Festival of Dangerous Ideas

In an age of creeping authoritarianism, anyone who questions the logic of competing narratives when it comes to historical conflicts risks being silenced. Russian American journalist Masha Gessen says however, in order to learn from history we have to question our world and recognise the signs of when we're sliding into darkness.  Gessen examines how the intersection of history, memory, propaganda and censorship enforces the narratives of today – and what happens when narrative becomes dogma. Masha Gessen is an opinion columnist for The New York Times and a Distinguished Professor at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. They have written extensively on The Russian-Ukrainian war, Israel/Palestine, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump. They have won numerous awards, including the George Polk Award, the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thinking, and the National Book Award.  Chaired by journalist Hamish Macdonald.

The culture wars are seeping out of the real world and infiltrating our pages and stages.  Art has always traversed unfamiliar and even dangerous territory. But with recent calls to boycott cultural institutions, donors pulling funding, and the cancellation of works and talent, are some discussions too fraught to engage with? Louise Adler is the Director of Adelaide Writers’ Week. She has spent over 30 years in the culture business and continues to be committed to the dissemination of dangerous ideas. Brook Garru Andrew is an artist, curator and writer who is driven by the collisions of intertwined narratives emerging from the mess of the “Colonial Wuba (hole)”. His practice is grounded in his perspective as a Wiradjuri and Celtic person from Australia. Violette Ayad was born on Whadjuk Noongar Boodja to Palestinian and Lebanese parents. She is now based on Gadigal land where she works as an actor, writer, director, and voice artist.  Gil Beckwith has a significant career in the Arts and Not For Profit industry in senior finance and administration management roles. Her working career spans over 40 years and includes working for Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Festival, the Victorian AIDS Council, and most recently CEO of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Emile Sherman is an Academy Award and Emmy Award-winning film and television producer who co-founded See-Saw Films in 2008. Based in Sydney and London, See-Saw Films has worked with many of the world’s leading filmmakers and actors.  Chaired by philosopher and Executive Director of The Ethics Centre, Simon Longstaff.

The world order that we’ve lived with for most of our lives is experiencing a tectonic shift. We’ve experienced unprecedented levels of growth and prosperity – but as a growing cohort of demagogues and autocrats continue to lead our world, there is something quite telling in how populations are responding to our levels of ‘success’.  Is our world order functioning the way it was set up to? And how do we decide who best represents our decisions and values?  Avani Dias is a reporter with Four Corners and was the ABC’s South Asia correspondent in India for the past two-and-a-half years.  Cheng Lei is a bilingual and bicultural TV journalist who worked in Shanghai, Singapore and Beijing for 18 years for CNBC and China’s state TV English channel. Hamish Macdonald is an award-winning journalist who has covered wars, disasters, and major world events.  Professor Weaver is the founding Director of the Tech Policy Design Centre at the Australian National University.  Chaired by journalist Matt Bevan.  

Are you BOLD, BRAVE and CURIOUS? FODI is back, baby. We’ve gathered the world's best for a weekend of provocation and inspiration. 87 speakers and artists including 16 international guests across 88 sessions at Carriageworks, Sydney for one massive weekend of danger. Presented by The Ethics Centre, FODI is a place to come and be curious together. A sanctuary where all are welcome. Safe from hype. Safe to listen. And safe to ask hard questions.  Satisfy your taste for danger, tickets won’t last long. 2024 PROGRAM LIVE AND ON SALE NOW at festivalofdangerousideas.com

Festival of Dangerous Ideas (FODI) returns to Carriageworks on 24-25 August 2024.  Offering a haven for exploration and a harbour for the curious, FODI 2024's theme, Sanctuary allows audiences to engage with the ideas behind the headlines of the 24 hour news cycle. In a litany of entrenched ideas, shallow information and self-censorship, we desperately need a space where we can engage with challenging ideas in good faith. FODI 2024 is an opportunity to hear powerful and provocative speakers from around the world talk on important and rousing topics. And also a space, a sanctuary, where audiences can engage with these ideas in a way that we, unfortunately, can’t in the wild. In FODI's Sanctuary you are safe from hype and safe to listen and to ask questions. Program announcement and tickets on sale in June. Sign up for the latest updates: https://festivalofdangerousideas.com/

What is the purpose of democracy when it’s become more challenging than ever to tell the left and right apart?  Journalist and filmmaker, Tariq Ali says Western democracy has failed and we are now seeing the emergence of an extreme centre, which ensures no challenges to this form of neoliberal politics is permitted.  Tariq Ali is a British-Pakistani political commentator and a prolific writer, journalist and filmmaker. He has been a leading figure of the international left since the 1960s. His books include The Duel: Pakistan on the Flightpath of American Power, The Obama Sydrome and The Extreme Centre: A Warning.

In modern Australia, productivity is all that matters, or so our leaders tell us. However the way we have pursued economic growth in the last 30 years has prevented many people from sharing the rewards. We now create wealth via exclusion.  Writer Denis Glover argues that an economy is not a society. We desperately need to confront the working conditions, jobs and lives we want for ourselves and our families – and to choose a future that is designed to benefit all Australians, not just some. Dennis Glover is an Australian writer and novelist. The son of factory workers, Dennis grew up in the working class Melbourne suburb of Doveton before studying at Monash University and King’s College Cambridge where he was awarded a PhD in history. He has worked for two decades as an academic, newspaper columnist, policy adviser and speechwriter to Australia’s most senior political, business and community leaders. 

In a time of turmoil, what happens when art and politics collide? From prisons, refugee camps and war zones, artist and journalist Molly Crabapple has documented the astounding courage of people living in the worst possible circumstances.   Crabapple wonders whether art is sharp enough to cut through razor wires. Is it time to move art out of galleries and use it as a real agent for change? Molly Crabapple is an artist and writer who has been published in the New York Times, The Paris Review, Vanity Far, The Guardian, The New Yorker and Rolling Stone. She became a journalist sketching the frontlines of Occupy Wall Street, before covering, with words and art, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lebanese snipers, Guantanamo Bay, the US-Mexican border, Pennsylvania prisoners, New York cabbies, Greek refugee camps, and the ravages of hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

We all have assumptions of what citizenship means. However, in recent years we are starting to see the envelop pushed with more common law rights being taken away. From Australia shutting its doors during the pandemic to authoritarian regimes acquiring the habit of turning travellers into political prisoners, where is it becoming too dangerous to go? And if an Australian passport does not protect you, what are you owed by your government?  Kylie Moore-Gilbert is a scholar of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. She was falsely charged with espionage and imprisoned in Iran from September 2018 to November 2020 before being released in a prisoner exchange deal negotiated by the Australian government. Peter Greste is a journalist, author, media freedom activist and professor at Macquarie University. Before joining academia in 2018, he spent 25 years as a correspondent in the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. In 2013, he and two colleagues were arrested in Cairo on terrorism charges. They were convicted and sentenced to seven years in a case regarded as an attack on press freedom. Egypt released Peter after 400 days, and he has since become a press freedom advocate. Ian Kemish AM served as Australian High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, Ambassador to Germany, Head of the Prime Minister’s international division, and Head of the consular service in a diplomatic career that spanned twenty-five years. He is an adjunct professor in history at the University of Queensland, a non-resident fellow with the Lowy Institute, a director of the Australia–Indonesia Centre and an Honorary Fellow of Deakin University. Dr Sangeetha PIllai is a constitutional lawyer and a Senior Research Associate at the Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Sydney. She is an expert on Australian citizenship law and the scope of government power over citizens and non-citizens. She has published widely on this topic, and is a regular commentator on legal issues relating to citizenship, immigration and refugees in a range of media outlets.    

Drawing truth to power is more dangerous in some parts of the world than others. The combination of satire and anger can make the best political cartoons lethal to politicians, unveiling truths around human rights, leadership and freedom. But where do we draw the line between humour, offence and legality? And for cartoonists trapped between censorship and cancellation, what is there still left to draw?  Badiucao is one of the most popular and prolific political artist from China, and he confronts a variety of social and political issues head on in his work. He uses his art to challenge the censorship and dictatorship in China.  Cathy Wilcox is a cartoonist and illustrator who currently draws editorial cartoons for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Over the years she has illustrated over 20 children’s books and been involved in several theatre productions. She has received several Stanley Awards, three Walkley Awards and has twice been named Political Cartoonist of the Year by the Museum of Australian Democracy. ‘Investigative Humourist’ Dan Ilic is one of Australia’s most prolific comedy voices, known for his work across TV, film, radio and stage. Co-host of the popular podcast and live comedy show A Rational Fear, Dan Ilic and Lewis Hobba brings together industry leaders to use comedy to explore big issues.