Ideas at the House

All around us, military spending is up. Are our neighbours arming for superpower confrontation over territory and influence? What does this mean for the peace and prosperity of Australia and our region? Dr Bates Gill is Professor of Asia Pacific Strategic Studies with the Australian National University Strategic and Defence Studies Centre and one of the world's leading experts on Asia-Pacific security issues, especially with regard to China. From 2007 to 2012 he served as Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the world's most respected nongovernment authority on the global arms trade. Over his 30-year career, he has authored and edited numerous books and other publications on arms trade and proliferation issues, including Chinese Arms Transfers (Praeger), Arms, Transparency and Security in Southeast Asia (Oxford University Press), China's Arms Acquisitions from Abroad (Oxford University Press), and Governing the Bomb: Civilian Control and Democratic Accountability of Nuclear Weapons. Sheryn Lee is an Associate Lecturer at the Department of Security Studies and Criminology, Macquarie University. She is also completing her doctoral dissertation on arms racing in the Asia-Pacific at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, the Australian National University. She was previously a non-resident WSD-Handa Fellow at Pacific Forum, Center for Strategic and International Studies, and holds an AM in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a Benjamin Franklin Fellow and Mumford Fellow. She was also a Robert O'Neill scholar at the International Institute of Strategic Studies-Asia in Singapore. Peter Hartcher is a leading Australian journalist and author. He is the political editor and international editor for The Sydney Morning Herald, a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy and a political commentator for Sky News television. He has been writing about power and politics, war and peace, booms and busts for more than 30 years. His latest book is The Adolescent Country. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is it time to forget about ‘border protection’? What would happen if we just opened our borders? Could it be the best response to all of our concerns about refugees and economic growth? Philippe Legrain is a critically acclaimed thinker and communicator who has also been a senior policy adviser. A senior visiting fellow at the London School of Economics’ European Institute, he is the founder of Open Political Economy Network (OPEN), an international think-tank. A columnist for Project Syndicate, Foreign Policy andCapX, he commentates for many international media outlets. From 2011 to 2014 he was economic adviser to the President of the European Commission and head of the team providing the president with strategic policy advice. Previously he was special adviser to World Trade Organisation director-general Mike Moore and trade and economics correspondent for The Economist. Philippe is the author of four successful books, includingImmigrants: Your Country Needs Them (2007), which was shortlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year, and European Spring: Why Our Economies and Politics are in a Mess – and How to Put Them Right(2014), which was among the FT’s Best Books of 2014. His first study for OPEN is Refugees Work: A Humanitarian Investment that Yields Economic Dividends (2016). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why do Indigenous people kill themselves in such numbers? What do we know about suicide that can help us understand this? Can we overcome the tragedy of young people dying in a suicide epidemic? Jesse Bering is an award-winning science writer. His "Bering in Mind" column at Scientific American was a 2010 Webby Award Honoree. Bering's first book, The Belief Instinct (2011), was included on the American Library Association's Top 25 Books of the Year. This was followed by a collection of essays--the critically acclaimed Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That? (2012), and Perv (2013), a New York Times Editor's Choice. All three books have been translated into many different languages. An expert in psychology and religion, he began his career at the University of Arkansas, as an Assistant Professor of Psychology from 2002-2006. He then served as the Director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture at the Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, where he was a Reader in the School of History and Anthropology until 2011. Presently, he is Associate Professor of Science Communication at the University of Otago, New Zealand. His next book, on the science of suicidology, will be released in 2017. Vanessa Lee, from the Wik and Meriam Nations, resides on the land of the Gadigal people. She is a social epidemiologist, educator, writer and public health/ health sciences researcher in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney. Her area of expertise is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health service delivery. Vanessa was the first National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Vice President of the Public Health Association of Australia for a period of four years where she contributed to significant changes in policies for Indigenous people. She is a director on the board for Suicide Prevention Australia.  Dr Lee chairs the Public Health Indigenous Leaders in Education Network and is on the executive board of the Australian Health Care Reform Alliance. She holds expert advisory positions with Close the Gap Steering Committee, the International Group of Indigenous Health Measurement and the Sydney Centre of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Statistics. All of the research, engagement and curriculum development that Vanessa is involved in are directed towards the overarching goal of improving the determinants of health, efficacy and linkages of services for better health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Sheila Watt-Cloutier currently resides in Iqaluit, Nunavut. She was born in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik (northern Quebec), and was raised traditionally in her early years before attending school in southern Canada and in Manitoba. Ms. Watt-Cloutier was an elected political spokesperson for Inuit for over a decade. She is the past Chair of Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), the organization that represents internationally the 155,000 Inuit of Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and Chukotka in the Far East of the Federation of Russia and was previously the President of ICC Canada. During the past several years, Ms. Watt-Cloutier has worked through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to defend Inuit human rights against the impacts of climate change. She has received many awards in recognition of her work. In November, 2015 she was one of 4 Laureates to receive “The Right Livelihood Award” considered the Nobel Alternative, awarded in the Parliament of Sweden. Her recently published book The Right To Be Cold has been shortlisted for the B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for political writing and the Cobo emerging writer prize. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Another sport, another drug scandal; are anti-doping efforts doomed? Would legalising drugs in sport actually protect athletes from harm? Is this radical idea the only way to create a level playing field? Stephen Dank is an Australian biochemist who has worked as a sports scientist with National Rugby League clubs such as the Manly Sea Eagles and Australian rules football clubs such as Essendon Football Club and the Gold Coast Suns Football Club. He is known for his unorthodox treatment and diagnostic methods.  Lisa Forrest is an Olympian, broadcaster and author. Lisa is also the founder of Evermind, a mindfulness-based coaching practice specialising in performance resilience and leadership.  Tracey Holmes is a journalist who has spent much of her career covering sports politics and its social impact. She has lived in numerous countries including mainland China and the Middle East where she's worked for CNN, CCTV and Dubai Eye. In Australia she has worked for the ABC, Channel 7, SBS and Fox Sports covering ten Olympic games, FIFA World Cups, and many other of the world's great events. Currently she is a senior reporter/presenter for ABC NewsRadio, a panelist for ABC TV's Offsiders, and anchor of sports politics program, The Ticket. She is also senior mentor for the IOC's Young Reporters program. Dr Jason Mazanov is a Senior Lecturer with the School of Business, UNSW-Canberra. Dr Mazanov has been actively researching the policy and management of drugs in sport for over a decade. This expertise has seen Dr Mazanov make over 100 appearances in the Australian and international media. In addition to being Founding Editor of the peer-review journal Performance Enhancement and Health, Dr Mazanov is author of the upcoming book Managing Drugs in Sport. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Head of Sydney Opera House Talks and Ideas Ann Mossop sits down with internationally renowned economist Thomas Piketty to discuss his book "Capital in the 21st Century"and whether increasing inequality is inevitable.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is Hindu fundamentalism becoming a dangerous force in India? Is the world’s largest democracy becoming less secular and less democratic? What does this mean for India’s future? Priyamvada Gopal is a Reader at the University of Cambridge in Anglophone and Related Literature. Her new book, Insurgent Empire, is due out with Verso in 2017 and follows Literary Radicalism in India: Gender, Nation and the Transition to Independence (2005) and The Indian English Novel: Nation, History and Narration (2009). A regular writer for The Guardian,The Independent and Times Higher Education Supplement (UK), The Nation(USA), The Hindu and Open (India), she also has appeared on the BBC, Channel 4, Al Jazeera and NDTV (India). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alexei Sayle’s comedy career kicked off as Thatcherism took hold in Britain and generated unprecedented political conflict and protest. Was this part of what made him one of the funniest voices of his generation? What does his comic persona – full of rage, and with a dark and dangerous edge – owe to the politics of the time? And how does he make Stalin and Thatcher funny? Alexei David Sayle was born in Liverpool and moved to London in 1971 to attend Chelsea Art School. He became the first MC of the Comedy Store, and later, the Comic Strip. After years of stand-up, television, sitcoms, films and even a hit single, he published his first highly acclaimed collection of short stories, Barcelona Plates, which was followed by The Dog Catcher, two novels – Overtaken and The Weeping Women Hotel – and a novella, Mister Roberts. The first volume of Alexei’s memoirs was Stalin Ate My Homework; it was followed byThatcher Stole My Trousers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Living with Asperger’s, John Elder Robison had come to terms with the way he was different, riding life’s ups and downs. But what if it was possible to unlock the emotional insight that we assume is ‘missing’ in people living with Aspergers – if only you undertook an experimental brain therapy? Is that fixing?  Chaired by Van Badham John Elder Robison is The New York Times bestselling author of Look Me in the Eye. He is a world-recognised authority on life with autism; the Neurodiversity Scholar in Residence at the College of William and Mary; and a member of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee for the US Department of Health and Human Services. John is also a member of the International Society for Autism Research. He lives with his wife and son in Amherst, Massachusetts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why are young people worse off than their parents? Why is the gap between older and younger Australians – in terms of work, wealth and wellbeing – growing wider? Is Australia cheating the young?  Chaired by Van Badham Jennifer Rayner was born into aspirational Australian suburbia during the Hawke years and came of age in the long boom of the Howard era. Her lifetime tracks the yawning inequalities that have opened up across the Australian community in the past 30 years. She has worked as a federal political adviser, an international youth ambassador in Indonesia and a private sector consultant. She holds a PhD from the Australian National University. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Suddenly it’s not queer to hear people talking about 'gender fluidity’, ‘gender transition’ or a spectrum of gender identity – did the world conversation decide gender no longer matters? And if the biological constraints of gender have been loosened, how do we deal with enduring gender-based social inequality and injustice? Jesse Bering is an award-winning science writer. His "Bering in Mind" column at Scientific American was a 2010 Webby Award Honoree. Bering's first book, The Belief Instinct (2011), was included on the American Library Association's Top 25 Books of the Year. This was followed by a collection of essays - the critically acclaimed Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That? (2012), and Perv (2013), a New York Times Editor's Choice. All three books have been translated into many different languages. An expert in psychology and religion, he began his career at the University of Arkansas, as an Assistant Professor of Psychology from 2002-2006. He then served as the Director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture at the Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, where he was a Reader in the School of History and Anthropology until 2011. Presently, he is Associate Professor of Science Communication at the University of Otago, New Zealand. His next book, on the science of suicidology, will be released in 2017. Raewyn Connell is one of Australia's leading social scientists. She is best known internationally as a sociologist of gender and a pioneer of research on masculinities and best known in Australia for work on class inequality and social justice in education. She’s author or co-author of 23 books including Gender In World Perspective,Southern Theory, Masculinities, Schools & Social Justice, Gender & Power, Making the Difference, and Ruling Class Ruling Culture. Her work has been translated into 18 languages. She is a long-term participant in the labour movement and peace movement, and is now Professor Emerita at the University of Sydney, and a Life Member of the NTEU. Cordelia Fine is an Associate Professor at Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne. Her second popular science book, Delusions of Gender: The Real Science of Sex Differences was described as “a welcome corrective” (Nature), ”carefully researched and reasoned" (Science) and “required reading for every neurobiology student, if not every human being.” (PLoS Biology). It was short-listed for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Non-Fiction, the Best Book of Ideas Prize (UK), the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for Literature (UK) and the international cross-genre Warwick Prize (2013), and the New York Times advised readers to "read this book". Cordelia also writes regularly for the popular press, including pieces in The Monthly, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Guardian and Financial Times, and her latest book, Testosterone Rex, will be published in early 2017. Elizabeth Anne Riley, PhD is a Sydney-based counsellor, academic & clinical supervisor specialising in gender diversity. Elizabeth has extensive experience working with gender diverse clients and has a PhD titled ‘The needs of gender variant children and their parents’ Elizabeth also has a Masters in Counselling and provides gender specific support and counselling for children, youth & their families. Elizabeth delivers professional development in gender diversity for schools, clinicians and other service providers and has 10 publications in the area of gender identity. As an advocate for the trans community Elizabeth appears for Mardis Gras interviewing transgender trailblazers, including  Chaz Bono and Catherine MacGregor. Elizabeth’s media presence includes Insight, 60 Minutes, A Current Affair, The Project, ABC’s 7.30, Radio National & JJJ. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.