Natasha Mitchell

Natasha Mitchell is a multi-award-winning journalist, radio presenter, and podcaster. She is host of the ABC Radio’s flagship Big Ideas program and podcast, and was founding host and producer of the blockbuster radio show and one of the ABC’s first podcasts, All in the Mind for a decade. She hosted ABC Radio National’s flagship morning show Life Matters for four years, and was founding host and producer of Science Friction (2017-2023), which won best science and medicine podcast at the Australian Podcast Awards.

Natasha served as a board member and 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 a recipient of a prestigious Knight Journalism Fellowship at MIT/Harvard, and a Marine Biological Laboratory Journalism Fellowship at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. 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.

Natasha has an engineering degree with first class honours from Monash University, and a postgraduate diploma in science communication from the ANU which involved touring Australia with a science circus. Her first radio show was a punk music program at her university radio station, and she quit a PhD in engineering to move into journalism. She has facilitated many public forums around Australia, including four major dialogues with the Dalai Lama and scientists.