5x15

Described as the Agatha Christie of the adoption world, Ariel Bruce works on ITV’s Long Lost Family and specialises in finding people affected by adoption, using her unique skills as a social worker and her background in care to reunite families all over the world. Born in London, Ariel’s parents were Jewish refugees and at the age of 12, she was placed into care and went on to have 6 different foster parents. Based in London, Ariel carries out extensive work in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, as well as in many countries worldwide, including the USA and Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. A spin-off series, Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace, for which Ariel is lead search and social work consultant, recently won a BAFTA and Rose d'Or Award. With thanks for your support for 5x15 online! Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

The Six Ideas to Change the World series, in partnership with Keystone Positive Change Investment Trust, launches in May with Henry Dimbleby on Food. The co-founder of LEON restaurant chain and author of the National Food Strategy, Dimbleby is a leading voice on how the food we eat affects of our own health and the health of the planet. His new book Ravenous: How to Get Ourselves and Our Planet Into Shape (with Jemima Lewis), was named a Sunday Times best-seller upon its publication in March, and has been highly acclaimed by critics and figures within the food industry. In the words of Prue Leith, the book offers a ‘compelling and overdue plan of action’ that, if implemented, will put ‘our food system on the right path to health and prosperity.’ Don't miss this vital discussion about how to change our thinking around food. Henry Dimbleby will be in conversation with Tim Spector, one of top 100 most cited scientists in the world, and best-selling author of Food for Life: The New Science of Eating Well. Spe

Dr Tom Moorhouse is a conservation research scientist who has worked for twenty years at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, part of Oxford University's Biology Department. His work has focussed on the conservation ecology of water voles, the management of signal crayfish, hedgehog conservation and the impacts of wildlife tourism. He is the author of Elegy for a River and also award-winning children's fiction. His latest book is Ghosts in the Hedgerow: A Hedgehog Whodunnit. He lives with his wife and daughter in Oxford. With thanks for your support for 5x15 online! Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE is a prodigy in every sense of the word. Aged 11, she was the youngest girl ever to pass A-level computing, and was just 20 years old when she received her Master’s Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Oxford. Since then, she has forged an enviable CV, including positions at Goldman Sachs, Hewlett-Packard and Deutsche Bank. Then there are the Honorary Doctorates from Open University, Glasgow Caledonian University, Kent University, Bristol University & Coventry University and an Honorary Fellowship at Keble College, Oxford. It is this wealth of experience and pioneering spirit that led her to co-found the Stemettes, an award-winning social initiative dedicated to inspiring and promoting the next generation of young women in the STEM sectors. Since its inception 9 years ago, it has exposed almost 60,000 young people across Europe to Anne-Marie’s vision for a more diverse and balanced science and tech community. In 2022 she released her new book She’s in CT

5x15 is delighted to announce a new series of events in collaboration with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. From spring into summer, we will host a range of expert writers, thinkers and scientists from Kew. They will reflect on what we must do to prevent biodiversity loss and protect life on Earth, and address some of the most important questions of our time. The series kicks off in April with a panel about Foods of the Future. From the benefits of no-dig gardening and new crop techniques, to the versatility of legumes and the power of regenerative farming, this discussion will offer an exciting look at how we keep our diets diverse and sustainable in the future. Our expert panel of speakers will be in conversation with cross-bench peer and 5x15 co-founder Rosie Boycott. Dr Caspar Chater’s research seeks to improve crop resilience and adaptation to the climate crisis. Chater’s work tackles crop water use and drought responses, focusing on legumes as well as other crops. A large part of Chatter’s research has a

Blake Morrison is a poet, novelist and journalist. His non-fiction books include And When Did You Last See Your Father? (1993), which won the J. R. Ackerley Prize and the Esquire/Volvo/Waterstone's Non-Fiction Book Award, As If (1997), about the murder of the toddler James Bulger in Liverpool in 1993, and a memoir of his mother, Things My Mother Never Told Me (2002). His poetry includes the collections Dark Glasses (1984), winner of a Somerset Maugham Award, and Shingle Street (2015). He is a regular literary critic for the Guardian. His new book, Two Sisters, is a heartbreaking memoir about his late sister and half-sister, along with sibling relationships in literature and those of literary figures. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram

Julie McDowall is a freelance journalist and book critic specialising in the nuclear threat. Her writing has appeared in The Times, Economist, Spectator, Guardian, TLS, Prospect and Independent, and she is also the host of the Atomic Hobo podcast in which she reveals findings in the nuclear archives and reports on her travels to nuclear bunkers and other Cold War sites. Her book Attack Warning Red! How Britain Prepared for Nuclear War, is the first book to tell the story of day-to-day life on the nuclear home front. While today we may read about the Cold War and life in Britain under the shadow of the mushroom cloud with a sense of amusement and relief, Attack Warning Red! is also a timely and powerful reminder that, so long as nuclear weapons exist, the nuclear threat will always be with us. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter

Tania Branigan is a Guardian foreign leader writer. Having spent seven years as the Guardian’s China correspondent, she has also written for the Washington Post and The Australian. Her first book, Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China's Culture Revolution, explores how the revolution has shaped China today, and uncovers forty years of silence through the rarely heard stories of individuals who lived through Mao's decade of madness. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Jeremy Denk is one of America's foremost pianists. Winner of a MacArthur 'Genius' Fellowship and the Avery Fisher Prize, Denk is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Denk returns frequently to Carnegie Hall and has appeared with renowned ensembles including the Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. His recordings have received critical acclaim, including reaching No. 1 on the Billboard classical charts, and his writing has appeared in the New Yorker, New Republic, Guardian, and the New York Times Book Review. In Every Good Boy Does Fine, Denk passes on to his readers the lessons he has learned; honours the debt he owes to so many remarkable and different teachers; and reminds us that music is our creation, and that we need to keep asking questions about its purpose. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events

Katherine Rundell is a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. Her bestselling books for children have been translated into more than thirty languages and have won multiple awards. Rundell is also the author of a book for adults, Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise. She has written for, among others, the London Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, The New York Review of Books and The New York Times: mostly about books, though sometimes about night climbing, tightrope walking, and animals. Her book Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne, an 'unmissable' biography of the Renaissance poet, won the 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x1

Sarah Raven On A Year Full Of Veg by Stories and inspiration from 5x15

Suzanne Wrack is the Guardian and Observer’s women’s football correspondent - the first person to hold this role at a national newspaper. In A WOMAN’S GAME, she explores the history of women’s football from the Victorian era – when players wore high-heeled boots – to the present day. It is the story of a rise, fall, and rise again, from the game’s first appearance in England in the late nineteenth century, through to the height of its popularity in 1920, when crowds of 53,000 flocked to Goodison Park. Subsequently banned for 50 years in the UK, Wrack’s story ends in triumph, with England’s Lionesses’ victory at the Euros in the summer of 2022. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Thomas Halliday is an Associate Research Fellow at the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Birmingham. His PhD won the Linnean Society Medal for the best thesis in the biological sciences in the UK, and he won the Hugh Miller Writing Competition in 2018. His book OTHERLANDS, a history of life on earth, was a Sunday Times bestseller, a Foyles Book of the Year 2022, and longlisted for Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. He was raised in Rannoch in the Scottish Highlands, and now lives in London with his family. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Kirsty Sedgman is an award-winning cultural studies scholar based at the University of Bristol. She publishes and speaks on art, media, participation, and cultural sociology. She is the author of numerous academic publications, including two monographs and an edited book on theatre fandom, and is Editor of the Routledge book series in Audience Research. Kirsty has also written for The Stage, Exeunt, and the BBC’s Expert Series, and her work has been featured in the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian, and the New York Times. In ON BEING UNREASONABLE, she argues that sometimes we need to act unreasonably to bring about positive change. Looking back through history and around the world, Sedgeman set out to discover how unfairness and discrimination got baked into our social norms, dividing us along lines of gender, class, disability, sexuality, race. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes

Patrick Radden Keefe is an award-winning staff writer at the New Yorker and the author of the international bestsellers EMPIRE OF PAIN (winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction), SAY NOTHING (winner of the Orwell Prize) and, most recently, ROGUES: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks. First published in 2009, THE SNAKEHEAD is a sweeping history of the American dream, Manhattan’s Chinatown underbelly, and the mastermind behind one of the largest human-smuggling rings – a middle-aged grandmother. Described as a ‘mash-up of The Godfather and Chinatown’, it is both a kaleidoscopic crime story and a brilliant exploration of the ironies of immigration in America. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Dr Dean Burnett is a neuroscientist, blogger, sometime comedian and author. His previous books, THE IDIOT BRAIN and THE HAPPY BRAIN, were international bestsellers, while his Guardian articles have been read over sixteen million times. In EMOTIONAL IGNORANCE, he puts his own feelings under the microscope to ask where they come from, what purpose they serve, and why they make us feel the way they do. Addressing questions such as ‘Why can’t we think straight when hungry?’, ‘What’s the point of nightmares?’, and ‘Why can’t we forget embarrassing memories?’, as well as his grief at losing his dad to COVID-19, he discovers how emotions make us who we are. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Will Self is the author of many novels and books of nonfiction, including How the Dead Live, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel of the Year; The Butt, winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction; and Umbrella, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. His latest work is Why Read: Selected Writings 2001-2021. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Simon Liebesny is a freelance editor and publishing consultant. From shortly after September 11th until shortly before Covid-19, he was first mate at Pluto Press, radical publisher of authors including bell hooks, Augusto Boal, Sheila Rowbotham and Ariel Dorfman. In a previous incarnation he was an organiser, trustee and all round wrangler for International Jazz Day, in spite of having absolutely no musical talent whatsoever. He is working on amplifying the WritersMosaic guest edition on Jewish Multiculturalism into a larger project, including panel events, author interviews and further contributions from international authors and artistic creators. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

5x15 and renowned nonprofit The Moth present a night of stories, inspired by the New York Times Bestselling book, How to Tell a Story: The Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling from The Moth. Join us for an evening of true stories from two Moth speakers, storyteller interviews, and tips from some of the authors from the book, including Moth Directors Catherine Burns, Meg Bowles, and Kate Tellers. Hosted by poet, playwright, author, and Moth Storyteller Jon Goode. With thanks for your support for 5x15 Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

In January, the month of resolutions, join 5x15 to hear the acclaimed author Pico Iyer on how we might find paradise in the present. Paradise is a universal but elusive concept; a place we might spend our whole lives looking for. Moving between Iran, North Korea, the Dalai Lama’s Himalayas and the temples of Japan, Pico Iyer’s new book The Half Known Life: Finding Paradise in a Divided World reflects on ideas of utopia and ways of finding solace in these fractious times. Does religion lead us back to Eden or only into constant contention? Why do so many seeming paradises turn into warzones? And does paradise exist only in the afterworld – or can it be found in the here and now? Don’t miss the chance to hear from one of the most inspiring and perceptive travel writers of our time. Pico Iyer will be in conversation with the internationally best-selling writer and podcaster Katherine May, author of Wintering and the forthcoming Enchantment. Praise for Pico Iyer 'Nothing less than a guided tour of the human so