story delving into the inheritance of trauma, the resilience of women and the power of love in its manifold forms. It contemplates the question: how do we live with betrayal and loneliness, yet still love those close to us?
Anne joined us at All About Women this year to explore the novel, societal links and the reasoning behind stylistic choices in her writing, alongside moderator and author Madeline Gray.
This event was recorded at the All About Women Festival at the Sydney Opera House on March 10, 2024.
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Consumerist culture grows stronger every year, particularly with the expansion of marketing and influencers on social media, rising carbon emissions and inequality in supply chains.
At All About Women this year, fashion activist and writer Aja Barber demystified the structural inequality embedded in the global fashion industry and spoke with moderator Jan Fran about ways we can be good global citizens while still enjoying what fashion has to offer.
This event was recorded at the All About Women Festival at the Sydney Opera House on March 10, 2024.
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Content disclaimer: this podcast contains content that is explicit in nature.
For All About Women 2023, the Sydney Opera House partnered with Western Sydney-based literacy movement Sweatshop on an emerging writers mentorship program for women and non-binary First Nations, culturally and linguistically diverse writers.
The recipients worked on short fiction pieces, responding to Tarana Burke’s #MeToo movement and those left behind as it evolved, under the guidance of Sweatshop judges and mentors Winnie Dunn and Sarah Ayoub.
Hear from 2023 winners Margretta Sowah and Uppma Virdi and highly commended writer Helen Nguyen, including readings of their stories.
This is the fifth and final episode of a five-part season which showcases recent events from the Sydney Opera House, and was recorded in studio June 2023.
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Capturing global attention through recipes so popular they became viral hashtags (#TheCookies, #ThePasta, #TheDip), Alison Roman wowed Sydney audiences in May 2023 in her quest for us all to ditch “domestic goddess” perfection and embrace a no-fuss, no-nonsense approach to cooking at home.
Roman spoke to fellow cook and Australian television presenter Adam Liaw about all the things that took her from early life as a pastry chef in California to the stage of the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.
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In a year when everyone is talking about artificial intelligence, we need to talk about the human kind. What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be conscious of your existence, your thoughts, your dreams? As machines develop, what might be left that is uniquely human? Our pursuit of pleasure and its rewards? Our ability to love?
AI expert Toby Walsh and evolutionary biologist Rob Brooks join journalist Rae Johnston to tackle the fundamental questions we should be asking amid the advent of super intelligent machines.
This is the second episode of a five-part season which showcases recent events from the Sydney Opera House, and was recorded live in October 2023.
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We kick off a new five-part season with a debate from our 50th Birthday Festival, discussing whether or not the Sydney Opera House would be built today. It's an iconic building that inspires imagination and sparks conversations, but do we still have what it takes to bring such a bold vision to fruition?
Arguing for the motion are: Osman Faruqi, Rebecca Huntley, and Benjamin Law and arguing against are: Wendy Harmer, Helen Pitt, and Yumi Stynes.Hosted by Julia Zemiro, this event was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House in October 2023.
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Unsure about parenthood? You're not alone.
There's a lot to consider when it comes to reproductive choice, evolving social norms mean that women don't have to follow a one-way path to motherhood. Either flying solo or coupled, hetero or queer, when it comes to taking control of fertility there's IVF, egg freezing, and more. And the decision to have children only leads to more questions - about careers, relationships, AND the state of the world.
At All About Women 2023, our panellists share their research and lived experiences about biological clocks, and the latest in fertility science. Journalists Brooke Boney, Gina Rushton, and Dr Natasha Andreadis explore the minefield of baby-making in the modern world with host Sana Qadar.
This event was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House in March 2023.
Independent single women are a threat to the status quo. So, it comes as no surprise that the demonisation of single women is not new. From the European witch trials to the formation of the western legal system and its impact on survivors today, the patriarchy has gone to diabolical lengths in order to keep women under its watch.
In this invigorating All About Women 2023 session, Clementine Ford’s eye-opening and hilarious walk through history explored why unmarried spinsters strike fear in the heart of powerful men.
This event was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House in March 2023.
Reality tv has always been a contentious category of television especially when it comes to authenticity and finding true love. Many of us love the drama, the tropes and stereotyping, even if we’re just poking fun at it.
This session at All About Women 2023 explored Brooke Blurton’s time on The Bachelorette and Rosie Waterland’s satirical take on dating shows. Hosted by Nakkiah Lui, they delve into what it’s like to participate in traditionally heteronormative dating shows as a queer person, trying to find a genuine connection on tv and what this voyeuristic search for romance reveals about Australian culture.
This event was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House in March 2023.
From repressed women in Iran to the rollback of abortion rights in the US, alongside the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the continuing fight for rights for First Nations people and justice for victims of sexual assault, there appears to be a global war against women.
Women around the world are speaking up and there has been a ferocious backlash. Karen Iles, Mona Eltahawy, Fatima Bhutto, and Chelsea Watego spoke at All About Women 2023 with host Sam Mostyn about women’s rights at this moment, and what women must do to gain – or retain – their freedom.
This event was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House in March 2023.
Being a girlboss meant that you could have it all, a renlentlessly demanding job, the side hustle that swallowed your downtime, and a phone that never stops pinging.
This session explored questions such as: Is burnout the only path to modern career success? Will all the girl bossing in the world win a pay rise for those women stuck in the underpaid and undervalued care economy? And can Gen Z remake the game, for the better?
Flex Mami, Jamila Rizvi and host Jan Fran sat down at All About Women 2023 to discuss how the next generation of feminists are putting the girlboss mentality and burnout to bed, and to see if they can remake the game for the better.
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Since time immemorial, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have looked after human, spiritual and ecological wellbeing. Many First Nations women's activism is empowered through continuation of a long history of matriarchs who embody kinship and moral responsibility to community and country. This session will examine how this activism intersects and conflicts with mainstream feminism today.
In this session from All About Women 2023, a multi-generational panel featuring: Jackie Huggins, Teela Reid, Marlene Longbottom and host Courtney Fewquandie, looks at the movements Blak women have mothered and led, alongside fights that could be considered feminist issues - like equal pay and justice, violence and coercive control, leadership and movement building.
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We live in a society that is only just beginning to recognise neurodivergence in women and non-binary people. So how does it feel to be misdiagnosed for years? Does greater public awareness make socialising a little bit simpler? What are some strategies to cope with ableist systems? And what stereotypes do we really need to put in the bin?
In this session at All About Women 2023, host and festival co-curator Dr. Amy Thunig is joined by panellists Chloe Hayden, Grace Tame and Dr. Jac den Houting to share their lived experiences with Autism. Navigating questions about social situations and professional settings, and what terms like masking and mimicry mean.
Legendary punk band Bikini Kill headlined Sydney Opera House’s 2023 All About Women Festival with a reminder of what it was like to perform in a male-dominated music industry in the 90s. They represented anarchist feminist music and encouraged disobedience in young women, emboldening them to publish zines and start bands as acts of cultural resistance.
In this session, Bikini Kill’s lead singer Kathleen Hanna, and bassist Kathi Wilcox, were joined by writer and Bikini Kill mega fan Marieke Hardy to talk about new ways to speak out, the balance between activism, anger, and joy, and how the band's blistering message is once again bringing girls to the front.
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The conduct of many journalists during the 2022 federal election appeared to expose media bias on the campaign trail. Many Australians were dissatisfied with journalists who seemed more concerned with catching politicians out than helping us to understand their vision and priorities for the country.
At Antidote 2022, journalists Maddison Connaughton, Barrie Cassidy, Osman Faruqi & Janine Perrett came together to ask, “ is there something fundamentally wrong with Australian media?”
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Knowledge around sex, intimacy and pleasure is regularly dismissed as society has often shrouded the subject in shame and awkwardness.
At Antidote 2022, psychosexologist Chantelle Otten delves into the many forms of desire, the vulnerability of sexual pleasure, and helps us to build sexual confidence in ourselves and our relationships. Alongside host, Lucinda 'Froomes' Price, they talk about creating a sex-positive frame of mind and give us a sex re-education.
This event was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House in September 2022.
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With growing momentum to enact the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and The Voice to Parliament on the agenda, is a meaningful change for First Nations people finally happening in Australia?
In a First Nations led discussion at Antidote 2022, host Jason Glanville was joined by Nareen Young and Nardi Simpson, to discuss what needs to change in our politics, our society and our culture. And what needs to change in the heart of Australians as individuals, as community and as a nation, to realise goals and walk together as one.
This event was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House in September 2022.
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Can someone else's story change your life?
Dai Le, Nardi Simpson, Dinesh Palipana, Antoinette Lattouf and host, Steph Tisdell, took the stage at Antidote 2022 to draw back the curtain on their worlds and reveal what happened to them. We hear stories that are tragic, hilarious, engaging, and life changing, and learn how they shaped who they have become.
This event was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House in September 2022.
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In the wake of multiple political crises in the United States, a rich and powerful China increasingly asserts itself. How does Australia navigate this new world order?
China will soon overtake the US as the world’s largest economy and has swiftly become a strategic powerhouse with relationships across the globe. With America’s deep political divisions and diminishing consensus around key democratic norms, it’s hard to argue that China’s rise won’t be accompanied by a greater say in global decisions, impacting countries like Australia.
Geremie R. Barmé, Linda Jaivin, and Vicky Xu came together at Antidote 2022 to discuss the threats and opportunities for Australia in the midst of these geopolitical changes.
Hosted by Richard McGregor, this talk was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House in September 2022.
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The Last White Man is the latest novel from internationally bestselling author Mohsin Hamid. The book reimagines Kafka's Metamorphosis and taps into white anxiety about replacement in unique and enlightening ways.
The British Pakistani novelist of The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Booker-Prize-nominated Exit West, talked to Osman Faruqi at Antidote 2022 about whiteness, privilege, prejudice, and the transcendent power of love.
This event was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House in September 2022.
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The 2022 federal election saw Australian voters moving away from the traditional two-party system, with a record number of Independents and Greens candidates elected. How will this change the way our government is formed in the future? Will we stitch coalitions together after elections to assemble government like in many other countries?
At Antidote 2022, Karen Middleton, Chief Political Correspondent for The Saturday Paper, sat down with crossbench trendsetters, Cathy McGowan, Adam Bandt and Allegra Spender to examine the new balance of power in the senate and put the new state of affairs under the microscope.
This event was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House in September 2022.
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Would you quit your job to serve others?
These two high-achievers sacrificed successful careers in journalism to take up the rigorous study necessary to become medical doctors. What drives such a sacrifice, and how does it feel to be called to serve?
Lisa Pryor, previously a lawyer and a columnist is now a psychiatry registrar, listening and responding to human stories in a different way. Amy Coopes was a journalist dispatched to meet victims of violent crimes, left the newsroom to pursue medicine in rural areas. At Antidote 2022, they spoke to Norman Swan, who famously switched from medicine to journalism, about what compelled them to abandon successful careers in order to embark on the ultra-demanding profession of medicine and how it gave their lives a bigger sense of purpose.
This event was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House in September 2022.
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Is Covid just the beginning? The climate crisis has created a unique situation that has the potential to breed many more viruses, forcing animals to migrate to new habitats, creating new inter-species infections. This means more and more of the world's viruses could leap from animals to humans.
Science journalist Ed Yong - who won a Pulitzer Prize for his COVID explanatory articles and Professor Raina MacIntyre - epidemiologist and UNSW Chair of Biosecurity tell host Rebecca Huntley at Antidote 2022 what we can expect in this new era and how we should prepare for it.
This event was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House in September 2022.
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There are over 150 Indigenous languages actively maintained by community groups in Australia, and a growing movement to protect, revitalise and promote Indigenous language.
There are 7000 languages in use worldwide - but many Indigenous languages are falling out of use. What does Australia need to do to preserve, revitalize and promote Indigenous languages? Uncle Gary Williams, Shelley Ware & Kirli Saunders sat down at Antidote 2022 to embark on an agenda-setting conversation.
Hosted by Daniel Browning, in collaboration with the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, this event was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House in September 2022.
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Bodies carry and represent so much, these fragile vessels that we are "stuck in" can dictate privilege or oppression not only within ourselves but in wider society.
In a talk recorded at our Antidote festival in September 2022, trans and non-binary author, Olivia Laing is joined by host Jessie Tu in a profound discussion about the ideas in Laing's latest book 'Everybody', which draws on figures such as Malcolm X, Andrea Dworkin, Nina Simone and more, exploring the human body and its effect in our world today.
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Should government step in to protect us from Big Social Media?
Conspiracy theories and false news are spread by social media, with real and dangerous consequences for society. Is it time for governments to consider dealing with algorithm bubbles?
At Antidote 2022, journalist Karen Middleton was joined by former PM Malcolm Turnbull AC and Ed Coper, author of Facts and Other Lies, to discuss how false information affects governments delivering services and ask whether social media networks are out of control and posing a threat to democracy.
This event was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House in September 2022.
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What if the things we keep hidden say more about us than those we put on display?
Jarvis Cocker, founder and front man of legendary English band Pulp finally found the time to rummage around his attic crawl space and wrote a book on the rediscovered hoarded objects and mementos that tell a lifetime of incredible stories.
In this show and tell with Myf Warhurst as part of Antidote 2022, Cocker explores questions of creativity, music, and the deep significance of everyday objects that most people throw away.
This talk was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House in September 2022.
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This episode of Ideas At The House features an Antidote festival event like no other. As a response to the brutal invasion and ongoing war in Ukraine, the event features sombre and beautiful works by Ukrainian poets, musicians, and storytellers Maria Tumarkin, Serhiy Zhadan, Billie Tumarkin, Anatoli Torjinski & Olga Boichak.
Hosted by Chip Rolley, this event was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House in September 2022.
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This episode, we begin a season of talks from our Antidote 2022 festival, starting with an in-depth discussion with renowned actor, Brian Cox.
Famed for his portrayal of the media patriarch, Logan Roy, in the television series Succession, Brian Cox has built a brilliant career exploring power, control, and fallibility. Fellow actor David Wenham sits down with Brian Cox to discuss the actor's unmatched ability to fulfil characters that burn with rage and fury.
This talk was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House in September 2022.
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This episode is the second talk from the Build conversation series, which explores new perspectives from design, architecture, engineering, science and The Arts to reflect on how these disciplines can address the urgent issues of our times. Each of the talks in this series respond to one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Build program curator, Joni Taylor, chairs a conversation with two visionary thought leaders, using their exploration of design practices to reflect on our relationship to Life Below Water - Global Goal number 14.
Dr Danièle Hromek is a Budawang woman of the Yuin nation. She works as a spatial and cultural designer and researcher, considering how to Indigenise the built environment. Alex Goad is an industrial designer and founder of Reef Design Lab. Together, Daniele and Alex discuss how we can create non-human centred design to preserve biodiversity, restore and regenerate marine life and waterways. And how seahorses have come back to Sydney harbour!
This talk is supported by the Ove Arup foundation and was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House Centre for Creativity in September 2022.
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For more about this topic please check out the Recommended Reading, Listening & Watching Lists from our speakers:
Dr Danièle Hromek
- 1 Recommended website: https://danielehromek.com/
- 1 Recommended book: Our Voices series with Rebecca Kiddle, Patrick Stewart and Kevin O’Brien as editors
- 1 Recommended video: Songlines on Screen (SBS)
Alex Goad
Recommended reading & websites:
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-26/eco-engineering-reef-design-lab-3d-printing-oceans-seawalls/100867924
- https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/multimedia/sampling-the-future-mars/
- https://www.livingseawalls.com.au
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The BUILD conversation series is a new series of talks that explore new perspectives from design, architecture, engineering, science and The Arts, to reflect on how these disciplines can address the urgent issues of our times. Each of the talks in this series respond to one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
In the first episode of the series, Build program curator, Joni Taylor, chairs a conversation with two visionary thought leaders, Jefa Greenaway and Liane Rossler, using their exploration of design practices to reflect on our relationship to Life on Land. - Global Goal number 15.
Jefa Greenaway is an architect, interior designer, academic, director of Greenaway Architects and co-founder | Chair of Indigenous Architecture and Design Victoria, Australia’s only Indigenous design association. He is of Wailwan | Kamilaroi and German heritage.
Liane Rossler is a designer, artist and curator championing design that balances perspectives of nature, sustainability, creativity and community. She co-founded Sydney’s internationally renowned Dinosaur Designs, and in recent years founded Superlocalstudio– ‘a space that enables the creation of thoughtful practises’
This talk is supported by the Ove Arup foundation and was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House - Centre for Creativity in May 2022.
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For more about this topic please check out the Recommended Reading, Listening & Watching Lists from our speakers:
Jefa Greenaway
1 recommended website – https://indigenousdesigncharter.com.au/
1 recommended Podcast - S2. Ep1. Talking with Jefa Greenaway about Indigenous Design and the Built Environment | Building Environs Recruitment | [The Building Talks Podcast with Martin Preece]
1 recommended book – Our Voices Volume 2: The DE-colonial Project , Stewart, Patrick, Kiddle, Rebecca & O’Brien, Kevin (Eds.), 2021 Oro Editions, USA
Liane Rossler
1 recommended website – https://assemblepapers.com.au/
1 recommended online video - https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-stuff/
1 recommended book - Glimpses of Utopia by Jess Scully https://glimpsesofutopia.com
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As it nears its 50th birthday, the Sydney Opera House is looking to the future with a 'Up Next' - a new podcast which talks to the artists who'll define the next 50 years of arts and culture in Australia. Join host Courtney Ammenhauser as she chats to a spectacular lineup of artists from a variety of creative disciplines as they make their way to one of the most famous performance venues in the world.
In this bonus episode, Courtney talks with the Michael Mohammed Ahmed, Western Sydney writer, playwright and founder of Sweatshop Literacy Movement. They dive deep into his short-lived acting career, his creative journey from novels to plays, and what it means to have his communities represented on the stages of the Opera House.
Episodes of 'Up Next' are released monthly and you'll find them wherever you get your podcasts.
The Pasi Sahlberg conversation series is a 3-part series of urgent discussions about the Australian Education System.
In this final episode of our three-part series, Pasi Sahlberg is joined by Professor Sharon Goldfeld, a paediatrician and director of the Royal Children’s Hospital Centre for Community Child Health and theme director for Population Health at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. Also joining the conversation, is Anne King, parent at Mosman High school and, giving a young person’s perspective, year 12 Mosman high school captain, Will Osborne.
The discussion was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House in 2022 and explores the question: “What might schools look like if health and wellbeing were considered one of the basics like numeracy and literacy?”.
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The Pasi Sahlberg conversation series is a 3-part series of urgent discussions about the Australian Education System.
In this second episode, Pasi Sahlberg is joined by Ricky Kradolfer, music educator, guitarist and front man of The City Riots, and Sarah Donnelley, 2020 ARIA Music Teacher of the Year and deputy principal of Wilcannia Central School, to discuss the lack of music education in the Australian school system. From lived experiences, these teachers have seen music inspire engagement and give children a different way of expressing themselves, especially those who struggle with traditional methods of learning.
Pasi Sahlberg and the panel explore the sense of connection music brings and the excitement that children feel coming to school knowing they will partake in musical activities.
This talk was recorded live at Sydney Opera House in 2022.
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In this, the first of three episodes, Pasi Sahlberg talks with the acclaimed businessman David Gonski about the impacts of the 2011 Gonski report. Joining them is president of the NSW Teacher’s federation, Angelo Gavrielatos and Principal of Ulladulla High School Denise Lofts as well as year 12 student Mim Macdonell, together they address the various persistent challenges in education, and how the report did and did not address those.
This talk was recorded live at Sydney Opera House in 2022 as part of a 3-part series of urgent conversations about the Australian Education System.
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New legislation is making its way through Australian state parliaments, enshrining the concept of "affirmative consent": an explicit, articulated, ongoing agreement to sexual activity.
Bri Lee, Saxon Mullins, and Amy Thunig navigate these recent changes and the implications for sexual freedom. Are changes to the law enough? What should justice look like? And how to get the next generation of people to be different?
Hosted by Lucia Osborne-Crowley, recorded live at the Sydney Opera House for All About Women 2022.
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Wendy McCarthy is one of Australia's feminist heroes. She shares her remarkable life and achievements, and the lessons she has learned - and taught us all.
In addition to the work she does that is very much in the public eye – advocating for women’s health, reproductive rights, child care, and women’s self-determination – she is often the woman who is there behind the scenes, strategizing, and counselling women undergoing any number of challenges.
Hosted by Larissa Behrendt, recorded live at the Sydney Opera House for All About Women 2022.
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The Australian and American troops are gone, the Taliban are back in power.
What is life like now for women and girls in Afghanistan and what can we in the rest of the world do to help? Did the Western presence benefit or disrupt Afghan women’s organisations? How do Afghan women and their allies around the world fight for their freedom? This talk is an essential conversation filled with expert knowledge and personal stories.
Hosted by Diana Sayed, recorded live at the Sydney Opera House for All About Women 2022.
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The tables turn for ABC's 7:30 journalist Laura Tingle, as subject rather than interviewer as she analysises the domestic and political world.
Combining political insights with personal observations and anecdotes about the players who hold our fate in their hands, rest assured Laura will not let anyone off lightly.
Hosted by Anne Summers, recorded live at the Sydney Opera House for All About Women 2022.
What would our world look like if all our current gendered expectations disappeared, and what needs to happen for this to be achieved?
Jinghua Qian, Amao Leota Lu, and Sandy O'Sullivan imagine a world with no gender binary.
Hosted by Dr Yves Rees, recorded live at the Sydney Opera House for All About Women 2022.
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How do you find the courage to make a major change in your life? How do you re-set your values? How do you reconnect with your creative self?
Designer and host of the long-running and wildly popular podcast Design Matters, Debbie Millman explores invention, truth-telling and inspiration, in a fascinating conversation hosted by Yumi Stynes.
Recorded live at the Sydney Opera House for All About Women 2022.
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How can we find justice for friends who can no longer speak for themselves? A friend, a lawyer, and a journalist explore the profound commitment of friendship and collective action.
Moderated by Julia Baird, this is a big conversation about feminism and the law, friendship and power, hope and action.
Recorded live at the Sydney Opera House for All About Women 2022.
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What shapes the way we think about sex?
Consent and power relations, gender justice and the state, pornography and freedom - political philosophy professor Amia Srinivasan refuses to turn away from the hard questions about society and sex.
Hosted by Emma A Jane, recorded live at the Sydney Opera House for All About Women 2022.
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How do we support those who speak out? How can we support advocates who speak from traumatic lived experiences? When victims of violence move from silence to speech, how do we honour their stories?
Rosie Batty and Grace Tame have built their lives around fighting for justice. Together for the first time, they share their experiences of being Australian of the Year, explore the power of personal testimony, and advocacy's personal cost. These two heroic advocates have a necessary conversation about upholding and protecting vocal survivors.
Hosted by Jamila Rizvi, recorded live at the Sydney Opera House for All About Women 2022.
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Mothers, daughters, sisters, lovers, femmes and friends. Five incredible LGBTQI+ writers share a personal tale about their relationship to womanhood - intimate, considered and, as always, rooted in community.
Hosted by Maeve Marsden, recorded live at the Sydney Opera House for All About Women 2022.
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Indigenous women, white feminism and power; colonial violence and self-determination. What are the obstacles and pathways to a new future led by First Nations women?
Professor Aileen Moreton-Robinson discusses her seminal work, Talkin’ Up to the White Woman: Indigenous Women and Feminism, an essential book, demonstrating how white feminists benefit from colonisation and the unjust structure between white society and Indigenous society.
Chelsea Watego and Amy McQuire represent a new generation of strong, visionary voices, explores what living as a First Nations woman is like when every day is yet ‘Another Day in the Colony’.
Hosted by Larissa Behrendt, recorded live at the Sydney Opera House for All About Women 2022.
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How do two parents who are blind take their children to the park? How is a mother with dwarfism treated when she walks her child down the street? How do Deaf parents know when their baby cries in the night? Get to know the everyday of disabled parenting. Eliza Hull, Debra Keenahan and Sarah Keenahan gather to share the joy and triumph and the difficulties of their lived experience. Amongst the challenges of microaggression, judgements and discrimination, these brilliant women will honour the incredible, empowering journey of having kids.
Hosted by Lisa Cox, recorded live at the Sydney Opera House for All About Women 2022.
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Nothing is off-limits in this conversation between American writer Roxane Gay and screenwriter Nakkiah Lui as these two incredible women whose work challenges us with the hard questions about racism and misogyny today.
Both known for speaking with radical authenticity about their own experiences of racism, misogyny, and trauma, expect razor-sharp commentary on issues such as young women's personal testimonies disclosing violence and sexual assault, the Black Lives Matter movement, and how these issues play out differently for Black women in the US and First Nations and other women of colour in Australia.
Recorded live at the Sydney Opera House for All About Women 2022.
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All About Women partnered with Western Sydney-based literacy movement Sweatshop on an emerging writers mentorship program for women and non-binary First Nations, culturally and linguistically diverse writers.
Mentorship recipients, Yeena Kirkbright and Ayeesha Ash read their finished works inspired by the All About Women festival themes of: allyship, friendship, and collective responsibility, in a dialogue with mentors Winnie Dunn and Randa Abdel-Fattah.
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Unrequited romance. Deep friendship. Motherhood. Break-ups. Self-love.
Writer, broadcaster and one of Australia's most provocative feminists Clementine Ford explores the manifold ways love makes its home in our hearts. In sermon and song she shows how romantic love might be the least important for us, inviting us to come together and open ourselves up to everything love has to give.
Recorded live at the Sydney Opera House for All About Women 2022
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Finnish educator, author, and scholar, Pasi Sahlberg, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, at Harvard Medical School, Michael Rich and High School Student Evalyn Fechner discuss the latest research on the impacts of screens and the digital world on young people and strategies to strike the best balance between screen time and other activities.
This talk was recorded live at Sydney Opera House in 2021 as part of a 3 part series of urgent conversations about the Australian Education System.
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Finnish educator, author, and scholar, Pasi Sahlberg, Barkindji/Ngiyampaa woman and executive Principal of Menindee Central school and chairman of the Stronger Smart Institute Dr Chris Sarra discuss first nations education in Australia. The three examine the changes in thinking and schooling that need to be made for all students to be afforded equal education opportunities while maintaining their connections to their community and country.
This talk was recorded live at Sydney Opera House in 2021 as part of a 3 part series of urgent conversations about the Australian Education System.
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Finnish educator, author, and scholar, Pasi Sahlberg, High school teacher and “WooTube” star Eddie Woo and Mathematician from the University of Sydney Professor Nalini Joshi, speak together about the challenges we face within maths education in Australia. The three discuss urgent changes that are required in the way we teach mathematics and represent it to young people as well as what makes maths beautiful and at the same time essential for Australia modern life.
This talk was recorded live at Sydney Opera House in 2021 as part of a 3 part series of urgent conversations about the Australian Education System.
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Deafness is a culture, not a liability.
With Fiona Murphy, Jackie Leach Scully & Alex Jones
One in six Australians have some hearing loss, and our Auslan-speaking community numbers at more than 30,000. Deaf culture is thriving. Yet in the construction of spaces and social environments, deafness is often overlooked. How do we overcome stigma and exclusion?
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Standing against Islamophobia in Australia.
Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Randa Abdel-Fattah & Ghassan Hage moderated by Sara Saleh
The 2001 September 11 terrorist attacks on New York City gave rise to bigotry, hate speech, and violence against Arab and Muslim communities around the world. Twenty years after the event, how much have things changed for Arab-Australians and Muslim-Australians?
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Privilege and disadvantage: confronting systemic injustice
With Bri Lee, Sheila Ngoc Pham & Rick Morton, moderated by Laura Murphy-Oates
Racism, family trauma, poverty - social disadvantage comes in many different and often intersecting forms. How do we dispel the idea of "lifters and leaners" to build a society where everyone truly gets a fair go?
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When will we outgrow the mother country?
With Afua Hirsch moderated by Daniel Browning
It's been more than 200 years since the British laid claim to our country and called it Australia, but the legacy of colonialism lives on. Who gets included and excluded from the privileges of citizenship, and how can we move towards a truly inclusive, decolonised Australian identity?
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What does it mean to be a believer?
Amal Awad & Sarah Krasnostein moderated by Fenella Kernebone
In times of uncertainty, we humans look for answers, and today's seekers have a well-stocked spiritual marketplace at their disposal. From healers to spirit guides to yoni eggs, is the continued appeal of alternative practices pointing to a more fundamental need?
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The good, the bad, and the halls of power
With Jacqueline Maley, Julia Baird & Osman Faruqi moderated by Edwina Throsby
Morally bankrupt, moral challenges, a moral vacuum - commentary on politics often circles around right and wrong. What role does morality play in contemporary Australian politics?
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Finding environmental solutions at the brink of extinction.
With Elizabeth Kolbert moderated by Paddy Manning
Acclaimed environmental writer Elizabeth Kolbert's latest book investigates science's cutting-edge fight against the effects of climate change. After doing so much damage, have we left it too late to save our world?
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It doesn't have to be this way - it's time to imagine something new.
With Yanis Varoufakis moderated by Scott Ludlam.
From the GFC to global warming to the global pandemic, the world economy and environment has suffered some major knocks. Governments around the world are reluctant to make the sorts of major reforms that many are calling for. So what do we do about it? What radical new ideas can turn us towards a better future?
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Voice, Treaty, Truth: Indigenous rights and structural change
Pat Anderson AO, Megan Davis & Thomas Mayor
On the fiftieth anniversary of the 1967 referendum, the Uluru Statement from the Heart called for Australians to stand for real change. Join two of its authors for an urgent discussion about the future of Indigenous rights.
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From her breakthrough role as a VJ on Channel V in the early 2000s to her wildly popular podcasts and best-selling books, Yumi Stynes has been a pop culture fixture on Australian screens and airwaves for the past two decades. Here, she chats with Edwina Throsby about her rich and varied career: moving from country Victoria and into the media spotlight, the heady days of the early millennium music industry, and that time she called out Kerri-Anne Kennerley on national television. Buoyed by her hard work, fierce wit and sense of justice, Stynes emerges as an inspiration, whether it’s as a parent, podcaster, or someone who isn’t afraid to speak the truth to Australia’s racism.
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Watch this talk and others with best-selling author, podcaster and businesswoman FlexMami, Sydney-based sex-worker and feminist activist Tilly Lawless, and popular Australian presenter and author Yumi Stynes, on stream. The new streaming service from the Sydney Opera House. Register for free now and start watching.
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Entrepreneur, author, TV host, DJ, model, social media superstar: is there anything that Lillian Ahenkan can’t do? In this lively, inspiring conversation, Edwina Throsby speaks with Ahenkan – better known as FlexMami – about her path to modern stardom, delving into her unique life philosophy, indomitable business smarts, and relationship to online celebrity. From her unlikely childhood as the daughter of single Ghanaian parent in Sydney’s mostly white Eastern Suburbs to her fearless, self-motivated rise through fashion, PR and the club scene on her way to building a social media fanbase, Ahenkan reveals the secrets behind her remarkable journey – and her thoughts on the future of social media’s influencer phenomenon.
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Watch this talk and others with best-selling author, podcaster and businesswoman FlexMami, Sydney-based sex-worker and feminist activist Tilly Lawless, and popular Australian presenter and author Yumi Stynes, on stream. The new streaming service from the Sydney Opera House. Register for free now and start watching.
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In this candid conversation, sex worker, activist and author, Tilly Lawless opens up about her often complex feelings towards sex work, her early childhood in coastal NSW, and negotiating her queer identity in a largely straight business model.
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Watch this talk and others with best-selling author, podcaster and businesswoman FlexMami, Sydney-based sex-worker and feminist activist Tilly Lawless, and popular Australian presenter and author Yumi Stynes, on stream. The new streaming service from the Sydney Opera House. Register for free now and start watching.
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A Generation X icon, actress Ione Skye has spent a lifetime inside the world of music and celebrity – and has the stories to show for it. Edwina Throsby sits down with the vibrant star of Say Anything, River’s Edge and Gas, Food, Lodging for a conversation about her life and career, including her unusual relationship with her father, the ’60s pop superstar Donovan, her rocky romances with the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis and Beastie Boy Adam Horowitz, and her experience standing up to sexism as a young, aspiring performer in the industry. She also reflects on finding peace with her current partner, musician Ben Lee, raising her own children, and making Sydney her current home.
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Watch this talk and others with best-selling author, podcaster and businesswoman FlexMami, Sydney-based sex-worker and feminist activist Tilly Lawless, and popular Australian presenter and author Yumi Stynes, on stream. The new streaming service from the Sydney Opera House. Register for free now and start watching.
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From our stages to your ears, catch up on conversations from All About Women 2021. Life is messy - especially during a pandemic. How do we survive? Our expert panellists are here to help us build a toolbox for mental wellbeing and a stronger, calmer life. Mary Hoang, psychologist, founder of The Indigo Project and journalist Christine Jackman bring us practical, real-life tips and insights into finding strength in times of hardship.
Hosted by Linda Marigliano
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White feminism is an ideology that seeks individual power over community wellbeing. Join author Koa Beck for a look at the racism embedded in much of the movement's history, and learn how we can all make feminism truly inclusive.
Moderated by Fauziah Ibrahim
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From our stages to your ears, catch up on conversations from All About Women 2021. In this disarmingly funny chat Tilly Lawless, Jules Kim & Chantell Martin discus the complexities of a frequently misunderstood industry, and its place within the women's movement. From emotional and physical labour, economic realities, and the fight to protect sex workers' rights in the age of COVID, these voices need to be heard.
Supported by the Scarlet Alliance.
Moderated by Yumi Stynes
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Join some of our most creative voices, brought together from across the country, as they share stories, memories and songs. Curated by Warlpiri woman Rachael Hocking; this is a night for dance and laughter, spirit and survival, community, creation and love. Welcome to country by Aunty Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor, music from DRMNGNOW, readings by poet Jeanine Leane and words from Uncle Vic Simms.
Isabel Allende's books centre female experience in all its joy and hardship. And at 78, the legendary Chilean has seen first-hand what feminism has accomplished in her lifetime. In this talk at All About Women in 2021, Allende muses on decades of writing and reflects on her marriages, sex, ageing, and the evolution of feminism.
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Caitlin Moran is the UK’s funniest feminist. Her memoirs, columns and essays tackle all of the things we care about... sex, family, politics and dismantling the patriarchy. This event was recorded live at All About Women in 2021, where she joined us from London in a wild, occasionally angry, and extremely fun conversation with broadcaster, Yumi Stynes.
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We all know that Artificial Intelligence is here to stay. But how many of us know the full extent of what this means? Not just the obvious things, like the threat to our jobs, or the potential dangers of surveillance. What about the deeper issues, like the impacts on our legal systems, our politics, our economies and our environment?
This episode features an on stage discussion with Professor Kate Crawford, one of the world’s leading researchers into the social and political implications of AI. In her new book, called "The Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence", Kate has meticulously mapped out how these new, rapidly evolving technologies are affecting our lives and our planet, and in doing so, has revealed how little we actually understand them. This session was recorded live at the All About Women festival, and was hosted by science communicator, Rae Johnson.
You can watch this talk along with the others recorded at the All About Women festival, on Stream, the new streaming service from the Sydney Opera House. Register for free now and start watching.
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The 'All About Women' festival this year, took place amid a string of revelations involving women in Australian public life, including the dreadful treatment of Brittney Higgins, and the emergence of historic rape accusations against the then Attorney General.
This timely conversation with British feminist Laura Bates, founder of the 'Everyday Sexism Project' and author of “Men Who Hate Women”, highlights the deadly dangers of extreme online misogyny. Laura appeared in the Joan Sutherland Theatre via video link in March 2021.
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Against the context of growing hostilities between President Xi Jinping's government and the west, nationalist agendas across the board, shocking stories about the abuse of the Uyghur population, trade wars and diplomatic flare-ups, this tightening of the flow of information sparked international alarm. But with unacceptable racism against Asians in the west on the rise, and China's global influence and economic power growing ever stronger, how do we think about the complicated China question?
Listen to former ABC China correspondent Bill Birtles and China specialist Yun Jiang for this timely discussion recorded in the Playhouse and moderated by Richard Fidler.
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A quick word about the new series of the Deadly Voices From The House. Acclaimed presenter, journalist, actor, producer and arts guru Rhoda Roberts AO talks with musicians Julian Bel Bachir, DOBBY and Bow & Arrow, available now on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
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The new streaming service from the Sydney Opera House has arrived. At home or on the go, take a front row seat whenever you want. Register for free now and start watching on Stream.
In 2012, Maria Ressa founded the social media network Rappler, in her home country of the Philippines, as a way for citizens to communicate and share news. Her high profile as a journalist, and her fearless reporting on her government, has led to her being the target of endless legal attacks. But also, the recipient of an extraordinary array of honors and awards. She was included in Time Magazine’s most influential people list in 2019, and more recently, she won the UNESCO Press Freedom Prize for 2021. This conversation was recorded in 2019 while Maria was at the Sydney Opera House for the Antidote Festival, having only recently been released from a Manila gaol.
Listen to Maria's 2019 Antidote conversation with Lina Attalah, Irina Borogan, Steve Coll and Peter Greste on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
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Working between two cultures is something that this weeks' guest has grown up with. Born in America to a family of refugees from the Iranian revolution, Azadeh Moaveni has split her life between the middle east and the west. As a journalist, she has worked for publications like Time Magazine and the LA Times in cities like Tehran and Cairo, and her books include memoirs and deep investigations. In this episode, she shares her knowledge of the politics of the Arab world, especially as it pertains to women.
Watch Azadeh's 2020 All About Women conversation with Jacqueline Maley on Youtube.
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Indigenous writer Melissa Lukashenko has been writing poetry, essays and novels for decades. Her work has been nominated for pretty much every Australian literary prize there is. Most recently, she has won the Miles Franklin award for her novel Too Much Lip. In this conversation, she’s speaking with Benjamin Law.
Watch Melissa Lucashenko's conversation with Fintan O'Toole and and Deborah Lipstadt at Antidote on Youtube.
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Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus. Bet you’ve heard that before. The idea that men’s brains are wired for logical systems and map reading, while women’s brains excel at emotional intelligence and intuition is deeply culturally embedded. And, it’s complete garbage. Professor Gina Rippon is an international researcher in the field of cognitive neuroscience, and in her book, The Gendered Brain, she looks at the infuriating persistence of the idea of brain difference, and it’s misogynistic roots. In this conversation, Professor Rippon is interviewed by Fauziah Ibrahim and they explore her own experience of the difference within her own family.
Watch Gina Rippon's 2020 All About Women talk hosted by Natasha Mitchell on YouTube.
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Tea Uglow has built her career exploring the space between technology and art, looking for unexpected ways they can interact. She has written about doubt, and about being transgender and her book 'Loud and Proud' is a collection of the most influential and inspiring LGBTQI speeches of all time.
Listen to Tea's 2020 All About Women discussion with Maddison Counaughton on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
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Shanna is the founder of national alcohol awareness charity 'Sober in the Country' - a grassroots rural organisation designed to open up discussions in rural Australia around alcohol. When hospitalisation forced her to acknowledge that her drinking was out of control, she discovered that getting sober was no easy feat. Shanna talks with Edwina Throsby about the way she transformed her life, and in the process, transformed the lives of countless others.
https://www.soberinthecountry.org/
For more information on Drug and Alcohol Help and Support Services across Australia, visit https://adf.org.au/help-support/
Listen to Shanna's 2020 All About Women panel discussion with Jill Stark, Yumi Stynes and Clementine Ford at https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/sober-curious-at-all-about-women-2020/id640445035?i=1000485262427
Clementine Ford has been writing columns and books about gender issues for more than a decade. Her books Fight Like a Girl and Boys Will Be Boys have become bestselling feminist bibles, and she has built a huge online community of women and girls who take inspiration and comfort from her honest and personal posts. In this conversation, she opens up about body image, sex, death and dating … all the big things.
- Clementine Ford & Flex Mami: Finding Your Voice at All About Women
“Eat food, not too much, mostly plants”. This frequently quoted dietary manifesto comes from my guest today in the studio, the writer and journalist Michael Pollan. Michael is the author of six New York Times bestsellers, but it was his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which interrogated the way we eat and our food production systems, that really brought him to global attention. More recently he has shifted his focus from food to psychedelics, and in his book, How to Change your Mind, he puts his body and brain on the line to properly explore their benefits and dangers. This conversation is quite the trip.
- Watch An Evening with Michael Pollan
Dublin born and bred, Fintan has written a twice-weekly column for the Irish Times since 1988. He has also written an astonishing fifty eight books about politics, poetry, philosophy, theatre and Irish culture. Here he is speaking with Edwina Throsby, Head of Talks and Ideas while here was here for Antidote Festival in 2019.
You can watch Fintan O'Toole in a panel discussion about the idea of national identity alongside Goorie writer Melissa Lucashenko and American historian Deborah Lipstadt: https://youtu.be/hpaKH2bEj9A
Before 1996, Deborah Lipstadt was a well-regarded professor of modern Jewish History. That was before the infamous Holocaust denier, David Irving, decided to sue her for libel. Deborah and her publisher took him on, and in a blockbuster trial, that made headlines all around the world, they scored a landmark legal victory, and Deborah became an internationally recognised defender of the truth of the Holocaust. Her most recent book is called Anti-Semitism: Here and Now. And here, she’s speaking with Benjamin Law.
You can view Deborah Lipstadt's full talk at ANTIDOTE 2019 on YouTube: https://youtu.be/_37Pv3d9Dbs
Cover image by Alan Weedon
Doomscrolling can convince us the world is full of evil people - but bad news is only part of the story. Curator and councillor Jess Scully's new book, Glimpses of Utopia, highlights stories from around the world where people respond to crises with hope and help. In Kenya and Bangladesh slums are being transformed to safe havens, and care workers are reclaiming control in India and Lebanon. Likewise, Dutch popular historian Rutger Bregman reveals that humans are not destructive and selfish, but innately communal and cooperative.
What new possibilities can we imagine for society, politics, and economics, if we accept that human beings are inherently peaceful and friendly? Enjoy this conversation between two radical optimists who look to a sustainable and inclusive future.
Hosted by Maeve Marsden with Leonard Mickelo, Sarah Tiong, Omar Sakr, Liv Hewson and Cadance Bell
This is a special one. Queerstories, as you probably know, is the legendary LGBTIQ+ storytelling night, conceived of and hosted by Maeve Marsden, and it was exceptionally fun to hold the biggest ever Queerstories event ever, right here at the Opera House. You’re about to hear an amazing collection of stories, from the funny to the profound to the seriously embarrassing. This is one to stay tuned to. Enjoy!
2020 was a chaotic and transformative year. Beginning with the catastrophic bushfires that incinerated any last doubts around the impacts of climate change, to international fury at structural and violent racism, and then on top of everything else, the devastation of a global pandemic that completely collapsed economies, relationships, and social norms.
But destruction and uncertainty present an opportunity to radically change the way we think, and this panel, called “Resetting the World”, was a discussion about what we want to rebuild from the wreckage. It’s hosted by journalist and broadcaster Tom Tilley.
It's rare that a debut novel makes the sort of impact of Kiley Reid's book Such a Fun Age, which has quickly become a favourite of book clubs world wide, has been the subject of much talk and debate, and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. But it's also rare that a novel encapsulates the big themes of our times as perfectly as this one does.
In this session, Kiley is joined by journalist and television presenter Jan Fran for a discussion about privilege, class and race, in a world that is never black and white.
Thumbnail image by Daniel Boud
2020 will likely be viewed by future historians as a watershed in US history. The coronavirus crisis, the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the deeply polarised Presidential election campaign have all laid bare inequalities and dysfunction in health, social security, and law enforcement systems. But with disruption and chaos comes space for renewal, reform, and change. How has a world-leader found itself in this desperate state, what is the historical and cultural background that we need to make sense of it all, and what is next for the USA?
Historian, academic and New Yorker staff writer, Jill Lepore, joins New York Times Australian bureau chief Damien Cave for a discussion that attempts to anchor this cultural moment in historical context, explore deeper meanings of current events, and ask: does the fight for racial equality, eradication of police violence, and reform of unjust systems truly mean the end of America as we know it? This electric post-election session recorded at Antidote 2020 examines what might well be a new world order.
This week we’re launching our new season of the podcast “it’s a long story”, where you can go deep with iconic writer Zadie Smith, Cantopop superstar and human rights activist Denise Ho, Miles Franklin winner Melissa Lukashenko, and loads more. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Uncover fascinating stories of the Opera House’s rich cultural heritage and design legacy in our new podcast series exploring the building as a work of art, the artwork within it, as well as the decade of renewal and how we are transforming our icon for the 21st century and future generations.
Available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
sydneyoperahouse.com/digital/podcasts/house-stories
Darcey Steinke was furious nobody warned her about the true experience of menopause. Hear this raw, honest and intelligent exploration of the prejudice and power in this significant time in women's lives.
Hosted by Jane Caro.
What does it mean to be beautiful - and how can we change our own definitions? Join writers Bri Lee & Carly Findlay OAM on a deep dive into how we think about appearance, beauty and the female body.
Hosted by Flex Mami
In the 1970s, a group of women decamped to Amazon Acres in northern NSW, with a policy of no men, no meat, no machines. Far away from the male gaze, safe from assault and harassers, they created a separate space for women. They were part of a global trend where women around the world were creating their own, idealistic societies.
Join panelists Amber Jackson, Kerryn Higgs & Sophie Robinson and host Fenella Souter for a glimpse into a sequestered world and learn about the politics and vision that created it.
*Jess Hill and Sanam Maher, expert journalists on gendered abuse, come together in a cross cultural discussion about the universal emergency of violence against women. Hosted by Gina Rushton, as part of All About Women 2020.*
Tea Uglow is the Creative Director of Google Creative Lab. Her work focuses on pushing boundaries in global tech and creative industries. She is also a trans woman. So what does it mean to fight for representation in an industry dominated by white men? What are the false binaries we assume about the skills of men and women? And how can we transcend tokenism in the search for a truly diverse workplace? Don't miss this brilliant event on true intersectionality in the tech world.
Hosted by Maddison Counaughton.
Crowned the ‘Egg Master of Sydney’ and ‘creator of avocado toast’, Bill Granger is renowned as the restauranteur who brought laid-back Australian cafe culture to the world, and is beloved by family cooks and culinary sophisticates alike.
Ahead of his new book release, Australian Food, Bill Granger talks with food writer Adam Liaw to celebrate the global phenomenon of Australian cafe culture, the evolution of a national cuisine and the uniqueness of Australian food.
For more than 65,000 years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers, grandmothers and aunties have been pillars of the community. Join this incredible lineup of women from across generations as they pay tribute to the strong women who raised them and the ongoing knowledge passed down the matrilineal line.
Featuring Celeste Liddle, Bibi Barba, Amelia Kunoth-Monks & Kirli Saunders. Hosted by Rhoda Roberts.
From boozy benders to weeknight mummy wines to social media posts trumpeting newfound sobriety, our relationship with alcohol has never been more complicated.
Journalist Jill Stark chronicled her year off booze, broadcaster Yumi Stynes has been public about her alcohol addiction and subsequent sobriety, and Shanna Whan founded Sober in the Country as a support system for other rural Australian recovering alcoholics. Join these three women in an intimate and nuanced conversation about how we navigate our own relationships with alcohol.
Hosted by Clementine Ford.
Dear Australia commissioned 50 playwrights to write stories as postcards to the nation, their work interpreted by some of Australia’s leading actors.
In this talk, three writers unpack some of the telling themes of these microplays, including their own, and comment on their context in a COVID world. Moderated by Nakkiah Lui, and featuring Aanisa Vylet and Donna Abela, this live conversation is the perfect accompaniment to the comfort and confrontation of Dear Australia.
As the global Black Lives Matter protests continue, Australians have been challenged to confront the realities of ongoing racism and Aboriginal deaths in custody. Sydney Opera House has invited IndigenousX to curate this panel discussion exploring how state sanctioned violence is enabled and protected by racist ideology, and the role of protests in achieving reform.
Curated by IndigenousX with Larissa Behrendt AO, Deng Thiak Adut and Tony McAvoy.
Calls are increasing for settlers in Australia to acknowledge and confront the ongoing fallout from our country's history. There's an urgent need for a national truth-telling process about the violence and dispossession upon which colonial Australia founded. In this episode of Ideas of the House, we bring you an important session from ANTIDOTE called Australian Genocide, featuring Larissa Behrendt, Nayuka Gorrie & Julie Gough in conversation. Hosted by Rhoda Roberts.
Bushfires, flooding, extreme weather: the Australian landscape is changing in frightening ways. Meet three furious and unstoppable women fighting for climate justice.
Speakers Yael Stone, Amelia Telford, Jean Hinchliffe.
Hosted by Maddison Connaughton.
Join Annabel Crabb and Adam Liaw for a glorious romp through the perils of the pantry, the hazards of the hotplate, and the celebration that greets the perfect sourdough. Mealtimes are the centrepiece of many social events, how has that changed with restaurants closed and visiting banned? With many of us working from home, have traditional gender roles in the kitchen been reinforced? With the pandemic affecting availability of ingredients, is it time to collectively reconsider how our food is sourced, both locally and globally? And as restrictions begin to loosen, will we continue cooking up a storm, or are we all just a bit fried?
Hosted by Edwina Throsby.
Join bestselling, award winning novelist Charlotte Wood as she reflects on this extraordinary moment in time. In a restricted physical world, what place does a rich inner life have when scheduled in between a frenzy of Zoom meetings, hypervigilance, existential dread and online yoga?
Hosted by Edwina Throsby.
Taking a telescope to the night sky and a critical eye to our past, astrophysicist Jo Dunkley explores the universe while unearthing a line of stellar female astronomers who ran the risk of being consigned to the black hole of history.
Hosted by Rae Johnston.
Thousands of women emigrated to Syria to create an Islamic state. Why? Join Pulitzer nominated journalist, Azadeh Moaveni, as she dissects the stereotype of the ISIS bride. Hosted by Jacqueline Maley.
Join powerhouses Clementine Ford and Flex Mami, both of whom found the courage to call out injustice, and be inspired to find your own voice.
Hosted by Edwina Throsby
Join this inspiring survivor for a triumphant account of how one brave voice can begin to change the system.
Hosted by Edwina Throsby.
Governments across the globe are cracking down on press freedom. Get to know the courageous journalists who are sacrificing everything to tell the truth.
Recorded at Antidote 2019 this episode features Maria Ressa, Lina Attalah, Irina Borogan, Steve Coll and is hosted Peter Greste.
In a fair society, everybody has what they need - but prejudice against people with disabilities creates barriers to economic independence. Join this necessary panel to learn about what needs to change.
Recorded at Antidote 2019 this episode features Damian Griffis, Samantha Connor, Bruce Bonyhady and is hosted by Jackie Leach Scully.
Africa is home to vibrant film industries, local talk shows, and a digitally-obsessed population. But what are the challenges journalists face when the government is controlling? And how can independent media be protected?
Recorded at Antidote 2019 this episode features Mausi Segun, Catherine Gicheru, Prue Clarke and is hosted by Elaine Pearson.
Justice is regarded as fundamental to civilised society, but ideas around what is fair and just reflect the values of a culture. Is it possible to reach a universal understanding of justice? And if it is, what happens when that justice fails?
Recorded at ANTIDOTE 2019 this episode features Kimberley Motley, Melissa Lucashenko, Peta Blood and is hosted by Larissa Behrendt.
Habiburahman has encountered torture, detention and statelessness. This moving session is a testimonial to the strength of human spirit, and a look at some truths behind the global refugee crisis.
Hosted by Olivia Rousset.
Session 2: Future Thinking
As the scale of the loss and devastation continues to mount, our communities have pulled together, and our politics and policies have been called into question. But the biggest question of all is, what do we do now? Is this a turning point in our nation's history?
Hosted by Lenore Taylor, editor of The Guardian Australia with Oliver Costello, John Connor, David Bowman, Danielle Celermajer and Lenore Taylor.
Session 1: Relief & Response This event brings together community members and experts for a discussion about the way forward. From small community fundraisers, to wildlife recovery, to land management, politics and the economy, what sort of future do we want to rebuild?
Hosted by Julia Baird with Lorena Allam, Christine Morgan, Erin Riley, Nick Ritar, Dr. Larry Vogelnest, Elizabeth Mossop and Julia Baird.
Thae Yong-ho is one of the highest-ranking officials to defect from North Korea. What can he tell us about the secrets and lies of one of the world's most repressive regimes?
Recorded at ANTIDOTE 2019 this episode features Thae Yong-ho & Anna Fifield and is hosted by Peter Hartcher.
Our most recent federal election shocked almost everyone. Join Bela Stantic, Rebecca Huntley, Antony Green and David Speers for insight on why the polls missed it, whether polling will ever be trusted again, and what it might look like in the future.
Recorded at ANTIDOTE 2019.
TV binges, wellness trends - is that all we ever talk about anymore? Our culture experts get to the bottom of what, exactly, we're trying to tune out.
Recorded at ANTIDOTE 2019, this episode features Zing Tsjeng, Brigid Delaney and Patrick Lenton, and is hosted by Faustina Agolley.
In a world of polarised politics, how do we have difficult conversations; and what are the responsibilities of those with a public platform?
Recorded at ANTIDOTE 2019, this episode features Sisonke Msimang, Lina Attalah and Bruce Shapiro, and is hosted by David Speers.
Once upon a time, the people of Sydney were in need of a good story. The Saturday Paper editor in chief, Erik Jensen, gathers Australia's brightest writers to retell today's events as fables.
Recorded at ANTIDOTE 2019, this episode features Erik Jensen, Kate Holden, Fiona Wright, Wendy Harmer & Debra Adelaide.
LGBTQI activist, and Cantopop singer, Denise Ho has become a prominent figure in Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution. In this exhilarating conversation, she talks about what's happening in Hong Kong, and resistance to state control.
Hosted by Zing Tsjeng.
Join Annabel Crabb as she takes a fresh look at work and gender in conversation with Edwina Throsby. While women have revolutionised the way they live and work, Annabel investigates why the habits of men remains largely unchanged.
Watch an excerpt of this conversation: https://youtu.be/lu__1zJryV4
Neo fascists, white nationalists - antisemitism is the hate that will not die. Join historian Deborah Lipstadt as she explains what it looks like, and how to stand up to it. Hosted by Ramona Koval.
Watch this talk and more from ANTIDOTE on SOH Talks & Ideas YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKKWbWvkO0GBMxpPhA7V-5hI0A3ZEYcyP
In the face of violence and racism, how do we keep believing in change? Black Lives Matter leader and Pod Save the People host DeRay Mckesson spoke at ANTIDOTE 2019 with Faustina Agolley about justice, action and hope.
Watch more from ANTIDOTE 2019: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKKWbWvkO0GBMxpPhA7V-5hI0A3ZEYcyP
Western countries are seeing a resurgence in xenophobic populism, where national identities are constructed around fear of outsiders. In a world obsessed with borders, how do we define ourselves?
Irish writer Fintan O'Toole, Goorie writer Melissa Lucashenko and American historian Deborah Lipstadt lead this essential panel discussion on the complex idea of national identity.
Hosted by Edwina Throsby. Recorded at Antidote 2019.
How should journalists present the climate emergency?
In this session from Antidote 2019, Kerry O'Brien hosts an exploration into the urgent ethics of climate journalism with Kyle Pope, Tim Flannery, Desi Anwar & Anna Rose.
Session supported by Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas.
Data is being used to influence elections and invade our privacy. In this episode of Ideas of the House, whistleblower Christopher Wylie and Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov explain why this is one of the most important issues of our age.
Hosted by Lenore Taylor.
Calls are increasing for settlers in Australia to acknowledge and confront the ongoing fallout from our country's history. There's an urgent need for a national truth-telling process about the violence and dispossession upon which colonial Australia founded. In this episode of Ideas of the House, we bring you an important session from ANTIDOTE called Australian Genocide, featuring Larissa Behrendt, Nayuka Gorrie & Julie Gough in conversation.
Hosted by Rhoda Roberts.
In this live recording of The Sydney Morning Herald’s podcast, Please Explain, journalists David Crowe, Shane Wright and Jacqueline Maley and host Tory Maguire take a look at the first 100 days of the Morrison Government, and discuss what we can expect to see as the new PM really gets comfortable in Parliament house.
Read more:
https://www.smh.com.au/please-explain
American journalist Michael Pollan is best-known for his food writing, but in the seven years since his last Sydney appearance his research has changed direction. His latest book, How to Change your Mind, investigates the use of psychedelics in the treatment of a range of issues and illnesses. He was in conversation with ABC broadcaster Dr Norman Swan on the Concert Hall stage.
Show notes:
https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/backstage/talks-ideas/michael-pollan-psychedelics.html
https://youtu.be/B7tbvzn9vOo
Ladies We Need to Talk tackles taboo yet essential topics for the thinking woman.
In this live recording from All About Women 2018, host Yumi Stynes leads a discussion about the orgasm gap. Along with Dr Melissa Kang (aka Dolly Doctor), playwright Nakkiah Lui and sexologist Tanya Koens they ask two very important questions: why is there a gender gap when it comes to pleasure? And, how can we have more?
Women are far more likely to have their health concerns belittled by GPs, get diagnosed with anxiety more often than men, and can struggle to have their health concerns taken seriously. Debilitating diseases like endometriosis or polycystic ovary syndrome are shockingly under-diagnosed, and yet they affect the lives of millions of women.
This special live event of Guardian Australia's podcast Witch Hunt unpacks some of these crucial issues with hosts and journalists Melissa Davey and Gabrielle Jackson, plus a panel of experts featuring:
Dr Susan Evans, gynecologist, pain physician and founding member of the Pelvic Pain Foundation of Australia
Dr Hannah Dahlen, professor of Midwifery at University of Western Sydney
Dr Megan Williams, head of Indigenous health discipline at University of Technology Sydney
Over the next few weeks on the podcast we're featuring live recordings of podcast events from All About Women festival.
First up is The Cut On Tuesdays, a new podcast from Gimlet Media. Take a look at the evolution of women's media with host Molly Fischer, guests Sarah McVeigh, Clementine Ford and Nakkiah Lui.
Recorded live at All About Women 2019.
During his 2014 visit to the Sydney Opera House Michael Pollan said “I write books about what I’m interested in”. And at that point, he was interested in food production, diet, and ways we eat. Now he’s turned his attention to a different type of edible, with his new book about psychedelics, and the effects they can have on depression, addiction, and on our very sense of self.
Reacquaint yourself with this visionary thinker ahead of his return to Sydney Opera House on Saturday 20 July.
Read more about Michael
https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/backstage/talks-ideas/michael-pollan-psychedelics.html
Get tickets here
https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/events/whats-on/ideas-and-talks/2019/michael-pollan.html
From international policy to the nuance of consent, survivor, writer and former coordinator of a rape crisis centre, Sohaila Abdulali finds ways to talk about the difficult question of rape.
At All About Women 2019 she spoke with Fenella Kernebone about her 2018 work of nonfiction What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape.
Please note that this podcast contains discussion of rape and sexual assault.
Our understanding of gender and sexuality is often limited to narrow labels. But what happens when we desire beyond borders? Renowned German philosopher and journalist Carolin Emcke's book, How We Desire, explores the way norms restrict us. Her conversation with Fenella Kernebone at All About Women reflects on this attachment to clear and defined lines.
In this special episode of It’s a Long Story, host and ANTIDOTE festival curator Edwina Throsby is interviewed by Sydney Morning Herald Editor Lisa Davies about the 2019 festival.
Discover the lineup here: https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/festivals/antidote.html
Arab women are so often othered in western discussions about feminism. But the reality is there are strong feminist and LGBTQI movements across the Arab world.
Artist, poet and activist Sara Saleh curated this panel at All About Women 2019 featuring activist Aya Chebbi, writer Randa Abdel-Fattah and journalist Ruby Hamad whose work challenges these well-worn assumptions.
Identity, which is at the heart of wokeness, is often regarded as the most fundamental thing we have. But clinging too hard to your identity can lead to an emphasis on what makes us different, rather than what we all might have in common. In a conversation at All About Women 2019 with broadcaster Jan Fran, stylist and cultural commentator Ayishat Akanbi considers the radical power of kindness. Together they discuss the limits of identity, the gendered nature of image, and how to transcend the superficial to form meaningful connections.
Watch Ayishat and Fran on Youtube
On the eve of International Women’s Day in 2015, five activists were arrested in China for handing out stickers about sexual harassment. They were jailed for 37 days. These young feminist activists bring a message of resistance to the traditional role of wife and mother, posing a threat to the Communist Party's vision of family as foundation of political stability. Journalist and scholar Leta Hong Fincher spoke with Fauziah Ibrahim in an electric session on why feminism poses the greatest threat to China’s authoritarian regime today.
Watch this talk on Youtube
The 2016 US election brought the white working class to the forefront of the political conversation. Join Sarah Smarsh as she discusses her experience growing up poor and female in America with the ABC's Cassie McCullagh.
How can women in power can affect social change? A leading voice in international conversations on these issues, Tina Tchen has been instrumental in spearheading the Time’s Up movement’s Legal Defense Fund. Join Tina Tchen as she talks with Edwina Throsby about Time's Up and diversity at work.
Session supported by University of Sydney.
Women are taught from birth to repress their rage. But what would happen if women learnt to embrace anger, and unleash it upon the world?
At All About Women 2019 writer and activist Soraya Chemaly called for an ungendering of emotion for the benefit of everybody.
In this rousing session hosted by Fauziah Ibrahim she discusses ways women can joyfully express and find power in their rage.
Women, on average, earn less than men, and retire with half the super.
It's so simple to procrastinate on getting your finances together. And women are definitely not helped by the forces stacked against us. We live in a world where the gender pay gap is still 14.6%, and half of heterosexual divorces see women left destitute. Statistically, women are more economically disadvantaged than men.
At All About Women 2019, Vanessa Paterson, Melinda Howes and Rebecca Huntley share the skills that no one ever taught you about saving smarter, earning more, and setting yourself up for life.
Recorded in 2018, The Motherload was a discussion about contemporary parenting. It featured feminist icon and media commentator, Clementine Ford; Afro-Caribbean Australian writer and slam poet, Maxine Beneba Clarke; and social researcher, Dr Rebecca Huntley untangling the rules, regulations and ridiculousness of parenting. With chair Fenella Kernebone, this panel of experts (and mothers) discussed how we might dismantle the seemingly intractable gender norms that tether femininity to domesticity.
In 2017, journalist Gemma Hartley's Harper's Bazaar article "Women Aren't Nags - We're Just Fed Up" was viewed over two billion times. Bringing long overdue awareness to the daunting reality of emotional labour in our lives, Hartley defines the largely invisible but demanding, time-consuming, and exhausting "worry work" that falls disproportionately and unfairly on all women - no matter what economic class or level of education. This household admin of mothers and wives is based on the assumption that women are better at feeling and expressing emotions.
She was in conversation with Cassie McCullagh at All About Women 2019.
Hip-hop is known for misogyny and sexism. Some of the genre's most famous figures continue to have worldwide success despite allegations of violence against women. Extraordinary journalist Joan Morgan's book, She Begat This: Twenty Years of the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill tracks the artist's rise in the male dominated R&B scene, and comes to us to investigate the complex relationship of black feminism to hip-hop. This session was chaired by triple j's Linda Marigliano.
Feminism is in a constant state of evolution - so, where will it go next? Hear from some of the world's most dynamic young activists and thinkers about what to expect in 2019 and beyond. Featuring Tunisian activist Aya Chebbi, British cultural commentator Ayishat Akanbi, Indigenous artist and activist Aretha Brown with Saturday Paper editor Maddison Connaughton, this panel considers where feminism might head next.
Boys are often expected to conform to a culture that regards violence, dominance and emotional repression as masculine. So how are gender roles enforced, and how are sweet little boys socialised into men who do harm?
This episode is a live recording of the event Man Up, from All About Women 2019, featuring TV host Osher Günsberg, writer Clementine Ford, and filmmaker Vonne Patiag joined Edwina Throsby in a discussion about how we can all work to dismantle sexism.
This episode is a live recording of Slate’s podcast The Waves, from All About Women 2019. Hosts Christina Cauterucci, June Thomas and Noreen Malone are joined by playwright and actor Nakkiah Lui to talk about everything from where modern romcoms go wrong, to the problems with Australian politics.
Technology and the apps have changed the dating landscape and more of us are swiping left than ever before. But from unsolicited pictures to breadcrumbing... it's a jungle out there.
In today’s episode Alexandra Tweten, the creator of the cult Instagram account Bye Felipe, TV presenter host of the Romantically Challenged podcast, Sami Lukis; DJ and podcaster FlexMami and journalist Myffy Rigby dig into the the nitty gritty of what it's like to date today.
This event was recorded live at All About Women 2019.
Show notes:
Bye Felipe on Instagram
Romantically Challenged on iTunes
Bobo and Flex on iTunes
More than a year in, #metoo has held some powerful men to account. But has it gone far enough, and what are the next steps? Explore how to movement must evolve to represent women worldwide in this live recording from All About Women 2019 with Michelle Obama's former Chief of Staff Tina Tchen, New York Times journalist Emily Steel and author of What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape Sohaila Abdulali. With Lenore Taylor of Guardian Australia they reflect on the wins of the movement so far and how to create longlasting change.
What needs to change to make more women want to run for public office in Australia? At All About Women 2019, four of Australia’s most senior politicians crossed party lines to discuss their experiences working in parliament. Labor Party's Linda Burney, Greens Senator Sarah Hanson Young, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party Julie Bishop and Independent Julia Banks had a frank discussion about the pitfalls and rewards of their jobs, and how we can shift the culture so girls who want to grow up to be Prime Minister are inspired, not discouraged. The session was chaired by Jacqueline Maley.
No one gets excited about jellyfish quite like Dr Lisa-Ann Gershwin. Get to know these magical creatures and what they reveal about the future of our oceans, in this live recording from ANTIDOTE 2018.
She was in conversation with ABC Radio National's Natasha Mitchell.
Listen to more Talks & Ideas from Sydney Opera House at sydneyoperahouse.com/ideas
Disabled people are skilled at harnessing the intuitive creativity cultivated by navigating a world not built for them.
Join Liz Jackson as she reveals how this insight offers opportunities for design and innovation.
Liz Jackson was with Fenella Kernebone at ANTIDOTE 2018.
More talks at sydneyoperahouse.com/ideas
The relentless pursuit of profit has had serious consequences for our world. This live recording from ANTIDOTE 2018 features award-winning writer, activist and academic Raj Patel, in an event called Smashing Capitalism for Beginners.
Through his many books and experience working within many of the organisations responsible for upholding capitalist values, Patel explores how we can disrupt the systems from within. Join him for an exhilarating tour through the history of capitalism in a visionary effort to imagine an alternative future.
Watch more from ANTIDOTE at youtube.com/ideasatthehouse
At ANTIDOTE 2018, American writer David Niewart, Australian journalist Jeff Sparrow and British writer Ed Husain came together for an event called Fringe Dwellers and Fanatics.
They had a robust discussion about the ways that extremist ideologies are influencing western governments, including Australia. They're joined by the Saturday Paper editor Maddison Connaughton to consider where this might be dragging the centre of global political debate.
Watch more from the festival at youtube.com/ideasatthehouse
Sisonke Msimang is a bold voice speaking to race, politics, feminism and activism.
Msimang's memoir, Always Another Country, tackles the slippery definition of home. Throughout her life she has been haunted by an imaginary homeland. With great poetry, Msimang uses her personal experiences to examine philosophical and existential questions about how race and gender can impact identity and belonging.
She was in conversation with Edwina Throsby at ANTIDOTE 2018.
More talks at sydneyoperahouse.com/ideas
Australian Legal scholar Megan Davis, American writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and South African writer Sisonke Msimang consider the bitter legacies of colonialism, which have played out across the histories of all of their countries.
Host of the popular podcast It's Not A Race Beverley Wang chairs this discussion about the long-term implications of dispossession, institutionalised racism and white privilege.
Listen to more from ANTIDOTE 2018 at sydneyoperahouse.com/ideas
Islam is often reduced to fear-ridden cliches by western media: sensational headlines and inflammatory comments spark hostility, while the actual lives of many contemporary Muslims are ignored or misunderstood.
After rejecting religious extremism as a young man, Ed Husain now defines himself as a moderate Muslim, and works advising governments and leaders on how to deal with radicalisation in their communities. He was in conversation with journalist Fauziah Ibrahim at ANTIDOTE 2018.
More from ANTIDOTE 2018 is available at sydneyoperahouse.com/ideas
What role does architecture play in creating a national identity?
Marwa Al Sabouni reflects on the importance of architecture at both a physical and a psychological level. At ANTIDOTE 2018 she spoke about her book The Battle for Home, which features her personal experience living through the Syrian war, and the devastation of her home city - Homs.
Listen to her fascinating conversation with journalist Fauziah Ibrahim on the challenges, opportunities and possibilities that have come out of rebuilding almost an entire city.
Watch more from the ANTIDOTE at youtube.com/ideasfromthehouse
Recorded live at ANTIDOTE 2018, this episode features a session that embodied all the festival stands for. Three great thinkers in their fields were challenged to share Three Ways to Save the World.
In this panel, environmentalist Jonathan Drori, designer Liz Jackson and economist Raj Patel discuss what’s going on in the world right now, what we could be doing better, and how to get started.
They’re joined by researcher Rebecca Huntley for a challenging yet productive look at how we how we can collectively work towards a better future.
This episode is hosted by Edwina Throsby.
Watch more talks from the festival on Youtube.
Maureen Dowd is notorious for her searing commentary on American politics. A columnist for The New York Times since 1983, she’s covered nine presidential elections, including those involving Reagan, both Bushes, Clintons Bill and Hillary, Obama, and of course Donald Trump. She was in conversation with her friend and fellow journalist Julia Baird.
This episode is hosted by Edwina Throsby.
Please note that this episode contains mention of sexual assault.
-
Show notes:
Watch the video of this talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sQet2yGQj4
More videos from ANTIDOTE 2018 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKKWbWvkO0GA_NttQjYmM5dlrncC4NYkf
A history of Maureen Dowd's electoral hot takes https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/festivals/antidote/news/maureen-dowd-election-coverage.html
Five of Maureen's best journalistic jibes https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/festivals/antidote/news/maureen-dowd-takedowns.html
"Dehumanisation is the essential program of the radical right."
David Neiwert believes that the so-called “alt-right” of right-wing populists in America has been born of a toxic mix of factors: mainstream conservatives unifying with the racist far-right; a young, media-savvy generation of online white supremacists, and forces in the right-wing media feeding hostility. Throw in the historical strains of xenophobia, racism, misogyny and resentment, and you've got yourself a cultural phenomenon.
David Neiwert, author of Alt-America: the Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump, examines the growth of extremist groups, their influence on Trump politics, and how we can work for positive change in a world that trades on sensationalism. He was with The New York Times Australian bureau chief, Damian Cave at ANTIDOTE 2018.
Watch David in Fringe-Dwellers and Fanatics.
August 2018 was an astonishing time in Australian politics. Yet another leadership spill consumed the national media, confusing and infuriating voters and leaving us with another new prime minister.
With eerie foresight the ANTIDOTE 2018 lineup featured an event with three of Australia’s leading reporters: Stop Blaming Political Media. Talking #libspill, Dutton, Turnbull and whether Australian democracy has a fighting chance are Phil Coorey, Niki Savva and Peter Hartcher.
They're joined by host Edwina Throsby in an attempt to figure out just what the hell has been going on in Australian politics, and how much the media feeds in to the process it reports on.
Watch more talks from ANTIDOTE on the Talks & Ideas Youtube Channel.
Assessing what has really happened in a conflict was once close to impossible, but Human Rights Watch’s Joshua Lyons is using technology in new ways, to reveal the truth in war. Gathering and analysing video imagery from satellites, drones and even social media, he is able to sort truth from propaganda and his work helps expose human rights abuses, and bring perpetrators to justice.
At ANTIDOTE 2018 he gave an insight into the methodology of Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigations. He was in conversation with Tom Tilley.
Show notes:
Imagery from Joshua Lyons' presentation
Watch more videos from ANTIDOTE 2018
Chelsea Manning is known internationally for leaking hundreds of thousands of top secret US military documents to Wikileaks in 2010. Her voice was an important addition to 2018 ANTIDOTE lineup of international changemakers and action-takers. But her path to the Sydney Opera House was not straightforward and she ended up appearing via satellite from Los Angeles. Listen back to the event now exactly as it unfolded at the festival, which starts with an introduction by Edwina Throsby, Head of Talks & Ideas at Sydney Opera House. Chelsea was in conversation with journalist Peter Greste.
Show notes:
More videos from ANTIDOTE 2018
Three essential articles about Chelsea Manning
What freedom means
American writer and author Ta-Nehisi Coates is best known for the New York Times bestseller Between the World and Me which created a unique blend of reportage, historical analysis and personal narrative. As national correspondent for The Atlantic he has established himself as a major force in American intellectual life, and is one of the most influential essayist on race, culture and politics writing today. He also writes on the Marvel Comics Black Panther series, and scored a credit on the blockbuster movie. At ANTIDOTE with the ABC’s Richard Fidler, Ta-Nehisi Coates talked about his violent childhood in Baltimore, how becoming a father changed him, and how his work now might change how we all think about race.
Show notes:
Get to know Ta-Nehisi Coates and his work
Little Country Syndrome by Nayuka Gorrie
Video of Ta-Nehisi Coates in Race, Power & Privilege panel at ANTIDOTE festival
Watch the video of this talk
Kicking off the first podcast from ANTIDOTE 2018 is the recording of our opening night event, Finding the Truth with Ronan Farrow.One of the most famous journalists in the world today, his work over the last 12 months for the New Yorker has been integral to the #metoo movement. As a result in part of his reporting multiple powerful men have been held to account, and millions of women have found a voice to call for a stop to sexual harassment and violence. He has also written extensively about politics, his most recent book, The War on Peace, is a defence of international diplomacy.
The session was chaired by Guardian Australia editor Lenore Taylor.
Show notes:
Watch the video of this event
Read up on Ronan
All About Women is a space to come together to talk about the issues and concerns facing people everywhere. And in 2018, the festival couldn’t ignore the fact that one of the most powerful men in the world has a very troubling public attitude towards women. To that end, the festival included a panel called Grabbing Back: Women Age of Trump, which was a chance to assess the impact of the administration on women and the feminist movement worldwide. It featured legendary writer Fran Lebowitz, Francesca Donner, the director of the Gender Initiative at the New York Times and conservative political commentator Sophia Nelson. The panel was chaired by journalist Julia Baird.
Climate change is often spoken about as an abstract problem. Used as a political device by people far removed from the day-to-day reality of rising waters and increasing temperatures, conversations about global warming can often feel distant from our daily lives. At All About Women 2018, we invited two warriors for climate justice to share their experiences of what is happening right now in our world. In a panel called Disappearing Islands, acclaimed spoken-word poet Kathy Jetnil Kijiner from Marshall Islands joined climate activist Ursula Rakova from Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. They were with journalist Jacqueline Maley to discuss what action we can take to save our planet.
War is often regarded as primarily a male domain, and yet its impact can hit women the hardest. It’s often their role to keep families together as they’re fleeing from conflict zones, and it’s women’s bodies that are most vulnerable to the weaponised use of sexual violence. Wai Wai Nu is a Rohingya human rights lawyer who is advocating for the rights of women in her community. In this session she’s joined by Emma Hogan, the South East Asian correspondent for the Economist, and Nicola Henry, an associate professor from RMIT University. This podcast is an extract of their discussion from All About Women 2018, chaired by Fauziah Ibrahim.
Please note that this episode contains discussion of violence against women.
Podcasting has allowed more and more feminist voices around the world a platform to be centred, heard and celebrated. And as part of All About Women 2018, we invited some of the finest podcasters around to record live episodes at the festival. Of course, this had to include the wildly popular Guilty Feminist podcast, and its host comedian Deborah Frances-White brought the laughs and the politics to the festival. Along with co-host Geraldine Hickey, special guests Myf Warhurst and Tracey Spicer, they attempt to tackle the small issue of 10,000 years of gender imbalance.
In September 2017, the Saudi Arabian government announced it was lifting its long-standing ban on women driving cars. The decision was an historic milestone for Saudi women’s rights, and reflected a growing women’s movement in the region. The Right to Drive campaign was begun by the Saudi engineer, writer and activist Manal al-Sharif, and today’s podcast is an extract of her presentation at All About Women 2018.
Watch more from the festival on our Youtube channel.
Since #metoo blew up at the end of 2017, feminists around the world are hungry to mobilse, so at All About Women 2018, we thought we ought to offer some hands-on advice. What better thing to do than to program a session full of optimistic yet practical suggestions on how we might finally smash the patriarchy.
The Guardian’s Van Badham chairs this uplifting, funny and practical discussion with best-selling author Barbara Kingsolver, writer and activist Manal al-Sharif and local feminist legend Clementine Ford. All activists in their own right, these incredible women talk about the deeper systemic and structural factors behind oppression and inequality and attempt to answer a couple of tiny questions: how do we destabilise these systems, and where on earth do we start?
Watch more talks from All About Women 2018 on Youtube
Intersectionality is the buzzword of contemporary feminism. But in focussing on issues of race, class and sexuality, disability often gets forgotten. In a panel at All About Women 2018, three radical speakers discussed how being disabled raises a whole lot of unique issues that directly affect their feminism. NDIS campaigner Samantha Connor, writer and performer Kath Duncan and artist, activist and writer Katharine Annear were joined by session chair Van Badham, for a rowdy discussion on why disability can’t be left off the table when thinking about a truly inclusive feminism.
Watch more talks from All About Women 2018 on Youtube.
American writer Kate Bolick’s blockbuster Atlantic article, ‘All the Single Ladies’ examined the the remarkable demographic shift away from marriage, and grappled with what resisting the intense social pressure to couple means for women. Now, her book Spinster combines memoir, feminist theory, cultural criticism and sharp historical research. At All About Women 2018, she took to the stage with moderator Jess Scully for a brazenly political and deeply personal discussion about the opportunities of modern singledom.
Watch the full talk on our Youtube Channel.
With a resume that includes coining the term ‘third wave’, and is filled in by multiple memoirs, essay collections and a novel, Rebecca Walker’s career is force of intellectual, intersectional thought. At All About Women 2018 she spoke with Edwina Throsby about beauty and all our preconceptions about it in relation to society, history and ourselves. Listen as she poses the challenge: how do we rethink beauty so that it becomes an act of resistance?
Watch more from the festival on Youtube.
At All About Women 2018, conversations about feminism were opened up beyond the gender binary to create a truly inclusive festival for everyone who wants to challenge patriarchal structures.
In a panel called Trans Like Me, English writer and musician CN Lester, local broadcaster and musician Eddie Ayres, and comedy legend Jordan Raskopoulous came together to look at how trans politics intersects with feminism.
This session was chaired by the head of Transgender Victoria, Sally Goldner.
Watch more from the festival on Youtube.
Mandy Len Catron's 2015 article for the New York Times Modern Love Column 'To Fall in Love with Anyone, Do This' examined whether there is scientific reasoning behind romantic connection. Her consequent memoir, How To Fall In Love With Anyone, used the article as a springboard to discuss intimacy, chemistry, vulnerability and cultural myths about relationships. She joined Clementine Ford at All About Women 2018 to unpack the science of attraction.
See more from All About Women 2018 on Youtube.
Barbara Kingsolver visited Australia for the first time for All About Women 2018. In a candid discussion with Margaret Throsby, she takes us from her early days as a scientist and a poet to the peak of her career as the writer of bestselling novels including The Poisonwood Bible. She shares her love for the natural world and quickly reveals her knack for local lingo, in this completely charming session.
Watch the full video and more from All About Women 2018 at youtube.com/ideasatthehouse.
It’s been 100 years since suffragettes won the right for some privileged Englishwomen to vote, and this anniversary got us thinking about the milestones of feminism across time. At All About Women 2018 we invited four speakers to reflect on what feminism has achieved and what is still to be done in a panel called From Suffragettes to Social Media. We were joined by historian Barbara Caine who spoke to the First Wave, iconic Second-waver Anne Summers, Rebecca Walker shared her insights on the Third Wave and playwright Nakkiah Lui rounded out the panel posing the question: is there even a Fourth Wave? The session was chaired by Edwina Throsby.
Watch the full talk including discussion and audience Q&A at youtube.com/ideasatthehouse.
This week's episode is another live recording from All About Women, where speakers from across the world spent the day having robust discussions about feminism, identity and culture. And who better to weigh in on all things cultural than New York icon, writer and commentator Fran Lebowitz. A fixture on US late-night TV, Lebowitz brought her unique brand of devastating wit to Sydney for the first time. In this hilarious and strangely philosophical conversation, which covers technology, Trump, #metoo and the perils of plane travel, Fran Lebowitz reminds us why she still has all the cultural cache. The session was chaired by journalist Josh Zepps.
For more from Fran, head to our Youtube channel.
This week's episode is another live recording from All About Women 2018. It was impossible to have an event about issues facing women without addressing #metoo. For us it was important to recognise that even though it was events in Hollywood that turned the hashtag into a global phenomenon, sexual harassment and assault are commonly faced by all women. We were very pleased to welcome, via satellite from LA just ahead of her appearance at the Oscars, the woman who founded #metoo all the way back in 2006, Tarana Burke. She was joined live at the Sydney Opera House by local legend Tracey Spicer, whose work exposing these issues in the Australian media has been dominating headlines all year. The session was chaired by Jacqueline Maley.
Please note that this episode contains discussion of sexual assault.
Want more from All About Women? Find this talk and more on our Youtube channel.
At All About Women 2018 we played host to some of the most amazing feminist thinkers both local and international, who spoke about gender identity, love, race, disability and much more. In addition to our regular talks and panel discussions, for the first time we hosted a podcast hub. Kicking off the recordings from the festival is a special live episode of BuzzFeed’s Pretty for An Aboriginal podcast.
Hosts Miranda Tapsell and Nakkiah Lui were joined by actor Shari Sebbins to talk about the power of visibility and making your own story, and how films like Black Panther are changing the game.
This all-star panel from All About Women 2015 tackles the question 'how to be a feminist'. In times when the term has expanded to encompass intersectional feminism, this panel asks not only what the label now means, but whether it is necessary. With Clementine Ford, Roxane Gay, Celeste Liddle, Germaine Greer, Tara Moss and Anita Sarkeesian. Chaired by Geraldine Doogue.
In 2013, Hanna Rosin published The End of Men and the Rise of Women, a look at women's success in the economy after the global recession. Talking motherhood, careers and sex, she took to the stage at 2013's Festival of Dangerous Ideas, optimistically suggesting that with our financial successes, the demise of the patriarchy was imminent. Now the host of NPR's Invisibilia, we revisit her talk to see what is the same and what has changed for working women in the past five years. Session chair: Julia Baird.
Over the next few weeks we will be rebroadcasting some of the best talks from the Ideas at the House archives.
This week, writer and activist Naomi Klein who took to the Concert Hall stage at Festival of Dangerous Ideas. Her presentation on capitalism and the climate is just as relevant as it was in 2015. Klein has long been a warrior for our climate, and here she argues that complicity in capitalism is just as responsible for the destruction of our planet as big business and government. But, all hope is not lost.
Session chaired by Ann Mossop.
Over the next few weeks we will be rebroadcasting episodes from the Ideas at the House archives. In the wake of Australia Day, we’ve found ourselves thrust into yet another conversation about whether Australians are racist, so it's a good time to revisit this event from the 2012 Festival of Dangerous Ideas.
Listen to actor Alec Doomadgee, journalists Joe Hildebrand and Randa Abdel Fattah as they jump right into this ever heated debate about whether All Australians are racist. The session is chaired by Marilyn Lake.
On the occasion of her latest book At My Table: A Celebration of Home Cooking, we were delighted to welcome Nigella Lawson back to the Concert Hall stage. Encouraging everyone to enjoy the comfort food provides, Nigella has made her way into the hearts of the public with her charming manner and scrumptious turn of phrase. That’s what Nigella is all about—feeling good, enjoying food and the company food brings. Tuck into this hour delightful conversation with SBS Food Safari’s Maeve O’Meara, covering everything from the various uses of frozen peas, food trends to the #MeToo movement.
The very gracious and eloquent Janet Mock talks about her life, activism and writing in this essential session about the power of storytelling. She reflects on her journey, and challenges preconceived notions about identity, being and truth. Chaired by Lucky Price.
Reni Eddo-Lodge was frustrated when conversations about racism were met with angry denial and white guilt. In 2014 she published a blog post: ‘Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race’. Her words hit a nerve. The post went viral and comments flooded in.
Reni invites us into a discussion that moves beyond the personal and into the structural. With incisive wit, she explores the political purpose of white dominance, whitewashed feminism, and the link between class and race. Chaired by Benjamin Law.
Fbi Radio managing director Clare Holland on lockout laws and their impact on Sydney's cultural scene. Chaired by Ben Marshall.
Our day-to-day reality – life expectancy, health, wealth, and education – were considered unrealistic and utopian in the eighteenth century. So, what's next? Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian and author, explores how utopian ideals like a basic living income and a fifteen-hour work week could become a reality in our lifetime.
Chaired by Emma Alberici.
As National Co-Chair of the Women's March on Washington, Tamika Mallory proved that women are the centre of resistance against the Trump presidency. It sent a bold message to the new US government on its first day in office: women's rights are human rights. In her presentation at Antidote Festival, Tamika reflects on the wins of the Women's March, and what's next in the fight for equality. Chaired by Gabrielle Jackson.
Join the editors and creators of satirical news organisation The Onion, as they share their favourite headlines and reveal just how hard it is to make satire at a time when facts are stranger than fiction.
Chaired by Craig Reucassel.
With pithy and insightful observations, journalist and author Arkady Ostrovsky examines today's political reality from the perspective of Putin's Russia in the award winning book The Invention of Russia.Tracking a clear path from Gorbachev to Yeltsin to Putin, he paints a beguiling history: Putin's rise was not an aberration, but a deliberate move, generated by careful control of the media and security services. Join Arkady as he takes a closer look at what is real, what is fake, and what is possible in today's new world order. Chaired by Emma Alberici.
Sydney's first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras ended in shocking violence and multiple arrests. Julie McCrossin was there. Forty years on, the celebration's activist roots remain urgently relevant. Join Julie as she reflects on the cultural change that still needs to happen. Chaired by Benjamin Law.
Recent years have seen the largest street protests in human history – but do they create real change? The co-founder of Occupy Wall Street explores the future of social action. Chaired by Edwina Throsby.
Creating a much needed space for Muslim women online, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh's MuslimGirl rose from humble beginnings on Livejournal to becoming the number one Muslim women’s blog in the United States. Now a regular contributor to media outlets CNN, Al Jazeera, and the BBC, Amani has been featured in The New York Times and The Guardian, and made Forbes' '30 Under 30' list. Chaired by Yassmin Abdel-Magied.
Year by year, our planet grows warmer. Can a not-for-profit environmental law organisation save the world? Martin Goodman and James Thornton's recent book Client Earthhas been called 'a soaring force in environmental activism'. With their passion and groundbreaking insight they attempt to tackle the big questions about how we can save our planet. Chaired by Alessandro Pelizzon.
What are the risks of internet success? Join Reni Eddo-Lodge, Celeste Liddle, Van Badham and Tim Highfield as they share the joys and pitfalls of online activism. Chaired by Steph Harmon.
Shashi Tharoor is an Indian politician and diplomat. His book, Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India, considers the devastating legacy of British colonialism. He's in conversation with Guardian reporter Ben Doherty.
The refugee crisis makes many people feel helpless –but Kirstin Shirling proves one person can make a difference. Join her at Antidote Festival 2017 as she speaks about her time in France's notorious refugee camp, The Jungle. Hosted by the Guardian's Lucy Clark.
Two decades after Eve Ensler's play radicalised how women think about their bodies, the activist and writer is still calling for revolution. She took to the Sydney Opera House stage at Antidote Festival with journalist Van Badham, where they discuss 20 years of the landmark play and what's next in the global fight for women's rights.
NASA is in the early stages of preparing to send the first astronauts to the red planet. The 2020 Rover mission will be searching for signs of habitable conditions on Mars, as well as past microbial life.
Is this the first step to humanity spreading out into the galaxy? Is there already simple life on the red planet? Do we have galactic neighbours?
Physicist Professor Paul Davies from Arizona State University, geologist Dr Abigail Allwood of NASA, Dr Mitch Schulte of Mars 2020 Rover mission and UNSW’s Professor Martin van Kranendonk tackle these questions and more as they discuss life on Mars. Chaired by Graham Phillips.
Recorded live at Sydney Opera House, August 17 2017.
These conversations were recorded live on stage as part of Bingefest.
First up we have our favourite moments from Gut Churn with Radiolab co creator and host, Jad Abumrad.
Followed by bingeworthy journalism with executive producer of Serial, Julie Snyder.
Recorded at Bingefest 2016.
Come on an adventure to find out what goes on in a writers' room. Industry veteran Dan Harmon (Rick and Morty, Community), four seasons deep Josh Thomas (Please Like Me), and up and comers Celia Pacquola and Luke McGregor (Rosehaven) are here to give you the backstage insight into what it takes to write a hit show. And then they'll write a brand new show for you, on the spot!
Hosted by Gretel Killeen.
One of Dr James Clapper’s final tasks before stepping down as the Director of National Intelligence at the end of the Obama Administration was to release an extraordinary report on anticipated global trends through 2035, The Paradox of Progress. That report set out some stark messages about technology, cyber security, governance, democracy, economics, conflict, population, ideology, climate change, environment, and disease.
Recorded at All About Women Festival on March 5th, 2017.
What if the key to living a happier, healthier life is already inside of us?
Inquisitive and talented microbiology student and bestselling author Giulia Enders explores one of the most complex, important, and even miraculous parts of our anatomy - the gut.
Chaired by Natasha Mitchell.
Recorded at All About Women Festival on March 5th, 2017.
In an age of disruption and climate change, how will humans adapt?
Social scientist Karen O’Brien has devoted her career to exploring the mechanisms that drive change and adaptation. What do we need to understand about how we create change – and how do we deal with the consequences?
Chaired by: Santilla Chingaipe
Recorded at All About Women Festival on March 5th, 2017.
Why is there still gender inequality and a gender pay gap?
If we want to end male dominance in board rooms and parliaments, then maybe we need to stop telling women to be more confident, negotiate better, speak up and support each other.
What if, instead of telling women to fix themselves, we fixed the system?
Panel: Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Catherine Fox & Ann Sherry
Chair: Fauziah Ibrahim
Recorded at All About Women Festival on March 5th, 2017.
What happens to a loud woman with big opinions in a culture where women are expected to be small, quiet and compliant?
Lindy West’s vibrant humour, refreshing candour and unapologetically trenchant attacks on body shamers and trolls have earned her the admiration of Lena Dunham, Ira Glass, and Caitlin Moran.
What can each of us take away from the courage of someone who confronts rape jokes, the fat police, and anti-abortionists - and laughs to tell the tale?
Chair: Sarah Macdonald
Recorded at All About Women on March 5th, 2017.
What’s wrong with our education system? How can we transform mass education into something that can work for everyone and delivers what we need in a world of rapid change?
As journalist Lucy Clark battled to save her daughter from a school system that discouraged difference, she set out to discover the real meaning of success and failure and why we educate young people as we do.
Chair: Bridgette Van Leuven
Recorded at All About Women on March 5th, 2017
Has contemporary feminism grown so tame, cowardly and irrelevant that it barely challenges the status quo? Have feminists traded liberation for acceptance? What will it take to wake the movement up? In a fearless call for revolution, Jessa Crispin demands more of feminism - nothing less than the total dismantling of a system of oppression.
Chaired by Danielle Harvey.
Recorded at All About Women on March 5th, 2017.
What is it about women with opinions, or aspirations to power, that brings out the worst in our culture? Whether we are called ‘nasty women’, ‘frightbats’ or ‘hysterical’ – take your pick – these are labels that are deployed to try to put women in their place. But what happens when women stop being afraid, and ‘nasty woman’ becomes a badge of honour?
Panel: Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Van Badham, Lindy West
Chair: Fauziah Ibrahim
Recorded at All About Women Festival on March 5th, 2017.
Entering its sixth year and with no resolution in sight, the Syrian Civil War has already killed an estimated 400,000 people.
Foreign correspondent Janine di Giovanni bears witness to the lived reality behind the headlines. With her courageous fieldwork and on-the-ground reporting, she offers a unique opportunity to understand this tragic conflict through the eyes of the people living at its very centre.
Chair: Geraldine Doogue
Recorded at All About Women Festival, March 5th 2017.
Queen Victoria wielded enormous power during her 64 year reign. Yet she still had to negotiate with her husband, fit in work around her nine children and manage the expectations of 10 Prime Ministers and her public. What can we learn about women and power from this 19th century monarch?
Watch as journalist and biographer Julia Baird explores Victoria’s journey from teenage queen to the most powerful woman of her era.
Chaired by Sarah Macdonald.
TV speaks to us all – it shapes our dreams, confronts our fears and reflects the world we live in. Every year we hear of a new era and the death of a media industry, yet TV always has the last laugh. Why?
Christopher Borrelli is a reporter and columnist for the Chicago Tribune, providing a refreshingly earnest voice to the world of video games, toast, Netflix, location scouts, shadow puppet theatre companies and people who hoard copies of Jerry Maguire.
As a man who has written an article on the mathematic formula behind suspense, it’s safe to say that Borelli will deliver, giving us a reason to never listen to ‘turn off the TV and go to bed’ ever again.
http://sydneyoperahouse.com/ideas
Is American politics dysfunctional or does it just look that way? What happens when aggressive hyper-partisanship collides with a political system that can only work co-operatively? Is the damage fatal to the democratic system?
This session was presented in partnership with The United States Studies Centre.
Shanto Iyengar holds the Chandler Chair in Communication at Stanford University, where he is also Professor of Political Science and Director of the Political Communication Laboratory. Iyengar’s areas of expertise include the role of mass media in democratic societies, public opinion and political psychology. He has received professional awards including the Philip Converse Award of the American Political Science Association for the best book in the field of public opinion, the Murray Edelman Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Goldsmith Book Prize from Harvard University. Iyengar is author or co-author of several books, including News That Matters, Is Anyone Responsible?, Explorations in Political Psychology, Going Negative and Media Politics: A Citizen’s Guide.
Simon Jackman became CEO of the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney in April 2016. Born and raised in Australia, he went to the United States for his PhD (Political Science, Rochester) in 1988. From 1996 to 2016, Jackman taught Political Science and Statistics at Stanford University. Jackman’s research focuses on public opinion, political participation, and electoral systems, in both the United States and Australia. Since 2009, Jackman has been one of the Principal Investigators of the American National Election Studies, the world’s longest-running and most authoritative study of political attitudes and behaviour.
Norman Ornstein is a long-time observer of US politics. He is a contributing writer for The Atlantic, a contributing editor and columnist for National Journal, and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Ornstein served as co-director of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project and participates in AEI's Election Watch series. He also led a working group of scholars and practitioners that helped shape the law, known as McCain-Feingold, that reformed the campaign-financing system. His many books include The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track, and, most recently The New York Times bestseller, It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism, both with Thomas E. Mann.
Is innovation overvalued? It is the dominant ideology of our era. But what if building, maintenance and repair prove much more important to our daily lives than the vast majority of technological innovations?
Chaired by Natasha Mitchell
Co-founder of The Maintainers themaintainers.org, a research group focused on maintenance, repair, infrastructure and mundane labor, Lee Vinsel is an Assistant Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Stevens Institute of Technology. His research focuses on science and technology policy, and his first book examines the history of government regulation of the automobile in the United States, from the birth of the internal combustion engine to the Google Car. His work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Guardian, Le Monde, Fortune and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Natasha Mitchell is a multi-award winning journalist and presenter of flagship ABC Radio National programs including the daily morning show, Life Matters (2012-15), and the popular science, psychology & culture radio program, All in the Mind (2002-12). She was vice president of the World Federation of Science Journalists, and a recipient of the MIT Knight Fellowship.
Will we run out of water – and if so, when? Will the Earth suffer? Explore how water drives modern conflict and is not about to stop.
Chaired by Sarah Macdonald
Alok Jha is the science correspondent for ITV News in the UK. Before that, he did the same job at The Guardianfor a decade, where he wrote news, features, comment and presented the award-winning Science Weeklypodcast. He has also reported live from Antarctica and presented many TV and radio programmes for the BBC. Alok's latest book The Water Book looks into water, a profoundly strange substance that defies the normal rules of chemistry, and how it has shaped the Earth, its life and our civilisation.
Today the human race faces existential challenges. Our prosperity has been built on unsustainable economic and environmental practices — but our social and political processes seem incapable of fixing anything. Why are we unable to even acknowledge the truth of our predicament?
Chaired by Rebecca Huntley
Satyajit Das is a former financier. He anticipated the 2008 financial crisis and has been prescient in outlining subsequent developments. In September 2014, Bloomberg included him as one of the 50 most influential people in international finance. He was featured in Charles Ferguson’s 2010 Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job, the 2012 PBS Frontline series ‘Money, Power & Wall Street’, the 2009 BBC TV documentary Tricks with Risk, and the 2015 German film Who’s Saving Whom. He is the author of Traders, Guns & Money: Knowns and Unknowns in the Dazzling World of Derivatives (2006) and Extreme Money: The Masters of the Universe and the Cult of Risk(2011). His latest book is A Banquet of Consequences: Have We Consumed Our Own Future? (2015).
#BlackLivesMatter has become the call to action for a generation of US human rights activists to denounce the violence and prejudice still experienced by African Americans. In the wake of the violent deaths of African Americans Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and many others call for change is insistent and consistent. So what does need to change in politics, in the media and in everyday lives to transform race relations and ensure justice and recognition for all?
Following the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, Alicia Garza took to social media to express her outrage. With Opal Tometi and Patrisse Cullors, she turned the powerful words “Black Lives Matter” into a social media phenomenon and an organizing network that boasts more than 26 chapters internationally. Currently the Special Projects Director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Alicia previously served as Executive Director of People Organized to Win Employment Rights, where she led the charge on significant initiatives, including organizing against the chronic police violence in black neighborhoods.
Popular culture is obsessed with easy sex and the importance of dating, implying that we live in a new enlightened age of sexual promiscuity. As an investigative journalist, if you penetrated the inner sanctum of a secret society and discovered the key to picking up women would you use it for good or bad? Can too much sex and dating damage you irreparably? What is the deep psychology behind our quests and fears of love and sex and who are the people making use of this knowledge.
Chaired by Sarah MacDonald
Neil Strauss is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Game and Rules of the Game. He is also the co-author of three New York Times bestsellers—Jenna Jameson’s How to Make Love Like a Porn Star, Mötley Crüe’s The Dirt, and Marilyn Manson’s The Long Hard Road Out of Hell. Strauss' highly anticipated The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book about Relationships came out in October 2015. A writer for Rolling Stone, Strauss lives in Los Angeles.
What is the place on our stages and in public life for performers who don’t fit the conventional view of what an artist should be? In the past, ‘natural born freaks’ were the stars of sideshow performances, but this is now buried as the embarrassing past. Why should we ignore this history of performers with disability? And if we do, how can we celebrate the unique artistry of those who are different, who are ‘freaks like me’?
Sarah Houbolt is an accomplished international circus and physical theatre performer, trained in aerials, acrobatics and hula hoop. By day she works at Accessible Arts in Sydney, and by night she is KooKoo the Birdgirl. Her show reel consists of everything from Cirque du Soleil to corporate aerials to starring as Hairy Maclary in children's theatre. Sarah loves bed of nails, angle grinding and blockhead. Sarah worked with Sideshow Wonderland at Adelaide Fringe 2015, and has created a one-woman show based on KooKoo the Birdgirl, a character from the controversial film Freaks (1932).
What is art if not a place where we can push the boundaries of what we know, what we do and what we can say? As his pioneering dance company DV8 developed and broke boundaries, choreographer Lloyd Newson found out that even in art there are limits, and times when no-one wants to speak out. What don’t we want art to talk about?
Born in Australia, Lloyd Newson studied psychology and social work at Melbourne University before embarking on a professional career as a dancer and choreographer. He has led and directed DV8 Physical Theatre’s work since its inception in 1986, winning over 50 national and international awards for his dance-theatre and film productions. In 2013 he was awarded an OBE for services to contemporary dance. Newson’s work straddles dance, text, theatre and film. Since 2007 he has specifically focused his attention on making work that combines verbatim text and movement, focusing on issues such as sexuality and religion in To Be Straight With You and Islam and Free Speech in Can We Talk About This?
Shaken by a court's decision to acquit George Zimmerman over the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, Alicia Garza wrote, "Black people, I love you. I love us. Our lives matter." From there, the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter was born and then a social movement. It is a world away from the life she had growing up with her mother, stepfather, and brother, where they ran an antique shop in Marin County in San Francisco. Standing firmly in the national spotlight today in a divided America, she is a leading voice in what's widely viewed as America's new civil rights movement.
This is the second episode of It's A Long Story - the new podcast project by Sydney Opera House Talks and Ideas.
For more episodes search for It's A Long Story:
On iTunes: http://apple.co/2eY1bLY On Stitcher: http://bit.ly/2ge2mwt
Everything about the Arctic Inuit communities’ way of life depends on ice and snow, so is the failure of the world to act on climate change a gross violation of Inuit human rights?
Sheila Watt-Cloutier currently resides in Iqaluit, Nunavut. She was born in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik (northern Quebec), and was raised traditionally in her early years before attending school in southern Canada and in Manitoba. Ms. Watt-Cloutier was an elected political spokesperson for Inuit for over a decade. She is the past Chair of Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), the organization that represents internationally the 155,000 Inuit of Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and Chukotka in the Far East of the Federation of Russia and was previously the President of ICC Canada. During the past several years, Ms. Watt-Cloutier has worked through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to defend Inuit human rights against the impacts of climate change. She has received many awards in recognition of her work. In November, 2015 she was one of 4 Laureates to receive “The Right Livelihood Award” considered the Nobel Alternative, awarded in the Parliament of Sweden. Her recently published book The Right To Be Cold has been shortlisted for the B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for political writing and the Cobo emerging writer prize.
When is political advertising actually propaganda? And how do we tell the difference? In a fractured media environment with innumerable advocates clamouring for our attention, is it all propaganda now?
Chaired by Michael Williams
A high school teacher by trade, Dee Madigan joined the world of advertising in 1996 and since has been winner or finalist at most major ad awards, including Cannes. If ever there was a tampon ad shot on a foreign beach, you can be sure Dee wrote it – and attended the shoot. Her campaigns included some of the world’s biggest brands – HSBC, Powerade, Commonwealth Bank, Diet Coke, J&J, Rexona and Nestle – and Dee also has extensive social marketing experience ranging from federal government campaigns, to the National Heart Foundation, The Cancer Council, the Australian Breast Cancer Institute and the UNHCR. She has worked on 10 election campaigns and most recently she was Creative Director for the Queensland Labor Party for its 2015 election win. She is a panellist on the ABC show Gruen, a political commentator on Sky and is the author of The Hard Sell as well as a contributing author on Mothermorphosis (MU) and Perspectives on Change (ANU). She runs her own ad agency, Campaign Edge. She has three kids and drinks too much wine; these things are not unrelated.
Do Asian-Australians experience a particular kind of racism? When Asian stereotypes are positive, are they still damaging? How can we break through the bamboo ceiling?
Sarah Dingle is a dual Walkley Award-winning investigative reporter and presenter with the ABC, working across radio and TV current affairs, news and documentary. Her work has also won the UN's Media Peace Prize, the Voiceless Media Prize, and the Australian College of Educators Media prize. Her radio documentaries have been recognised by the Australian Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International, and the National Press Club. In 2010 she was the ABC's Andrew Olle Scholar.
Ming Longis an influential thought leader in the property industry, with more than a decade of experience in real estate encompassing areas such as funds and capital management, property development; and over twenty years experience in financial management. Ming has held leadership positions including Board, CEO and CFO roles. She is first and only Asian female who has led an ASX-100 or 200 listed entity in Australia. She brings a unique insight from her leadership roles through corporate M&A and challenging markets, including successfully navigating the global financial crisis. Ming led the establishment of the Male Champions of Change in the property industry, was a finalist in the Telstra Business Womens Awards and is a member of Chief Executive Women.
Dr Tim Soutphommasane is Race Discrimination Commissioner and commenced his five-year appointment on 20 August 2013. Prior to joining the Australian Human Rights Commission, he was a political philosopher and held posts at The University of Sydney and Monash University. His thinking on multiculturalism, national identity and patriotism has been influential in shaping debates in Australia and Britain. Dr Soutphommasane is the author of four books, I’m not racist but … (2015), The Virtuous Citizen (2012), Don't Go Back To Where You Came From(2012), and Reclaiming Patriotism (2009). He was co-editor (with Nick Dyrenfurth) of All That's Left (2010). He has been an opinion columnist with The Age and The Weekend Australian newspapers, and in 2013 presented the documentary series “Mongrel Nation” on ABC Radio National. A first-generation Australian, Dr Soutphommasane was raised in southwest Sydney. He completed a Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Philosophy (with distinction) at the University of Oxford, and is a first-class honours graduate of The University of Sydney. For those interested in the correct pronunciation of Dr Soutphommasane’s surname, the phonetic spelling of it is Soot-pom-ma-sarn.
A former Research Fellow at the Melbourne Business School and the University of Melbourne, Jennifer Whelan is a recognised academic expert and organisational consultant specialising in corporate diversity, inclusive leadership, and innovation. Jennifer is also the founder of boutique consultancy Psynapse, through which she advises on organisational diversity, inclusive leadership, collective intelligence, and innovation. Jennifer is an active thought leader and a regular contributor to industry forums, events, and public debate, including contributions to The Conversation, The Age, and Women’s Agenda; and engagements with The Sydney Opera House (Ideas at the House), The Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), UNWomen, Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI), The Diversity Council of Australia (DCA), Women in Banking & Finance (WiBF) and the 100% Project.
Whichever way we vote, politicians say the electorate always gets it right at the ballot box. Cynics are more inclined to think that we get the government we deserve. Did we get it right this time? What does the election tell us about our faith in our political leaders? Are we a nation that can't make up its mind?
Annabel Crabb is one of Australia’s most popular political commentators, is the presenter of Kitchen Cabinetand writes for The Drum. Annabel has worked extensively in newspapers, radio and television and has appeared on Insiders and as stand-in host for 7.30. She is Australia’s most-followed journalist on Twitter (@annabelcrabb), a platform she uses to share political news and recipes. Annabel is the author of several books, including Rise of the Ruddbot and the 2014 bestseller The Wife Drought.
David Marr has written for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Monthly, been editor of the National Times, a reporter for Four Corners, presenter of ABC TV’s Media Watch and now writes for The Guardian. His books include Patrick White: A Life, The High Price of Heaven, Dark Victory (with Marian Wilkinson) and five Quarterly Essays: His Master’s Voice, Power Trip, Political Animal, The Prince and Faction Man.
Henry Rollins discusses his tumultuous childhood growing up in Washington DC, and how he transitioned from scooping ice cream at Haagen Dazs to fronting punk rock band Black Flag. A turning point came for Henry Rollins about a decade ago, marked by a departure from music into activism and spoken word performance, "For me, music was a time and a place. I never really enjoyed being in a band. It was in me, and it needed to come out. Like a 25-year exorcism. One day I woke up and I didn't have any more lyrics."
This is the first episode of It's A Long Story - the new podcast project by Sydney Opera House Talks and Ideas. For more episodes search for It's A Long Story:
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What galvanised African American activist Alicia Garza to co-found #BlackLivesMatter? How did Henry Rollins make the jump from shift manager at Häagen-Dazs to lead singer of US punk rock band Black Flag? How does NSW Australian of the Year Deng Thiak Adut’s former life as a Sudanese refugee and child soldier inform his practice of the law?
Find the answer to these questions and more in a new Sydney Opera House podcast It's A Long Story. A podcast that explores the the stories behind the big ideas of some of our most influential and acclaimed guests.
Subscribe to It's A Long Story!
on iTunes:http://apple.co/2eY1bLY
on Stitcher:http://bit.ly/2ge2mwt
All around us, military spending is up. Are our neighbours arming for superpower confrontation over territory and influence? What does this mean for the peace and prosperity of Australia and our region?
Dr Bates Gill is Professor of Asia Pacific Strategic Studies with the Australian National University Strategic and Defence Studies Centre and one of the world's leading experts on Asia-Pacific security issues, especially with regard to China. From 2007 to 2012 he served as Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the world's most respected nongovernment authority on the global arms trade. Over his 30-year career, he has authored and edited numerous books and other publications on arms trade and proliferation issues, including Chinese Arms Transfers (Praeger), Arms, Transparency and Security in Southeast Asia (Oxford University Press), China's Arms Acquisitions from Abroad (Oxford University Press), and Governing the Bomb: Civilian Control and Democratic Accountability of Nuclear Weapons.
Sheryn Lee is an Associate Lecturer at the Department of Security Studies and Criminology, Macquarie University. She is also completing her doctoral dissertation on arms racing in the Asia-Pacific at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, the Australian National University. She was previously a non-resident WSD-Handa Fellow at Pacific Forum, Center for Strategic and International Studies, and holds an AM in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a Benjamin Franklin Fellow and Mumford Fellow. She was also a Robert O'Neill scholar at the International Institute of Strategic Studies-Asia in Singapore.
Peter Hartcher is a leading Australian journalist and author. He is the political editor and international editor for The Sydney Morning Herald, a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy and a political commentator for Sky News television. He has been writing about power and politics, war and peace, booms and busts for more than 30 years. His latest book is The Adolescent Country.
Is it time to forget about ‘border protection’? What would happen if we just opened our borders? Could it be the best response to all of our concerns about refugees and economic growth?
Philippe Legrain is a critically acclaimed thinker and communicator who has also been a senior policy adviser. A senior visiting fellow at the London School of Economics’ European Institute, he is the founder of Open Political Economy Network (OPEN), an international think-tank. A columnist for Project Syndicate, Foreign Policy andCapX, he commentates for many international media outlets. From 2011 to 2014 he was economic adviser to the President of the European Commission and head of the team providing the president with strategic policy advice. Previously he was special adviser to World Trade Organisation director-general Mike Moore and trade and economics correspondent for The Economist. Philippe is the author of four successful books, includingImmigrants: Your Country Needs Them (2007), which was shortlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year, and European Spring: Why Our Economies and Politics are in a Mess – and How to Put Them Right(2014), which was among the FT’s Best Books of 2014. His first study for OPEN is Refugees Work: A Humanitarian Investment that Yields Economic Dividends (2016).
Why do Indigenous people kill themselves in such numbers? What do we know about suicide that can help us understand this? Can we overcome the tragedy of young people dying in a suicide epidemic?
Jesse Bering is an award-winning science writer. His "Bering in Mind" column at Scientific American was a 2010 Webby Award Honoree. Bering's first book, The Belief Instinct (2011), was included on the American Library Association's Top 25 Books of the Year. This was followed by a collection of essays--the critically acclaimed Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That? (2012), and Perv (2013), a New York Times Editor's Choice. All three books have been translated into many different languages. An expert in psychology and religion, he began his career at the University of Arkansas, as an Assistant Professor of Psychology from 2002-2006. He then served as the Director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture at the Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, where he was a Reader in the School of History and Anthropology until 2011. Presently, he is Associate Professor of Science Communication at the University of Otago, New Zealand. His next book, on the science of suicidology, will be released in 2017.
Vanessa Lee, from the Wik and Meriam Nations, resides on the land of the Gadigal people. She is a social epidemiologist, educator, writer and public health/ health sciences researcher in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney. Her area of expertise is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health service delivery. Vanessa was the first National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Vice President of the Public Health Association of Australia for a period of four years where she contributed to significant changes in policies for Indigenous people. She is a director on the board for Suicide Prevention Australia. Dr Lee chairs the Public Health Indigenous Leaders in Education Network and is on the executive board of the Australian Health Care Reform Alliance. She holds expert advisory positions with Close the Gap Steering Committee, the International Group of Indigenous Health Measurement and the Sydney Centre of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Statistics. All of the research, engagement and curriculum development that Vanessa is involved in are directed towards the overarching goal of improving the determinants of health, efficacy and linkages of services for better health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier currently resides in Iqaluit, Nunavut. She was born in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik (northern Quebec), and was raised traditionally in her early years before attending school in southern Canada and in Manitoba. Ms. Watt-Cloutier was an elected political spokesperson for Inuit for over a decade. She is the past Chair of Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), the organization that represents internationally the 155,000 Inuit of Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and Chukotka in the Far East of the Federation of Russia and was previously the President of ICC Canada. During the past several years, Ms. Watt-Cloutier has worked through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to defend Inuit human rights against the impacts of climate change. She has received many awards in recognition of her work. In November, 2015 she was one of 4 Laureates to receive “The Right Livelihood Award” considered the Nobel Alternative, awarded in the Parliament of Sweden. Her recently published book The Right To Be Cold has been shortlisted for the B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for political writing and the Cobo emerging writer prize.
Another sport, another drug scandal; are anti-doping efforts doomed? Would legalising drugs in sport actually protect athletes from harm? Is this radical idea the only way to create a level playing field?
Stephen Dank is an Australian biochemist who has worked as a sports scientist with National Rugby League clubs such as the Manly Sea Eagles and Australian rules football clubs such as Essendon Football Club and the Gold Coast Suns Football Club. He is known for his unorthodox treatment and diagnostic methods.
Lisa Forrest is an Olympian, broadcaster and author. Lisa is also the founder of Evermind, a mindfulness-based coaching practice specialising in performance resilience and leadership.
Tracey Holmes is a journalist who has spent much of her career covering sports politics and its social impact. She has lived in numerous countries including mainland China and the Middle East where she's worked for CNN, CCTV and Dubai Eye. In Australia she has worked for the ABC, Channel 7, SBS and Fox Sports covering ten Olympic games, FIFA World Cups, and many other of the world's great events. Currently she is a senior reporter/presenter for ABC NewsRadio, a panelist for ABC TV's Offsiders, and anchor of sports politics program, The Ticket. She is also senior mentor for the IOC's Young Reporters program.
Dr Jason Mazanov is a Senior Lecturer with the School of Business, UNSW-Canberra. Dr Mazanov has been actively researching the policy and management of drugs in sport for over a decade. This expertise has seen Dr Mazanov make over 100 appearances in the Australian and international media. In addition to being Founding Editor of the peer-review journal Performance Enhancement and Health, Dr Mazanov is author of the upcoming book Managing Drugs in Sport.
Head of Sydney Opera House Talks and Ideas Ann Mossop sits down with internationally renowned economist Thomas Piketty to discuss his book "Capital in the 21st Century"and whether increasing inequality is inevitable.
Is Hindu fundamentalism becoming a dangerous force in India? Is the world’s largest democracy becoming less secular and less democratic? What does this mean for India’s future?
Priyamvada Gopal is a Reader at the University of Cambridge in Anglophone and Related Literature. Her new book, Insurgent Empire, is due out with Verso in 2017 and follows Literary Radicalism in India: Gender, Nation and the Transition to Independence (2005) and The Indian English Novel: Nation, History and Narration (2009). A regular writer for The Guardian,The Independent and Times Higher Education Supplement (UK), The Nation(USA), The Hindu and Open (India), she also has appeared on the BBC, Channel 4, Al Jazeera and NDTV (India).
Alexei Sayle’s comedy career kicked off as Thatcherism took hold in Britain and generated unprecedented political conflict and protest. Was this part of what made him one of the funniest voices of his generation? What does his comic persona – full of rage, and with a dark and dangerous edge – owe to the politics of the time? And how does he make Stalin and Thatcher funny?
Alexei David Sayle was born in Liverpool and moved to London in 1971 to attend Chelsea Art School. He became the first MC of the Comedy Store, and later, the Comic Strip. After years of stand-up, television, sitcoms, films and even a hit single, he published his first highly acclaimed collection of short stories, Barcelona Plates, which was followed by The Dog Catcher, two novels – Overtaken and The Weeping Women Hotel – and a novella, Mister Roberts. The first volume of Alexei’s memoirs was Stalin Ate My Homework; it was followed byThatcher Stole My Trousers.
Living with Asperger’s, John Elder Robison had come to terms with the way he was different, riding life’s ups and downs. But what if it was possible to unlock the emotional insight that we assume is ‘missing’ in people living with Aspergers – if only you undertook an experimental brain therapy? Is that fixing?
Chaired by Van Badham
John Elder Robison is The New York Times bestselling author of Look Me in the Eye. He is a world-recognised authority on life with autism; the Neurodiversity Scholar in Residence at the College of William and Mary; and a member of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee for the US Department of Health and Human Services. John is also a member of the International Society for Autism Research. He lives with his wife and son in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Why are young people worse off than their parents? Why is the gap between older and younger Australians – in terms of work, wealth and wellbeing – growing wider? Is Australia cheating the young?
Chaired by Van Badham
Jennifer Rayner was born into aspirational Australian suburbia during the Hawke years and came of age in the long boom of the Howard era. Her lifetime tracks the yawning inequalities that have opened up across the Australian community in the past 30 years. She has worked as a federal political adviser, an international youth ambassador in Indonesia and a private sector consultant. She holds a PhD from the Australian National University.
Suddenly it’s not queer to hear people talking about 'gender fluidity’, ‘gender transition’ or a spectrum of gender identity – did the world conversation decide gender no longer matters? And if the biological constraints of gender have been loosened, how do we deal with enduring gender-based social inequality and injustice?
Jesse Bering is an award-winning science writer. His "Bering in Mind" column at Scientific American was a 2010 Webby Award Honoree. Bering's first book, The Belief Instinct (2011), was included on the American Library Association's Top 25 Books of the Year. This was followed by a collection of essays - the critically acclaimed Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That? (2012), and Perv (2013), a New York Times Editor's Choice. All three books have been translated into many different languages. An expert in psychology and religion, he began his career at the University of Arkansas, as an Assistant Professor of Psychology from 2002-2006. He then served as the Director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture at the Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, where he was a Reader in the School of History and Anthropology until 2011. Presently, he is Associate Professor of Science Communication at the University of Otago, New Zealand. His next book, on the science of suicidology, will be released in 2017.
Raewyn Connell is one of Australia's leading social scientists. She is best known internationally as a sociologist of gender and a pioneer of research on masculinities and best known in Australia for work on class inequality and social justice in education. She’s author or co-author of 23 books including Gender In World Perspective,Southern Theory, Masculinities, Schools & Social Justice, Gender & Power, Making the Difference, and Ruling Class Ruling Culture. Her work has been translated into 18 languages. She is a long-term participant in the labour movement and peace movement, and is now Professor Emerita at the University of Sydney, and a Life Member of the NTEU.
Cordelia Fine is an Associate Professor at Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne. Her second popular science book, Delusions of Gender: The Real Science of Sex Differences was described as “a welcome corrective” (Nature), ”carefully researched and reasoned" (Science) and “required reading for every neurobiology student, if not every human being.” (PLoS Biology). It was short-listed for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Non-Fiction, the Best Book of Ideas Prize (UK), the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for Literature (UK) and the international cross-genre Warwick Prize (2013), and the New York Times advised readers to "read this book". Cordelia also writes regularly for the popular press, including pieces in The Monthly, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Guardian and Financial Times, and her latest book, Testosterone Rex, will be published in early 2017.
Elizabeth Anne Riley, PhD is a Sydney-based counsellor, academic & clinical supervisor specialising in gender diversity. Elizabeth has extensive experience working with gender diverse clients and has a PhD titled ‘The needs of gender variant children and their parents’ Elizabeth also has a Masters in Counselling and provides gender specific support and counselling for children, youth & their families. Elizabeth delivers professional development in gender diversity for schools, clinicians and other service providers and has 10 publications in the area of gender identity. As an advocate for the trans community Elizabeth appears for Mardis Gras interviewing transgender trailblazers, including Chaz Bono and Catherine MacGregor. Elizabeth’s media presence includes Insight, 60 Minutes, A Current Affair, The Project, ABC’s 7.30, Radio National & JJJ.
Are scientists the new gods? As we increasingly rely on science to solve our problems, are we stretching scientific method to mystique? If scientists are not infallible, can we trust what they tell us? And if we can’t trust scientists, can we still trust science?
Tim Flannery is one of Australia’s leading writers on climate change. An internationally acclaimed scientist, explorer and conservationist, Tim was named Australian of the Year in 2007. Tim has held various academic positions including Professor at the University of Adelaide, director of the South Australian Museum in Adelaide, Principal Research Scientist at the Australian Museum and Visiting Chair in Australian Studies at Harvard University in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. A well known presenter on ABC Radio,NPR and the BBC for more than a decade, he has also written and presented several series on the Documentary Channel including The Future Eaters (1998), Wild Australasia (2003), Islands in the Sky (1992) and Bushfire (1997). His books include Here on Earth (2010) and The Weather Makers (2005).
Alok Jha is the science correspondent for ITV News in the UK. Before that, he did the same job at The Guardianfor a decade, where he wrote news, features, comment and presented the award-winning Science Weeklypodcast. He has also reported live from Antarctica and presented many TV and radio programmes for the BBC.
Natasha Mitchell is a multi-award winning journalist and presenter of flagship ABC Radio National programs including the daily morning show, Life Matters (2012-15), and the popular science, psychology & culture radio program, All in the Mind (2002-12). She was vice president of the World Federation of Science Journalists, and a recipient of the MIT Knight Fellowship.
Co-founder of The Maintainers themaintainers.org, a research group focused on maintenance, repair, infrastructure and mundane labor, Lee Vinsel is an Assistant Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Stevens Institute of Technology. His research focuses on science and technology policy, and his first book examines the history of government regulation of the automobile in the United States, from the birth of the internal combustion engine to the Google Car. His work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Guardian, Le Monde, Fortune and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
As the recent nuclear deal transforms geopolitical relationships with the Islamic Republic of Iran, what do Westerners need to understand of the past and the future of Iran’s dissenting voices?
Laura Secor has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Foreign Affairs, and other publications and has worked at The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The American Prospect and Lingua Franca. She has been a fellow at the New York Public Library's Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers and at the American Academy in Berlin. She has taught journalism at New York University and at Princeton. Her book, Children of Paradise: The Struggle for the Soul of Iran, was published by Riverhead Books in February.
The scale of the Middle East refugee crisis is overwhelming authorities. But war, failed states and climate change seem to be the new world normal – and so does the global flow of desperate people. What does it mean for the future?
Philippe Legrain is a critically acclaimed thinker and communicator who has also been a senior policy adviser. A senior visiting fellow at the London School of Economics’ European Institute, he is the founder of Open Political Economy Network (OPEN), an international think-tank. A columnist for Project Syndicate, Foreign Policy and CapX, he commentates for many international media outlets. From 2011 to 2014 he was economic adviser to the President of the European Commission and head of the team providing the president with strategic policy advice. Previously he was special adviser to World Trade Organisation director-general Mike Moore and trade and economics correspondent for The Economist. Philippe is the author of four successful books, includingImmigrants: Your Country Needs Them (2007), which was shortlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year, and European Spring: Why Our Economies and Politics are in a Mess – and How to Put Them Right(2014), which was among the FT’s Best Books of 2014. His first study for OPEN is Refugees Work: A Humanitarian Investment that Yields Economic Dividends (2016).
As The Economist's environment correspondent, Miranda Johnson attended UN climate negotiations at COP21, the UN Paris Climate Conference, and the GLACIER conference on the state of the Arctic, in Alaska, last year. She also helped run The Economist's own recent events on energy and sustainability in England. Prior to this, Miranda was the influential UK title’s US southeast correspondent based in Atlanta, Georgia, and has written for its International, Europe, United States, Britain, China, Science and Business sections, on topics ranging from youth unemployment to energy policy and smartphones to fiscal corruption. Miranda also edited online coverage as a science correspondent and served as the editorial assistant for The Economist’s 'The World in 2014' publication.
Hamish Macdonald is an award winning International Affairs Correspondent and Harvard Fellow. In recent years Hamish has covered war in Ukraine, the rise if ISIS in the Middle East, missing Nigerian schoolgirls, and the Gaza conflict. Previously, Hamish worked as anchor and correspondent for Aljazeera English. At Australia’s Ten Network he was creator, Executive Producer & host of prime-time documentary series ‘The Truth Is?’. Hamish has received a prestigious Walkley Award for Journalism and a Human Rights Australia Award for Journalism. Britain’s Royal Television Society named him “Young Journalist of the Year” in 2008 and GQ Magazine named Hamish “Media Man of the Year” in 2012.
Jane McAdam is Scientia Professor of Law and Director of the Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW. She is a non-resident Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy at The Brookings Institution in Washington DC, a Research Associate at Oxford University’s Refugee Studies Centre, and an Associated Senior Fellow at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Norway. Professor McAdam publishes widely in international refugee law and forced migration, with a particular focus on climate change and mobility. She is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Refugee Law, the leading journal in the field. Professor McAdam serves on a number of international committees, and has provided expert advice to organizations including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Organization for Migration, and the World Bank. She holds a doctorate in law from the University of Oxford, and first class honours degrees in law and history from the University of Sydney. In 2013, she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In 2015, she was honoured as one of Australia's top ten Women of Influence, winning the ‘global’ category of the Australian Financial Review and Westpac’s 100 Women of Influence awards.
The tumultuous 17th century Enlightenment created the modern mind. What were the radical forces that shaped this intellectual world view we still share? And how is this under threat today?
A.C. Grayling is the Master of the New College of the Humanities, London, and its Professor of Philosophy, and the author of over thirty books of philosophy, biography, history of ideas, and essays. His new book, The Age of Genius, was published by Bloomsbury in April 2016. He is a columnist for Prospect magazine, and was for a number of years a columnist on The Guardian and Times. He has contributed to many leading newspapers in the UK, US and Australia, and to BBC radios 4, 3, 2 and the World Service, for which he did the annual 'Exchanges at the Frontier' series; and he has often appeared on television. He has twice been a judge on the Booker Prize, in 2015 serving as the Chair of the judging panel. He is a Vice President of the British Humanist Association, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
In a time of turmoil, what happens when art and politics collide? Molly Crabapple is an artist and journalist who has covered Occupy Wall Street, Guantanamo Bay, migrant workers in Abu Dhabi, the US prison system, and the Syrian civil war. Is it time for art to get out of the galleries and back on to the street?
Molly Crabapple is an artist, journalist, author of the memoir, Drawing Blood and, according to New Republic, "an emblem of the way art can break out of the gilded gallery”. She has drawn and reported from Guantanamo Bay, Abu Dhabi's migrant labor camps, and in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank, and Iraqi Kurdistan. Crabapple is a contributing editor for VICE, and has written for publications including The New York Times, Paris Review, and Vanity Fair. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
When you're on a bicycle at a red light with no car or pedestrian in sight, do you still wait for the green? Do you obey every single law? Surely fearful compliance with every niggling regulation defies the much-vaunted "freedom" that is the premise of democracy. Maybe that’s what drives our fascination with film and fiction criminality: we envy renegades. Is breaking a rule a day better than an apple for your health?
Lionel Shriver's books include the international bestselling We Need to Talk About Kevin as well as Big Brother, New Republic, So Much For That, The Post-Birthday World, Double Fault and Game Control. Her latest book isThe Mandibles (2016). She writes frequently for the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and The Independent. Lionel lives in London and Brooklyn, New York.
Have we entered the golden age of surveillance? With our own devices recording everything we do, have we brought this on ourselves? Does the Apple vs the FBI case expose our underlying tensions about privacy, technology and national security?
Lev Grossman is the author of five novels, including the #1 New York Times bestselling Magicians trilogy, published in 25 countries and made into an hour-long drama on the Syfy channel. Grossman is the book critic for Time magazine and has written essays and criticism for Salon, Slate, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Wired, Lingua Franca, The Week, Village Voice and The Believer, among others. He lives in New York City with his wife and three children.
Tobias Feakin is the founding director of the ASPI International Cyber Policy Centre. He researches how cyberspace is used by state and non-state actors and creating collaborative national and international policy responses. He is an Oxford Martin Associate at the Oxford University Global Cyber Security Capacity Centre and a Research Advisor for the Global Commission on Internet Governance.
Alastair MacGibbon is the Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Cyber Security, Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet. He was Formerly Children's eSafety Commissioner, General Manager (Security) for Dimension Data Australia, Director of the Centre for Internet Safety at the University of Canberra and Managing Partner at Surete Group, CEO Council of Registered Ethical Security Testers (CREST) Australia. As well as the Former Director of the Australian High Tech Crime Centre and Federal Agent with the Australian Federal Police.
Dr Katina Michael is a professor in the School of Information Systems and Technology at the University of Wollongong whose research looks at the socio-ethical implications of emerging technologies. She is the senior editor-in-chief of the IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, and senior editor of the IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine. Since 2008 she has been a board member of the Australian Privacy Foundation, and until recently was the Vice-Chair.
Class war, multiculturalism, race, politics, culture wars, free speech, global warming - Bolt’s favourite targets get audiences excited, and this is a rare chance to explore where his ideas come from and whether he thinks they are dangerous. How dangerous is being an Australian commentator speaking your mind without reservation?
Andrew Bolt is Australia’s most-read political commentator, published in the Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph, Courier-Mail and Advertiser and runs Australia’s most popular political blog. On weeknights he hosts The Bolt Report on Sky News at 7pm and his Macquarie Radio show at 8pm, the top-rating show in its time slot in Melbourne and Sydney. His first book of columns, Still Not Sorry, was a best-seller and his second, Worth Fighting For, was released in June. Andrew was born in Adelaide and has worked on Labor election campaigns, the State Opera of South Australia and flower exporters in The Netherlands. He is married with three children and two dogs.
Have decades of social, political and economic change in the United States wrecked its social cohesion and a sense of community? How does the American dream work today?
George Packer is the author, most recently, of The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America, a New York Times bestseller, which won the National Book Award for non-fiction in 2013. He has published four other works of non-fiction, including The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, which received several prizes and was named one of the ten best books of 2005 by The New York Times Book Review; two novels; and a play,Betrayed, based on a New Yorker article, which ran five months Off Broadway in 2008 and won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play. He is the editor of The Fight Is for Democracy: Winning the War of Ideas in America and the World, and of a two-volume edition of George Orwell’s essays. Packer has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2003.
Hot off the U.S. convention and campaign trail, America’s favourite living wit and best-selling author P.J. O'Rourke is heading straight to our stage to deliver his Dangerous State of the Nation.
P.J. O’Rourke is a collection of curious contradictions. Roaming foreign affairs correspondent for Rolling Stone magazine for 20 years, he is also a conservative Republican satirist who recently reluctantly backed Hilary Clinton as “the second-worst thing that can happen to [America].” Former gonzo Editor of National Lampoon and writer of Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government, he is now the H.L Mencken Research Fellow at the Cato Institute.
Whether you share his political persuasions or not, his penchant for stiff drink or not, PJ O’Rourke has the rare ability to make you laugh out loud while being aghast at the same time.
Join humourist hellraiser P.J. O’Rourke for a rollicking ride across the US political landscape and a firsthand assessment of the candidates hoping to make it into the White House in 2017.
Ira Glass, creator and host of podcast phenomenon This American Life joined us at the Sydney Opera House to deliver a once in a lifetime workshop on broadcast journalism for university students. Share the wisdom of one of the world's most listened-to podcast hosts as he walks you through the elements that make a successful radio story. He discusses everything from how he got his start in the industry through to how to score a radio story.
A number of radio stories are featured throughout this recording and they were kindly contributed by AFTRS students: Ryan Pemberton, Lex Hall, Pat Carey, Sajarn Stow, Kit Mochan and Tim Reuben
Are the arts in crisis? What does the future hold for creative companies, both large and small? Join us to discuss the changing face of arts funding, the impact of the recent cuts, and the response from artists and arts companies across Australia. The panel will include Michael Lynch CBE AM, Nick Atkins, Lily Shearer and Tamara Winikoff OAM.
Michael Lynch CBE AM
As one of Australia's most recognised and experienced arts administrators and cultural figures, Michael has lead some of Australia's most prominent arts companies including Sydney Theatre Company, the Australia Council for the Arts and the Sydney Opera House. From 2002 to 2009 he was chief executive of the South Bank Centre in London and has also served as Director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and as a board member of Film Victoria. Michael was the CEO of the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong until 2015 and is now the chair of the Sydney Community Foundation..
Nick Atkins
A theatre maker and producer, Nick is currently the Producer for Q Programs at The Joan and Board Member of PACT Centre for Emerging Artists. His work at The Q has seen him develop and implement the Young Artist Program. Previously Nick worked as the Associate Producer and Co-Artistic Director of Crack Theatre Festival. From this role he collaboratively programmed the festivals presentation, panel and masterclass series.
Lily Shearer
A proud citizen of the Murrwarri Republic and Ngemba Nation (north-west NSW/south-east QLD), Lily has over thirty years of experience in First Peoples Cultural Development, Arts Management and in theatre and performance making. She is currently a freelance performance artist, cultural collaborator and a founding and volunteer member of the Mooghalin Artistic Directorate.
Tamara Winikoff OAM
Tamara Winikoff is Executive Director of the National Association of Visual Arts (NAVA) and well known in Australia as an arts advocate, cultural commentator and senior arts manager. Tamara has been involved in arts management for over thirty years and has spoken, written and published extensively about cultural and design issues.
Deadly Voices from the House is an informative, entertaining half hour of storytelling and discussion, it delivers lively and revealing conversations with prominent First Nations leaders from the music, arts and culture sector here in Australia and overseas.
Hosted by Rhoda Roberts, Head of Indigenous Programming at Sydney Opera House, Deadly Voices from the House is supported by the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia and the National Indigenous Radio Service, and is produced by Sydney Opera House.
Listen and Subscribe to DVFTH on iTunes.
Twenty-first century depictions of love and marriage are shaped by a set of Romantic myths and misconceptions and with his trademark warmth and wit, Alain de Botton explores the complex landscape of a modern relationship, presenting a realistic case study for marriage and examining what it might mean to love, to be loved - and to stay in love.
Alain de Botton is an internationally renowned philosopher, television presenter and author of international best sellers Essays in Love, How Proust Can Change Your Life and Status Anxiety. In this talk, he discusses his stunning new novel The Course of Love, a philosophical novel about modern relationships.
Acclaimed presenter, journalist, actor, producer and arts guru Rhoda Roberts returns to our airwaves to present Deadly Voices from the House, recorded live from Sydney Opera House. Featuring a diverse selection of guest appearances from prominent Indigenous leaders from the music, arts and culture sector, Deadly Voices from the House provides an important platform to discuss critical issues facing the Indigenous community and gives voice to a variety of upcoming indigenous music, arts and cultural projects. Deadly Voices from the House is supported by Sydney Opera House Presents, the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia and the National Indigenous Radio Service.
Subscribe to Deadly Voices from the House here: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/deadly-voices-from-the-house/id1133030715?mt=2
The Scottish-born Harvard University professor, known for his provocative and contrarian views on international history and economic policy, discusses his life and work. Ferguson is a prolific commentator, a contributing editor to the Financial Times, and is the author of 11 books. In 2011, his film company released its first feature-length documentary, Kissinger, which won Best Documentary at the New York International Film Festival.
Theodore Dalrymple — nom de plume of the ‘sceptical doctor’ Anthony Daniels — will explore social and economic inequality in a session titled Is Society Broken? How to think about poverty, crime and inequality. A retired doctor and psychiatrist who worked in prisons in Britain’s second largest city, Birmingham, Dalrymple has famously chronicled ‘life at the bottom’, anatomising the development of a multigenerational underclass in Western democracies. His lively and provocative essays and books — including Life At The Bottom, If Symptoms Persist, Spoilt Rotten! The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality and The Wilder Shores of Marx — challenge liberal mainstream views about the causes of crime and the reality of poverty. Dalrymple is the CIS’ Max Hartwell Scholar-in-Residence for 2016.
The explosion of art from the confines of art galleries to screens, installations and public spaces have changed contemporary art and what is expected of us as audiences. Join MCA director Elizabeth Ann and researcher Jacqueline Millner to discuss what makes the art of our time important and how contemporary art becomes timeless.
Rebecca Huntley is one of Australia's foremost social researchers and experts on social trends. She is the author of Does Cooking Matter?, a call to arms to bring our nation back into the kitchen, and Eating Between the Lines: Food and Equality in Australia.
René Redzepi is the founder of MAD and the chef-patron of noma, a restaurant in Copenhagen and multiple winner of Restaurant Magazine's 'Best Restaurant in the World' award.
Kylie Kwong has been the owner of Sydney’s celebrated Billy Kwong restaurant since 2000 and is a passionate campaigner for sustainable food and ethical eating. She is the author of six books and presenter of three television series, and in 2014 was named by Food & Wine magazine as one of the world’s 25 most innovative women in food and wine.
Momofuku founder David Chang is the chef who turned ramen and pork buns into haute cuisine. Beginning with the Momofuku Noodle Bar in 2004, he has built a culinary empire that includes restaurants in New York City, Toronto, Washington DC, Sydney and his own print quarterly, Lucky Peach, a regular collaborator with MAD.
Massimo Bottura is an Italian-born chef who apprenticed with Georges Cogny and Alain Ducasse in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1995, he opened the multi-award-winning restaurant Osteria Francescana in Modena, which has maintained Three Michelin Stars since 2013. He is also the author of four books, including Parmigiano Reggiano and Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef.
Chido Govera is a 29-year-old Zimbabwean farmer and campaigner with her own foundation, The Future of Hope. After being orphaned at the age of seven and left to care for her brother and near-blind grandmother, Govera was invited to learn mushroom cultivation, supported by Belgian environmental entrepreneur Gunter Pauli. Today, she teaches mushroom farming to women and orphans throughout the developing world.
Rebecca Huntley is one of Australia's foremost social researchers and experts on social trends. She is the author of Does Cooking Matter?, a call to arms to bring our nation back into the kitchen, and Eating Between the Lines: Food and Equality in Australia.
Massimo Bottura is an Italian-born chef who apprenticed with Georges Cogny and Alain Ducasse in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1995, he opened the multi-award-winning restaurant Osteria Francescana in Modena, which has maintained Three Michelin Stars since 2013. He is also the author of four books, including Parmigiano Reggiano and Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef.
Kylie Kwong has been the owner of Sydney’s celebrated Billy Kwong restaurant since 2000 and is a passionate campaigner for sustainable food and ethical eating. She is the author of six books and presenter of three television series, and in 2014 was named by Food & Wine magazine as one of the world’s 25 most innovative women in food and wine.
Chido Govera is a 29-year-old Zimbabwean farmer and campaigner with her own foundation, The Future of Hope. After being orphaned at the age of seven and left to care for her brother and near-blind grandmother, Govera was invited to learn mushroom cultivation, supported by Belgian environmental entrepreneur Gunter Pauli. Today, she teaches mushroom farming to women and orphans throughout the developing world.
René Redzepi is the founder of MAD and the chef-patron of noma, a restaurant in Copenhagen and multiple winner of Restaurant Magazine's 'Best Restaurant in the World' award.
Momofuku founder David Chang is the chef who turned ramen and pork buns into haute cuisine. Beginning with the Momofuku Noodle Bar in 2004, he has built a culinary empire that includes restaurants in New York City, Toronto, Washington DC, Sydney and his own print quarterly, Lucky Peach, a regular collaborator with MAD.
Russia is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. But as an eloquent and outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin’s regime and a prominent LGBT activist, Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen does not hide her views. The author of The Man without a face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin, a biography of President Vladimir Putin, and a book about Pussy Riot, it was only when the Russian authorities started discussing removing children from gay parents that Masha moved her family to America. In this revealing talk, the reporter discusses her courageous career, her particular combination of activism and analysis, and how she continues to chronicle the Putin regime from a distance.
Imagine having to flee your home country, leaving your mother and brother behind you. As a child, Hyeonseo Lee thought her country– North Korea- was the best on the planet. It wasn‘t until the devastating famine of the 1990s that she began to question those beliefs and look for an escape route.
As a teenager, she fled to China to stay with distant relatives and spent the next ten years hiding her true identity before finally escaping to South Korea. She then made the courageous decision to return to the North Korean border in a daring mission to bring the rest of her family to safety.
Now a university student and human rights advocate, the author of the memoir The Girl with Seven Names reveals the details of her extraordinary journey. She offers a unique insight into the situation of the people of North Korea and how we can help those still suffering.
In the age of social media we think we know each other, but do we really? Muriel Barbery’s second novel, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, became an international sensation through word-of-mouth recommendations. It told the story of an unlikely friendship of an unhappy teenage girl and the determinedly ordinary, middle-aged concierge in a Parisian apartment building – whose lives were richer than they first appear. With her next novel, The Life of Elves now published nine years later, secret lives are again uncovered, this time focusing on the tale of two young girls and the secret world of elves that they discover.
Alix Generous has big ideas, but she hasn’t always been able to communicate them to others. Her Asperger’s syndrome was misdiagnosed for many years and it has taken great courage and persistence to overcome her challenges. Alix thinks differently, but she has learned that this can be an important part of solving complex problems. Still a university student, she is involved in scientific research, has spoken at the UN, and her company Autism Sees has released the app Podium to help people with Autism Spectrum Disorder develop communication skills. One of Alix Generous’s big ideas is that we need all the creativity and intellect we can muster to solve our problems, so need to build a culture that accepts mental diversity so everyone can share their talents.
Go to any networking event and you’ll probably overhear someone talking about how they discovered their ‘true purpose’. But doggedly pursuing the work you love can get in the way of the rest of your life, and lead to some tough choices.
For writer Margie Orford it meant spending a year away from her three children when she had the opportunity to study overseas. It was a hard decision, as the overwhelming satisfaction of knowing that she had found her vocation was balanced by the sadness of what felt like losing a year of her children’s lives.
Is a strong sense of vocation a mixed blessing, and what are the tough choices you might have make to make to follow your ambition?
Every week in Australia at least one woman is killed by a current or former male partner. The rate of violent crime in Australia is declining, with the exception of sexual assault. There are also rising rates of women in incarceration. What are the solutions? Are patterns of violence changing?
Indigenous women are now on the frontlines when it comes to defending their land and livelihood. Crystal Lamemen is part of a community of 900 Woodland Cree people who for thousands of years have resided in the Beaver Lake Cree Nation, a territory in Alberta, Canada. Indigenous women are now on the front lines when it comes to defending their land and livelihood in the face of mining, other extractive industries and environmental changes.
Crystal is joined by Amelia Telford, a Bundjalung woman from Tweed Heads, who is campaigning for climate justice, particularly for Indigenous people.
With age-old treaties and new age methods like social media, how can traditional communities protect their land?
When Anne-Marie Slaughter published an article in The Atlantic, titled "Why Women Still Can't Have It All", it became one of the most-read pieces in the magazine's history. It was inspired by her decision to leave her dream job at the State Department in Washington because her family needed her closer to home. Now she has taken this discussion forward as she looks at what needs to be done to make sure that we can make real progress towards fairness and equality. And it turns out that her answers are not all about what needs to happen at work, because valuing the work of caring for others is just as important.
If the majority of people believe that it is wrong to discriminate on the basis of gender, why isn’t change happening faster? New research into how our brains work sheds light on this question– and you might not like the answer. According to new evidence, we (yes, you!) could be a little bit sexist and not even realise it. It’s called ‘unconscious bias’ and occurs when a trigger or situation causes us to make a decision so rapidly that we are not consciously aware of it. The result? We’re more susceptible to biased thinking like stereotyping or bias in favour of those who are similar to us.
Detective shows, drama series, and movie plots with murderous storylines: our fascination with crime stories knows no bounds, with women on the front lines as both stars and writers.
We sit at home being terrified by the latest fictional serial killer, learning to distrust our neighbours, but is our view of the world outside being distorted? Whilst our cultural landscape is getting more criminally dangerous, in the real world the rates of most crimes in Australia, with the exception of sexual assault, are actually in decline. Whilst audiences are entranced by murder mysteries, are we becoming increasingly paranoid? Is crime culture creating a social disorder, where our perception of danger is not in sync with the reality?
We live in a world addicted to scandal and drama, but why do women often come off worse than their male counterparts? In a political sex scandal, an older adulterous male survives whilst a young woman’s career is often left in tatters. When a sports star is accused of rape the accuser often fares worse than the alleged perpetrators as her life and morals are put under a microscope.
Is this misogyny in action? Or do women rush to judge each other while men stand in solidarity? Is this the same pattern that begins in the schoolyard where the ‘pack’ chooses who is popular and who has to eat alone?
How can we fight the human urge to judge each other? And are their unexpected lessons to be learnt from the Boys' Club?
Like many jobs where leadership is combined with long hours and late nights, not many women list ‘Theatre Director’ as their occupation. Or ‘Artistic Director’ or ‘Director’ for that matter, to the point where this has been a vexed topic of conversation in the arts for some time. Is it just the same set of difficulties for ambitious women as we find in business or industry, where once women have responsibilities other than their work, the going gets tough? Or are there some factors that are particular to the arts more broadly that make existing leaders even more likely to appoint people just like themselves?
The Boys' Club is part of Culture Club, Sydney Opera House’s art talks series.
‘She disappeared, she never came back, men came for her; today she would be celebrating her sixteenth birthday’. These were some of the heartbreaking statements that Jennifer Clement heard when researching her novel,Prayers for the Stolen, about the plight of missing girls in Mexico. The war between the Mexican government and the drug cartels has killed more than a hundred thousand people. This does not include the missing women – those stolen from their streets or their houses because they are young, poor and pretty, or those hiding from the violence.
Join the author as she shares the stories she heard over ten years of immersing herself in the lives of Mexican women, including rural mothers who dig holes in their cornfields to hide their daughters from traffickers. Have the drug wars become a war against women?
How many people have you had sex with? No, don’t tell us! But was your first instinct to tell the truth, to exaggerate or underestimate your ‘magic’ number? We live in a time of unprecedented sexual freedom but underneath we are still governed by conventions and expectations surrounding our sex lives.
Journalist and accidental sexpert, Rachel Hillsgoes beneath the covers to discuss how sex myths are causing women just as much unhappiness as ever. Is fetishing sexual activity creating as much of a gap between fantasy and reality as there was in more prudish times? And how is it shaping women’s identities?
Many questions women ask ourselves about how to achieve equality can only be answered if we understand men and masculinity. The Women’s Liberation Movement triggered a worldwide debate about men, and a generation of research about what proved to be masculinities - in the plural. Over the last thirty years, knowledge has accumulated about men’s diversity and collective power, and the making and re-making of masculinities. This helps us understand men’s predominance in the corporate and political world, and problems of private life from how to share housework to how to stop domestic violence. How can we understand the dilemmas of men and boys today - and their potential for a more peaceful and gender-equal world?
Music was a means of self-invention for Carrie Brownstein. Before becoming a music icon, the Emmy-nominated actor and writer had a turbulent family life. From the moment she bought her first guitar at 15, music became her salvation and a way to find a sense of community. But it was her experiences in the independent music industry that sowed the seeds for the award-winning TV show,Portlandia that she went on to co-create and co-star in. With her band mates from Sleater-Kinney, the industry icon has been redefining notions of gender in rock since the nineties. Join this pioneering feminist punk-rock funny lady for a discussion about finding yourself and your life in music.
Our understanding of the human body, how it works and what it needs, has been transformed in recent years by a wave of new scientific discoveries. Yet there is a huge gap between the latest findings and the advice we are given, leaving people more confused than ever before. Dr Michael Mosley, through his work for the BBC and researching his latest books, has had access to scientists round the world working at the cutting edge of research into diet, exercise and nutrition. Can you really get most of the benefits of exercise in just a few minutes a week? Why do diets work for some people and not for others? What is the best way to reduce your risk of heart disease and cancer? Learn some surprising truths about what really contributes to long-term health.
Australian writer Rosie Waterland has lived. Before she built a global fanbase by writing hilarious online recaps of the reality television show, The Bachelor, she had to get through a tough childhood. She had to come to terms with not being 'cool'. Navigating her way through a housing commission childhood, eating disorders and mental health issues, she embraced all that she is to become an 'Anti-Cool Girl' (also the title of her debut memoir).
In this talk the ‘full frontal memoirist’ shares her rocky road to self-acceptance and what it means to be true to yourself in the social media age.
If you could change the world overnight, what would you do first?
Featuring: Masha Gessen, Crystal Lameman, Mallory Ortberg, Ann Sherry, Anne- Marie Slaughter, Jenny Brockie (Chair)
With her feet firmly on the ground, and her finger in the mixing bowl, Nigella Lawson has charmed us with her approach to food and cooking. Based on the principle that food should be a simple pleasure to cook and to eat, her recipe books emphasise the importance of friends, family and celebration. At a time when many of the messages we get about food alternate between anxious exhortations to eat ‘clean’ and the technical wizardry of competitive cooking, her relaxed and realistic approach shows a different path, where food can be creative, a source of comfort and a joyful part of life.
Nicola Scott is an Australian comic book artist working in the American industry. After working for Dark Horse, Image and IDW, she quickly became a fan-favourite working exclusively for DC Entertainment on monthly titles Birds Of Prey, Secret Six, Wonder Woman, Teen Titans, Superman and New York Times Bestseller Earth 2.
She has recently made the gigantic leap of leaving DC comics to start a creator owned book with Greg Rucka (Gotham Central, Batwoman, Queen & Country, Lazarus and more). The new series is called Black Magick and will be released by Image Comics, debuting in late October 2015.
Join Nicola as she details her work and how she began working for the world's biggest comics publishing companies while being based in Sydney, Australia and most interestingly how she has come to leave these behind to focus on creator owned work.
The gifted UK cult British comic artist, designer and Mad Max: Fury Roaddesigner/co-writer, Brendan McCarthy offers a rare insight into his 35 year career – covering graphic classics such as 2000 AD's Judge Dredd, the revolutionary 80s US invasion by British comics creators, pioneering pre-Pixar computer animation on the Reboot TV show of the 90s, designing classic pop videos, movies, and a highly regarded series of unique graphic novels.
The internet is the 21st century's nervous system and it has made universal surveillance a reality. In the past, even the most repressive authoritarian states would reach a point where it was cheaper to guarantee social stability with schools and hospitals rather than with guns and surveillance devices. But the automation of surveillance has moved this point dramatically. Where the Stasi needed an entire army to surveil one country, East Germany, the NSA and its Five Eyes partners can surveil the whole planet with a single battalion.
According to internet freedom advocate Cory Doctorow, it will get worse before it gets better. The Internet of Things creates the potential for everyday devices to be used by spy agencies, criminals and authoritarian states to commit wholesale mischief.
What happens when a Professor of Economics gets his hands on the economic levers of a country in the eye of the financial storm? Yanis Varoufakis' seven month stint as Greece's Minister of Finance took him into the heart of the Eurogroup, the IMF, and the continent's top decision-making bodies. With bluntness and force, he put the case for a different solution to Greece’s ills and accused the country’s creditors of terrorism. Telling Bloomberf “I wouldprefer to cut my arm off" rather than accept a bailout that did not involve debt restructuring, Varoufakis did not make friends among the Eurocrats. Sharing his first-hand view of the global financial system and what is means for ordinary citizens and governments when things go wrong, Yanis Varoufakis will discuss his experience at the intersection of politics and economics in theory and practice.
Paul Keating, visionary, reformer, true believer, rabble rouser, polymath, and our most intriguing prime minister bares his soul to the country's sharpest political interviewer, Kerry O'Brien.
Kerry and Paul wrestle with history to produce a tour de force of political wisdom and personal insight that weaves through the Keating years in a unique and compelling way. Building on the transcripts of the must-watch ABC TV event of 2013 - Keating: the Interviews – Kerry has gathered an enormous bank of new material, gleaned during many hours of further conversation with Keating, to create a book that is more forensic and all-encompassing than the very successful TV series. Kerry O'Brien captures the hallmarks of the man - the nimble mind, the wit, the grandeur of vision, the complexity and the stubborn drive for power - as Keating explains the historic events, back room stoushes and moments of drama and pathos that the political world inevitably holds.
Peter Fray is the Deputy Editor of The Australian. He was the editor-in-chief and founder of the fact-checking website, PolitiFact Australia and had a long and distinguished career at Fairfax Media, most recently as Editor-in-Chief and publisher of the The Sydney Morning Herald and previously as Editor of The Canberra Times and The Sunday Age.
Julia Baird is a journalist, broadcaster and author. Her writing has appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times, the Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Monthly and Harper’s Bazaar. She is a regular commentator on television and radio and is the author of Media Tarts: How the Australian press frames female politicians. She is currently writing a biography of Queen Victoria.
Chris Kenny is Associate Editor-National Affairs at The Australian and host of the SkyNews Viewpoint program, as well as a regular commentator on national affairs on television, radio and in print. He brings to the task a broad range of top level experience in media, politics and foreign affairs.
John Ricketts is the CEO of Significance Systems, an applied AI platform that finds and analyses the narratives that matter in a crowded digital media world. This has application in a wide range of fields from Capital Markets and Development Aid, to Communications, Strategy and Marketing. He was awarded his PHD in Physics at 24 and lived during the 90s in Tokyo, where he pioneered the first social media.
Mark Di Stefano is the Political Editor for BuzzFeedOz, who started out in the media by fetching ABC News host Juanita Philips' tea and doing her autocue. After stints reading the news on Triple J and doing TV journalism for the ABC News in Darwin, Mark got lucky and was hired by BuzzFeed. He loves the Internet, coffee and Kendrick Lamar's latest album.
Frank Brennan SJ AO has a longstanding reputation of advocacy in the areas of law, social justice, refugee protection and Aboriginal reconciliation. He is known for his 1998 involvement in the debate surrounding the Wik peoples’ landmark court case. He is a Jesuit priest, professor of law and writer. Brennan was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1995 for services to Aboriginal Australians, particularly as an advocate in the areas of law, social justice and reconciliation. He is highly thought of in the Indigenous community
Malarndirri McCarthy is a Senior Journalist & Presenter at SBS/NITV News and the 2013 winner of the DEADLYs Inaugural Award in Journalism for her breaking story on two Indigenous brothers in Saudi Arabia and in 2013 received two Walkley nominations for her story about a car company advertisement filmed on the culturally significant site of Wave Rock in WA.
Laurie Penny is a feminist, journalist and author. Her books include Unspeakable Things (2014),Cybersexism (2013) and Meat Market (2011). She writes and speaks on social justice, pop culture, gender issues and digital politics for numerous news sources including The Guardian, The New York Times, Vice and Salon.
Tariq Ali is a British-Pakistani political commentator and a prolific writer, journalist and filmmaker. He has been a leading figure of the international left since the 1960s. His books include The Duel: Pakistan on the Flightpath of American Power, The Obama Syndrome and The Extreme Centre: A Warning.
Helen Joyce became international editor of The Economist in January 2014 having previously served as International Education Editor and Sao Paulo bureau chief. Before joining The Economist she worked as editor of Plus, an online magazine about maths published by the University of Cambridge, and was founding editor for The Royal Statistical Society's quarterly magazine, Significance.
Michael Wesley is a Professor of National Security at the Australian National University. He is currently the Director of the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Studies in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the ANU. He also consults extensively for the Australian government.
Greg Sheridan (Chair) is The Australian newspaper's foreign editor and is one of Australia's most respected and influential analysts of foreign affairs. He began his journalistic career 30 years ago with The Bulletin, and his coverage of Vietnamese refugee stories in the period after the Vietnam War sparked a lifelong interest in Asia and regional politics. He joined The Australian in 1984 and worked in Beijing, Washington and Canberra before returning to Sydney as foreign editor in 1992. He is the author of several books on Asia and Australia's role in the region.
AC Grayling is a distinguished philosopher notable for his ability to make philosophy relevant to contemporary readers and audiences. He is Master of the New College of the Humanities, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He is associated with the new atheism movement and is sometimes described as the 'Fifth Horseman of New Atheism'. He has written and edited more than 30 books on philosophy and other subjects; among his most recent are The Challenge of Things, Liberty in the Age of Terror, The God Argument and To Set Prometheus Free.
Sarai Walker received her MFA in creative writing from Bennington College. As a magazine writer, her articles have appeared in Seventeen and Mademoiselle. She served as an editor and writer for Our Bodies, Ourselves, before moving to London and Paris to complete a PhD. Her first novel, Dietland, was published this year, and takes on the beauty industry, gender inequality and our weight loss obsession.
Marc Lewis, a professor at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, is a cognitive neuroscientist known for his research on the development of emotions and personality in childhood and adolescence. His current work, based on an integrative review of the neuroscience of addiction, shows that addiction is not a pathological state but rather an unfortunate result of a brain doing what it's supposed to do -- in fact overdoing it: pursuing pleasure and avoiding risk. Accordingly, he argues that to understand addiction we need to stop thinking of it as a disease. Lewis's 2012 book, Memoirs of an Addicted Brain, is an account of his addiction to drugs as a young man, with accompanying explanations of the neurobiological processes underlying various drug experiences as well as the process of addiction itself. His new book is called The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction is Not a Disease.
Anna Broinowski is a filmmaker and writer. She is known for films including Forbidden Lie$ (about hoax-author Norma Khouri) and Helen’s War (about anti-nuclear crusader Helen Caldicott). Her film Aim High In Creation! pays tribute to the cinematic genius of North Korea’s late Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il. Determined to stop a new gas mine near her Sydney home, she traveled to North Korea to learn about propaganda from the masters. She has written about her experiences in her 2015 book, The Director Is the Commander. � � �
Suki Kim is the author of a New York Times bestselling memoir, Without You, There Is No Us, My Time with the Sons of North Korean Elite, which chronicles her undercover investigation during the last six months of Kim Jong Il's reign. Her first novel, The Interpreter, was a finalist for a PEN Hemingway Prize. Since 2002, she has travelled to North Korea as a writer, witnessing both Kim Jong-il’s 60th Birthday celebrations as well as his death at age 69.� Her essays and articles have appeared in the New York Times, Harper’s, and the New York Review of Books. She has been the recipient of a Guggenheim, a Fulbright, and an Open Society fellowship. Born and raised in Seoul, she lives in New York.
Michael Kirby was Australia’s longest-serving judge when he retired in 2009. Following a distinguished legal career, he served on the High Court of Australia from 1996 to 2009. Among his many contributions to public life in Australia and internationally, he was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to lead an inquiry into human rights abuses in North Korea, which issued its report in 2014.
Tariq Ali is a British-Pakistani political commentator and a prolific writer, journalist and filmmaker. He has been a leading figure of the international left since the 1960s. His books include The Duel: Pakistan on the Flightpath of American Power, The Obama Sydrome and The Extreme Centre: A Warning.
Helen Joyce became international editor of The Economist in January 2014 having previously served as International Education Editor and Sao Paulo bureau chief. Before joining The Economist she worked as editor of Plus, an online magazine about maths published by the University of Cambridge, and was founding editor for The Royal Statistical Society's quarterly magazine, Significance.
Michael Wesley is a Professor of National Security at the Australian National University. He is currently the Director of the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Studies in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the ANU. He also consults extensively for the Australian government. He has a new book being released this year called Restless Continent: Wealth, Rivalry and Asia's New Geopolitics.
Martin Ford is the founder of a Silicon Valley-based software development firm and the author of two books: The New York Times bestselling Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future and The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future. He has more than 25 years’ experience in the fields of computer design and software development.
Marc Lewis, a professor at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, is a cognitive neuroscientist known for his research on the development of emotions and personality in childhood and adolescence. His current work, based on an integrative review of the neuroscience of addiction, shows that addiction is not a pathological state but rather an unfortunate result of a brain doing what it's supposed to do -- in fact overdoing it: pursuing pleasure and avoiding risk. Accordingly, he argues that to understand addiction we need to stop thinking of it as a disease. Lewis's 2012 book, Memoirs of an Addicted Brain, is an account of his addiction to drugs as a young man, with accompanying explanations of the neurobiological processes underlying various drug experiences as well as the process of addiction itself. His new book is called The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction is Not a Disease.
Dan Ilic is one of Australia’s most prolific comedic voices. Dan has been making television in Australia for ten years. His credits include: Australia’s Funniest Home Videos (Nine), Hungry Beast (ABC), Hamster Wheel (ABC), Can of Worms (Ten) and The Feed (SBS2) as well as being a regular on comedy panel shows and news magazine programs. In 2014 Dan raised more than $50,000 through crowd-funding to make A Rational Fear into a web series. Most recently Dan was Senior producer of Satire for AJ+ English, Al Jazeera’s digital platform for millennials.
James Colley is a Young Walkley nominated satirist and creator of The Backburner on SBS Comedy. He works on The Weekly with Charlie Pickering and Gruen and has previously written for A Rational Fear andJunkee. Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt describes James as "utterly unfunny" with humour "of the kind that would make only Lenin laugh”. James Colley notes that Lenin was famously difficult to amuse.
Kate McCartney is a writer/director, illustrator, animator and performer. Her work as a comedy performer and writer has featured in Big Bite, Hamish and Andy and The Time Of Our Lives and she also appeared inKath and Kim and Outland. Kate was also a senior writer for Sam Simmons’ Problems, and her other credits include Adam Hills Tonight, Dirty Laundry Live, Spicks and Specks and ABC3’s Little Lunch andYou’re Skitting Me. In February 2015, McCartney and writing partner Kate McLennan’s original concept The Katering Show was released on YouTube. To date, it has attracted more than 4 million views and 60 000 subscribers.
James Jericho founded satire news website The Shovel in 2012 after realising no-one else was going to publish his exclusive exposé about the real use for George Brandis’s bookshelf or Tony Abbott’s target to cut Australia’s reputation by 30% by 2020. Now read by hundreds of thousands of Australians every month, and featured weekly on The Sydney Morning Herald, The Shovel has become the must-read masthead in Parliament House. James is The Shovel’s head writer and editor, and is a regular commentator on satire’s place in contemporary Australia. In June 2015 he kick-started a national campaign to find Bill Shorten.
Jordan Shanks started Friendlyjordies with a focus on political and social satire. in 2013 and since then it has grown to an audience of more than 100,000 people on Facebook and YouTube. He writes articles for SBS Comedy and a weekly Friendly Jordies podcast that occasionally makes it to the Top Ten Australian podcasts.
Rebecca Shaw (aka Brocklesnitch) is a freelance writer, podcaster and creator of the parody Twitter account @notofeminism. She is a columnist for the Kill Your Darlings Journal, one of the team at The Backburner, and has written for SBS, Junkee, and The Guardian. She is in constant competition with Ruby Rose to become Australia's favourite lesbian.
Johann Hari is a British writer and journalist who has written for many of the world’s leading newspapers, including The New York Times, Le Monde, and The Guardian. He was a lead op-ed columnist for The Independent for nine years, and left the newspaper after it was revealed that in some of his interviews, he had used passages that his interviewees had written or said elsewhere, and presented them as if they had been said directly to him. Since then he has written The New York Times best-selling book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Day of the War on Drugs, which has been praised for its insights and for its thorough referencing by everyone from Glenn Greenwald to Elton John to Noam Chomsky to Naomi Klein.
Jon Ronson is a Welsh journalist, author and documentary filmmaker whose works include best-seller The Men Who Stare at Goatsand The Psychopath Test. He has been described as a gonzo journalist, known for his informal but sceptical, investigations of controversial fringe politics and science. His new book So You've Been Publicly Shamed explores public humiliation in the internet age.
Dennis Glover is a professional speech writer, a Fellow of the Per Capita think tank and a political columnist for the Australian Financial Review. He currently writes speeches for Labor members of parliament as well as business and community leaders. He is the author of two non-fiction works Orwell’s Australia and The Art of Great Speeches.
As an investigative journalist, Eric Schlosser continues to explore subjects ignored by the mainstream media and gives a voice to people at the margins of society. He’s followed the harvest with migrant farm workers in California, spent time with meatpacking workers in Texas and Colorado, told the stories of marijuana growers and pornographers and victims of violent crime, gone on duty with the NYPD Bomb Squad, and visited prisons throughout the US. Schlosser’s first book, Fast Food Nation (2001), helped start a revolution in how Americans think about what they eat. His second book, Reefer Madness (2003), looked at America’s thriving underground economy. Both were The New York Times bestsellers. His most recent book, Command and Control (2013), examines the efforts of the military, since the atomic era began during World War II, to prevent nuclear weapons from being stolen, sabotaged, or detonated by accident.Command and Control was a New York Times Notable Book, a Time Magazine Top 10 Nonfiction Book, was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize (History) and also received the Gold Medal Award (Nonfiction) from the 2013 California Book Awards.
For much of the 1990s, Helen Razer could be heard blabbing on the ABC's youth network, Triple J. While the national broadcaster still occasionally permits her to talk in exchange for money, she is now chiefly engaged in the work of writing on social and cultural matters. She works with Crikey, The Saturday Paperand a range of publications who permit her to say terrible things. Her fifth book,A Short History of Stupid,remains a best-seller and was recently shortlisted for the NSW State Library's inaugural Russell Prize.
Damon Gameau is well-known as an Australian film and television actor. In 2014, he directed That Sugar Film, a documentary which examines the place of sugar in our diet. It follows Gameau as he puts himself on a sugar-laden regime consuming food that is normally considered healthy, such as fruit juice and cereals. The documentary will be released in the US in July and has now been followed by That Sugar Book.
Jane Martin is Executive Manager of the Obesity Policy Coalition (OPC), based at the Cancer Council Victoria. She advocates for policy and regulatory reform to prevent overweight and obesity, with a focus on food marketing, labelling, and tax and pricing measures. For over twenty-five years, Jane has worked extensively in public health advocacy, firstly in tobacco control then in obesity prevention.
Sarah Wilson (Chair) is The New York Times best-selling author and entrepreneur. Her career as a journalist spanned 20 years, across television, radio, magazines, newspapers and online. She is the author of the international best-sellers I Quit Sugar and I Quit Sugar For Life and is director and founder of IQuitSugar.com.
Chris Berg is a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs, where he specialises in civil liberties, the political economy of regulation, and media and technology policy. He is a weekly columnist with ABC’s The Drum, and has been published in all major Australian papers, as well as the Wall Street Journal.
Peter Doherty shared the 1996 Nobel Prize for Medicine for discovering the nature of the cellular immune defence. He continues to be involved in research and divides his time between the University of Melbourne and St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. In his fifth book, The Knowledge Wars, he goes in to bat for evidence-based reality in debates on issues such as childhood vaccination, global hunger and anthropogenic climate change and encourages us all to be informed and evaluate the facts.
Miriam Lyons is an Australian policy analyst, writer and commentator. She was the founding Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Development, an independent public interest think tank set up in 2007. She recently released a book with Ian McAuley, Governomics: Can We Afford Small Government? The book argues that cutting public services often leads to false economies, costing more in the long-term and undermining the basis of a successful capitalist system.
Chris Munro was the Managing Editor of Tracker Magazine, Australia's most read Aboriginal Affairs publication which was shut down in 2014. Prior to this he was the Political Editor for the National Indigenous Television news team based at Parliament House and a reporter for the National Indigenous Times newspaper. Chris currently works as a freelance journalist.
As an investigative journalist, Eric Schlosser continues to explore subjects ignored by the mainstream media and gives a voice to people at the margins of society. He’s followed the harvest with migrant farm workers in California, spent time with meatpacking workers in Texas and Colorado, told the stories of marijuana growers and pornographers and victims of violent crime, gone on duty with the NYPD Bomb Squad, and visited prisons throughout the US. Schlosser’s first book, Fast Food Nation (2001), helped start a revolution in how Americans think about what they eat. His second book, Reefer Madness (2003), looked at America’s thriving underground economy. Both were New York Times bestsellers. His most recent book, Command and Control (2013), examines the efforts of the military, since the atomic era began during World War II, to prevent nuclear weapons from being stolen, sabotaged, or detonated by accident. Command and Control was a New York Times Notable Book, a Time Magazine Top 10 Nonfiction Book, was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize (History) and also received the Gold Medal Award (Nonfiction) from the 2013 California Book Awards.
Debbie Kilroy was imprisoned for drug trafficking in 1989 for 6 years. She was stabbed and witnessed the only murder inside an Australian women’s prison, and lost almost everything: her marriage, her home and her children. After her release in 1992, she established Sisters Inside, which advocates for the human rights of women in the criminal injustice system. Sisters Inside has won international acclaim for its work and for a unique structure which ensures it is driven by women inside prison. Debbie was awarded the OAM for services to the community for working with women in prison 2003 and in 2004 she was awarded the National Human Rights Medal. She has a degree in social work and is a qualified gestalt therapist. Debbie was the first person in Australian who has serious convictions to be admitted by the Supreme Court of Queensland to practice law in 2007.
John Safran (chair) is an award-winning documentary-maker of provocative and hilarious takes on race, the media, religion and other issues.
About VICE
VICE is the world’s preeminent youth media company and content creation studio. Launched in 1994, VICE now operates in over 30 countries and distributes its programming to hundreds of millions of viewers each month across digital, linear, mobile, film and socials. VICE includes an international network of digital channels; a television and feature film production studio; a magazine; a record label; an in-house creative services agency; and a book-publishing division. VICE's award-winning programming has been recognised by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Peabody Awards, Sundance Film Festival, PEN Center, Cannes Lions, Frontline Club, Knight Foundation, American Society of Magazine Editors, LA Press Club, and Webby Awards, among others.
Frank Brennan has a longstanding reputation of advocacy in the areas of law, social justice, refugee protection and Aboriginal reconciliation. He is known for his 1998 involvement in the debate surrounding the Wik peoples’ landmark court case. He is a Jesuit priest, professor of law and writer. His most recent book is No Small Change: The Road to recognition for Indigenous Australia.
Lucy Hawking and renowned physicist Paul Davies discuss the life and ideas of one of the world’s greatest minds: Stephen Hawking, who joins us live from Cambridge via the latest technology, in his first ever Australian talk.
There are few scientists that can be said to have touched the public imagination. Physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking is one such scientist.
Professor Hawking will be appearing via the very latest in streaming technology while his daughter, journalist and author Lucy, will be on the Opera House stage with renowned physicist and writer Paul Davies, providing an intimate view into the life of a great man and that of his extraordinary family.
Confined to a wheelchair since his twenties, Hawking has never let his physical restrictions limit his imagination or intellect. As a physicist, he has deepened our knowledge of black holes, general relativity and the Big Bang. As author of the international best-seller A Brief History of Time he has introduced millions of non-scientists to some of the most mind-twisting concepts in modern physics.
He’s a star of the small screen thanks to several documentary series (most recently Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking), with appearances on Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Simpsons, and The Big Bang Theory. And in film, his incredible life was celebrated in The Theory of Everything. Actor Eddie Redmayne’s portrayal of him was awarded with both the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Actor.
This is a unique opportunity to discover his true story, in his own words.
Australia, like other democratic countries, is seeing a dramatic decline in trust in government. We elect people we don’t like, and then have to rely on them for important issues such as health to national security. Do we have the politicians we deserve? How can we change the unhappy status quo?
Benjamin Law, Tony Windsor and Ann Sherry look at where the mistrust is coming from and what needs changing.
What sort of Australia will the young inherit? With short political cycles and ever shorter media cycles, it’s taken a high profile campaign for the Intergenerational Report to get us thinking seriously about the future. But are the responsibilities of the young and old clear? Does intergenerational equity even matter?
Holly Ransom, Everald Compton and Andrew Charlton offer insights into what the old and young can bring that will make us less short-sighted about our future.
When we live in an affluent and peaceful country like Australia, what do we do when we’re confronted by poverty and need, close to us? What are our responsibilities and how committed are we to help?
Watch Peter Singer address his concept of effective altruism and shake up some of our assumptions about giving.
Freedom of speech. Equality of speech. Opportunity for speech. Freedom to offend. Just some of the dimensions muddying the middle ground on this historically important topic.
Chris Berg and Julian Burnside discuss how much freedom of speech we have, whether it’s enough, or too much, and who decides?
Media, politicians, thinkers… no one can decide which Australia we live in. Are we on the verge of becoming the poor white trash of Asia or poised to be an “innovation economy”?
Nick Bryant, Rebecca Huntley and Marcia Langton discuss our successes and failures, what we’ve learned, and what to do about the future.
Having wives allowed millions of men to do their best work, with their minds and schedules uncluttered by meal planning and school pickups. But even though women are now freer than ever to pursue their own ambitions, relatively few men are volunteering to take over the bulk of the domestic labour. Crabb’s new book, The Wife Drought, peers into the gap that was left when “housewife” stopped being a job description, and explores how our ideas about work/life balance and parenting must still evolve beyond the choice to either bring home the bacon, or stay at home to cook it.
Annabel Crabb is one of Australia's most popular political commentators and the host of Australia's first dedicated political cooking show, ABC TV's Kitchen Cabinet. She writes for ABC Online's The Drum and has worked extensively in TV and radio. She is a columnist for the Sunday Age, Sun-Herald and Canberra's Sunday Times and won a Walkley Award for her 2009 Quarterly Essay on Malcolm Turnbull.
‘They shriek, they rage, they cheer, they despair, they exult, they scream, they laugh, they cry!’ News Limited blogger Tim Blair was not talking about State of Origin spectators, but his poll to find ‘this nation’s most unhinged hysteric’ from among his list of ten ‘frightbats’, a group of opinionated female journalists and commentators. The frightbats themselves mostly laughed off the insults, and competed in good humour to get the most votes.
But what does it mean if women can still be dismissed as crazy, emotional, or “hysterical” when they express strong opinions or simply raise their voices? Three women of ideas discuss being trolled, insulted and not taken seriously, and the long history of demonising women with opinions.
Elizabeth Farrelly is a weekly opinion columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald, an Associate Professor in the Australian Graduate School of Urbanism at UNSW and author of several books, including Glenn Murcutt: Three Houses (1993), Blubberland (2007) and Caro Was Here, her first fiction, for children (2014). She won many awards for writing and for design, and has a background in science, philosophy, literature, city planning and architecture.
Clementine Ford is a freelance writer, broadcaster and public speaker based in Melbourne. She is a Writer and Contributor for Daily Life and writes on feminism, pop culture and social issues.
Jane Caro is a renowned journalist, broadcaster and author. She has appeared on ABC television's Q&A, as a regular panelist on The Gruen Transfer, and at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. Jane has worked in the advertising industry and lectured in advertising at the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at the University of Western Sydney.
Esther Freud’s own childhood was an unusual one - as the daughter of painter Lucian Freud and the great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud, this may not be surprising. Her first novel, Hideous Kinky, draws on her childhood memories of living in Morocco with her sister and their bohemian mother; her newest book, Mr Mac and Me, is the story of a young boy finding an unlikely friend in Scottish architect and artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh. With meticulous skill and a sharp eye for the big moments we only recognise in hindsight, Freud gets her young narrators, as they puzzle out the messiness of family, relationships, and growing up. Our childhood is our past, and Freud shows how delving into it can bring a searching light to the question of how we end up the people we are.
Esther Freud was born in London and trained as an actress at the Drama Centre. Her first novel, Hideous Kinky about two children accompanying their mother in 1960s Morocco, was shortlisted for the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and later made into a film starring Kate Winslet. She is the author of seven other novels and her most recent book is Mr Mac and Me.
Scrutiny of Australia's Muslim community has only increased in recent years. Australian women who wear Islamic head coverings have been subject toharassment, but we’ve seen the spontaneous solidarity of #illridewithyou in the wake of the Lindt Café siege. For Muslim women, episodes of community concern about their rights sit alongside racist stereotyping. Listen to Muslim women discuss their own priorities: how to fight sexism within Islamic communities; what happens when Islamophobia meets everyday sexism; and how society reacts to Muslim women taking their place in public life.
Randa Abdel-Fattah is a Muslim of Palestinian and Egyptian heritage. She is a writer, passionate human rights advocate, and a spokesperson on issues relating to Palestine, Islam or Australian Muslims. Her articles have been published in The Australian, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and Le Monde (France).
Susan Carland is a PhD candidate at Monash University, where she is researching the way Muslim women fight sexism within the Muslim community. In 2012 she was named on the 20 Most Influential Australian Female Voices list by The Age. She has also been named on the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World list, and as a “Muslim Leader of Tomorrow” by the UN Alliance of Civilizations. She is well known for her role on the SBS comedy panel and sketch show Salam Cafe, where she is a founding member and presenter.
The arrival of women in the workplace has changed the way society functions – whether we’re talking about jobs and career, bringing up kids, or relationships. Research tells us that while women’s responsibilities have shifted to include paid work, their male partners still don’t share equally in the work at home. In fact, men are often stuck at the office, expected to be the ‘ideal worker’ and to have fewer family demands on their time. Can men break this cycle? Do they want to? And will their workplaces let them?
Annabel Crabb is one of Australia's most popular political commentators and the host of Australia's first dedicated political cooking show, ABC TV's Kitchen Cabinet. She writes for ABC Online's The Drum and has worked extensively in TV and radio. She is a columnist for the Sunday Age, Sun-Herald and Canberra's Sunday Times and won a Walkley Award for her 2009 Quarterly Essay on Malcolm Turnbull.
Richard Glover is a presenter for ABC Radio, journalist and author of of twelve books, including George Clooney's Haircut - and Other Cries for Help - a collection of his comic pieces as featured on ABC radio's Thank God It's Friday. His weekly humour column has been published in the Sydney Morning Herald for over twenty years.
Graeme Russell is a consultant on work/life, fatherhood, gender equality, flexibility and organisational change. He was previously an Associate Professor in Psychology at Macquarie University and is recognised as a leading international researcher on fathers and families. His books include First-time Father: The Essential Guide for the New Dad.
Brigid Schulte is a staff writer for The Washington Post and the author of Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time, a New York Times bestselling book on time pressure and modern families.
Beyoncé is one. So is Daniel Radcliffe. The only woman in federal cabinet says she isn’t. At some point in the last few years, we began talking about public figures “coming out” as feminists. Others affirm their belief in “gender equality”, but don’t find value in the F-word itself. With so many conflicting ideas about what a feminist looks like – or, more crucially, what a feminist does – anyone curious about the modern women’s movement can have a hard time separating the signal from the noise. Is “feminism” a political agenda, a social identity, a set of behaviours, a lifestyle choice, a Twitter mob or a branding exercise? This vital, varied panel will flatten common stereotypes, and delve into what feminism really means – and can achieve – in 2015 and beyond.
Clementine Ford is a freelance writer, broadcaster and public speaker based in Melbourne. She is a Writer and Contributor for Daily Life and writes on feminism, pop culture and social issues.
Roxane Gay is the co-editor of PANK. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Time, The Los Angeles Times, and many others. She is also the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, Bad Feminist, and Hunger, forthcoming in 2016.
Germaine Greer is a writer and academic and is best known for her work as a key figure in modern feminism. Her ideas about gender and sexuality have provoked controversy since the release of her 1970 book The Female Eunuch. Her other works include Sex and Destiny: The Politics of Human Fertility, The Change: Women, Aging and the Menopause, The Whole Woman, and Shakespeare's Wife.
Celeste Liddle is a proud Arrernte woman, feminist, trade unionist and vegetarian. In 2012, Celeste started her blog Rantings of an Aboriginal Feminist and since then has developed a career as a freelance opinion writer with her work being published in The Guardian, Daily Life and Tracker, amongst others. Celeste has also frequently provided guest commentary on such channels as ABC radio, NITV and the National Indigenous Radio Service.
Tara Moss is a novelist, journalist, blogger and TV presenter. Since 1999 she has written 9 bestselling novels, published in 18 countries and 12 languages. Her first non-fiction book, The Fictional Woman was published in May 2014. She is a long-term advocate for the rights of women and children and is UNICEF’s National Ambassador for Child Survival.
Anita Sarkeesian is a media critic, blogger and the creator of Feminist Frequency, a video web series that explores the representations of women in pop culture narratives. In particular, her work highlights issues surrounding the targeted harassment of women in online and gaming spaces.
The global conversation about women’s lives has opened up, women’s voices are heard more than ever before, and social media has brought a huge range of public conversations to life. But when you can reach more people, there are more people to offend, and discussions are often curtailed by capital-O Outrage; a Twitter mob can descend on an unwitting provocateur in minutes. There are still some things that women want to say at home, at work and online that they know to keep to themselves if they don’t want to be trolled, or written off as whingers. Talking about the most intimate fears and insecurities, accusations of “playing the gender card”, “first-world problems”, jokes made ‘too soon’ – why are some topics still too hard to talk about, and what are women losing by keeping them to themselves.
Randa Abdel-Fattah is a Muslim of Palestinian and Egyptian heritage. She is a writer, passionate human rights advocate, and a spokesperson on issues relating to Palestine, Islam or Australian Muslims. Her articles have been published in The Australian, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and Le Monde (France).
Larissa Behrendt is a Eualeyai/Kamillaroi woman. She is the Professor of Law and Director of Research at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technology, Sydney. She is the author of the novels Home and Legacy and her most recent book is Indigenous Australia for Dummies.
Jane Caro is a renowned journalist, broadcaster and author. She has appeared on ABC television's Q&A, as a regular panelist on The Gruen Transfer, and at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. Jane has worked in the advertising industry and lectured in advertising at the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at the University of Western Sydney.
Mia Freedman is the co-founder and Content Director of the Mamamia Women's Network. She is an author, TV and radio commentator, podcast host, mother of three and writer for MWN websites Mamamia, The Glow, The Motherish and Debrief Daily. She is the former Chair of the National Body Image Advisory Group and in 2014 she was named by the Australian Financial Review as one of Australia's 100 Most Influential Women.
Tara Moss is a novelist, journalist, blogger and TV presenter. Since 1999 she has written 9 bestselling novels, published in 18 countries and 12 languages. Her first non-fiction book, The Fictional Woman was published in May 2014. She is a long-term advocate for the rights of women and children and is UNICEF’s National Ambassador for Child Survival.
Anita Sarkeesian is a media critic, blogger and the creator of Feminist Frequency, a video web series that explores the representations of women in pop culture narratives. In particular, her work highlights issues surrounding the targeted harassment of women in online and gaming spaces.
A father drives his car across a highway and into a dam, his children in the back seat. They drown, he walks away. A writer sits through the trial of this ordinary man for the murder of his three young sons, and from this tragedy, Helen Garner creates a compelling story of Australian life and death: her new book, This House of Grief. What happened behind that wheel? Can it be explained or understood?
As the legal process grinds on, she knits together a story of love, death and sadness that is impossible to resist. One of Australia’s most determined, compassionate storytellers examines why we can’t look away from what unfolds – and asks whether we should look away at all.
Helen Garner has published many works of fiction including Monkey Grip, Cosmo Cosmolino and The Children's Bach. Her fiction has won numerous awards, including the Melbourne Prize for Literature. She is also one of Australia's most respected non-fiction writers, and received a Walkley Award for journalism in 1993.
Fighting forces have been some of the last all-male workplaces. The Australian Defence Force will remove all gender restrictions on combat roles from 2016 onwards, but there are no women in the senior leadership group, and of all personnel serving now, women are only about 14%. Women have gradually infiltrated the ranks, but the hurdles have been high: from scandals about the treatment of women, to the particular challenges of work-life balance.
In 2013, a speech by the Chief of Army, Lieutenant General David Morrison went viral as he stood firm against outdated attitudes to female personnel. But what is it really like to be a woman in the military? How difficult is it for women to become soldiers or sailors or pilots? What motivates women to join, and what does their service mean to them?
Major Charmaine Benfield's most recent command position was as the Officer Commanding of the Logistic Support Company within the Combat Service Support Battalion in the 1st Brigade, Darwin. Her operational experience includes Operations Officer of the Force Support Unit - Seven in the Middle East in 2012-2013 for which she was awarded a Commendation for Distinguished Service.
Catherine Fox is one of Australia’s leading commentators on women and the workforce. She is co-chair of the Westpac/Financial Review 100 Women of Influence Awards and is on several advisory boards, including the Defence Force Gender Equality Advisory Board.
Commander Cath Hayes has served in the Navy for 23 years, she is a maritime warfare officer and air warfare specialist who has served in a variety of Command, leadership and staff roles ashore and at sea. Currently the Commanding Officer of ANZAC Class Frigate HMAS Toowoomba, in 2014 Commander Hayes was the first women to Command an Australian warship on operations in the Middle East.
Wing Commander Fleur James was a member of the first contingent of air traffic controllers to deploy to Mogadishu, Somalia in October 1993. In recent years, she has had two six-month deployments to Dili, East Timor and Kabul, Afghanistan and assisted Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick with her Review into the Treatment of Women in the Australian Defence Force.
Alex Shehadie is the Director of Cultural Reform in the Australian Defence Force at the Australian Human Rights Commission. Previously she was the Director of the Review into the Treatment of Women in Australian Defence Force. She was recently named in The Australian Financial Review's 100 Women of Influence for her work in this area.
Everyone knows something needs to be done – but when facts are twisted to fit agendas, complex processes dumbed down for pop-science clickbait and research funding decimated, how on earth do we talk about how to save the earth? Legendary American marine biologist, Sylvia Earle speaks with environmental journalist and educator Simran Sethi about the environmental crises looming ahead - from the bottom of the oceans to the topsoil - and how to inspire people to get stuff done.
Simran Sethi: Named “the environmental messenger” by Vanity Fair & a top ten eco-hero of the planet by the UK’s Independent, Simran Sethi is a journalist and educator focused on environmentalism, sustainability & social change. She is writing a book on the loss of biodiversity in our food system, is a visiting scholar at the Cocoa Research Centre in Trinidad, and is also an associate at the University of Melbourne’s Sustainable Society Institute in Australia.
Sylvia Earle is an oceanographer, explorer, author, and lecturer. Earle has led more than a hundred expeditions and logged more than 7,000 hours underwater, including leading the first team of women aquanauts during the Tektite Project in 1970.
Born in Syria, moving to Detroit as a child, and running away to New York in her twenties to become a rock star: Rayya Elias built up a lifetime of stories by the time she was 25, and a few more in the decades after.
Her brash, brutal memoir Harley Loco – probably the only book you’ll read this year titled after the author’s prison nickname – doesn’t stop there. Elias’s book stomps through a lifetime’s worth of self-discovery: identity in migrant communities, an addiction story with a happy ending, and how to support yourself as an amateur hairdresser in the old, dirty anddangerous NYC. She’ll be joined by her friend Elizabeth Gilbert, who encouraged Elias to tell her story.
Rayya Elias is a hair stylist, filmmaker, musician and most recently, author. Her first book is Harley Loco: A Memoir of Hard Living, Hair, and Post Punk, from the Middle East to the Lower East Side.
Elizabeth Gilbert is an author and journalist, best known for her international bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love, which has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. Time Magazine named her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She went on to write two other books, Committed and The Signature of All Things, which also became widely acclaimed bestsellers.
Shakespeare wrote challenging, glorious roles for female characters well before women were allowed on stage. With often fewer lines than the men, Shakespeare’s women pack a dramatic punch, from cross dressing girls to bloodthirsty villains, and everything in between. Two Australian icons take the stage to discuss what 21st-century audiences want from 16th-century heroines.
John Bell’s passion for Shakespeare resulted in an audacious idea 25 years ago, when he founded Bell Shakespeare - a theatre company dedicated to performing Shakespeare in a way that’s relevant and exciting to Australian audiences. Inimitable feminist icon Germaine Greer has been writing about Shakespeare since 1967. When it comes to the artistic and political puzzle of Shakespeare’s women, it’s hard to imagine a more qualified (and entertaining) duo.”
John Bell is one of the nation’s most illustrious theatre personalities. Award-winning actor, acclaimed director, risk-taking impressario and torch-bearing educationalist, Bell has been a key figure in shaping the nation’s theatrical identity over the past 50 years. He is the founder of Bell Shakespeare theatre company, which is celebrating its 25th year.
Germaine Greer is a writer and academic and is best known for her work as a key figure in modern feminism. Her ideas about gender and sexuality have provoked controversy since the release of her 1970 book The Female Eunuch. Her other works include Sex and Destiny: The Politics of Human Fertility, The Change: Women, Aging and the Menopause, The Whole Woman, Shakespeare's Wife and most recently White Beech: The Rainforest Years.
When two young men lose their lives in drunken assaults in the space of a few weeks, governments declare ‘Enough is enough’, and enact strict regulation to prevent another incident. But despite one Australian woman being killed by a current or former partner every week, family violence doesn’t attract anywhere near an equivalent amount of airtime, or popular outrage.
Rosie Batty awed Australians with her eloquence and compassion after her 11-year-old son Luke was murdered by his estranged father in February 2014. In the intervening year she’s shown that that extraordinary resolve was no fluke, as she’s worked tirelessly to encourage a conversation about family violence in Australia – one that might help us work out what we can do to stop it.
Rosie Batty's 11-year-old son Luke was murdered by his father Greg Anderson at cricket practice in Tyabb in February 2014. She has since become a domestic violence campaigner and has eloquently spoken out against family violence. She was named Victorian of the Year in October 2014, Daily Life Woman of the Year 2014 and was recently awarded Australian of the Year 2015.
With a background in journalism and philosophy, Yotam Ottolenghi was never going to be your average chef.
Starting out as a pastry chef, Ottolenghi delicatessens and restaurants followed, as did cook books includingOttolenghi and Jerusalem, both with Sami Tamimi, Plenty, and his latest book Plenty More (Random House/Ebury Press).
With his close-knit team of collaborators, he has created a style of food that is vibrant and bold, bursting with the flavours and spices of the Middle East, the Mediterranean and beyond.
Join him in conversation with Joanna Savill to find out more about his food and philosophy.
Yotam Ottolenghi appears as a guest of The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Month presented by Citi.
Sydney Writers’ Festival and Ideas at the House presents one of Australia’s finest writers Peter Carey. The only Australian to have twice won the Booker Prize, Peter speaks with Jennifer Byrne about his extraordinary career and new novel Amnesia.
With uncanny timeliness, Amnesia explores the relationship between Australia and America, from the Battle of Brisbane to computer hackers, via the Dismissal, Pine Gap and the great Australian forgetfulness.
Amnesia is Peter at his best: dark, funny, profound and clearly one of our most engaged and radical writers.
“Mr Carey is one of the finest living writers in English. His best books satisfy both intellectually and emotionally; he is lyrical yet never forgets the imperative to entertain.”- The Economist
Peter Carey has published 18 books and his work has been translated into 24 languages. Since his first collection of short-stories, The Fat Man in History, was published, Carey has won numerous awards including the Miles Franklin Award three times (for Bliss, Oscar and Lucinda and Jack Maggs); the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (for Jack Maggs and True History of the Kelly Gang); and the Booker Prize (for both Oscar and Lucinda and True History of the Kelly Gang).
The case of David Hicks, incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay and described as one of the ‘worst of the worst’, brought up many issues that we are still dealing with today.
As the ‘War on Terror’ gradually became a range of other conflicts, questions about what happens to citizens who fight in other countries and the role of the Australian Government in protecting their rights remain contentious. When the Bush Government set up the military commissions to deal with ‘unlawful combatants’, the military lawyer Major Michael Mori became defence counsel for David Hicks, and his was the determined and reasonable voice that told Australia the story as it unfolded during the military commission process.
Mori’s fight for justice for David Hicks saw him pitted against the institutions he had spent his life serving, as he risked his career to challenge the military commission system. Now retired from the US army as a Lieutenant Colonel and practicing as a lawyer in Melbourne, Michael Mori will give his account of the legal, ethical and personal struggles that shaped this extraordinary case and his involvement in it.
The Art of Belonging advances the argument put forward in Mackay's bestselling The Good Life: a 'good life' is not lived in isolation or in the pursuit of independent goals; a good life is lived at the heart of a thriving community, among people we trust, and within an environment of mutual respect.
Most of us struggle to reconcile our need to belong with our desire to live life on our own terms. If we want to master the art of belonging, we need to be able to manage the conflicts that arise in a community when some assert their own needs at the expense of others. We need communities, but communities also need us.
For this symmetry to work, we need to take responsibility for the places where we live by engaging, volunteering, joining up and joining in.
Hugh Mackay is a social researcher and the author of 16 books, including, most recently, The Good Life, a 2013 bestseller, and his sixth novel, Infidelity. He is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and the recipient of several honorary doctorates from Australian universities. He lives in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales.
Big stories and dangerous ideas sometimes can come our way because someone had an idea, and sat down and thought about it. But some important stories, can only be found in forbidding environments and with dangerous consequences. For Lydia Cacho, death threats have been the result of her reporting on violence against women in Mexico. Outspoken journalist Masha Gessen left Russia when changes to Russian law meant that her children might be taken away because she was gay. Climbing London’s tallest buildings to chronicle urban exploration has seen Bradley Garrett arrested for his place-hacking efforts. For our panel of speakers, to pursue their dangerous ideas, living dangerously has been part of everyday life.
Lydia Cacho is an award-winning investigative journalist, writer and activist, and is the author of Slavery Inc.: The untold story of international sex trafficking.
Bradley Garrett is an American researcher, explorer and social/cultural geographer at the University of Oxford and the author of Explore Everything: Place-hacking the city.
Masha Gessen is a Russian journalist and the author of a biography of Vladimir Putin, The Man Without a Face and Words Will Break Cement: The passion of Pussy Riot.
Noel Pearson is a lawyer and activist. Pearson shows how the idea of "race" was embedded in the constitution, and the distorting effect this has had. Now there is a chance to change it - if we can agree on a way forward.
Jeanette Winterson OBE is one of the most acclaimed authors of our time. Across novels, screenplays, essays and journalism, Winterson has taken risks and challenged us to think differently about identity and relationships.
At fifteen, Winterson's love affair with another woman was discovered. She was condemned by her church, leading to her expulsion from the community and her decision to leave home. She worked odd jobs, from an ice-cream van driver to a funeral parlour make-up artist, supporting herself as she obtained her B.A. in English from St. Catherine's College at Oxford. She would go on to write over twenty books, including the celebrated novels such as Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, The Passion and Sexing the Cherry, as well as the memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Watch as Winterson talks about her life, and what she's learned from it through decades of searching for love and meaning through fiction and poetry.
Author. Entrepreneur. Visionary. Arianna Huffington is one of the world’s leading businesswomen and most influential women in media.
Born in Greece, Huffington moved to the US by way of Cambridge University in England, becoming a renowned broadcaster and nationally-syndicated columnist. In May of 2005, she launched the Huffington Post, which quickly became one of the most widely-read and -cited online media brands. Huffington was soon named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, and is currently the chair, president, and editor-in-chief the Huffington Post Media Group. Her latest book, Thrive, reflects on her stunning success as well as her passionate and personal mission to redefine its meaning.
Join Arianna Huffington in conversation with Annabel Crabb as they discuss Thrive and explore her rise to being one of the most prominent and important women in the world.
Throughout history, the cultural forces that have repressed female sexuality have also created a picture of women as sexually passive and requiring protection from the rapacious desires they inspire in men. Women's sexuality has been denied in its totality, let alone their capacity to become paedophiles or predators. And where stories of women as sexual predators do emerge, attractive women are excused, painted as victims in the media, and become celebrity sex objects themselves rather than being recognised as perpetrators of criminal harm. This apparently benevolent hangover of sexist attitudes does women no favours. If women are to own their own sexuality, they must also own their potential to be sexual predators with all that this implies.
Alissa Nutting is an American author of the short story collection Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls. Her latest book, the novel Tampa, explores the sociopathic and predatory potential of female sexuality.
Women, and their bodies, are for sale. You don’t have to go to Nigeria, where Boko Haram wants to sell kidnapped schoolgirls, to find women on the market. Throughout the world, women and children are trafficked and traded as workers in the multi-billion-dollar sex industry, and their bodies are bought by ‘consumers’ everywhere. In the West, ads for everything from clothing to cars feature scantily clad women to help turn a profit. Pornography, IVF, surrogacy and prostitution are very different things, but all put women and their bodies on the market. Women are bought, sold and exploited everywhere. In much of the world, equality for women is still a dream, but wherever women’s bodies are for sale, real equality is still a long way off.
Lydia Cacho is an award-winning investigative journalist, writer and activist, and is the author of Slavery Inc.: The untold story of international sex trafficking.
Kajsa Ekis Ekman is a Swedish journalist, writer and activist. She is the founder of Feminists Against Surrogacy and the author of Being and Being Bought: Prostitution, surrogacy and the split self.
Alissa Nutting is an American author of the short story collection Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls and the novel Tampa.
Elizabeth Pisani is a London-based journalist and epidemiologist and the author of Indonesia etc.
Jules Kim is acting CEO of Scarlet Alliance, the Australian Sex Workers Association.
For the past forty years there’s been a concerted effort to deny the growing evidence that marriage matters. Families with married parents are more likely to provide stable homes for children. Children in single parent families are less likely to thrive than those with two parents, particularly married parents. Family structure is one of the key factors in predicting the future lives of our children, yet most are still determined to ignore what they see as a most unpalatable truth. For all the talk about gay marriage, these are the marriage patterns that have most impact on our society, and if we take the future of children seriously, it’s time to put this back on the agenda.
Bettina Arndt was formerly a clinical psychologist and one of Australia’s first sex therapist. She now works as an online dating coach and writes on social issues for many Australian publications.
Kay Hymowitz is an American writer, researcher, and is the William E. Simon Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. She is the author of four books, including Manning Up: How the rise of women has turned men into boys.
Kay Hymowitz appears with the support of The Centre for Independent Studies.
There’s been great unease about the future of 'serious' investigative journalism since the eruption of the internet shook up the traditional newspaper model. What if it’s not just the money to support this journalism that’s gone? What if it’s the readers as well, too busy sharing cat videos and shark memes to think about real news? While new philanthropic models for journalism are emerging, and traditional journalism is working out how to survive, the cat video publishers might be the ones to save the day. Maybe they were just using the cats to attract our attention, so that they could then give us the serious journalism we need. In the new world, there may be fewer newspapers, but good journalism might just find new homes (next to the cat’s basket?), and not entirely disappear.
Simon Crerar is a Sydney-based British journalist and BuzzFeed’s Australia Editor.
Tim Duggan is the Content Director and co-owner of Sound Alliance, which publishes In The Mix, Faster Louder, Same Same and Junkee.
Peter Fray is deputy editor of The Australian and former editor-in-chief and publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald.
Mark Scott is the Managing Director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
In the West, slavery is often seen as a dark part of the colonial past. Although it’s illegal in all countries, it remains alive and well—and is growing dramatically. Impervious to recession, it forms a thriving part of the globalised sex industry run by organised crime. International trafficking of women and children for sex is a multi-billion dollar business that won’t be anywhere near ‘abolition’ until those who make money from its operations and buy its services think again about what being complicit in slavery means.
Lydia Cacho is an award-winning investigative journalist, writer and activist. Her reporting focuses on violence against women in her home country of Mexico. Her latest book is Slavery Inc.: The untold story of international sex trafficking.
John Pilger addresses the 'great Australian silence', applying it not only to the treatment of Indigenous people but to class, great power and the limits of public debate.
What are the 'unofficial truths' that are often unmentionable in Australian 'mainstream' debate? The treatment of First Nations people is often presented in stereotypes while the majority deny the rapacious past, and present. In matters of class, Australia's cultivated image of a 'land of fair go for all' increasingly falls victim to a corporatised world of widening inequality. The mythology of a proud, independent nation is challenged by the often secretive role of Australia as an appendage of the United States and the rise of militarism. In the wake of the release of his latest film, Utopia, John Pilger will be in conversation to discuss these 'unofficial truths'.
John Pilger is an internationally renowned Australian journalist and documentary filmmaker.
Liz Ann Macgregor is the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art. She is a celebrated member of Australian cultural and public life, and in 2011 received an OBE in the Queen’s birthday honour list and the Australia Council Visual Arts Medal.
John Pilger appears with the support of the Edward Said Memorial Lecture.
Looking into the future, we can see the possibility of severe occurrences that threaten human extinction. Until recently, we haven’t taken this seriously and are therefore putting the future of humanity at risk. When looking at existential risk, there is a difference between natural disasters such as asteroids and the human-created risks inherent in the rapid advancements of areas like artificial intelligence and nanotechnology. No one wants to stop science, but if we want to create a sustainable future, we need to understand these risks as fully as we can so that we can balance the benefits of scientific discovery and innovation and protect ourselves from existential risk.
Huw Price is the Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy Cambridge and a co-founder of the Centre for Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge.
Jaan Tallinn is a founding engineer of Skype and Kazaa as well as co-founder of MetaMed, a personalized medical research company. He is a co-founder of the Centre for Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge.
We like to think of Australia as an egalitarian country where social mobility is real and the concept of equality is unchallenged. But the reality is that, along with our English speaking peers, we are in the top third of OECD countries in terms of economic inequality. This inequality is getting worse, and continues to influence education, health and housing. Accusations of ‘class warfare’ are thrown around to stop discussion whenever these topics are raised, but it’s time to ask if the class system is back, and if it is getting stronger.
Mark Carnegie is the Managing Director of M. H. Carnegie & Co, and has over thirty years of experience as an entrepreneur, investor and corporate advisor.
Mark Latham is an Australian writer, essayist and former politician. He is the author of Not Dead Yet: Labor's post-left future and, soon to be published, The Political Bubble: Why Australians don’t trust politics.
Judith Sloan is contributing economics editor to The Australian. She has held numerous commercial directorships, and has served as a commissioner on the Productivity Commission and Commissioner of the Australian Fair Pay Commission.
Since it emerged from its disreputable romantic beginnings, the novel replaced history and poetry to become the most significant vehicle for storytelling and the transmission of cultural values. Readers were sent to the novel to cultivate their empathy, develop moral principles and explore ideas, and it survived the rise of film with its influence intact. But a new generation of television creators have taken our most popular medium and broken the shackles of format to create huge, rambling narratives that, by reaching millions of viewers, have become new cultural icons. Will this make novels a pastime for the intellectual one percent, or will it liberate their writers to find a new audience?
Emily Nussbaum is the New Yorker's television critic. She has previously contributed essays and criticism to Slate, New York Magazine and the New York Times among others.
Sir Salman Rushdie is one of the most celebrated novelists of our time and the author of the Booker Prize-winning Midnight's Children, The Satanic Verses and most recently the memoir Joseph Anton.
At a time when the world is coming to grips with tragic fate of MH17, and looking for answers, it is more important than ever to discuss how to deal with Vladimir Putin and the Russian regime.
It’s been 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, 23 years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and 15 years since Putin came to power. During that time, Russia has gone from financial shock therapy to oligarchy to authoritarian energy superpower via the Chechen wars and the annexation of Crimea. Squarely in command, Putin appears to have seen off all challenges with an utter disregard for internal opposition and external western pressure. From the inside, fighting Putin is the only option for Russian activists. From the outside, what are the strategic options for western countries? Will military action or economic sanctions work? Or do we need to consider less orthodox approaches?
This session is a broad discussion with Russian journalist and activist Masha Gessen and foreign policy analyst Tom Switzer. A variety of different views will be presented that will test different ideas about how to approach Vladimir Putin and his regime.
Masha Gessen is a Russian journalist and author of a biography of Vladimir Putin, The Man Without a Face and Words Will Break Cement: The passion of Pussy Riot.
Tom Switzer is a Sydney-based journalist, researcher and commentator. He is the editor of Spectator Australia and American Review, and a research fellow at the University of Sydney's United States Study Centre.
Tom Switzer appears with the support of the United States Studies Centre.
While we’ve been focusing on the rise of women in the workplace, we have failed to notice the dramatic effect this has had on young men. Are we witnessing a male culture in profound decline? Young women are making more money, getting more education and are more reluctant to have children and settle down, while young men are drifting in ‘pre-adulthood’. Women want to win at work and expect equality at home, which doesn’t leave much room for the traditional male breadwinner role. Until young men create viable alternatives, this gender mismatch is a recipe for unhappiness. Maybe it’s time to man up?
Kay Hymowitz is an American writer, researcher, and is the William E. Simon Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. She is the author of four books, including Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men Into Boys.
Kay Hymowitz appears with the support of The Centre for Independent Studies.
What does the future hold? A reign of world peace with stunning medical breakthroughs conquering death, illness and disease? Or a world where human beings have destroyed the web of living things and put our own existence at risk by playing with science we don’t fully understand? Must we think in terms of these extremes to create a positive future or prevent disaster? Join a panel of brilliant optimists and pessimists to understand some of the amazing risks and opportunities that lie before us.
Tim Flannery is an Australian scientist, activist, author and editor of over twenty books, former Chief Scientist at the federal Climate Commission, and currently leader of the independent Climate Council.
Elizabeth Kolbert is an American environmental journalist and author. She is a staff writer at the New Yorker and the author of several books, including Field Notes from a Catastrophe and The Sixth Extinction: An unnatural history.
Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist and one of the world’s foremost writers on language, mind, and human nature. He is currently Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and his most recent book is The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why violence has declined.
Jaan Tallinn is a founding engineer of Skype and Kazaa, a co-founder of personalised medicine company MetaMed, and a co-founder of the Centre for Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge.
With the threat of climate change and damage to other elements of the biosphere, we may be in the process of creating a world where human existence is marginalised and modern civilisation is crushed. Even if we manage to cling to the more hospitable corners of this grave new world, nuclear war, bioterrorism or malicious use of nanotechnology or artificial intelligence could render human beings extinct. From the point of view of the universe, human existence doesn’t matter. Are we doomed to come round to this perspective ourselves, or will we inevitably cling to our human-centred picture of world?
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein received her doctorate in philosophy from Princeton University. Her award-winning books include the novels The Mind-Body Problem and 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A work of fiction, and her latest nonfiction effort, Plato at the Googleplex.
Francesca Minerva is a philosopher and medical/bio ethicist. She is currently the Deputy Director of CAPPE Melbourne (Centre of Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics).
Huw Price is the Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge University and co-founder of the Centre for Study of Existential Risk.
Surrogacy—or contract pregnancy—has become a global industry, growing at unprecedented speed. In India alone, this industry is valued at over US$450 million per year. Whereas the sex industry is increasingly targeted by legislators as exploitation, the surrogacy industry retains a rosy image. Helping an infertile couple to have a baby of their own is seen as a generous and compassionate gesture from a woman who can help: a sign of female empowerment and free will. In this way, everyone can have their own genetic children without having to undergo pregnancy, and poor women can earn some extra money. It looks like a win-win situation. But is it? At a closer glance, the surrogacy industry has more to do with prostitution than we might think. Not only is it exploitation of women's bodies—in fact surrogacy is nothing but baby trade.
Kajsa Ekis Ekman is is a Swedish journalist, writer and activist. She is the founder of Feminists Against Surrogacy and the climate action group, Klimax. Her latest book is Being and Being Bought: Prostitution, surrogacy and the split self.
(In Russian with translation.)
Pussy Riot became a global symbol of dissent in Russia with their idiosyncratic blend of feminist art and activism. When they were sent to prison, they became part of the extraordinary group of Russian writers, artists, and activists who have lived and died in the Gulag. Although the Gulags became ‘corrective labour colonies’ after Stalin’s death, what Pussy Riot members Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alekhina found were harsh physical conditions, slave labour, malnutrition and physical violence. They have since founded an NGO to defend prisoners’ rights called Zona Prava, because with almost one million people imprisoned in Russia, this is not something that can be ignored – by Russians or the West.
Nadezhda (Nadya) Tolokonnikova and Maria (Masha) Alekhina are Russian conceptual artists and political activists. They are founding members of the art collective Pussy Riot. In August 2012, they were sentenced to two years' imprisonment following an anti-Putin performance in Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. In March 2014 Tolokonnikova and Alekhina announced the opening of Mordovia office of Zona Prava, their newly created prisoners’ rights NGO. Tolokonnikova and Alekhina are Lennon Ono Grant for Peace recipients.
Anyone who has written a book whose title refers to Australia as “The Stupid Country” is not afraid of the odd dangerous idea, and it turns out that Jane Caro has plenty. She is well-known as an advocate for public education, and as one of the instigators of ‘Destroy the joint’ on Twitter, taking a hatchet to sexism in Australia. But she doesn’t stop there, and will be bringing you dangerous ideas about atheism, schools, politics, men, women and advertising just for a start.
Jane Caro is an Australian writer, lecturer, social commentator, and award-winning advertising writer—or, in her own words, a "feminist, atheist, media tart, wife, mother & stirrer." She is a regular panellist on The Gruen Transfer/Gruen Planet, and is the co-author of books such as The F Word: How we learned to swear by feminism and The Stupid Country: How Australia is Dismantling Public Education.
Good governance is the buzzword of the day. Conventional wisdom has it that less corruption would translate into more economic growth, a healthier body politic and reduced likelihood of conflict. But what if this isn’t always the case? In Indonesia, patronage and corruption serve as the glue that keeps an otherwise fractious country together. Although there are cases where corruption has promoted conflict, in other instances it has helped restore peace in the country. A more nuanced and less ideological view of "corruption" is needed if countries are to fight graft without undermining peaceful co-existence.
Elizabeth Pisani is a London-based journalist and epidemiologist, best known for her work on HIV/AIDS. Her latest book is Indonesia etc., which looks at one of our most important neighbours and how they live.
To try and avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, 190 countries have committed to limiting global temperature increase to below 2°C. To achieve this, 60-80% of the world’s existing carbon or fossil fuel reserves need to stay in the ground. Nevertheless, billions of dollars of investments in coal, oil and gas have gone ahead, resting on the speculative bubble of climate change denial or delay. If these assets become stranded by climate action, their revaluation could trigger the next (larger) global financial crisis. So, what’s at risk? Our economy and your retirement savings. Australia’s economy depends on coal exports and around 55% of your superannuation is invested in high-carbon, high-risk assets. Our political system looks chronically incapable of dealing with climate change—but can we trust our financial institutions to do better?
John Hewson is the former leader of the Liberal Party of Australia and Chair of the Asset Owners Disclosure Project. He has worked as an economist for the Australian Treasury, the Reserve Bank, the International Monetary Fund and also as an advisor to two successive Federal Treasurers and the Prime Minister.
John Hewson appears with the support of The Climate Institute.
More of us now live in cities than ever before, and the spaces we live in are increasingly governed by agendas of safety and security. Arguing against safety may seem counter-intuitive. However, a culture of safety brings limitations and fears that have the capacity to turn us into passive spectators in our own lives, especially in cities where high land values create dense areas of exclusion. Yet there is always a city within the city to explore.
Underground and in the sky, the secret arteries of infrastructure and the forbidden heights of buildings are open to urban explorers who want to reclaim lost history and their right to roam the urban wilds. Bradley Garrett argues that rather than accepting the pre-packaged, safe, passively consumed entertainment on offer, we must make our own adventures by embracing the unsafe city as our playground.
Bradley Garrett is an American researcher, explorer and social/cultural geographer at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Explore Everything: Place-hacking the city, an ethnographic account of the activities of urban exploration group London Consolidation Crew (LCC).
The stories of Anders Behring Breivik and Lance Armstrong may seem to have little in common, but each shows the consequences of the epidemic of narcissism that marks our age. Our lives no longer centre on social and family groups, but have become highly individualistic. We are primed for narcissism by consumer culture, changing family dynamics and growing inequality. A society full of people who are self-obsessed, have a deep need for admiration and a lack of empathy for others is not going to be a happy place. It’s time we looked at the sources of this epidemic and how it can be stopped.
Anne Manne is an Australian writer and social commentator. She is the author of Motherhood: How should we care for our children?, So This is Life: Scenes from a country childhood and soon to be published The Life of I: The new culture of narcissism.
Life is painful. It's full of doubt and uncertainty. And it ends, in this world anyway, with death. For many, the antidote to this pain has been religion. The appeal is obvious: comforting stories, a clear sense of right and wrong and eternal life as the carrot at the end. Even New Atheists such as Alain De Botton have retrieved some of the comfort traditionally offered by the church. But has the church taken up the easy sell of "ending suffering" and promising answers to unanswerable questions.
In contrast to this "Good News," Peter Rollins argues for a radical and initially disturbing Gospel: we can't be satisfied, life is tough, and we don't know the secret. We should attack the idea of God as that which makes us whole, removes our suffering, and offers us the truth. Rollins is less concerned with the question of life after death than with the possibility of a life before death, and his "churches" challenge escapist versions of spirituality, inviting us to embrace complexity, ambiguity and pain. Doubt is part of life, and religion should be able to explore it -- instead of presenting an all-singing, all-dancing distraction.
Peter Rollins is a leading figure of the radical Christianity movement and author of books such as How (Not) to Speak of God and Insurrection. A philosopher, theologian, believer, and doubter, he has developed a number of contemplative practices to help Christians accept doubt and complexity, such as 'Atheism for Lent.'
A legal figure like no other, Michael Kirby carefully trod the line between judicial impartiality and outspoken human rights advocacy throughout a distinguished thirty five year career that included thirteen years on the High Court of Australia.
Watch as Kirby returns to Sydney Opera House to discuss his new and very intimate authorised biography Michael Kirby: Law, Love & Life.
Remote assistants respond to calls and emails. Life coaches assist with personal decisions. Smartphone apps tell us where to eat dinner. Nameologists help choose names for babies that will be raised by live-in au pairs.
Welcome to an emerging world, where the individual is a client in every interaction. Traditional functions of family and friends have been replaced by hired help and consultants. It may save us time, what do we lose by handing over control of our personal lives to third-parties? Who are we if our jobs, our houses, our furniture, and our spouses are all recommended to us by experts or algorithms. If we are the sum of our decisions, then what's left when those decisions have been handed over entirely to others?
Sociologist Arlie Hochschild looks at the long-term consequences of a frictionless existence and the implications of replacing the community with a marketplace in favour of faster, lonelier lives.
Arlie Hochschild is a professor emerita of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of eight books, including The Outsourced Self, The Second Shift, and So How's the Family? and other essays.
In the course of his career, Geoffrey Robertson has been involved in many of the key human rights issues of recent history.
In his session at the Opera House he talks about his latest book 'Mullahs without Mercy' which brings together his thinking about nuclear weapons and their dangers in the Iranian context, but also looks at the human rights record of the Iranian regime.
There are two Americas. In one, bankers get golden parachutes, insider traders return to society as well-paid consultants, and influence is for sale. In the other, opportunity is scarce and forgiveness scarcer, jail awaits those caught possessing recreational drugs, and cries for help are ignored. Society preaches forgiveness for the rich and retribution for the poor. Entrenched inequality and its companion, poverty, are the dark side of the American dream for a citizenry united by name, but not by rules.
Is the divide fair, the result of natural winners and losers, or is it built into the system? We know that inequality is bad for the rich as well as the poor, and that more equal countries are healthier and happier, but this knowledge won't bring change by itself. What can be done when those with the power to change the divide are those that benefit most from it? As long as the more equal won't let go, the less equal will suffer.
From his journalist days on the crime beat through to his work on shows like The Wire and Treme, David Simon has brought the divide between these two America's to life like no other. Simon looks at the oppressed, the victims of manmade disasters such as the war on drugs through to natural disaster such as Hurricane Katrina, and forces us to ask whether the fictional stories he shows us on screen are any less real than the theatre of compassion we see on the news from the very same people who have the power to treat all citizens equally but choose not to.
David Simon is a journalist, author, and television writer/producer best known as the creator and showrunner of HBO series The Wire and Treme. He spent twelve years on the crime beat for the Baltimore Sun. He also worked on the adaptations of his books Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood for NBC and HBO respectively.
One of the most extraordinary things about the history of sexuality has been the lack of evidence-based information about women's sexual needs and desires. From folklore to Freud, hysteria to penis-envy, women as sexual beings have been misunderstood, brainwashed, silenced and demonised. Daniel Bergner brings together all of the research on the topic, old and new, in a definitive and groundbreaking account of what we now know and understand about women's sexuality.
It's been more than 20 years since we first became anxious about sports shoes made in sweatshops, and yet cheap and fashionable clothing still seems like an unqualified good -- another gift of the globalisation boom years to consumers in developed countries. But as the recent factory fires in Bangladesh have reaffirmed, it's a gift that comes at a terrible cost not only to others but also to the environment. As we deal with guilt and the mountain of waste that 'fast fashion' produces, others deal with Dickensian conditions and subsistence wages, while the carbon footprint of our fluctuating wardrobes continue to expand. Is there a way out of this Faustian bargain that has seen fashion become a destructive force?
Lucy Siegle is a British journalist focusing on the environmental, sustainability and ethics
In 2010, journalist Jennifer Senior's magazine story, All Joy and No Fun, became an overnight sensation with its blunt declaration that parents love their children and hate their lives. Anyone who experiences or observes the agony and ecstasy of modern parenting knows that children bring both happiness and misery. We spend more time with our children, but feel guilty about the quality of our parenting and our children are more accomplished yet more depressed than ever before. What does it all mean?
Jennifer Senior has expanded her idea into a new best-selling book and while she might not have all the answers, her questions cast some much needed light on the reality of parenting today.
When civil war broke out in Somalia in 1991, Elman Ali Ahmed became an ardent peace activist, spreading the mantra "put down the gun, pick up the pen" until his assassination in 1996. Three years ago, his 19-year-old daughter Ilwad Elman returned to Somalia and now runs the Elman Peace and Human Rights Center in Mogadishu with her mother, Fartun Adan. In a country ranked the fifth worst place in the world to be a woman, Ilwad and her mother work with victims of rape, and towards the rehabilitation of child soldiers. For this extraordinary young woman, changing the world means carrying on the work of her parents and rebuilding Somalia, one project at a time.
Egyptian-American journalist Mona Eltahawy has been one of the most visible reporters of the dramatic events in Egypt in recent years. In parallel with her coverage of revolutionary politics has been her call for social and sexual revolutions. Beaten, sexually assaulted and detained by riot police in Cairo in 2011, she called for a holistic campaign against sexual violence in Egypt. Her views on misogyny in the Arab world and what she describes as ' the Islamist hatred of women' have stirred controversy and link the quest for political freedom with radical freedom for women. What does the future hold for both of these revolutions?
The news is everywhere and we check it constantly - but what is it doing to our minds?
A part of modern society that we take for granted, almost a replacement for religion, the news can be all consuming – but at what cost to the individual? Alain de Botton, bestselling author of Religion for Atheists and sell out success at the Opera House in 2012, dismantles our fixations and neuroses on a range of news categories in News: A User’s Manual. From politics to murders, from economics to celebrities, from the weather to paparazzi shows— he will submits them to unusually intense analysis.
He raises questions like: How come disaster stories are often so uplifting? What makes the love lives of celebrities so interesting? Why do we enjoy politicians being brought down? Why are upheavals in far off lands often so . . . boring?
In The News: A User’s Manual, De Botton shares the ultimate manual for our news-addicted age, one sure to bring calm, understanding and a measure of sanity to our daily (and sometimes even hourly) interactions with the news machine.
Drug taking has moved from being outlawed behaviour, seen only on the fringes of society, to a widely accepted activity, even when illegal. In Britain, for all the talk of a "war on drugs," no one ever tried to wage one. Instead, drug taking has become more and more legally and socially acceptable. We frame drug-taking as either a harmless diversion or, when taken to excess in the form of addiction, as an illness that needs to be cured. Regardless of the impact on physical and mental health, the hard truth is that self-stupefaction of any kind is morally wrong. Drug taking is pure self-indulgence. It prioritises personal pleasure and instant gratification in a way that wreaks havoc with any kind of ethical framework. If we don't want to succumb to a culture of violence, greed, and selfishness, we should make sure that the moral argument about drugs is not pushed aside. Not even the most rabid advocate of legalisation would argue that more drug taking would be a good thing, so let's have the courage to deter it by clearly saying: "it's wrong."
Peter Hitchens is an English journalist and author. His latest book is The War We Never Fought: The British Establishment's Surrender to Drugs.
When natural resources like timber, water and mineral deposits can be extracted from ecosystems, they become assets with dollar values that can be bought and sold internationally and enable developing countries to grow and participate in the global economy. If growth is the key to emerging from poverty, then this might seem like a good thing. But what if these same resources being sold to richer nations come from an ecosystem that people depend on for their livelihood? What if new growth is actually proportional to the creation of new poverty?
The cult of 'growth' has dictated policy for decades. But if well-being, not growth, is our goal, selling resources that bring long term wellbeing to communities for short term gain is a very bad deal. Hard as it may be for the West to understand, protecting the ecological resources of communities might be more important than GDP figures.
Vandana Shiva holds a PhD in physics, but is best known as an environmental, and anti-globalisation activist and as a leading figure of 'ecofeminism.' Shiva is based in India and is the author of over twenty books, including Staying Alive and Biopiracy. She is a former recipient of the Sydney Peace Prize.
Chair: Simran Sethi is an award-winning Indian American journalist. She is currently undergoing a research fellowship at the University of Melbourne in Australia on the loss of agricultural biodiversity in our food system.
When someone commits a crime, we want them punished. If wrongdoers go to prison more often and for longer, everyone seems happy. But we live in a system where people do eventually come out of prison and rejoin the community. And this is where what has happened to them in prison really starts to matter. If prisons are a rank breeding ground for recidivism, where drug use is unchecked and non-violent offenders are initiated into the criminal world, do you want someone who has spent time there living near you? Or would you rather see them going straight back to jail? As incarceration rates grow, if we want anyone who has been to jail to have a chance in life, maybe we need to look at a different approach: the kind of prison model that could make a killer a good neighbour.
Erwin James is a convicted murderer and Guardian journalist. James was released in August 2004 having served 20 years of a life sentence.
Chair: Hamish Macdonald is an Australian broadcaster and news presenter. He is the host and creator of the Network Ten show The Truth Is...?, for which he travelled to Afghanistan, Chernobyl, and a Norwegian jail to reveal surprising truths about issues that seemed mistakenly settled in public debate.
In the US, 40% of women are out earning their partners; females are recipients of more -- and higher -- degrees than their male counterparts; and 75% of couples in fertility clinics are requesting girls over boys.
While men once dominated thanks largely to their size and strength, this advantage has been eroded in a post-industrial society. Male-dominated sectors like manufacturing continue to decline in the West while health care and services where women dominate are in the ascendant.
The boys club has begun to dissipate. Not only are feminine traits like social intelligence and open communication increasingly in demand, but women are also increasingly adopting traditional male traits such as aggression. Men, on the other hand, are struggling to make the same move in the other direction. If the past belonged to men, then the future belongs to women. A social equilibrium that existed for millennia has been disrupted -- how will the parts settle after the upheaval? Does the rise of women mean the end of men? And what are the social implications of a change that potentially leaves half the population -- an entire gender -- useless for all but biological purposes (for now)?
Hanna Rosin is an American journalist and author. She is a senior editor at The Atlantic and the editor and founder of DoubleX, Slate's women's section..Her latest book is the best-selling The End of Men and the Rise of Women.
Chair: Julia Baird is a journalist, TV personality, and author of Media Tarts: How the Australian Press Frames Female Politicians. She is currently working on a biography of Queen Victoria.
Few people would argue with the wonders of connectivity, communication and access to infinite quantities of information that the Internet has enabled. But our understanding of the digital future is shaped by those who are making it, and they often have a vested commercial interest in a mass audience buying what they offer. If we take off our rose-coloured glasses, we see that the wonder-gadgets and techno-solutionism can become just another way to sell us things and if we're not the customer, we're generally the product. The lofty ideals of the early Internet have been hijacked to give every digital touchpoint an illusory benevolence. But the reality is much more ambiguous. The digital future has not been written. We need to avoid utopian complacency and think about our digital lives so we can make sure the Internet lives up to its promise, not its darkest possibilities.
Evgeny Morozov is a Belarusian writer and researcher whose commentary on technology has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Economist, and New Scientist. He is the author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom, and most recently, To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism.
There's a flaw in the way we choose our life partners. We pair up based (mostly) on preferences outside of the bedroom, and hope that what happens in the bedroom will match up. Infidelity is not the end of the world, it's a reality of long-term relationships. We accept the good and the bad when it comes to our partner's jobs, families, and failures, but quickly default to divorce when we yield to natural temptation.
It's time to stop fooling ourselves and accept that outdated concepts of "proper" sex are torpedoing discussions needed to reach mature sexual compromises. Many of the relationships that we think of as monogamous are actually probably 'monogomish': mostly monogamous, but with bits on the side. If we really want to protect the sanctity of marriage, we need to make it our playground, not our prison.
Dan Savage is the author of the internationally syndicated advice column Savage Love, host of the popular podcast Savage Lovecast. He is also an essayist whose work has featured in the New York Times and on This American Life. His latest book is American Savage: Insights, Slights, and Fights on Faith, Sex, Love, and Politics.
The latest science suggests that it is too late to prevent human-induced climate change. Technological optimists are now turning their minds to mitigation through techniques of geo-engineering, like giant space mirrors or seeding the oceans with iron to prompt carbon-absorbing algal blooms. But projects to alter the entire planet will expose all life to massive risk.
So, why not address the source of the problem and engineer humans to reduce our environmental impact and adapt? Genetic engineering could make us smaller or reduce our appetite for meat. Doses of Oxytocin could make us more sympathetic and cooperative. Such possibilities are criticised as extreme, but are they any more so than re-engineering the planet?
S. Matthew Liao is a professor of philosophy at New York Universtiy.
In the US, almost 40% of working wives out-earn their husbands. The proportion is smaller in Australia, but the trend is unmistakeably moving in the same direction.
Join award-winning journalist and best-selling author Liza Mundy as she looks at the impact on relationships, families and institutions to come with this change, and considers whether the goal of feminisms, for equality, has actually prepared women for power and responsibility.
Superficial charm, a tendency to be bored easily, a lack of empathy and remorse, coupled with a grandiose sense of self-worth: these are the hallmarks of the psychopath. After a look at the world around us, some investigative journalism that took him to prisons and CEO offices, Jon Ronson came to the conclusion that not only do these qualities characterise some of the most successful people in all spheres of life, perhaps there is at least a bit of the psychopath in us all.
Jon Ronson is a journalist, documentary filmmaker and nonfiction author whose work includes 'The Men Who Stare at Goats' and 'The Psychopath Test.'
The roles of governments and corporations in the future of the internet, and their use and abuse of data, have been put under the global spotlight. In the wake of Manning, Snowden and Wikileaks, we finally have the scope to properly debate the need for government transparency and the trade-off between privacy and security.
Watch our expert panel discuss the implications of the war on whistleblowers for the main actors, and the consequences if that war is lost for the rest of us.
US Journalist and activist Alexa O'Brien and Australian commentator Robert Manne are joined by video conference with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, Guardian Journalist Glenn Greenwald and Chelsea Manning's Lawyer David Coombs on stage at the Sydney Opera House (moderated by Bernard Keane of Crikey).
As political change sweeps the streets, parliaments and presidential palaces of the Arab world, Shereen El Feki has been looking at the upheaval inside the family home -- specifically, in the bedroom, and the sexual lives of Arab men and women. Sex is entwined in religion and tradition, politics and economics, making it the perfect lens for examining the region's complex social landscape.
Shereen El Feki is an award-winning journalist with The Economist, and a broadcaster and writer who began her career in medical science before becoming the vice-chair of the UN's Global Commission on HIV and the Law.
Richard Holloway is a former Bishop of Edinburgh and acclaimed writer-commentator of books such as 'Goodness Morality.' Dubbed the 'barmy bishop' by UK tabloids and denounced by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Holloway was never a typical churchman, troubled by questions posed by life in the church.
Holloway joins Ideas at the House to discuss his life and times both inside and outside the priesthood, as documented in his recent best-selling memoir, 'Leaving Alexandria.' Listen to Holloway share an intimate knowledge of the Church's workings, philosophies, and a fresh perspective on the topic of faith and doubt.
Declared a 'prophet' by TIME magazine, John Ralston Saul's critically acclaimed works have been translated into 22 languages in 30 countries, displaying a growing impact on world political and economic thought. A long-term champion of freedom of expression, watch John Ralston Saul in intimate conversation on the state of the world today; from economic stability, unemployment and poverty to inequality, racism, terrorism and fundamentalism.
She's been called the voice of her generation. The future of journalism. A style icon. A muse. Oh, and she's still in high school.
Tavi Gevinson has gone from bedroom blogger to founder and editor-in-chief of website and print series, Rookie, in just a few years. Rookie attracted over one million views within a week of launching, and has featured contributors such as Lena Dunham, Thom Yorke, Joss Whedon, Malcolm Gladwell, and Sarah Silverman.
Watch this inspiring talk as Tavi discusses adversity, the creative process, her outlook on life, and the value of being a 'fangirl.'
Our economy is based on a model of constant growth - growth in production, growth in consumption, and growth in population. Economic growth has provided rising standards of living in the West, and has seen millions in China and India lifted out of poverty. But this model was disrupted in many countries by the global financial crisis. Will things settle down with growth resuming, or will our economies bump up against a wall of finite resources? And if they do, what will this mean the global balance of power?
Richard Heinberg is an American journalist, educator, and author of 10 books, including 'The End of Growth.'
Recorded in 2011 and the beginning of the Arab Spring, Mona Eltahawy reflects on the hunger for freedom and democracy unleashed within Arab populations living under dictatorship. This is considered alongside questions about whether Saudi Arabia's oil makes western support for freedom and democracy melt away, and whether the west can't afford to prefer Arab democrats to Arab dictators. Mona Eltahawy is an award-winning columnist and international public speaker, renowned for her commentary on the 'Arab Spring'.
For over two decades, Michael Pollan has been opening our eyes to what we put in our body through books like 'Food Rules,' 'In Defense of Food,' and 'The Omnivore's Dilemma.' In this conversation with Rebecca Huntley, Pollan explores the ethical bonds that connect our bodies, farms and food to reveal what our food system has become and just how badly we need to fix it.
From our systems of government to our most intimate relationships, the idea that we determine our own thoughts and actions is fundamental. But neuroscience and psychology have begun to unravel the illusion of free will. What does this mean for our cherished notions of political and social freedom and our focus on individual choice and responsibility? Join philospher and neuroscientist Sam Harris, one of the celebrated "four horsemen of new atheism," as he tried to convince you that free will is a delusion, and that accepting the delusion is important for society.
Alan Ball is the wildly dark and inventine midn behind television's 'Six Feet Under' and 'True Blood,' as well as the critically acclaimed film 'American Beauty.' In one of his first ever solo public events, the Academy and Emmy Award-winning writer/producer/director/playwright is joined by Wil Anderson in a discussion of the origins and philosophy of Ball's work and outlook on life.
“It doesn't take remarkable insight to suggest that the defining idea of the coming decade will be the Internet,” says Peter Singer. The compression of time and space enabled by digital technologies is overhauling our traditional understanding of everything from community, identity, sexuality, and information accessibility. While the technology has brought huge advantages, there are still ethical questions that need to be addressed around piracy, censorship, and the place of outlets such as Wikileaks.
Once labelled the most dangerous man in the world, Singer is one of the world's leading philosophers and author of books such as 'Animal Liberation' and 'Wired for War.'
Our lust for cheap animal protein and the intensification of factory farming make the torture and degradation of living creatures an integral part of our diet. To keep on enjoying those hamburgers and chicken wings, we lie to ourselves about what is happening in our names. Even as we claim the superiority of the human to the animal, we enjoy the prerogatives of the supreme predator and remain willfully blind to their consequences. What does being human mean under these circumstances?
Jonathan Safran Foer is an author best known for his novels 'Everything Is Illuminated' and 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' and his latest nonfiction work, 'Eating Animals.'
In the late 90's, political theorists, economists and politicians were talking confidently about the end of history and the undisputed triumph of liberal "democratic" capitalism. Communism was written off as dead and buried. But after 9/11, the GFC, the Arab Spring, and the protests spreading over Europe, the ideological gloss of capitalism may be beginning to fade. If the alternative is Putin's muscular Tsarism or China's authoritarian capitalism, then renovating the idea of communism may matter profoundly.
For philosophical rock star and brilliant iconoclast Slavoj Žižek, it is something that we should demand, no matter how impossible it seems. The only true utopia today is that things can go on indefinitely the way they are.
Has our invention and mastery of increasingly powerful technology turned humans into gods? From the destructive potential inherent in nuclear technology to the understanding of the building blocks of life represented by the sequencing of the human genome, our technologies have given us the power to create and destroy at a human and planetary scale. Futurist and filmmaker Jason Silva considers the responsibility inherent in this power, and the role these technological human-gods in our understanding of the world.
Tim Harford is the best-selling author of 'The Uncover Economist' and 'The Logic of Life.' In his latest book, 'Adapt,' Harford argues that we need to rethink the conditions for making progress in science, business and society in a fundamental way: we need to lose our fear of failure, embrace opportunity, and take risks. We need to stop looking for leaders who provide us with safe answers, and stop punishing those with the courage to search for radical solutions. We need to understand that to adapt to the challenges of the future, we must make mistakes - and lots of them.
Dr. Jesse Bering is a psychologist and author of 'Perv: The Sexual Deviant' in all of us and 'Why Is The Penis Shaped Like That?' In his talk, Bering considers that while we may be much more comfortable with sexuality than our parents were, will we take the next step and acknowledge that we are all, in fact, sexual perverts?
Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of best-selling memoir 'Eat Pray Love,' a chronicle of Gilbert's travels around the world in search of healing and wisdom following a messy divorce. Gilbert appeared at Sydney Opera House in conversation with Caroline Baum about the pressures and expectations of commercial success, fame, and the inevitable question of what comes next.
Michael Palin’s comic exploits with Monty Python and in films such as 'A Fish Called Wanda' are the stuff of legend, but his recent adventures travelling and filming the world have won him a vast and loyal new following. Watch as Palin guides us – in his inimitable way – from his early acting career and comic exploits through to traversing the globe for his latest BBC TV series, 'Brazil'.
Joint Nobel Peace Prize winner and Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee delivers a powerful talk about harnessing the power of African women to affect change. Moving between the personal and the universal, Gbowee demonstrates the impact of misogynist laws on females and broader society, and the potential in embedded in often-disenfranchised women and girls. Watch the talk that drew tears and two standing ovations from a packed Sydney Opera House.
For former refugee and politcian Ayaan Hirsi Ali: "It is a matter of principle that women are free and equal". This means zero tolerance of cultural practices such as honour violence, forced marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM). In her talk, Hirsi Ali challenges the audience with questions such as whether multiculturalism is indifference disguised as tolerance, and what do Western feminists have to offer to the life and death problems of women from the developing world?
Martin Seligman is a bestselling author, world leading psychologist and expert adviser on wellbeing at the highest level of international public policy. According to Seligman, happiness is not the result of good genes or luck, and well-being is more than just the absense of ill-being. Real, lasting happiness comes from focusing on personal strengths and working with them to improve all aspects of your life. Watch as he speaks about everything from positive emotions and relationships to the politics and economics of well-being.
While daughters can be a learning experience for fathers, mothers with feminist convictions sometimes fall into the trap of seeing their daughter as the next stage in the march towards 'liberation' or 'equality'. In an age of analogue parents and digital daughters, what do girls need from their parents?
Join our panel Nigel Marsh, Maya Newell and Barbara Toner (Chair: Dannielle Miller).
A recent survey of media coverage of the US Election showed that over 70% of print stories were written by men and less than 20% percent of coverage was of women, making women almost invisible at the highest levels in public life and in the media. But are there advantages to invisibility? If anonymity comes with the freedom to do and say what you want, does this mean that the power that comes with visibility isn't all that it is cracked up to be?
Join our panel of authors Tara Moss, Nikki Gemmel, and Brooke Magnanti (Chaired by Rebecca Huntley).
With the Delhi gang rape case in everyone's mind, focus on the specific situation of women in India and India's 'rape culture' were put into perspective by a US case in Steubenville Ohio where an unconscious girl was repeatedly assaulted and onlookers and participants posted images and film all over the internet. If rape happens everywhere, but 'rape culture' is specific to local circumstances, what needs to happen in Australia and everywhere to make it a thing of the past?
Join our panel Kiran Grewal and Dixie Link-Gordon (Chair: Clementine Ford).
The mystique of 'leadership' is such that it has become the Holy Grail for anyone trying to understand why organisations succeed or fail. But being a leader is not something where there are a series of clear instructions to follow. Because it brings together the personal and the professional, finding out how to lead can be harder to explain but more satisfying than any of the other challenges that work or home throws up.
Join our panel Maria Atkinson and Julie White (Chair: Judith Whelan).
Noam Chomsky is one of the most celebrated public intellectuals of our time. He is a linguist, philosopher, historian, and social commentator among other things, and author of books influential books such as 'Manufaturing Consent.' In this convesation with Mary Kostakidis, Chomsky addresses a range of questions on the theme of knowledge and freedom, covering areas such as linguistics, global politics, human rights, climate change, and the nature of democracy.
Alain de Botton is a best-selling author and one of the world's most celebrated philosophers. Watch as he discusses his latest book, 'Religion for Atheists,' about the parts of religion that he thinks atheists too often overlook.
Tom Stoppard is one of the world's greatest dramatists, with a body of work that includes 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,' 'The Real Inspector Hound,' and 'Shakespeare in Love.' Watch Stoppard in conversation with Australian writer Jonathan Biggins at the Sydney Opera House.
Celebrated Edinburgh novelist Alexander McCall Smith is the creator of the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, which has sold over a million copies in Australia. Smith is wise, witty, and full of observations on life and infectious good humour in this conversation at the Sydney Opera House.
Sir Terry Pratchett is best known for his Discworld series of comic fantasy novels that have been translated into 32 languages and sold 65 million copies. In 2007, he was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's and subsequently began a public discussion about the disease and physician-assisted suicide. Watch as Pratchett leads a lively discussion about his life and work.
Germaine Greer has been a recognisible public figure since the publication of her best-selling book, 'The Female Eunich.' Watch Greer deliver her speech on feminism in a global context as part of our mini-festival, 'The F-Word.'
Naomi Wolf is a leading feminist and best-selling author of books such as 'The Beauty Myth.' Watch Wolf deliver her speech on the direction and importance of feminism in the future as part of our mini-festival, 'The F-Word.'
'The F-Word' at Sydney Opera House was a day of discussion and debate about the state of feminism in a global context and its direction in and importance for the future. The event culminated in forum featuring keynote speakers Germaine Greer and Naomi Wolf, Australian writer and activist, and American journalist Eliza Griswold.
David Suzuki is a Canadian scientist and environmental activist. Watch Suzuki's profound and moving lecture as he shares a lifetime of lessons about our impact on the planet and his hope for the future.
This talk brings together a range of international and Australian experts to deiver both sides of the debate as they dissect recent events in the Middle East and consider what they mean for the future, including the prospect of peace.