God Forbid

If you go to the movies, or turn on your TV, you’ll find it hard to avoid the medieval fantasy genre. With its castles and fortresses, cloaks and crowns, and even dungeons and dragons.
The stories are fantastical but of course, fictional in their portrayal of medieval Europe and the Islamic Golden Age.
But how can a better understanding of what actually happened, in a rapidly changing Europe and Middle East, 500 to 1,000 years ago, help us navigate complexities in the world today?
GUESTS:
Dr Michael Barbezat, Research Fellow in Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the Australian Catholic University.
Dr Miles Pattenden, Senior Research Fellow in Medieval Studies, also at ACU.
Dr Mahsheed Ansari, Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation, Charles Sturt University. 
This program was first broadcast in October 2023

Evolving digital technologies have supercharged our anxieties about privacy and surveillance. 
These concerns may feel new, but they have always existed. 
Access to privacy is central to human dignity and intimacy - but it is also conditional in a society which values openness and accountability. 
So what should remain seen and unseen? 
When does surveillance become intrusive? 
And can privacy survive the digital age? 
Guests: 
Anita Allen, Professor of Law and Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania 
Hugh Breakey, Professor of Philosophy, Griffith University 
David Vincent, Professor Emeritus, Open Universities UK, author of Privacy: A Short History

"Don't judge me" is the unofficial commandment of our secular liberal society. We're told so long as you’re not hurting anyone, live however you want. But online, judgement is relentless and cruel. Have we lost the ability to wisely judge, and — eventually — forgive? Or did we never really have it in the first place?

These days, we want Rights, not religion. Choice, not Church. Pleasure, over prayer. 
In Australia, and the world  increasingly, the market is the Messiah, and the self is the saviour. 
But, if we’re the freest people who’ve ever lived, to choose our partners, careers, genders, and Gods or no God, free to buy anything, stream anything, be anything...why then do we seem to be unravelling?   
In a world of loneliness, anxiety, extremism, polarisation, the more we chase freedom, the more it seems to slip away. 
Are we in a freedom trap?
GUESTS:
Priyan Max Jeganathan is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity, author of The Freedom Trap.
Alexander Lefebvre is Professor of Politics and Philosophy at the University of Sydney. He's the author of Liberalism as a Way of Life.

What is the state of women in Australia and globally in 2026?    Mainstream social media is increasingly clogged with misogyny, there's the horrendous revelations around Jeffrey Epstein, a rise in women killed by their partners and online harassment of women is at a peak. Are we going backwards? 
Guests:
Ginger Gorman is a journalist and author of Troll Hunting: Inside the World of Online Hate and its Human Fallout
Nayomi Kannangara is CEO of the International Women's Development Agency.