Big Ideas

Tim Heffernan, lived-experience advocate who survived psychosis and promotes peer support. Gayle McNaught, StigmaWatch manager who engages journalists to reduce harmful reporting. Dr Anna Ross, researcher of media portrayals and stigma. They discuss how news links mental illness to violence, patterns of sensational headlines, newsroom pressures and wire content, and ways media practice can reduce retraumatization and social harm.

Husnara Khanum, poet, writer and researcher who moderates and probes with sharp questions. The conversation traces five partitions from British India to modern borders. They explore hidden archives, hastily drawn lines, princely states’ choices, and how personalities and wartime pressures reshaped nations. Oral histories and declassified files surface forgotten paths and displaced lives.

Rolf Zinkernagel, immunologist and 1996 Nobel laureate; Peter Doherty, immunologist, Nobel winner and science communicator; Brian Schmidt, astrophysicist and 2011 Nobel laureate. They recall serendipity, risky experiments and the young‑career conditions that enable breakthrough work. They debate funding, institutional culture, global shifts and how to protect time and freedom for big, risky science.

Marcel Dirsus, a political scientist who studies how dictators collapse, explains why tyrants depend on small coalitions and how nonviolent mobilization can split regimes. Geoffrey Robertson, an international law expert, discusses trials, Nuremberg’s legacy and accountability for mass crimes. Dorcy Rugamba, a Rwandan survivor and playwright, reflects on reconciliation, Gacaca courts and the survivors’ need to tell their stories.

Josh Burns, Federal Labor MP and Jewish parliamentarian; Michael Gawenda, veteran journalist; Ronnie Kahn AO, philanthropist; Jeremy Stow-Linder, school principal; Jessica Rosen, Bondi attack survivor. They discuss rising antisemitism since October 7, security at Jewish schools, firsthand trauma from Bondi, debates over harmful protest slogans, links between Middle East events and local safety, and community-led responses and resilience.

Rabbi Zalman Kastel, educator who builds empathy through school programs; Geoffrey Levey, political scientist studying modern antisemitism; Adis Duderija, Islam scholar on Quranic interpretation; Magda Teter, historian of medieval anti-Jewish myths; Amy-Jill Levine, New Testament scholar on Christian–Jewish relations. They explore religious texts, medieval myths, modern political shifts, interpretive choices in Islam and Christianity, and practical education strategies.

Hugh de Kretser, President of the Australian Human Rights Commission and former Yoorrook CEO, speaks on rebuilding social bonds. He discusses what social cohesion means and why it is under strain. He covers truth-telling, racism and the Seen and Heard findings, a proposed national Human Rights Act, and practical steps to listen, acknowledge harms and foster unity.

Nila Ibrahimi, Afghan refugee, activist and musician who co-founded Herstory and won the 2024 International Children's Peace Prize. She recalls how a banned school song became an anthem for Afghan girls. She describes fleeing to Canada, using social media to protest, building Herstory to amplify voices, and practical ways others can support Afghan girls and students.

Tim Flannery, paleontologist, climate advocate and author, argues for reimagining Bentham’s Panopticon to hold the powerful to account. He explores tribalism, social cohesion, geoengineering risks, justice beyond prisons, empathy with dislocated communities, boosting renewables while avoiding fatalism, and rebuilding trust, fun and local resilience to strengthen democracy.

Ray Martin, veteran journalist and reconciliation advocate, reflects on confronting Australia’s past and practical paths to change. Thomas Mayo, Kaurareg and Torres Strait Islander author and human rights advocate, explores racism, media narratives and collective action. They debate truth-telling, policy, education, philanthropy and who Australia might become.