Black Saturday razed towns, Canada’s Fort McMurray wildfire forced 88,000 people to flee, the LA fires obliterated over 12,000 buildings and Australia’s Black Summer fires scorched 24 million hectares – an area the size of the United Kingdom. Bushfires are no longer seasonal, they’re unrelenting; reshaping landscapes and lives in our rapidly warming world. In Fire Weather, award-winning Canadian author John Vaillant tells the gripping story of a city consumed by flame – a harbinger of what’s to come in a hotter, drier, more combustible world. Joined by UNSW bushfire behaviour expert Jason Sharples, listen in on a conversation on the science of fire, the galvanising power of storytelling and how we can survive in a world where the line between our natural and built environment is increasingly blurred – and increasingly flammable.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Luke McNamara on Hate Speech and the Law
As state and federal governments move to criminalise forms of hate speech, it's time to look at what evidence shows about the effect that laws can have on hate speech and its victims, with legal expert Luke McNamara. This event was presented by the Sydney Writers' Festival and supported by UNSW Sydney. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Kerrie Davies on Miles Franklin’s Little Known Years
Not two years after making Australian literary history with My Brilliant Career, Miles Franklin fell into obscurity – and when publishers rejected her subsequent novels, she left Australia for Chicago. Uncover the mysteries of the legend’s life with Kerrie Davies, whose Miles Franklin Undercover focuses on those lost years. It’s a real-life sequel to the classic Australian novel, using never-before-published material – including intimate correspondence with poet Banjo Paterson – from Miles’s years working as a servant. This event was presented by the Sydney Writers' Festival and supported by UNSW Sydney.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Toby Walsh on the Six Ideas You Need to Understand AI
As one of the world’s leading researchers in artificial intelligence, Toby Walsh has been awarded the Humbolt Research Award and elected as a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of AI. In The Shortest History of AI, Toby outlines the six key ideas for understanding artificial intelligence today. Hear Toby trace the origins of artificial intelligence in science and culture and predict where the technology is heading in the future. This event was presented by the Sydney Writers' Festival and supported by UNSW Sydney.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Donna Strickland: Laser Jock
In 2018 Donna Strickland became the first woman in over 50 years to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, and only the third woman in history. Her award-winning work however began decades earlier. While undertaking her PhD Donna developed chirped pulse amplification – a unique way to amplify ultrashort laser pulses. This breakthrough paved not only the way for safer and more precise laser eye surgery but also improved mobile phone technology and is now helping to advance quantum science. Listen to Donna in conversation with the ABC’s Tegan Taylor, as she shares the early curiosity that fuelled her love of physics, the joy of discovery and how she became a ‘laser jock’.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
An initiative of UNSW Sydney, the Centre for Ideas is a thought-provoking program of events and digital content from the globe's leading thinkers, authors and artists.
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