LONGEVITY THREATENS THE FUTURE
We’ve spent centuries fighting to live longer, but nobody’s asked what happens when we actually succeed. Is an ageing population a civilisational triumph or a slow-moving crisis we’ve collectively agreed not to talk about? Who carries the weight of longevity: the old, the young, the broke, or the State? And if the future belongs to fewer and fewer people for longer and longer, what does that do to democracy, ambition, and the very idea of progress?
This is a special live Festival edition of The Minefield.
Lucinda Holdforth
Lucinda Holdforth is the author of four books examining what makes good societies flourish. While working as a speech writer and adviser to senior leaders across government and business, she has written with wit and insight about the women who shaped the culture of Paris, the enduring value of manners, the language of democratic leadership and, most recently, the downside of modern virtues in 21st-Century Virtues: How They Are Failing Our Democracy (2023). Her books are lively provocations – wake-up calls – to think more clearly about the forces and conditions that make for a civilised world.
Waleed Aly
Waleed Aly is a broadcaster, author, academic and musician. He lectures in politics at Monash University, where he completed his PhD in 2018 researching global terrorism, and is a Patron of the Street Library. For over a decade, Waleed co-hosted Network 10’s The Project. He now co-presents The Minefield on ABC Radio National with ethicist Scott Stephens. Waleed’s work has earned wide recognition, including the 2014 Walkley Award for Commentary, Analysis, Opinion and Critique. In 2016 he won the Gold Logie for Most Popular Australian TV Personality, the Silver Logie for Best Presenter, and delivered the Andrew Olle Media Lecture.
Scott Stephens
Scott Stephens is the ABC’s Religion and Ethics online editor and co-host, with Waleed Aly, of The Minefield on ABC Radio National. He and Waleed Aly co-authored Uncivil Wars: How Contempt is Corroding Democracy (Quarterly Essay 87, 2022). He is editor of Justice and Hope by Raimond Gaita, and co-editor and translator of two volumes of selected writings by Slavoj Žižek. He has published widely on moral philosophy, theological ethics and democratic theory.
We acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation - the custodians of the country on which we meet - and acknowledge their Elders, past and present.
The views and opinions expressed by the Festival participants are not necessarily the views of The Ethics Centre and our partners.