Stephen Fry Leads Festival Of Dangerous Ideas Program

The Festival of Dangerous Ideas has just released its line-up of speakers and artists who will head to Sydney in November to "dissect the dangerous ideas informing our future". 

Leading the bill is writer and raconteur Stephen Fry but the line-up also features ex-Westboro Baptist Church member Megan Phelps-Roper, conservative historian and political commentator Niall Ferguson and provocateur and author Germain Greer. 

Speaking about the line-up Festival Director and Co-curator Danielle Harvey said, “In an age of hyper-political correctness and fake news, there’s no better time to reflect on our evolving understandings of truth and trust; to encourage audiences to listen to ideas they may not agree with and facilitate engagement in the art of disagreement."

“There are many ideas that have the potential of disrupting our lives, for better or worse. Some of these ideas, like nationalism, get a lot of air time, while other ideas, quiet ideas I call them, sit festering. Sometimes these quiet ideas have the biggest consequences, for example AI and data harvesting. FODI is an opportunity for audiences to pay attention, examine and go beyond hype.”

Fry will speak at Sydney Town Hall on 3 November with the rest of the events taking place on Cockatoo Island over the same weekend. 

For the full list of speakers and artists head over to the festival website here.