UNSW Centre for Ideas

It’s no secret Australia’s vaccine rollout had a rocky start… but now, 18 months later, our vaccination rate is amongst the highest in the world. 

But our impressive 80%+ coverage doesn't tell the full story... 

COVID-19 has disproportionately affected people from racial and ethnic minority groups in both infection rates and health outcomes, so it really matters that  the right information can reach them. Some of the most interesting questions for social scientists are how the differences between people mean that we need different answers to the same health problems. Vaccine hesitancy can stem from misinformation, poor translations and lack of access to health resources, and when so many Australians are from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, it’s important the government tailors health messaging to suit a range of languages and literacy levels. A one size fits all approach has got us this far, but as the country slowly opens up, the vulnerable pockets with low vaccination rates should be a real concern to all of us. 

In less than ten minutes, or roughly the same amount of time it takes to get vaccinated against COVID, infectious disease social scientist Holly Seale will explain how we can achieve good health outcomes for everyone.

10 Minute Genius
10 Minute Genius is a programme designed to create a space in which you can engage with new ideas. It is a curated collection of UNSW Sydney's thinkers, dreamers, and envelope pushers to help you make some sense of this relentless information vortex. And because you’re busy, all we ask of you is less than 10 minutes.

For more information visit unsw.to/HollySeale

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In the wake of MeToo, women are increasingly speaking up against gender-based violence. But as they have grown empowered to speak, a new form of systematic silencing has become more evident: the spike in survivors speaking out has been followed by a spike in legal actions against them and the media. 

How many more women: have to be raped or abused before we act? need to accuse him before we believe her? will be failed by the criminal justice system? need to say something before we do something? will be sued for defamation for speaking out? will be contracted to silence? 

In How Many More Women? Jennifer Robinson and Keina Yoshida examine the laws around the world that silence women, and explore the changes we need to make to ensure that women's freedoms are no longer threatened by the legal system that is supposed to protect them. 

Join Jennifer Robinson and Keina Yoshida live in-conversation with Jane Caro for a powerful and accessible exploration of our legal systems as they break open the big judgments, developments and trends that have and continue to silence and disadvantage women.  

This event is presented by the UNSW Centre for Ideas, UNSW Law & Justice and Sydney Writers' Festival, and supported by Allen & Unwin.  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A major upside to the pandemic has been a falling back in love with the natural world as people, confined to their homes, see their local landscapes through reinvigorated eyes. Birdwatching, and the citizen science of the backyard bird count, is booming.  

So close, yet so far, these enigmatic creatures inspire the awe and affection of fans, who passionately lobby for their bird of the year and diligently record millions of informational gems in birdwatching apps. 

But the news is not all good. As scientists and amateurs document worrying declines in bird populations, from climate change and development, there’s never been a more vital time to talk about what birds mean to us and what we can do to protect them.  

Join this lively panel discussion, hosted by Ann Jones, presenter of the ABC’s What the Duck?!, in conversation with ecologist Richard Kingsford, writer and birdwatcher Sean Dooley, and bestselling author Charlotte McConaghy, and you’ll certainly be among friends. Find out why people love birds so much, how this love grew during the pandemic and why taking action to protect birds is more important than ever.  

This event is presented by the UNSW Centre for Ideas and UNSW Science as part of National Science Week and Sydney Science Festival. 

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For as long as sex has existed, people have been shamed for talking about it. To this day, kids are taught a very narrow perspective on sex education which is comprised mostly of details of erections, ejaculations, and acts of heterosexual penetration. Sex education in schools teaches kids that virginity is really important and that sexual acts often end in unwanted pregnancy. So why are our kids learning similar lessons to the kids of the 1950s? 

The subject of pleasure is conspicuously absent from most sex-ed curricula where the focus is almost exclusively on the mechanics of either procreation or avoiding STDs. But according to Emma Jane, it’s vital that the birds and the bees talk cover so much more than the marriage, the baby-making, the man parts, and the money shots. Providing more nuanced, inclusive, and realistic sex ed for our offspring is important because if they don’t get this info from us, they’re going to get it from their screens. 

In less than ten minutes, or roughly the length of time it takes to put a condom on an expired Epipen Associate Professor Emma Jane will give you the “sex talk” that you probably should have had when you were a teen, and outlines the importance of a well-rounded sex-ed curriculum.

10 Minute Genius
10 Minute Genius is a programme designed to create a space in which you can engage with new ideas. It is a curated collection of UNSW Sydney's thinkers, dreamers, and envelope pushers to help you make some sense of this relentless information vortex. And because you’re busy, all we ask of you is less than 10 minutes.

For more information visit unsw.to/EmmaAJane

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s no secret that everybody dies, but have you ever thought about how you would like to die? As a society we don’t often discuss death and dying, it’s something we shy away from and avoid until decisions have to be made on our behalf. But due to massive advances in medical technology and improvements in public health measures, life expectancy has increased and we’re living longer than ever before. 

Developments in medicine and treatments over the past few decades have given us far more choice than we may think on how we die in old age. In Australia 7 out of 10 older adults want to die at home rather than in a hospital, but this is a reality for very few, with most deaths still occurring in hospitals. So if our elderly want a peaceful death at the end of their life outside of the hospital, why is this still not happening?  

In under 10 minutes, Lecturer in the School of Population Health, Ebony Lewis will talk to you about how to plan for a good death, because according to Ebony death and dying is something we should all be discussing with our loved ones and health care team before it’s too late.

10 Minute Genius
10 Minute Genius is a programme designed to create a space in which you can engage with new ideas. It is a curated collection of UNSW Sydney's thinkers, dreamers, and envelope pushers to help you make some sense of this relentless information vortex. And because you’re busy, all we ask of you is less than 10 minutes.

For more information visit unsw.to/EbonyLewis

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s easy to feel a sense of powerlessness where every morning we’re greeted with news of climate catastrophes, grave social injustice and senseless violence. So how can we muster the courage to forge a new path and turn things around? Is it still possible to make the world a better place?  

Hear from philosopher A. C. Grayling in-conversation with UNSW’s Jeremy Moss and Ann Mossop. Together they will span everything from the small personal changes we can make in our lives to transform the world for good to how we can work together as a community to decarbonise the economy.  

This event is presented by the UNSW Centre for Ideas as part of UNSW Alumni’s Learn to Lead program and supported by the Byron Writers Festival.  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our ability to pay attention is collapsing. It’s not just you, our focus has been stolen by powerful external forces.

New York Times best-selling author Johann Hari has been on a mission to uncover why this is happening to us and whether we can get our focus back. In his newest book, Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention, Hari investigates how technology and other facets of modern life have impacted our ability to concentrate. What he discovered were structural problems rather than the individuals personal failing.  

In conversation with UNSW’s Rosalind Dixon, they explore why it is so important that we pay attention to this ‘attention revolution’ and what we can do to get our focus back. 

Head here to purchase a copy of Johann Hari's book, Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s easy to feel a sense of powerlessness where every morning we’re greeted with news of climate catastrophes, grave social injustice and senseless violence. So how can we muster the courage to forge a new path and turn things around? Is it still possible to make the world a better place?  

Join philosopher A. C. Grayling as he first shares the pragmatic solutions and answers to the big challenges that are troubling us today – climate change, technology and justice.

This event is presented by the UNSW Centre for Ideas as part of UNSW Alumni’s Learn to Lead program and supported by the Byron Writers Festival.  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everywhere you look people are overindulging, but that’s not to say it’s their fault. We have unprecedented 24/7 access to deliberately addictive, high-dopamine stimuli – drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, sexting, Facebooking, YouTubing and tweeting. Our lives are saturated by our own dopamine and our culture encourages us to pursue it.  

Speaking on her new book, Dopamine Nation, psychiatrist Dr Anna Lembke in conversation with the ABC’s Sana Qadar discusses the neuroscience of addiction and how we can find balance in a world flooded with these potent time-sapping (and often despair-inducing) lures.  

While dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is vital for health and happiness, too much dopamine too often tips the balance towards misery. Lembke explains what new scientific discoveries can teach us about this relentless pursuit of pleasure, its relationship to pain and how this knowledge can inform our choices to make for more flourishing lives. She shares insights from her clients and their struggles to overcome these problems.  

At a time when we are all vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption, both understanding the science and learning from the experiences of others can help us break our own dopamine addiction. It’s high time to pursue healthier pleasures: genuine contentment with self and connectedness to others. 

This event is presented by the UNSW Centre for Ideas and UNSW Medicine & Health as a part of National Science Week and Sydney Science Festival. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hear from two-times Pulitzer Prize winning author Geraldine Brooks. Brook’s novels are complex narratives steeped in history and anchored in fact that often contain fascinating unsolved mysteries. 

In conversation with Fiona Morrison from literary studies at UNSW Sydney, listen about the pleasures and challenges of writing, why she loves writing history, how she gets into her creative flow, and of course her books which include People of the Book, March and Caleb’s Crossing, and her new novel Horse.  

Horse glides effortlessly across three places – 1850s Kentucky, 1950s New York City and 2019 Washington DC. From a discarded painting in a roadside clean-up, forgotten bones in a research archive, and Lexington, the greatest racehorse in US history, Horse is a sweeping story of spirit, obsession and injustice in America.   

This event is presented by the UNSW Centre for Ideas and UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture.  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.