Castuner

Big Ideas

ABC Australia

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: [email protected] line for ABC Radio National: 0418 226 576Airs Monday to Thursday 8pm, repeated Tuesday to Friday 12pm, on ABC Radio National.

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Episodes

248 episodes

  1. Get neurospicy with The Bachelorette's Osher Günsberg and Kill Your Boomers author Fiona Wright 53:27
  2. Rupture — Niki Savva and Waleed Aly on how our politics is being transformed 58:59
  3. The end of neoliberalism? A guide to Trumpian world-making 55:48
  4. Does fuel reduction burning make us safer? 54:53
  5. In 2046 women run the world — what's changed? 53:44
  6. The stigma of obesity and what it means for your healthcare 54:10
  7. Gut health: Is the food on your plate quietly rewriting your brain chemistry? 54:36
  8. Wrapped? Or Warped? How the internet changed music criticism 57:35
  9. What stops you from becoming homeless? 2026 Australian Homelessness Conference with Natasha Mitchell and guests 52:59
  10. Clive Myrie on what Africa taught a foreign correspondent about our common humanity 54:02
  11. Bringing Brett Whiteley's studio back to life — with Wendy Whiteley 53:45
  12. The ethics of transhumanism 58:03
  13. AI, art, and staying human - is creativity at a crossroad? Evelyn Araluen, Steve Tolz, Kirra Pendergast 58:56
  14. China's one-child policy and a true tale of abduction, adoption and separated twins 54:39
  15. Amitav Ghosh and Luke Kemp on learning from collapsed empires 54:35
  16. Eddie Woo asks — should AI be in the classroom? With Leslie Loble 54:35
  17. You Must Take Part in Revolution — journalist Melissa Chan and artist-in-exile Badiucao 54:35
  18. Bones, CSI, X-Files step aside — here come the real forensic scientists 54:36
  19. George Megalogenis on the three shocks reshaping Australian politics 54:34
  20. The legacy of Jane Goodall —from chimp whisperer to changing how science understands primates 53:42
  21. The future of ageing — what will growing old be like in 2076? 53:48
  22. Can we change the future by reimagining it? 53:38
  23. Lyse Doucet —The history of Kabul’s finest hotel tells the history of a nation 54:13
  24. It's an ancient Hindu poem, so why does The Ramayana still resonate? 54:36
  25. Why literary giants like Margaret Atwood, Nobel laureate Han Kang and Amitav Ghosh wrote books that will never be read in their lifetime 54:35
  26. When you trust social media influencers more than your GP — what can only go wrong? 54:35
  27. Alice Pung's Unpolished Gem and her conversations with the teenagers who've studied it 54:40
  28. ABC National Forum — migration and the kind of country Australia wants to be 55:16
  29. Buying and Selling the Poor at The Festival of Dangerous Ideas — Rick Morton, Mark Considine, Emily Roy with Natasha Mitchell 57:22
  30. Helen Garner reflects on five decades of writing — an ABC Radio National Top 100 Books countdown special 1:15:07
  31. Why Diego Bonetto wants you to eat weeds 54:36
  32. Feminist trailblazer Gloria Steinem with Natasha Mitchell and guests on travels that transformed them 54:54
  33. Are kid's books too moralistic, worthy, or 'woke'? Andy Griffiths, Hilary Rogers, Tamuz Ellazam for Radio National's Top 100 Books 55:46
  34. Inside the life of Elizabeth II with royal biographer Robert Hardman 54:35
  35. Tech activist Cory Doctorow says the internet's been enshittified. So is it too late to save it? 1:00:30
  36. John Brack once painted his children. Now his adult daughter tells her story of life with the famous artist 54:36
  37. Roman Krznaric on why the history of human solidarity offers us radical hope, even now 59:16
  38. Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones and why all great music is a threat 54:05
  39. Stephanie Alexander with Adam Liaw on 30 years of The Cook's Companion 53:42
  40. Mick Herron, Suzie Miller and Benjamin Law on great adaptations — from the page to the stage to the screen, and back again 58:27
  41. Should social media be banned for over-16s too!? The 2026 Beaker Street Festival Great Debate 54:17
  42. Kerry O'Brien on the perfect storm destroying our politics — with Richard Flanagan 54:45
  43. Why Oz Harvest's Ronni Kahn wants you to join the "Order of the Teaspoon" to end food insecurity and waste 54:35
  44. Protecting Australia’s native plants 54:34
  45. Indigenous speculative fiction takes on the apocalypse — with Canadian sci-fi Indiginerd Chelsea Vowel 54:36
  46. Blast off! Exploring our solar system and beyond 54:36
  47. Too Dumb for Democracy? Why your brain struggles with good political decision-making 54:35
  48. What makes television? 100 years of tumultuous change 55:46
  49. CENSORED! CANCELLED! BOYCOTT! The future of artistic freedom and democracy in Australia 1:00:16
  50. Forget The Odyssey. Yann Martel, Nikita Gill, Zoe Terakes have their own mythical retellings 57:17