The Way We Are: Lessons from a Lifetime of Listening

Australia’s leading social psychologist, Hugh Mackay, examines the pressing questions about the future of Australian society in his book The Way We Are. Drawing from thousands of interviews and decades of research, Mackay joins us as the first of our 2025 lecture series to explore how life today is shaped by loneliness, anxiety, entrenched poverty, and the pervasive influence of technology. He argues that despite differences in ethnicity, politics, religion, and gender, our shared humanity is what ultimately matters.

Inspiring and thought-provoking, The Way We Are urges readers to reflect on the kind of society we want to create. Filled with affection for his country, Mackay offers an insightful, sometimes uncomfortable, but ultimately uplifting portrait of modern Australia. His lecture will beg the question: What kind of Australia do we want to become?

Hugh Mackay AO

Hugh Mackay AO is a social psychologist and researcher, and the bestselling author of 22 books, including eight novels. His latest book, The Kindness Revolution, was published in 2021.

He has had a 60-year career in social research, and was also a weekly newspaper columnist for over 25 years. He is currently an honorary professor in the Research School of Psychology at ANU, a member of the advisory board for Newington’s Centre for Critical Thinking and Ethics and a patron of the Asylum Seekers Centre. Among other honorary appointments, he has been deputy chairman of the Australia Council for the Arts, chairman of the board of trustees of Sydney Grammar School and an honorary professor at Macquarie, Wollongong and Charles Sturt universities.

Hugh is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and the Royal Society of NSW. In recognition of his pioneering work in social research, he has been awarded honorary doctorates by Charles Sturt, Macquarie, NSW, Western Sydney and Wollongong universities. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2015.