Academy of Ideas

ECONOMY FORUM: How can we avoid the worst of a coronavirus depression? Are these lockdowns doing more harm than good? What will be the long-term economic impacts of the pandemic and the reaction to it? Joan Hoey, Phil Mullan and Jake Pugh discuss.

EDUCATION FORUM: Since the 1980s, much has been said of the educational potential of digital technologies, both within the classroom and beyond. With the coronavirus crisis, however, much of this discussion has been sidelined, as for the first time in school history nearly all England’s schools and colleges are by necessity scrambling to move their entire pedagogic operation online. What can we learn from the crisis about the role of digital technology in education? The first ever online meeting of the Academy of Ideas Education Forum will explore this and many other questions. Donald Clark and Toby Marshall discuss.

ECONOMY FORUM: One of the biggest policy benefits from leaving the EU is the end of the ‘Brussels excuse’. No longer can British ministers blame the European Commission – often illegitimately – for tying its hands in dealing with Britain’s economic challenges. Now the buck clearly stops with a Boris Johnson-led government, which is also has the benefit of a large parliamentary majority. What do its early actions tell us about the new government’s approach to national economic policy? Phil Mullan and Rob Lyons discuss.

PODCAST OF IDEAS: Alastair Donald, co-ordinator of our international Battle satellites, talks to friends and speakers from our annual festival: the Battle of Ideas. From Italy: Dominic Standish is a lecturer in media and a commentator on Italian affairs as well as the author of Venice in Environmental Peril? Myth and reality. From Germany: Sabine Beppler-Spahl is the chair of Freiblickinstitut e.V, CEO of Sprachkunst36, author of Brexit-Demokratischer Aufbruch in Großbritannien and the Germany correspondent for spiked. And from Brussels: James Holland is a freelance writer on European politics.

PODCAST OF IDEAS: The current coronavirus pandemic has revealed, or heightened, many underlying political issues - from the lingering effect of the culture wars to the consequences of fearmongering in political discourse. But one issue that seems to have bucked the trend is the generation debate. Going by much of the discussion of the last 10 years, young and old people are supposed to be at odds with each other. And yet, this virus has proven that the tensions between the generations might not be so pronounced - teenagers are volunteering for their elderly relatives and the nation has come together to protect our Grans and Grandads. But is there a generational element to the government lockdown - what does this mean for kids out of school and away from public life? And how might we move on in a positive direction, away from the generation wars? Jennie Bristow and Ella Whelan discuss.

BOOK CLUB: ‘It is the history of a revolution that went wrong - and of the excellent excuses that were forthcoming at every step for the perversion of the original doctrine,’ wrote Orwell for the first edition of Animal Farm in 1945. Orwell wrote the novel at the end of 1943, but it almost remained unpublished; its savage attack on Stalin, at that time Britain’s ally, led to the book being refused by publisher after publisher. Orwell’s simple, tragic fable has since become a world-famous classic. On the 75th anniversary of Orwell's allegorical novella, the Academy of Ideas Book Club met online to discuss Animal Farm on the 16th April 2020, led by Neil Davenport.

SPORTSCAST OF IDEAS: Sport, like everything else, is on lockdown. But that doesn't mean talk about sport has died down - from controversies over furloughing to accusations of virus spreading at games. But how do we move forward, are football matches and other big public sporting events on the horizon? And is our absence from sport making the heart grow fonder, or will online matches replace the beautiful game? Alastair Donald, Geoff Kidder and Rob Lyons from the Academy of Ideas are joined by athlete, footballer and Battle of Ideas speaker Georgina Newcombe in this special SPORTScast of Ideas.

PODCAST OF IDEAS: Europe might be the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic at the moment, but this is a global problem. Alastair Donald, co-ordinator of our international Battle satellites, talks to friends and speakers from our annual festival: the Battle of Ideas. From Singapore: Stuart Derbyshire is the associate professor in psychology at the National University of Singapore and the Clinical Imaging Research Centre. From upstate New York: Nancy McDermott is an independent researcher with a special interest in the family, parenting, science and the public-private spheres. From Sweden: Johan Wirfält is the artistic director of talks, debates and film at the Kulturhuset Stadsteatern. And from Johannesburg: Matthew Kruger is a law consultant specialising in corporate, constitutional and human-rights litigation.

PODCAST OF IDEAS: We're closing in on week two of lockdown in the UK, with life on pause for many of us cooped up at home. But thinking outside of our own four walls, it has often been hard to get a sense of what's happening across Europe, where cases of the virus seem to be skyrocketing. Some countries, like Italy, have forced their citizens into weeks of house arrest. Others have taken a more liberal approach - and have often been criticised for it. This week, in the latest of a new series of the Podcast of Ideas, Alastair Donald talks to friends and speakers from our annual festival: the Battle of Ideas. You'll hear Fraser Myers, spiked's staff writer in London; Anne-Élisabeth Moutet, Telegraph journalist in Paris; Sean O'Halloran, freelance journalist in Fabriano in Eastern Italy and Lamprini Thoma, writer and podcaster in Thessaloniki.

PODCAST OF IDEAS: The coronavirus might have changed life for many of us, but at the Academy of Ideas we’e adamant that it won’t stop our ability to challenge and interrogate the cultural, political and scientific big questions of our time. With this in mind, Claire Fox, Geoff Kidder, Jacob Reynolds, Rob Lyons, Mo Lovatt, Alastair Donald and Ella Whelan discuss everything from the government's new social-distancing measures to what this all means for the economy and social interaction.