Polarised

In this lively interview series from the RSA, Matthew Taylor, puts a range of practitioners on the spot - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - by asking for big ideas to help build effective bridges to our new future. In the last century of British mass democracy politics has lurched from crisis to crisis. So what can we learn by looking at  periods of turmoil and misery instead of focusing on moments of consensus and harmony? Documentary-maker and writer Phil Tinline joins Matthew to explain how past political panic and chaos can help illuminate our current age of upheaval. Phil Tinline works for BBC Radio; he has made and presented documentaries about how political history shapes our lives. Formerly executive producer of Radio 4’s investigative history series, Document, he has written for The Guardian, The Independent on Sunday, The Daily Telegraph, BBC History Magazine and the New Statesman. His new book is, 'The Death of Consensus: 100 Years of British Political Nightmares'. A T

In this lively interview series from the RSA, Matthew Taylor, puts a range of practitioners on the spot - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - by asking for big ideas to help build effective bridges to our new future. Journalist Marie Le Conte was born in 1991, the same year the World Wide Web was invented. She claims her generation were the first who properly grew up online, riding the waves of those chaotic and experimental early years of the internet. But when the pandemic hit and we were all forced to log on, she realised that the internet of her youth was gone. She joins Matthew to explain why the death of that early DIY spirit,  replaced by a corporate experience driven by the algorithm, is to the detriment of us all. Marie Le Conte is a French-Moroccan political journalist based in London. She has worked for the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mirror, Evening Standard. Her latest book is, 'Escape: How a generation shaped, destroyed and survived the internet'. A Tempo & Talker prod

In this lively interview series from the RSA, Matthew Taylor, puts a range of practitioners on the spot - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - by asking for big ideas to help build effective bridges to our new future. Just how does a book go from a germ of an idea in one person's head to top of the best-sellers list? How important are the army of proofreaders, indexers, copy editors and publicists in helping an author pen a succesful novel? In this episode of Bridges to the Future, Matthew meets with Rebecca Lee, editorial manager at Penguin, to get the inside track on what it takes to achieve publishing glory.    Rebecca Lee is an editorial manager at Penguin Random House. She's spent twenty years managing hundreds of high-profile books from delivery of manuscript to finished copies, signing off millions of words as fit to go to print with only the occasional regret. Her latest book is, 'How Words Get Good: The Story of Making a Book'. A Tempo & Talker production for the RSA. I

In this lively interview series from the RSA, Matthew Taylor, puts a range of practitioners on the spot - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - by asking for big ideas to help build effective bridges to our new future. Oded Galor is Herbert H. Goldberger Professor of Economics at Brown University and the founding thinker behind Unified Growth Theory, which seeks to uncover the fundamental causes of development, prosperity and inequality over the entire span of human history. He has shared the insights of his lifetime’s work in this field at some of the most prestigious lectures around the globe and has now distilled those discoveries into The Journey of Humanity. A Tempo & Talker production for the RSA. In this time of global change, strong communities and initiatives that bring people together are more invaluable than ever before. The RSA Fellowship is a global network of problem solvers. We invite you to join our community today to stay connected, inspired and motivated in the

In this lively interview series from the RSA, Matthew Taylor, puts a range of practitioners on the spot - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - by asking for big ideas to help build effective bridges to our new future. Anna Jones is a journalist, broadcaster, and Nuffield Farming Scholar. She can be heard on BBC Radio 4's Farming Today, On Your Farm and Costing the Earth. Anna worked on BBC One's Countryfile for more than a decade. Growing up on the Welsh Borders, from at least five generations of farmers on her father's side and a long line of butchers and farm labourers on her mother's, Anna's heritage is deeply rooted in working class, conservative, rural values.  Her latest book is, ‘Divide – The Relationship Crisis Between Town and Country’. A Tempo & Talker production for the RSA. In this time of global change, strong communities and initiatives that bring people together are more invaluable than ever before. The RSA Fellowship is a global network of problem solvers. We inv

In this lively interview series from the RSA, Matthew Taylor, puts a range of practitioners on the spot - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - by asking for big ideas to help build effective bridges to our new future. Geoff Mulgan is Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation at University College London. Formerly he was chief executive of Nesta, and held government roles (1997–2004), including as the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit director and as Downing Street’s head of policy. He is the founder or co-founder of many organisations, from Demos to Action for Happiness, and the author of many books.  HIs latest book is Another World Is Possible: How to Reignite Social and Political Imagination. A Tempo & Talker production for the RSA. In this time of global change, strong communities and initiatives that bring people together are more invaluable than ever before. The RSA Fellowship is a global network of problem solvers. We invite you to join our co

In this lively interview series from the RSA, Matthew Taylor, puts a range of practitioners on the spot - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - by asking for big ideas to help build effective bridges to our new future. The good old days? They never existed. That's  according to the historian, Hannah Rose Woods, in her new book, 'Rule, Nostalgia: A Backwards History of Britain'. From Brexiteers yearning for a lost imperial past to sixteenth-century observers looking back wistfully to a 'Merry England' before the upheavals of the Reformation, Hannah joins Matthew to explain why each age is oddly nostalgic for the previous one. Hannah Rose Woods is a writer and cultural historian. She has a PhD from the University of Cambridge, where she taught modern British history, and in 2016 captained her college's team to victory on the BBC quiz show, University Challenge. She has written on history, politics and culture for the New Statesman, the Guardian, History Today, Art UK and Elle magazine.

In this lively interview series from the RSA, Matthew Taylor, puts a range of practitioners on the spot - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - by asking for big ideas to help build effective bridges to our new future. Have the last 15 years seen the most sustained decline in political freedom around the world since the 1930s? Chief Foreign Affairs columnist for the Financial Times, Gideon Rachman, believes so. And he points the finger of blame squarely at the rise of the modern 'strongman'. From Putin to Jinping, Orban to Bolsonaro,  liberal democracy, Rachman argues, is at risk of being eroded by the ego-driven antics of this new crop of leaders. But could Putin's war in Ukraine bring about the end of the era of the strongman?Gideon Rachman is the Chief Foreign Affairs columnist for the Financial Times. In 2016 he won the Orwell Prize for Journalism and was named Commentator of the Year at the European Press Prize awards. Previously he worked for The Economist for fifteen years, an

In this lively interview series from the RSA, Matthew Taylor, puts a range of practitioners on the spot - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - by asking for big ideas to help build effective bridges to our new future. Ukrainian national and Harvard historian, Serhii Plokhy, believes we are sleepwalking into another nuclear catastrophe. Drawing on past accidents, including Chernobyl in 1986, Three Mile Island in 1979 and Fukushima in 2011, he makes the case to Matthew that nuclear can never be the solution to global energy demand.Serhii Plokhy is Professor of History at Harvard University and a leading authority on the Cold War and nuclear history. His books include the Baillie Gifford award-winner Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy, Nuclear Folly, The Gates of Europe and The Last Empire. His latest book is Atoms and Ashes From Bikini Atoll to Fukushima.A Tempo & Talker production for the RSA. In this time of global change, strong communities and initiatives that bring people togeth

In this lively interview series from the RSA, Matthew Taylor, puts a range of practitioners on the spot - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - by asking for big ideas to help build effective bridges to our new future. Is Britain really the butler to the world's kleptocrats, criminals and tax dodgers? Is this country, famed for its supposed sense of fair play, really one of the few to do more to frustrate global anti-corruption efforts? Journalist Oliver Bullough believes so. He joins Matthew to discuss the UK's addiction to dirty money, and what should be done about it. Christine Emba is a columnist for The Washington Post writing about ideas and society. Her previous posts include the Hilton Kramer Fellow in Criticism at the New Criterion and as a deputy editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit. Her latest book is Rethinking Sex: A Provocation. A Tempo & Talker production for the RSA. In this time of global change, strong communities and initiatives that bring people together

In this lively interview series from the RSA, Matthew Taylor, puts a range of practitioners on the spot - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - by asking for big ideas to help build effective bridges to our new future. Is Britain really the butler to the world's kleptocrats, criminals and tax dodgers? Is this country, famed for its supposed sense of fair play, really one of the few to do more to frustrate global anti-corruption efforts? Journalist Oliver Bullough believes so. He joins Matthew to discuss the UK's addiction to dirty money, and what should be done about it. Oliver Bullough is the author of the financial expose Moneyland, and two celebrated books about the former Soviet Union: The Last Man in Russia and Let Our Fame Be Great. His journalism appears regularly in the Guardian, The New York Times and GQ. His latest book is Butler to the World: The book the oligarchs don’t want you to read - how Britain became the servant of tycoons, tax dodgers, kleptocrats and criminals. A

In this lively interview series from the RSA, Matthew Taylor, puts a range of practitioners on the spot - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - by asking for big ideas to help build effective bridges to our new future. In our age of the internet and social media, the pandemic has revealed the importance of accurate science reporting. Fiona Fox, chief executive of the Science Media Centre, is an expert in science communication. She takes Matthew behind the scenes of some of the most contentious stories over the past two decades to chart the complex interplay between scientists and journalists - and warns of the damage to public understanding when scientists are silenced. Fiona Fox  became the founding director of the Science Media Centre, Britain’s independent press office for science, in 2001.  In 2014, she was awarded an OBE for her services to science. She holds honorary fellowships at the Academy of Medical Sciences, Royal Society of Biology and the British Pharmacological Society

In this lively interview series from the RSA, Matthew Taylor, puts a range of practitioners on the spot - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - by asking for big ideas to help build effective bridges to our new future. Noga Arikha has long been fascinated with mental illness and the way we understand identity. Researching her new book, the philosopher and historian spent 18 months at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris studying what happens when the mind goes wrong – and how our physical experiences inform our identities. Noga Arikha is a philosopher and historian of ideas. She works as a science humanist, fostering dialogues between neuroscientists, psychologists, clinicians, social scientists, humanists and artists in order to bring to a general audience accessible accounts that analyse the origins of our deepest concerns about our embodied, feeling and thinking selves. Her latest book, The Ceiling Outside: The Science and Experience of the Disrupted Mind, is an exploration of

In this lively interview series from the RSA, Matthew Taylor, puts a range of practitioners on the spot - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - by asking for big ideas to help build effective bridges to our new future.It seems obvious that pleasure leads to happiness. So why are we attracted to gruelling challenges that at times can truly hurt, from writing a novel to running a marathon or even raising a family? Drawing on findings from psychology and brain science, psychologist Paul Bloom argues that meaning and sacrifice can unlock the key to lasting happiness.Paul Bloom is Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, and Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Yale University. Paul studies how children and adults make sense of the world, with special focus on pleasure, morality, religion, fiction, and art. He has written for scientific journals such as Nature and Science, and for popular outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker

In this special 6 part series, Justin Russell meets with inspirational leaders from the UK public sector to find out how you thrive and survive at the top. The final guest in the series is Professor David Pendleton, one of the world’s leading experts on the subject. His 'Primary Colours' model of leadership, has been highly influential in government in the UK and beyond. David Pendleton is a Professor in Leadership at Henley Business School and an Associate Fellow at the Said Business School at Oxford. He has worked as an adviser on leadership development for a wide range of private and public sector organisations around the world.  A founder of the Edgecumbe Consulting Group in 1995, the latest edition of his book ‘Leadership: No More Heroes’ was published last year.The pandemic has brought home to all of us the importance of the public services we sometimes take for granted. Not just the NHS but schools, local councils, the police and the prison service have all faced huge challenges keeping the show on the

In this lively interview series from the RSA, Matthew Taylor, puts a range of practitioners on the spot - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - by asking for big ideas to help build effective bridges to our new future.With Russia facing crippling sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine and with many businesses, from McDonald's to Apple, pulling out of the country, does this mark the dawn of a new era for the relationship between big business and geopolitics? Can business ever be 'apolitical'? And as more of us express our political identity through the goods we purchase, has this given rise to 'political consumerism'? To discuss all this, Matthew is joined by Joe Zammit-Lucia, author of The New Political Capitalism.Joe Zammit-Lucia is a founder of RADIX – a not-for-profit public policy think tank based in London, and the RADIX Centre for Business, Politics & Society based in Amsterdam. His latest book is The New Political Capitalism: How Businesses and Societies Can Thrive in a Dee

Special series: Lessons in LeadershipIn this special 6 part series, Justin Russell meets with inspirational leaders from the UK public sector to find out how you thrive and survive at the top. In this fifth episode, Justin meets Jo Dibb, the headteacher whose school inspired Michelle Obama. In 2009, just two months after she had become first lady, Michelle Obama paid a visit to Elizabeth Garrett Anderson school – a girls comprehensive in North London. It was to have a profound effect on her. Writing about the visit nearly 10 years later, she reflected on the way the girls she met there had touched her heart and about the sense of purpose that visit had given her – to devote herself to girls education and life chances. “The energy I felt thrumming in that school” she said “had nothing to do with obstacles. It was the power of nine hundred girls striving”.Jo Dibb is the head teacher who greeted Michelle Obama that day and whose leadership inspired those nine hundred girls.  A head teacher for twenty years and u

In this lively interview series from the RSA, Matthew Taylor, puts a range of practitioners on the spot - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - by asking for big ideas to help build effective bridges to our new future.Matthew is joined by the author of 'Sweat: a History of Exercise', Bill Hayes. Together Matthew and Bill take a jog through history to find out more about our ancestors' attitude to keeping fit, and what we can learn from them next time we lace up a pair of trainers and hit the gym. Bill Hayes is an American non-fiction writer and photographer. He's the author of several books including his latest, 'Sweat: A History of Exercise'. A Tempo & Talker production for the RSA.  In this time of global change, strong communities and initiatives that bring people together are more invaluable than ever before. The RSA Fellowship is a global network of problem solvers. We invite you to join our community today to stay connected, inspired and motivated in the months ahead. You c

Special series: Lessons in LeadershipIn this special 6 part series, Justin Russell meets with inspirational leaders from the UK public sector to find out how you thrive and survive at the top. In this fourth episode, Justin meets Dame Clare Moriarty, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice – one of the UK’s biggest voluntary organisations with almost 30,000 staff and volunteers providing essential advice and help to 3 million people a year.  The pandemic has brought home to all of us the importance of the public services we sometimes take for granted. Not just the NHS but schools, local councils, the police and the prison service have all faced huge challenges keeping the show on the road. Clear leadership has been crucial to this task. Now more than ever our public services need great head teachers, chief constables, great prison governors and hospital directors. But what makes for great leadership in the public sector? How do you make sure organisations are delivering for the public and not squandering hard earn

In this lively interview series from the RSA, Matthew Taylor, puts a range of practitioners on the spot - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - by asking for big ideas to help build effective bridges to our new future.Our emotions drive much of our behaviour. But do we have the same emotions as people who lived three hundred years ago or who live three hundred miles away? And how exactly do we define what an emotion is? To find out, Matthew is joined by Richard Firth-Godbehere, author of 'A Human History of Emotion'. Richard Firth-Godbehere is Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for the History of the Emotions at Queen Mary University of London. His latest book is 'A Human History of Emotion: How the Way We Feel Built the World We Know'. A Tempo & Talker production for the RSA.  In this time of global change, strong communities and initiatives that bring people together are more invaluable than ever before. The RSA Fellowship is a global network of problem solvers. We invite y