Failing nations. The rise of technocracies. Civility politics. Festival of Dangerous Ideas returns 20-30 August to Carriageworks, Sydney.
This year’s program asks hard questions about the hardest issues of our time. And the books behind those questions are the best way to do your homework.
Sydney’s most beloved booksellers, Gleebooks, are back with a cart stacked high with the world’s most dangerous titles at the Dangerous Books x Gleebooks pop up.
Here’s a sneak peek at nine new releases from this year’s line-up of thinkers, artists, experts and disruptors. You know, the books you need to buy before they are banned, burnt or redacted forever…
Heresies, Richard Flanagan
A collection of Flanagan’s essays, articles and speeches spanning two decades, moving from Manus Island and MONA to Indigenous Australia and the corrosion of democracy. Flanagan argues that a writer doing their job inevitably ends up saying the unsayable.
SESSION: HERESIES
Sat 22 Aug, 12:00pm // Carriageworks
Richard Flanagan
with Ann Mossop
View session details →
The Incredible Afterlives of Dr Stevenson, Jesse Bering
A biography of psychiatrist Ian Stevenson, who spent four decades travelling the world investigating reincarnation, apparitions and near-death experiences. Bering traces the rise and fall of scientific parapsychology through Stevenson’s singular, controversial career.
SESSION: LIFE AFTER DEATH
Sun 23 Aug, 3:00pm // Carriageworks
Jesse Bering
with Fenella Kernebone
View session details →
Enshittification, Cory Doctorow
Doctorow’s diagnosis of why digital platforms decay: not the inevitable march of history, but specific, reversible policy choices that let tech giants lock users in, then squeeze them dry. Part road map, part disassembly manual for the internet’s problems.
SESSION: ENSHITTIFICATION
Sun 23 Aug, 12:00pm // Carriageworks
Cory Doctorow
with Kirsten Drysdale
View session details →
Political Girl: Life and Fate in Russia, Maria Alyokhina
Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina’s diary-like account of activism, imprisonment and eventual escape from Russia between 2014 and 2022, told with dry wit and unflinching detail from prison cells to protest lines.
SESSION: PUSSY RIOT’S POLITICAL GIRL
Sun 23 Aug, 6:00pm // Carriageworks
Maria Alyokhina
with Eric J. Breitenbach
View session details →
How to Stand Up to a Dictator, Maria Ressa
Nobel laureate and journalist Maria Ressa’s account of building the news site, Rappler while under sustained legal and online attack from the Duterte government, and her argument for defending truth as the frontline of democracy.
SESSION: WEAPONS OF MASS DISTRACTION
Sun 23 Aug, 4:00pm // Carriageworks
Maria Ressa
with Hamish Macdonald
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Screw Nice, Amy Remeikis
On how demands for civility are used by the powerful to shut down dissent, arguing that when lies are treated as truth, politeness becomes a tool of control rather than a virtue.
SESSION: GOVERNING IN THE AGE OF STUPID
Sat 22 Aug, 10:00am // Carriageworks
Waleed Aly, Amy Remeikis, Greg Sheridan
with Hannah Ferguson
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You Must Take Part in Revolution, Badiucao & Melissa Chan
A dystopian graphic novel set in 2035, following three friends from the 2019 Hong Kong protests as they take diverging paths through a near-future war between an authoritarian China and a fascist United States. The Dangerous Books x Gleebooks pop up at the Festival is the first place in Australia you can get your hands on this new title.
SESSION: YOU MUST TAKE PART IN REVOLUTION
Sat 22 Aug, 4:00pm // Carriageworks
Badiucao & Melissa Chain
with Dan Ilic
View session details →
Conspiracy Nation, Ariel Bogle
Co-written with Cam Wilson, an on-the-ground investigation into Australia’s conspiracy culture, from Port Arthur denialism to anti-vax movements, examining who is harmed by these ideas and why they take hold.
SESSION: TRUST ME, IT’S A CONSPIRACY
Sun 23 Aug, 2:30pm // Carriageworks
Ariel Bogle, Harry Hobbs, Anke Richter
with Patrick Stokes
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Going On and On: Why Longevity Threatens the Future, Lucinda Holdforth
A provocative argument that society’s obsession with extending life, and the refusal of ageing leaders to relinquish power, is doing lasting damage to the economy, culture and prospects of younger generations.
SESSION: LONGEVITY THREATENS THE FUTURE
Sat 22 Aug, 3:00pm // Carriageworks
Lucinda Holdforth
with Waleed Aly & Scott Stephens
View session details →
These titles, plus more, will be available at the Dangerous Books x Gleebooks pop up across 22-23 August at Carriageworks, Sydney. Check out the full Festival program at festivalofdangerousideas.com
BY The Ethics Centre
The Ethics Centre is a not-for-profit organisation developing innovative programs, services and experiences, designed to bring ethics to the centre of professional and personal life.
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