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Feed your mind. Be provoked. One big idea at a time. Your brain will love you for it. Grab your front row seat to the best live forums and festivals with Natasha Mitchell.

Big Ideas

When you enter your childbearing years, it can feel like everyone from the treasurer, your mum, and probably your Instagram reels really wants you to have a kid. But is it the right decision? Few women escape this conundrum of modern family-making, and unfortunately there is no easy or simple answer. But in this talk presented by the Sydney Opera House at the All About Women Festival 2025, you’ll get the context, prompts and profound reflections to help you think through this decision, whether it’s in your own life or for someone you love. 

Original broadcast on June 26, 2024

Childless on purpose — the fertility crisis and the big decision

Meet two men who will change the way you think about an experience most of us fear but will be touched by in some way. In Patting the Shark, surfing writer Dr Tim Baker describes his wild ride to reclaim a sense of control and agency after a cancer diagnosis. Celebrated author and GP Peter Goldsworthy’s memoir The Cancer Finishing School started out as a journal but became so much more.They join Natasha Mitchell for intimate an intimate, revelatory, funny, and generous conversation about the Big C and how medicine needs to change. 

This event was hosted by the 2024 Queenscliffe Literary Festival

Original broadcast on January 22, 2025.

Speakers

Dr Tim BakerJournalist, editor, patient advocate, and facilitator of the Peter Mac Book GroupResearch Fellow, Prostate Cancer Research Group, Monash Biomedical Discovery InstituteAuthor, Patting the Shark: A surfer's journey — learning to live well with cancer (Ebury Australia/Penguin, 2022)

Dr Peter GoldsworthyGP, author, librettist, poetAuthor, The Cancer Finishing School —lessons in laughter, love, resilience (Penguin, 2024)

Surfer Tim Baker and doctor Peter Goldsworthy on living well with cancer

Are fermented foods really good for us? Do antibiotics destroy our gut flora? And have you heard about poo transplants?

Our gut is teeming with trillions of microbial cells, and we are learning more all the time about how this affects everything from our digestion, to immunity, to mental health.

So crack open your kombucha, because these leading researchers will cut through the noise with some hard facts and pioneering science about the microbiome.

This event was recorded at the World Science Festival Brisbane 30 March 2025.

Original broadcast on June 25, 2025.

Speakers

Paul GriffinProfessor of Medicine, Clinical Unit Head and Director of Infectious Diseases, University of Queensland and Mater Hospital

Felice JackaDistinguished Professor in Nutritional PsychiatryFounder and director, Food and Mood Centre Deakin UniversityAuthor, There's a Zoo in my Poo

Gene TysonMicrobial ecologist, bioinformatician, and founder, Centre for Microbiome research, Queensland University of Technology

Dr Norman Swan (host)Presenter, Health Report and What's That Rash? ABC Radio National

Understand your microbiome

Doctor Who has acted as a mirror to more than six decades of social, technological and cultural change. It's been able to evolve and adapt more radically than any other fiction. Why we are so addicted to fiction, and why does this wonderful wandering time traveller mean so much to so many. This talk was provided by the York Festival of Ideas. The Festival is led by the University of York, UK.

Original broadcast on July 21, 2025.

Speaker

John HiggsAuthor of Exterminate/Regenerate: The Story of Doctor Who (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2025)

Doctor Who at 60 — still as attractive as ever

The connection between body and mind is well established. But mental health expert Daniel Fung also includes the soul in this 'ecosystem' that shapes your overall wellbeing. He envisions a future for mental health services, that is person-centred, holistic and consciously uses digital tools and social media.

Beautiful minds, Loving hearts: Asian Mental Health Ecosystems in 2050 was presented at TheMHS (Mental Health Services) conference 2025 in Brisbane

Listen to Big Ideas — How to overcome the fear and anxiety that are holding you back

Speakers

Daniel Fung - CEO Institute of Mental Health, Singapore

Barbara Disley - Board Member, TheMHS Learning Network

Further information

Mindline - digital first-stop touchpoint for mental health in Singapore

The role of spirituality and religion in mental health care

From innocently conning controversial radio duo Kyle and Jackie O as a kid, time in a Zambian convent as a teen, to nearly becoming an air traffic controller before finding her real passion - helping others find their voice - Astrid Jorgensen has quite a story to tell. Her new memoir is called Average At Best. She is anything but. She is anything but. On any one night, anywhere in the world, you’ll find Astrid on a stage in front of a few thousand people singing their hearts out. But to call Astrid Jorgensen a choir conductor doesn’t really capture the incredible global phenomenon she’s created. She’s the founder, composer, and host of Pub Choir, described as the “world’s biggest one night stand in song”. 

This event was organised by Northern Books in Castlemaine and held at the Fitzroy Town Hall in Naarm/Melbourne.

Speaker

Astrid JorgensenFounder and conductor of Pub ChoirAuthor, Average At Best (Simon and Schuster Australia, 2025)

Further information

How Astrid Jorgensen turned a suburban pub choir into a worldwide musical phenomenon (Australian Story/ABC News, 2025)

Watch Australian Story episode about Astrid on Youtube (2025)

A song for every feeling? Pub Choir's Astrid Jorgensen with Natasha Mitchell

Australia now has its first treaty with this country's first peoples. After nearly a decade of formal consultation and negotiation, the Victorian Statewide Treaty has become law, and will come into effect from early December. This address outlines the long road to achieving the treaty, why it's important, and what comes next.

The 25th Dr Charles Perkins Oration was recorded on 28 October 2025 at the University of Sydney.

Speakers

Ngarra MurrayCo-chair, Victorian First People's Assembly

Victoria's new treaty with First Peoples — a turning point for Australia?

Humans are by nature creative, but how do we turn a spark of inspiration into something more tangible? Author Emily Maguire draws inspiration from some of the world's most creative minds — from Lin Manuel Miranda, to Susan Sontag, to explore the ingredients of a truly creative life.

The 2025 Colin Roderick Memorial Lecture, hosted by the Foundation of Australian Literary Studies at James Cook University in partnership with the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, was recorded on 29th July 2025 in Townsville.

Speakers

Emily MaguireAuthor, Rapture, An Isolated Incident, Love Objects, and moreTeacher of writing, Writing NSW

The Vanya QuartetElder Conservatorium, University of AdelaidePlaying Saoirse, composed by Belle Smibert

Pay attention — writer Emily Maguire finds promiscuous curiosity and cultural receptivity in the creative process

As we grow older, changes to our bodies and minds are inevitable. But what if science could help us age better? Our experts on Big Ideas uncover the latest science behind healthy brain aging. What's possible in the fight against cognitive decline and dementia? How might you live a longer, healthier, and more meaningful life?

Presented by Sydney Ideas, the talk program at the University of Sydney

Speakers

Associate Professor Eleanor DrummondSenior Lecturer (Neuroscience), School of Medical Sciences, University of Sydney

Olivier PiguetNHMRC Leadership Fellow and Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology, University of Sydney

Gilbert KnaggsSociology PhD candidate, University of Sydney

Elfy Scott (host)award-winning journalist, podcaster, and presenter

Can science keep dementia at bay and keep your brain sharper − for longer?

When acclaimed Australia author Christos Tsiolkas was invited to give the 2025 Ray Mathew Lecture at the National Library of Australia, he had in mind what he wanted to say, as difficult as it was. Then he got a rage-filled message from a longtime friend. How did Christos respond? Is fence-sitting an indulgence in an ethically troubled, divisive, dislocated world? Or, is 'speaking across the fence' something writers and other creatives can offer us?

"We're urged at all times — and for every occasion — to take a position. Yet is there a utility, both practical and ethical, in taking a breath, a pause, and refusing to land definitively on a stance?" — Christos Tsiolkas

Speaker

Christos TsiolkasAuthor of The Slap, The In Between, Barracuda, DamascusPlaywright and screenwriter

Further information

More about the annual Ray Mathew Lecture, including the transcript and video of the 2025 lecture

Acclaimed author Christos Tsiolkas on fence-sitting in a time of fracture

In October 2023, Australians voted no to a Voice to Parliament for First Nations people. In this panel from the 2025 Melbourne Writers Festival, four speakers who saw the campaign up close discuss what went wrong, and even whether the whole endeavour was worth it. Ultimately they’re all trying to answer the question, where do we go from here? 

Speakers 

Thomas MayoKaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander, author, activist and 'yes' campaigner

Ben AbbatangeloGunaikurnai and Wotjobaluk journalist 

Nardi SimpsonYuwaalaraay artist, musician and author 

Daniel Browning (host)Bundjalung and Kullilli man, Professor of Indigenous Cultural and Creative Industries at University of Sydney and former ABC arts journalist

Where to now — transforming anger into action after the Voice referendum

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