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The Brain of the Future plus
Sport: Touchstone of Australian Life
Monday January 7th, 8.30pm
Is sport our greatest national obsession? Sporting heroes are Australia's down-to-earth superstars, treated with as quasi-religious fervour, bridging the boundaries of gender, race and class.
What does sport mean for our national ethos? From Olympic glory to Australia Rules Football, by way of Don Bradman, Cathy Freeman and the racehorse Phar Lap, Keiren Perkins and Martin Flanagan shed light on Australian enthusiasm for all things sporting.
And The Brain of the Future: with the mapping of the human genome, the possibility of brain transplants, advances in surgical techniques and the increased use of designer drugs, we now face the prospect of direct modification to the workings of our brains and hence our minds. Susan Greenfield reviews the possibilities amd implications posed by neuro-scientific advances for the coming century.
Speakers:
Dr Susan Greenfield
"The Brain of the Future" [Transcript]
Professor Susan Greenfield holds the Chair of Pharmacology at Oxford University, and is the Director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the first woman appointed to the post. Britain's best-known neuro-scientist, Professor Greenfield's molecular study of the brain has been driven by her desire to find effective treatments for degenerative diseases, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.More...
Martin Flanagan
"Sport: Touchstone of Australian Life" [Transcript]
Martin Flanagan is the author of six books, including The Call, a novel based on the life of Tom Wills, the founder of Australian football. Other books include One of the Crowd (1990), a collection of his newspaper writing, and Tassie Boy, an odyssey to do with Australian identity in the age of reconciliation, to be published later this year. He also writes for The Age on sport, politics and the interaction between black and white culture. More...
Keiren Perkins
"Sport: Touchstone of Australian Life" [Transcript]
Kieren Perkins is regarded as not only a successful Olympic athlete but a national icon. A member of the Australian swimming team for eleven years before his recent retirement, Mr Perkins has enjoyed a hugely successful swimming career, notching up two Olympic gold medals, two silver medals, two world titles and eleven world records. He took part in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympics, and is the first swimmer in the world to hold Olympic, World, Commonwealth and Pan Pacific titles simultaneously.
More...
If you'd like to discuss the role of sport in the national psyche, or issues raised by Susan Greenfield about the human brain, join
our online forum. You can also comment on other issues raised by the Deakin lectures and the centenary of Federation celebrations. Begins December 31st.
Listen to more of the Deakin Lecture session on sport on Radio National's Sports Factor.
The Alfred Deakin Lectures were part of the 2001 Melbourne International Arts Festival. This lecture was first broadcast on May 17th 2001, as part of the celebrations commemorating the first sitting of federal parliament.
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