Colin Grant is the author of Homecoming (2019); Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey (2008), I and I: The Natural Mystics Marley, Tosh and Wailer (2011), Bageye at the Wheel (2012). Homecoming draws on over a hundred first-hand interviews, archival recordings and memoirs by the women and men who came to Britain from the West Indies between the late 1940s and the early 1960s. In their own words, we witness the transition from the optimism of the first post-war arrivals to the race...
Jul 15, 2020•14 min
Reshma Saujani is the daughter of immigrant parents and a Yale Law school graduate. She became the first Indian-American woman to run for Congress, in what was touted as a hotly-contested race, where she was endorsed by the New York Observer and the Daily News and featured on the cover of the New York Times and the Washington Post. She then lost spectacularly, picked herself up and went on to found Girls Who Code, a non-profit organisation which aims to close the gender gap in technology and has...
Jul 10, 2020•13 min
Kate Mosse is the author of nine novels & short story collections, including the No 1 multimillion selling Languedoc Trilogy - Labyrinth, Sepulchre and Citadel - and No 1 bestselling Gothic fiction including The Winter Ghosts and The Taxidermist's Daughter, which she is currently adapting for the stage. Her books have been translated into 38 languages and published in more than 40 countries. She has also written three works of non-fiction, four plays, contributed essays and introductions to ...
Jul 06, 2020•15 min
David Olusoga lives in Bristol and is a British-Nigerian historian, broadcaster and film-maker. Born in Lagos, Nigeria he studied history and journalism in the UK. He’s a multi award-winning documentary maker and is the presenter of the BBC 2 Series “The World’s War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire”, and “Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners”. He also presented a major landmark series for the BBC “Black and British” and is author of an accompanying book. David is an award winning author. His first book...
Jul 02, 2020•16 min
Benjamin Moser was born in Houston. He is the author of Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector, a finalist for the National Book Critics’ Circle Award and a New York Times Notable Book of 2009. For his work bringing Clarice Lispector to international prominence, he received Brazil’s first State Prize for Cultural Diplomacy. He won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017, and his latest book, Sontag: Her Life and Work, won the Pulitzer Prize. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to...
Jun 23, 2020•11 min
In A Thousand Ships, broadcaster and classicist Natalie Haynes retells the story of the Trojan War from an all-female perspective, for fans of Madeline Miller and Pat Barker. This was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of all of them. . . The devastating consequences of the fall of Troy stretch from Mount Olympus to Mount Ida, from the citadel of Troy to the distant Greek islands, and across oceans and sky in between. These are the stories of the women embroiled in that legen...
Jun 22, 2020•13 min
Neil Gaiman in conversation with Rosie Boycott. Neil Gaiman is the author of numerous New York Times bestsellers, including Neverwhere, American Gods, The Ocean at the End of the Lane and the Sandman series of graphic novels. Neil Gaiman is credited with being one of the creators of modern comics, as well as an author whose work crosses genres and reaches audiences of all ages. He is a prolific creator of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama. In conversation w...
Jun 18, 2020•15 min
Roger Robinson is a writer who has performed worldwide. He is the winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize 2019 and RSL Ondaatje Prize 2020. He was chosen by Decibel as one of 50 writers who have influenced the Black-British writing canon. His latest collection ‘A Portable Paradise’ was a New Statesman book of the year. He is an alumnus of The Complete Works and was shortlisted for The OCM Bocas Poetry Prize, The Oxford Brookes Poetry Prize, commended by the Forward Poetry Prize and is currently shortlist...
Jun 17, 2020•14 min
Ben Okri is a poet, novelist, essayist, short story writer, anthologist, aphorist, and playwright. He has also written film scripts. His works have won numerous national and international prizes, including the Booker Prize for Fiction. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.fa...
Jun 12, 2020•14 min
Parwana Fayyaz was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is currently working towards a Ph.D. on the medieval Persian poet Jami at Trinity College, Cambridge. She is a poet and would like to stay in academia. She recently won Best Single Poem at the Forward Prizes 2019 for her poem ‘Forty Names’, which draws inspiration from both narrative and lyrical medieval Persian traditions, and brings to life a story that Fayyaz heard from her parents when she was a child. ‘It is about a mountain called kohi che...
Jun 11, 2020•6 min
Jennifer Ackerman has been writing about science and nature for 30 years and is the author of eight books. Her most recent book is The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think, forthcoming from Penguin Press in May 2020. Jennifer is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including an NEA Literature Fellowship in Nonfiction, a Bunting Institute Fellowship, and a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Her work aims to explain and interpret science for a ...
May 26, 2020•14 min
Patrick Barkham is the natural history writer for the Guardian. He is the author of the books The Butterfly Isles, Badgerlands, Coastlines, Islander and Wild Child. He has been interviewed on Radio 4 and Radio 2 and has written for a wide range of media outlets, as well as co-editing the ‘People’s Manifesto for Wildlife’ with Chris Packham and Robert Macfarlane. He lives in Norfolk with his family. Recorded at our second online 5x15 in May 2020. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals ...
May 22, 2020•13 min
For more than thirty years, Michael Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where nature and culture intersect: on our plates, in our farms and gardens, and in our minds. He is the author of the multiple New York Times best sellers, including How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation (2013), Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual (2010); In D...
May 20, 2020•14 min
George Monbiot is an author, Guardian columnist and environmental campaigner. His best-selling books include Feral: Rewilding the land, sea and human life and Heat: how to stop the planet burning; his latest is Out of the Wreckage: a new politics for an age of crisis. George cowrote the concept album Breaking the Spell of Loneliness with musician Ewan McLennan; and has made a number of viral videos. One of them, adapted from his 2013 TED talk, How Wolves Change Rivers, has been viewed on YouTube...
May 20, 2020•14 min
Recorded at the 5x15 zoom online event on 20th April, 2020. This wonderful talk by Jonathan Drori contained pictures of trees. We listed the names of the trees mentioned in his presentation slides below and we hope this would help you follow his talk better, enjoy! 00:44:00 Dieffenbachia/ Dumb Cane (US) 01:49:00 Opium Poppy 02:53:00 Wax Palm (Colombia), Quiver tree (Namibia), Banyan Tree, Dragon Tree (Socotra), Baobab tree (Madagascar) 03:31:00 Coastal Redwood, (other trees shown in slides: Swam...
May 05, 2020•17 min
Recorded from the first online 5x15 event on April 20th 2020. James Naughtie, special correspondent for BBC News, is one of the country's best-known broadcasters. He presented Today on Radio 4 for 21 years, and has reported for the BBC from around the world for more than three decades. Alongside his journalism he has wide cultural interests, and has written and produced many documentaries on music and books, and presented concerts from across Europe for radio and television. On Radio 4, he has h...
May 02, 2020•18 min
Recorded at the first online 5x15 event on April 20th 2020. Hadley Freeman grew up in New York City and London. She has been a staff writer at the Guardian since 2000 and has contributed to many other publications, including Vogue (US and UK.) House of Glass is her fourth book. She lives in London with her partner and their three children. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes...
Apr 30, 2020•14 min
Recorded at the very first online 5x15 event on April 20th 2020. One Two Three Four is Craig Brown's latest brilliant book. It's a kaleidoscopic mixture of history, etymology, diaries, autobiography, fan letters, essays, parallel lives, party lists, charts, interviews, announcements and stories published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the break-up of the Beatles. Craig Brown is the author of 18 books, and a prolific journalist. He has been writing his parodic diary in Private Eye since...
Apr 28, 2020•12 min
Recorded at the very first online 5x15 event on April 20th 2020 Mark O'Connell is the author of To Be a Machine, which won the Wellcome Book Prize and was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize and the Royal Society Insight Investment Book Prize. He has written for the Guardian, the Sunday Times, Slate, the New York Times among others, and been interviewed on BBC Newsnight, BBC Radio 4 and NPR. He lives in Dublin with his family. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of th...
Apr 26, 2020•11 min
Recorded at the first online 5x15 event on April 20th 2020. Margaret Heffernan is one of the UK’s most highly regarded thought leaders. An entrepreneur, CEO and keynote speaker, she is the also author of five previous books: Beyond Measure, A Bigger Prize, Wilful Blindness, Women on Top and The Naked Truth. The best-selling Willful Blindness : Why We Ignore the Obvious at our Peril was named one of the most important business books of the decade by the Financial Times, and was shortlisted for th...
Apr 24, 2020•14 min
Gaia Vince on Transcendence - How Humans Evolved through Fire, Language, Beauty and Time. Vince is a science writer and broadcaster interested in the interplay between humans and the planetary environment. She has held senior editorial posts at Nature and New Scientist, and her writing has featured in newspapers and magazines including the Guardian, The Times and Scientific American. She also writes and presents science programmes for radio and television. Her research takes her across the world...
Mar 21, 2020•20 min
Before going to medical school, Dr Rachel Clarke was a television journalist and documentary maker. She now specialises in palliative medicine, caring deeply about helping patients live the end of their lives as fully and richly as possible – and in the power of human stories to build empathy and inspire change.Her first book, the Sunday Times bestselling Your Life in My Hands, revealed what life is like for a junior doctor on the NHS frontline. Her new memoir, Dear Life is based on her work in ...
Mar 16, 2020•19 min
Hashi Mohamed arrived in Britain at the age of nine as a child refugee, and is now a barrister at No5 Chambers in London. He is also a broadcaster, having appeared on BBC Radio 4, and presented Adventures in Social Mobility (April 2017) and Macpherson: What Happened Next (2019). He is also a contributor to the Guardian, The Times and Prospect. He mentors many young people at various stages of their career and is also a trustee of Big Education, a trust which oversees three inspirational schools ...
Mar 14, 2020•16 min
Sophie Walker is a feminist activist, founding leader of the Women’s Equality Party, and recently-appointed chief executive of Young Women’s Trust, the charity representing and supporting women aged 18-30 who are living on no or low pay. She is passionate about rebuilding society for and with (extra)ordinary women. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5...
Mar 09, 2020•17 min
Robin Ince is many things. A comedian, an author, a broadcaster and a populariser of scientific ideas. The Guardian once declared him a ‘becardiganed polymath’ which seems about right. He is probably best known as the co-host of the Sony Gold Award winning BBC Radio 4 series The Infinite Monkey Cage with Professor Brian Cox. He also co-hosts the podcast Robin and Josie’s Book Shambles, which gains over 100,000 listeners a month, which is part of The Cosmic Shambles Network, which he also co-crea...
Mar 07, 2020•18 min
James O’Brien is a Sunday Times Bestselling author and LBC Radio Presenter. He has presented BBC Two’s Newsnight and his own daytime talk show O’Brien on ITV. His daily current affairs phone-in show on LBC has 1.2 million weekly listeners and his new, award-winning podcast, Full Disclosure, has been downloaded four million times. How To Be Right is his first book. Recorded on 10th Feb 2020 at EartH Hackney. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and in...
Mar 04, 2020•14 min
Tracey Thorn is a singer-songwriter and writer, best known for her seventeen years in bestselling duo Everything But The Girl. She grew up as the youngest of three children in Brookmans Park, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, where she learned the piano, enjoyed underaged drinking, and started her first band while still at school. Since then, she has released four solo albums, one movie soundtrack, a large handful of singles. Her books, include the Sunday Times bestselling memoir, Bedsit Disco Queen, and...
Mar 01, 2020•18 min
In his new book The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread - And Why They Stop, epidemiologist Adam Kucharski reveals how mathematical approaches transform what we know about contagion. Adam Kucharski is an associate professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. A mathematician by training, his work on global outbreaks such as the Ebola epidemic and the Zika virus has taken him from villages in the Pacific Islands to hospitals in Latin America. He is a TED fellow and winner o...
Feb 28, 2020•14 min
Has music lost its vanguard role? Billy Bragg is here to talk about the role of music in shaping our world, past present and future. Stephen William ‘Billy’ Bragg is an English singer-songwriter and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that span political or romantic themes. His music is heavily centred on bringing about change and getting the younger generation involved in grass-roots activist causes. His book Roots, Radicals and ...
Feb 05, 2020•18 min
Jeremy Irons talks about his method of approaching poetry. Jeremy Irons won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Claus von Bülow in 1990’s Reversal of Fortune. He is also a Golden Globe, Emmy, Tony, and Screen Actors Guild award winner. His film highlights include The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), The Mission (1986), Dead Ringers (1988), Damage (1992), M. Butterfly (1993), and Lolita (1997). Jeremy Irons received a Tony for his performance in Tom Stoppard’s play The Real T...
Jan 30, 2020•17 min
