UNSW Centre for Ideas

In 2018 Donna Strickland became the first woman in over 50 years to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, and only the third woman in history. Her award-winning work however began decades earlier. While undertaking her PhD Donna developed chirped pulse amplification – a unique way to amplify ultrashort laser pulses. This breakthrough paved not only the way for safer and more precise laser eye surgery but also improved mobile phone technology and is now helping to advance quantum science. Listen to Donna in conversation with the ABC’s Tegan Taylor, as she shares the early curiosity that fuelled her love of physics, the joy of discovery and how she became a ‘laser jock’.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adam Bayes is leader in the field of mental health, working as a clinical academic psychologist at UNSW Sydney and a senior research fellow at the Black Dog Institute specialising in mood disorders including depressive and bipolar disorders.   In this podcast Adam shares his cutting-edge research and clinical experience such as using ketamine to treat severe and treatment-resistant depression, a new development with promising results.  This event was presented by the Sydney Writers' Festival and supported by UNSW Sydney.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Soaring and crashing stock prices, resigning CEOs and out of control labour practices: what is going on with Australian businesses? Award-winning labour relations lawyer and author of Working for the Brand: how corporations are destroying free speech, Josh Bornstein and award-winning senior business writer and investigative journalist Adele Ferguson join host Richard Holden to consider the state of business. Get your head around the latest scandals, analyse business-employee relations and discover the ethical challenges shaping the future of corporate Australia.  This event was presented by the Sydney Writers' Festival and supported by UNSW Sydney. Presented in partnership with the State Library of NSW.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Anne Summers’s Damned Whores and God’s Police was first published 50 years ago – a time when sexual harassment, domestic violence and date rape were unnamed and often ignored experiences for women in Australia. It would be another nine years before the introduction of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984. Hear Anne as the bestselling and multi-award-winning writer and journalist – also an Officer of the Order of Australia and inductee to the Australian Media Hall of Fame – reflect on her groundbreaking book, what she has done since and what she is doing now with host Zora Simic. This event was presented by the Sydney Writers' Festival and supported by UNSW Sydney.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Economics Professor at UNSW Sydney Richard Holden (Money in the Twenty First Century) and Parliamentarian Andrew Leigh (The Shortest History of Economics) unpack economics as a global force that impacts wars, technological innovation and social change.  In our contemporary world, what are the causes and consequences of economic inequality? And can economics be used as a tool for justice for the oppressed? This event was presented by the Sydney Writers' Festival and supported by UNSW Sydney.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Miles Franklin is a literary legend now, but her story, and those of women like her, were nearly lost to the passage of time.  Kerrie Davies unwinds the mysteries of Miles Franklin’s lost years in Miles Franklin Undercover: The little-known years when she created her own brilliant career, constructing a real-life sequel to My Brilliant Career using never-before-published material. Yves Rees dives into the early days of Australia’s relationship with America through the forgotten lives of 10 Australian women, from an artist to an advisor to JFK, in Travelling to Tomorrow: The modern women who sparked Australia’s romance with America.  Hear Kerrie and Yves in conversation with journalist and co-editor of Hazzard and Harrower: The Letters, Susan Wyndham.  This event was presented by the Sydney's Writers' Festival and supported by UNSW Sydney. Presented in partnership with the State Library of New South Wales.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The climate crisis is vast, complex and often feels both imminent and frustratingly out of our control. With global systems slow to change and the scale of the challenge immense, it’s easy to wonder if individual action could ever be enough. On World Environment Day, Climate Warriors brought together four transformative voices; renewable energy expert and former Biden administration advisor Saul Griffith, Solar Citizen CEO Heidi Lee Douglas, climate activist Grace Vegesana along with host and journalist Craig Reucassel, to unpack the power and limitations of grassroots action, climate innovation and community-driven change.  From local initiatives to systemic shifts, they unpacked what’s working, what isn’t, and where real impact is being made. While no single effort can solve the climate crisis, collective action has the potential to tip the balance. Presented by the UNSW Centre for Ideas and UNSW Engineering, in association with the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Artificial intelligence’s collision with human creativity is one of the most important stories of our time.  With the accelerating impact of AI, so much of what we understand about being human is being re-written.   Acclaimed writer Jeanette Winterson (12 Bytes: How artificial intelligence will change the way we live and love) sees AI changing our lives in unprecedented ways. Academic and researcher Toby Walsh (The Shortest History of AI) predicts the place AI will have in our futures.    Hear Jeanette and Toby bring the perspectives of an artist and a scientist together in this important contemporary conversation. With an introduction from Verity Firth.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Acclaimed Indonesian author Norman Erikson Pasaribu and award-winning Australian writer Dylin Hardcastle explore the joy, tenderness and triumphs of queer storytelling.   Norman, best known for Happy Stories, Mostly, and their latest book My Dream Job, crafts tender yet sharp narratives about identity, faith and belonging, challenging the expectations of queer life in Indonesia. While Dylin, acclaimed for A Language of Limbs, offers an Australian perspective on intimacy, loss and transformation. Together their work embraces and reclaims; highlighting how storytelling becomes an act of survival and resistance for lives too often kept in the margins.    Hear Norman and Dylin, alongside UNSW’s Christy Newman, as they explore how literature creates space for voices long silenced – and how the most powerful stories are the ones that heal.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Beneath the ocean’s surface, fibre-optic cables pulse with the entirety of our human existence – memes and messages, stock trades and state secrets. But when these fragile threads break, so too can the connections that bind us.  Hear award-winning author Colum McCann join The Daily Aus’ Sam Koslowski to explore truth, misinformation and human connection in a world driven by technology, and his latest book Twist.  Together they unpack the power of fiction to reflect societal truths, rupture, repair and resilience in an age of hyper-communication, asking: how do we navigate a world where information is abundant, but authenticity is elusive? And in an era of digital disarray, can we still mend the severed connections of our society?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.