Recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas festival 2019.
Today’s political culture seems obsessed with dark, apocalyptic visions. From young people staging ‘die-ins’ to protest about the environment to talk of an ‘insect apocalypse’, fears and threats loom large. Extinction Rebellion argues that the threat of catastrophe means we must reject growth and material progress in favour of a new eco-austerity. Even proponents of new technology often see it as a means of avoiding environmental catastrophe rather than transforming the world for the better. What can we learn about the present from our attitude to the future? Do we need to recover our faith in the future – and by extension, ourselves?
DR SHAHRAR ALI
home affairs spokesperson and former deputy leader, Green Party; author, Why Vote Green 2015
GREGORY CLAEYS
professor of history, Royal Holloway, University of London; author, Searching for Utopia: the history of an idea; fellow, RSA
DR ASHLEY FRAWLEY
senior lecturer in sociology and social policy, Swansea University; author, Semiotics of Happiness and Significant Emotions (forthcoming)
BRENDAN O’NEILL
editor, spiked; host, The Brendan O’Neill Show; writer, the Sun and the Spectator; author, A Duty to Offend
CHAIR: JACOB REYNOLDS
partnerships manager, Academy of Ideas; co-convenor, Living Freedom and The Academy, boi charity
#InternationalSalon: From Covid to climate change: challenging the culture of fear?
#BattleFest2021: Is the NHS fit for purpose?
#BattleFest2021: Disinformation and Conspiracy - Tackling the Crisis of Trust
#BattleFest2021: Going Green - Eco Dogma or Salvation?
#BattleFest2021: Assisted Dying - Has its Time Come?
#SportscastOfIdeas: High jumps and low points - the Olympics returns at last
#SportscastOfIdeas: Defeat, division and the love of Slabhead - the Euros final
#SportscastOfIdeas: Speed, surprise and suspense - could it really be coming home?
#SportscastOfIdeas: Penalties, Pogba and Patriotism - Euros 202
#EconomyForum: Work after the pandemic - what can office workers expect?
#SportscastOfIdeas: Ronaldo and Coke, quarantine-dodging dignitaries and rainbow stadiums
#SportscastOfIdeas: Booing, kilts and small nations
#SportscastOfIdeas: Kneeling, bagpipe bans and Euro 2020
#LockdownDebates: Who needs human rights?
#EconomyForum: Special relationships: the UK, the US and the EU
#BookClub: The human heart in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara And The Sun
#SportscastOfIdeas: the rise and fall of the European Super League
#EconomyForum: What is Bidenomics?
#LockdownDebates: From cycle lanes to low-traffic neighbourhoods - who owns our streets?
#ScotlandSalon: What next for Scottish independence?
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free