Film directors often have a high level of control over their films, in translating the vision that they have onto the screen. But when the stories you're putting onscreen are from a culture that's not your own, a new approach is required. In this final episode of Future Self for 2021, filmmaker and ANU student Emma Hudson speaks to director and pro…

There are those who predict the future, and those who create it. Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell went from being an anthropologist at Stanford University to applying her anthropology expertise at Intel, helping to design products of the future. Her job hadn't really existed before - she had to design that too. Through her work, Professor Bel…

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is engaged in the work of saving lives, protecting rights, and building a better future for refugees, internally displaced communities and stateless people. And as a UN agency with a global mandate and universal name recognition, it's a very competitive place to land a job with. In her conversation with François Kernin…

Pierre Shasha has always wanted to work at Google. Perhaps unsurprisingly - it's a dream workplace for many people. So what's it really like working there? We connected Pierre with Nisheeth Nimmagadda, an employee at Google who (under pre-COVID conditions) is based in their Seattle, Washington office. Nisheeth explains his non-linear path to Google…

Museums are storehouses of collective memory, places that enshrine particular narratives and preserve objects that help us to tell important stories – about individuals, a locality, a nation. In this episode of Future Self, ANU student Eleanor Foster speaks to arguably the most significant figure in the museum world globally: Secretary Lonnie G. Bu…

This year, Sachini Poogoda has been fulfilling her dream of writing a novel over the course of her Honours in English Literature. Now that the draft is complete, the next steps await: polishing the draft, and getting it published. We put Sachini in touch with Jessie Tu, whose debut novel A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing was published by Allen & U…

ANU music student Rachel Warren's dream is to work as a topliner in K-Pop. In this episode, she speaks to Grammy-nominated US music producer Mike Daley, who has produced and mixed the records of musicians including EXO and NCT, Lady Gaga and Chris Brown. Mike tells Rachel how he got into the K-Pop industry, and the skills one should hone if they wa…

Whether you're starting out in your career, or figuring out what to do with your life, it can help so much to have a mentor. Someone who's been there and worked through it, someone who supports you and tells you you can do it. With this episode, ANU student Lauren Northcote and demographer Dr Liz Allen come to Future Self with an existing friendshi…

In this episode of Future Self, Jonathon Zalakos interviews accomplished jewellery designer Ezra Satok-Wolman of Atelier Hg. They have a deeply intelligent conversation that will make you rethink what jewellery is, can be, and the thought and craft that go into making an exquisite piece. Jonathon is in the final year of a Bachelor of Design/Bachelo…

Third year student Maximilian Lechner-Scott is the host of the very first episode of Future Self! Max is studying a Bachelor of International Relations and a Bachelor of Arts at the Australian National University. Their major is Arabic and focus area is the Middle East. Max's ambitions lie in academia, specialising in urban planning in the Arab wor…

What if you could talk to someone who is where you want to be in two years, five years, ten years’ time? Someone whose books you've read, work you've admired, music you've loved? And you could ask that person how they got to where they are now? On Future Self, our students do just that. Coming to you from November 18th on the Class Act podcast chan…

In this age when smoking is no longer cool, everyone has a tattoo and leather jackets are a staple fashion item, what does it mean to be a rebel? Music scholar and musician Associate Professor Sam Bennett weighs in. We narrow our lens to the music industry in this episode, and turn our gaze to the rebels amongst us today. Our conversation takes us …

Many people have ideas about what life in an Aboriginal community is like. They're often negative. Wiradjuri man and ANU historian Dr Lawrence Bamblett paints a different picture. He grew up on Erambie mission, and it's where he still lives today. “There are things that aren't so good obviously, but all communities have that," Laurie says. "Not all…

Trust makes the world go around. It's what undergirds a functioning civil society and is a necessary aspect of all our interactions. So how can we tell who around us we can trust? Specifically, if someone has given us cause for doubt, how can we determine whether or not we can trust them? Philosopher Professor Colin Klein is here to help. In our co…

When we encounter someone who doesn't seem native to Australia, the question that rolls so easily off the tongue is 'Where are you from?' followed by 'Why did you leave?' For Tina and Renee Dixson, queer human rights activists who were forced to flee their country of origin, the answer isn't so simple. And the question can actually be a bit offensi…

Professor Chris McAuliffe and his University of Queensland colleague are engaged in a project of modern archaeology, uncovering new insights about the late artist Robert Smithson by trawling through an archive of his belongings. Which raises the question: to what extent can we understand someone by examining what they own? We discover that the answ…

“I spend most of my days dreaming about Italy,” says ANU Italian Studies lecturer Dr Josh Brown. It's not just the romantic aspects of Italy that he's drawn to. Yes, he loves the art, culture, cuisine. But he's equally drawn to the mundane, the frustrating... and the smog. “That's the fascinating stuff for me,” he says. “And they are interesting fr…

There's a reason why Greek tragedy has the reputation that it does. But for all the suffering and loss, there is also hope and persistence. Classics academic Dr Sonia Pertsinidis explains what we can learn about resilience from ancient Greek mythology and drama. Hear the familiar, and not-so familiar, stories of Herakles, Demeter and Prometheus – a…

Dr Kim Huynh has always felt like he wanted to do something a bit different. “Not necessarily better, but in many ways I'm an applied social scientist,” he says. “Everything I teach I want to apply: I want to apply ideas about leadership, I want to apply ideas about creativity, I want to apply ideas about what it means to belong in a society.” This…

There's a notion in western society that money taints love and friendship: witness our hang-ups over split billing, divorce settlements, and gift-giving. So you should seek to keep finance and relationships separate – right? “Money is always about social interdependency, and social interdependency is so often channelled through money,” says Dr Caro…

Professor Mary Lou Rasmussen recalls a conversation she had with her father back when she was doing her PhD. He had driven two hours to pick her up from a retreat, and he asked what her PhD was about. “Gender,” Mary Lou replied, hoping that general term would sound sufficiently uncontentious. “Well, what's there to know, Louie?” he responded. “Ther…

It's a major problem in Australia and worldwide: our prison systems are overloaded and there's no end in sight. Governments here and overseas are laser-focused on reducing recidivism as one way of addressing this issue – but as ANU Criminologist Associate Professor Jason Payne suggests, that's likely not the answer. In fact, we have policies and pr…

Dr Susanna Scarparo Associate Professor in Italian Studies in the ANU School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics, and outgoing CASS Associate Dean (Student Experience). She studied literary studies as an undergraduate in Italy and holds a PhD in Italian and Comparative Literature from the University of Auckland. Her research program follows fo…

It's an age-old question: how do we get people to do what we want them to do? Well, if you're the government, you might leverage the social security system and withhold payments as punishment, or as “encouragement”. ANU social policy academic Dr Katie Curchin finds this method problematic, and argues instead for a social security system that treats…

Dr Alison Behie is the Head of Biological Anthropology and the Deputy Head of the ANU School of Archaeology and Anthropology. Her research focuses on how all primates (human and non-human) adapt in the face of severe environmental change. She was awarded an ARC DECRA fellowship for a part of this work that explores how non-human primates adapt thei…

Dr Katharina Bonzel watches movies, TV and videos for work. That might sound like a good deal – until you consider that she sometimes has to watch a single film up to 15 times. It’s all for a good cause though. She toils to elucidate the meanings being conveyed, how they’re conveyed, and what they say about society. But she doesn’t just watch the d…

Sociologist Associate Professor Gavin Smith’s day looks like that of most other academics. He delivers lectures, does research, answers emails. The afternoon is when his day departs from the norm. That’s when he’ll go off to handle a snake that someone has found in their laundry or backyard. Here, Gavin talks about how he got into snake-catching, t…