Shows
Academy of IdeasUnited we stand? Ukraine and the future of the WestThis is a recording of United we stand? Ukraine and the future of the West, which took place on 20 April 2022: academyofideas.org.uk/event/united-we-stand-ukraine-and-the-future-of-the-west/
At first glance, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine seems to have led to an unexpected moment of unity among Western nations. After years of disagreements and talk of decline, Western countries responded to the invasion with tough sanctions and a unified front. Germany has announced a dramatic increase in military spending, Finland and Sweden are seriously exploring NATO membership, and even the Brexit tensions between the EU and UK have fad...2022-04-252h 10
Academy of Ideas#ScotlandSalon: Solidarity with Ukraine - freedom, democracy and sovereigntyThis is a recording from the Scotland Salon - a panel discussion on the roots of the war in Ukraine and whether it offers any lessons for Scotland - held on Wednesday 13 April 2022: academyofideas.org.uk/event/solidarity-with-ukraine/
Scotland’s public debate on the war in Ukraine has been very low key. We have set up charity hubs for refugees, but we haven’t really engaged in a public discussion about the causes of the war or the right to national self-determination.
The possibility of nuclear war, Putin’s recklessness and the energy crisis have tended...2022-04-141h 49Academy of Ideas#BookLaunch: Free Speech - A Global History from Socrates to Social MediaThis event was held on 17 March 2022 hosted by the Academy of Ideas and the Free Speech Union: academyofideas.org.uk/event/free-speech-a-global-history-from-socrates-to-social-media/
Free speech is often hailed as the ‘first freedom’ and the bedrock of democracy. Free exchange of ideas underlies all intellectual achievement and has enabled the advancement of both freedom and equality worldwide. But free speech is also a challenging and even contentious principle that today is often considered to be under threat.
In his new book, Free Speech: A Global History from Socrates to Social Media, Jacob Mchangama traces the fluctuating history of th...2022-03-231h 36Academy of IdeasLive debate: Ukraine in the crosshairs of historyThis meeting was held live at the Royal National Hotel on the 14 March 2022: academyofideas.org.uk/event/ukraine-in-the-crosshairs-of-history
A famous old Russian once said: ‘There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.’ The past week feels exactly like that since Russia’s appalling decision to invade Ukraine. Not only will there be enormous bloodshed, but a nation’s independence and sovereignty is under threat. It feels like an earthquake has taken place in international relations, with old certainties undermined and gathering trends suddenly coming to fruition. We need to ask how we got to t...2022-03-152h 12
Academy of Ideas#InternationalSalon: Boiling point - Russia and the WestRecording of the Academy of Ideas International Salon panel discussion on 3 February 2022.
https://academyofideas.org.uk/event/boiling-point-russia-and-the-west/
INTRODUCTION:
Russian troops on the border of Ukraine, riots in Kazakhstan, brutal suppression of recent protests in Belarus, talk of a new Cold War, threats of catastrophic sanctions from America, and demands from Russia for new security guarantees. As negotiations begin between Russia and the West, how do we make sense of the confusing – and highly charged – state of East-West relations?
Why have tensions continued to rachet up in the first place? Is ther...2022-02-041h 39
Academy of Ideas#LockdownDebates: Civil liberties in times of coronaLOCKDOWN DEBATE: In the past six months, citizens have had their right to protest quashed, their free speech attacked (with restrictions on social media about alternative public-health messages) and their ability to ‘mingle’ made illegal. In any other situation, this would be unthinkable. Does living under a virus mean having to sacrifice our civil liberties? Is it right to push back on the idea that anyone who questions new restrictions is a ‘covidiot’ or even unsympathetic to the seriousness of the virus? Should we be worried about the effects of asking citizens to ‘snitch’ on each other in an already atom...2020-10-062h 02Academy of Ideas#ScotlandSalon: Will Covid-19 change education?SCOTLAND SALON: Some commentators, politicians and business leaders seem to see the main role of schools and universities as preparing young people for work. Others see schools as a means to mould students to make them better citizens. Many educators have focused on the damage to children and young people’s mental health caused by the pandemic and subsequent lockdown and believe we should focus on a more therapeutic approach within the learning environment. Have we given up on knowledge for knowledge’s sake? Professor Lindsay Paterson and Dr Penny Lewis discuss.
2020-09-031h 55
Academy of Ideas#Arts&SocietyForum: What future for the arts in the post-lockdown world?ARTS & SOCIETY FORUM: What future do the arts have after the economic disruption wrought by the lockdown and post-lockdown precautionary measures? Theatres, concert venues, cinemas and festivals may be the worst hit, having lost months’ worth of box-office revenues. What should the role of government be in aiding the recovery of the arts? Should the government increase subsidies? Is this an opportunity for completely rethinking the arts, as some people are suggesting, clearing out the dross to allow the pearls to shine through? How do we create an environment in which the arts can thrive again? Jonathan Baz, Manick Go...2020-08-251h 57Academy of Ideas#LockdownDebates: The divided state of America?LOCKDOWN DEBATE: Have voters really given up on politicians and the political system more widely? Is there any possibility of the country rallying around the president or is politics simply hopelessly divided? Is America’s position as the leading global power under threat and what impact will this have on the elections? What is needed to inject political direction into the 2020 elections? Sohrab Ahmari, Dr Richard Johnson, Wendy Kaminer, Helen Searls and Michael Tracey discuss.
2020-08-251h 51Academy of Ideas#LockdownDebates: Can we cancel ’cancel culture’?LOCKDOWN DEBATE: Some suggest that marginalising unpleasant and offensive people – not doing business with them, not giving them a platform, not employing them in your business – is an entirely reasonable, personal decision. When do such actions become a systematic marginalisation of certain views – and what’s wrong with marginalising repulsive views anyway? Many seem eager to ‘fight fire with fire’ – calling out the double standards of their opponents in a tit-for-tat round of cancellations – but how can we expect that to lead to a greater range of opinion and debate? Perhaps we need to ask a fundamental question: what does it mean to...2020-08-251h 46Academy of Ideas#Arts&SocietyForum: Gabriella Swallow on JS Bach and Helmut LachenmannARTS & SOCIETY FORUM: Gabriella Swallow, one of the most versatile and exciting cellists of her generation, gives a lecture on her twin inspirations: German composers JS Bach and Helmut Lachenmann. These two musicians - 200 years apart - tackled the same instrument. Both were experimental and strove for the same kind of experience, but in completely different ways.
2020-08-042h 06
Academy of Ideas#SocialPolicyForum: Behind the NHS frontlineSOCIAL POLICY FORUM: While the nation has been getting behind the NHS and care workers, stepping onto doorsteps to ‘clap for carers’ battling with Covid-19; there has been a growing sentiment that we don’t appreciate enough the vital – and sometimes dangerous – work they do. But is the wartime rhetoric and applauding of ‘heroes’ overdone, and the list of key workers overlong? Will everything return to normal after the crisis is over, or will public support and gratitude lead to better pay and services, and a new appreciation of public service? Jon Bryan and Dr Frankie Anderson discuss.
2020-08-041h 37
Academy of Ideas#EconomyForum: The Covid-19 global economy - from Italy to South AfricaECONOMY FORUM: In their different ways, Italy and South Africa are very important economically. Italy is the eighth largest in the world by nominal GDP and the third largest in the EU. South Africa is the second largest economy in Africa and the only African country in the G20. Moreover, both countries have been badly hit by the crisis. Dominic Standish and Russell Grinker discuss.
2020-08-041h 54Academy of IdeasBook Launch: Why borders matter, with Professor Frank FurediACADEMY OF IDEAS BOOK LAUNCH: Limits, boundaries and borders are increasingly unfashionable. Whether its support for the ‘no borders’ approach of Europhiles or the rejection of binaries by gender-theory enthusiasts, arguing for borders is difficult these days. In his new book, Why Borders Matter: why humanity must relearn the art of drawing boundaries, Professor Frank Furedi argues that the key driver of the confusion surrounding borders and boundaries is the difficulty that society has in endowing experience with meaning. Timandra Harkness and Professor Frank Furedi discuss.
2020-08-041h 54Academy of Ideas#Arts&SocietyForum: Gericault, Picasso and the art of compositionARTS & SOCIETY FORUM: Theodore Gericault’s ‘The Raft of the Medusa’ is not only an enormous painting of high drama and tragedy on a cinematic scale, but it is also an assertion of the power of underlying geometry, shape and colour to carry a narrative. It is a constant inspiration to me for the creation of meaning in art through composition, a balance of both form, shape and subject. Picasso’s ‘Three Dancers’ is equally assertive through its brightly coloured, flat geometric shapes, and like Gericault’s ‘Raft’ it also has a complex human narrative. Dido Powell is a painter who reject...2020-08-041h 29Academy of Ideas#Arts&SocietyForum: Morality and hell - the power of Dante’s InfernoARTS & SOCIETY FORUM: Dante’s Divine Comedy, composed 700 years ago, is one of the foundational texts of Western literature. It was written in Dante’s own Florentine dialect, and according to those able to read the original, no translation has ever adequately conveyed both its poetic force and imaginative power. Even in translation though - and there are hundreds in English alone - the poetry, narrative and imagery of Dante’s work have made a lasting impression on generations of readers, as they have followed the author on his own tour of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. And of the three...2020-08-041h 16
Academy of Ideas#EducationForum: After toppling statues, is it time to rewrite the curriculum?EDUCATION FORUM: Should we welcome the de-colonisation of the curriculum as a way of correcting white Anglocentric bias and institutional racism? Or, however well-intentioned, will it encourage tokenistic box-ticking lessons? Might more diversity in the curriculum allow our BAME students to better see their identities affirmed or is this superficial gesture politics? The answers to these questions may depend on how we see schools. Are they microcosms of society and community, where diversity and identity are explicitly celebrated? Or are knowledge transfer and the curriculum a specific domain which should be immune from the external preoccupations of the world...2020-08-041h 49Academy of Ideas#LockdownDebates: From furlough to mask-wearing: can we ever return to normal?LOCKDOWN DEBATE: How best can work and life return to normal post-Covid? Will normality ever return? Many argue we will have to learn to live with the ‘new normal’, accepting facemasks, elbow-bumps, and under-filled pubs. Some even celebrate it, arguing that office life is dreary compared with the extra time to spend with family and friends that working from home allows. Do we need to make a more full-throated case for a return to normal life, or is this too risky when the virus still causes deaths across the world? Should we celebrate the chance to re-evaluate social norms and...2020-07-311h 59
Academy of Ideas#BookClub: Burning books and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451BOOK CLUB: During a summer of pulling down statues and renaming buildings and streets, could the next step be the symbolic burning of books? Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is a book about the burning of books in a future society that no longer reads them. Professor Dennis Hayes explores the construction and vision of the book as well as what it may or may not contribute to our understanding of the present.
2020-07-311h 28Academy of Ideas#LockdownDebates: How innovation works, with Matt RidleyLOCKDOWN DEBATE: Matt Ridley discusses his new book in conversation with Rob Lyons. Innovation is key to economic growth and the improvement of human welfare. In his new book, How Innovation Works, Matt Ridley examines how new technologies, products and medical advances come about. He notes that innovation is more than mere invention - the aim is not simply to create an interesting new device, for example, but to produce something that is genuinely useful and widely available. What drives innovation? Is he right to conclude that we cannot speed up innovation through central direction? What are the barriers...2020-07-101h 31
Academy of Ideas#SportscastOfIdeas: Sporting life beyond lockdownSPORTSCAST OF IDEAS: For months the lockdown has starved us of sport. But in the past couple of weeks it has made something of a return. And not only are the back pages and sports channels sparking into life but football, rugby, tennis, cricket have all made the front pages too as they become entangled with the big issues of our times, whether the coronavirus pandemic or Black Lives Matter protests. Hilary Salt, Duleep Allirajah, Geoff Kidder, Rob Lyons and Alastair Donald discuss.
2020-07-0146 minAcademy of Ideas#LockdownDebates: Has the NHS had a good crisis?LOCKDOWN DEBATE: The Covid-19 pandemic has put an unusual strain on health systems around the world. What can we learn from how the NHS is dealing with the crisis? Should we continue with a model of healthcare that is both publicly funded and (mostly) publicly provided? Could we learn from other countries’ systems that have coped better? Are the problems the NHS has faced a result of politicians not backing up supportive words with adequate funding? Or has the NHS’s place as our ‘national religion’ prevented an honest debate about its future Kate Andrews, Dr Lee Jones, Henrik Overgaar...2020-06-251h 43Academy of Ideas#Arts&SocietyForum: The shock of the old in Steven Berkoff’s ‘Greek’ARTS & SOCIETY FORUM: When Patrick Marmion first saw Stephen Berkoff’s Greek as a student back in the Eighties at the Edinburgh Festival it blew his head off. A notoriously difficult man himself who has been accused of all sorts of sexual transgression, there are aspects of his writing which are gloriously uncomfortable for today’s audiences. And yet with all the repressive puritanism that’s accompanied the counter revolution against the liberalism of the Sixties and Seventies, too many writers have lost touch with their creative libidos and we have grown accustomed to a theatre that is led by blo...2020-06-181h 23Academy of Ideas#BookClub: Sally Rooney’s Normal People and the triumph of intimacy
BOOK CLUB: Author Ella Whelan looks at how a modern interest in the politics of consent comes face to face with old-school romance in Sally Rooney's Normal People.
2020-06-171h 52Academy of Ideas#EconomyForum: The oil industry in times of CoronaECONOMY FORUM: Anyone who drives regularly will have noticed the sharp drop in petrol prices since the spate of lockdowns around the world and the fall in economic output. What’s going on? Robert Fig, a seasoned commodity risk practitioner, looks at what this all means for the future of world trade. Will negative pricing become a regular phenomenon? What does the future hold for commodity, bond and currency pricing in general?
2020-06-121h 30Academy of Ideas#EducationForum: Can we go back to school?
EDUCATION FORUM: Passion and anger have greeted the Westminster government’s proposals for a phased return of school pupils. The largest teaching union, the National Education Union (NEU), says that 92% of its members feel unsafe at what it condemns as a “reckless” plan that is “too fast, too confusing and too risky”. It is advising members not to co-operate. Amid uncertainty around the degree of risk and public disagreement among scientists over the impact and necessity of the lockdown, what are teachers to do: focus on the worst-case scenario or rely on “good solid British common sense”, as exhorted by Boris Johns...2020-06-121h 42Academy of Ideas#BookClub: When art imitates life - Albert Camus’ The Plague in lockdownBOOK CLUB: The townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague, which condemns its victims to a swift and horrifying death. Fear, isolation and claustrophobia follow as they are forced into quarantine. Each person responds in their own way to the lethal disease: some resign themselves to fate, some seek blame, and a few, like Dr Rieux, resist the terror. Sound familiar? David Bowden re-reads Albert Camus' classic.
2020-06-121h 16Academy of Ideas#LockdownDebates: What does George Floyd’s killing mean for British society?LOCKDOWN DEBATE: As we now all know, on 25 May, a 46-year-old black man named George Floyd was arrested on suspicion of paying for cigarettes with a fake $20 bill. Within 20 minutes he was dead - police officer Derek Chauvin had knelt on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes. Almost immediately, protests, often violent, spread across the US. American cities seem to be burning in righteous rage at the injustice. Since then, largely under the slogan of Black Lives Matter, spontaneous, mass demonstrations have taken place in solidarity with Floyd across the world. What does this all mean for those of us...2020-06-122h 11Academy of Ideas#LockdownDebates: Morality during a pandemic, with Susan Neiman and Frank FurediLOCKDOWN DEBATE: The worldwide response to the pandemic has challenged many long-cherished values. Democracy was put on hold, with elections postponed and parliaments in recess. Freedoms were curtailed, with extensive powers granted to police forces. Traditional markers of compassion, like funerals, were cancelled. And many say that essential workers, from nurses to shop-assistants, were put in harm’s way. Amidst such widespread moral challenges, how are we to decide what’s right? Whilst a rich tradition of philosophy reflects on how to be moral, can it be useful in such ‘unprecedented’ times? Is there anything we can learn from history...2020-06-041h 54Academy of Ideas#LockdownDebates: Has Covid-19 killed globalism?LOCKDOWN DEBATE: What lessons should we draw from the pandemic response? Is China turning from a ‘status quo’ power to one that will become more disruptive and active in pursuit of global influence? To what extent will the international order and its institutions continue to fray? Are we seeing the return of the nation state, or will realpolitik in the face of the pandemic likely encourage renewal of cooperation and new institutions? What is the likely impact of the inevitable economic restructuring? In short, where next for geopolitics - and is the future one of international disorder? Dr Philip Cunl...2020-06-042h 03Academy of Ideas#EconomyForum: Covid-19 and the US economyECONOMY FORUM: When members of the US Federal Reserve met in late January, they expressed confidence in the country’s ability to stretch a record run of economic growth and job gains well into 2020. Indeed, 2019 had seen strong performance in certain indicators, including rising real incomes among lower-earners. Two months later, the US was in a coronavirus lockdown, and the economy was in freefall. Some 34million jobs have been lost, and GDP is expected to decline by 35% or more in the second quarter. What are the prospects for the US economy to recover? Pre-Covid, was the economy as robust as...2020-05-261h 36Academy of Ideas#LockdownDebates: Is ‘gotcha’ journalism the new normal?LOCKDOWN DEBATE: What is behind this seeming media crisis and what are the implications? With the press already having taken a beating in some quarters for their failures over reporting Brexit, how worried should we be over the collapse of press standards, and the way the ‘media class’ seems to stand apart from the rest of society? Are we shooting the messenger for the failings of others, such as government mismanagement, even misinformation? What is the news and commentary we need during this period, and how do we go about ensuring the survival and prospering of a free, critical pres...2020-05-261h 59Academy of Ideas#EconomyForum: China, Covid-19 and the WestECONOMY FORUM: Earlier this year, as what would become known as Covid-19 struck Wuhan, there was some discussion about how China’s GDP might temporarily fall and what impact that fall might have on the world economy. There was little sense that the disease might become a pandemic and affect the whole world. Now, with most Western countries facing unprecedented falls in economic output, China appears to have ridden the storm remarkably well. Like it or not, the UK, EU and US are remarkably dependent upon on China – and not just for PPE. Beyond the tempers on all sides, what...2020-05-261h 41Academy of Ideas#BookClub: The moral dilemma of Ian McEwen’s Machines Like Me
BOOK CLUB: Machines Like Me occurs in an alternative 1980s London. Charlie, drifting through life and dodging full-time employment, is in love with Miranda, a bright student who lives with a terrible secret. When Charlie comes into money, he buys Adam, one of the first batch of synthetic humans. With Miranda’s assistance, he co-designs Adam’s personality. This near-perfect human is beautiful, strong and clever - a love triangle soon forms. These three beings will confront a profound moral dilemma. Ian McEwan’s subversive and entertaining new novel poses fundamental questions: what makes us human? Our outward deeds or our...2020-05-261h 23Academy of Ideas#Arts&SocietyForum: How Salman Rushdie changed everythingARTS & SOCIETY FORUM: Kate Abley’s first novel, Changing the Subject, is an entertaining narrative about ordinary people in an extraordinary situation. She says ‘You don’t have to have read any Salman Rushdie to engage with this talk: I will make it my job to inspire you to try him. Under the feeble cover of having written a novel myself, I would like to make the experimental assertion that it is possible to describe novels in English as Pre-Rushdie and Post-Rushdie. Of course, there were rumblings of change before 1981 and the publication of Midnight’s Children. But it was that...2020-05-261h 04Academy of Ideas#LockdownDebates: How much should we listen to experts?LOCKDOWN DEBATE: In the past few years, the idea that we should do what the experts tell us has lost some of its power. Some experts admit that there was, perhaps, a belief that the science was more definitive than it actually is. Even on the core advisory group, SAGE, there are significant differences of view amongst scientists, from the core understanding of the biology of the new coronavirus to estimates of how far it has spread, and over the rules informing social distancing and the efficacy of facemasks. But to what extent is or should our response to...2020-05-261h 40Academy of Ideas#EducationForum: Is it time to reopen our schools?EDUCATION FORUM: When should schools reopen and what does this debate tell us about what we value most about schools? Is it their role as engines of social mobility, as safeguarders of vulnerable children, as an unofficial child-minding service, exams or something else? Is it really a big deal if children miss a few months at school? David Perks and Joanna Williams discuss.
2020-05-071h 41Academy of Ideas#EconomyForum: Covid-19, from Germany to the developing worldECONOMY FORUM: In Germany, as in the UK, the economy is predicted to contract sharply as a result of the lockdown. But has this crisis become a convenient distraction from the deeper, structural problems of the German economy? And as the economic pain becomes clear, who will bear the brunt? Developing economies could suffer the greatest effects from the Covid-19 pandemic even though they have been little discussed in the West. They constitute a diverse range of countries, but it is possible to identify some key themes that, to a greater or lesser extent, threaten them. There are the...2020-05-071h 33Academy of Ideas#Arts&SocietyForum: The Burial at Thebes and the tragic imagination in poetryARTS & SOCIETY FORUM: 'News poet’ Dr Andrew Calcutt, principal lecturer at the University of East London, introduces Antigone by the Ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles, translated as The Burial at Thebes by Seamus Heaney. Focusing on the messenger’s speech (a recurring feature in Greek tragedy), Andrew explains how this directed him towards a new way of news reporting.
2020-05-0734 minAcademy of Ideas#EconomyForum: How can we escape a coronavirus depression?ECONOMY FORUM: How can we avoid the worst of a coronavirus depression? Are these lockdowns doing more harm than good? What will be the long-term economic impacts of the pandemic and the reaction to it? Joan Hoey, Phil Mullan and Jake Pugh discuss.
2020-05-071h 36Academy of Ideas#EducationForum: Pedagogy and the ’Corona Classroom’
EDUCATION FORUM: Since the 1980s, much has been said of the educational potential of digital technologies, both within the classroom and beyond. With the coronavirus crisis, however, much of this discussion has been sidelined, as for the first time in school history nearly all England’s schools and colleges are by necessity scrambling to move their entire pedagogic operation online. What can we learn from the crisis about the role of digital technology in education? The first ever online meeting of the Academy of Ideas Education Forum will explore this and many other questions. Donald Clark and Toby Marshall di...2020-05-0728 minAcademy of Ideas#EconomyForum: How will coronavirus affect Johnsonomics?ECONOMY FORUM: One of the biggest policy benefits from leaving the EU is the end of the ‘Brussels excuse’. No longer can British ministers blame the European Commission – often illegitimately – for tying its hands in dealing with Britain’s economic challenges. Now the buck clearly stops with a Boris Johnson-led government, which is also has the benefit of a large parliamentary majority. What do its early actions tell us about the new government’s approach to national economic policy? Phil Mullan and Rob Lyons discuss.
2020-05-071h 30
Academy of Ideas#PodcastOfIdeas: Is the lockdown lifting in Europe?PODCAST OF IDEAS: Alastair Donald, co-ordinator of our international Battle satellites, talks to friends and speakers from our annual festival: the Battle of Ideas. From Italy: Dominic Standish is a lecturer in media and a commentator on Italian affairs as well as the author of Venice in Environmental Peril? Myth and reality. From Germany: Sabine Beppler-Spahl is the chair of Freiblickinstitut e.V, CEO of Sprachkunst36, author of Brexit-Demokratischer Aufbruch in Großbritannien and the Germany correspondent for spiked. And from Brussels: James Holland is a freelance writer on European politics.
2020-05-0145 min
Academy of Ideas#PodcastOfIdeas: Has Coronavirus put an end to the generation wars?PODCAST OF IDEAS: The current coronavirus pandemic has revealed, or heightened, many underlying political issues - from the lingering effect of the culture wars to the consequences of fearmongering in political discourse. But one issue that seems to have bucked the trend is the generation debate. Going by much of the discussion of the last 10 years, young and old people are supposed to be at odds with each other. And yet, this virus has proven that the tensions between the generations might not be so pronounced - teenagers are volunteering for their elderly relatives and the nation has come...2020-04-2321 minAcademy of Ideas#BookClub: Power, democracy and coronavirus in George Orwell’s Animal FarmBOOK CLUB: ‘It is the history of a revolution that went wrong - and of the excellent excuses that were forthcoming at every step for the perversion of the original doctrine,’ wrote Orwell for the first edition of Animal Farm in 1945. Orwell wrote the novel at the end of 1943, but it almost remained unpublished; its savage attack on Stalin, at that time Britain’s ally, led to the book being refused by publisher after publisher. Orwell’s simple, tragic fable has since become a world-famous classic. On the 75th anniversary of Orwell's allegorical novella, the Academy of Ideas Book Club met...2020-04-201h 09Academy of Ideas#SportscastOfIdeas: Missing the beautiful gameSPORTSCAST OF IDEAS: Sport, like everything else, is on lockdown. But that doesn't mean talk about sport has died down - from controversies over furloughing to accusations of virus spreading at games. But how do we move forward, are football matches and other big public sporting events on the horizon? And is our absence from sport making the heart grow fonder, or will online matches replace the beautiful game?
Alastair Donald, Geoff Kidder and Rob Lyons from the Academy of Ideas are joined by athlete, footballer and Battle of Ideas speaker Georgina Newcombe in this special SPORTScast...2020-04-1627 minAcademy of Ideas#PodcastOfIdeas: Facing the lockdown from Singapore to JohannesburgPODCAST OF IDEAS: Europe might be the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic at the moment, but this is a global problem. Alastair Donald, co-ordinator of our international Battle satellites, talks to friends and speakers from our annual festival: the Battle of Ideas. From Singapore: Stuart Derbyshire is the associate professor in psychology at the National University of Singapore and the Clinical Imaging Research Centre. From upstate New York: Nancy McDermott is an independent researcher with a special interest in the family, parenting, science and the public-private spheres. From Sweden: Johan Wirfält is the artistic director of talks, debates a...2020-04-1049 minAcademy of Ideas#PodcastOfIdeas: The European response to Covid-19PODCAST OF IDEAS: We're closing in on week two of lockdown in the UK, with life on pause for many of us cooped up at home. But thinking outside of our own four walls, it has often been hard to get a sense of what's happening across Europe, where cases of the virus seem to be skyrocketing. Some countries, like Italy, have forced their citizens into weeks of house arrest. Others have taken a more liberal approach - and have often been criticised for it.
This week, in the latest of a new series of the Podcast...2020-04-0344 minAcademy of Ideas#PodcastOfIdeas: Life in times of CoronaPODCAST OF IDEAS: The coronavirus might have changed life for many of us, but at the Academy of Ideas we’e adamant that it won’t stop our ability to challenge and interrogate the cultural, political and scientific big questions of our time.
With this in mind, Claire Fox, Geoff Kidder, Jacob Reynolds, Rob Lyons, Mo Lovatt, Alastair Donald and Ella Whelan discuss everything from the government's new social-distancing measures to what this all means for the economy and social interaction.
2020-03-271h 00
Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: Resisting wokeness with Andrew Doyle and Douglas MurrayRecording of a discussion at the Battle of Ideas festival 2019 (https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/resisting-wokeness-andrew-doyle-and-douglas-murray-in-conversation/)
As the old saying goes, ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’. While social-justice activists are generally decent people, many commentators argue they exhibit all the tendencies of a cult: unshakeable certainty, a desire to convert the fallen while rejecting the idea of redemption, and capable of horrendous acts even though they see themselves as ‘the good guys’. The authors of two recent books on the ‘woke’ phenomenon, Douglas Murray and Andrew Doyle, consider their different approaches to critiquing w...2020-03-121h 00Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: Health and genomics - what’s the score with polygenic scores?Recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas festival on Sunday 3 November 2019.
Debate is growing about the use of a genetic/genomic approach called ‘polygenic scores’ to understand health and assess health risks. These scores are different from traditional genetic tests and can be used in relation to a vastly greater number of diseases and conditions. Advocates claim this new approach could revolutionise healthcare and – in the UK context – help redefine the NHS. Critics retort that polygenic scores are of limited use, and are perilously easy to misconstrue. Do polygenic scores offer vital information for patients and clin...2020-02-261h 01Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: How can we create a new industrial revolution?Recording of the debate at the Battle of Ideas festival on Sunday 3 November 2019, in partnership with City of London Corporation.
Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, is one of the thinkers associated with the concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, ‘blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres’. Do we need a new industrial revolution – and what are the barriers to creating one? Many commentators have noted a longstanding lack of investment and sluggish growth in productivity. Will new technologies really transform our society or is the hype around them a distraction from more f...2020-02-201h 27Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: Do we need a Green New Deal?Recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas festival on Sunday 3 November 2019, in partnership with City of London Corporation.
On both sides of the Atlantic, the idea of a Green New Deal has become a major policy focus. In the US, the idea has been put forward by left-leaning elements of the Democratic Party, while a cross-party group of MPs has called for a UK version. Proponents suggest that if the kind of money spent on wars, or on bailing out the financial system, were diverted to greening the economy, it would mitigate climate change while...2020-02-011h 30Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: From zero hours to apprenticeships - young people at workListen to this debate from the Battle of Ideas festival 2019. Special thanks to the Federation of Awarding Bodies who partnered with the Academy of Ideas to produce this session.
The UK has relatively low rates of youth unemployment. But as critics point out, this statistic hides a multitude of issues. Starting salaries for graduates are amongst the lowest in the EU. Despite many initiatives to promote apprenticeships, many young people end up in low-paid, ‘gig economy’ or zero-hour jobs with few career prospects. For many years, the response has been the same: more ‘transferable’ or employment-related skills in educa...2020-01-291h 14Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: What’s the point of going to university?Listen to this debate from the Battle of Ideas festival 2019:
More people now attend university in the UK than ever, but there is much less clarity about what university is for. For many, it is simply a step on the career ladder between school and work. For others, higher learning is about pursuing knowledge for its own sake. Do universities even do a good job at preparing people for jobs, or should we make more use of on-the-job training for that purpose? Do vocational qualifications merit the same prestige as academic degrees? Does everyone deserve the opportunity...2020-01-291h 13Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: How can we create a construction revolution?A recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas festival 2019.
From the housing crisis to infrastructure projects, construction is more important than ever. Everyone seems to agree that innovation is crucial to the resurgence of the construction sector. And yet, for all the fine words and government initiatives, the construction industry continues to languish in the doldrums with very little innovation. While the UK has been slow to adopt the latest technologies, other countries have embraced new methods, such as modular construction. So why aren’t robots manufacturing housing in giant factories to be transported to si...2020-01-281h 18Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: Artificial intelligence in schools - where’s the humanity?Listen to this debate from the Battle of Ideas festival 2019.
Could artificial intelligence (AI) transform education? Schools are already tentatively exploring ‘adaptive learning’ applications, which identify gaps in a student’s knowledge and build personalised quizzes. Sir Anthony Seldon, author of The Fourth Education Revolution, argues that by taking care of the mechanical aspects of education, AI can free up teachers to focus on creativity and problem-solving. What might this mean in practice and what do teachers make of the idea that our schools are churning out ‘robot-like’ workers? What, if anything, is uniquely human about being a teacher...2020-01-271h 29Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: Does the world need a government?Listen to the debate from the Battle of Ideas Festival 2019.
From climate change to tax evasion, humanity’s biggest challenges are increasingly global. Many of those frustrated by our lack of progress on these issues argue for some form of world government. If the United Nations, or some similar body, had real power over national governments, global agreements could be made and enforced. But others argue that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for seven billion people to hold a world government to account. Indeed, many find the idea of a world government sinister. Nevertheless, can we...2020-01-271h 13Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: A waste of a good crisis? A decade after the crash, with Larry ElliottDebate recorded at the Battle of Ideas festival on Saturday 2 November 2019.
Critics argue that relatively little has been done since the financial crisis to fix the underlying problems that precipitated it. Have we failed to take the old advice to ‘never waste a good crisis’? Extraordinary monetary measures are still mostly in place, but there are heated debates about whether the major developed economies are healthier or weaker than in 2008. Acclaimed Guardian economics editor Larry Elliott explores what can be done to pull the west out of its economic malaise. How can we challenge the ‘new normal’ of low g...2020-01-211h 03Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: What is the future of the Union?Listen to the debate from the Battle of Ideas Festival 2019.
The result of the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 seemed to put paid for the foreseeable future to the most significant threat to the Union, but the result of the EU referendum in 2016 has put the cat amongst the pigeons once more. The future of Northern Ireland has also been a constant bone of contention since the Brexit vote. In September, a shock opinion poll suggested that a quarter of Welsh voters would vote for independence. Is the Union really in imminent danger? Is there a positive case...2019-12-201h 30Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: Caster Semenya running into controversy - genes, gender and sportListen to the debate from the Battle of Ideas Festival 2019.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport has ruled women with naturally higher levels of testosterone cannot compete in women’s sport events unless they reduce their testosterone with medication. CAS was hearing an appeal by a South African runner, Caster Semenya, against a ruling by the governing body of athletics, the IAAF, that she cannot compete in certain events having been born with a condition leading to unusually high testosterone levels. What does this mean for elite sport? And can we separate sports from other areas of so...2019-12-161h 13Academy of Ideas#PodcastOfIdeas: first thoughts on General Election 2019The results of yesterday's UK General Election throw up many different issues. Why did the Conservatives end up winning comfortably? Why did the Labour vote collapse, with seats that had voted Labour for decades switching to the Tories? Does the success of the SNP in Scotland mean there will be another independence referendum? What does it all mean for Brexit?
Discussing these issues and more are Alastair Donald, Claire Fox, Rob Lyons, Jacob Reynolds and Ella Whelan.
2019-12-1338 minAcademy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: Assisted dying - a doctor’s poisoned chalice?Listen to the debate from the Battle of Ideas Festival 2019.
Thanks to Living and Dying Well for their partnership on this debate.
The question of whether assisted suicide (often known as assisted dying) is morally defensible, or should be legally permitted, is a familiar issue of medical ethics. Polls suggest that most people in Britain support a change in the law to allow it. By contrast, the British medical establishment has a longstanding record of opposition to legalisation – though there are suggestions that this may be changing. Should the law look leniently on relatives who he...2019-12-131h 17Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: The rise of toxic politics - can we be civil?A recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas festival on Sunday 3 November 2019.
The angry exchanges in parliament after the Supreme Court ruled against prorogation were typical of the ill-tempered discourse around Brexit. This year it was also deemed acceptable to ‘milkshake’ those you disagree with. Looking at a world seemingly filled with slurs, angry social-media comments, inflammatory remarks about migrants and nasty jibes about ‘gammons’ and ‘TERFs’, many commentators have called this an age of ‘toxic politics’. Should we lament a lost civility, or is the emergence of more forthright and angry disagreements in fact a good thing? Wh...2019-12-121h 31Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: Woke corporations - responsible capitalism or virtue signalling?Listen to the debate from the Battle of Ideas Festival 2019.
Earlier this year, Gillette produced an advert aimed at challenging ‘toxic masculinity’. Although somewhat frivolous, the example illustrates a growing trend among the world’s biggest companies to weigh in on social issues. In perhaps the most infamous example of all, in 2017, Pepsi released an advert with Kylie Jenner healing divisions at a protest march. The advert was widely condemned for appropriating the legacy of the civil-rights movement. But many companies seem to genuinely care about social causes. Unilever, one of the world’s biggest companies, has made amb...2019-12-091h 34Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: What does it mean to be normal?Listen to the debate from the Battle of Ideas Festival 2019.
There is something of an obsession with ‘normality’ today. Sally Rooney’s novel, Normal People, was widely acclaimed for its sensitive portrayal of everyday contemporary relationships. The TV smash hit Fleabag was likewise praised for its unflinching portrayal of ‘normal’ British middle-class sexual mores. But attitudes towards ‘normality’ seem difficult to get a handle on today. On the one hand, campaigns to raise awareness for a variety of social or psychological ills seek to show it is not ‘abnormal’, for example, to experience depression and that such people ‘are not alone’...2019-12-071h 12Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: Extinction or progress? Visions of the futureRecording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas festival 2019.
Today’s political culture seems obsessed with dark, apocalyptic visions. From young people staging ‘die-ins’ to protest about the environment to talk of an ‘insect apocalypse’, fears and threats loom large. Extinction Rebellion argues that the threat of catastrophe means we must reject growth and material progress in favour of a new eco-austerity. Even proponents of new technology often see it as a means of avoiding environmental catastrophe rather than transforming the world for the better. What can we learn about the present from our attitude to the future...2019-12-061h 14Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: The Life of Brian at 40 - are we more easily offended today?Listen to the debate from the Battle of Ideas Festival 2019.
Monty Python’s Life of Brian was released in the UK on 8 November 1979. The film had problems from the start, with its funding withdrawn by EMI films at the last minute, but it was rescued by former Beatle George Harrison putting up the money for it to be made. Forty years later, it would be nice to say that we’re more relaxed about religion and comedy. But in truth, while Christianity is considered fair game (notwithstanding the later controversy over Jerry Springer: The Opera), satirising Islam remain...2019-12-041h 28Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: Titania McGrath - satire in the age of social justiceListen to the debate from the Battle of Ideas Festival 2019.
‘Humour is a weapon of the patriarchy.’ So says Titania McGrath, the Twitter superstar who describes herself as an activist, healer and radical intersectionalist poet. Titania has become famous for her ‘woke’ words of wisdom, such as ‘heterosexuality is a hoax’. Of course, those of us who have been following Titania’s rise to fame will know that she is, in fact, fictional – a satirical character dreamt up by the author and comedian Andrew Doyle. Boasting a Twitter following in the hundreds of thousands, Doyle’s parody of a ‘typical Guar...2019-12-041h 17Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: Interrogating anti-Semitism with Deborah Lipstadt and Frank Furedi
Listen to the debate from the Battle of Ideas Festival 2019.
A recent EU report found 89 per cent of Jews living in member countries feel anti-Semitism has increased over the past decade, while 85 per cent believe it to be a serious problem. Anti-Semitism has traditionally been associated with the political right and with national chauvinism, but today it is often radical Islamists or even leftists, rather than nationalists, who are accused of prejudice against Jews. But can alleged anti-Semitism in the British Labour party really be compared to the fascist Oswald Mosley? Is anti-Zionism a distinct and legitimate...2019-11-261h 10Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: Are the old political parties dying?Listen to the debate from the Battle of Ideas festival 2019.
Many commentators have observed that Britain enjoys, by European standards at least, a uniquely stable party-political system. In many other European countries, collapsing empires, social uprisings or world wars fuelled new parties and shifting popular allegiances. Britain, on the other hand, is notable for the longevity – and adaptability – of its established parties. But amid rising volatility, fragmentation and polarisation in the early twenty-first century, are we reaching a historic moment of change? Are new-style political ‘movements’ such as the Brexit Party or independent, local initiatives a promising way forw...2019-11-2659 minAcademy of Ideas#BattleFest2019: Education culture wars - what should be the role of schools today?Recording of the opening remarks from a Battle of Ideas festival satellite event on Monday 18 November 2019.
Schools are unique institutions. Their most obvious role is in relation to education and the generational transfer of knowledge. However, they also mediate between the state and parents in shaping the next generation. Schools enforce behavioural expectations and instil particular values while preparing children for the responsibilities of adulthood.
Schools have always played this role. However, over recent years the values and expectations championed by schools have become more explicitly political and more contested. From lessons on climate change...2019-11-2032 min
Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: Tearing up the rule book - the end of the new world order?Recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas Festival 2018.
Since the fall of communism, the dominant narrative around international politics and economics has been that of a stable order defined by liberal, free-market values and agreements. In recent years, faith in the liberal international vision seems to have been shattered. In response to the rise of China and resurgence of Russia, populists across the world, most famously President Trump, have denounced free-trade agreements and collective security arrangements. Are we really moving into a more protectionist world, or will free-trade ideology make a comeback? How will the...2019-06-071h 14
Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: The moral case for abortionIn 2019, over than a dozen US states have either passed or attempted to pass stricter abortion legislation. Georgia's new law bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. Alabama's new law would more or less ban abortion entirely. How should those who are pro-choice respond? This Battle of Ideas debate from 2016 remains very relevant.
Original introduction
In her new book, Ann Furedi, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service and a veteran campaigner for abortion rights, sets out the ethical arguments for a woman’s right to choose, drawing on the traditions of sociological thinking an...2019-05-171h 25Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: The crisis of diplomacy in the era of TrumpRecording of the debate at the Battle of Ideas Festival 2018.
Visiting Europe in the summer, President Trump lambasted Germany’s relationship with Russia, took a dig at Theresa May’s Brexit strategy and seemingly sided with Vladimir Putin against America’s own intelligence agencies. The UK’s former foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, also famously made numerous diplomatic gaffes. Once diplomacy was regarded as a careful art, furthering national interests through back-channels and coded language, and pursued by highly educated diplomats. But in recent years, politicians have seemed keener to make loud public statements at the expense of cool neg...2019-05-101h 19
Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: Feminism - in conversation with Camille PagliaAfter three decades teaching at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, there have recently been calls from campus activists for Camille Paglia to be sacked from her post for having 'dangerous' views. Listen to this discussion at the Battle of Ideas Festival 2016, with Paglia in conversation with Claire Fox, and decide for yourself.
Original session introduction
Internationally renowned American social critic Camille Paglia has been called ‘the anti-feminist feminist’. A staunch defender of individual freedom, she has argued against laws prohibiting pornography, drugs and abortion. Describing contemporary feminism as a ‘reactionary reversion’ and ‘a gross betr...2019-05-031h 21Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: Can we revive Britain’s ’Rust Belt’?Listen to the debate from the Battle of Ideas Festival 2018.
In Brexit Britain, much focus has fallen on the divides that cut across generational, educational and class lines. But increasingly there is a new geographical divide that is taking shape – one where voguish metropolitan regions, prosperous urban centres and university towns contrast starkly with vast swathes of territory now labelled ‘left-behind Britain’. Is it still possible to rejuvenate former ports, market towns, coastal resorts and county towns? Should the focus be economic investment or a social and cultural transformation? Do we need a new urban paradigm, or should...2019-04-261h 31Academy of Ideas#EconomyForum: How can we revive UK economic growth?This is a recording from the Academy of Ideas Economy Forum on Monday 8 April 2019. The session title was ‘How can we revive UK economic growth?’ (academyofideas.org.uk/events/archive…conomic_growth)
The speaker is John Mills, an entrepreneur, economist and author, noted for his writing on Brexit, the Labour Party and the exchange rate. In the political world, he formerly served as chair of Labour Leave, Labour Future, The Pound Campaign and LESC, and co-chair of Business for Britain and Vote Leave. In the business world, he is founder and chairman of consumer goods company John Mills...2019-04-121h 22Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: Culture - who pays?Recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas Festival 2018 at The Barbican, London.
Should funding for cultural projects be scaled back in a time of fiscal crisis? As we approach the National Lottery’s 25th anniversary, many are asking questions about where funding for culture should come from. Some anti-austerity campaigners say that new projects like the V&A museum in Dundee, at a cost of £80million, put unnecessary pressure on already stretched budgets. Others argue that a vibrant cultural scene is key to building confidence in communities and creating social cohesion, threatened by visible inequalities in...2019-04-051h 11Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: From robots to UBI - is capitalism digging its own grave?Recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas Festival 2018.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, a broad political consensus emerged that ‘there is no alternative’ to capitalism, which even the 2008 financial crash did little to disturb. But now things appear to be changing, with support for politicians like Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders who call for a new way of organising the economy. A slew of recent books, epitomised by Paul Mason’s Post-Capitalism, argue that technological innovations have opened up ways to transcend capitalism from within. Are we now seeing the arrival of capitalism’s ‘under...2019-03-221h 12Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: Do the right thing? The moral responsibility of the artistRecording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas Festival 2018.
‘There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.’ Oscar Wilde’s view of art as essentially an aesthetic pursuit, one concerned with transcendent beauty and the human condition, has arguably now been superseded. But artists are routinely being ‘called out’ if their work represents minority groups in a light that is perceived as negative. The Globe’s new director, Michelle Terry, has been applauded for using blind casting to combat alleged inequality in the arts. Sho...2019-03-151h 31Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: From anti-vaxers to Alfie’s army - have we lost faith in medical science?Recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas Festival 2018.
According to the 2017 Ipsos MORI Veracity Index, nurses and doctors are the most-trusted people in the UK. But in certain contexts, this trust seems to evaporate. Take the ever-present anti-vaccination (or ‘anti-vax’) movement, the popular reaction when medical professionals decide it is no longer right to try to keep very sick children alive or instances of apparent malpractice have also raised serious public concerns. In these cases, doctors are regarded with suspicion rather than trust. What role does something like ‘fake news’ play in polarising these debates? Given th...2019-03-011h 19Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: Understanding anti-Semitism todayRecording of a debate from the Battle of Ideas Festival 2018.
From racist attacks to ominous propaganda, anti-Semitism appears to be making a comeback in Europe. In the UK, the Labour Party has been very publicly split over how it deals with the issue. In one respect, it looks like the simple return of what has been called ‘the longest hatred’. But while anti-Semitism has long been seen as a right-wing phenomenon, particularly since the Nazis, today’s anti-Semites are more likely to rail against Jews in the name of the Palestinians, a favourite cause of the left. Is hatred of Jews...2019-02-221h 36Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: How fear worksA recording of a discussion at the Battle of Ideas Festival 2018.
Published in 1997, Frank Furedi’s book Culture of Fear was widely acclaimed as perceptive and prophetic. In his new book, How Fear Works, Furedi seeks to explore two interrelated themes: why fear has acquired such a morally commanding status in society today and how the way we fear has changed from the way it was experienced in the past.
How has fear become detached from its material and physical source, so that it is now experienced as a secular version of a transcendental force? Wh...2019-02-141h 00Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: Automatic lovers - should we be worried about sex robots?A recording of the debate at the Battle of Ideas Festival 2018.
Science fiction has long explored the use of robots for sex, but the application of new technologies has been pushing the boundaries of sexuality towards the mechanical in real life. Interaction with fully functioning robotic sexual partners could soon be a practical alternative to actual sex. Advocates claim many people could benefit, from men who struggle with intimacy to women trafficked into sex work. Critics claim sex robots are a ‘pornified’ ideal of female sexuality and they are concerned about how these robotic partners will represent wome...2019-02-081h 19Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: Does our DNA define us?A recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas Festival 2018 at The Barbican, London on Sunday 14 October.
In Blueprint: how DNA makes us who we are, the world’s leading behavioural geneticist, Robert Plomin, argues that our inherited DNA differences make us who we are as individuals. This conclusion is at odds with the importance ascribed to our education and the environment in which we grow up in shaping the person we become. But are there scientific or other good reasons to doubt Plomin’s conclusions? If we start making predictions about people’s lives and potenti...2019-01-3159 minAcademy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: Democracy under siege?A recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas festival at the Barbican in London on 14 October 2018.
Over the past year, debates about democracy and its woes have been ubiquitous. There are fears tech giants and algorithms are undermining elections. Liberal democratic values such as free speech and universalism are questioned, even by liberals. Populism is variously claimed to be a threat to democracy or its very embodiment. Some claim undereducated voters were conned into voting for Brexit or Donald Trump and argue citizens should have to earn the right to vote by passing a test...2019-01-231h 30Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: What is a woman anyway?A recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas festival 2018 in London on Saturday 13 October.
What does it mean to be a woman? For some it’s about motherhood, others femininity, and some reject the whole idea of ‘womanhood’ outright. The Conservative Party’s proposed changes to the law around gender recognition have caused a fair amount of controversy around the question of what gender means and what it takes to be a woman. Is it about experience? Is it simply an identity which can be picked up by anyone? And, beyond the trans debate, is there anyt...2019-01-141h 21Academy of Ideas#PodcastOfIdeas: the 2018 culture warsIn the third of our end-of-year round-ups for 2018, the Academy of Ideas team - Claire Fox, Alastair Donald, Geoff Kidder, Rob Lyons, Jacob Reynolds and Ella Whelan - discuss everything non-Brexit in 2018. Is there a populist revolt spreading across Europe? What has happened in the gender wars of 2018? And is free speech still under threat?
2018-12-2135 minAcademy of Ideas#PodcastOfIdeas: Brexit specialIn the second of our end-of-year round-ups for 2018, the Academy of Ideas team - Claire Fox, Alastair Donald, Geoff Kidder, Rob Lyons, Jacob Reynolds and Ella Whelan - discuss a year of Brexit battles, the prospect of a second referendum and what the future holds for British democracy.
2018-12-2136 minAcademy of Ideas#PodcastOfIdeas: the World Cup, Luka Modric and Lewis HamiltonIn the first of our end-of-year round-ups for 2018, the Academy of Ideas team - Alastair Donald, Geoff Kidder, Rob Lyons and Declan Rooney - discuss England's World Cup run, whether Luka Modric is the best footballer in the world, where Lewis Hamilton sits among the all-time great English sportsmen and what make's a 'people's champion'.
2018-12-1235 minAcademy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: All change - navigating the new political disruptionListen to the debate from the Battle of Ideas 2018.
Whatever way we read today’s political disruptions, change is in the air. Mainstream political parties internationally, from Italy to Sweden, are being thrown into disarray by new challengers. Democratic votes, from Brexit to Trump, are seemingly giving two fingers to establishment norms. This turbulent atmosphere is undoubtedly unsettling. It is understandable that we can be tempted to resist change because of the risks associated with it. But can we transform today’s turbulence as an opportunity to shape the future, grasp the moment with hope, be inspired by a...2018-12-071h 27Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: Rule Book Britain -are we in love with legislation?A recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas 2018 festival at the Barbican on Sunday 14 October, produced in partnership with Diageo (full details here).
Almost every aspect of life in the UK is heavily regulated, from housing and transport to food and energy. Public health authorities have extended the reach of government intervention into our personal consumption of cigarettes, alcohol, salt, sugar and fat. While many critics of the EU look forward to Brexit as a means of cutting regulation, most of the ‘red tape’ and ‘nanny state’ rules we face are homegrown. Why has Britain become s...2018-11-3055 minAcademy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: Advertising: all-powerful or over-rated?On Friday 23 November, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced a ban on adverts for junk food on London's transport network. Posters for food and drink high in fat, salt and sugar will disappear from the Underground, Overground, buses and bus shelters. But just how effective is advertising? That was the topic of this debate at the Battle of Ideas 2018 festival, produced in partnership with Diageo. (More details here.)
INTRODUCTION
Advertising has become a familiar target of hostile campaigners. Public health campaigners and quangos want bans or restrictions on adverts for foods and drinks that...2018-11-231h 18Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: From SJW to gammon: weaponising political languageA recording of the debate at the Battle of Ideas 2018 festival on Saturday 13 October at the Barbican in London.
Language has always been a source of political controversy as much as a medium for discussing politics. Terms like ‘terrorist’ and ‘freedom fighter’ reveal the politics of the speaker as much as the nature of those described. But recent years have seen the proliferation of completely new terms: white Brexit voters are ‘gammons’, women critical of feminism have ‘internalised misogyny’, students are ‘snowflakes’. It can be hard to keep up. But is the way we talk about politics simply changing, or...2018-11-161h 33Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: Is free speech a fiction? In conversation with Lionel ShriverListen to the debate from the Battle of Ideas 2018 festival at the Barbican in London on Sunday 14 October (www.battleofideas.org.uk).
Novelist Lionel Shriver isn’t afraid of speaking her mind. At the 2016 Brisbane Writers Festival, she caused a furore by calling into question the contemporary focus on identity politics, saying ‘I hope the concept of cultural appropriation is a passing fad’. More recently, she was accused of racism when arguing that diversity quotas in publishing mean literary excellence becomes secondary to ticking boxes. As well as a staunch defender of intellectual freedom, Shriver is perhaps better...2018-11-081h 17Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: Drones - will they ever take off?Listen to the debate from the Battle of Ideas 2018.
In the past few years, remotely piloted air systems and unmanned air systems – commonly called ‘drones’ or ‘multicopters’ – have become widely popular. A relative lack of regulation until recently has meant that drones are still a controversial if exciting new technology, and society is undecided how best to deal with the challenges they pose. But will the danger of excessive regulation and the attention given to a new technology when problems arise mean we never get those benefits? How do we deal with concerns about safety and ethics, while ensuri...2018-11-021h 02Academy of Ideas#BattleFest2018: Me, Me, Me! Narcissism and the new politics of identityA recording of the debate at the Battle of Ideas 2018 on Sunday 14 October at the Barbican, London.
Today, everything seems to be an expression of contemporary ‘narcissism’, from dismissing millennials as Generation Me to describing Donald Trump as the ‘narcissist in chief’. It seems your boss or co-workers, everyone on Tinder, celebrities, even your parents are all ‘narcissists’. But has it become a lazy cliché? Or is it an accurate diagnosis of today’s identity-driven politics, which puts the self and self-esteem centre stage? Why do we reach so quickly for therapeutic categories to understand politics? Why has the idea of...2018-10-291h 11
Academy of IdeasAcademy 2018: the ideal of the liberal nation stateA recording of a lecture by Dr Jim Panton at The Academy 2018, a residential weekend organised by the Academy of Ideas. Find out more here.
Liberalism is generally, and many liberals are in particular, ambivalent about nationalism. On the one hand, early liberal and republican thinkers developed bold attempts to theorise sovereignty as the foundation of state legitimacy and unifying condition of the nation. On the other hand, liberal thinkers have struggled to justify the accidental character of national boundaries and the implications these have for inhabitants of different nations. Further, modern liberals disavow the c...2018-09-1400 minAcademy of IdeasAcademy 2018: The Transformation of the Concept of Popular Sovereignty in Early-Modern EuropeA recording of a lecture by Rachel Hammersley at The Academy 2018, a residential weekend organised by the Academy of Ideas. Find out more here.
Rachel Hammersley is senior lecturer, intellectual history, Newcastle University; author, The English Republican Tradition and Eighteenth-Century France; editor, Revolutionary Moments: reading revolutionary texts
Introduction
Popular sovereignty lies at the heart of our modern understanding of democracy government. But what does this concept mean and how did it emerge? In the large states of Northern Europe, for much of the medieval period and beyond, the term ‘sovereign’ was conventionally used to d...2018-08-1100 min