Big Ideas
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Dialogue with Arab women: Building peace, achieving...
A delegation of prominent Arab women, all leaders in their fields of medicine, human rights, media and business, speaks about the role of women in the changes taking place as a result of the Arab Spring. They want to improve understanding of the issues confronting women in the region through their personal stories and experiences.
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Defence lifestyle in the 21st century
How has the Australian Defence Force adapted to changing social and demographic trends?
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CS Lewis: The missing middle
Is the human world being eroded by the tides of Western culture? Instead of an unstoppable incline, do we see how the weaknesses of each generation limit what’s passed on to each generation thereafter? Marking 50 years since the death of CS Lewis, Scott Stephens is speaking on Lewis’s extraordinary book The Abolition of Man and the decline of the sense of 'the Good' in literature, art and culture in the post-War period.
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IQ debate: drugs in sport
Will sport become chemist vs chemist ?
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Austerity: The history of a dangerous idea
Mark Blyth looks at the history of austerity and its effects in form of deep institutional changes in the international economy.
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Cocaine, Columbia & the War on Drugs
Cocaine is fuelling a violent civil war in Columbia.
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TEDx Sydney
TEDx Sydney: Space junk as heritage, new ideas on food security, how an activist came to embrace the profit motive and why difference in Australian society may have been overstated.
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The myth of Progress
Philosopher John Gray considers the myth of progress and asks Are we just deluded animals ?
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The power of negative thinking
How happy are you?
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Alien Species
Glen Chilton travels the world to examine the impact of hordes of invasive plants and animals
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World under siege
Charles Lemert, one of the most acclaimed sociologists worldwide, talks about the deeper structural elements of the trouble the human order of things is facing: the unconscious forces of a history of collective guilt, the demonic side of technological speed and the extent to which nature has turned on us.
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Gonski
A simple proposition Gonski: Yes or No ?
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Crime and Punishment
The story of Jock Palfreeman, imprisoned in Bulgaria for murder. He claims he was acting in self-defence.
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Marginalia in a digital world
What use and purpose do libraries have in our fast-changing world in which information is accessed predominantly online?
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Andrew Bovell
Andrew Bovell on place of writers in the cultural, political and social landscape we live in.
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Thinking Out Loud: The Politics of Public Things
Thinking Out loud lecture 1: Neoliberalism and the Routine of Privatisation
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Youth transitions - the journey from school to work.
What are the ingredients to a successful transition from school to work and adulthood?
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Innovation and technology
While science and technology are set to erode two billion jobs by 2030, they will solve the wicked problems of the coming decades. That’s the message of the conference Creative Innovation 2012 Asia Pacific. And in the second part of Big Ideas, best-selling technology writer Michael S. Malone argues that the humanities are to emerge as a key player - just as most commentators declare their end.
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17 April 2013
Clementine Ford voices her concerns about gender disparity in public life. How to think like Sherlock Holmes.
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The contradictions of capital
The biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression has generated a surge of interest in Marx’ work. Tonight on Big Ideas, David Harvey looks at the nature of capitalism and points out fundamental contradictions of capital. David Harvey is one of the world’s foremost Marx scholars.
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Developing Australia's North
A special Big Ideas for Australia forum: Developing Australia's North.
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Reflections of an arts bureaucrat
Highlights of It's Culture, stupid: Reflections of an arts bureaucrat. Leigh Tabrett and a panel of senior arts administrators discuss arts, culture and public policy.
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What rights may be defended by means of war?
When is war justified? The traditional assumption is that self-defence against aggression is always permissible. But are the values of state sovereignty and territorial integrity always, or even generally, sufficiently important on their own to justify the resort to war in their defence?
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Goma APT7: Is creative mateship possible?
Panel discussion on some of the major issues shaping cultural and political policy in the Asian and Pacific region, as well as implications for the future.
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Too Many PhDs?
Is Australia producing too many PhD graduates?
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Russia and the European dimension
The Kremlin no longer pretends to subscribe to European values or to believe in rule of law and civil society. Europe appears to be increasingly tangential to Vladimir Putin's vision of a globally resurgent Russia. The 'strategic partnership' with the EU is stagnating and previously strong bilateral relationships are showing new strains. So do we see a structural shift in Russian foreign policy?
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OZ magazine turns 50
Founding editors of OZ magazine, Richard Walsh and Richard Neville, reflect on 1960’s and how their audacious publication provoked the law and push the boundaries of culture and politics.
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Living Contemporary Culture
How are everyday life and culture expressed through art forms such as performance, film and design? How has the cultural make-up of contemporary Australia, Asia and the Pacific changed? Join TV presenter and actor Annette Shun Wah, Aboriginal designer Alison Page and musician John Willsteed as they speak to RN’s Sarah Kanowski about what animates contemporary culture in the Asia Pacific. This is the 3rd of the GOMA Talks series.
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ACOSS social policy forum
What changes to social policy are needed to assist low income Australians?
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China: New leadership
The 18th party congress has concluded and Xi Jinping has formally taken the reins. Will it be business as usual or is there a change in the air ?
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A burning landscape
Big Ideas explores the myth that pre-European settlement Australia was an untamed wilderness. It's a landscape actively shaped by fire. Historian Bill Gammage explains how to reread not only the land itself, but also maps, place names and historic documents. He is in conversation with Radio National’s Kate Evans.
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Why elections fail and nations don't prosper
Why electoral integrity is an essential component for democracy & why are some nations more prosperous than others?
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QUEENSLAND’S “RAT PACK”.
How 5 decades of police corruption shaped Queensland.
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Afghan women are fighting for their rights
Afghan women are saying they are terrified of the restrictions and abuse they will face in a post-2014 Afghanistan. They are warning that women's rights are being traded away inpower-sharing negotiations betweenthe Karzai Government, the Taleban and other groups. Hear their first-hand accounts at a recent Amnesty International discussion.
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Goma talks APT7: Events that shape the world
Goma APT7: perspectives on cultural memory, history and place in contemporary society.
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Syria: What's next?
What’s next for Syria? Joshua Landis places Syria in the broader context of the Levant states in assessing possible outcomes of the Syrian civil war. How the Turks, Iraqis and Lebanese emerged from their efforts at revolution reflects the possibilities for a unified Syrian national movement, the threat of ethnic cleansing and the future of the Alawite and Kurdish regions.
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Tasmania - the "new black"?
The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) has helped put Tasmania back on the map. But where it Tasmania headed?
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IQ debate: our food obsession
Has our obsession with food gone too far or not far enough ? an IQ debate
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What's wrong with our leaders?
Why do our democratic leaders so often disappoint us?
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How time warps and maths in modern life
How does memory, emotions, health and attention influence our perception of time? John Adam shows how guesstimation can be used to solve quirky problems such as how many piano tuners are in New York city ?
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Big Ideas 11 March 2013
For a decade following the end of the Second World War, foreign troops occupied Japan. During that time, thousands of mixed race children were born, the result of relationships between the occupying servicemen. What became of those children after their fathers returned home? Former ABC Tokyo based correspondent, Walter Hamilton, explains. And the Rio+20 Earth Summit was held last year and concluded amidst an atmosphere of widespread dismay at the absence of any tangible progress. What is the...
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Australia in the Asian century
It’s the 20th anniversary of the Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane. The exhibition reflects a fundamental change in Australia’s relationship to Asia and our perception of Australia’s role in the region. So where does the Asian century lead us?
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Robert Langer: Exchanges at the frontier
Robert Langer discusses what it’s like to run the world’s largest bio-medical engineering laboratory,
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The future of creative arts education in Australian...
Australian playwright David Williamson says that short-sighted assault by both sides of the political divide threatens creative arts education in Australia. His 2012 National Tertiary Education Union lecture reflects on his own career, traverses what is happening to the creative arts within higher education in Australia and puts the case for greater funding and institutional support.
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Secrets and Lies
Foreign correspondent, Scott Johnson talks about being the son of CIA spy, nearly dying in a war zone, and how truth and deception can become intertwined.
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Paris: The birthplace of modern democracy
Historian Jonathan Israel examines the influence of the British club in Paris 1792. Was it the birthplace of modern democracy?
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The concept of public value
The concept of public value.
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Grey Literature: Digital scholarship or digital dust
Is grey literature credible ? Does it genuinely add to our store of knowledge? and how much of this digital scholarship will become digital dust ?
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A Year Off the Grog
Jill Stark was a big drinker over 20 years, then shegave up the booze for a year. It wasn’t easy but it was a revelation.
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GOMA talks Nationhood: Who creates cultural identity?
How can you explain nationhood in art? The final Big Ideas and the Arts brings you a GOMA talks discussion exploring the diverse cultural contributions of women in the context of contemporary debates about an 'Australian' national and cultural identity. The all-female panel takes the talk from identity to racism in Australia and the lack of recognition of women artists. This discussion is moderated by RN Weekend Art's Sarah Kanowski.
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Genetics and the Future of Medicine
Amazing progress has been made in working out the structure of the genome and how it operates to control the body. Genetics may now enable medicine to move from therapy to disease prevention, and is providing fascinating insights as to how human diseases arise. There is much to be done to prepare us for the genetics era - and to protect us from it. However the potential of this one field to radically improve the health of our community makes these worthwhile tasks.
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The Asian Century: Two perspectives
Ken Henry articulates the vision and explains the thinking behind the Government's white paper and UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague, suggests the coming era could be described as a global century as well as an Asian century
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Achieving social justice through constitutional change
Why is achieving social justice through constitutional change so often forgotten or dismissed as too hard? That’s the question Professor George Williams explores with the 2012 Parkes Oration. And he refers right back to Henry Parkes, the father of our Australian federation, as he criticises that we have a lawyers’ constitution and not a people's constitution.
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Is growth the solution or the problem?
Our obsession with economic growth is the problem not the solution, says Richard Heinberg.
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Indian Skin Deep or How the Nation Came Home in...
Today on Big Ideas and the Art: A celebration of Tagore.
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Big Ideas - 2013-02-13
Today we talk about the future of heritage. The future of how the past is identified, codified, celebrated, remembered or – let’s face it – contested and argued about. It’s been 20 years since the introduction of the Queensland Heritage Act, and with this panel discussion from the State Library of Queensland we take an encompassing view of what heritage is and why it matters.
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Antifragile: Nassim Taleb
Nassim Taleb, author of the Black Swan, sees a world full of random, improbable and unforeseen events. In his latest book Anti fragile he explains how to design and create systems that make the most out of uncertainty, chaos and volatility.
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Composition, modernism and philosophy
Today on Big Ideas and the Arts: Philosophers, almost by definition, roam over a vast terrain - they write and think about a lot of subjects. Their critical gaze has focussed on all the art forms from prose and poetry to film, painting and popular culture. But why is music, and especially 'art music', so rarely considered?
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Interpreting archives and records
Big Ideas we will be looking at the importance of old records – and of interpreting them correctly. We start with the ancient Mayan record of an apocalypse in 2012 and similar prophecies – how much myth and science is behind them? And then annual the 2012 Geoffrey Bolton Lecture in WA promotes debate about the use and interpretation of archives.
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Beyond the arts and on settling
Robyn Archer challenges the myth that there are few jobs in the arts and discusses the importance of vocational education.
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A look to Asia
Australia’s adjustment to its geography in Asia will determine the success or otherwise of our future as a Nation. That’s the 2012 Annual Hawke Lecture, in which Richard Woolcott asks: Advance Australia Where?
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Gideon Haigh - The Office
The origins of the modern office, and office work
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Imagining Australia in 2030
Panellists Eva Cox , Rebecca Huntley, Adam Bandt, George Megalogenis and Annabel Crabb offer their thoughts on an Australia in the not so distant future.
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From the art of cabaret to clever filmmaking
Today Big Ideas brings you two very different artists. Moira Finucane takes us on a romp through cabaret history and explains the art of provocation. In the second part of the program we will hear from Bruce Beresford about filmmaking and directing of operas.
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what would make the world a better place for women?
Highlights of ideas that change the world for women: a Sydney University forum.
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Voiceless - 2012 Animal Law Lecture Series, Hunted by...
Australia’s kangaroos hunt is the largest commercial slaughter of land-based wildlife on the planet, and Canada’s harp seals are hunted in the world’s largest commercial slaughter of marine mammals. This year’s Voiceless Animal Law Lecture Series looks at the similar legal parameters of these hunts.
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Whackademia - What's Wrong With Our Universities?
We are forever talking about the importance of education, but what type of education are our universities providing? According to Richard Hill, the contemporary Australian university is under-funded and characterised by overburdened academics, falling standards, and never ending reviews and audits. It’s a world he describes as Whackademia and he speaks with Paul Barclay about it
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Q and Asia
If current trends continue, Asia will contribute over half of world’s GDP by 2050. That could mean profound changes in the global economic and political order. How should Australia position itself for the Asian century?
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Towards the blue economy
Free thinking entrepreneur Gunter Pauli takes green and sustainable practices a step further and outlines how a blue economy would work. Existing technology coupled with creative thinking, he argues, can create jobs and add value to underperforming assets.
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Allison-Levick Memorial Lecture: The accelerating...
Dark Energy is causing the expansion of the universe to speed up – and not to slow down as everyone expected. This discovery overturns astronomers’ ideas about the history and the fate of the universe. Professor Brian Schmidt describes the discovery that won him the Nobel Prize in Physics last year.
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Indigenous constitutional recognition.
Where to now for Indigenous recognition in the constitution? A special Constitution Day panel discussion.
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The Addicted Brain
Marc Lewis took every drug imaginable over a 15-year period.He knows drugs can make you feel good, and he experienced the desperate lows of addiction. He's been drug free for 30 years and is now a neuroscientist. So what do the drugs he took actually do to your brain? Why do they make you feel the way they do? And—crucially—how is the brain responsible for addiction? He speaks to Paul Barclay
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The Whitlam Oration: Malcolm Fraser
Malcolm Fraser pays tribute to his former adversary, reflects on their joint contribution to Australian society and cautions against automatically aligning ourselves with the United States. Originally broadcast June 2012
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Untold stories of teachers' work
Do you have a teacher who has inspired you - and in what way? What makes good teaching and how can you measure it? A Big Ideas panel will look at the challenges of teaching and the role of teachers in our society.
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Can Religion Benefit Atheists?
What can religion offer to the non believer?
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The Interrogator
Ex CIA spy Glenn Carle—'the interrogator'—talks to Paul Barclay about a top secret operation that went dreadfully wrong
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Michael Young and the end of apartheid in South Africa
Secret talks initiated by an English businessman led to the end of apartheid in South Africa. On Big Ideas, Michael Young tells his story about how he managed to bring representatives of the exiled ANC and powerful Afrikaner elite together.
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Magazines, Misogyny and Manners: Ita Buttrose
Australian publishing legend Ita Buttrose talks about her passionate life, magazines, misogyny and manners
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Beyond populist politics and policies
What does it take to make good policy decisions in a world where attention spans are dwindling and political populism is on the rise? The Australian Opposition is pushing for a resolution of border protection, and the rise of foreign ownership of local land has got farmers worried. Are these legitimate problems or are they distractions from the real issues of the day? A panel of politicians and academics tackles these questions tonight on Big Ideas.
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Mabo
20 years on from the landmark Mabo ruling, with the benefit of hindsight, how are we to judge this decision?
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Anita Heiss - Am I Black Enough For You?
Am I Black Enough For You? is one woman’s story of being Aboriginal.
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Big Ideas - 2012-12-27
In 1979 two young men in Sydney invented a digital sampling synthesizer that sparked a worldwide musical revolution. It was called the Fairlight and for the first time musicians could play the sound of any instrument on a keyboard. It also allowed them to compose and perform compositions that would otherwise require a band or an orchestra to play. Those two men were 21 and their names were Kim Ryrie and Peter Vogel.
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The transition to Afghanistan sovereignty: Assessing...
Karl Eikenberry: the 2012 Payne Distinguished Lecture 'The Transition to Afghanistan Sovereignty: Assessing Progress and Identifying Challenges'. Ten years in to the war in Afghanistan, the country is in a position where the Afghans will be fully responsible for providing their own security by 2014, says former ambassador and commander of the American-led Coalition Forces Karl Eikenberry. At the 2012 Payne Distinguished Lecture from the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at...
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The classical world: dead and buried?
Richard Jenkyns considers the enduring legacy of ancient Greece and Rome.
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Paths to a just peace for Israel and Palestine
How do we achieve a just peace for Israel and Palestine? A dialogue presented by the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre at the University of South Australia and the Abraham Institute tries to help us understand the underlying issues and challenges for the people of Israel and Palestine.
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Kim Barker - The Taliban Shuffle
Kim Barker talks with Paul Barclay about the absurdities of reporting on fight against terrorism
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Cranlana 6 - Growth to What End? Changing the Australian...
In the final Cranlana lecture Chief Executive of the Business Council of Australia, Jennifer Westacott, explored the links between well-managed growth, prosperity and a good society. She makes the case that prosperity is an essential element of a good society and that economic growth is essential to achieving enduring prosperity. So how can we achieve well-managed growth that delivers on the good society vision?
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Cranlana 5: Sticking up for the arts
Larissa Behrendt argues that investing in the arts offers rewards on many different levels.
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Cranlana 4 - A good society
What makes for ‘a good society’? The Archbishop of Melbourne asks how will a future Australian generation judge ours? ...and he reminds us that we have a responsibility to ensure that others, particularly those who lack the means or ability, are able to share in the general wealth and opportunity of our community.
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Architecture, the built environment and the good society
High quality, architect designed housing, can improve the way we live. And it doesn’t have to cost a fortune.
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Cranlana 2: Coming to terms with past injustices
How to think about what we’ve done - coming to terms with past injustices.
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Cranlana 1: Meaning Well and Doing Well
Putting feasibility first, that’s Dan Russell’s answer to the challenge of how to make hard moral decisions. He looks at what makes a good society from the vantage point of philosophy.
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Is western civilisation in terminal decline: an IQ debate
Highlights of the Intelligence Squared debate that western civilisation is in terminal decline.
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Lessons from the Political Trenches
Maxine McKew is a TV journalist who became a politician. She talks about her rise and fall, life’s lessons, and why it was wrong to dump Kevin Rudd as PM..
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Australia and Europe in conversation, part eleven
This year, the European Union has won the Nobel Peace Prize – and it's 50 years of Australia-EU relations. The EU is Australia's second-largest trading partner after China and Australia's largest trading partner in services. So how have our relations developed over the decades? And we talk to a European country with which Australia has particularly strong ties: the UK. This is the final part of our conversation series on Australia and the European Union.
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Big Ideas - 2012-12-05
The best Australian science writing for 2012 and Stem Cells: a discussion between a leading researcher and an ethicist.
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Big Ideas - 2012-12-04
The Hon Michael Kirby dismantles passages of the bible which are often called upon to reject homosexuality in Christian ethics. He picks up on the book Five Uneasy Pieces: Essays On Scripture And Sexuality, which argues that there is no biblical warrant for condemning either a homosexual orientation or a faithful and committed homosexual relationship.
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Big Ideas - 2012-12-03
Australia is facing a new extinction crisis.
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Big Ideas - 2012-11-29
JaneCaroandCatherineFoxteaseoutandconfrontsomeofthemythsaboutwomenintheworkplace.
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Big Ideas - 2012-11-28
Moira Kelly talks about her humanitarian work and the role of compassion in leadership. In the second part, Leneen Ford gives the inaugural United Nation Brisbane Peace lecture and remembers two strong women who have dedicated their lives to the promotion of peace.
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Big Ideas - 2012-11-27
Charles Murray puts the spotlight on the new upper class, an influential and elite group, who have become increasingly isolated from mainstream society.
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Big Ideas - 2012-11-26
Ali al Jenabi was brutalised in Iraq, and later convicted of people smuggling in Australia. Robin de Crespigny tells his incredible story - an alternative narrative of 'people smuggling'.
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Big Ideas - 2012-11-21
Paul Keating on Asia in the new order: Australia’s diminishing sphere of influence.
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Big Ideas - 2012-11-20
Today Big Ideas brings you two very different artists. Moira Finucane takes us on a romp through cabaret history and explains the art of provocation. In the second part of the program we will hear from Bruce Beresford about filmmaking and directing of operas.
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Big Ideas - 2012-11-19
40 million copies of the book 50 Shades of Grey have been sold worldwide. What is this telling us about changing attitudes towards explicit sex, even porn?
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Modernism, music and philosophy
Composer Martin Bresnick and philosopher Nikolas Kompridis consider music and philosophy after modernism
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Big Ideas - 2012-11-14
More than 700 new planets were discovered in the past two decades. About half of sun-like stars are believed to harbour at least one. But you have to know how to look for them. Professor Chris Tinney explains different detection techniques. We learn how planets are formed and that the extra-solar planets which astronomers have found so far have a bewildering array of properties - and the vast majority looks nothing at all like our Solar System.
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Big Ideas - 2012-11-13
Philip Mirowskioffers a critical assessment of how neo-liberal policies are influencing Universities, science and scientific research.
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Big Ideas - 2012-11-12
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Big Ideas - 2012-11-08
Today we cover business best practice as well as philosophy. Focusing on the works of Hegel, Nietzsche and Freud, Professor Miriam Leonard investigates how the return to antiquity was essential in forming what we know today as the modern condition. In the second half of the program you’ll hear about leadership trends in the 21st century. How does brand identity change over the decades while staying true to its core values - particularly in the non-profit sector?
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Big Ideas - 2012-11-07
Military historian Antony Beevor discusses the Second World War and the decisive events of 1942
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Big Ideas - 2012-11-06
Why are researchers in the United States and Europe accepting money from repressive regimes, in exchange for improving their surveillance ability? This is one of many uncomfortable questions Evgeny Morozov ponders. Although the West has hundreds of laws against engaging in trade with dictatorships, the distribution channels of software or hardware products conceal transactions with countries that world leaders claim are threats.
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Big Ideas - 2012-11-05
Technology and Education. Geo-engineering.
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Big Ideas - 2012-11-01
Gail Mabo and Bryan Keon-Cohen QC reflect on Eddie Mabo the man and his historic and ultimately successful legal battle for recognition of native title. Highlights of the 2012 Charles Perkins oration
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Big Ideas - 2012-10-31
The rise of populist extremist parties is one of the most pressing challenges facing European democracies. They recorded unprecedented success in recent elections in Greece, the Netherlands and Finland. At the Brisbane Writers Festival a panel looks at the rise of the extreme right – its causes and implications.
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Big Ideas - 2012-10-30
Are we living in a time where the gender roles have flipped over ?
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Big Ideas - 2012-10-29
Lindsay Tanner defends the record of the Rudd government and talks about the challenges facing Labor and social democratic parties worldwide.
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Big Ideas - 2012-10-24
How do co-ops and social enterprises operate and what is the philosophy behind them?
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Big Ideas - 2012-10-23
How about a future in which we all stay young and healthy by taking a pill that reduces the impact of ageing? UK geneticist Professor Dame Linda Partridge expects that within a decade there will be drugs that could achieve exactly that. But she is not promising immortality -- at the fourth Graeme Clark Oration in Melbourne, Linda Partridge presents a new model of ageing in which we age gracefully -- healthy, happy and active until the end.
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Big Ideas - 2012-10-22
How do you reconcile the right to autonomy with the need to protect those with impaired decision making capacity? This is the guardianship dilemma.
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Big Ideas - 2012-10-18
Professor Shaoguang Wang discusses how ordinary citizens participate, engage with and influence the political system in China.
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Big Ideas - 2012-10-17
Australia’s kangaroos hunt is the largest commercial slaughter of land-based wildlife on the planet, and Canada’s harp seals are hunted in the world’s largest commercial slaughter of marine mammals. This year’s Voiceless Animal Law Lecture Series looks at the similar legal parameters of these hunts.
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Big Ideas - 2012-10-16
Highlights from the IQ squared debate that there's nothing wrong with designer babies
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Big Ideas - 2012-10-15
A powerful, raw, personal account of life in the combat zone, and the psychological price soldiers pay for going to war.
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Big Ideas - 2012-10-11
Our world is getting increasingly digitalised and multicultural. The second national MyLanguage Conference picked up on this trend and explored how a digital future can better connect multilingual communities. But what are the new challenges for libraries in a multicultural, digital networked and interactive world?
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Big Ideas - 2012-10-10
It's all about.... waiting.
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Big Ideas - 2012-10-09
Australia’s population will hit 23 million next year. We are the sixth biggest country in the world, with twice the land mass of India, so how many more people can we fit here?
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Big Ideas - 2012-10-08
Plant diversity has never been more important than now. It offers solutions towards food security and sustainable livelihoods, and yet we continue to destroy species at an accelerating pace. What are strategies to preserve plant biodiversity?
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Big Ideas - 2012-10-04
Welfare without the state: Four speakers outline why and how social services can be reformed.
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Big Ideas - 2012-10-03
This year we celebrate 20 years of women priests in the Anglican Church.Today women serve as deacons, chaplains, deans and assistant bishops. But the path to women’s ordination had not been smooth or painless. Dr Muriel Porter, author, journalist and leading Anglican laywoman, reflects on this path and asks 'was it worth it?'
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Big Ideas - 2012-10-02
Some in Labor circles are openly hostile towards the Greens – so are they friends or enemies? Robert Manne convenes a discussion with MPs Andrew Leigh (Labor) and Adam Bandt (Greens) on the future of the parliamentary left in Australia.
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Big Ideas - 2012-10-01
Last year, a third of all Australians travelled overseas. Globally, the numbers are even more staggering.
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Big Ideas - 2012-09-27
In our EU series Big Ideas tackles current important European issues to commemorate 50 years of Australia – EU relations. But what exactly is Europe? How to define what countries are entitled to be members of the EU? And how does Europe cope with an immigration rate which dwarfs our situation here in Australia? Today you will also hear about one of the darkest times in recent European history: the Balkan wars which shook the EU to the core.
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Big Ideas - 2012-09-26
Have we lost faith in our collective ability to tackle important social challenges? Matthew Taylor delivers the annual RSA chief executive lecture: The power to act: a new angle on our toughest problems.
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Big Ideas - 2012-09-25
The recent discovery of a new subatomic particle, believed to be the long-sought Higgs boson, was hailed as one of the biggest announcements in physics for a century - as a human achievement which will be known 300 years from now. The Higgs Boson is the final missing ingredient in the Standard Model of particle physics. This model describes the fundamental particles from which every visible thing in the universe is made, and the forces acting between them. Listen to the scientists at the...
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Big Ideas - 2012-09-24
Are footballers really gods? And is the Grand Final a quest for the holy grail? Is football a belief system providing spiritual sustenance to the faithful? Or just a game? Anglican Bishop Philip Huggins, historian Joy Damousi, writer and broadcaster John Harms, Catholic parish priest Father Kevin Dillon, sports journalist Angela Pippos and Coodabeen Champion Jeff Richardson take sides for a debate that divides the believers from the deniers.
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what would make the world a better place for women?
Highlights of ideas that change the world for women: a Sydney University forum.
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Big Ideas - 2012-09-19
what are the things that matter to Kevin Rudd? In conversation with human right lawyer and Jesuit Priest Frank Brennan, he talks about ‘saying sorry’, about forming values in a post-Christian age, and how to reply to ethical questions such as the asylum seeker debate in politically conflicted environments.
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The classical world: dead and buried ?
Richard Jenkyns considers the enduring legacy of ancient Greece and Rome.
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Big Ideas - 2012-09-17
Social media, like Twitter and the blogosphere, is influencing Australian politics and political journalism
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Big Ideas - 2012-09-13
Are secularisation and the loss of its moral function in society driving religion over the edge? It seems that public regard for religion has never been as low as today, but at the same time there is a rediscovery of orthodoxy – at least in Europe and the US. What challenges is religion facing? This is a panel discussion from the Brisbane Writers Festival.
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Are university degrees grossly overrated?
Highlights of the IQ debate: that having a university degree is grossly overrated.
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Big Ideas - 2012-09-10
Why do we hold separate Paralympics and Olympics? At the University College London, a panel discusses whether we should incorporate the two events in a single Olympic Games open to all.
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Does Australia deserve a seat on the United Nations...
It’s been 25 years since we last had a place at the table and with a vacancy coming up in October of this year, how is the Australian bid is shaping up?
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Big Ideas - 2012-09-05
Voicing and acting upon your values in the workplace will make you happy. The ‘Giving Voice to Values’ curriculum at Babson College is a pioneering approach to values-driven leadership. Program director Mary Gentile shares a simple re-framing which is piloted in over 250 business school around the world—and which aims to unleash the values-driven energy and creativity that people already possess.
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Extrovert bias- it's all around us
Susan Cain shares her story of what it’s like to be an introvert in an extroverted world.
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Big Ideas - 2012-09-03
While Australia seems to have been immune to the worst of the global financial pandemic, it would seem that our relative prosperity has also inoculated us against some of the most radical social and political thinking taking place in the UK and Europe. But where is this new thinking coming from? For today's guests, it is the Christian social vision that represents a genuine "third way" over against the bankrupt politics of the left and the right, beyond the welfare state and the supposedly...
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Big Ideas - 2012-08-30
If economic and demographic trends continue, Asia will contribute over half of world GDP by 2050, and that could mean profound changes in the world economic and political order. So what are the likely economic, political and also strategic challenges for the region – and what should be done to position Australia for the Asian century? This is a discussion from the ANU Asia Pacific Week.
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Big Ideas - 2012-08-29
Should graduates contribute more to the cost of their education ?
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Big Ideas - 2012-08-28
Dark Energy is causing the expansion of the universe to speed up – and not to slow down as everyone expected. This discovery overturns astronomers’ ideas about the history and the fate of the universe. Professor Brian Schmidt describes the discovery that won him the Nobel Prize in Physics last year.
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Big Ideas - 2012-08-27
Research shows, the lower your social and economic position, the worse your health - physically and mentally
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Big Ideas - 2012-08-23
Does Australia need a Big Society?
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Big Ideas - 2012-08-22
Slavery did not end 200 years ago. There are 27 million slaves in the world today - poor and vulnerable people who are owned, bonded or trafficked - children, women, men, child soldiers, sex slaves, debt slaves. Other forms of slavery such as domestic service or organ trafficking have only been recognised quite recently. This talk will cover the forms of modern slavery and how people can bring change.
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Massey lectures not available for podcast
From 27 February to 5 March on Big Ideas we are broadcasting the 2011 CBC Massey lectures. Unfortunately the lectures are not available for podcast. You can listen on demand at http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/bigideas.
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Sunday 01 January 2012
If your life—or your quality of life—was at stake, would you travel abroad to try stem cell therapies that aren't available in Australia, either because we don't have them yet, or because the underlying science isn't in place? It's a question that looms large in the lives of the members of today's panel, in this second of five forums recorded around Australia in 2011.
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