The Future of Democracy series, hosted by Nick Bryant and Rosalind Dixon, is a collaboration between Sydney Writers’ Festival and the Resilient Democracy Lab at UNSW Sydney.
We used to take honourable institutions, humans rights protections and freedom of speech for granted. With autocratic regimes on the rise around the world, these things are no longer guaranteed, even as the the value and importance of democracy becomes stark.
In this discussion, journalist and writer Jon Sopel (UnPresidented: Politics, Pandemics and the Race that Trumped All Others) joins co-hosts Nick Bryant (The Forever War) and Rosalind Dixon (The People’s Guide to the Australian Constitution) to consider how to withstand the forces eroding democracies worldwide, from the rule of tech broligarchs to the autocratic superpowers.
Join Jon in conversation with Nick and Rosalind.
Presented in collaboration with the UNSW Resilient Democracy Lab.
Jon Sopel
Jon Sopel was the BBC’s North America Editor for 8 years, before launching The News Agents podcast with Emily Maitlis and Lewis Goodall in August 2022. During his time at the BBC, he covered the 2016 and 2020 elections and Trump’s White House first hand, reporting for the BBC across TV, radio and online, as well as presenting the highly successful Americast podcast with Emily Maitlis and Anthony Zurcher. He is the author of If Only They Didn’t Speak English: Notes from Trump’s America, A Year at the Circus: Inside Trump’s White House and UnPresidented: Politics, Pandemics and the Race that Trumped All Others.
Nick Bryant
During a career spanning almost 30 years, Nick Bryant came to be regarded as one of the BBC’s finest foreign correspondents. His writing has appeared in The Economist, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Monthly and The New Statesman. He broadcasts regularly on the BBC and ABC. Nick studied history at Cambridge and has a doctorate in American politics from Oxford. He now lives in Sydney with his wife and children. His book, When America Stopped Being Great: A History of the Present, resided on Joe Biden’s bookshelf in the Oval Office.
Rosalind Dixon
Rosalind Dixon is Anthony Mason Professor and Scientia Professor of Law at UNSW Sydney. She is Co-Director of the UNSW Gender Equality Hub, UNSW Resilient Democracy Lab and Pathways to Politics Program for Women NSW and a globally renowned expert on constitutional law and democracy.
Event and Ticket Details
BMEC Members
Single session: $8
Day Pass: $50 (all events in the selected day)
Festival Pass: $130 (all events in the Festival programme)
Non-Members
Single session: $10
Day Pass: $60 (all events in the selected day)
Festival Pass: $160
*A $3 booking fee applies, BMEC Members do not pay this fee.
