THE CURE
Everyone knows what’s wrong with the world. The harder question is what should be done about it? Five speakers take the stage with a single challenge: present the one idea they believe would most improve humanity’s future. From geopolitics and democracy to culture, community, freedom and meaning, each offers a radically different prescription for a troubled age. Some proposals may inspire hope. Others may provoke outrage. Together, they reveal not just competing solutions, but competing visions of what a better world might look like.
Hannah Diviney
Hannah Diviney is a writer, disability advocate, actress, screenwriter, speaker, author and media personality. Her advocacy has garnered global attention through a viral petition for a disabled Disney Princess and successful campaigns encouraging Lizzo and Beyoncé to change ableist lyrics. Her debut book, I’ll Let Myself In, was released in 2023, and her writing has appeared in Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire and The Guardian. She co-founded global media company Missing Perspectives and has addressed the National Press Club of Australia. She made television history as the first disabled person in Australia to film a sex scene, in SBS’s Latecomers.
Stan Grant
Stan Grant is a proud Wiradjuri man, and the Vice Chancellor’s Chair of Australian-Indigenous Belonging at Charles Sturt University. He was formerly ABC’s Global Affairs and Indigenous Affairs Analyst. He is the award-winning and bestselling author of several books, including Talking To My Country, The Queen Is Dead, Murriyang and Australia Day. When Words Fail Us: Truth beyond time is his most recent book.
Jess Hill
Jess Hill is a Walkley award-winning investigative journalist, author and educator, and one of Australia’s most recognised and respected thinkers on gendered violence. She is the author of two Quarterly Essays, The Reckoning and Losing It, and the writer and presenter of two highly acclaimed docuseries on SBS and a popular podcast, The Trap. See What You Made Me Do was awarded the Stella Prize in 2020, and Jess has also since been named Marie Claire Changemaker of the Year and the NSW Premier’s Woman of Excellence. She is currently an Industry Professor at UTS, developing gender-based violence policy reform. Jess lives with her husband, daughter and cat in Sydney.
Peter Singer
Journalists have bestowed on Peter Singer the tag of “world’s most influential living philosopher” – an acknowledgement of the importance of his work on the development of effective altruism, and in triggering the modern animal rights movement. Singer was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1946. From 1999-2024 he held the position of Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. His books include Animal Liberation, Practical Ethics, The Life You Can Save and The Most Good You Can Do. His latest project is Profit for Good.
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.