This Thinking Life

What can period-tracking apps tell us about digital life? In this seventh talk, Professor Sarah Riley draws on research into period tracking to show how everyday technologies shape identity, health, privacy, and power. A practical, research-informed guide to noticing what apps ask of us, and what they quietly normalise.

How do emotions circulate through popular culture? In this sixth talk, Dr Pansy Duncan explores feeling as both content and technique: how films, TV, music and online culture shape what we feel, and how those feelings shape us in return. A lively, research-informed guide to reading emotion in media.

Why do emotions shape how we think, decide and relate? In this final talk, Dr Kealagh Robinson explores the power of feeling: how emotions work in the mind, how they influence judgement and behaviour, and why understanding them matters. A clear, research-informed guide to making sense of what we feel.

‘Race’ has been discredited as science, yet it still shapes everyday life. In this fifth talk, Professor Richard Shaw explores how racial ideas persist through institutions, media and habits of thought, influencing identity, power and belonging. A clear, research-informed invitation to recognise these legacies and think differently.

How do the media actually influence what we think, feel, and do? In this fourth talk, Dr Kevin Veale unpacks how media impact functions: how it shapes attention, values and belief, and how meaning is built through platforms, stories, and images. A clear, research-informed guide to becoming a more critical, confident media user.

How has capitalism shaped what we think is ‘normal’? In this third talk, Dr Yuan Gong draws on Karl Marx and media studies to examine how ideology is embedded in popular culture, shaping beliefs, desires, and everyday common sense. A sharp, accessible guide to reading media critically and recognising capitalism’s invisible reach.

Hope isn’t passive optimism: it can be actively practised. In this second talk, Dr Alice Beban explores how hope can be cultivated collectively in uncertain times, and how it helps us face uncertainty, imagine alternatives, and act. A clear, research-informed invitation to rethink what hope does, and how we can sustain it together.

Learn how our responses to life’s turning points shape who we become. Dr Raewyn Laurenson Elder explores identity through transition points and how we grow through change. An accessible, research-informed conversation about becoming, adaptation, and the ‘future self’, with ideas for navigating change with insight and intention.