The Anatomy of Evil (2024) - Stan Grant & Simon Longstaff

The Anatomy of Evil (2024) - Stan Grant & Simon Longstaff

Author: Festival of Dangerous Ideas November 25, 2025 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 peoples the crime against humanity of genocide.

However, in our politically charged climate, the term genocide carries a massive moral weight, and we must be cautious about where to apply it. If we're too restrictive, it will make us blind to evil in the world. But if we're too loose, it will desensitise us to its significance.  

Philosophers Stan Grant and Simon Longstaff explore what genocide is, and respond to its presence in the world. 

 

Stan Grant is Distinguished Professor and Chair of Yindyamarra Nguluway Trust at Charles Sturt University. He has a Doctorate of Theology and was formerly ABC's Global Affairs and Indigenous Affairs Analyst and host of news program Q+A. He is one of Australia's most respected and awarded journalists, with more than 40 years experience in radio and television news and current affairs. 

Simon Longstaff commenced his work as the first Executive Director of The Ethics Centre in 1991. He began his working life on Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory of Australia. He is proud of his kinship ties to the Anindilyakwa people. After a period studying law in Sydney and teaching in Tasmania, he pursued postgraduate studies as a Member of Magdalene College, Cambridge. In 2013, he was made an officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for "distinguished service to the community through the promotion of ethical standards in governance and business, to improving corporate responsibility, and to philosophy." Simon is an Adjunct Professor of the Australian Graduate School of Management at UNSW, a Fellow of CPA Australia, the Royal Society of NSW and the Australian Risk Policy Institute.


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
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…
Steven Pinker (2022) | Enlightenment or Dark Age? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:04
Are the ideals of the Enlightenment – reason, science and humanism – and the progress they can deliver being undermined by a cynical desire to burn it all down? Pre-eminent psychologist Steven Pinker explains why problem…