The case of David Hicks, incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay and described as one of the ‘worst of the worst’, brought up many issues that we are still dealing with today.As the ‘War on Terror’ gradually became a range of other conflicts, questions about what happens to citizens who fight in other countries and the role of the Australian Government in protecting their rights remain contentious. When the Bush Government set up the military commissions to deal with ‘unlawful combatants’, the military lawyer Major Michael Mori became defence counsel for David Hicks, and his was the determined and reasonable voice that told Australia the story as it unfolded during the military commission process.Mori’s fight for justice for David Hicks saw him pitted against the institutions he had spent his life serving, as he risked his career to challenge the military commission system. Now retired from the US army as a Lieutenant Colonel and practicing as a lawyer in Melbourne, Michael Mori will give his account of the legal, ethical and personal struggles that shaped this extraordinary case and his involvement in it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Art of Belonging advances the argument put forward in Mackay's bestselling The Good Life: a 'good life' is not lived in isolation or in the pursuit of independent goals; a good life is lived at the heart of a thriving community, among people we trust, and within an environment of mutual respect.Most of us struggle to reconcile our need to belong with our desire to live life on our own terms. If we want to master the art of belonging, we need to be able to manage the conflicts that arise in a community when some assert their own needs at the expense of others. We need communities, but communities also need us.For this symmetry to work, we need to take responsibility for the places where we live by engaging, volunteering, joining up and joining in.Hugh Mackay is a social researcher and the author of 16 books, including, most recently, The Good Life, a 2013 bestseller, and his sixth novel, Infidelity. He is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and the recipient of several honorary doctorates from Australian universities. He lives in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Big stories and dangerous ideas sometimes can come our way because someone had an idea, and sat down and thought about it. But some important stories, can only be found in forbidding environments and with dangerous consequences. For Lydia Cacho, death threats have been the result of her reporting on violence against women in Mexico. Outspoken journalist Masha Gessen left Russia when changes to Russian law meant that her children might be taken away because she was gay. Climbing London’s tallest buildings to chronicle urban exploration has seen Bradley Garrett arrested for his place-hacking efforts. For our panel of speakers, to pursue their dangerous ideas, living dangerously has been part of everyday life.Lydia Cacho is an award-winning investigative journalist, writer and activist, and is the author of Slavery Inc.: The untold story of international sex trafficking.Bradley Garrett is an American researcher, explorer and social/cultural geographer at the University of Oxford and the author of Explore Everything: Place-hacking the city.Masha Gessen is a Russian journalist and the author of a biography of Vladimir Putin, The Man Without a Face and Words Will Break Cement: The passion of Pussy Riot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Noel Pearson is a lawyer and activist. Pearson shows how the idea of "race" was embedded in the constitution, and the distorting effect this has had. Now there is a chance to change it - if we can agree on a way forward. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jeanette Winterson OBE is one of the most acclaimed authors of our time. Across novels, screenplays, essays and journalism, Winterson has taken risks and challenged us to think differently about identity and relationships.At fifteen, Winterson's love affair with another woman was discovered. She was condemned by her church, leading to her expulsion from the community and her decision to leave home. She worked odd jobs, from an ice-cream van driver to a funeral parlour make-up artist, supporting herself as she obtained her B.A. in English from St. Catherine's College at Oxford. She would go on to write over twenty books, including the celebrated novels such as Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, The Passion and Sexing the Cherry, as well as the memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?Watch as Winterson talks about her life, and what she's learned from it through decades of searching for love and meaning through fiction and poetry. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Author. Entrepreneur. Visionary. Arianna Huffington is one of the world’s leading businesswomen and most influential women in media.Born in Greece, Huffington moved to the US by way of Cambridge University in England, becoming a renowned broadcaster and nationally-syndicated columnist. In May of 2005, she launched the Huffington Post, which quickly became one of the most widely-read and -cited online media brands. Huffington was soon named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, and is currently the chair, president, and editor-in-chief the Huffington Post Media Group. Her latest book, Thrive, reflects on her stunning success as well as her passionate and personal mission to redefine its meaning. Join Arianna Huffington in conversation with Annabel Crabb as they discuss Thrive and explore her rise to being one of the most prominent and important women in the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Throughout history, the cultural forces that have repressed female sexuality have also created a picture of women as sexually passive and requiring protection from the rapacious desires they inspire in men. Women's sexuality has been denied in its totality, let alone their capacity to become paedophiles or predators. And where stories of women as sexual predators do emerge, attractive women are excused, painted as victims in the media, and become celebrity sex objects themselves rather than being recognised as perpetrators of criminal harm. This apparently benevolent hangover of sexist attitudes does women no favours. If women are to own their own sexuality, they must also own their potential to be sexual predators with all that this implies.Alissa Nutting is an American author of the short story collection Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls. Her latest book, the novel Tampa, explores the sociopathic and predatory potential of female sexuality. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Women, and their bodies, are for sale. You don’t have to go to Nigeria, where Boko Haram wants to sell kidnapped schoolgirls, to find women on the market. Throughout the world, women and children are trafficked and traded as workers in the multi-billion-dollar sex industry, and their bodies are bought by ‘consumers’ everywhere. In the West, ads for everything from clothing to cars feature scantily clad women to help turn a profit. Pornography, IVF, surrogacy and prostitution are very different things, but all put women and their bodies on the market. Women are bought, sold and exploited everywhere. In much of the world, equality for women is still a dream, but wherever women’s bodies are for sale, real equality is still a long way off.Lydia Cacho is an award-winning investigative journalist, writer and activist, and is the author of Slavery Inc.: The untold story of international sex trafficking.Kajsa Ekis Ekman is a Swedish journalist, writer and activist. She is the founder of Feminists Against Surrogacy and the author of Being and Being Bought: Prostitution, surrogacy and the split self.Alissa Nutting is an American author of the short story collection Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls and the novel Tampa.Elizabeth Pisani is a London-based journalist and epidemiologist and the author of Indonesia etc.Jules Kim is acting CEO of Scarlet Alliance, the Australian Sex Workers Association. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the past forty years there’s been a concerted effort to deny the growing evidence that marriage matters. Families with married parents are more likely to provide stable homes for children. Children in single parent families are less likely to thrive than those with two parents, particularly married parents. Family structure is one of the key factors in predicting the future lives of our children, yet most are still determined to ignore what they see as a most unpalatable truth. For all the talk about gay marriage, these are the marriage patterns that have most impact on our society, and if we take the future of children seriously, it’s time to put this back on the agenda. Bettina Arndt was formerly a clinical psychologist and one of Australia’s first sex therapist. She now works as an online dating coach and writes on social issues for many Australian publications.Kay Hymowitz is an American writer, researcher, and is the William E. Simon Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. She is the author of four books, including Manning Up: How the rise of women has turned men into boys.Kay Hymowitz appears with the support of The Centre for Independent Studies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There’s been great unease about the future of 'serious' investigative journalism since the eruption of the internet shook up the traditional newspaper model. What if it’s not just the money to support this journalism that’s gone? What if it’s the readers as well, too busy sharing cat videos and shark memes to think about real news? While new philanthropic models for journalism are emerging, and traditional journalism is working out how to survive, the cat video publishers might be the ones to save the day. Maybe they were just using the cats to attract our attention, so that they could then give us the serious journalism we need. In the new world, there may be fewer newspapers, but good journalism might just find new homes (next to the cat’s basket?), and not entirely disappear.Simon Crerar is a Sydney-based British journalist and BuzzFeed’s Australia Editor.Tim Duggan is the Content Director and co-owner of Sound Alliance, which publishes In The Mix, Faster Louder, Same Same and Junkee.Peter Fray is deputy editor of The Australian and former editor-in-chief and publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald.Mark Scott is the Managing Director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.