Great Ideas

Would the founding fathers have approved of Donald Trump? Probably not, says the panel in episode one of Great Ideas, a new RNZ podcast series in collaboration with Victoria University.

Megan Whelan looks at how language shapes - and is shaped by - our understanding of the world, with Dr Sasha Calhoun, Professor Paul Warren and Associate Professor Stephen Epstein.

Megan Whelan look at how revolutions shape - and are shaped by - fashion, literature and the visual arts, with Dr David Maskill, Dr Margaret Medlyn and Dr James Meffan.

The Reformation has had a major influence on thought and ideas far and above its religious beginnings. Megan Whelan talks with Dr Geoff Troughton, Professor Kathryn Walls and Dr Derek Woodard-Lehman.

"Government of of the people, by the people, and for the people" - so goes Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. But does that describe 21st century democracy?

Charles Darwin's theories did not really 'come out of the blue'- there were others working with the same ideas and theories. Megan Whelan leads a discussion with Dr Rebecca Priestly, Associate Professor Joe Zuccarello and Professor Joe Bulbulia.