Big Ideas

The Future Library is filled with unpublished books written for readers yet to be born.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

From doctors spruiking untested therapies to celebrities selling "revolutionary wellness hacks", self-styled health gurus promise results traditional medicine can't. Social media transforms a healthcare system that struggles with GP wait times and short face-to-face appointments. Because when it comes to trust, it turns out fame competes surprisingly well with scientific evidence.
Bad Influence: How the internet hijacked our health was recorded at the York Festival of Ideas. The festival is led by the University of York, UK.
Speakers
Dr Deborah CohenBroadcaster, journalist and author of Bad Influence: How the Internet Hijacked Our Health
Simon GilbodyProfessor of Psychological Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of York and the Hull York Medical School

Alice Pung started writing her first published book as a teenager. Now, it's been read and studied by two generations of Australian teenagers through the school curriculum. On the 20th anniversary of her irreverent, loving memoir of her migrant family's 's everyday struggles and bittersweet triumphs, she reflects on the book's endurance and the various reactions it's provoked in her young readers.
The 2026 EW Cole Lecture was recorded by The Wheeler Centre Australia's first dedicated centre for Books, Writing and Ideas. Explore more discussions like this one on The Wheeler Centre podcast — available wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow @wheelercentre for updates
Speakers:
Alice PungAuthor, Unpolished Gem, Her Father's Daughter, Laurinda, One Hundred Days, Growing Up Asian in Australia (editor) and more
Raina Tran15 year-old writer
Marina SanoCo-creator and owner of Amplify Bookstore

Migration has shaped modern Australia, but as the country grows, debates around immigrants and multiculturalism are intensifying. Join David Speers for the ABC’s latest National Forum. We bring together Australians from all walks of life to ask: Is our migration system still working? And just what is our National Identity? It’s a big discussion about the kind of country we want to be.
Panellists
Dr Abdul RizviFormer Deputy Secretary of the Department of Immigration
John AndersonFormer Deputy Prime Minister
George MegalogenisJournalist and author
Nyadol NyuonLawyer and human rights advocate
Dr Anne AlyMinister for Multicultural Affairs
Andrew HastieShadow Minister for Industry and Sovereign Capability
Barnaby JoyceOne Nation MP

Being poor has become big business in Australia, but not for people who need work. Billions spent. Millions of profits. But who's getting them?  Why do unemployment and poverty continue to be stigmatised? And does the legacy of the Robodebt scandal live on? The Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research concluded in a new excoriating report Who’s rorting who? The failure of outsourced job services that the system is "filling the pockets of private equity and millionaires" while leaving job-seekers without work. Three people close to the coalface join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell to weigh in.
This event was held at the 2026 Festival of Dangerous Ideas on Gadigal Country in Sydney. 
Speaker
Rick Morton Investigative journalist Multi-award-winning author, Mean Streak, My Year of Living Vulnerably, On Money, and One Hundred Years of Dirt.
Mark Considine Political scientist and Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor Co-Director of the Australian Welfare and Work Lab, University of Melbourne Author, The Careless State Co-author, Buying and Selling the Poor: Inside Australia's privatised welfare-to-work market
Emily Roy Chief Executive OfficerNot-for-profit employment services provider JobLink Plus 
Thanks to Danielle Harvey, Lauren Bennett, and the whole Festival of Dangerous Ideas team.
Further reading 
Report: Who's rorting who? The failure of outsourced job services (Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research, 2026) Australia's jobseeker system fails workers and enriches millionaires, report says  The Shaping the future of employment services Discussion Paper  (Australian Government, 2026) Senate Committee Report: Rebuilding Employment Services (2023)