ABC Radio National|Program:Big Ideas
The Witches at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas - Caroline Tully, Emma Quilty, Lucianne Tonti, with Natasha Mitchell
Recording available HERE
Is the witch back? The word, the craft, the movement, and as a viral social media phenomenon #witchtok?
Did the witch ever really disappear? Women who don't
conform or who challenge certain kinds of power have long been persecuted
as witches.
An eye-opening conversation about the past and present of
witchy women.
Witchcraft is both ancient and modern. Could it be
the radical response we need right now — in a world increasingly detached
from Nature?
This event was hosted by the 2026 Festival of Dangerous
Ideas and The Ethics Centre
Speakers
Dr
Caroline Tully
Archaeologist,
University of Melbourne's School of Historical and Philosophical Studies. Author, The Society of Diana Witch-flight and the Mysteries of the Night
Queen (2026). Practising pagan and witch for over four decades.
Dr Emma
Quilty
Author of Witch Power: Hexing the Patriarchy with Feminist Magic (2026)
Anthropologist and postdoctoral research fellow at Monash University’s ARC
Centre for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
Lucianne
Tonti
Author of Good Witch: In search of our lost feminine power (2026)
Fashion editor of The Saturday Paper, sustainability editor-at-large for Elle
Australia, and contributor to The Guardian.
