Ideas at the House

The stories of Anders Behring Breivik and Lance Armstrong may seem to have little in common, but each shows the consequences of the epidemic of narcissism that marks our age. Our lives no longer centre on social and family groups, but have become highly individualistic. We are primed for narcissism by consumer culture, changing family dynamics and growing inequality. A society full of people who are self-obsessed, have a deep need for admiration and a lack of empathy for others is not going to be a happy place. It’s time we looked at the sources of this epidemic and how it can be stopped.Anne Manne is an Australian writer and social commentator. She is the author of Motherhood: How should we care for our children?, So This is Life: Scenes from a country childhood and soon to be published The Life of I: The new culture of narcissism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Life is painful. It's full of doubt and uncertainty. And it ends, in this world anyway, with death. For many, the antidote to this pain has been religion. The appeal is obvious: comforting stories, a clear sense of right and wrong and eternal life as the carrot at the end. Even New Atheists such as Alain De Botton have retrieved some of the comfort traditionally offered by the church. But has the church taken up the easy sell of "ending suffering" and promising answers to unanswerable questions.In contrast to this "Good News," Peter Rollins argues for a radical and initially disturbing Gospel: we can't be satisfied, life is tough, and we don't know the secret. We should attack the idea of God as that which makes us whole, removes our suffering, and offers us the truth. Rollins is less concerned with the question of life after death than with the possibility of a life before death, and his "churches" challenge escapist versions of spirituality, inviting us to embrace complexity, ambiguity and pain. Doubt is part of life, and religion should be able to explore it -- instead of presenting an all-singing, all-dancing distraction.Peter Rollins is a leading figure of the radical Christianity movement and author of books such as How (Not) to Speak of God and Insurrection. A philosopher, theologian, believer, and doubter, he has developed a number of contemplative practices to help Christians accept doubt and complexity, such as 'Atheism for Lent.' Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A legal figure like no other, Michael Kirby carefully trod the line between judicial impartiality and outspoken human rights advocacy throughout a distinguished thirty five year career that included thirteen years on the High Court of Australia. Watch as Kirby returns to Sydney Opera House to discuss his new and very intimate authorised biography Michael Kirby: Law, Love & Life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Remote assistants respond to calls and emails. Life coaches assist with personal decisions. Smartphone apps tell us where to eat dinner. Nameologists help choose names for babies that will be raised by live-in au pairs.Welcome to an emerging world, where the individual is a client in every interaction. Traditional functions of family and friends have been replaced by hired help and consultants. It may save us time, what do we lose by handing over control of our personal lives to third-parties? Who are we if our jobs, our houses, our furniture, and our spouses are all recommended to us by experts or algorithms. If we are the sum of our decisions, then what's left when those decisions have been handed over entirely to others? Sociologist Arlie Hochschild looks at the long-term consequences of a frictionless existence and the implications of replacing the community with a marketplace in favour of faster, lonelier lives.Arlie Hochschild is a professor emerita of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of eight books, including The Outsourced Self, The Second Shift, and So How's the Family? and other essays. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the course of his career, Geoffrey Robertson has been involved in many of the key human rights issues of recent history. In his session at the Opera House he talks about his latest book 'Mullahs without Mercy' which brings together his thinking about nuclear weapons and their dangers in the Iranian context, but also looks at the human rights record of the Iranian regime. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There are two Americas. In one, bankers get golden parachutes, insider traders return to society as well-paid consultants, and influence is for sale. In the other, opportunity is scarce and forgiveness scarcer, jail awaits those caught possessing recreational drugs, and cries for help are ignored. Society preaches forgiveness for the rich and retribution for the poor. Entrenched inequality and its companion, poverty, are the dark side of the American dream for a citizenry united by name, but not by rules.Is the divide fair, the result of natural winners and losers, or is it built into the system? We know that inequality is bad for the rich as well as the poor, and that more equal countries are healthier and happier, but this knowledge won't bring change by itself. What can be done when those with the power to change the divide are those that benefit most from it? As long as the more equal won't let go, the less equal will suffer.From his journalist days on the crime beat through to his work on shows like The Wire and Treme, David Simon has brought the divide between these two America's to life like no other. Simon looks at the oppressed, the victims of manmade disasters such as the war on drugs through to natural disaster such as Hurricane Katrina, and forces us to ask whether the fictional stories he shows us on screen are any less real than the theatre of compassion we see on the news from the very same people who have the power to treat all citizens equally but choose not to. David Simon is a journalist, author, and television writer/producer best known as the creator and showrunner of HBO series The Wire and Treme. He spent twelve years on the crime beat for the Baltimore Sun. He also worked on the adaptations of his books Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood for NBC and HBO respectively.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the most extraordinary things about the history of sexuality has been the lack of evidence-based information about women's sexual needs and desires. From folklore to Freud, hysteria to penis-envy, women as sexual beings have been misunderstood, brainwashed, silenced and demonised. Daniel Bergner brings together all of the research on the topic, old and new, in a definitive and groundbreaking account of what we now know and understand about women's sexuality. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's been more than 20 years since we first became anxious about sports shoes made in sweatshops, and yet cheap and fashionable clothing still seems like an unqualified good -- another gift of the globalisation boom years to consumers in developed countries. But as the recent factory fires in Bangladesh have reaffirmed, it's a gift that comes at a terrible cost not only to others but also to the environment. As we deal with guilt and the mountain of waste that 'fast fashion' produces, others deal with Dickensian conditions and subsistence wages, while the carbon footprint of our fluctuating wardrobes continue to expand. Is there a way out of this Faustian bargain that has seen fashion become a destructive force? Lucy Siegle is a British journalist focusing on the environmental, sustainability and ethics Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2010, journalist Jennifer Senior's magazine story, All Joy and No Fun, became an overnight sensation with its blunt declaration that parents love their children and hate their lives. Anyone who experiences or observes the agony and ecstasy of modern parenting knows that children bring both happiness and misery. We spend more time with our children, but feel guilty about the quality of our parenting and our children are more accomplished yet more depressed than ever before. What does it all mean? Jennifer Senior has expanded her idea into a new best-selling book and while she might not have all the answers, her questions cast some much needed light on the reality of parenting today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When civil war broke out in Somalia in 1991, Elman Ali Ahmed became an ardent peace activist, spreading the mantra "put down the gun, pick up the pen" until his assassination in 1996. Three years ago, his 19-year-old daughter Ilwad Elman returned to Somalia and now runs the Elman Peace and Human Rights Center in Mogadishu with her mother, Fartun Adan. In a country ranked the fifth worst place in the world to be a woman, Ilwad and her mother work with victims of rape, and towards the rehabilitation of child soldiers. For this extraordinary young woman, changing the world means carrying on the work of her parents and rebuilding Somalia, one project at a time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.