Big Ideas

This episode explores the past and present expectations and experiences of Australian fathers, in the workforce, domestic duties, and child-rearing, and examines how their roles have also shaped the lives of mothers, children, and society.
These conversations were recorded at the launch of the book Fathering: An Australian History at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria.
Speakers
Fathering and Mothering:
Professor Jacqui McDonaldConvenor of the Australian Fatherhood Research Consortium, Deakin University
Associate Professor Richard FletcherFathers and Families Research Program at the University of NewcastlePrincipal Investigator with the SMS4dads & SMS4DeadlyDads support lines
Emeritus Professor Alistair ThomsonMonash UniversityCo-author, Fathering: An Australian History
Dr Johnny BellMonash UniversityCo-author, Fathering: An Australian History
Professor Michelle Arrow (host)President of the Australian Historical Association
Fathering and Work:
Belinda ProbertSocial scientist, academic and author, Bill's Secrets: Love, War and Ambition
Professor Sean ScalmerUniversity of MelbourneAuthor, A Fair Day's Work: The Quest to Win Back Time
Emeritus Professor John MurphyUniversity of MelbourneCo-author, Fathering: An Australian History

Dive into the world of heroin chic and Girl Power to make sense of the mixed messages Millennial women experienced as they came of age. Before social media warped our sense of self, other aggressive forces were at work, hellbent on exploiting feminism for profit, and taking women down while they did. Sophie Gilbert, a Pulitizer-nominated culture writer with The Atlantic, investigates the impacts in her eye-opening book Girl on Girl: How pop culture turned a generation of women against themselves.
This event was hosted and produced by The Wheeler Centre in Naarm/Melbourne. Check out its full event schedule.
Speakers
Sophie GilbertStaff writer, The AtlanticAuthor, Girl on Girl: How pop culture turned a generation of women against themselves (2025)
Kate Jinx (host)Writer, critic, film curatorSenior programmer, Melbourne International Film Festival

She's attracted controversy and cancellation, but Palestinian Australian author and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah has not been deterred from speaking out about the plight of Palestinians in the war on Gaza, and the experience of Muslim Australians since 9/11. At this event organised in the wake of the cancellation of Adelaide Writers' Week, she joins that festival's former Director Louise Adler, to talk about her latest novel, Discipline, and the experience of art imitating life.
This conversation was recorded at the Adelaide Town Hall as part of the Constellations: Not Writers' Week festival on 1 March 2026.
Speakers
Dr Randa Abdel-FattahAuthor, Discipline (winner of the People's Choice Award at the 2026 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards), Does My Head Look Big in This? and Coming of Age in the War on TerrorFuture Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Macquarie University
Louise Adler (host) Former Director, Adelaide Writers' WeekFormer CEO, Melbourne University PressFormer editor-at-large, Hachette Australia

When a violent crime makes the news, mental illness is often part of the story. But how that story is told, the words chosen, the details included, the connections drawn, has consequences that ripple far beyond the news cycle. For people living with schizophrenia or psychosis, irresponsible reporting isn't just frustrating. It affects how neighbours treat them, how employers see them, and how they see themselves. For the general public, sensationalised coverage quietly builds a picture of mental illness that is distorted, fear-driven and simply not accurate.
Mad, Bad or Misrepresented? Media, Mental Illness and the Stories We Tell was presented on last year's World Mental Health Day by Mental Ill-Health Stigma Researchers Australia Network (MISRA), the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, and the Melbourne School of Global and Population Health.
Speakers
Dr Anna RossSenior Research Fellow, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health
Tim HeffernanFormer NSW Deputy Mental Health Commissioner; Chair of the advocacy organisation BEING — Mental Health Consumers
Gayle McNaughtManager, StigmaWatch SANE Australia
Dr Chris Groot (host)Senior Lecturer, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences; Co-founder of Mental Ill-Health Stigma Researchers Australia Network (MISRA)
Further information
StigmaWatch
Mindframe and the Mindframe guidelines

Over five decades, one single, sprawling dominion, from Yemen to Myanmar, became twelve modern nations. This is the story of how the actions of politicians in London and revolutionaries in Delhi, princes in remote palaces and soldiers in trenches, redrew the map of British India, uprooting millions, and leaving a legacy that explains much about the region today.
This conversation was recorded at the Ubud Writers Festival in Bali, Indonesia.
Speakers
Sam Dalrymple Author, Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern AsiaCo-founder, Project DastaanFilmmaker, Child of Empire, Lost Migrations
Husnara KhanomPoet, writer, and researcher