Festival of Dangerous Ideas 2026 program on sale now

Festival of Dangerous Ideas 2026 program on sale now

Author: Festival of Dangerous Ideas August 12, 2026 Duration: 0:36
Festival of Dangerous Ideas is back this August – and bigger than ever. 10 days. 14 iconic Sydney venues. 20 international guests. 115 sessions.
 
We've gathered the world's most compelling thinkers, artists and provocateurs for ten days of talks, films, art, excursions and world-premiere commissioned works across Sydney this August.
 
The program is on sale now. Dig deeper and save with a Festival multipack at festivalofdangerousideas.com

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: 50

Festival of Dangerous Ideas
Podcast Episodes
Masha Gessen (2024) - The War of the Narratives [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:25
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 t…
Tariq Ali (2015) | The Twilight of Democracy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:25
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…
Dennis Glover (2015) | Winners and Losers [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:23
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 wea…
Molly Crabapple (2016) | From the frontline [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:55
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 possi…
Drawing Truth to Power (2022) | Badiucao, Dan Ilic & Cathy Wilcox [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:05
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, leade…