Contagious Realities (2024) - Alice Dawkins, Natasha Mitchell, Sandersan Onie, Jean Twenge & Sonny Jane Wise

Contagious Realities (2024) - Alice Dawkins, Natasha Mitchell, Sandersan Onie, Jean Twenge & Sonny Jane Wise

Author: Festival of Dangerous Ideas November 6, 2024 Duration: 1:00:34

The increase in mental health and neurodivergent diagnoses in recent years indicates that we're more aware of our brains than ever before 

Does improved social awareness, self-identification, representation and access mean we've reached a turning point in the way we acknowledge and treat mental health and neurodivergence in society? Or are we at risk of over-pathologising ourselves and the world around us?

Alice Dawkins is the Executive Director of Reset.Tech Australia, a policy organisation with a focus on regulating digital risks and online harms. 

Sandersan Onie is an award-winning researcher at the Black Dog Institute and Harvard Medical School and is passionate about a mentally healthier world, especially how culture, AI, and tech can contribute to this vision. 

Jean M. Twenge, Professor of Psychology at San Diego State University, is the author of more than 180 scientific publications and seven books, including Generations: The Real Differences between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers and Silents—and What They Mean for America's Future and iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious.

Sonny Jane Wise is an Autistic Bipolar ADHDer, who offers a powerful and relatable voice in the neurodiversity space. Their books resources, workshops and talks have led to organisations and services adopting a neurodiversity affirming framework and embedding inclusion within their policies. 

Chaired by journalist, radio presenter, and podcaster Natasha Mitchell.


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
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Christopher Hitchens (2009) | Religion Poisons Everything [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Evgeny Morozov (2013) | The Dark Side of the Internet [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Philippe Legrain (2016) | Open the Borders [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:30
We look back at Philippe Legrain's impassioned talk about immigration from FODI 2016. By flipping current assumptions on their heads, he builds a case for open migration and the potential it has to benefit a nation's soc…

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