Cashless Debit Card (CDC) regimes have been operating in Ceduna, South Australia, and East Kimberley, Western Australia, since 2016. Under these schemes, welfare recipients receive most of their income pre-loaded onto restrictive debit cards that can’t be used for the purchase of gambling or alcohol products, or to withdraw cash.

Proponents say welfare quarantining protects children and vulnerable people from…

People die. When it’s those dear to us, we each carry the task of reconciling life and death – theirs and ours. Grief is the name we give to that often sad, overwhelming process.

So, how well-equipped are we to deal with grief – and what more could we learn about it? Do we have the right emotional skills and social…

In Australia, Robert Webb is probably best known as the iconic petulant manchild Jeremy in Peep Show, the award-winning sitcom in which he co-stars with longtime Mitchell & Webb collaborator David Mitchell. But in the background (okay, maybe a little in the foreground) of his long and successful career in comedy, TV, theatre and radio, Webb has been grappling…

Creativity and ingenuity are the qualities that set our species apart, argues neuroscientist David Eagleman. ‘Obviously, a little bit of credit needs to go to the opposable thumb and larynx, but fundamentally it’s about this massive mashup of ideas that we have … Most of them stink, but occasionally, something gets generated that works for our society.’

Eagleman has dedicated…

Jennifer Egan is one of America’s most acclaimed and least predictable novelists.

Egan’s most famous book – the virtuosic, Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad – took the form of 13 interlocking stories set in the dying days of the music industry, with one chapter presented in the form of a powerpoint presentation. Her latest novel, Manhattan Beach…

Many of us live, to some degree, in denial about climate change. Even if the argument over the reality of climate change is resolved, can we actually imagine a flooded earth?

In his new book, The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities and the Remaking of the Civilized World, award-winning environmental journalist Jeff Goodell sets out to confront the…