In the US, 40% of women are out earning their partners; females are recipients of more -- and higher -- degrees than their male counterparts; and 75% of couples in fertility clinics are requesting girls over boys.While men once dominated thanks largely to their size and strength, this advantage has been eroded in a post-industrial society. Male-dominated sectors like manufacturing continue to decline in the West while health care and services where women dominate are in the ascendant.The boys club has begun to dissipate. Not only are feminine traits like social intelligence and open communication increasingly in demand, but women are also increasingly adopting traditional male traits such as aggression. Men, on the other hand, are struggling to make the same move in the other direction. If the past belonged to men, then the future belongs to women. A social equilibrium that existed for millennia has been disrupted -- how will the parts settle after the upheaval? Does the rise of women mean the end of men? And what are the social implications of a change that potentially leaves half the population -- an entire gender -- useless for all but biological purposes (for now)?Hanna Rosin is an American journalist and author. She is a senior editor at The Atlantic and the editor and founder of DoubleX, Slate's women's section..Her latest book is the best-selling The End of Men and the Rise of Women.Chair: Julia Baird is a journalist, TV personality, and author of Media Tarts: How the Australian Press Frames Female Politicians. She is currently working on a biography of Queen Victoria. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Few people would argue with the wonders of connectivity, communication and access to infinite quantities of information that the Internet has enabled. But our understanding of the digital future is shaped by those who are making it, and they often have a vested commercial interest in a mass audience buying what they offer. If we take off our rose-coloured glasses, we see that the wonder-gadgets and techno-solutionism can become just another way to sell us things and if we're not the customer, we're generally the product. The lofty ideals of the early Internet have been hijacked to give every digital touchpoint an illusory benevolence. But the reality is much more ambiguous. The digital future has not been written. We need to avoid utopian complacency and think about our digital lives so we can make sure the Internet lives up to its promise, not its darkest possibilities.Evgeny Morozov is a Belarusian writer and researcher whose commentary on technology has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Economist, and New Scientist. He is the author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom, and most recently, To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There's a flaw in the way we choose our life partners. We pair up based (mostly) on preferences outside of the bedroom, and hope that what happens in the bedroom will match up. Infidelity is not the end of the world, it's a reality of long-term relationships. We accept the good and the bad when it comes to our partner's jobs, families, and failures, but quickly default to divorce when we yield to natural temptation.It's time to stop fooling ourselves and accept that outdated concepts of "proper" sex are torpedoing discussions needed to reach mature sexual compromises. Many of the relationships that we think of as monogamous are actually probably 'monogomish': mostly monogamous, but with bits on the side. If we really want to protect the sanctity of marriage, we need to make it our playground, not our prison.Dan Savage is the author of the internationally syndicated advice column Savage Love, host of the popular podcast Savage Lovecast. He is also an essayist whose work has featured in the New York Times and on This American Life. His latest book is American Savage: Insights, Slights, and Fights on Faith, Sex, Love, and Politics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The latest science suggests that it is too late to prevent human-induced climate change. Technological optimists are now turning their minds to mitigation through techniques of geo-engineering, like giant space mirrors or seeding the oceans with iron to prompt carbon-absorbing algal blooms. But projects to alter the entire planet will expose all life to massive risk.So, why not address the source of the problem and engineer humans to reduce our environmental impact and adapt? Genetic engineering could make us smaller or reduce our appetite for meat. Doses of Oxytocin could make us more sympathetic and cooperative. Such possibilities are criticised as extreme, but are they any more so than re-engineering the planet?S. Matthew Liao is a professor of philosophy at New York Universtiy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the US, almost 40% of working wives out-earn their husbands. The proportion is smaller in Australia, but the trend is unmistakeably moving in the same direction.Join award-winning journalist and best-selling author Liza Mundy as she looks at the impact on relationships, families and institutions to come with this change, and considers whether the goal of feminisms, for equality, has actually prepared women for power and responsibility. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Superficial charm, a tendency to be bored easily, a lack of empathy and remorse, coupled with a grandiose sense of self-worth: these are the hallmarks of the psychopath. After a look at the world around us, some investigative journalism that took him to prisons and CEO offices, Jon Ronson came to the conclusion that not only do these qualities characterise some of the most successful people in all spheres of life, perhaps there is at least a bit of the psychopath in us all.Jon Ronson is a journalist, documentary filmmaker and nonfiction author whose work includes 'The Men Who Stare at Goats' and 'The Psychopath Test.' Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The roles of governments and corporations in the future of the internet, and their use and abuse of data, have been put under the global spotlight. In the wake of Manning, Snowden and Wikileaks, we finally have the scope to properly debate the need for government transparency and the trade-off between privacy and security.Watch our expert panel discuss the implications of the war on whistleblowers for the main actors, and the consequences if that war is lost for the rest of us.US Journalist and activist Alexa O'Brien and Australian commentator Robert Manne are joined by video conference with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, Guardian Journalist Glenn Greenwald and Chelsea Manning's Lawyer David Coombs on stage at the Sydney Opera House (moderated by Bernard Keane of Crikey). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As political change sweeps the streets, parliaments and presidential palaces of the Arab world, Shereen El Feki has been looking at the upheaval inside the family home -- specifically, in the bedroom, and the sexual lives of Arab men and women. Sex is entwined in religion and tradition, politics and economics, making it the perfect lens for examining the region's complex social landscape.Shereen El Feki is an award-winning journalist with The Economist, and a broadcaster and writer who began her career in medical science before becoming the vice-chair of the UN's Global Commission on HIV and the Law. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Richard Holloway is a former Bishop of Edinburgh and acclaimed writer-commentator of books such as 'Goodness Morality.' Dubbed the 'barmy bishop' by UK tabloids and denounced by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Holloway was never a typical churchman, troubled by questions posed by life in the church.Holloway joins Ideas at the House to discuss his life and times both inside and outside the priesthood, as documented in his recent best-selling memoir, 'Leaving Alexandria.' Listen to Holloway share an intimate knowledge of the Church's workings, philosophies, and a fresh perspective on the topic of faith and doubt. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Declared a 'prophet' by TIME magazine, John Ralston Saul's critically acclaimed works have been translated into 22 languages in 30 countries, displaying a growing impact on world political and economic thought. A long-term champion of freedom of expression, watch John Ralston Saul in intimate conversation on the state of the world today; from economic stability, unemployment and poverty to inequality, racism, terrorism and fundamentalism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.