Todd Fernando (2024) - The Next Frontier

Todd Fernando (2024) - The Next Frontier

Author: Festival of Dangerous Ideas November 25, 2025 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 resources and privilege. While for Indigenous people, aspiring to this definition of excellence can involve assimilation and the abandonment of culture and values.

With the equality gap widening, the stakes for Indigenous Australians to succeed is higher than ever. Wiradjuri man and academic, Todd Fernando argues we need to forge new narratives to identify achievement.

As a growing middle class of Indigenous Australians experience the power of excellence, Fernando raises a critical question: Are we ready to accept it?

 

Todd Fernando, a descendant of the Kalarie Peoples of the Wiradjuri Nation, identifies as queer and uses he/him pronouns. He holds a PhD in Medical Anthropology from The University of Melbourne and is a global expert in intersectional policy reform across government, private, and public sectors. Recently appointed to the Federal Government's Rapid Review into Domestic, Family, and Sexual Violence Best Practice Prevention Approaches, Todd has an extensive background as thought leader. As the former Victorian Commissioner for LGBTIQA+ Communities, he spearheaded the development and implementation of the Victorian Government's LGBTIQA+ Strategy. Currently, Todd is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne.


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

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