Speakers
Explore the range of world-leading thinkers that will be talking at HowTheLightGetsIn London 2022. From Nobel Laureates to Pultizer Prize winners, HowTheLightGetsIn is home to thinkers changing the world. Check out the debate lineup here.
First speakers and debates released!
Explore the range of world-leading thinkers that will be talking at HowTheLightGetsIn London 2022. From Nobel Laureates to Pultizer Prize winners, HowTheLightGetsIn is home to thinkers changing the world. Check out the debate lineup here.
Peter Singer
Appearing in: The Good, the Bad and the Ignored
'If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it'.
Peter Singer is undoubtedly one of the world's foremost public philosophers and the most prominent figure in contemporary ethics. He is currently the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University where he specialises in applied ethics from a secular, utilitarian perspective. Singer has authored or co-authored over 30 books, his most recent being Why Vegan? which argues that human tyranny over animals is a wrong comparable to racism and sexism.
'Peter Singer might well be the most important philosopher alive'. - Paul Bloom
Sophie Fiennes
Appearing in: After Happily Ever After and The Betrayal of Beauty
"People are bored with being talked down to"
The phenomenal director, Sophie Fiennes, is the director of the groundbreaking philosophical films The Pervert's Guide to Ideology (2012) and moving documentaries such as Artificial Things (2018). In collaberation with philosopher and psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek, Finnes has helped audience engage with the relationship of film, ideology, fantasy and reality.
“Presents [a] thrilling challenge for cinema-goers” - The Guardian
Donald Hoffman
Appearing in: The Key to Consciousness
“To construct is the essence of vision. Dispense with construction and you dispense with vision'.
Donald Hoffman is an American cognitive psycholgist, popular science author and famous non-realist. His work focusses on consciousness, visual perception and evolutionary psychology using mathematical models and psychophysical experiments.
He has written several books: his most recent being 'The Case Against Reality; How Evolution hid the Truth From Our Eyes'. He has made numerous media appearances including on TED, the Lex Fridman podcast and Closer to Truth.
“One of the deepest and most original thinkers of his generation” – Steven Pinker
Thangam Debbonaire
Appearing in: The Equality Myth, A Better Tomorrow and The Life and Philosophy of Thangam Debbonaire
"I’m a Labour politician. I’m a social reformer, not a libertarian rightwinger. Interfering, for the common good, is what we do."
Thangam Debbonaire is the Labour MP for Bristol West and current Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, previously working as the Shadow Secretary of State for Housing. Describing herself as a "northern European socialist", she supports "fettered capitalism". Thangam is a rising star of the Labour Party and would be top of many people's lists to be a future leader of the Labour Party.
Thangam has co-authored two books and published numerous papers on domestic violence, and has suggested that male refugees settling in Britain should be given lessons about female equality. Shortly after being elected in Bristol West, Thangam was diagnosed with breast cancer. This experience, along with extensive personal research into the effects of alcohol, led Thangam to speak out in favour of greater regulation of alcohol, calling for mandatory graphic warnings on alcohol drinks akin to those on cigarette packaging.
David Hare
Appearing in: After Happily Ever After
"No one but a fool is always right"
Sir David Hare is considered one of finest political storytellers alive today. Courageous and bold in his approach, David’s stories address the most pressing social and political issues of their times. From powerful press barons to geopolitics, class wars to The Church of England, no subject is off limits. His works weave effortlessly between drama, pathos and comedy to create an enjoyable, yet powerful, experience for the viewer. Successful productions on both screen and stage have earned him two Academy Award nominations and three Tony Award nominations
He joins us off the back of his most recent play ‘Straight Line Crazy’, starring Ralph Fiennes which, due to its popularity, will be transferring to Broadway in October 2022.
"The premiere political dramatist writing in English" - The Washington Post
Will Storr
Appearing in: The Fantasy of Fame
“Will Storr is one of our best journalists of ideas… his books are just joyfully interesting”- The Times
Will Storr is an award-winning writer and journalist. He’s the author of six critically acclaimed books, including the novel The Hunger and The Howling of Killian Lone and the Sunday Times bestseller The Science of Storytelling. His journalism has appeared in titles such as The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The New Yorker and The New York Times. His prizes include a National Press Club award for excellence and the AFM award for Best Investigative Journalism.
Sophie Ward
Appearing in: Being Ourselves and Being with Others, How to Write Your First Novel and TLS Podcast Live Recording
Sophie Ward is a stage and screen actress, and a writer of non-fiction and fiction. Her feature film debut in Steven Spielberg's Young Sherlock Holmes. She has written for The Guardian, The Times, and The Spectator, won the 2018 Royal Academy Pin Drop Award for her short story "Sunbed", and had her first novel, Love and Other Thought Experiments (2020) longlisted for both the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Booker Prize.
Laurie Penny
Appearing in: The Equality Myth and Lunchtime Philosophy with Laurie Penny
“The best way to stop girls achieving anything is to force them to achieve everything.”
Laurie Penny is an acclaimed journalist and writer whose written for the Guardian, the New York Times, and Salon. Penny is the author of several books including Bitch Doctrine, Unspeakable Things and Everything Belongs to the Future.
Penny has made numerous media appearances on the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV, as well as speaking at the Oxford Union and the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. Penny has also written for streaming TV, contributing to episodes of the Netflix show The Haunting of Bly Manor and HBO's The Nevers, and acted as a story editor on Carnival Row.
'Urgent, hopeful, and unapologetically radical' - Caitlin Moran
Andrew Adonis
Appearing in: Trading with the Enemy
"Unprincipled governments are inevitably unstable, unsuccessful and short-lived."
Lord Andrew Adonis is a former British Labour Party peer, academic and journalist who served in the Labour government for five years under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
Andrew was the Public Policy Editor at the Financial Times for five years (1991-96) before moving to the Observer as a political columnist. He joined Tony Blair’s Number 10 policy staff in 1998, first as education adviser then, after 2001, as Head of the Policy Unit.
In 2010, Andrew became the Director of the Institute for Government, an independent charity with cross-party support and Whitehall governance working to improve government effectiveness.
"Revelatory and quietly shocking" - The Guardian
Guy Standing
Appearing in: The Wealth Paradox and Rescuing the Economy of the Sea
Guy Standing is a pioneering economist. He currently Professorial Research Associate at SOAS University of London and a founding member and honorary co-president of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), a non-governmental organisation that promotes a basic income for all.
He has authored numerous critically acclaimed books, the most recent of which is The Blue Commons: Rescuing the Economy of the Sea, which proposes innovative new solutions for tackling climate change.
Linda Yueh
Appearing in: The Future of Money
“We’re now at a point in the 21st century where we also have to look again at economic models and theories and engage with the big questions, even if they don’t fit neatly into one set of models or one set of theories.”
Linda Yueh is an economist, writer and broadcaster, she is Fellow in Economics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford University and Adjunct Professor of Economics at London Business School.
Linda's latest book, The Great Economists: How Their Ideas Can Help Us Today was selected as The Times's Best Business Books of the Year. She is a presenter for BBC Radio 4 and the World Service and writes for The Times, The New York Times and The Financial Times and has advised, among others, The World Bank and World Economic Forum in Davos.
"A knowledgeable economist who is a great presenter. She clearly knows her subject well." Confederation of Passenger Transport UK
David Aaronovitch
Appearing in: The New Renaissance
“If all narratives are relative, then we are lost."
David Aaronovitch is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster, and has a regular column for The Times. He was previously president of the NUS and a communist but now identifies as a radical moderate. David is the author of Paddling to Jerusalem: An Aquatic Tour of Our Small Country and most recently a memoir about his family and early life, Party Animals: My Family and Other Communists. His memoir details his parents' love for the Communist party of Great Britain, providing an intimate insight into his early life.
“An effervescent and essential writer.” - The Observer
Hannah Critchlow
Appearing in: The Key to Consciousness and The Power of Many Minds
'Each of us has a unique cartography of the mind, like a roadway that maps our choices and our strengths.'
Named as one of the ten leading "communicator scientists" in the UK by the Science Council, Hannah Marion Critchlow is an internationally-acclaimed neuroscientist with a background in neuropsychiatry. She is also a broadcaster and best selling author based at the University of Cambridge.
Hannah's research has focused on cellular and molecular neuroscience. She has also presented BBC’s Tomorrow’s World Live and BBC2 Family Brain Games and was named by Nature as one of Cambridge University’s ‘Rising Stars in Life Sciences’ in 2019 in recognition for achievements in science engagement.
'Hannah demystifies the human brain' - BBC
Jess Wade
Appearing in: Cosmology and the Big Bust and The Dream of Progress
'I feel a real commitment to leave the world a better place – and science a more empowering environment.'
Jessica Wade is a tour de force. She is award-winning physicist, wikipedian and campaigner for gender inclusion in science. She is also a Research Fellow at Imperial College London where she investigates spin selective charge transport through chiral systems in the Department of Materials.
Jess is committed to improving diversity in science, both online and offline, and since the start of 2018 has written the Wikipedia biographies of women and people of colour scientists every single day.
'Mind-bogglingly impressive, Dr Jessica Wade is remarkably tricky to pin down.' - Hush
Tommy Curry
Appearing in: The Passion of Reason, New Politics and Old Threats, Rethinking Race and Gender and Proseccom Cake and Philosophy with Tommy Curry
'In a society consumed by its hatred for Black men, there is no resistance to the negation of the Black male's humanity'.
Tommy Curry is a philosophy professor at Edinburgh University where he holds a Personal Chair in Africana Philosophy and Black Male studies. His research focusses on Africana Philosophy, Critical Race Theory, Anti-Colonialism, Black Male Studies and Public Health.
Curry is the esteemed author of The Man-Not: Race, Class, Genre and the Dilemmas of Black Manhood which won the American Book Award in 2018. The Man-Not is regarded as controversial for its discussion of the rape of Black males during American slavery by white men and women but has received multiple positive reviews in Masculinity Studies, Black Studies, and Gender Studies journals.
'Curry has taken a bullet for the brothers' - Ishmael Reed.
John Ellis
Appearing in: The New Renaissance
"One has to be ambitious in order to get anything done." - John Ellis
John Ellis is a Maxwell prize-winning theoretical physicist, who since 1978 has held an indefinite contract at CERN. A favourite of HowTheLightGetsIn, he is beloved for his unique fashion sense and especially his penchant for t-shirts featuring Maxwell's equations.
He has made important contributions in many fields of inquiry, including particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. In the 1980s he became a leading advocate of supersymmetry, a proposed extension to the Standard Model of particle physics. As well as his quirky wardrobe, Ellis is known for his efforts to popularise science and involve non-European nations in CERN activities.
"The theoretical guru in CERN" - Cambridge physicist David Tong
Aaron Bastani
Appearing in: The Happiness Deluson and Head to Head: Marxism vs Capitalism
“The world is a mess. We need fully automated luxury communism.”
Aaron Bastani is co-founder of Novara Media, an independent, self-described radical left-wing alternative media organization based in the United Kingdom, and author of Fully Automated Luxury Communism. In his book, Bastani argues that ‘Fully Automated Luxury Communism’ is the paradigm of the future – and the path to a world of luxury, liberty and happiness.
With over 50,000 followers on Twitter and often acting as a stand-in for the Labour front bench in the media, Bastani has become an influential voice in British politics. He comes to the festival bearing a persuasive and polemical argument for how we can move to energy abundance, feed a world of 9 billion, overcome work, transcend the limits of biology and build meaningful freedom for all.
“In 100 years’ time many of the ideas in this book will be mainstream, while kindergarten students laugh at our mainstream economic textbooks.” – Paul Mason on Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto
Paul Mason
Appearing in: The Fantasies of the West and Fact-Checking the Fact-Checkers
Paul Mason is a British commentator and radio personality, and currently the Economics Editor for the UK's Channel 4 News.
A former member of the radical Workers' Power group, Paul describes his politics as now "very complicated", identifying with a "radical social democracy". His widely-selling 2015 book, PostCapitalism: A Guide to our Future, contends that capitalism is under threat from a digital revolution set to reshape the way we interact with one another.
"Brilliant and radical" - The Guardian
Peter Hitchens
Appearing in: The Fantasies of the West
'I think Britain is finished.'
Peter Hitchens is an award-winning conservative author, broadcaster, journalist and political commentator. Fiercely incisive and polemical, he has a weekly column in the Mail on Sunday as well as being a contributing writer to The Spectator, The American Conservative, the Guardian and the New Statesman.
Hitchens is a fierce critic of the conservative party, famously describing its politics as in line with the 'communist workers' party'. He is also the author of numerous books, the most recent of which is 'The Phoney Victory' which argues that Britain's did not really win World War 2.
'I thank God for whatever it was in the Hitchens milk that produced such argumentative, un-intimidateable sons' - Douglas Murray
Zoe Strimpel
Appearing in: New Politics and Old Threats and Forbidden Fruit
Psychedelics are back in the cultural zeitgeist, this time as a mental health treatment. But many argue psychedelics only work by replacing mental illness with a distorted view of reality. Michael Pollan commented "psychedelic therapy might simply be imposing a comforting delusion on the sick". But is this a mistake? A study from Imperial College London suggests people get better at predicting future life events following psychedelics and visual acuity is known to increase - suggesting people become less delusional, not more.
Should we see the psychedelic experience as showing us something true about the nature of reality? Do hallucinations give insights into metaphysical and spiritual truths, or might they encourage pluralism? Will psychedelics usher in a new era of mental well-being or will they put thousands of patients into a delusional state of mind?
Henry Marsh
Appearing in: Living Forever
"The only meaning of death is how I live my life now and what I will have to look back upon as I lie dying."
Henry Marsh is a leading neurosurgeon and a pioneer of neurosurgical advances in Ukraine. His widely acclaimed memoir Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery was published in 2014. According to The Economist, this memoir is "so elegantly written it is little wonder some say that in Mr Marsh neurosurgery has found its Boswell". Henry Marsh has a particular interest in the influence of hospital buildings and design on patient outcomes and staff morale. He was awarded a CBE in 2010.
Philip Collins
Appearing in: The Wealth Paradox and How to Write a Speech That Will Change the World
'There is a serious prospect that, in our time, we are losing faith in politics. The words of politicians float by, practised and polished, but profligate'.
Writer-in-chief att The Draft, contributing editor at The New Statesman, columnist for the Evening Standard, and the former lead writer at The Times, Phil Collins has held positions at almost every major newspaper in the country.
Having previously been a speech writer for Tony Blair, the Director of the Social Market Foundation think tank and an Equity Strategist at two investment banks, Philip's wealth of experience makes him a trusted voice in the political fray.
'Phil Collins is the best political commentator in Britain' - Michael Burleigh
Polly Vernon
Appearing in: The Fantasy of Fame
Polly Vernon has been a features writer, interviewer and columnist for 18 years. She currently works for both Grazia and The Times, with her columns focusing on fashion and culture. She started as a junior writer on Minx, a lecherous, riotous young woman's magazine, before moving on to become deputy editor at The Observer. In 2015, Polly wrote ‘Hot Feminist’, a popular and somewhat controversial manifesto on modern feminism.
'Bold, brilliant, sharp and funny...(Vernon) urges women to be less judgemental of each other and of themselves. It's an idea that shouldn't be revolutionary but is.' Elizabeth Day
Eric Lerner
Appearing in: Cosmology and the Big Bust and The Censorship of Cosmology
'Life did not arise as an accidental, wildly improbable leap from molecule to cells or even to viruses, but through a step-by-step evolution, just as humans did not evolve in a single leap from one-celled creatures.'
Eric Lerner is an award-winning popular science writer and theoretical physicist. In 1991, he authored The Big Bang Never Happened, a popular science book which rejects Big Bang Cosmology in favour or a non-standard plasma cosmology.
Amelia Gentleman
Appearing in: Exposing a Political Scandal
'The truth is out: Britain’s immigration system is racist, and always has been. Now let's fix it'
Amelia Gentleman is an acclaimed British journalist, Guardian reporter, and author of 'The Windrush Betrayal: Exposing the hostile Environment' which was a New Statesman and Spectator book of the year, shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing and longlisted for Bailee Gifford prize.
Gentleman has won multiple prizes for her journalism including the Orwell Prize and Feature Writer of the Year in the British Press Awards and he 2018 Paul Foot journalism award.
'[Gentleman's] reporting proves why an independent press is so vital.' - Reni Eddo-Lodge
Denis Noble
Appearing in: The Medicine Myth, Free Will is Not an Illusion and The Life and Philosophy of Denis Noble
“Quite soon, as we move from genes to the proteins that they code for, and then on to the interactions between these proteins, the problems become seriously complicated.”
Denis Noble is Professor Emeritus and co-Director of Computational Physiology at Oxford University where he held the Burdon Sanderson Chair of Cardiovascular Physiology from 1984 to 2004. Noble was one of the pioneers of Systems Biology and developed the first viable mathematical model of the working heart in 1960 with his supervisor Otto Hutter. The work was later developed with Dario DiFrancesco and others to become the canonical models on which more than 100 cardiac cell models are based today.
Noble has published over 350 articles in academic journals, including Nature, Science, PNA and the Journal of Physiology. His books include the first popular science book on the subject, The Music of Life, which has been translated into 12 languages. He was also elected President of the International Union of Physiological Sciences at its Congress in Kyoto in 2009.
Paul Dolan
Appearing in: The Happiness Delusion and Overcoming Opposition
Paul Dolan is Professor of Behavioural Science at the LSE. His main research interests are human behaviour and happiness, and the relationships between them, particularly as they apply to policy. He is author of the Sunday Times bestselling book Happiness by Design and Happy Ever After. He is alsohost and creator of the hit Duck / Rabbit podcast about the problems of polarisation in our society, and is the founder of the Lifetime Wellbeing Cooperative™.
“One of the most rigorous articulations of the new mood of acceptance...a persuasive demolition of many of our cultural stories about how we ought to live” - Guardian on Happy Ever After.
Louise Cooper
Appearing in: The Wealth Paradox and Trading With The Enemy
'Most economic models are terrible'
Louise Cooper is is a British Chartered Financial Analyst, journalist, and Times columnist, known for her work on the BBC World Service between 2002 and 2011.
She is known for her 'thought provoking and occasionally entertaining analysis on the financial events of the day'. Louise presents Wake Up to Money on BBC Radio 5 Live as well as the personal finance programme, Money Box on Radio 4.
'The downturn diva… a new rival to Robert Peston’. - Mail on Sunday
Tamar Gendler
Appearing in: The Good, the Bad and the Ignored and The Passion of Reason
"We should all flourish as the kind of complex beings that we are, without expecting things to be easy."
Tamar Gendler is a preeminent scholar, Yale's Dean of Arts and Sciences, Vincent J. Scully Professor of Philosophy and professor of psychology and cognitive science. Her Open Yale course, on the Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature, has had hundred of thousands of viewers. Tamar Gendler is the author of Intuition, Imagination, and Philosophical Methodology and Thought Experiments: On the Powers and Limits of Imaginary Cases.
Julian Baggini
Appearing in: The Passion of Reason, The Good, the Bad and the Ignored, Truth, Delusion and Psychedelic Reality and Head to Head: Science vs Philosophy
"Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there."
Julian Baggini is the author of numerous best-selling books on philosophy, and co-founder of The Philosopher’s Magazine - an independent quarterly magazine which aims to make philosophy accessible and entertaining. His books include the Godless Gospel, How The World Thinks, The Virtues of the Table and The Ego Trick (all Granta).
Baggini's most recent book, What David Hume Can Teach Us about Being Human and Living Well gives invaluable wisdom on living a good life from one of the Enlightenment's greatest philosophers
“Baggini has that rare but wonderful gift of being able to be at once profound and highly entertaining.” - Alexander McCall Smith
Freddie Sayers
Appearing in: Fact-Checking the Fact-Checking
Freddie Sayers is a British journalist, interviewer, media executive and former pollster. He is currently Executive Editor of online magazine UnHerd.
Before joining YouGov Sayers founded the Westminster based political news website PoliticsHome, during which time he became a regular commentator on British politics and current affairs, contributing to The Spectator, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, Prospect Magazine and Evening Standard.
Rana Mitter
Appearing in: TLS Podcast Live Recording, Lunchtime Philosophy with Rana Mitter, The Life and Philosophy of Thangam Debbonaire
Rana Mitter is Professor of the history and politics of modern China at Oxford University. Rana was educated at King's College. He has been elected for several prestigious positions including president of the Cambridge Union, Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University and Fellow of the British Academy. In 2019 he was appointed an OBE for his services to education.
Rana is a regular writer for publications such as the Financial Times, Guardian and Telegraph and is a frequent presenter on BBC Radio 3's Night Waves. Rana's research focuses on the emergence of nationalism in modern China and he has authored several books on the topic.
"Breathtaking and authoritative" Daily Telegraph
Hilary Lawson
Appearing in: A World By Any Other Name, The Theory to End All Theories and The World after Reality
“Every human being, in a way, is a philosopher. Because that's what it is to be human.” - Hilary Lawson
Hilary Lawson is a post-realist philosopher known for his theory of Closure and director of the Institute of Art and Ideas which hosts our beloved festival, HowTheLightGetsIn. His book Closure: A Story of Everything is an attempt to offer a post-modern approach to metaphysics. As a theory of everything it has dramatic consequences for how we understand ourselves, our society, our goals and our ability to achieve them.
Much of the work that is carried out at The Institute of Art and Ideas is a response to Hilary’s opposition to the mainstream approach to philosophy, particularly at universities, which he believes are old fashioned. Through the Institute of Art and Ideas and HowTheLightGetsIn, Hilary aims to put ideas at the centre of discussion and debate, and have people really engage with the things that matter.
“Lawson shows himself to be a latter-day 'metaphysician' on the grand scale ... a quite astonishing achievement.” - Alan Montefiore, University of Oxford
Güneş Taylor
Appearing in: Head to Head: Science vs Philosophy, The Life and Philosophy of Denis Noble and Does Your Sex Matter?
Güneş Taylor is a training fellow at the Francis Crick Institute, the London-based biomedical research centre. Her research predominantly focuses on the genetic formation of ovaries and testes. Güneş has debated the implications of genome editing in forums such as Fertility Fest, the Festival of Genomics, and Virtual Futures, as well as on the Guardian's podcast Science Weekly. In 2018, Güneş was awarded the Crick Public Engagement Prize for her efforts in the public communication of science.
Myriam François
Appearing in: Forbidden Fruit and Philosophy Breakfast with Myriam Francois
"Creating a sense of co-existence and community is about forging a shared identity which all members of society can identify with and I think this will necessarily begin with quite a profound reform of education."
Dr Myriam Francois is a Franco-Irish journalist, filmmaker and writer. A former columnist at the New Statesman, Myriam’s writing are featured widely in the British press, including the Guardian, TIME, Foreign Policy, the Telegraph, CNN online and Middle East Eye, among others. In 2019, Myriam started the We Need to Talk About Whiteness Podcast to pioneer conversations around structural whiteness in the UK. She delivers regular talks to private companies and institutions on the topic and is due to deliver an upcoming Ted-talk (2022). She is currently working on her documentary directorial debut under her production company Mpwr productions. The film was shortlisted for the 2021Whickers Awards and the Cannes MIPDOC 2022. Myriam was nominated as one of only 14 “filmmakers to watch” in 2021 by One World Media.
Jason Silva
Appearing in: Our Psychedelic Future
'Once we realize the extraordinary power we have to compose our lives, we'll move from passive, conditioned thinking to being co-creators of our fate.'
Jason Silva is an Emmy-nominated and world renowned TV personality, storyteller, filmmaker, and futurist. He shot to fame when hosting 5 seasons of the Emmy-nominated, global hit TV series Brain Games on the National Geographic Channel, which was broadcasted in over 171 countries. He currently hosts, Jason Silva: Shots of Awe, a YouTube channel in which Jason explores the boundaries of reality and imagination. Jason’s channel has amassed over half a million subscribers, and continues to grow rapidly.
'A Timothy Leary of the Viral Video Age' The Atlantic
Julian Barbour
"A masterpiece of scientific thought" - Lee Smolin
Peter Woit
Appearing in: The Code to the Cosmos, The Theory to End All Theories and The Fall and Resurrection of 4D Numbers
'The lesson of history is not to give up, that seemingly hard problems [of this sort] often find solutions.'
Peter Woit is a mathematical physicist at Columbia University. He is an outspoken critic of string theory, which for decades has been the leading candidate for a unified theory of physics. He is known for saying the theory is so flawed that it is “not even wrong.” Woit is author of the popular science blog titled 'Not Even Wrong' which has been featured in Discover, Seed, and New Scientist.' Woit is also the author of 'Quantum Theory, Groups and Representations: An Introduction' and 'Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law for Unity in Physical Law.'
'To keep physics honest, we need watchdogs like Peter Woit.' - Scientific American
Louise Perry
Appearing in: The Equality Myth, Forbidden Fruit and The Case Against the Sexual Revolution
'If sex isn't worth of its own moral category, then nor is sexual harassment or rape'.
Fearlessly radical and provocative , Louise Perry is a writer and campaigner based in London. She is a columnist at the New Statesman and a features wirter for the Daily Mail.
Louise is the Press Officer for the campaign group We Can’t Consent To This, which documents cases in which UK women have been killed and defendants have claimed in court that they died as a result of ‘rough sex’. Her book the Case Against Sexual Revolution was described as a 'must read' for conservatives and feminists alike.
'She's right - and courageous' - Mary Kenny
Julian Spalding
Appearing in: The Betrayal of Beauty and Philosophy Salon
'The search is on to find the real art of our times, and among it all will be some works of art that resonate with greatness by revealing what it feels like to be fully alive today.'
Julian Spalding is an English art critic, writer, broadcaster and a former curator. Considered to be a controversial maverick and outspoken critic of the art world, Julian isn’t afraid to voice his true feelings towards to likes of Damian Hirst and Tracy Emin.
Julian is a prolific writer, having written numerous successful books including The Eclipse of Art, Con Art: Why You Ought to Sell Your Damien Hirsts While You Can and The Art of Wonder, the latter of which earned him the Banister Fletcher Prize in 2006. In addition to his writing, Julian frequently contributes to arts, news and current affairs programmes on radio and TV.
'Spalding…makes interesting points and deserves to be widely read'- The Spectator
Nessa Carey
Appearing in: The Medicine Myth
“Sometimes the greatest scientific breakthroughs happen because someone ignores the prevailing pessimism.”
Nessa Carey is a groundbreaking British biologist working in the field of molecular biology and biotechnology. She is International Director of the technology transfer organization PraxisUnico and a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London.
Carey published her first popular science book in 2011 and has specialised in introducing the public to the strangest and most important aspects of the latest genetic research.She promotes the movement of scientists between academia and industry, lecturing often to school students and early career scientists.
'Carey shows herself to be a gifted writer that can make this field accessible for readers new to the topic' - The Inquisitive Biologist
Kenneth Cukier
Appearing in: The Dream of Progress and New Politics and Old Threats
"Society will need to shed some of its obsession for causality in exchange for simple correlations: not knowing why but only what."
Kenneth Cukier is deputy executive editor and the host of the hugely popular weekly podcast , Babbage. He is the coauthor of the New York Times Bestselling book “Big Data” with Viktor Mayer-Schönberger. In 2016 he was elected as a trustee of Chatham House, a British international affairs institute. In 2017 he was named an associate fellow at the University of Oxford's Said Business School, where he speaks about artificial intellingence and buissness.An internationally respected journalist, Kenneth was the technology editor of the Wall Street Journal and has written for The New York Times, The Financial Times, the International Herald Tribune and Foreign Affairs.
‘One of the world’s most respected data experts’ - The LSE
Anne Katrin Schlag
Appearing in: Truth, Delusion and Psychedelic Reality
Anne Katrin Schlag is a Chartered Psychologist and Head of Research at Drug Science. She leads the research for Drug Science, where she focuses on controversies surrounding psychedelics, medical cannabis, the improvement of patient access, and the continued development of education and stakeholder communication. She holds Honorary Fellowships at both Imperial College London and King’s College London and is scientific advisor to the Primary Care Cannabis Network.
Miranda Keeling
Appearing in: The Seduction of Thought, The Big Picture and Philosophy Salon
'I am interested in the details - the small moments that make up the every-day and which often have a larger echo.'
Miranda Keeling is a writer, actor, film-maker and winner of the BBC’s Norman Beaton Radio Drama award. She writes plays, screenplays, short stories, articles and poems. She is the author of The Year I stopped to Notice' which was inspired by her popular Twitter account. Her writing-style is all about elevating the ordinary - stopping to notice surroundings and weave what she sees into stories that are by turns - tiny, vast, surreal, magical, poignant and familiar.
'This book is a delight ... the world is full of little surprises, momentary little fountains of pleasure and beauty, that could be visible to all of us if we learned to stop and notice as Miranda Keeling does.' - Philip Pullman
Stephanie Hare
Appearing in: Fact-Checking the Fact-Checkers, Technology Is Not Neutral and Lunchtime Philosophy with Stephanie Hare
Stephanie Hare is a researcher, broadcaster and author focused on technology, politics and history. Selected for the BBC Expert Women programme and the Foreign Policy Interrupted fellowship, shecontributes frequently to radio and television and has published inthe Financial Times, The Washington Post, the Guardian/Observer, the Harvard Business Review, and WIRED. Previously she worked at Accenture, Palantir, and Oxford Analytica and held the Alistair Horne Visiting Fellowship at St Antony’s College, Oxford.
Steve Taylor
Appearing in: The Seduction of Thought and Waking from Darkness
“Transformation through turmoil is the most remarkable phenomenon I have ever come across.”
Steve Taylor is a senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University and author of several best-selling books in the fields of psychology and spirituality. He regularly appears in the media in the UK, and has been recently featured on Radio 4’s The Moral Maze, BBC Breakfast, Radio FiveLive and TalkRadio. Eckhart Tolle has described his work as ‘an important contribution to the shift in consciousness which is happening on our planet at present.’
Taylor's main interest is in transpersonal psychology, which investigates higher states of consciousness and 'awakening' experiences. His most recent book is Extraordinary Awakenings: When Trauma Leads to Transformation.
“Opens our eyes to a new way of understanding the world, and is also a pleasure.” – Christopher Ryan
Joanna Kavenna
Appearing in: The Happiness Delusion
“I love philosophy but it shouldn’t be just for the elite. We should all be asking these questions.”
Joanna Kavenna is an award-winning writer. A seasoned traveler, she was born in the UK, but has lived in the US, France, Germany, Scandinavia and the Baltic states. Her travels led to her first book, The Ice Museum, which details her experience traveling in the remote North. In 2013 she was named as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists.
Her latest book, A Field Guide to Reality, recognizes the importance of philosophy and believes that philosophy should be accessible to everyone. Written as a satire on philosophy and academia, it explores the absurdity of the quest for the meaning of life.
"Wonderful, impossible, dynamic" - Observer
Arif Ahmed
Appearing in: A World By Any Other Name and The Code to the Cosmos
'Free speech so important it should be taught alongside consent’ - Arif Ahmed
Arif Ahmed is a reader in philosophy at the University of Cambridge, where he writes on rational choice, Wittgenstein and religion. He is a fellow at Gonville and Caius College.
Arif has campaigned for free speech in universities for over a decade, most recently when he led a campaign to liberalise Cambridge’s free-speech policy. He is an atheist and a libertarian and his philosophical views are closest to those of David Hume and Friedrich Hayek.
Anders Sandberg
Appearing in: Living Forever and The Accurate, the Perfect and the Dangerous
“We are smart enough to realize that we are stupid, and stupid enough to make the problem of becoming smarter hard.”
Anders Sandberg is a research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford, where his research focusses on the societal and ethical issues surrounding human enhancement and new technologies. He is also research associate at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics.
A regular commentator and participant of public debates concerning human enhancement, Anders comes to the festival in support of an exciting transhuman future. On Twitter he describes himself as an academic jack of all trades, and we are sure he is a master of some.
'He might just be the most interesting academic at Oxford' - Robert Wiblin and Keiran Harris.
Lucelia Rodrigues
Appearing in: Cities of the Future
Prof Lucelia Rodrigues is one of the world’s foremost experts on sustainability. A specialist in the resilience of communities and buildings in a changing climate, she has been involved in several major sustainability projects focused on energy, carbon management and comfort in countries such as China, India, Bangladesh and Vietnam.
Appearing in partnership with University of Nottingham, where she is Chair of Sustainable and Resilient Cities in the Faculty of Engineering, Lucelia has worked acros the globe and brings a wealth of experience to her role. Here, she also serves as the Deputy Director of the Energy Institute, and as part of a number of advisory boards supporting cities in their journey to carbon neutrality. In addition to this, Lucelia holds the position of director of the ‘Transport, Mobility & Cities @ Nottingham' initiative and leads the ‘MArch in Architecture & Sustainable Design’ programme.
Eileen Hall
Appearing in: Truth, Delusions, and Psychedelic Reality
Eileen Hall is a creative director, artist & explorer. She is the Founder of Tayos, an organisation supporting the protection of endangered habitats in Ecuador as well as exploring our relationship to nature and its role in our wellbeing through art, music & science. Tayos was inspired and ignited by the work of her late father Stan Hall who sought to uncover the lost history of the Americas and the Tayos treasure legend.
In her paintings she enjoys exploring the numinous, luminous, liminal and elemental qualities of consciousness & our inner landscapes. Inspired by the wild landscapes of her home country of Ecuador, alongside her love of music and psychedelics, she creates dreamscapes and dreamseeds that combine these threads of her imagination.
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