Debates

Debate is the beating heart of our festival - from Nobel Laureates to Pulitzer Prize winners, HowTheLightGetsIn is home to world-leading thinkers pushing their disciplines forward.

Explore our wide-ranging debates panel for this year's festival. View our expansive speaker lineup here and explore our full programme of events here.

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The End of Good and Evil

Slavoj Žižek, Rowan Williams, Maria Balaska, Richard Wrangham

Maverick philosopher Slavoj Žižek, former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and revolutionary primatologist Richard Wrangham debate whether it's time to say goodbye to good and evil.

New Powers and Fading Forces

Fiona Hill, Shashi Tharoor, Malcolm Rifkind

Former Defence Secretary Malcolm Rifkind and leading Modi critic Shashi Tharoor discuss the West's role in a changing world. Are countries such as Russia, China and India forming a new world order that won't conform to Western values?

The Trouble With String Theory

Roger Penrose, Eric Weinstein, Brian Greene, Tasneem Zehra Husain

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Roger Penrose and popular string theorist Brian Greene go head-to-head on the fundamental structure of the universe: has the search for supersymmetry failed? If string theory no longer explains the world, what does?

 

The Centre of the Universe

Neil Turok, Lisa Randall, Martin Cohen

The Game of Life

Slavoj Žižek, Steven Bonnell, Lisa Miller

Guesses, Errors and Economics

Gillian Tett, Guy Standing, Richard Werner

Imagining the Universe

Roger Penrose, Iain McGilchrist, Esther Freud

Ancient Traits in a Modern World

Sunetra Gupta, Subrena E. Smith, Anders Sandberg

Capitalism and the Climate

Helen Czerski, Rebecca Henderson, Troy Vettese

The Morality of Sex

Maya Oppenheim, Steven Bonnell, Myriam Francois, Isabel Millar

Down the Wormhole

Lisa Randall, George Ellis, Matt O'Dowd

Life, Death and Specialisation

David Healy, Nick Lane, Caitjan Gainty

Me, My World and I

Gary Lachman, Hannah Critchlow, Barry C. Smith

The Danger and Desire of the Frontier

Nolen Gertz, Bahar Gholip, Cory Doctorow

Philosophy at War

Michael Shermer, Marika Taylor, Hilary Lawson

Your True Self

Joanna Kavenna, Betty Sue Flowers, James Tartaglia

Rhetoric and Reality

Nolen Gertz, Betty Sue Flowers, Joscha Bach

Taking Leave of Reason

Rory Sutherland, Michael Shermer, Joanna Kavenna, Rebecca Roache

Based on a True Story

Remi Adekoya, Esther Freud, Peter Egan

Diplomacy, Deception and Disaster

Jessica Berlin, Laurie Bristow, David Omand, Malcolm Rifkind

The Weapon That Failed

Simon Jenkins, Bronwen Maddox, Michael Clarke

Brains, Beauty and Bad Judgement

Rory Sutherland, Janne Teller, Remi Adekoya

Virtue Ethics and Mob Morality

Sophie Scott-Brown, Simon Blackburn, Peter Tatchell

The Quantum Hoax

Joscha Bach, Ruth Oulton, Neil Turok, Dominic Walliman

What We Don't Know

Tommy Curry, Marika Taylor, Rupert Sheldrake

The Matrix, Myths and Metaphysics

Eric Weinstein, Becky Parker, Hilary Lawson

Beauty and the Meaning of Life

George Ellis, Suchitra Sebastian, Denis Noble

The Future of Knowledge

Samson Kambali, Sophie Scott-Brown, Tim Blackman

Democracy in the Dock

Ruth Kinna, Jesse Norman, Thangam Debbonaire

The Best and Worst of All Possible Worlds

Paul Horwich, Ben Burgis, Tasneem Zehra Husain

Beyond Reasonable Doubt

Emma Bryson, Harriet Wistrich, Peter Tatchell

Justice in Jeopardy

David Livingstone Smith, Harriet Wistrich, Myriam Francois

Manners Maketh Man

Billy Bragg, Grafton Tanner, Sophie Scott-Brown

The Meaning Puzzle

Samson Kambalu, Rebecca Roache, Hilary Lawson

The Blame Game

Lola Young, David Livingstone-Smith, Guy Standing, Claire Ogley

Beyond the Boundary

Lisa Miller, Nick Lane, Paul Bickley

Reality, Models and Mayhem

Bjørn Ekeberg, Michael Shermer, Sunetra Gupta