Best Festival Of Dangerous Ideas Podcasts (2025)

1
The Pitchforks are Coming (2024) - Myra Hamilton, Carl Rhodes & Jordan van den Berg 1:00:24

18d ago1:00:24

1:00:24

Ordinary citizens are starting to realise that their dwindling share of our common wealth is no accident, but the inevitable result of the current system. As life becomes more precarious, has the time come when the ‘discontented majority’ will flex their muscles and seize, by whatever means, a fairer share of the economic and social pie? Or will th…

1
“Progressive patriotism” — is it an idea whose time has come? 54:14

3d ago54:14

54:14

Fresh from a commanding victory at the federal election, Anthony Albanese began to bundle his campaign policy offerings together in a new package — not just to give these political commitments a kind of internal coherence, but also to stake out what could be distinctive about his premiership as a whole. The term he reached for to sum it all up is “…

1
Why is our response to humanitarian crises so complicated — and inconsistent? 52:49

11d ago52:49

52:49

Over the last two years, many in Australia and around the world have watched in horror as Sudan, Gaza and other zones of mass violence descend into humanitarian crises of devastating proportions. And while the cause of each crisis is unique, the consequences tend to share common characteristics — for especially civilians: millions of people are dis…

1
Speaking Bluntly (2024) - Antoinette Lattouf, Andy Mills & Josh Szeps 1:03:13

18d ago1:03:13

1:03:13

Journalists play a vital role in a democracy, holding power to account. The traditional model of journalism sees journalists as disinterested seekers of the truth, striving for ‘objectivity’ and suppressing their own opinions. But as newsrooms and editorial pages previously staffed only by white male journalists have evolved, and as the internet ha…

1
David Runciman (2024) - Votes for 6 year olds 45:40

18d ago45:40

45:40

When it comes our most divisive political, economic and social issues there is a fracture between the views of the old and the young. As older generations continue to monopolise wealth and how policy is shaped, younger generations are becoming more and more disenfranchised. The inequality and anger between generations is growing, and it might just …

1
Counterfeit People (2024) - Lizzie O’Shea, Patrick Stokes & Emily van der Nagel 1:01:03

18d ago1:01:03

1:01:03

The late philosopher and scientist, Daniel Dennett talked about ‘counterfeit people’ as one of the great dangers of AI – but are we now willing to court the same dangers through our adoption of multiple identities across the metaverse. Moving from the confinement of physical reality to the landscape of the metaverse, where looks, preferences, and g…

1
Is it only “joy” when it’s shared? 54:03

18d ago54:03

54:03

“Joy” is a strange kind of word. It describes a feeling that we all know, but do not know exactly how to value. It’s not happiness — which can, after all, be interior, quiet and express itself as a kind of contentment — nor is it merely pleasure (even though, in many languages, “pleasure” and “joy” are etymologically related). Joy is not only more …

1
Australian voters have spoken — do we know what they said? 54:29

25d ago54:29

54:29

After any election, a narrative of sorts must be woven out of the disparate threads of the votes of so many individuals in so many seats. Which is to say, there has to be an act of discernment to hear what “the people” are trying to communicate — to make their will legible, as it were. Despite a relatively modest increase in Labor’s primary vote, t…

1
Is disillusionment a feature of democratic politics, not a bug? 53:40

1M ago53:40

53:40

Democracy is often lauded as a peculiarly just and effective form of government — one that enjoys the benefits that flow from twin virtues of popular engagement and political accountability. And yet the effectiveness and resilience of democratic politics depends on the trust voters have in political institutions. When those institutions are felt no…

1
What are we doing when we vote? 53:52

1M ago53:52

53:52

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the first federal election to be held in Australia after the passage of Senator Herbert Payne’s private member’s bill, which made voting compulsory. In 1922, only 57.95 per cent of registered voters turned out. Payne’s home state of Tasmania had the poorest showing (45.93 per cent), whereas Queensland — wher…

1
Can Australia’s federal election escape the shadow of Donald Trump? 53:56

2M ago53:56

53:56

If there is ever a time when politicians should be able to expect a fair share of the public’s attention, it’s during an election campaign. After all, this triennial event is when they can demonstrate to the Australian public that they’ve been attentive to their aspirations and concerns for the future, and have developed a series of policies able t…

1
AI in education — is it a technology to be feared, or a tool to be taught? 58:00

2M ago58:00

58:00

This is the second of two episodes recorded in front of a live audience as part of a special “Week with Students”, a collaboration between Radio National and ABC Education. Over a short period of time, AI has become pervasive. Immensely powerful platforms have placed artificial intelligence at our fingertips, and more than two-thirds of Australian …

1
Are we on the brink of a world without books? On Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” 1:00:43

2M ago1:00:43

1:00:43

This is the first of two episodes recorded in front of a live audience as part of a special “Week with Students”, a collaboration between Radio National and ABC Education. Of the three great dystopian novels published on either side of the Second World War — Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” (1931), George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” (1949) and…

1
Ramadan: Is hope a flimsy emotion, or can it grow from devastation? 54:22

2M ago54:22

54:22

We arrive, at last, at the end of our Ramadan series — and the second of our pair of positive responses to radical disappointment with the world. For some, hope is untrustworthy, amounting to little more than dreaming or wish-fulfilment. For others, hope can turn into kind of bad faith demand, leading to dishonest politics (in the name of being up-…

1
Ramadan: Is optimism a virtue, or a form of moral evasion? 53:37

2M ago53:37

53:37

For the last two episodes, we’ve been discussing what might be called negative or aversive responses to radical disappointment with the world — even though, as we’ve seen, both despair and fear have characteristics which commend them. In the next two episodes, we’re turning to rather more positive responses. There is little doubt that pessimism enj…

1
Ramadan: Should we try to live without fear, or learn to face it together? 53:55

3M ago53:55

53:55

Throughout the month of Ramadan, we are examining the range of emotions that arise in response to radical disappointment with the state of the world. Last week, we looked at the centripetal emotion of despair — a response that can cause us to withdraw into ourselves. This week, we turn to the centrifugal emotion of fear — which can take the form of…

1
Ramadan: Is despair always detrimental, or can it give rise to hope? 54:27

3M ago54:27

54:27

The political climate over the last six months in much of the world has been undeniably dark. It’s little wonder that so many people seem to have given in to despair. The causes of this prevailing condition are numerous — they include the ongoing death and destruction in Ukraine and Gaza, the devastating return of dead Israeli hostages, the rising …

1
Are “firewalls” the best way to counteract the appeal of the far-right? 53:19

3M ago53:19

53:19

As the results of the recent German election came in, a familiar pattern took shape. A broadly unpopular centre-left political party was voted out — due, in no small part, to its immigration policies and perceived economic failures — in favour of a centre-right party who pledged to adopt a “stronger” approach to borders and migrants, and to restore…

1
How hate speech in healthcare tears at something sacred in our common life 53:03

3M ago53:03

53:03

At a time when the Australian community seems to be so deeply divided along multiple faultlines, there was something somewhat heartening about being able to share a common outrage. That’s only word that captures the depth of public response that greeted a now infamous video in which two nurses at Bankstown Hospital seemed to express extreme anti-Is…

1
The School of Sport: Bob Murphy and the centrality of connection 57:34

4M ago57:34

57:34

In 2016, the Western Bulldogs made an improbable run to the AFL Grand Final. The seventh-place team would beat the minor premiers, the Sydney Swans, and end a six-decade drought. But their longest serving player, the erstwhile captain and heart-and-soul of the team, Bob Murphy, would not take the field. In the third round, a ruptured anterior cruci…

1
The School of Sport: Craig Fitzgibbon and the burden of responsibility 53:01

4M ago53:01

53:01

There are few jobs in professional sports that are more important, and more unforgiving, than that of coach. Their most significant work is invisible to the fans. When things go wrong, the coach is usually the first to be blamed. When the team is enjoying success, it is the players that typically reap the accolades. Coaches can make or break a club…

1
Ending the 'Tyranny' of Pregnancy (2024) - Luara Ferracioli, Brigitte Gerstl, Mianna Lotz & Kathryn MacKay 1:02:14

4M ago1:02:14

1:02:14

Since the dawn of time, our pro-natalist society has implemented certain systems, norms and lenses in which we view child rearing. These often oppressive and coercive conditions make it difficult for many to think about their reproductive options. But with the emergence of artificial wombs and womb transplants, what impact could this have on reprod…

1
Uncancelled Culture (2024) - David Baddiel, Roxane Gay, Andy Mills, Megan Phelps-Roper & Tim Dean 1:01:20

4M ago1:01:20

1:01:20

Throughout history we have found ways to regulate human behaviour through the threat of social exclusion. But while the idea of ‘cancellation’ is not new, the online sphere has radically shifted the way we hold people to account and punish perceived wrongdoing. Is redemption possible in the digital age? And can narratives of growth and forgiveness …

1
Democracy is Not Worth Dying for (2024) - Geraldine Doogue, Masha Gessen, Paul Ham & David Runciman 1:00:53

4M ago1:00:53

1:00:53

Democracy has often been presented as an ideal, where citizens can participate and benefit from a fair society. But as we face growing inequality, political turmoil, and loss of faith in modern life, the price of preserving democracy might be proving too steep. Masha Gessen is an opinion columnist for The New York Times and a Distinguished Professo…

1
Jem Bendell (2024) - Breaking Together 39:32

4M ago39:32

39:32

The process of global collapse has begun – driven by the damage we have caused to the Earth’s natural systems. And governments and corporations aren’t going to save us. So are we going to cling to our old individual ways of fighting each other for the final scraps? Or should we adapt and support each other through this transition? Sociologist Jem B…

1
The School of Sport: Lydia Williams and the virtue of vulnerability 52:22

4M ago52:22

52:22

Athletes would seem to be the embodiments of strength, discipline, autonomy, self-reliance. Of all people, we would expect them to be invulnerable to the moments of self-doubt and weakness that afflict the rest of us. And yet, particularly after serious injuries or during long periods of convalescence and rehabilitation, many athletes experience in…

1
The School of Sport: Madison de Rozario and the importance of pride 54:05

4M ago54:05

54:05

Within certain religious traditions, pride is a “special sin” because it involves an overestimation of one’s self — making oneself a little “god” in one’s own eyes. But Aristotle did not regard pride as such to be a vice, only its unwarranted or unmerited expressions. The important thing for Aristotle was not to seek recognition or adulation from j…

1
The School of Sport: Why does sport bring out the worst in some athletes? 53:47

5M ago53:47

53:47

Over the next five weeks, we are going to be exploring a series of profound moral dilemmas with some of Australia’s most accomplished athletes. How has their life in elite competition prepared them to wrestle with challenges so many of us have faced ourselves? Has sporting excellence succeeded in bringing out the best in them? If so, what can that …

1
Is Australia breaking? 53:52

5M ago53:52

53:52

One of Australia's greatest strengths has been the remarkable diversity of its multicultural society. But is this also a potential source of weakness? In this live recording at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Waleed Aly and Scott Stephens, along with guest Stan Grant, explore the internal and external forces that risk undermining our sense of soci…

1
What's behind the mass appeal of live music events? 53:47

5M ago53:47

53:47

It is worth reflecting, not just on what is singular about Taylor Swift at this particular cultural moment — why she attracts both the loyalty and the animus that she does — but on what it is about live music events that now draw millions of people to them.This episode was first broadcast on 18 February 2024.…

1
The ethics of "Groundhog Day" 53:47

5M ago53:47

53:47

During the pandemic, there was a sudden renewal of interest in Harold Ramis's 1993 film "Groundhog Day" — especially its bleaker aspects. But this missed its sophistication and humanity, to say nothing of its acute depiction of moral growth.This episode was first broadcast on 05 May 2024.By Australian Broadcasting Corporation

1
Are we losing a sense of "the common"? 52:58

6M ago52:58

52:58

Because our lives are increasingly tailor-made, we are constantly seeking ways of distinguishing ourselves from others. What is being lost through it all is our sense of a humanity whose inherent vulnerability to misfortune, malfeasance and violence makes us dependent on one another.This episode was first broadcast on 07 July 2024.…

1
The necessity of withdrawing 53:35

6M ago53:35

53:35

Are periodic bouts of withdrawal from life’s urgent demands and heated debates necessary to regain a sense of our shared humanity, and to renew the commitments that sustain the moral life? This episode was first broadcast on 17 March 2024.By Australian Broadcasting Corporation

1
What are we doing when we give gifts? 53:47

6M ago53:47

53:47

Poised as we are at the brink of our great annual festival of shopping, wrapping, giving and exchanging, we can sometimes forget just how ethically complicated the act of “gift-giving” is. In fact, those who recoil at the idea of receiving the “charity” of others, as well as those who are suspicious of the clandestine giving of gifts and doing of f…

1
Bonus episode: Can democracy be saved with decency? A public lecture by Scott Stephens 52:59

6M ago52:59

52:59

Democracy is in retreat, authoritarianism on the rise. But this has happened before. So how did big thinkers of the past respond to the threats to democracy, and what can we learn from them? Scott Stephens delivered the Humanities Research Centre 50th Anniversary Distinguished Lecture at the Australian National University on 31 July 2024. It was re…

1
“The Godfather, Part II” — a parable of corruption and fall 54:30

6M ago54:30

54:30

In December 1974, “The Godfather, Part II” premiered in New York City. Following the unlikely success and unexpected acclaim that his 1972 adaptation of Mario Puzo’s bestselling novel received, Francis Ford Coppola was granted almost unlimited discretion to realise his cinematic vision for the sequel — and he used that discretion to greatest possib…

1
Is a “digital duty of care” enough to protect young people from social media’s harms? 54:23

6M ago54:23

54:23

Since the start of November, the Australian government has made two significant announcements aimed at preventing the harms that social media platforms are causing to the mental health of adolescents — but are these measures enough?By Australian Broadcasting Corporation

1
How much control should corporations have over the speech of their employees? 53:58

7M ago53:58

53:58

Most of us are aware that the emergence of social media platforms and their omnipresence in our lives have fractured public discourse and undermined the conditions of democratic deliberation. But we are only now beginning to grapple with the way corporations — having already decided to make “values” and “ethics” central in their self-presentation t…

1
Contagious Realities (2024) - Alice Dawkins, Natasha Mitchell, Sandersan Onie, Jean Twenge & Sonny Jane Wise 1:00:34

7M ago1:00:34

1:00:34

The increase in mental health and neurodivergent diagnoses in recent years indicates that we’re more aware of our brains than ever before. Does improved social awareness, self-identification, representation and access mean we’ve reached a turning point in the way we acknowledge and treat mental health and neurodivergence in society? Or are we at ri…

1
Positive Masculinity (2024) - Monty Badami, Tarang Chawla, Michael Flood & Anna Krien 1:01:51

7M ago1:01:51

1:01:51

Masculinity has become a battle ground. From the gender pay gap, to domestic violence and rape, the idea of what it means to be a man has been heavily scrutinised in recent times. Meanwhile the gender wars – fuelled by mainstream conservatives, technology and social media – has shifted society’s ideas in a dangerous direction. Has the recent focus …

1
Masha Gessen (2024) - The War of the Narratives 58:25

7M ago58:25

58:25

In an age of creeping authoritarianism, anyone who questions the logic of competing narratives when it comes to historical conflicts risks being silenced. Russian American journalist Masha Gessen says however, in order to learn from history we have to question our world and recognise the signs of when we're sliding into darkness. Gessen examines ho…

1
Art is Always Political (2024) - Louise Adler, Brook Garru Andrew, Violette Ayad, Gil Beckwith, Simon Longstaff & Emile Sherman 1:06:02

7M ago1:06:02

1:06:02

The culture wars are seeping out of the real world and infiltrating our pages and stages. Art has always traversed unfamiliar and even dangerous territory. But with recent calls to boycott cultural institutions, donors pulling funding, and the cancellation of works and talent, are some discussions too fraught to engage with? Louise Adler is the Dir…

1
Wrecking the World Order (2024) - Matt Bevan, Avani Dias, Cheng Lei, Hamish Macdonald & Johanna Weaver 56:47

7M ago56:47

56:47

The world order that we’ve lived with for most of our lives is experiencing a tectonic shift. We’ve experienced unprecedented levels of growth and prosperity – but as a growing cohort of demagogues and autocrats continue to lead our world, there is something quite telling in how populations are responding to our levels of ‘success’. Is our world or…

1
The return of Donald Trump — do we know what it means? 54:09

7M ago54:09

54:09

“Donald Trump is no longer an aberration; he is normative.” Such is the assessment of Peter Wehner — a Republican strategist and former adviser to President George W. Bush, and an outspoken critic of Trump himself — in the aftermath of the former president’s thundering re-election victory. It was not an electoral college landslide of the order of B…

1
Is the concept of “evil” worth retaining? 54:10

7M ago54:10

54:10

One of the defining features of the last century is the fact that “evil” has become more vivid to our imaginations and common in our language than “good”. Stan Grant joins Waleed Aly and Scott Stephens to discuss whether “evil” is, in our time, a concept worth holding onto. Or does its use and misuse in our public discourse cause more harm and conf…

1
Should revenge have any place in our politics? 54:19

7M ago54:19

54:19

There is something undeniably satisfying about revenge. When we feel we have been aggrieved, harmed or humiliated, it is natural to want payback. In ancient Greece, to inflict such an injury was conceived of as incurring a debt — and the only way to make the perpetrator “whole” was to have the injury repaid in kind. The paradox — as Socrates, Sopho…

1
Can democracy survive the perfect storm of disinformation? 53:22

8M ago53:22

53:22

Just weeks before a US presidential election, a combination of political mendacity, the perverse incentives offered by social media platforms, and opportunism on the part of content creators/consumers, have come together to form a perfect storm. The tragic irony is that the devastating consequences of these forces have become apparent in the afterm…

1
What is “populism” – and what kind of problem does it pose? 54:08

8M ago54:08

54:08

After the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and the outcome of the Brexit referendum, “populism” became the catch-all diagnosis for everything the ails democratic politics. But its polemical use has tended to obscure rather than clarify the meaning of the term.By Australian Broadcasting Corporation

1
What is it that makes “negative gearing” such a divisive tax policy? 53:30

8M ago53:30

53:30

The policy of negative gearing — which gives the owners of investment properties an unlimited ability to deduct losses from their overall taxable income — has come to symbolise the disparity between the different ways Australians see home ownership: for some, it is a means of wealth creation; for others, it represents the ever-receding promise of s…

1
“Truths that lie too deep for taint”: Wilfred Owen’s war poetry in our blood-soaked present 53:18

8M ago53:18

53:18

The war poetry of Wilfred Owen refuses the comfort of hollow consolation in response to the mass loss of life — it also urges the sacrifice of the kind of bellicose pride that sees nothing but territorial gain and national self-interest, and is prepared to offer up the lives of the young to these ends. In a time of heightened violence and bloodshed…

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