Festival of Dangerous Ideas

The Festival of Dangerous Ideas (FODI) is Australia's original disruptive festival that encourages debate and critical thinking, co-founded in 2009 by The Ethics Centre (formerly known as the St James Ethics Centre)^[1] held in Sydney, Australia.

The festival was presented at Sydney Opera House for eight years. When it was created, the festival aimed to bring leading thinkers and culture creators from around Australia and the world to discuss and debate important issues.^[2]

In the inaugural 2009 event, the festival's opening address was given by atheism advocate Christopher Hitchens on the topic of "Religion Poisons Everything", which was countered by Australian Roman Catholic Cardinal George Pell in a session titled "Without God We Are Nothing".^[3]

Participants

Participants

Participants

Participants

Participants

The 2014 festival was criticised due to the links between the St James Ethics Centre and companies that profit from the mandatory indefinite detention of asylum seekers.^[9]

Participants

In 2015, the seventh Festival of Dangerous Ideas was made up of solo sessions and panels featuring speakers such as Tariq Ali, Naomi Klein, Peter Greste, Gabriella Coleman, Sarai Walker, AC Grayling, Marc Lewis, Paul Krugman, Laurie Penny, Jon Ronson, Eric Schlosser and Gideon Raff. For the first time, FODI Melbourne also took place as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival.

Participants

In 2016, the Festival of Dangerous Ideas was held at the Sydney Opera House for the final time. It featured speakers such as Jesse Bering, Andrew Bolt, Molly Crabapple, Alicia Garza (Black Lives Matter), Henry Rollins (Black Flag) and Lionel Shriver.

Participants

In 2017 the Sydney Opera House announced that it was no longer presenting the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. It announced ANTIDOTE: a festival of art, ideas and action featuring speakers such as Janet Mock, Reni Eddo-Lodge, Tamika D. Mallory (Women's March on Washington) and Micah M. White (Occupy Wall Street) and artists such as Noemi Lakmaier, Anne Collod and Kaleider.

In 2018 the Festival of Dangerous Ideas was independently presented by The Ethics Centre on Cockatoo Island.^[11] It featured two days of discussions on internet sub-cultures, fascism, privacy and LSD. In addition, there was a special event at Sydney Town Hall with Stephen Fry. Speakers included Niall Ferguson, Pankaj Mishra, Megan Phelps-Roper, Zeynup Tufecki, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, Ayelet Waldman, Germaine Greer, Toby Walsh, Nikki Goldstein and Xanthé Mallett. The 2018 festival also saw the inaugural Festival of Dangerous Art which included artists Betty Grumble, Garth Knight and Riley Harmon.

Participants

Australia's original provocative ideas festival was set to return in 2020 for its 10th festival. It was set to be held at Sydney Town Hall and themed around "dangerous realities".^{[citation needed]} In March 2020, the festival was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic as the NSW Minister of Health issued a ban of non-essential public gatherings of over 500 people.^[12] In May, the festival launched FODI Digital. Speakers included Kevin Rudd, Daisy Jeffrey, David A. Sinclair, Eleanor Gordon-Smith, Stan Grant, and Tim Soutphommasane. A second series of FODI Digital conversations were launched in September 2020 featuring Edward Snowden, Marcia Langton, and David Wallace-Wells.

In 2022 the Festival of Dangerous Ideas returned live and in person at Carriageworks, presented by The Ethics Centre. Occurring over two days in September, the program featured over 72 speakers and artists, including 8 international guests, with discussions on authoritarianism, social networks, politics, artificial intelligence and algorithms, gender, and the Enlightenment. Speakers included Frances Haugen, Steven Pinker, Jacqui Lambie, Kevin Roose, Alok Vaid-Menon, Adam Tooze, Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Badiucao. The lineup also offered a range of art and experiences including Scott Campbell's Whole Glory, Counterpilot and Legs on the Wall.

Participants

In February 2022, FODI released a bold new podcast FODI: The In-Between, an audio time capsule recording a moment in-between two eras. Eight conversations between 16 of the world’s biggest thinkers, with guest speakers including Stephen Fry, Roxane Gay, Waleed Aly, Peter Singer, Slavoj Žižek, Naomi Klein and more, FODI: The In-Between tackles the big issues of the world and future, from climate change and global politics to artificial intelligence, truth, and social media.

• Official website
• YouTube channel
• SOH 2011 Festival of Dangerous Ideas Sydney Morning Herald 27 September 2011
• Audio Coverage in BBC's The Forum. 11 October 2009.
• Garry Maddox, SMH
• Steph Harmon, Guardian Australia