Molly Crabapple (2016) | From the frontline

Molly Crabapple (2016) | From the frontline

Author: Festival of Dangerous Ideas February 26, 2024 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 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.


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
Adam Tooze (2022) | F=Fail [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:58
The 21st century was supposed to be better than this. As we confront the impacts of climate change, wars old and new, the pandemic and its aftermath, and a dangerously fragile global financial system, it's time to ask 'W…
Jacqui Lambie (2022) | On Blowing Things Up [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:29
Known as one of the most fierce and outspoken politicians in the country, Jacqui Lambie does not hold back. Not with her opinion, her work ethic, or her convictions. And she's done the unthinkable, for a politician, she'…
Masha Gessen & Tom Switzer (2014) | Putin [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:35
It's been over 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union and 22 years since Vladimir Putin came to power. Now in the throes of a Ukraine invasion, the Russian regime combats any c…
Jesse Bering (2012) | We Are All Sexual Perverts [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:21
We may not want to admit it, but there is a spectrum of perversion along which we all sit. Whether it's voyeurism, exhibitionism, or your run-of-the-mill foot fetish, we all possess a suite of sexual tastes as unique as…
FODI: The In-Between | 08.5 | Endtropy | B-Side [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 4:01
A playerless piano performs a repeating piece of music in which every note of a scale is played on every beat of the bar. The melody is absorbed into chaos, as the words of Noami Klein and Waleed Aly speak of our interco…
FODI: The In-Between | 07.5 | Revivification | B-Side [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 5:47
CellF is a cybernetic musician and the world's first neural synthesiser, created by Perth-based artist and researcher, Guy Ben-Ary. Its 'brain' is made of biological neural networks bio-engineered from the artist's own c…
FODI: The In-Between | 06.5 | Tongues | B-Side [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 5:02
Tongues is an explicit, potent musical manifesto, exploring having your voice taken away, in response to Roxane Gay and Kate Manne's discussion. Tongues is written and performed by Tanya Tagaq, a Canadian Inuk improvisat…