Show Notes
Is God a story we've just told ourselves to satisfy our own desires?
Comedian and author David Baddiel knows God doesn't exist, but wishes he did. As Baddiel wrestles with his understanding of God and spirituality as a Jewish atheist, his bold thesis uncovers how religion services the deepest needs of humanity.
This session is in conversation with Simon Longstaff and is the inaugural John Caldon Provocation, an annual event at FODI to honour the legacy of businessman John Caldon and his special brand of curiosity. David Baddiel is an accomplished comedian, author, screenwriter and television presenter. He began his career as writer and star of numerous hit UK TV comedy shows. Also an award-winning author, David has written ten hugely successful children's books, alongside four critically-acclaimed novels, and in 2021 he released the Sunday Times Politics Book of The Year – his polemic Jews Don't Count, which has changed the whole conversation around modern identity politics and antisemitism. David followed the book with a TV documentary on the subject that aired in 2022. David's most recent book, The God Desire, was released in 2023 and explores his keen desire to believe in a deity and why this very desperation to believe proves his atheism correct. Simon Longstaff began his working life studying law in Sydney and teaching in Tasmania, later pursuing postgraduate studies as a Member of Magdalene College, Cambridge. In 1991, Simon commenced his work as the first Executive Director of The Ethics Centre, a role he continues today. Simon is an Adjunct Professor of the Australian Graduate School of Management at UNSW Sydney, a Fellow of CPA Australia, the Royal Society of NSW and the Australian Risk Policy Institute.
More from Festival of Dangerous Ideas
For most of its modern history, Australia has sheltered under the wing of a great and powerful friend – first the UK, then the USA. But the rules-based order we've relied on is now unraveling. America is no longer the reliable ally it once was.
What happens when the institutions designed to protect human dignity come under strain? In the frontline human rights battles across the US, Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, China and beyond, the future of freedom may depends less on superpowers and more on whether democracies and civil society can reinvent the right for rights before it's too late. Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, Philippe Bolopion and Australian Director at Human Rights Watch, Daniela Gavshon discuss how this is a moment to resist, not retreat. This session was recorded live in Sydney, August 2026. Philippe Bolopion is the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch. He was formerly the United Nations Director of Human Rights Watch and has held several leadership positions. Bolopion has extensive experience in designing and implementing Human Rights Watch's advocacy strategies worldwide and in overseeing the organisation's advocacy response to crises. He has traveled extensively to conflict zones, including in Myanmar, Burundi, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and Mali. Prior to joining Human Rights Watch in 2010, he spent five years working with the French daily Le Monde as the UN correspondent in New York. He has also worked as a journalist for France 24 and Radio France Internationale (RFI). Daniela Gavshon is the Australia director at Human Rights Watch, leading the organisation's engagement with the Australian government on foreign and domestic policy. Prior to this, she spent ten years at the Justice and Equity Centre (formerly Public Interest Advocacy Centre), where she founded the Truth and Accountability program, led human rights and war crimes investigations, and led a landmark project mapping laws and policies affecting First Nations people in Australia. She also serves as an adjunct lecturer at the University of New South Wales, is the co-chair of the War Crimes Committee of the International Bar Association, and holds degrees in law and arts from the University of Sydney, and a master's in international humanitarian law from the Geneva Academy.
History's response to heretics has been consistent – to silence, shame and ultimately, burn them. Booker Prize-winning Australian novelist Richard Flanagan presents a new essay inspired by his book, Heresies. This session was recorded live in Sydney, August 2026. Richard Flanagan is an Australian writer who has been described by the Washington Post as 'one of our greatest living novelists' and as 'among the most versatile writers in the English language' by the New York Review of Books. He is the first and only author to have ever won both the Booker and the Baillie Gifford prizes.
Australia has spent years building new ways to recognise suffering and combat discrimination. From dedicated envoys to public reckonings – but are these approaches deepening division rather than healing it?
All the digital spaces we rely on have transformed into giant piles of inescapable shit. The app that used to work, now doesn't. The platform that once connected you, now surveils you. The internet that promised everything, now delivers misogyny, manipulation, conspiracy and fraud. Journalist Cory Doctorow has a word for it, and you've probably already used it – enshittification.