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RSA Conversations

Latest episodes

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Oct 4, 2022 • 39min

Crisis? What Crisis?

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 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 can learn more about the Fellowship or start an application by clicking here.
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Sep 20, 2022 • 34min

Why my internet is gone forever

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 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 can learn more about the Fellowship or start an application by clicking here.
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Sep 6, 2022 • 30min

How books become succesful

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. 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 can learn more about the Fellowship or start an application by clicking here.
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Aug 23, 2022 • 39min

The roots of inequality?

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 months ahead. You can learn more about the Fellowship or start an application by clicking here.
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Aug 9, 2022 • 36min

Bridging the divide between town and country

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 invite you to join our community today to stay connected, inspired and motivated in the months ahead. You can learn more about the Fellowship or start an application by clicking here.
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Jul 26, 2022 • 38min

Are we facing a crisis of imagination?

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 community today to stay connected, inspired and motivated in the months ahead. You can learn more about the Fellowship or start an application by clicking here.
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Jul 12, 2022 • 34min

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be. Really?

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. Her latest book is, "Rule, Nostalgia: A Backwards History of Britain". 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 can learn more about the Fellowship or start an application by clicking here.
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Jun 28, 2022 • 32min

Dissecting the modern 'strongman'

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, and has served as a foreign correspondent in Washington, Bangkok and Brussels. His latest book is, 'The Age of The Strongman: How the Cult of the Leader Threatens Democracy around the World'. 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 can learn more about the Fellowship or start an application by clicking here.
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Jun 14, 2022 • 34min

Is another nuclear disaster inevitable?

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 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 can learn more about the Fellowship or start an application by clicking here.
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May 31, 2022 • 32min

Is it time to rethink sex?

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. Has the sexual revolution, which promised lots of fun, no-strings sex, actually made us unfulfilled, miserable even? And all that swiping left or right on our phones, has it left us detached, disillusioned, dissatisfied? Writer Christine Emba believes so. She joins Matthew to make a case for rethinking our attitudes towards sex and sexual ethics. 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 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 can learn more about the Fellowship or start an application by clicking here.

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