Rsa Events

Bestselling author Johann Hari explains why everything we’ve been told about depression and anxiety is wrong, and how we must drastically change our way of living if we are to thrive. Hailed by Elton John, Emma Thompson, Russell Brand, Arianna Huffington, Alistair Campbell, Davina McCall and many more, Hari uses his social science training to investigate the causes of depression and anxiety – and discovers the cutting edge science that reveals the lack of evidence for the spontaneous chemical imbalance in our brains theory. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 18th January 2018. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2018/1/uncovering-the-real-causes-of-depression

In an era of unprecedented change and polarizing politics, clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson offers a message of individual responsibility and ancient wisdom as an antidote to chaos. His advice ranges from putting your own house in order before criticising others, to comparing yourself to who you were yesterday, rather than someone else today. Happiness is a futile goal, he says. Instead, we must search for meaning, not for its own sake, but as a defence against the suffering that is intrinsic to existence. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Tuesday 16th January 2018. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2018/1/twelve-rules-for-life

Geoff Mulgan, CEO of Nesta, explores how thinking collectively – whether in groups, or with the help of machines – is the answer to solving our biggest challenges. Figuring out the most effective ways to design and foster collective intelligence could be seen as our biggest current challenge, since there is little prospect of solving our other grand challenges of climate, health, prosperity, or war, without progress in how we think and act together. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 11th January 2018. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2018/1/how-collective-intelligence-can-change-the-world

An expert panel gathers to look back on a year of seismic events and world-changing headlines. Featuring Ian Leslie, commentator and author of Born Liars and Curiosity: Why Our Future Depends on it. 2017 has had its fair share of news – Donald Trump’s inauguration; a snap election and subsequent coalition in the UK; the triggering of Article 50 and ongoing Brexit negotiations; the horrific Westminster, London Bridge and Manchester arena terror attacks; the Grenfell Tower tragedy; the cultural shift engendered by the Weinstein and Westminster scandals, and subsequent #metoo campaigns; Mugabe’s resignation…and countless other significant political and cultural events. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 14th December 2017. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/12/2017-that-was-the-year-that-was

Author and FT contributor Stefan Stern debunks some of the famous myths surrounding management and leadership. Using insights from psychology, leadership theory and organizational behaviour, he will provide a compelling and practical guide to avoid falling into the trap of management cliché, misinformation and prejudice. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 7th December 2017. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/12/what-people-get-wrong-about-being-the-boss

65 million people are caught up in the global refugee crisis. CEO of the IRC David Miliband shows why we should care, and what we can do to make a difference. Taking us from war zones in the Middle East to the heart of Europe, he explores the current crisis and shows what can be done, not just by governments with the power to change policy but by citizens with the urge to change lives. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Wednesday 6th December 2017. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/12/refugees-and-the-political-crisis-of-our-times

Tristram Carfrae, incoming Master of the RDI Faculty will speak about the value of the human aspects of design in an automated world. Carfrae considers the positive value of design and its impact on all our lives. From creating a process, service or plan that improves efficiency to transforming the world around us through a better built environment. He argues that the importance of creative design and innovation and its inherent human instinct, hunch and emotion will be more valuable in the future as automation and artificial intelligence proliferates. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 30th November 2017. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/11/rdi-address-2017-addicted-to-design

Bestselling author and podcaster Gretchen Rubin identifies four main personality types, and shows how using this framework will change everyone’s lives for the better. During her lifelong investigation into human nature, explored most recently in her bestselling book Better Than Before, Rubin realised that by asking the seemingly dry question 'How do I respond to expectations?' we gain life changing self-knowledge. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 30th November 2017. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/11/the-four-tendencies

What has led to the rise of the ‘intangible economy’? And what impact is it having on levels of inequality and productivity? Economic analysts Stian Westlake and Jonathan Haskel investigate. For all sorts of businesses, from tech firms and pharma companies to coffee shops and gyms, the ability to deploy assets that one can neither see nor touch is increasingly the main source of long-term success. What does the future of an intangible world look like, and how can managers, investors, and policymakers exploit the characteristics of an intangible age to grow our companies and economies? This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 23rd November 2017. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/11/capitalism-without-capital

Eden Project chief executive Gordon Seabright joins an expert panel to share insights into the characteristics, challenges and rewards of leading a community enterprise. Do we still need visionary ‘hero’ leaders – rugged individualist entrepreneurs that can inspire people and struggle through adversity to pursue their dream? Or is leadership a more collective quality to be shared and nurtured among groups bound together by a strong mission? This event was recorded live at The RSA on Tuesday 21st November 2017. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/11/lessons-in-leadership-from-social-business

Julian Astle, Daisy Christodoulou, Peter Hyman and David Laws consider how to reform education so that it prepares young people not just to write a good exam, but to live a good life. Schools need to be accountable to taxpayers and parents to ensure money is well spent and children well taught. But with the accountability system dominating so much of what England’s state funded schools now do, are we in danger of becoming so pre-occupied by inspection judgements and performance targets that we lose sight of education’s real purposes? And with our obsession with performance data creating strong incentives for schools to game the system and teach to the test, are we in danger of narrowing and hollowing out the education our young people receive? This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 16th November 2017. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/11/beyond-education-by-numbers

Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder and Head of Applied AI at DeepMind, considers what tech companies have got wrong, how to fix it, and how to ensure they contribute to greater economic and social justice. It’s no secret that technology companies are changing the world. But as technology plays a larger role in key social institutions we value and revere—from healthcare to electoral politics—guaranteeing a positive impact on society has become far more complex than many in the sector ever imagined. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Tuesday 14th November 2017. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/11/rsa-presidents-lecture-the-technologists-dilemma

Professor David Harvey, the world’s leading expert on Marx, visits the RSA to outline the much-debated economist’s continuing relevance in 21st century economics and society. Marx’s ‘Capital’ is one of the most important texts of the modern era – it changed the destiny of countries, politics and people across the world – and continues to resonate today. But what are its key arguments, and how do they apply in a 21st century context? This event was recorded live at The RSA on Friday 10th November 2017. Discover more about this event here: www.thersa.org/events/2017/11/ma…-the-21st-century

On the 75th anniversary of Beveridge’s transformative ‘five giants’ report, a panel of experts gather to review how far we’ve come, and have still to go. The ‘five giant evils’ of society were identified as Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor, and Idleness, and the modern-day NHS, national pension scheme, compulsory education, social housing and wide-ranging benefits were established in response to its recommendations. Whilst these so-called social securities transformed the lives of millions, public spending cutbacks mean many are still struggling to meet their basic needs. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 9th November 2017. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/11/The-State-of-Welfare

Award-winning author and public intellectual, Elif Shafak discusses populism, liberal values, and the provisional nature of democracy in the West. Drawing on her observations of the rise of populism and duality (a “them” and “us” mentality) in her native Turkey, Elif offers cautionary advice about the provisional nature of democracy in the west and the rise of populism – and how close we are to slipping back at any point – and asks the question; do writers and other cultural commentators have a responsibility to speak up? This event was recorded live at The RSA on Wednesday 8th November 2017. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/11/elif-shafak

This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 2nd November 2017 For well over a hundred years, social and cultural anthropologists have travelled the world, uncovering patterns and variations in how humans organize their lives and articulate their values. By weaving together theories and fieldwork examples from Beijing to the City of London, anthropologist Matthew Engelke shows why the study of anthropology still matters in today’s globalized world: not only because it allows us to understand other points of view, but also because in the process, it reveals something about ourselves too. Learning to think like an anthropologist opens up fresh insights into current social and political debates, from big tech to Brexit. Anthropology, argues Engelke, should be as central to our understanding of the world as Economics and Psychology have become; we are unable to understand identity, cultural values and power without it. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/11/how-to-think-

This event was recorded live at The RSA on Wednesday 1st November 2017 As the UK government makes preparations to leave the European Union, this independent Commission, funded by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, is a unique and important opportunity to engage the voices of citizens, communities, businesses, academics and advocates in shaping the direction of food, farming and countryside policies. Against a backdrop of change and uncertainty, this Commission is intended to help secure the future of safe, sustainable UK food & farming systems and to protect national environmental assets, of vital economic, social and cultural importance, for now and future generations. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/11/food-farming--countryside-launch-event2

This event was recorded live at The RSA on Tuesday 31st October 2017 It’s now conventional wisdom to focus on the excesses of the ultra-rich top 1% who are hoarding income and wealth while incomes for the rest are stagnant. But the more important, and widening, gap in American society, argues Richard Reeves, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, is between the upper middle class and everyone else. Reeves defines the upper middle class as those whose incomes are in the top 20 percent of American society. Income isn’t the only way to measure a society, but in a market economy it is crucial because access to money generally determines who gets the best quality education, housing and health care. As Reeves shows, the growing separation between the upper middle class and everyone else can be seen in family structure, neighbourhoods, attitudes, and lifestyle. Those at the top of the income ladder are becoming more effective at passing on their status to their children, reducing overall social mobility. The re

This event was recorded live at The RSA on Monday 30th October 2017 What fundamental values do human beings hold in common? As globalisation draws us together economically, are our values converging or diverging? Is the principle of human rights becoming a global ethic, or a vanishing preoccupation of the elite? These were some of the questions that led former leader of the Canadian Liberal Party, Michael Ignatieff, to embark on a three-year, eight-nation journey in search of answers. A renowned academic and public thinker, Ignatieff discovered that while human rights may be the language of states and liberal elites, the moral language that counts with most people are the ordinary virtues: tolerance, forgiveness, trust and resilience. These virtues are the moral operating system of global cities and favelas alike, the glue that makes the multicultural experiment work. When order breaks down and conflicts break out, the ordinary virtues do the work of repair and reconciliation. Discover more about this event

This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 26th October 2017 Rising star and extremism expert Julia Ebner argues that far right and Islamist extremist narratives – ‘The West is at war with Islam’ and ‘Muslims are at war with the West’ - complement each other perfectly, making the two extremes rhetorical allies and building a spiralling torrent of hatred – what she calls ‘The Rage’. By looking at extremist movements both online and offline, Ebner shows how far right and Islamist extremists have succeeded in penetrating each other’s echo chambers as a result of their mutually useful messages. She visits the RSA to introduce us to the world of reciprocal radicalisation and the hotbeds of extremism that have developed – with potentially disastrous consequences - in the UK, Europe and the US. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/10/the-extremism-paradox