Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchHow a picnic started the fall of the Iron Curtain
A brass band, goulash cooking in giant pots over open flames, people dancing around a bonfire — a pan-European picnic at the border between Hungary and Austria in 1989 was the beginning of the end of…
Published on 2 weeks, 4 days ago
Anna Funder — Bears out there, writing in the age of bots and broligarchs
Without permission, or payment, artificial intelligence has stolen the published words of thousands of Australian writers, and it seems that they have little power to stop it. What does this mean fo…
Published on 2 weeks, 5 days ago
The remarkable life of Marie Curie and the women scientists she inspired — with Dava Sobel
Marie Curie is arguably the most famous scientist in history, for her breakthroughs in the field of radioactivity. But Curie also redefined what was possible for women in science, inspiring generatio…
Published on 3 weeks, 2 days ago
Wellness influencers will outlive us all! The Science Smackdown Debate at World Science Festival Brisbane
It's Team Wellness Warriors versus Team Medical Miracles. Hear the arguments and you decide! The wellness industry is booming. It's worth billions and its influencers are all over social media spruik…
Published on 3 weeks, 3 days ago
How to live an experimental life
The American essayist, philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson famously said that all life is an experiment, and the more experiments you make, the better. So can experimenting with your career, you…
Published on 3 weeks, 4 days ago
Dugongs — up close and personal
Their closest relative is the elephant; they eat about 60 kg of sea grass per day; and there are only three dugongs in captivity in the world. One in the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium. Big Ideas deep dive…
Published on 3 weeks, 5 days ago
Do you know the size of your material footprint?
In your daily life you use more material than you think: metals, stones, wood, ceramics – the list goes on. We have sufficient resources to support growth, but not enough to support greed. A circular…
Published on 4 weeks, 2 days ago
Sarah Wilson reckons with our civilisational collapse
If you knew the world as we know it was on the verge of collapse, would that change the way you live your life? Author, activist and podcaster Sarah Wilson has found many reasons to believe our post-…
Published on 1 month ago
Mike Burgess — Espionage is a growing and costly threat to Australia
Foreign spies attempt to infiltrate media organisations, break into restricted laboratories, target public servants on sites such as LinkedIn, approach academics at conferences … the list goes on. On…
Published on 1 month ago
Plummeting vaccination rates threaten public health
For the first time in human history, we have the scientific know-how to vaccinate against most of the infectious diseases that killed our ancestors. But an explosion of pseudoscience and disinformatio…
Published on 1 month ago