The Explainer Series: Time

The Explainer Series is about exploring the questions we’re all asking.

Time rules our lives. We measure it, manage it, waste it, save it and constantly wish we had more of it. But for something so familiar, time is surprisingly difficult to explain. What actually is time? Did humans invent it, or is it a fundamental part of the universe? And why does it sometimes fly and sometimes seem to stand still? The Explainer Series: Time journeys from the first calendars and clocks to Einstein’s relativity and the latest thinking in physics and philosophy. We’ll explore how humans learned to measure time, why our experience of it can be so different from what science tells us, and whether the past, present and future are quite what we think they are.

Join us as we attempt to unravel one of the biggest mysteries of all - something we experience every second of every day, but still don’t completely understand.

Professor Kristie Miller is Challis Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney and the Centre for Time. She is a keen doodle enthusiast (the dogs, not the drawings) and spends most weekend and mornings in search of beloved but missing balls that have gone AWOL in the forest or at the beach. She is most excited to hear more about whether people think of the past and future as places we might (at least in theory) visit, or as very different from the present.

Lexy Hamilton-Smith is one of Queensland’s most respected and experienced news presenters and journalists with a career in television spanning more than 30 years. An award-winning journalist, Lexy is currently a senior presenter at ABC TV Queensland on the 7PM News, she also produces investigative pieces for ABC's digital team and radio. Last year Lexy won the News and Business category of the Journalism Clarion Awards for her exclusive on an Historic Class Actions alleging Systematic Sexual Abuse and Harassment of women over two decades. Her skill as a reporter and her ability to empathise with people enduring hardship also won Lexy a Queensland Mental Health Media Award for a story on male suicide prevention in the building industry.

The Explainer Series

The Explainer Series is a space for thoughtful conversations with people who really know their stuff, sharing insights and context so we can better navigate the big and small questions in our lives.

From international law and cryptocurrency to climate change, gut health and space junk, these talks bring ideas, trends and debates into focus, helping us form our own understanding, guided by curiosity and expertise.

There’s no spin and no hype, just experts helping us think more clearly about the world around us.

The Explainer Series is generously supported by Gina Fairfax AC and Tim Fairfax AC through the Queensland Library Foundation.

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