Big Ideas

Think about the person whose politics you find most baffling, or most infuriating. Now imagine you must make a decision together. Actually negotiate, project forward, find common ground. That's democracy. And it turns out our brains aren't especially well-built for it.
In an era shaped by inequality, environmental crisis and the decline of democratic institutions understanding how we make political decisions might be one of the most urgent questions we face.
Recorded live at the Melbourne Writers Festival as part of the Wheeler Centre's The Fifth Estate series.
Speakers
Dr David MoscropPolitics columnist for The Washington Post, The Walrus, Time Magazine, The Globe, The Guardian and othersAuthor of Too Dumb For Democracy: Why We Make Bad Political Decisions And How We Can Make Better Ones
Dr Sally WarhaftMelbourne based freelance broadcaster, anthropologist and writer. Host of The Wheeler Centre's series The Fifth Estate

It's been called the idiot box, the drug of the nation, the tube. This year marks 100 years of broadcast television. Over its lifetime, TV has adapted to big changes in technology, government policy, culture and media consumption habits. And yet, while its future remains uncertain, for now, it endures. This is the incredible true story of television.
This keynote address was recorded at RMIT University's 100 Years of Broadcast TV Symposium: The impact and future of broadcast TV in Australia.
Speakers:
Professor Jock GivenAdjunct Professor of Media and Communications, Swinburne UniversityAuthor, The Death of Broadcasting: Media's digital future and Turning off the television: broadcasting's uncertain future
Dr Damien O'MearaRMIT Lecturer in Public Relations, RMIT University
Dr Alexa ScarlataLecturer in Digital Communication, RMIT University

How free should artists be to make risky work, to provoke, to get political? Who gets to decide if a work of art is deemed too risky, too dangerous, too difficult? Cancellations. Censorship. Controversy. Political pressure. Mass boycotts. The collapse of festivals. The Australian arts community has seen it all recently, in part triggered by the devastation in the Middle East. But is there more going on too? Join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell with a panel of arts and culture heavyweights to consider the future of artistic freedom and democracy in this country — and why both matter in these fractious times.
This event was organised by Griffith University and Griffith Law School.
Speakers
Professor Julianne SchultzProfessor Emerita of Media and Culture at the Centre for Social and Cultural Research at Griffith University.Columnist, Guardian AustraliaBoard member, Sydney Writers FestivalAuthor, The Idea of Australia: A Search for the Soul of the Nation.Founding editor, Griffith Review.Dr André Dao Winner of the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction for his debut novel AnamWinner of the Pascal Prize for Cultural Criticism for his pubished essays.Postdoctoral fellow in international law at Melbourne Law SchoolCo-creator of the asylum seeker oral history project Behind the Wire. Author, The role of the committed writer in an unfree world (Overland Magazine, 2026)Presenter, The State of the (Writing) Nation (2023)
Dr Ben ElthamCultural policy researcher and consultant, freelance arts journalist and critic.Lecturer in the School of Media, Film and Journalism at Monash University. Fellow, Centre for Policy Development 
Thanks also to Professor Sarah Joseph, Dr Karen Crawley, Dr Samid Suliman at Griffith University.

Gods and goddesses, heroes and monsters, quests and odysseys, sex and violence. Greek mythology seemingly has it all. And as Christopher Nolan's box office smash retelling of the Greek epic The Odyssey suggests, these stories will never die. Join three superstar writers with their own mythical retellings to explore why these stories endure and how they have been re-imagined over time.
The event Mythical Retellings was recorded at the Melbourne Writers Festival on 10 May 2026.
Speakers:
Yann MartelAuthor, Son of Nobody, The Life of Pi (Winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize) and more
Nikita GillInternational best-selling poet, playwright, illustrator, actor and author, Hekate: The Witch and more
Zoe TerakesActor, playwright and author, Eros: Queer Myths for Lovers
Carody Culver (host)Editor, Griffith Review

Gods and goddesses, heroes and monsters, quests and odysseys, sex and violence. Greek mythology seemingly has it all. And as Christopher Nolan's box office smash retelling of the Greek epic The Odyssey suggests, these stories will never die. Join three superstar writers with their own mythical retellings to explore why these stories endure and how they have been re-imagined over time.
The event Mythical Retellings was recorded at the Melbourne Writers Festival on 10 May 2026.
Speakers:
Yann MartelAuthor, Son of Nobody, The Life of Pi (Winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize) and more
Nikita GillInternational best-selling poet, playwright, illustrator, actor and author, Hekate: The Witch and more
Zoe TerakesActor, playwright and author, Eros: Queer Myths for Lovers
Carody Culver (host)Editor, Griffith Review