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But, despite affording billions greater material wealth, health and freedom, the age of plenty has not delivered the utopia it initially seemed to promise.  Brad DeLong, one of the world’s leading economists, argues that instead of ushering in an era of prosperity, wellbeing and unlocked human potential, the gains of what he terms the ‘long twentieth century’ have not only been equivocal and double-edged, but also unfairly distributed.   DeLong’s magnum opus, Slouching Towards Utopia was an instant NYT bestseller, and has been universally lauded as the must-read account of 20th century economics.  Join us as we explore why true economic and human progress is a complicated game of snakes and ladders, and what we need to do to create a better world.#RSAutopia Become an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/udI9xDonate to The RSA: https://utm.guru/udNNBFollow RSA Events on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rsa_events/Follow the RSA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSAEventsLike RSA Events on Facebook: https://www.f

Across the 19th and 20th centuries, the Huxley family reshaped how we think about humanity and our relationship with the natural world. Within a family of scientists, educators, novelists, mystics, and filmmakers, two men led the way: ‘Darwin’s Bulldog’, the zoologist T.H. Huxley and his grandson and intellectual inheritor, the ecologist and conservationist, Julian Huxley.From religion to genetics, to human psychology, the Huxleys’ impact was felt across some of the most controversial and significant topics of their day. In studies of the natural world, they contributed to the foundation of the new sciences of ecology and animal conservation.Adept at writing about themselves in painfully revealing, honest and unprecedented ways, the family’s lives, marriages, successes and failures were also subject to their fascination with emotional, sexual, and psychological experience.At the RSA, leading historian of science Alison Bashford is joined by historian Thomas Dixon and writer Stuart Jeffries to discuss the impa

Estimates suggest that the planet’s average temperature could rise by up to four degrees Celsius. From heatwaves and hurricanes to flooding and droughts, the extreme weather this would bring could render certain parts of our planet unliveable. Changes on this scale may leave many people with no other option but to migrate to more liveable parts of the planet. Those who do migrate may have to navigate national borders and a public image that paints migration as a problem that needs to be solved. If mass migration is to be an inevitable part of our future, how can we more proactively approach the scale of the challenge and view it as a key solution to climate-related threats? How can we ensure people driven to migration have agency over their experience and ensure that we build a future that does not exaggerate existing social inequalities?Here, Gaia Vince will set out her manifesto for this era of planetary change. After outlining likely futures for our planet and the changes this will require from countries,

There’s no scientific impediment - even with present knowledge - to achieving a sustainable world in this century. We live under the shadow of new hazards - but these can be minimized by reprioritizing the thrust of the world’s technological effort - and optimizing the educational system and the institutions where research is done.   Astronomer Royal Martin Rees has spent a lifetime exploring science’s most profound questions, and advocating for its place in our common culture, at the heart of our democracy and decision-making.At the RSA, he insists that we can be technological optimists, despite the pessimism engendered by intractable politics and sociology.  Environmental degradation, unchecked climate change, and unintended consequences of advanced technology could trigger serious, even catastrophic, setbacks to our society, he warns – and our world is so interconnected that a collapse - societal or ecological - would be a truly global catastrophe. So it’s ever more crucial to ensure that science is deploy

Society tells us that to be successful we must be tough, stubborn, and resilient. We can all achieve success if we just work hard enough. Across all corners of society, from sport to science and beyond, there are many examples of people who have overcome great hardship to achieve next-level success. However, this view focuses on individual achievement and can easily ignore many of the external factors that can undermine our confidence, take away our agency and stack the odds against us. When we look closely at the context around achievement and resilience, the road to extraordinary success is far more complex than it first appears.Join Bruce Daisley as he explores how success is achievable today and re-examines what it means to be resilient. In conversation with the RSA’s Andrea Siodmok, Bruce will put forward an empowering new programme for building self-confidence and tenacity that can benefit us all, not just the elite few. #RSASuccessBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueembDonate to The RSA: h

The ways we work have seen huge changes in recent years. Technology has reformed entire sectors, remote working has become commonplace and age demographics have shifted as more people retire early or rethink their chosen careers. Such huge change means that the ways we measure good work are now outdated, with familiar notions of productivity criticised as being unfair to women and having more relevance to the industrial economy than to the knowledge economy. There is much to reflect on and much we need to understand about this new world of work. Over the past 12 months, the RSA’s Good Work Guild has brought together a global community of practitioners to share experiences, expertise and ideas and explore some of the most pressing issues related to the future of work, economic security, and labour market transformation. This event brings together three experts on what makes good and meaningful work. Join Laetitia Vitaud and Hilary Cottam in conversation with, Sharmi Surianarain as they reflect on their researc

The design industry’s relationship to the field of business has long been established and continues to become further entangled each year. But designers aren’t just satisfied with only disrupting the business sector—they’re keen to disrupt the social sector too. Unfortunately, the weaknesses baked into the discipline of design (that have been present from the start) are readily exposed when designers enter complex social issues and treat them like any other human-centred innovation challenge. The lack of a moral framework, let alone a set of ethical guidelines, put designers at great risk of doing more harm than good. What needs to change to protect communities and participants?Join designer George Aye for this special digital event in partnership with the London Design Festival to explore what happens when design and ethics collide, and how design practitioners can become better prepared to recognise and navigate situations of complexity, compromise and ethical risk.www.thersa.org/fellowship/festival/design-

Andrew Mawson and Sam Everington first pioneered social prescribing at the Bromley by Bow Centre in East London by offering services that go beyond what people typically receive at GP surgeries. Their approach recognises how patients often have more than one need and makes it easier for individuals to access different levels of practical and emotional support in their local area. RSA Chief Executive Andy Haldane will present Sam Everington and Andrew Mawson with the 2022 RSA Albert Medal for their pioneering work in integrated healthcare, and in their award address they will describe their ongoing efforts to put social prescribing at the heart of building healthier communities.The RSA Albert Medal is awarded annually to recognise the creativity and innovation of individuals and organisations working to resolve the challenges of our times. The Medal was instituted in 1864 as a memorial to Prince Albert, former President of the Society.The RSA has been at the forefront of significant social impact for over 260

In his lecture to the RSA, Professor Sir Michael Marmot will explain that in developing strategies for tackling health inequalities we need to confront the social gradient in health, not just the difference between the worst off and everybody else. There is clear evidence when we look across countries that national policies make a difference and that much can be done in cities, towns and local areas. But policies and interventions must not be confined to the health care system; they need to address the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. The evidence shows that economic circumstances are important but are not the only drivers of health inequalities. Tackling the health gap will take action, based on sound evidence, across the whole of society.#RSAhealthBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueembDonate to The RSA: https://utm.guru/udNNBFollow RSA Events on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rsa_events/Follow the RSA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSAEventsLike RSA Events on F

Emotions shape the way we interact with the world and how we are perceived by others. Yet the ways that we interpret those emotions and act on them has been heavily gendered. Hidden patterns of bias sit beneath the language we use and reach across our lives and society, from politics and the media to the workplace and our personal relationships.But how did this come to be? What factors have influenced the gendered stereotypes, double standards, and assumptions that influence the reading of our emotions? What, if any, grounding does this have in our biology? How is the gendering of emotions influenced by racial stereotypes and other forms of social inequalities?Join Pragya Agarwal, behaviour and data scientist, to explore fundamental questions around how we gender emotions, the impact this has on our lives and how unshackling ourselves from these stereotypes can benefit us all.#RSAEmotionsBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueembDonate to The RSA: https://utm.guru/udNNBFollow RSA Events on Instagram

Feminism has reached the mainstream: but it’s often commodified, exclusionary, or sidetracked from the goal of liberation. Feminist writer and organiser Lola Olufemi explores how feminism can be reclaimed as an emancipatory tool for fighting state violence, reproductive injustice, transmisogyny, gendered racism, and much more – and achieve justice for everybody. We can start by imagining that a better world is possible… then building power to get there.#RSAWildernessBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueembDonate to The RSA: https://utm.guru/udNNBFollow RSA Events on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rsa_events/Follow the RSA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSAEventsLike RSA Events on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rsaeventsoff...

Professor David Wengrow is an archaeologist and professor at University College London, and in 2021 was ranked #10 on ArtReview’s Power 100 list of the most influential people in art. His work challenges long-held views about the origins and development of human society and tells new stories of how we came to be, drawing on groundbreaking archaeological and anthropological evidence. He shares on the Wilderness stage the dazzling thinking in his latest book, ‘The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity’, co-authored with the late, great David Graeber.#RSAWildernessBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueembDonate to The RSA: https://utm.guru/udNNBFollow RSA Events on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rsa_events/Follow the RSA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSAEventsLike RSA Events on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rsaeventsoff...

Being misty-eyed about the past is nothing new; but what does romanticising our history mean for our present? Historian and star of University Challenge Hannah Rose Woods investigates why nostalgia has been such an enduring state in Britain over hundreds of years, revealing the vast influence that its backwards glance has had on British society, politics, and identity. Debunking pervasive myths about our past, she shines a light on how our nostalgic country’s history has been written, re-written, and (rightly or wrongly) remembered.#RSAWildernessBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueembDonate to The RSA: https://utm.guru/udNNBFollow RSA Events on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rsa_events/Follow the RSA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSAEventsLike RSA Events on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rsaeventsoff...

For almost three centuries the RSA has played an important role in many of our major social reforms and innovations. It helped construct the public education system, encouraged the planting of more than sixty million trees, sought technological alternatives to child labour, and even once purchased and restored an entire village. And did plenty more in-between.Drawing on exclusive access to a wealth of rare papers and artefacts from the RSA Archives, historian Anton Howes shows how this vibrant and singularly ambitious organisation, whose members have been drawn from all walks of life and from across the political spectrum (and include the founding fathers of liberalism, conservatism and communism, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke and Karl Marx) has evolved and adapted according to the spirit of the age.From its first meeting in 1754 in a Covent Garden coffeehouse, to today’s global community of 30,000 Fellows, join us to trace the RSA’s rich, and often surprising history of public-spirited improvement.#RSAchangeBecom

We are increasingly reaching for cards, apps and even cryptocurrencies to make payments and manage our money. Though cash is still widely used, the narrative around it suggests it is outdated and presents cash dependency as a problem we need to solve. The shift to digital, ‘cloudmoney’ is presented as inevitable and defended by claims of consumer convenience.Developments in the global payments arena are fuelling this change. Big banks, FinTech apps and Big Tech are forming new alliances and launching joint products, attracted by the great volumes of personal data that can be gathered from digital payments.If a cashless society really is inevitable, how can we ensure this future is fair, inclusive, and not a threat to data privacy?Join campaigner and monetary anthropologist, Brett Scott, as he explores the forces shaping the war for our wallets, who stands to gain from a cashless society, who gets left behind and what role cryptocurrencies might play in our future finances.If you're interested in the benefits

The West Midlands and Greater Manchester are leading the way on devolution with more control over transport, planning, housing, policing and skills. The combined authorities were both singled out in the Levelling Up White Paper for trailblazer devolution deals with Government, with negotiations beginning imminently. The elected Mayors in these regions act as a single point of accountability – both to local people and central government. Should Mayoral combined authorities be given even more autonomy in order to bring back prosperity and pride to the places they govern? Are they on the right track to become examples for other areas of the UK to follow? And how are they approaching their negotiations with Government?#RSAdevolutionBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueembDonate to The RSA: https://utm.guru/udNNBFollow RSA Events on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rsa_events/Follow the RSA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSAEventsLike RSA Events on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rsaeventsoff... 

From ‘take back control’ to ‘levelling up’, from the tragedy of Morecambe Bay to the remaking of English football culture, award-winning journalist and editor Jason Cowley re-examines recent key news events and reflects on the human stories behind the headlines, taking stock of the state of the nation in 2022, and searching for the shared experiences and values that unite us through difference and change.#RSAstoriesBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueembDonate to The RSA: https://utm.guru/udNNBFollow RSA Events on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rsa_events/Follow the RSA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSAEventsLike RSA Events on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rsaeventsoff... 

Design Emergency: How can design help us to build a better future?Join us for this special event celebrating the 2021/22 RSA Student Design Awards programme and the power of design to help us build a better future.The 2022 SDA keynote address will be delivered by award-winning design critic, author and co-founder of Design Emergency, Alice Rawsthorn.In her address, Alice will describe how she and MoMA design curator Paola Antonelli are using their research platform, Design Emergency, to explore the work of the global design leaders who are giving us hope by developing ingenious solutions to problems caused by the climate emergency, refugee crisis, abuses of technology and other complex challenges.Following the address, the RSA’s chief impact officer Andrea Siodmok will present the 2022 awards, sharing an overview of each winning project, and inviting the people behind these inspiring ideas on stage to receive their awards.The RSA Student Design Awards is a global competition focused around a set of project br

The pandemic exposed and intensified the deep-rooted problems gripping the nation – from poverty to precarity to underfunded public services. But social distance has been at the heart of our biggest challenges since long before Covid-19 struck: in particular, the distance that those in power often keep from the issues they are in charge of solving.If proximity to a problem makes us better placed to understand how to address it, then it’s no wonder we are faltering. The distance – be it geographical, economic, or cultural – between those who make decisions and those on the receiving end of them has never been clearer, and the parameters of the discussion about social inequality are set by those who have little experience of it. Prize-winning writer, commentator and rapper Darren McGarvey interrogates the social remoteness at the root of our biggest problems, and explores what it would take to centre lived experience in developing clear-sighted, hopeful solutions.#RSAinequalityBecome an RSA Events sponsor: http

We unthinkingly grant internet companies access to our homes, relationships, and most private thoughts. This information is used to mould our realities, influencing our everyday choices and actions – from who we date to how we vote. How can we safeguard our freedom of thought in an age when our minds are for sale?As human rights lawyer Susie Alegre explores, this is a new frontier in an age-old struggle: the powerful have always sought to influence how we think, and these latest tools for doing so threaten our mental freedom like never before. She examines the long history of the effort to liberate our minds, and lays out how we can recast our human rights for the digital age to protect our most fragile and fundamental freedoms. #RSAFreedomBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueembDonate to The RSA: https://utm.guru/udNNBFollow RSA Events on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rsa_events/Follow the RSA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSAEventsLike RSA Events on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rsaeve