The Ramsay Centre Podcast

• The Ramsay Centre Podcast: | Might Makes Right? Great Powers and Challenges to the International Order – Prof Brendan Simms

  The “rules-based” international system is under threat, both from within and without. However, this is not the first time it has faced challenges, or challengers. Imperial Germany, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy and the Soviet Union ‒ great powers or would-be powers ‒ as well as others, have sought to disrupt or overthrow the world order based on free trade and, to some extent at least, liberal values. Now Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea confront the United States and its allies, who are grappling with the apparent fragility of the US’s commitment to world order and a much bigger role for neutrals and non-aligned.For our sixth Ramsay Event for 2025, the Ramsay Centre is pleased to present an in-person lecture by Professor Brendan Simms who delivers an address titled: Might Makes Right? The Past, Present and Future of the Great Powers and Challenges to the International Order.Professor Simms examines whether the future lies in a world determined by relations of power, in particular between the great powers, rather than rules or values. For example, should the EU pursue great power status? Is there still scope for the UK, Australia, Japan and other like-minded nations to carve out a space for themselves with or without American or European support?Please join us for this compelling discussion exploring current challenges to the “rules-based” international system.

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• The Ramsay Centre Podcast: The Truth Test: Science and Pseudoscience in a World of Information Overload – Prof Ian Frazer AC.

  Science is power. So is the ability to persuade people that something is scientific or supported by science, i.e. that science is “on your side”. In a scientific civilisation, when our world is increasingly shaped by, and dependent on, the achievements of science, and the word “science” is often wielded as a weapon, what are the challenges facing scientists and non-scientists in distinguishing good science from what is merely presented as science, and in identifying the legitimate limits of science?For our fifth Ramsay Event for 2025, the Ramsay Centre is pleased to present an in-person lecture by world renowned scientist Ian Frazer, former Australian of the Year and co-developer of the basic technology behind the world’s first cancer vaccine. Professor Frazer delivers an address titled: The Truth Test: Science and Pseudoscience in a World of Information Overload.Professor Frazer examines how we can tell good science from bad, and why there is good reason to be optimistic. He is joined by Nick Enfield, Linguistics Professor and Director of the Sydney Social Science and Humanities Advanced Research Centre at the University of Sydney, who provides additional context and insights.Please join us for this compelling discussion exploring scientific research and its commitment to societal well-being.

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• The Ramsay Centre Podcast: The future West: How we can harness new technologies to transform lives – Dr Catherine Ball

  From the scientific method, to the post-industrial economy, to new digital technologies, the West has played a pivotal role in many of the most transformative developments of the modern era.Now with the age of AI and robotics before us, how can we actively shape the future in an age of accelerating change? And how do we harness the power of technology in higher education, to ensure it advances learning, rather than diminishes the university experience? For our fourth Ramsay Event for 2025, the Ramsay Centre is pleased to present an in-person lecture by globally renowned futurist Dr Catherine Ball titled: The future West: How we can harness new technologies to transform lives. Dr Ball draws on her deep expertise in emerging technologies—from AI and robotics to digital ethics and sustainability—to illuminate the powerful role that leadership, purpose, and human-centred innovation play in genuine progress.Far from being passive observers of disruption, we are all participants in building what comes next. Dr Ball challenges the audience to move beyond fear or fascination with technology and instead harness it as a tool for impact and resilience.Please join us for this inspiring, thought-provoking event exploring how we can actively shape the future in an age of accelerating change.

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• The Ramsay Centre Podcast: Digging Up History: What the Treasures of the Past Can Teach Us Today – Bettany Hughes

  In the age of AI and the smartphone is history a vital form of knowledge? How can the treasures of the past enrich our minds and help us to live more fully today?For our second Ramsay Event for 2025, the Ramsay Centre is pleased to present an in-person lecture by Bettany Hughes OBE titled: Digging Up History: What the Treasures of the Past Can Teach Us Today. Drawing on her field research, including digs in Europe, North Africa and Central Asia, Bettany explores how archaeology in particular is a powerful tool that can make us better and wiser travellers in a modern world that is everywhere marked by the traces of the past.Please join us for this exciting presentation about why, at a time when technology seems to offer the possibility of existing solely in a permanent and therefore impoverished present, the past has absolute value and relevance, and why it is, in fact, one of our greatest treasures.

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• The Ramsay Centre Podcast: Welcome to Oz – Immigration 1788-2100 – Bernard Salt AM together with Professor James Curran

  Today some 30 per cent of Australia’s population was born overseas, double the proportion in the US and the UK. How has Australia managed to add so many people so quickly and still maintain social cohesion? And how might our immigration mix change in the decades ahead?For our first Ramsay Event for 2025, the Ramsay Centre is pleased to present an in-person lecture by Bernard Salt AM together with Professor James Curran titled: Welcome to Oz – Immigration 1788-2100. Leading social commentator and demographer Bernard Salt and eminent historian and journalist James Curran discuss changes to Australia’s demography and the political and cultural history of Australian immigration, from the gold-rush, to Federation, to the post-war era, to today. Bernard Salt delivers the main address with James Curran providing additional insights.Please join us for this stimulating exploration of the critical role that immigration has played in Australia’s development and how it is likely to continue to define us in the 21st century. 

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