Radio National Presents

What if the future of home isn't about ownership — but about connection? In this final episode, Anthony Burke re-imagines the Australian Dream through the most powerful ideas from the series. Could we trade fences for friendships, and privacy for participation? What would it mean to design homes that prioritise community, care, and belonging?We explore a new vision of home — not just where we live, but how we live together.Guests in this episode:Richard and Jan Gould - Founders, Blue Sky House (low-cost housing initiative)Susan Boden - Co-founder, Eden Tiny House Project; Landscape Architect & Mental Health Case ManagerSacha Coles -Global Design Director, ASPECT StudiosHugh MacKay - Social Psychologist and Author, The Way We Are, Lessons from a lifetime of listeningPatrick Eigsvogel - Small home builderElizabeth Mossop - Academic Director, Living Lab Northern RiversProduction assistance this week by Sarah Mashman

Around the globe, architects and designers are reimagining housing with bold, inventive solutions - from sprawling multi use compounds in Indonesia to compact cooperative models in Europe. These global experiments offer fresh perspectives on affordability, sustainability and community. But could they work in Australia? In this episode, we explore what local housing can learn from international innovations - and how these ideas might be adapted to fit our unique social and environmental context.Guests in this episode:RealRich Sarjeif - Architect, RAW Architecture (Jakarta)Penelope Dean - Professor, School of Architecture, University of Illinois Chicago.Gerard Reinmuth -  Director, Terroir Architecture; Professor of Practice, School of Architecture, UTSMarisa Jahn - Director of Integrated Design, The New School; Collaborating Artist, CarehausAnne Romme -  Associate Professor, Institute of Architecture and Culture, Royal Danish Academy.Production assistance this week by Rachael Bongiorno and thanks to Anthony’s ABC International Culture By Design program for supplying additional audio.

We all know that house prices have gone through the roof, but what’s driving them, and what can actually be done?In this episode, we dig into the money behind the housing crisis, from tax policy and global market shifts to government targets and the growing role of intergenerational wealth.We explore how renters and homeowners alike are feeling the squeeze, and ask what kind of radical policy — and cultural — change it will take to make housing more equitable for all Australians. Because this isn’t just an economic problem. It’s a social one. And it’s going to take more than creativity to fix it.Guests in this episode:Alan Kholer, ABC financial journalist and author of the Quarterly Essay- The Great Divide: Australia's Housing Mess and How to Fix itBrendan Coates, Housing and Economic Security Program Director at Grattan InstituteKate Browne, Head of Research and Insights at Compare Club, a financial comparison serviceDamian Madigan, Associate Professor at the University of South Australia, architect and urban infill housing researcher.  David, Social housing client                                                                            Kait, House hunter from BrisbaneProduction assistance this week by Rachael Bongiorno

What if Australia’s housing crisis wasn’t just a problem — but a chance to build something better? Australia’s homes are doing more than sheltering families — they’re accommodating multigenerational households, solo dwellers, single parents, and shared living arrangements.But is our housing stock too rigid to reflect this diversity? Is it failing behind the way we actually live?In this episode, we meet the architects and designers reimagining the Australian home for today. As external pressures - from climate to cost - reshape our lives, they’re responding with ideas that prioritise flexibility, wellbeing, sustainability, and social connection.Hosted by Professor of Architecture Anthony Burke, this series asks: can we reimagine the Dream? For more conversations about design with Anthony Burke & friends, head to  Lifestyle on ABC iViewProduction assistance this week by Rachael Bongiorno and Regina BotrosGuests in this episodeDr Edgar Liu, Arts, Design & Architecture at the City Futures Research Centre at UNSW Savannah Fishel, Senior Innovation Consultant and Service Designer and Churchill FellowCraig Allchin, Urban Designer with 6 DegreesJeremy McLeod, Founding Director and Architect at Breathe ArchitectureMatilda Leake, Associate Director and Design Architect at Bates Smart Marisa and Rose - living together in multigenerational housing in MelbourneLeah and Lou - living together with Leah's parents in Sydney

We look at how Australians have lived together in the past — and what those lessons might offer us today.From the tightly packed worker’s cottages of the early 1900s, where strong community bonds helped people get by, to the bold experiments in communal and cooperative living during the 1970s, Australians have long found creative ways to share space.Now, as the housing crisis deepens, one State Government (NSW) is reviving the idea of the housing pattern book — a fast-track design initiative that encourages density, sustainability, and smarter living.But are Australians ready to embrace the idea of “home” not as a private fortress, but where shared space and personal privacy coexist?Hosted by Professor of Architecture Anthony Burke, this series asks: can we reimagine the Dream? For more conversations about design with Anthony Burke & friends, head to  Lifestyle on ABC iViewProduction assistance this week by Rachael Bongiorno.Guests in this episodeJanet McCalman, Emeritus Professor at Melbourne University and author of Struggletown Public and Private Life in Richmond 1900- 1965 Abbie Galvin, NSW Government ArchitectLee Stickells,  Associate Professor at the School of Architecture, University of SydneyPeter Cock, Co-founder of Moora Moora Cooperative in the Dandenong Ranges, Melbourne.Chelsea McNabb, Resident at Moora Moora CooperativeIzzy Kane, Resident at Moora Moora Cooperative

What if Australia’s housing crisis wasn’t just a problem — but a chance to build something better? In the Home Front, we unpack the historical, cultural, and political forces that shaped our national obsession with home ownership. From post-war prosperity to suburban ideals, we explore how the dream took root.Hosted by Professor of Architecture (UTS) Anthony Burke, this series asks: can we reimagine the Dream? For more conversations about design with Anthony Burke & friends, head to  Lifestyle on ABC iViewProduction assistance this week by Rachael Bongiorno.Guests in this episode:  Dr Rebecca Huntly, writer and social analyst and  Director of Research at the agency 89DegreesEast. Dr Tom Alves, Head of Development at Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), Tim Ross, comedian, broadcaster, architecture & design commentator, and curator of the  State Library of NSW exhibition The Australian Dream? 

Australia's housing crisis is pushing more people to the edge — but could better design help turn things around? In The Home Front, design expert Anthony Burke explores how we got here, why the Great Australian Dream is failing so many, and what a better future could look like — for all of us.

She told women they'd been objectified, stereotyped, sold a middle-class myth of romance and marriage and that another, better, life could be had. The Female Eunuch by the Australian feminist Germaine Greer was published in 1970 and became a blockbuster feminist text. Greer's defiant and controversial thinking reframed relationships between women and men, but 55 years on, how does it speak to present day feminist thinking?This is the final in our series The Books That Changed Us, about influential books of the 20th century.Guests:Michelle Arrow — Professor, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University. Author of a number of books including The Seventies: The Personal, The Political and the Making of Modern Australia. Anthea Taylor — Associate Professor Gender and Cultural Studies, University of Sydney. Her forthcoming book is Germaine Greer, Celebrity Feminism and the Archive. Kathy Lette — Australian born, England based author of many novels including Puberty Blues which she wrote at 17 in 1979. Her latest novel is The Revenge Club. 

The extraordinary story of a lowly-paid public servant who launched an environmental conservation movement and became an unlikely 1960s pop culture icon.Using a combination of lyrical writing and fact driven journalism, when Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was published in 1963 it alerted the world to the dangers of the overuse of the pesticide DDT. The book was embraced by the burgeoning environmental movement and rejected by vested interests. It's still considered a benchmark in environmental writing today.This is the fourth episode of The Books That Changed Us which takes a fresh look at five influential books of the 20th century.GuestsMichael E Mann — Presidential Distinguished Professor of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication. Author of The New Climate War and Our Fragile Moment.Elizabeth Kolbert — journalist and Pulitzer prize winning author for The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural history. Her latest book is H is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z.Mark Madison —  Chief Historian, US Fish and Wildlife Service. 

John Hersey's Hiroshima revealed the true horror of the 1945 nuclear bombing of Japan. Following the lives of six ordinary people from the moment of impact, the American journalist brought home the reality of the destruction and suffering caused by the atomic bombings. First published in The New Yorker Magazine in 1946 it soon came out as a standalone book and became a bestseller. Some have argued that it lead to the beginning of the disarmament and counter-proliferation movement.This is the third title in the series, The Books That Changed Us which takes a fresh look at five influential books of the 20th century.GuestsLesley Blume — author of Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the WorldMG Sheftall — Professor of modern Japanese cultural history and communication at the Faculty of Informatics of Shizuoka University, author of Hiroshima: The Last Witnesses.Tilman Ruff — Board member, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (Nobel Peace Prize 1985); Founding international and Australian Chair, co-founder, Australian Committee member, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN, Nobel Peace Prize 2017); Honorary Principal Fellow, School of Population and Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne