65 million people are caught up in the global refugee crisis. CEO of the IRC David Miliband shows why we should care, and what we can do to make a difference. Taking us from war zones in the Middle East to the heart of Europe, he explores the current crisis and shows what can be done, not just by governments with the power to change policy but by citizens with the urge to change lives. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Wednesday 6th December 2017. Discover more about this event here: ht...
Dec 06, 2017•59 min•Ep. 171
Tristram Carfrae, incoming Master of the RDI Faculty will speak about the value of the human aspects of design in an automated world. Carfrae considers the positive value of design and its impact on all our lives. From creating a process, service or plan that improves efficiency to transforming the world around us through a better built environment. He argues that the importance of creative design and innovation and its inherent human instinct, hunch and emotion will be more valuable in the futu...
Dec 01, 2017•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 170
Bestselling author and podcaster Gretchen Rubin identifies four main personality types, and shows how using this framework will change everyone’s lives for the better. During her lifelong investigation into human nature, explored most recently in her bestselling book Better Than Before, Rubin realised that by asking the seemingly dry question 'How do I respond to expectations?' we gain life changing self-knowledge. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 30th November 2017. Discover ...
Nov 30, 2017•1 hr•Ep. 169
What has led to the rise of the ‘intangible economy’? And what impact is it having on levels of inequality and productivity? Economic analysts Stian Westlake and Jonathan Haskel investigate. For all sorts of businesses, from tech firms and pharma companies to coffee shops and gyms, the ability to deploy assets that one can neither see nor touch is increasingly the main source of long-term success. What does the future of an intangible world look like, and how can managers, investors, and policym...
Nov 23, 2017•58 min•Ep. 168
Eden Project chief executive Gordon Seabright joins an expert panel to share insights into the characteristics, challenges and rewards of leading a community enterprise. Do we still need visionary ‘hero’ leaders – rugged individualist entrepreneurs that can inspire people and struggle through adversity to pursue their dream? Or is leadership a more collective quality to be shared and nurtured among groups bound together by a strong mission? This event was recorded live at The RSA on Tuesday 21st...
Nov 22, 2017•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 167
Julian Astle, Daisy Christodoulou, Peter Hyman and David Laws consider how to reform education so that it prepares young people not just to write a good exam, but to live a good life. Schools need to be accountable to taxpayers and parents to ensure money is well spent and children well taught. But with the accountability system dominating so much of what England’s state funded schools now do, are we in danger of becoming so pre-occupied by inspection judgements and performance targets that we l...
Nov 16, 2017•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 166
Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder and Head of Applied AI at DeepMind, considers what tech companies have got wrong, how to fix it, and how to ensure they contribute to greater economic and social justice. It’s no secret that technology companies are changing the world. But as technology plays a larger role in key social institutions we value and revere—from healthcare to electoral politics—guaranteeing a positive impact on society has become far more complex than many in the sector ever imagined. Thi...
Nov 16, 2017•56 min•Ep. 165
Professor David Harvey, the world’s leading expert on Marx, visits the RSA to outline the much-debated economist’s continuing relevance in 21st century economics and society. Marx’s ‘Capital’ is one of the most important texts of the modern era – it changed the destiny of countries, politics and people across the world – and continues to resonate today. But what are its key arguments, and how do they apply in a 21st century context? This event was recorded live at The RSA on Friday 10th November...
Nov 10, 2017•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 164
On the 75th anniversary of Beveridge’s transformative ‘five giants’ report, a panel of experts gather to review how far we’ve come, and have still to go. The ‘five giant evils’ of society were identified as Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor, and Idleness, and the modern-day NHS, national pension scheme, compulsory education, social housing and wide-ranging benefits were established in response to its recommendations. Whilst these so-called social securities transformed the lives of millions, pub...
Nov 10, 2017•58 min•Ep. 163
Award-winning author and public intellectual, Elif Shafak discusses populism, liberal values, and the provisional nature of democracy in the West. Drawing on her observations of the rise of populism and duality (a “them” and “us” mentality) in her native Turkey, Elif offers cautionary advice about the provisional nature of democracy in the west and the rise of populism – and how close we are to slipping back at any point – and asks the question; do writers and other cultural commentators have a ...
Nov 10, 2017•55 min•Ep. 162
This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 2nd November 2017 For well over a hundred years, social and cultural anthropologists have travelled the world, uncovering patterns and variations in how humans organize their lives and articulate their values. By weaving together theories and fieldwork examples from Beijing to the City of London, anthropologist Matthew Engelke shows why the study of anthropology still matters in today’s globalized world: not only because it allows us to underst...
Nov 02, 2017•59 min•Ep. 161
This event was recorded live at The RSA on Wednesday 1st November 2017 As the UK government makes preparations to leave the European Union, this independent Commission, funded by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, is a unique and important opportunity to engage the voices of citizens, communities, businesses, academics and advocates in shaping the direction of food, farming and countryside policies. Against a backdrop of change and uncertainty, this Commission is intended to help secure the future of s...
Nov 02, 2017•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 160
This event was recorded live at The RSA on Tuesday 31st October 2017 It’s now conventional wisdom to focus on the excesses of the ultra-rich top 1% who are hoarding income and wealth while incomes for the rest are stagnant. But the more important, and widening, gap in American society, argues Richard Reeves, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, is between the upper middle class and everyone else. Reeves defines the upper middle class as those whose incomes are in the top 20 percent of Ame...
Nov 02, 2017•59 min•Ep. 159
This event was recorded live at The RSA on Monday 30th October 2017 What fundamental values do human beings hold in common? As globalisation draws us together economically, are our values converging or diverging? Is the principle of human rights becoming a global ethic, or a vanishing preoccupation of the elite? These were some of the questions that led former leader of the Canadian Liberal Party, Michael Ignatieff, to embark on a three-year, eight-nation journey in search of answers. A renowned...
Oct 30, 2017•57 min•Ep. 158
This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 26th October 2017 Rising star and extremism expert Julia Ebner argues that far right and Islamist extremist narratives – ‘The West is at war with Islam’ and ‘Muslims are at war with the West’ - complement each other perfectly, making the two extremes rhetorical allies and building a spiralling torrent of hatred – what she calls ‘The Rage’. By looking at extremist movements both online and offline, Ebner shows how far right and Islamist extremis...
Oct 26, 2017•52 min•Ep. 157
This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 19th October 2017 Nobel Prize-winning economist Jean Tirole argues that far from being the “dismal science”, economics is a “moral science”, and has the power to be a positive force for good in society. Jean Tirole has been described as one of the most influential economists of our time. On winning the Nobel Prize in 2014 he found himself regularly being called upon to comment on issues of the day, and this transformation from academic economis...
Oct 19, 2017•1 hr•Ep. 156
This event was recorded live at The RSA on Wednesday 18th October 2017 The 2017 Albert Medal is awarded posthumously to Robin Murray for pioneering work in social innovation. Robin Murray was a visionary social and economic thinker, whose life’s work was guided by a profound commitment to mutuality and cooperation. As an industrial and environmental economist, Murray was active and influential across several fields, from cooperatives to energy system innovation. He was deeply committed to a demo...
Oct 19, 2017•59 min•Ep. 155
This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 17th October 2017 Within a few short decades, the world has rushed to embrace the products and services of four giant corporations: Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Google. But at what cost? Leading liberal journalist Franklin Foer argues that though these firms sell their efficiency and purport to make the world a better place, what they have done instead is to enable an intoxicating level of daily convenience that has a darker underside. Their cor...
Oct 17, 2017•58 min•Ep. 154
'The rock star of neuroscience', David Eagleman teams up with composer Anthony Brandt to present an agenda-setting investigation into human creativity. Our relentless drive to create makes us unique among living creatures. How can we harness this instinct, and where is it taking us? We face global, ‘wicked’ challenges that require all our ingenuity to address. Luckily, as a species we have a seemingly unlimited capacity to generate solutions to our problems. For the full visual experience, watch...
Oct 13, 2017•59 min•Ep. 153
This event was recorded live at The RSA on Friday 6th October 2017 From government to business, banks to the media, it would seem that public trust in our institutions is at an all-time low. And yet this isn’t an age of distrust – far from it. Author of Who Can You Trust? Rachel Botsman is joined by Chief Economist at the Bank of England Andy Haldane to debate whether we are moving to a new era, in which we trust institutions less, but people and networks more. If this is so, what does it mean f...
Oct 06, 2017•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 152
This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 28th September 2017 Sleep is one of the most important aspects of our life, health and longevity and yet it is increasingly neglected in twenty-first-century society, with devastating consequences: every major disease in the developed world - Alzheimer's, cancer, obesity, diabetes - has very strong causal links to deficient sleep. And yet we’re sleeping less than ever – four out of five of us complain about disturbed or inadequate sleep, and ne...
Sep 28, 2017•55 min•Ep. 151
This event was recorded live at The RSA on Tuesday 27th September 2017 The world is facing urgent challenges – and design thinking can help us tackle them. Sue Siddall is a partner at leading design company IDEO, where she has over 20 years’ strategy experience in human-centred design and innovation; designing for behaviour change; and the role of design thinking and public private partnership in tackling systemic issues, such as climate change. To celebrate the launch of the 2017/18 RSA Student...
Sep 27, 2017•56 min•Ep. 150
This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 21st September 2017 Royal & Derngate, Northampton, Lyric Theatre Belfast, The Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Sherman Theatre, Cardiff and The RSA present 'The United Kingdom and Europe: Nations on the World Stage' a symposium introduced by Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair of Arts Council England. As a partnership of leading theatres in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales embarks on an epic cycle of new play commissions which will expl...
Sep 22, 2017•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 149
This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 21st September 2017 Every time we queue up for petrol we empower the world’s most coercive, oppressive and dangerous regimes. But what can we do about it? ‘It’s all about oil’ may be the clarion cry of undergraduates worldwide, but the reality is deeper and darker than any half-baked conspiracy theories. ISIS, al Qaeda, Putin, Assad, Saddam, Gaddafi, the Ayatollahs - most of our biggest threats and crises come from oil states. Chair of Philosop...
Sep 21, 2017•57 min•Ep. 148
This event was recorded live at The RSA on Tuesday 20th September 2017 Glenn Greenwald is the Pulitzer prize-winning journalist who worked with Edward Snowden to uncover secret global surveillance programmes undertaken by the US and the UK. His partner, David Miranda, is a journalist and the first LGBTQ member of the Rio City Council. In this special RSA event, Greenwald and Miranda discuss power and accountability, surveillance and privacy, Trump and fake news, and the role of journalism in giv...
Sep 20, 2017•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 147
This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 14th September 2017 A decade after the global financial crisis, deep scars remain. Despite recent data signalling a closing of the income inequality gap between the highest and lowest earners, this has been accompanied by mounting economic insecurity, wage stagnation and – particularly since Brexit – rising inflation. The shock of the financial crisis might have been weathered by buoyant employment, particularly at the low end of the labour mar...
Sep 15, 2017•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 146
This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 14th September 2017 Robert Peston, who broke the story of Northern Rock’s emergency funding appeal to the Bank of England, and covered at close-hand the ensuing run on the bank, its eventual collapse, and the global crash that followed, reflects back on fast-moving events of the time, and the role of the key actors – from politicians, to bankers, to regulators - and traces the further reaching after-effects of the crash. Discover more about thi...
Sep 15, 2017•59 min•Ep. 145
This event was recorded live at The RSA on Monday 11th September 2017 As UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling was involved at the highest levels from the outset of the financial crisis, through the heart of the storm, and played a leading role in restoring stability to global financial markets. 10 years on from the collapse of the Northern Rock bank, an early signal of the global crash to come, he reflects on what we have and haven’t learned from the crisis, how vulnerable we remain,...
Sep 12, 2017•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 144
This event was recorded live at The RSA on Friday 8th September 2017 Commissioned by the Prime Minister to undertake an independent review in 2016, last November David published his interim findings alongside an in-depth analysis which identified some of the stages in the CJS at which disproportionality is most pronounced. Among other notable points, the analysis evidenced that black men and women are sentenced more harshly than white men and women for committing the same type of crime. Having n...
Sep 08, 2017•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 143
This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 13th July 2017 In May this year, James Williams, a former Google employee and doctoral candidate researching design ethics at Oxford University, won the inaugural US$100,000 Nine Dots Prize. James’ winning piece argued that digital technologies privilege our impulses over our intentions, and are gradually diminishing our ability to engage with the issues we most care about. In this event – his first public event since winning the prize - he wil...
Jul 18, 2017•54 min•Ep. 142
