Searching for convivencia — philosopher AC Grayling makes peace in the culture wars
If you're a feminist, or pro-civil or gay rights, does that make you "woke"? And if you're not, does that mean you should be cancelled, or abused online, or lose your job? So many of our public debates nowadays are divided along these lines, but is there a better way?This event was recorded at the 2025 Melbourne Writers Festival. To explore more Melbourne Writers Festival talks, visit mwf.com.au.SpeakersAC Grayling Philosopher, author, Discriminations: Making peace in the culture wars, and many more, Principal of Northeastern University London, and its Professor of PhilosophyEsther Anatolitis (host) Editor, arts and culture advocate, leader, commentator, author, When Australia Became a Republic, former Meanjin editor
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The Sophia Club live philosophy — what are friends for?
Friends are different from family. We choose them and they choose us. Philosophers long wondered about what makes friendship such a distinctive relationship in our lives. Is being a good friend a kind of moral virtue? Can friends help us find our true selves? What about the dark and difficult side of friendship — toxic friends and frenemies? How is the love between friends different from romantic love? Join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell and guests at the Sophia Club, a live philosophy event series held in Melbourne, London and New York. It is produced by Aeon Media, publishers of Aeon and Psyche.SpeakersMark Alfano — Professor of philosophy at Macquarie University, author of Moral Psychology: An Introduction, and Nietzsche's Moral Psychology.Dr Peter Knight — multi-award winning composer, trumpeter and electroacoustic musician, former artistic director of the Australian Art Orchestra.Sunny Kim — internationally renowned South Korean-born vocalist, composer, improviser, and senior lecturer in the jazz and improvisation at the University of Melbourne.Thank you to Sam Dresser (senior editor), Brigid Hains (editorial director and co-founder), and colleagues at Aeon Media.
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Understanding China's history is crucial for Australia
To deal with China as a major trading partner, and also a national security threat requires understanding the history that made China what it is today. That history is shaped by resistance and different waves of uprising. How have governments dealt with these movements? How do they influence politics today?China: Past, Present, Future was recorded live at the 2025 Sydney Writers' Festival.Listen to Big Ideas — Behrouz Boochani and Arnold Zable: The language of resistanceSpeakersLinda JaivinAustralian author, cultural commentator, essayist and translatorAuthor of Bombard the Headquarters! China's Cultural RevolutionLouisa LimAward-winning journalist who reported from China for a decade for NPR and the BBCAuthor of Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong KongEdward WongAmerican journalist and diplomatic correspondent for The New York TimesAuthor of At the Edge of Empire: A Family's Reckoning with ChinaPeter Hartcher (host)Australian journalist and the Political and International Editor of The Sydney Morning HeraldAuthor of Red Zone: China's Challenge and Australia's Future
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Universities and other antidotes to authoritarianism
The United States has long been famous for its world leading universities. But in the face of research funding cuts, government attacks on free speech, DEI and the right to protest, and the persecution of foreign students, could all that be changing?The speech, Poison Ideas: Universities and other Antidotes to Authoritarianism, was recorded at the 2025 conference of the Australasian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (DASSH) representing 350 deans and associate deans from Australian and New Zealand universities.SpeakersSimon Adams - President & CEO, Centre for Victims of Torture, Professor of Human Rights, Murdoch University
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One day, everyone will have always been against this — Omar El Akkad and Peter Greste reckon with Western hypocrisy over Israel's war on Gaza
The Western world is supposed to stand for values like freedom, justice and human rights, a commitment to meet wrongdoing with consequence, guided by rules and obligations. How then, do we reconcile that with Western governments' and media's support of and complicity in the horrors in Gaza? How do we witness the bloodshed and destruction, and yet look away?This conversation was recorded at the Canberra Writers Festival on 26 October 2025.SpeakersOmar El Akkad Author, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, and novels The American War and What Strange ParadisePeter Greste (host) Professor of journalism, Macquarie University, Author, The Correspondent
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.
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