Academy Of Ideas

Thanks for listening to the BattleFest podcast - you can support us by subscribing, sharing and leaving us a review. Check back next week for more recordings from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021. DISINFORMATION AND CONSPIRACY: TACKLING THE CRISIS OF TRUST A new #BattleFest recording from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021: www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/disi…is-of-trust/ Why have disinformation and conspiracy theories become such mainstream preoccupations? What is a healthy distrust of officialdom, and when does it start to move away from reality? Have we become afraid of ourselves and our own ability to make judgements, and do we need a new series of official authorities to determine what’s real and what’s not? Or is the collapse in trust – and in each other – a matter for us all to take up? Listen to Alastair Donald, Dr Sean Lang, Dr Tim Black, Konstantin Kisin and William Clouston discuss. Thanks for listening to the BattleFest podcast - you can support us by subscribing, sharing and leaving us a

Thanks for listening to the BattleFest podcast - you can support us by subscribing, sharing and leaving us a review. Check back next week for more recordings from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021. GOING GREEN: ECO-DOGMA OR SALVATION? A new #BattleFest recording from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021: www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/goin…r-salvation/ In partnership with the Freiblickinstitut. How can we solve a problem like climate change? Should it be treated as an emergency that should subsume all other priorities? Do green policies even work or do they make matters worse? Is the problem that political and corporate rhetoric about taking action is just superficial ‘greenwash’, being seen to be green rather than making fundamental changes? Has the political consensus around climate change robbed voters of a chance to have our say? Listen to Dr Shahrar Ali, Sabine Beppler-Spahl, Heydon Prowse, Austin Williams and Alastair Donald discuss. Thanks for listening to the BattleFest podcast - you can support

ASSISTED DYING: HAS ITS TIME COME? A new, live, #BattleFest recording from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021: www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/assi…s-time-come/ After previous efforts failed, will this year be the year the UK grants a ‘right to die’? What are the moral issues at stake? What, politically, does a right to die mean in a society seemingly obsessed with good health? Should people be given the choice, and assistance, to end their lives, or is it a threshold which must not be crossed? Listen to Joel Cohen, David Pearce, Dr Richard Scheffer, Professor Katherine Sleeman and Dr Kevin Yuill discuss. Thanks for listening to the BattleFest podcast - you can support us by subscribing, sharing and leaving us a review.

SPORTSCAST OF IDEAS: Geoff Kidder is joined by Academy of Ideas colleagues Alastair Donald and Rob Lyons with special guests David Bowden and Austin Williams to discuss everything happening in Tokyo.

For our latest Sportscast of Ideas, Geoff Kidder is joined by Academy of Ideas colleagues Alastair Donald, Rob Lyons, Jacob Reynolds and Mo Lovatt to dissect *that* match - and the fallout from Italy's victory.

For our latest Sportscast of Ideas, Geoff Kidder is joined by Academy of Ideas colleagues Alastair Donald and Rob Lyons, with special guest Dominic Standish zooming in from Italy.          

SPORTSCAST OF IDEAS: Geoff Kidder is joined by Academy of Ideas colleagues Alastair Donald, Rob Lyons and Jacob Reynolds, with special guest and Manchester United fan, Hilary Salt.

Para Mullan and Hilary Salt introduce a discussion at the Academy of Ideas Economy Forum on what the post-pandemic office means for employers, employees and the wider economy. Apart from a brief and ill-starred campaign early last autumn to get staff back to the office, for over a year workers have been told that they should work at home if they can. Yet with Covid cases, hospitalisations and deaths now back down to the level we saw at the end of last summer, it seems workers are not exactly rushing to get back to the office. For some, there may still be the fear of commute or the fear of catching the virus whilst working in the office. For others, there may still be difficulties in getting childcare. But it is also becoming obvious that for some, the comforts of home working are much more attractive than office life. What does this say about the quality of work to date – perhaps just that it is not as great as it is made out to be and that many jobs are not ‘real’ jobs? Employers like JPMorgan Chase and G

For our latest Sportscast of Ideas, Geoff Kidder is joined by Academy of Ideas colleagues Alastair Donald and Rob Lyons, and special guest Adam Rawcliffe. They chew the fat on Scotland's departure and wonder if England will ever play exciting football. They also look at UEFA's ban on lighting up the Allianz Arena for Pride, the row over Ronaldo and Pogba moving drinks bottles and the hypocrisy of allowing 2,500 UEFA hangers-on into the UK while we all struggle to travel abroad at all.

SPORTSCAST OF IDEAS: On this second 2021 Sportscast of Ideas, Geoff Kidder, Alastair Donald and Rob Lyons from the Academy of Ideas are joined by sociologist, author and Tottenham fan Frank Furedi to discuss all that's new in the world of sports, politics and upcoming tournaments.        

On this Sportscast of Ideas, Geoff Kidder, Alastair Donald and Rob Lyons from the Academy of Ideas are joined by author and Norwich City fan George Harrison to discuss all that's new in the world of sports, politics and upcoming tournaments.

LOCKDOWN DEBATE: Given the extension of state power during lockdowns, have worldwide lockdowns revealed the need for stronger, more hard-wired human rights legislation, like the Bill of Rights in the United States? Or has the whole framework of human rights been revealed as little more than symbolic? Putting the progressive case against human rights, Gittos asks whether it is time to do away with human rights in favour of a new way of thinking about our personal and political freedoms. Join Luke Gittos and Academy of Ideas’ director Claire Fox to discuss whether it’s time to call time on human rights.

Discussion at the Academy of Ideas Economy Forum on Tuesday 4 May 2021. INTRODUCTION Love it or loathe it, the UK’s Special Relationship with the USA has been around since Churchill coined the phrase in 1946. And as the first nation to leave the European Union, the UK’s ongoing relationship with the EU is, at the very least, ‘special’ by definition. In his presentation, Jonathan Grant will offer a perspective on these two unquestionably special relationships: one with the EU that has only recently been formed, and that with the USA, particularly how that might change under the new Biden-Harris administration. SPEAKER Jonathan Grant is a London-based chartered accountant specialising in serving global clients with operations in the UK. He deals extensively with people and businesses across both the USA and the EU; away from the office, he is an independent arts critic.

BOOK CLUB: Klara and the Sun is a thrilling book that offers a look at our changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, and one that explores the fundamental question: what does it mean to love? Ella Whelan, journalist and author of What Women Want, gives the introduction.

Welcome to this special sports edition of Podcast of Ideas. Alastair Donald is joined by Academy of Ideas colleagues, Geoff Kidder and Rob Lyons, along with Hilary Salt and Simon McKeon, two regular speakers and session producers at the annual Battle of Ideas festival.   Over the past week, football has hogged the headlines on the front as well as the back pages as the plan for a new European Super League emerged and then collapsed, almost in the blink of an eye. The headlines claimed this has been the 'biggest fiasco in football history', the 'defeat of greed' and that elites sports has suffered its 'most astounding humiliation. • Why did the European Super League has suddenly emerge now?  • What were the main problems with this initiative? • Why did pushing through the ESL run up against the buffers?  • Can we read anything deeper into this, culturally or even politically? • What are the ramifications of the ESL's collapse and what about the future – for fans, football, football governance and politics?

Academy of Ideas Economy Forum discussion, 13 April 2021. Joe Biden became the 46th president of the United States on 20 January 2021. But what does Biden stand for and what will his administration aim to achieve? Most notably, his first major move was the American Rescue Plan Act, a package of stimulus, welfare and other measures that will cost $1.9 trillion. The act provides for a round of $1,400 stimulus checks for individuals making less than $75,000 a year and for married couples earning under $150,000, plus the extension of federal supplements to state unemployment benefits. There is extra provision for coronavirus measures, including vaccination programmes, improving ventilation in schools and more. There is also a boost to federal subsidies for health insurance. But what does Biden stand for beyond this? What measures will be taken to move the economy out of its long-term lethargy, particularly in the face of competition from China? SPEAKER James Matthews New York-based management consultant; com

LOCKDOWN DEBATE: Whether you’re a cyclist, driver, pedestrian or all three, the real question is: why, at a time when little political scrutiny is available in a pandemic, have councils and the government felt comfortable instituting such drastic changes? Have some underestimated the drastic effect of restricting car access on people’s lives and routines? Should we take advantage of the benefits of lower activity in cities and learn a lesson about what life could be like without cars? Are groups like Extinction Rebellion right that drastic action is necessary, even if it means making sacrifices? Or is this another example of green activism side-stepping democracy by putting the planet before people? Who should decide what happens in our neighbourhoods – in short, who owns our streets Rita Krishna, Daniel Moylan, Rebekah Kelly, Emma Richman, Niall Crowley and Ella Whelan discuss.

SCOTLAND SALON: What do the revelations of the past few weeks mean for the independence campaign and for the devolved Scottish Government? Have we seen nothing more than political opportunism on behalf of opposition MSPs, or have the hopes for IndyRef2 been dashed? Is faith in Scottish independence inextricably linked to faith in the SNP? And, more broadly, is there something rotten in the democratic settlement for the people of Scotland? What next for Scottish independence? Jim Sillars, Iain Macwhirter, Alastair Donald and Michelle Ballantyne MSP discuss.

BOOK LAUNCH In his latest book, Free Speech and Why It Matters, Writer and comedian Andrew Doyle looks at the most common concerns of free-speech sceptics and offers a robust defence of this most foundational of principles. Andrew spoke to Academy of Ideas associate director Alastair Donald for this book launch of Free Speech and Why It Matters.

ARTS & SOCIETY FORUM: The Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier (1887 –1965) is strongly associated with post-war mass housing projects; his name is often used as shorthand for their failings. He was arguably the most talented architect of the twentieth century and but he is popularly known for his association with the technocrat aspects of modern planning. Architecture lecturer, Penny Lewis 'visits' two of Le Corbusier’s most influential buildings the Villa Roche in Paris (1923) and the Unité d’habitation in Marseille (1952) to compare his innovative pre-war and expressive post-war work.