Natasha Mitchell is the host of the ABC's popular Big Ideas program and podcast.
She is a multi-award winning ABC journalist, radio presenter, podcaster and documentary maker. Natasha founded the internationally popular radio show and one of the ABC's first podcasts, All in the Mind, which she hosted and produced for a decade.
She hosted ABC Radio National's flagship morning show Life Matters for four years, and was recently the founding host and producer of Science Friction (2017-2023), which was awarded best science and medicine podcast at the Australian Podcast Awards.
Natasha served as a board member and then as vice president of the World Federation of Science Journalists (2009-13), as a founding committee member of the Science Journalists Association of Australia (2019-21), and on the National Health and Medical Research Council’s Human Genetics Advisory Committee (2009-11). She was co-editor of The Best Australian Science Writing 2013 anthology.
Natasha was the recipient of a prestigious Knight Journalism Fellowship at MIT/Harvard, and a Marine Biological Laboratory Journalism Fellowship at Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
She regularly chairs public events, debates and forums around Australia, including four science dialogues with the Dalai Lama and guests.
Natasha's audio journalism has received accolades internationally, including the overall Grand Prize and four Gold World Medals at the New York Radio Festivals, four Australian and New Zealand Mental Health Broadcast Media Awards, the Yooralla Broadcast Media Award, the Public Health Association of Australia Media Award, the Australasian Association of Philosophy Media Professionals' Award, amongst other awards. She was finalist for two Human Rights Awards and in the Eureka Prizes.
As a cadet journalist, she was on-camera reporter with ABC TV's science show Quantum for a season. In 2005, she hosted and co-produced the series, Parched Lands, with the BBC World Service.
Natasha has an engineering degree with first class honours from Monash University, and a postgraduate diploma in science communication from the ANU which also involved touring nationally with the Questacon Science Circus. Before entering journalism and after quitting a PhD in engineering, she served as a Woman in Engineering coordinator at the University of Technology, Sydney.
Her first foray into radio was hosting a punk music show at her university radio station.
Natasha Mitchell on Twitter @natashamitchell, Mastadon @natashamitchell@mstdn.social, and Instagram @natashamitchell_ABC.