Art is Always Political (2024) - Louise Adler, Brook Garru Andrew, Violette Ayad, Gil Beckwith, Simon Longstaff & Emile Sherman

Art is Always Political (2024) - Louise Adler, Brook Garru Andrew, Violette Ayad, Gil Beckwith, Simon Longstaff & Emile Sherman

Author: Festival of Dangerous Ideas November 6, 2024 Duration: 1:06:02

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.


For more than a decade, the Festival of Dangerous Ideas has curated a space where provocative thinking isn't just welcomed, it's the entire point. This podcast is a direct line to that stage, offering an archive of talks that deliberately unsettle comfortable opinions and interrogate the stubborn problems we often agree to ignore. Each episode captures a live conversation from Australia's original disruptive ideas festival, presenting arguments that can be exhilarating, uncomfortable, and vitally important. You’ll hear from a compelling roster of festival alumni-including leading experts, intellectual troublemakers, and visionary authors-who share perspectives that conventional discourse frequently sidelines. The discussions here aren't theoretical exercises; they grapple with the pressing and difficult issues shaping our society and culture right now. Tuning in means granting yourself access to a decade-long tradition of intellectual courage, where the core assumption is that some truths are only reached by first entertaining a dangerous idea. It’s a chance to listen as boundaries are pushed, not for shock value, but for clarity. The result is a consistently challenging and refreshing audio experience that complicates simple narratives and expands what feels possible to talk about.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Festival of Dangerous Ideas
Podcast Episodes
Salman Rushdie (2014) - Freedom to Write [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:55
We're living in increasingly brittle times. Ideas that once provoked argument, now provoke outrage – and the art of debate has now shattered. What does it mean to think freely about our world when speech itself is treate…
A message from Stephen Fry [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:48
Heading into its 13th festival, FODI exists thanks to supporters who don't flinch at difficult topics. Brave minds. Bold hearts. Dangerous conversations. We've built a reputation for dragging the world's sharpest provoca…
Roxane Gay (2024) - How to Have Dangerous Ideas [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:53
Drawing from her experience as an author and cultural critic who consistently challenges predictable opinions, Roxane Gay urges us to embrace the danger and discomfort of dissent. But in an age of polarised opinion warfa…
The Anatomy of Evil (2024) - Stan Grant & Simon Longstaff [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:24
Humanity has demonstrated, time and again, a horrific tendency to destroy its own kind – often to eliminate difference and impose uniformity of identity. At its worst, this tendency has led to the destruction of whole pe…
John N. Friedman (2024) - The Fading Dream [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:30
Economist John N. Friedman has made a career researching the causes of inequality and its long-term consequences for children in the US. His findings are grim. Social mobility is in sharp decline. Where you live and go t…
Todd Fernando (2024) - The Next Frontier [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:47
The concept of success and excellence is fraught with tension between communities within Australia. For non-Indigenous Australians, excellence is almost exclusively an economic concept, founded on stolen and inherited re…
Saree Makdisi (2024) - Tolerance is a Wasteland [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:09
For some, the image of Israel, as a shining example of liberal democratic ideals has been broken by the Netanyahu Government's actions in Gaza since 7 October, 2023. Yet, for others, the positive image projected by Israe…
David Baddiel (2024) - The God Desire [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:14:27
Is God a story we've just told ourselves to satisfy our own desires? Comedian and author David Baddiel knows God doesn't exist, but wishes he did. As Baddiel wrestles with his understanding of God and spirituality as a J…
Coleman Hughes & Josh Szeps (2024) - A Colourblind Society [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:14
Are we too focused on race? Have recent anti-racist movements like Black Lives Matter abandoned the 'colourblind' spirit of the original civil rights movement? In this live FODI edition of Uncomfortable Conversations wit…
Jen Gunter (2024) - Lifting the Curse [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:34
Being open about the female body has always been taboo, risky and dangerous. So, by smashing ancient menstrual taboos, and demolishing dangerous pseudoscience, the Internet's OB-GYN Jen Gunter has long been on a mission…