Big Ideas

Some say Russian president Vladimir Putin is growing increasingly paranoid, as his war with Ukraine wages on. It's hard to know from the outside looking in. What makes the elusive Putin tick? How has he changed during his 26 years in power? And where will it all end? Putin's not a fan of Soviet era communism, so what's drives him? And what's his thing with Trump? 
Join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell with two seasoned Russia watchers at the 2026 Sorrento Writers Festival.
Speakers
Associate Professor Will PartlettMelbourne Law SchoolFellow, Centre for Public IntegrityAuthor, Why the Russian Constitution Matters: The Constitutional Dark ArtsCoauthor, The Post-Soviet as Post-Colonial and The People's Guide to the Australian Constitution.
Dr Elizabeth BuchananSenior fellow, Australian Strategic Policy InstituteCo-founder and co-director of polar warfare studies at West Point Military Academy's Modern War InstituteFormer, Head of Research for the Royal Australian Navy’s Sea Power Centre, Department of Defence.Author,  Red Arctic: Russian Strategy under Putin and So you want to own Greenland: Lessons from the Vikings to Trump.
Thanks to Corrie Perkin, founding director and programmer of the Sorrento Writers Festival.

The global treaty for preventing nuclear proliferation is under serious strain. The last review conferences for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty have ended in deadlock. And this year, last treaty limiting U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals has expired. This new risk comes at a moment when new nuclear actors are asserting themselves, and the diplomatic tools that once managed these dangers are weakening. What's at stake when the nuclear guardrails come down?
Presented by the Institute of Politics (IOP), Harvard Kennedy School; Co-Organizer Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Speakers
Rose GottemoellerWilliam J. Perry Lecturer, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University; former Deputy Secretary General of NATO
Laura S. H. HolgateSenior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School; former U.S. Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations Office in Vienna
Graham AllisonDouglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School; Former Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Matthew BunnJames R. Schlesinger Professor of the Practice of Energy, National Security, and Foreign Policy, Harvard Kennedy School; Co‑Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Meghan L. O'Sullivan (host)Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs and Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Further Information
Taskforce Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Nuclear Threat Initiative — Preventing an Era of Nuclear Anarchy: Nuclear Proliferation and American Security

Have you ever heard of something called Chatfishing? From to AI profiles to cat-face filters, finding true love has never felt more difficult. And yet, dating is still fundamentally unchanged. It relies on good communication and mutual respect. After creating the social media juggernaut Bad Dates of Melbourne, who better to help you navigate the pitfalls and dealbreakers of dating in the modern world than Alita Brydon. Her first book is called How To Date Like A Dangerous Woman and it is full of straight talk with radical self-love at the heart of it all.
This event was hosted at the Brimbank Writers and Readers Festival
Speakers
Alita BrydonRelationships expert, author of How To Date Like A Dangerous Woman and Bad Dates of Melbourne founder
Nelly ThomasComedian, MC and host of the Dear Nelly Podcast

Have you ever heard of something called Chatfishing? From to AI profiles to cat-face filters, finding true love has never felt more difficult. And yet, dating is still fundamentally unchanged. It relies on good communication and mutual respect. After creating the social media juggernaut Bad Dates of Melbourne, who better to help you navigate the pitfalls and dealbreakers of dating in the modern world than Alita Brydon. Her first book is called How To Date Like A Dangerous Woman and it is full of straight talk with radical self-love at the heart of it all.
This event was hosted at the Brimbank Writers and Readers Festival
Speakers
Alita BrydonRelationships expert, author of How To Date Like A Dangerous Woman and Bad Dates of Melbourne founder
Nelly ThomasComedian, MC and host of the Dear Nelly Podcast

It's the only sure thing in life: that we will all die some day. But many of us are scared to think about death — our own, or our loved ones'. 
How can embracing death change the way we live our lives and remind us of what's important?
This conversation explores topics of grief, philosophies of life and death, and the practical consideration of planning for the inevitable.
This conversation was recorded at the Clunes Booktown Festival on 22 March 2026.
Speakers
Hannah GouldSenior lecturer and fellow with the Death Tech Research Team at the University of MelbourneAuthor of How to Die in the 21st Century: A whole new way to talk about death and more
Antonia PontYogiAssociate Professor Writing, Literature & Culture, Deakin UniversityAuthor, Plain Life: on thinking feeling and deciding and more
Marieke Hardy (host)Co-founder of the spoken-word art salon, Better Off Said: Eulogies for the Living and Dead, Host of the podcast Marieke Hardy Is Going To DieScreenwriter and playwright, forthcoming Melbourne Theatre Company play, Losing Face (June 2026)