Big Ideas

Australia's population is getting older. In fact, by 2076, 45 per cent of us - that's 18 million people - will be aged over 65. What will ageing look like in 50 years time? Will science keep us healthier for longer? What role will older people play in the workforce, in the economy, and in our communities? Will robots wipe our bottoms, or keep us company? How will we respond to major health challenges—like dementia, already our leading cause of death— and the growing burden of chronic disease? This conversation explores the ethical and social challenges facing our ageing country, and the planning, research and policy systems needed to ensure a dignified, safe and healthy life for older people by 2076. This event was recorded at the fiftieth National Ageing Research Institute annual summit with the theme Imagine Australia in 50 years on 22 July in Melbourne.
Speakers: 
Mark Dreyfus Former Attorney General, MP Member for Isaacs
Professor Jenny Waycott Professor and Deputy Head of School (Research) in the School of Computing and Information Systems, Melbourne University
Professor Andy Philp Head of the Centre for Healthy Ageing at the Centenary Institute and leads the healthy ageing research at the University of Technology Sydney where he leads the Biology of Ageing Laboratory in the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation
Professor Tim Adair Demographer and Principal Research Fellow in the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health.
Jacinta Parsons (host) Broadcaster, author and speaker

What does the future look like to you? How can you prepare yourself for what's coming down the line? And how does what you do today, change what will happen tomorrow? Join three forward-looking thinkers for a conversation about how to shape a better tomorrow, today.
The conversation Brave New Futures was recorded live at the annual 2026 WOMADelaide festival, produced and presented as part of their Planet Talks program, held on the traditional lands of the Guarna people.
Speakers:
Richard KingCritic, cultural commentator and author, Brave New Wild: Can Technology Really Save the Planet?
Clare MarshallAward-winning futurist, former lead of the National Futures Initiative at The Australian Centre for Social Innovation
Grace VegasanaClimate justice organiser and youth advocate, National Director of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC), co-founder of The People of Colour Climate Network
Lee Constable (host)Environmental communicator, TV presenter, author, How to Save the Whole Stinkin' Planet: A Garbological Adventure, and more

The Inter-Continental Hotel on a hilltop above Kabul has watched Afghanistan’s modern history unfold from its windows. Built in 1969, it has survived Soviet occupation, multiple coups, a civil war, a foreign invasion and waves of Taliban rule. This is the story of that hotel and of Afghanistan itself, told through forty years of visits, world-making headlines, and the people who called the finest hotel in Kabul home.
This event was recorded live at the 2026 Sydney Writers’ Festival at Carriageworks.
Speakers
Lyse DoucetBBC Chief International Correspondent and author of The Finest Hotel in Kabul, A People’s History of Afghanistan, Hutchinson Heinemann (2025)
Debbie Whitmont (host)ABC Journalist and author

It's been called "The Odyssey of the East", and the ancient Hindu poem remains central to Asian cultures and traditions from India to Indonesia 2500 years after it was written. From the names of Thai kings, to traditional Javanese shadow puppets, the ancient temples of Cambodia's Angkor Wat to contemporary Indian politics, the journeys of Rama and his wife Sita are deeply embedded. Why does this story endure?
The conversation The Ramayana reimagined: storytelling across cultures was recorded at the Art Gallery of New South Wales as part of the exhibition, Avatar: Forms of Vishnu, on until 5 October 2026.
Speakers:
Dr. Chaitanya SambraniCo-curator (with Melanie Eastburn) of Avatar: Forms of Vishnu exhibition, Art Gallery of New South WalesArt historian, Australian National University
Savanhdary VongpoothornPainter, sculptor and installation artist
Alfira O'SullivanArtistic Director and solo artist with Suara Indonesia Dance
Sunil Badami (host)Writer, broadcaster and academic

The Future Library is filled with unpublished books written for readers yet to be born. Every year a new literary work is commissioned to be held in trust in a special room in the National Library of Norway. And in a forest just outside Oslo, 1,000 Spruce are growing - waiting until 2114 to fulfil their role: To be pulped and transform these unseen words into print. This hundred-year literary artwork by Scottish artist Katie Paterson is one of the most internationally acclaimed long-term cultural projects of our time. 
Presented at the National Library of Australia in partnership with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Canberra.
Speakers
Anne Beate Hovind  Norwegian urban developer, curator and cultural producer of Future Library (2014–2114) by Katie Paterson
Kathryn Favelle (host)Director of Community Engagement, National Library of Australia in Canberra