Podcasts
Big Ideas

Big Ideas

ABC Australia 2813 - What makes television? 100 years of tumultuous change

Your front row seat to big thinkers at the best live events, forums, and festivals. Feed your mind. Be provoked. One big idea at a time. Your brain will love you for it. We love hearing from you about the show or events you are planning. Get in touch! Email: Bigideas@abc.net.au SMS line for ABC Radio National: 0418 226 576 Airs Monday to Thursday 8pm, repeated Tuesday to Friday 12pm, on ABC Radio National.

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Published 13 Aug 2026

Duration 55:46

Episodes

2813-

What makes television? 100 years of tumultuous change

Listened

13 Aug 2026

2812-

CENSORED! CANCELLED! BOYCOTT! The future of artistic freedom and democracy in Australia

Listened

12 Aug 2026

2811-

Forget The Odyssey. Yann Martel, Nikita Gill, Zoe Terakes have their own mythical retellings

Listened

11 Aug 2026

2810-

Africa in a shifting world order — can digital technology achieve what aid never could?

Listened

10 Aug 2026

2809-

How policy decisions today can hurt your kids in the future — are we even trying to get it right?

Listened

06 Aug 2026

2808-

The PNG environmental defenders taking on Australian mining giants — what is extractive justice and its toll?

Listened

05 Aug 2026

2807-

Australian war history — the past, present and future of remembrance. With Professor Peter Stanley

Listened

04 Aug 2026

2806-

What Pacific peoples know about climate justice — and Australia still needs to learn

Listened

03 Aug 2026

2805-

Gay rights pioneer Dennis Altman on five decades of activism, writing and social change

Listened

30 Jul 2026

2804-

Why didn't anyone tell me Australian history was ACTUALLY interesting!? Sita Sargeant, Santilla Chingaipe, Jacinta Mackay, Harini Rangarajan

Listened

29 Jul 2026

2803-

What does 'being a man' look like — today?

Listened

28 Jul 2026

2802-

Could the 21st century be the greatest age of exploration in the history of humankind? Ocean explorer Terry Garcia thinks so

Listened

27 Jul 2026

2801-

On how fear destroys your relationships — and why love can heal fear

Listened

23 Jul 2026

2800-

Angertainment — is it too late to escape the rage bait machine, and why are its roots ancient and evolutionary? With Ed Coper

Listened

22 Jul 2026

2799-

Globalisation and geopolitics – the forces that will make or break Asia

Listened

21 Jul 2026

2798-

Calling out wrongdoing can come at a cost — here's how Australia can strengthen its whistleblowing laws

Listened

20 Jul 2026

2797-

Ex-chief scientist Alan Finkel's three laws of Artificial Intelligence

Listened

16 Jul 2026

2796-

Could you be a hope punk? Jack Toohey on rebellious hope and why better things are possible

Listened

15 Jul 2026

2795-

Fear, healing and finding calm – how the ocean can change you

Listened

14 Jul 2026

2794-

Is education policy damaging our democracy?

Listened

13 Jul 2026

2793-

These Palestinians and Israelis are talking to each other − determined to make peace real in Gaza

Listened

09 Jul 2026

2792-

8 Million Ways to Happiness with Hiroko Yoda — what we can all learn about life, love, and loss from Japan’s flexible spirituality

Listened

08 Jul 2026

2791-

What is the role of the writer in troubled times? Tony Birch with Michael Williams on the ethical imagination

Listened

07 Jul 2026

2790-

If a river is declared a legal “person” — can it talk, remember, feel?

Listened

06 Jul 2026

2789-

Is the cosmos unravelling? With theoretical physicist Tony Padilla

Listened

02 Jul 2026

2788-

A song for every feeling? Pub Choir founder Astrid Jorgensen has a big story to tell (REPEAT)

Listened

01 Jul 2026

2787-

The gambling industry is targeting your children - how, why and what can be done?

Listened

30 Jun 2026

2786-

David Marr on preaching to the converted

Listened

29 Jun 2026

2785-

The God we made — safeguarding humanity in the age of AI

Listened

25 Jun 2026

2784-

The art of forgiveness and why it's not what you think it is — with Rachael Coopes and Natasha Mitchell

Listened

24 Jun 2026

2783-

Whose recipe is it anyway? A nourishing conversation about food and culture

Listened

23 Jun 2026

2782-

Errol Flynn — discover the dark secrets of the Australian Hollywood star

Listened

22 Jun 2026

2781-

The future of democracy? With Jon Sopel, Nick Bryant and Rosalind Dixon

Listened

18 Jun 2026

2780-

The future of TRUTH — Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales, philosopher A.C Grayling, journalist Barbara Demick, AI scientist Toby Walsh

Listened

17 Jun 2026

2779-

Can Art, artists and activists save Australia’s famous multicultural experiment?

Listened

16 Jun 2026

2778-

Pride or shame? Searching for the story of Australia — with Tony Abbott, Mark McKenna and Sally Warhaft

Listened

15 Jun 2026

2777-

Zoe Daniel with Thom Woodroofe on winning middle Australia in the climate wars

Listened

11 Jun 2026

2776-

Duty to warn — when challenging power becomes personal, and why journalists Cheng Lei and Charlotte Grieve didn't give up

Listened

10 Jun 2026

2775-

Trump, Xi, Putin and what's next for the world? Former White House insider Thomas Wright with the Lowy Institute's Sam Roggeveen

Listened

09 Jun 2026

2774-

Sperm shortages, shady Facebook groups, and other intimate stories of modern donor conception

Listened

08 Jun 2026

2773-

How can we design our way out of Australia's housing crisis? With Anthony Burke and Tim Ross

Listened

04 Jun 2026

2772-

Dark Emu's Bruce Pascoe and astrophysicist Ray Norris — can Aboriginal astronomy unite humanity under one big sky?

Listened

03 Jun 2026

2771-

Hard-won progress in women's rights is dismantled — and it threatens global security

Listened

02 Jun 2026

2770-

Medical misogyny — how the health system overlooks women's pain and how it's finally adapting

Listened

01 Jun 2026

2769-

When Turnbull met Trump — and what it means for today’s changing world order

Listened

28 May 2026

2768-

The untold Titanic story of Evelyn with Lisa Wilkinson

Listened

27 May 2026

2767-

What can Plato teach us about democracy today?

Listened

26 May 2026

2766-

Could self-driving cars & other innovations end the tyranny of distance in regional Australia?

Listened

25 May 2026

2765-

Love for your neighbour: how to cultivate radical empathy in a disenchanted world

Listened

21 May 2026

2764-

What makes Putin tick — and how will his iron-fist rule of Russia end? Natasha Mitchell with guests

Listened

20 May 2026