A culture-shaping intellect who makes us look anew at ourselves, one of Australia’s most-cherished comedic performers and an internationally celebrated chef lead the line-up of influential thinkers from across the country and the world at the Sydney Opera House’s ideas festival, Curious.

Set across two dates, this year’s program will unpack the human experience, dismantle the past and make prophecies for the future. It spans the mysteries of consciousness to a childhood on the run with one of the FBI’s most wanted women to the family drama tearing apart a powerful media empire.  

The Curious 2026 program, running across Sunday 4 October and Wednesday 4 November, includes:

• Michael Pollan's Journey into Consciousness – Taking us deep into one of humanity’s greatest mysteries, the bestselling American author will draw insights from theoretical physics, meditation retreats and psychedelic trips to ponder consciousness, in conversation with author and broadcaster Sarah Kanowski. Co-presented with The University of Sydney.
• Magda Szubanski: I Can’t Tell You, But I Will – Following the release of her second memoir, this intimate conversation with one of Australia’s most beloved performers will delve into a poignant time in her life caring for her mother’s declining health, while fighting in public for same-sex marriage rights.
• Sami Tamimi’s Garden – Reflecting on his remarkable culinary journey, the celebrated British-Palestinian chef, restaurateur and author will discuss his latest cookbook, Boustany, how recipes become family heirlooms and the way food connects people and land.
• Bonfire of the Murdochs – Power, loyalty and ambition will collide as award-winning American journalist Gabriel Sherman breaks down the family drama that played out in newsrooms – and courtrooms – in a succession battle for one of the world’s most powerful media empires, in conversation with broadcaster and commentator Janine Perrett.
• Can it Happen Here? – As populist parties gain traction across the globe and local frustration with cost of living and inequality grows, political analyst Amy Remeikis and Walkley award-winning journalist Rick Morton will join forces to ask whether Australia's political culture could be entering a new era.
• Octavia Butler Told You This Would Happen – Climate change, economic collapse, public service privatisation, hyper-individualism and racial injustice – do they mark today’s headlines or the futures imagined by the late great speculative novelist Octavia Butler? Join South Sudanese-Australian artist Atong Atem, Nigerian-American academic and writer Shae O Omonijo, and filmmaker and historian Santilla Chingaipe, for a book club-style discussion on Butler’s uncanny vision and consideration of what her work can teach us today.
• One Revolution After Another – With political violence ever-present in the US and surfacing elsewhere, Zayd Ayers Dohrn, who was born in the 70s to militant revolutionary parents from the Weather Underground (the group that recently returned to the headlines with the film One Battle After Another), will ask hard questions about his strange inheritance and today’s movements of the right and left agitating for change.
• Caligula on the Potomac – What happens when volatile personal agenda trumps duties of public office? Former BBC foreign correspondent and broadcaster Nick Bryant and Gabriel Sherman unpack what often feels like the very ancient Roman politics of spectacle, personality and power at play in the current White House and ask if America can ever recover.
• Where’s the AI Off Switch? – As the backlash against AI grows – with rising concerns about job losses, environmental impacts and “cognitive offloading” – political theorist and intellectual historian Shae O Omonijo and The University of Sydney's senior psychology lecturer Reuben Rideaux, Vice Chancellor’s Fellow Sophie Gee, and Professor of Indigenous Cultural and Creative Industries Daniel Browning, will ask how, in an attention-fracking, artificially intelligent world, we protect and nurture our creativity and critical judgment. Co-presented with The University of Sydney.