All Episodes
Big Ideas — 316 episodes
Should social media be banned for over-16s too!? The 2026 Beaker Street Festival Great Debate
Kerry O'Brien on the perfect storm destroying our politics — with Richard Flanagan
Why Oz Harvest's Ronni Kahn wants you to join the "Order of the Teaspoon" to end food insecurity and waste
Protecting Australia’s native plants
Indigenous speculative fiction takes on the apocalypse — with Canadian sci-fi Indiginerd Chelsea Vowel
Blast off! Exploring our solar system and beyond
Too Dumb for Democracy? Why your brain struggles with good political decision-making
What makes television? 100 years of tumultuous change
CENSORED! CANCELLED! BOYCOTT! The future of artistic freedom and democracy in Australia
Forget The Odyssey. Yann Martel, Nikita Gill, Zoe Terakes have their own mythical retellings
Africa in a shifting world order — can digital technology achieve what aid never could?
How policy decisions today can hurt your kids in the future — are we even trying to get it right?
The PNG environmental defenders taking on Australian mining giants — what is extractive justice and its toll?
Australian war history — the past, present and future of remembrance. With Professor Peter Stanley
What Pacific peoples know about climate justice — and Australia still needs to learn
Gay rights pioneer Dennis Altman on five decades of activism, writing and social change
Why didn't anyone tell me Australian history was ACTUALLY interesting!? Sita Sargeant, Santilla Chingaipe, Jacinta Mackay, Harini Rangarajan
What does 'being a man' look like — today?
Could the 21st century be the greatest age of exploration in the history of humankind? Ocean explorer Terry Garcia thinks so
On how fear destroys your relationships — and why love can heal fear
Angertainment — is it too late to escape the rage bait machine, and why are its roots ancient and evolutionary? With Ed Coper
Globalisation and geopolitics – the forces that will make or break Asia
Calling out wrongdoing can come at a cost — here's how Australia can strengthen its whistleblowing laws
Ex-chief scientist Alan Finkel's three laws of Artificial Intelligence
Could you be a hope punk? Jack Toohey on rebellious hope and why better things are possible
Fear, healing and finding calm – how the ocean can change you
Is education policy damaging our democracy?
These Palestinians and Israelis are talking to each other − determined to make peace real in Gaza
8 Million Ways to Happiness with Hiroko Yoda — what we can all learn about life, love, and loss from Japan’s flexible spirituality
What is the role of the writer in troubled times? Tony Birch with Michael Williams on the ethical imagination
If a river is declared a legal “person” — can it talk, remember, feel?
Is the cosmos unravelling? With theoretical physicist Tony Padilla
A song for every feeling? Pub Choir founder Astrid Jorgensen has a big story to tell (REPEAT)
The gambling industry is targeting your children - how, why and what can be done?
David Marr on preaching to the converted
The God we made — safeguarding humanity in the age of AI
The art of forgiveness and why it's not what you think it is — with Rachael Coopes and Natasha Mitchell
Whose recipe is it anyway? A nourishing conversation about food and culture
Errol Flynn — discover the dark secrets of the Australian Hollywood star
The future of democracy? With Jon Sopel, Nick Bryant and Rosalind Dixon
The future of TRUTH — Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales, philosopher A.C Grayling, journalist Barbara Demick, AI scientist Toby Walsh
Can Art, artists and activists save Australia’s famous multicultural experiment?
Pride or shame? Searching for the story of Australia — with Tony Abbott, Mark McKenna and Sally Warhaft
Zoe Daniel with Thom Woodroofe on winning middle Australia in the climate wars
Duty to warn — when challenging power becomes personal, and why journalists Cheng Lei and Charlotte Grieve didn't give up
Trump, Xi, Putin and what's next for the world? Former White House insider Thomas Wright with the Lowy Institute's Sam Roggeveen
Sperm shortages, shady Facebook groups, and other intimate stories of modern donor conception
How can we design our way out of Australia's housing crisis? With Anthony Burke and Tim Ross
Dark Emu's Bruce Pascoe and astrophysicist Ray Norris — can Aboriginal astronomy unite humanity under one big sky?
Hard-won progress in women's rights is dismantled — and it threatens global security
Medical misogyny — how the health system overlooks women's pain and how it's finally adapting
When Turnbull met Trump — and what it means for today’s changing world order
The untold Titanic story of Evelyn with Lisa Wilkinson
What can Plato teach us about democracy today?
Could self-driving cars & other innovations end the tyranny of distance in regional Australia?
Love for your neighbour: how to cultivate radical empathy in a disenchanted world
What makes Putin tick — and how will his iron-fist rule of Russia end? Natasha Mitchell with guests
Is nuclear war a real threat again? Ex-NATO and Atomic Energy Agency officials weigh in at Harvard
How to date from a position of power, with Bad Dates of Melbourne creator Alita Brydon and Nelly Thomas
How to live and die well — with Marieke Hardy, Hannah Gould and Antonia Pont
Wounded narcissist, visionary, team player, a mother's love? The alchemy of good (and bad) political leadership
Why jailed Jimmy Lai's plight is a warning for press freedom and us all, everywhere
Can you trust AI in the news? UK's Ian Dunt and guests on deepfakes, dodgy headlines and more
Why working-class kid turned millionaire banker Gary Stevenson wants you to join the fight against economic inequality
Dear Prime Minister Albanese: Where are all the BIG IDEAS?
US civil rights leader Martin Luther King III on why corporate Australia shouldn't be shy of 'DEI'
Do Royal Commissions really work (and are they worth the money)? Betty King KC, Jack Rush KC, Jon Faine
Was Malcolm Fraser a conservative warrior or a closet progressive?
"Here I am, here we are" Jewish Australian women reflect on the rupture of October 7 2023
Resistance — Yanis Varoufakis with Helen Vatsikopoulos on the people who fought back against fascism
Immunotherapy trailblazer Georgina Long on the hidden ingredients in cancer medicine
40 years after Chernobyl we face a new nuclear risk — this time as a weapon of war
Is Trump a new Nero, Caligula, Caesar? Can the Roman Empire help us make sense of today's chaos? And other burning questions
Australia's broken social contract — Tahlia Isaac wants to protect women in prison
Is Southeast Asia Australia's blind spot? — with Michael Wesley and Geoff Raby
The future of the past — how artificial intelligence is changing history
Aliens exist (and the truth is out there)!? Science Smackdown at World Science Festival Brisbane 2026
British journalist Emily Maitlis on THAT Prince Andrew interview and news in a post truth world
Tennis prodigy Todd Ley on the underbelly of elite junior sport
Who's afraid of a joke? Comedy in an authoritarian age — with comedians Sam Jay, Tom Ballard, Bahaa Dabbagh and Leon Filewood
The science of SEX! Natasha Mitchell and guests at World Science Festival Brisbane
Forgiveness — a generous gift or social pressure disguised as a virtue?
The diplomats — the ups and downs of life in Australia's foreign embassies
Six years of writing, 200 rejections — how Miles Franklin award-winning writer Siang Lu learned to live with failure
Disinformation, deep fakes, and other dodgy doings — the threat to Australian security, democracy, and you
A human rights agenda for Canada (2025 CBC Massey lecture 5)
How people power makes human rights real (2025 CBC Massey Lecture 4)
Human Rights don't have to be earned (2025 CBC Massey lecture 3)
The six years that remade human rights (2025 CBC Massey Lecture 2)
Renewing the broken promise of universal human rights. Alex Neve (2025 CBC Massey lecture 1)
From breadwinners to Bluey's Bandit — a history of Australian fathers and their families
Girl on Girl — How pop culture turned a generation of women against themselves with The Atlantic's Sophie Gilbert
Randa Abdel-Fattah and Louise Adler on the cost of speaking out in a time of division
Mental illness —Taking stigma out of media reporting
Shattered lands — Sam Dalrymple on the five partitions of British India
Three Nobels! Are we backing young minds today to pull off what Brian Schmidt, Peter Doherty, Rolf Zinkernagel did?
The secret of how to topple tyrants and dictators — and crimes against humanity under the microscope
ABC National Forum
Antisemitism's religious roots
In a time of division, how can we rebuild social cohesion? — with Australian Human Rights Commissioner Hugh de Kretser
How a song became a movement for Afghanistan's women and girls — with International Children's Peace Prize winner Nila Ibrahimi
Scientist Tim Flannery — a Panopticon for our times?
Who can we become? Thomas Mayo and Ray Martin speak Black and White about Australia's future
Can an arts degree change the world? A defence of the study humanities at Australian universities
Dearest Gentle Reader, a very Bridgerton Big Ideas! Australian novelists dissect the regency era
The Stoic and the introvert — life hacks from Brigid Delaney and Jenny Valentish
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya fights for a free Belarus − and what are Russia's strategies in Southeast Asia?
Backlash against LGBTIQA+ community — why now? Joe Ball
The life of astronauts — with 2026 Australian of the Year Katherine Bennell-Pegg
Harvard firebrand on intellectual freedom Steven Pinker with Natasha Mitchell
What does Labor stand for? With Sean Kelly and Misha Ketchell
What does liberalism mean today?
The history of money — with Irish economist David McWilliams
The Australian Wars with Rachel Perkins and Henry Reynolds — a watershed event at the Australia War Memorial
Bob Brown on the role of defiance in the climate crisis — with Gardening Australia's Hannah Moloney
War is changing and the laws meant to protect civilians aren't cutting it anymore
Stan Grant — when words fail us, reclaiming the language of love
How conspiracy theories get inside our heads and take hold — Ariel Bogle, Cam Wilson, Gavin Fang, Tracey Kirkland
PRESENTS — The Challenger Legacy
If we can make space accessible, we can make any space accessible
The Great Debate — that Australia's history unites us
Trump's USA — is it fascism yet? Masha Gessen, Anna Funder, Jason Stanley
Meet Australia’s next woman prime minister? Four changemakers here to WOW
James Bond and Jason Bourne move over – a real spy talks about his workday
Finding skeletons in the closet — the ethics of DNA testing in family history research
Vested interests vs public interest? The relation of Australian governments with the fossil fuel industry
We asked for workers and got people — life on the controversial visa putting food on your plate
When thinking together goes wrong — exploring the dark side of collaboration
House security systems – who really benefits?
Helen Garner on the beauty and grandeur of footy
Jem Bendell, the fake green fairytale, and how to survive civilisational collapse
Kara Swisher and Marc Fennell take on the Tech Bros
The relationship between brain and machine
On the art of music writing — with writers who rock!
Can storytellers change the world? Tim Winton and Rachel Perkins join Natasha Mitchell
History of populist rage in America
Meditation and mindfulness in the digital age
The secrets of wildlife documentaries
The Knowledge Gene — an incredible story of the origins of human creativity
Sarah Churchwell asks — Will American democracy survive the Dark Enlightenment?
2025 Grammy winner Ruthie Foster talks about her life and music
Childless on purpose — the fertility crisis and the big decision
Surfer Tim Baker and doctor Peter Goldsworthy on living well with cancer
Understand your microbiome
Doctor Who at 60 — still as attractive as ever
The role of spirituality and religion in mental health care
A song for every feeling? Pub Choir's Astrid Jorgensen with Natasha Mitchell
Victoria's new treaty with First Peoples — a turning point for Australia?
Pay attention — writer Emily Maguire finds promiscuous curiosity and cultural receptivity in the creative process
Can science keep dementia at bay and keep your brain sharper − for longer?
Acclaimed author Christos Tsiolkas on fence-sitting in a time of fracture
The stories we tell about cricket — with Paul Giles and Gideon Haigh
Judge Navi Pillay on the fight for human rights, justice and accountability
Musician Holly Rankin on why young Australians feel that politics isn't delivering for them
What are universities for today? The usefulness of "useless" knowledge
Jane Caro — why Australia is failing our school system
Coming Out and Inviting In — with Zoe Terakes, Nina Oyama, Mon Schafter, Atari Metcalf, Ji Wallace
Searching for convivencia — philosopher AC Grayling makes peace in the culture wars
The Sophia Club live philosophy — what are friends for?
Understanding China's history is crucial for Australia
Universities and other antidotes to authoritarianism
One day, everyone will have always been against this — Omar El Akkad and Peter Greste reckon with Western hypocrisy over Israel's war on Gaza
Fixing Australia's housing crisis — is increasing supply really a silver bullet?
Gough Whitlam's dismissal — why is it still relevant today?
An intriguing story of art and espionage — how a classical scholar turned codebreaker during World War 2
Empire of AI — Karen Hao goes inside the reckless race for total world domination
ABC's CITIZEN JURY — Fixing salmon farming's environmental harms in Tasmania
Anne Summers — 50 Years of Damned Whores and God’s Police
Why we need to cancel cancel culture — with defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou
Out of this world — with Booker Prize winning author Samantha Harvey
What Artists See? Critic Quentin Sprague helps you get to the messy human heart of art
Matrescence — on the metamorphosis of motherhood
Alexander the Great — A genius? A tyrant? A visionary? A killer? A maniac?
Nobel laureate Donna Strickland on her life in lasers
Ziggy Ramo’s latest project asks what makes us human?
New legislation to protect you against invasion of your privacy
How to build a stock exchange — the past, present and future of finance
Is Jane Austen the greatest English novelist of all time?
We’re F**ed! It’s too late to avoid civilisational collapse. 2025 Beaker Street Festival Great Debate
Who killed the liberal international order (and what comes next)?
Can the Democrats save democracy in the US?
Maria Ressa on what Donald Trump learnt from Rodrigo Duterte and other strongman rulers
Prove It! Elizabeth Finkel's Scientific Guide for the Post-Truth Era
John Lennon and Paul McCartney — a partnership that changed cultural history
'Militarism gone mad' — Labor firebrand hits out at party’s support of AUKUS
Genocides are everyone's business, not no-one's business — Gareth Evans, Yassmin Khadra, Daniel Abot's urgent plea for peace
Vale Dr Jane Goodall — why the renowned primatologist and environmentalist held onto hope
Is AI the new coloniser? How to create more life-centred AI before it's too late
Condoleezza Rice on how to fix the break-up of global cooperation
The rise of Spotify and the costs of the perfect playlist — with music journalist Liz Pelly
Yolngu power — art, culture, country, law — with Marcia Langton and Clare Wright
Nobel scientist Jennifer Doudna with Natasha Mitchell — the gene editing revolution, radical ethics, and what's next? [Archive episode]
Helen Vatsikopoulos — when the stories of migrants in Australia are silenced it's bad for all of us
The power of essays — with David Marr, Esther Anatolitis, Brooke Boland and Ashleigh Wilson
Fleeced — unravelling the history of wool and war
What's up with dieting Doc? Rethinking the obesity obsession in healthcare
Doing business ethically in turbulent times — with Helen Clark
Jimmy Barnes – tells it all
Hanna Rosin on what’s happened to the end of men in Trump’s America
Nuked or not? The politics and power play over nuclear energy as a climate fix
Heart-to-heart with John Wamsley and David Lindenmayer — why these trailblazing environmentalists won't back off
Are the reading wars really over?
Is our university system broken?
The radicalisation of boys — Jess Hill, George Megalogenis, Thomas Mayo with Natasha Mitchell at Byron Writers Festival
The AI Con — unpacking the artificial intelligence hype machine
Barry Jones and Kerry O'Brien — on complexity, politics and love
Tradwives — cosy cottage core fantasy, or something more sinister? With Megan Agnew, Rosie Waterland, Beverley Wang and Nakkiah Lui
My Sister and Other Lovers — Esther Freud with Natasha Mitchell at Byron Writers Festival
When dreams speak truth — exploring the relationship between our realities and the subconscious
The US was meant to pivot to Asia — has Donald Trump changed course?
Alison Lester and Jane Godwin on how children’s books change lives
From devil horns to deep listening — Maxine Beneba Clark, Debra Dank, Damon Young on the power of communication
How a picnic started the fall of the Iron Curtain
Anna Funder — Bears out there, writing in the age of bots and broligarchs
The remarkable life of Marie Curie and the women scientists she inspired — with Dava Sobel
Wellness influencers will outlive us all! The Science Smackdown Debate at World Science Festival Brisbane
How to live an experimental life
Dugongs — up close and personal
Do you know the size of your material footprint?
Sarah Wilson reckons with our civilisational collapse
Mike Burgess — Espionage is a growing and costly threat to Australia
Plummeting vaccination rates threaten public health
Not drowning waving, a modern media tale — with Geraldine Doogue
From Con the Fruiterer to East West 101 — the changing face of Australian TV
FAT is not an F-word! The radical practice of fat joy
How animals use natural medicine to heal themselves
The dark side of collaboration — when thinking together goes wrong
Adam Liaw on what spaghetti bolognese tells us about Australian life
Mao and Stalin — did they lead the way for tyrannical leaders like Trump?
One land, two laws, it’s black and white — with Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Social Justice Commissioner Katie Kiss
Doctor Who turns 60 — why the world still loves you
Is AI our modern-day Frankenstein? Jeanette Winterson and Toby Walsh
ABC's CITIZEN JURY — Would you live inside a modern power station? These people will, and want to be heard
Radical economics — what can we learn from the life of John Maynard Keynes
Life behind the lens — with photojournalists Lorrie Graham, Rick Stevens and Mike Bowers
Can citizen juries put the people back in democracy?
Join Jodi Edwards and her Sea Kin on a journey that flows like salt water — you won't see the sea in the same way
Behrouz Boochani and Arnold Zable on the radical act of friendship
Where to now — transforming anger into action after the Voice referendum
What would a feminist utopia look like?
Dark tourism, death, design, and the macabre — should some places stay untouched?
Is language power? With American linguist John McWhorter
Hard new world — our post-American future, with Hugh White and Allan Behm
Baby boycott — the fertility crisis and the big decision
Love your gut — understanding the microbiome
Adapt or collapse — can we meet the moment of environmental peril
Kate McClymont on the complete insanity of investigative journalism
The second coming of quantum — the next scientific revolution is here
The past is a foreign country — Santilla Chingaipe, Sita Sargeant, Steve Vizard with Natasha Mitchell
Will American democracy survive the Dark Enlightenment? Sarah Churchwell on Gone with the Wind and the roots of extremism
We are the evidence — empowering change in Indigenous Australia
From Bangalore to Balmain – Padma Raman’s lifelong advocacy for women and girls
Fashion's fails — we can fix its toxic legacy! Kit Willow, Natasha Mitchell, and guests
Warren Ellis on why he bought a Sumatran wildlife sanctuary — with Justin Kurzel and Zan Rowe
To infinity – who's in charge of outer space?
Being Jewish after the destruction of Gaza — with Peter Beinart and Sarah Schwartz
We asked for workers and got people — inside the temporary visa scheme putting food on your plate
The unbearable intimacy of voicing someone’s words — with Forced Entertainment
Gina Chick on what dark nights of the soul can teach us about life and living
Safe at home – who profits when you’re afraid of your neighbours?
The ghosts are here — Tasma Walton, Darren Rix, Craig Cormick, Anthony Sharwood with Natasha Mitchell
Words to sing the world alive — waking up First Nations languages
From vulture bone flutes to ‘organised sound’— Andrew Ford's short history of music
If it bleeds it leads – Bruce Shapiro on documenting the violence of modern life
Live to 150? David Sinclair on why we age — and why he thinks we don't have to
Australia and the spectre of war — from Vietnam to today
Australia votes — what message should we take from this election result?
What are you wearing? Why we aren’t buying Australian made fashion
Mark Zuckerberg claims corporations are culturally neutered — are they? Men, women, work, and the manosphere
History lessons — historians Orlando Figes, Bettany Hughes, Matthew Longo and Dava Sobel with Annabelle Quince
Chatting with 2025 Grammy winner Ruthie Foster
Vladimir Putin’s Russia — with exiled journalist and author Mikhail Zygar
Rituals, rats, and reeded vertebrae! The mysteries of Machu Picchu and Ancient Peru revealed
Mental ill-health and the power of words
Worried about the future? A mosquito could help you to live in the present
Australia votes— are our political parties on the nose?
Has the world lost the plot? John Lyons, Greg Sheridan, Emma Shortis, Josh Taylor with Natasha Mitchell
The painting that changed Australia — the story of Blue Poles
Are Donald Trump and US politics bringing global health to its knees?
Sir Simon Schama — On antisemitism
How do we make cancer treatment worth it, work better, and less harmful?
Pankaj Mishra — the world after Gaza
Uncovering Pompeii — 300 years of archaeology
When women resist authoritarianism — what's happening in Iran, Afghanistan, Myanmar right now?
A season of death — with Raimond Gaita and Michelle Lesh
Where is the soul in science? Natasha Mitchell and guests on a humanity defining battle (Archive)
When the Tech Bros come to town — with Kara Swisher and Marc Fennell
The biggest threat to the planet is a story — an eye-opening insider account of Australian environmentalism
Supporting teenagers to thrive online
Can storytellers change the world? Tim Winton and Rachel Perkins join Natasha Mitchell
Populist rage in America — history, causes and impacts
Australians – the ‘aristocrats’ of Asia? The Lucky Country 60 years on
Choices created Australia's housing mess, what choices will fix it? Natasha Mitchell and guests
Free your attention — meditation and mindfulness in the digital age
Today YOU can choose your family
Riverhood — oral histories in the Murray Darling Basin
Vested interests vs public interest? How the fossil fuel industry captures Australian governments
France — a paradoxical country
Can the International Criminal Court deliver justice?
Helen Garner on footy, boys, and growing old
Is America on the cusp of collapse under Trump? Natasha Mitchell and guests at Adelaide Writers Week
What does the internet know about you?
Security in Europe hangs in the balance. Is NATO on the rocks?
Animals — Us and them? How does loving animals go together with industrial farming?
Animals — Us and them? Are you having a whale of a time?
Animals — Us and them? The cat catastrophe – pet or pest?
Animals — Us and them? What is the purpose of zoos in an extinction crisis?
Animals — Us and them? The true and the ugly of wildlife documentaries
Jem Bendell, the fake green fairytale, and how to survive civilisational collapse
A murder in Malta — how Daphne Caruana Galizia's fight for justice lives on in her son
Empireworld — Sathnam Sanghera on how British imperialism shaped the globe
Living out your mental illness in public paves the way to lasting change
Uncancelled culture — forgiveness and redemption in the digital age
I can change the world! How these changemakers found their superpower
Re-thinking the relationship between brain and machine
Video games — a new frontier in the fight for global influence?