5x15

Andrew Motion was UK Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009, is co-founder of the online Poetry Archive, and has written acclaimed biographies of Philip Larkin and John Keats among others. His memoir of childhood, In the Blood, was published in 2006, and its sequel, Sleeping on Islands: A Life in Poetry, appeared alongside Selected Poems: 1977 – 2022 in 2023. He is Homewood Professor in the Arts at Johns Hopkins University, and lives in Baltimore. With thanks for your support for 5x15 online! Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Angela Saini is an award-winning journalist and author. She presents radio, podcasts, and television programmes, and her writing has appeared across the world, including in The Financial Times, Wired, and National Geographic. Angela's 2019 book Superior: The Return of Race Science was published to enormous critical acclaim, and became a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize, the Hughes Prize, and the Foyles Book of the Year. Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong was published in 2017, and has been translated into fourteen languages. In her bold and radical fourth book, The Patriarchs, she goes in search of the true roots of gendered oppression, uncovering a complex history of how it first became embedded in societies and spread across the globe from prehistory into the present. With thanks for your support for 5x15 online! Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Described as the Agatha Christie of the adoption world, Ariel Bruce works on ITV’s Long Lost Family and specialises in finding people affected by adoption, using her unique skills as a social worker and her background in care to reunite families all over the world. Born in London, Ariel’s parents were Jewish refugees and at the age of 12, she was placed into care and went on to have 6 different foster parents. Based in London, Ariel carries out extensive work in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, as well as in many countries worldwide, including the USA and Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. A spin-off series, Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace, for which Ariel is lead search and social work consultant, recently won a BAFTA and Rose d'Or Award. With thanks for your support for 5x15 online! Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

The Six Ideas to Change the World series, in partnership with Keystone Positive Change Investment Trust, launches in May with Henry Dimbleby on Food. The co-founder of LEON restaurant chain and author of the National Food Strategy, Dimbleby is a leading voice on how the food we eat affects of our own health and the health of the planet. His new book Ravenous: How to Get Ourselves and Our Planet Into Shape (with Jemima Lewis), was named a Sunday Times best-seller upon its publication in March, and has been highly acclaimed by critics and figures within the food industry. In the words of Prue Leith, the book offers a ‘compelling and overdue plan of action’ that, if implemented, will put ‘our food system on the right path to health and prosperity.’ Don't miss this vital discussion about how to change our thinking around food. Henry Dimbleby will be in conversation with Tim Spector, one of top 100 most cited scientists in the world, and best-selling author of Food for Life: The New Science of Eating Well. Speakers Henry Dimbleby is the co-founder of LEON, and the Director of The Sustainable Restaurant Association, which runs some of London's most successful street food markets. His work with DEFRA culminated in the National Food Strategy – a policy proposal widely praised by industry wide figures such as Yotam Ottolenghi and Sir Partha Dasgupta. In 2013 he co-authored The School Food Plan, which set out actions to transform what children eat in schools and how they learn about food. Tim Spector is a professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London and honorary consultant physician at Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals. He is a multi-award-winning expert in personalised medicine and the gut microbiome, and the author of numerous books, including the bestsellers Spoon-Fed and The Diet Myth. He appears regularly on TV, radio and podcasts around the world, and is one of the top 100 most cited scientists in the world. He is co-founder of the personalised nutrition company ZOE and leads the world's biggest citizen science health project, the ZOE Health study. He was awarded an OBE in 2020 for his work fighting Covid-19. His latest book is Food for Life: The New Science of Eating Well. Six Ideas to Change the World We are at a critical point in the global response to climate change, and the conversation around the central issues remains complex. Amidst numerous debates and conflicting narratives, public discourse runs the risk of information overload, at a time when urgent action is necessary, at both an individual and collective level. This curated series of live online events, in partnership with Keystone Positive Change Investment Trust, offers a clearer path, spotlighting the most compelling, important and hard-hitting work being published about the environment today — the six ideas that will shape the future of our planet. Tune in each month to hear stories and ideas we can all learn from. Whether it’s advice on changing diets, or solutions to the world’s water crisis, these conversations will suggest a blueprint for what we must do in the years ahead. Each event will feature the author of a recent work, in conversation with an expert host about the most important issues and takeaways. Audiences will also have the chance to submit questions. More information about June's event on Water, with Tim Smedley and Alok Jha, is available here. With thanks for your generous support for 5x15's online series. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Dr Tom Moorhouse is a conservation research scientist who has worked for twenty years at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, part of Oxford University's Biology Department. His work has focussed on the conservation ecology of water voles, the management of signal crayfish, hedgehog conservation and the impacts of wildlife tourism. He is the author of Elegy for a River and also award-winning children's fiction. His latest book is Ghosts in the Hedgerow: A Hedgehog Whodunnit. He lives with his wife and daughter in Oxford. With thanks for your support for 5x15 online! Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE is a prodigy in every sense of the word. Aged 11, she was the youngest girl ever to pass A-level computing, and was just 20 years old when she received her Master’s Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Oxford. Since then, she has forged an enviable CV, including positions at Goldman Sachs, Hewlett-Packard and Deutsche Bank. Then there are the Honorary Doctorates from Open University, Glasgow Caledonian University, Kent University, Bristol University & Coventry University and an Honorary Fellowship at Keble College, Oxford. It is this wealth of experience and pioneering spirit that led her to co-found the Stemettes, an award-winning social initiative dedicated to inspiring and promoting the next generation of young women in the STEM sectors. Since its inception 9 years ago, it has exposed almost 60,000 young people across Europe to Anne-Marie’s vision for a more diverse and balanced science and tech community. In 2022 she released her new book She’s in CTRL, a guidebook for women to take back tech. With thanks for your support for 5x15 online! Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

5x15 is delighted to announce a new series of events in collaboration with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. From spring into summer, we will host a range of expert writers, thinkers and scientists from Kew. They will reflect on what we must do to prevent biodiversity loss and protect life on Earth, and address some of the most important questions of our time. The series kicks off in April with a panel about Foods of the Future. From the benefits of no-dig gardening and new crop techniques, to the versatility of legumes and the power of regenerative farming, this discussion will offer an exciting look at how we keep our diets diverse and sustainable in the future. Our expert panel of speakers will be in conversation with cross-bench peer and 5x15 co-founder Rosie Boycott. Dr Caspar Chater’s research seeks to improve crop resilience and adaptation to the climate crisis. Chater’s work tackles crop water use and drought responses, focusing on legumes as well as other crops. A large part of Chatter’s research has a regional focus in Mexico and Latin America. He currently coordinates Newton Fund and Global Challenges Research Fund projects in collaboration with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the University of Sheffield. In addition to exploring crop genetic diversity, he hopes to use targeted molecular methods for pre-breeding underutilized crops and crop wild relatives. By doing so we can make full use of plant diversity to address increasing global food security and water security challenges. Helena Dove is a Botanical Horticulturist who manages Edible Science: Kew’s Kitchen Garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Trained in a historic setting, and having previously managed an Edwardian kitchen garden, she has a passion for heritage vegetables, edible flowers and unusual crops that may not immediately be thought of as food. Many of the crops she grows have a slant towards future foods and the scientific research that takes place at RBG, Kew. Sarah Langford is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller In Your Defence: Stories of Life and Law. For ten years, she worked in criminal and family law in London and around the UK. Coming from a farming background in Hampshire, she studied English at University before training as a barrister. Sarah left the Bar on maternity leave to have her two sons. In 2017 she moved to Suffolk and, together with her husband, took on the management of his small family farm. She now lives between Southwest London and Suffolk. In her book Rooted: How Regenerative Farming Can Change the World, Sarah weaves her own story around those who taught her what it means to be a farmer. Anna Taylor joined The Food Foundation as its first Executive Director at the beginning of June 2015 after 5 years at the Department for International Development. In 2014 she was awarded an OBE for her work to address the global burden of undernutrition. She did a MSc in Human Nutrition at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1994. In May 2017 Anna became a member of the London Food Board to advise the Mayor of London and the GLA on the food matters that affect Londoners. She is a Board member for Veg Power and an advisor to the International Food Policy Research Institute. She served as Chief Independent Adviser to Henry Dimbleby for the development of the National Food Strategy published in 2021. The second online event will take place on Wednesday 24th May, and the series will culminate with a very special live 5x15 event in the Temperate House at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew on Wednesday 21st June, with Kew’s Director of Science, Prof Alexandre Antonelli, and further speakers to be announced soon… With thanks for your support for 5x15 online! Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Blake Morrison is a poet, novelist and journalist. His non-fiction books include And When Did You Last See Your Father? (1993), which won the J. R. Ackerley Prize and the Esquire/Volvo/Waterstone's Non-Fiction Book Award, As If (1997), about the murder of the toddler James Bulger in Liverpool in 1993, and a memoir of his mother, Things My Mother Never Told Me (2002). His poetry includes the collections Dark Glasses (1984), winner of a Somerset Maugham Award, and Shingle Street (2015). He is a regular literary critic for the Guardian. His new book, Two Sisters, is a heartbreaking memoir about his late sister and half-sister, along with sibling relationships in literature and those of literary figures. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Julie McDowall is a freelance journalist and book critic specialising in the nuclear threat. Her writing has appeared in The Times, Economist, Spectator, Guardian, TLS, Prospect and Independent, and she is also the host of the Atomic Hobo podcast in which she reveals findings in the nuclear archives and reports on her travels to nuclear bunkers and other Cold War sites. Her book Attack Warning Red! How Britain Prepared for Nuclear War, is the first book to tell the story of day-to-day life on the nuclear home front. While today we may read about the Cold War and life in Britain under the shadow of the mushroom cloud with a sense of amusement and relief, Attack Warning Red! is also a timely and powerful reminder that, so long as nuclear weapons exist, the nuclear threat will always be with us. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Tania Branigan is a Guardian foreign leader writer. Having spent seven years as the Guardian’s China correspondent, she has also written for the Washington Post and The Australian. Her first book, Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China's Culture Revolution, explores how the revolution has shaped China today, and uncovers forty years of silence through the rarely heard stories of individuals who lived through Mao's decade of madness. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories