Speaker(s): Dr Rachel Aldred, Emily Chappell, Michael Hutchinson | All over the country, cycling is growing fast as a spectator sport and pastime. In London, it is also booming as a transport choice, spurred on by packed tubes and shiny new cycle lanes. What's the appeal? Physical thrill? Mindful flow? Simple practicality? Nonconformity? Our panel consider why cycling got this big and what its future is in London. Can it get too popular and are we headed for civil war on the roads? What would we...
Feb 25, 2017•1 hr 26 min
Speaker(s): Yasmine El Rashidi, Samar Samir Mezghanni, Nii Ayikwei Parkes | The Arab Spring was a revolutionary wave of demonstrations, protests, riots and civil wars that began on 17 December 2010 and dominated the news for most of 2011. In the five years since the people of Tunisia and other countries took to the streets to protest against their governments, a number of writers have shifted away from realism and turned to science fiction to describe the grim political realities faced by the re...
Feb 25, 2017•1 hr 31 min
Speaker(s): Paul MM Cooper | As writers, we're often told to 'write what you know' - but is this the advice that's holding back your writing? In this session, Paul MM Cooper talks about what led him to dive into the world of ancient poetry and medieval Sri Lanka in order to write his novel River of Ink. The session is designed for those who want to take on the unfamiliar in their work, or who just want to discover the adventure that writing can be. Paul MM Cooper (@PaulMMCooper) was born in Sout...
Feb 25, 2017•53 min
Speaker(s): Luke Dormehl, Laurie Penny, Nick Srnicek | What kind of future do we want to create and why? This panel explores the philosophical implications of scientific advancements like artificial intelligence and human enhancement, which have the potential to revolutionize our world. Is fear overriding optimism in our approach to the future? Luke Dormehl (@lukedormehl) is a technology author and journalist, with a background in documentary film. He regularly contributes to Digital Trends, and...
Feb 25, 2017•1 hr 26 min
Speaker(s): Reshma Ruia, Kavita Jindal, CG Menon | Are two heads better than one? Writing is by definition a solitary and insular occupation, but this creative writing session explores the benefits of a collaborative approach to writing. We will draw upon our own experience in writing our anthology, ‘Love across a Broken Map’ to provide an interactive session that examines the process of putting together an anthology, from the inception of an idea to workshopping stories, to choosing titles and ...
Feb 25, 2017•1 hr 4 min
Speaker(s): Luce Irigarary, Dr Mahon O’Brien, Dr Tanja Staehler | In this event, world-renowned philosopher Luce Irigaray will speak about her new book, which reflects upon the nature of human existence through an analysis of birth. Examining the mysteries of human origins, Irigaray will discuss the ways in which, despite the accidents of our birth, we can take responsibility for our own lives. Respondents Tanja Staehler and Mahon O'Brien will consider the philosophical, practical, and political...
Feb 25, 2017
Speaker(s): Luce Irigarary, Dr Mahon O’Brien, Dr Tanja Staehler | In this event, world-renowned philosopher Luce Irigaray will speak about her new book, which reflects upon the nature of human existence through an analysis of birth. Examining the mysteries of human origins, Irigaray will discuss the ways in which, despite the accidents of our birth, we can take responsibility for our own lives. Respondents Tanja Staehler and Mahon O'Brien will consider the philosophical, practical, and political...
Feb 25, 2017•1 hr 26 min
Speaker(s): Elif Shafak | Today all across the Middle East we observe a backlash of patriarchy. Women are being pushed back into the private space, reminded of their roles as mothers and wives. Even the fundamental rights that we thought we had can be lost easily. In truth, not only the Middle East but all over the world, women, especially Muslim women, are increasingly asking the most difficult questions and having the most engaging discussions on identity, religion, faith, freedom and sexualit...
Feb 25, 2017•1 hr 23 min
Speaker(s): Bridget Holding | A toolkit of small, playful experiments, to revolutionise how you tell stories in all genres. We will take body awareness, movement and spoken word into writing, with a focus on the ground-breaking world of ‘new’ nature writing, one of the fastest growing and best-selling genres. With her focus on learning from nature, and the embodied, holistic experience of the storyteller, university tutor and psychotherapist Bridget Holding is revitalising traditional creative w...
Feb 25, 2017•1 hr 9 min
Speaker(s): Sarah Bakewell, Dr Andy Martin and Professor Stella Sandford | ‘Why are there beings at all instead of nothing?’ asks Martin Heidegger in his Introduction to Metaphysics. In this panel, we explore the ideas of being and nothing as described by existentialism’s most famous thinkers: Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Albert Camus. What is the allure of the existentialists that their reputations should endure in popular and contemporary culture? And how is it that exi...
Feb 24, 2017•1 hr 20 min
Speaker(s): Tim Buckley and David Mansfield | Over the last fifteen years there has been a revolution in the deserts of south and southwest Afghanistan. Across the provinces of Helmand, Farah, Kandahar and Nimroz windswept sand and rock has been replaced by over 300,000 hectares of agricultural land. Driven by population pressure, opium prohibition and conflict 1.2 million people have settled in what was once uninhabitable desert land. Tim Buckley is Chief Operating Officer in Alcis. Tim is well...
Feb 24, 2017•1 hr 6 min
Speaker(s): Dr Laura Beers | In 1908 Ellen Wilkinson, a fiery, outspoken teenager from a working-class family in Manchester, was the only girl who spoke in school debates. By 1945, Wilkinson, still a rebellious redhead, had helped found the Communist Party, earned a seat in Parliament as Minister of Education, and become a renowned advocate for the poor and dispossessed at home and abroad. She was one of the first female delegates to the United Nations, and played a central role in the post-war ...
Feb 24, 2017•1 hr 8 min
Speaker(s): Harriet Harman, Katrine Marçal, Lieutenant Commander Alexandra Pollard, Dr Nicola Rollock | Women in the UK workplace have undoubtedly taken great steps over the past 40 years, but at the current rate of progress it will take 50 years to close the gender pay gap and a child born today will not see equal representation in her lifetime. Our panel discuss the progress that women have made across politics, economics, academia and the armed forces, but also what obstacles remain to be ove...
Feb 23, 2017•1 hr 24 min
Speaker(s): Dr Bill Kissane, Anthony Loyd | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor quality audio in this podcast. Since the European Enlightenment scholarly interest in revolutions has greatly dwarfed the interest in civil war, and whilst revolutions have often been glamorized in history, civil war has had almost exclusively negative connotations. But the last two decades have seen a resurgence of interest in civil war amongst the academic community. Has this vindicated the view that civil war...
Feb 23, 2017•1 hr 29 min
Speaker(s): Anne Applebaum, Jonathan Fenby, Gideon Rachman | Editor's note: Owing to a technical problem the question and answer session has been omitted from the podcast. For forty years the Cold War defined the world in which we all lived, shaping our political choices, killing over 25 million people, and nearly leading to the destruction of humanity itself on one very special day in October 1962. Thirty years later the Cold War was no more and the world – we were told – could now look forward...
Feb 23, 2017•56 min
Speaker(s): Eimear McBride | Editor's note: Unfortunately Ali Smith was unable to speak at this event. The turn of the 20th century saw a move away from the traditional towards the experimental and radical in the arts, with modernist writers breaking with established forms and subjects. In this discussion two award-winning contemporary novelists discuss modernism, its legacy and their own revolutionary approaches to fiction. Eimear McBride’s debut novel A Girl is a Half-formed Thing took nine ye...
Feb 23, 2017•1 hr 23 min
Speaker(s): Rod Judkins | The real currency of our time isn’t money. It’s ideas. You’re surrounded by ideas. Films, products, books, music, money, messages, services and everything in your culture began life as a vision in someone’s head. If you have ideas, you’re at the heart of things. ‘What abilities will someone need to succeed in 5, 10, or 15 years’ time?’ Rod Judkins’ answer to that question focuses on people’s ability to think conceptually. Universities used to teach students skills and t...
Feb 23, 2017•1 hr 17 min
Speaker(s): Dr Prashant Kidambi, Peter Oborne | 'Cricket is an Indian game accidentally invented by the English': one of India's leading public intellectuals once proclaimed. Ashis Nandy's provocative claim might well be extended to the rest of the subcontinent now. Cricket was brought to the Indian sub-continent by British colonial officers who chose to not teach it to the natives. However, the game was learned through watching and soon gained popularity resulting in a tour of England by an Ind...
Feb 22, 2017•1 hr 33 min
Speaker(s): Matt Cook, Sue O'Sullivan | Editor's note: Owing to a technical problem the question and answer session has been omitted from the podcast. This event explores what changed in the years after the Sexual Offences Act in 1967, which partly decriminalised homosexuality in the UK. Matt Cook talks about a gay squatting community in Brixton. Sue O'Sullivan talks about working collectively on Spare Rib magazine. Matt Cook is a lecturer of History and Gender Studies at Birkbeck College, Unive...
Feb 22, 2017•41 min
Speaker(s): Nona Buckley-Irvine, Georgia Gould, Professor John Hills and Omar Khan | Are today's young people getting a bum deal? Young people have experienced the biggest pay squeeze in the aftermath of the financial crisis, seen their dreams of home ownership drift out of sight and witnessed a welfare state in retreat. Are these short term effects or do they run deeper, and how can policy make a difference? The Resolution Foundation, convenors of the Intergenerational Commission, partner with ...
Feb 22, 2017
Speaker(s): Nona Buckley-Irvine, Georgia Gould, Professor John Hills and Omar Khan | Are today's young people getting a bum deal? Young people have experienced the biggest pay squeeze in the aftermath of the financial crisis, seen their dreams of home ownership drift out of sight and witnessed a welfare state in retreat. Are these short term effects or do they run deeper, and how can policy make a difference? The Resolution Foundation, convenors of the Intergenerational Commission, partner with ...
Feb 22, 2017•1 hr 30 min
Speaker(s): Dr Tanya Harmer, Nataliya Kibita and Dr David Motadel | Legacy of the Russian Revolution in Ukraine.' The Soviet Union, the state that was created as a result of the Russian revolution of 1917 no longer exists. Its economic model collapsed, while its ideology is discredited. Yet some political institutions that had been formed during the Soviet times are very much alive even today. Nataliya looks at how political institutions that had been formed in Ukraine in 1917 developed and cons...
Feb 22, 2017•1 hr 36 min
Speaker(s): Professor John Worrall | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor quality audio in this podcast. Many people unreflectingly think that 'Man' plays a special role in the Universe. Although this view was endorsed by Aristotelian cosmology, revolutionary developments in science, particularly those associated with Copernicus and with Darwin, seem to have made it entirely untenable. So what does science teach us about our place in the Universe? John Worrall joined LSE as an undergraduate ...
Feb 22, 2017
Speaker(s): Professor John Worrall | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor quality audio in this podcast. Many people unreflectingly think that 'Man' plays a special role in the Universe. Although this view was endorsed by Aristotelian cosmology, revolutionary developments in science, particularly those associated with Copernicus and with Darwin, seem to have made it entirely untenable. So what does science teach us about our place in the Universe? John Worrall joined LSE as an undergraduate ...
Feb 22, 2017•1 hr 1 min
