

RSA Events
RSA
World-changing ideas. For free. For everyone.
Featuring the world’s most exciting public thinkers, innovators and changemakers, RSA talks bring people and ideas together to shape a better future for all.
Featuring the world’s most exciting public thinkers, innovators and changemakers, RSA talks bring people and ideas together to shape a better future for all.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Oct 6, 2022 • 46min
How climate migration will reshape people and planet
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, communities and cities, Gaia will explore key questions that will shape the future of human geography and explain how we should see these changes as key solutions to build a better, greener and fairer future.#RSAClimateMigrationBecome 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.facebook.com/rsaeventsofficialListen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU

Sep 30, 2022 • 1h 4min
If science is to save us
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 deployed optimally, and that brakes are applied to applications that are dangerous or unethical. Scientists have a special obligation to promote beneficial applications of their researches, and to warn against the downsides. But priorities in how their work is applied are matters for the wider public - so it’s crucial that the education system should offer everyone enough 'feel' for science to permit an informed debate on its ethics and hazards.Join one of our most eminent and far-seeing scientists to explore the future of scientific endeavour at a time when innovation must be guided by values science alone cannot provide. The stakes have never been higher. #RSAscienceBecome 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.facebook.com/rsaeventsofficialListen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU

Sep 30, 2022 • 45min
The story behind extraordinary success
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/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.facebook.com/rsaeventsofficialListen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU

Sep 23, 2022 • 46min
Rethinking what good work means today
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 research, discuss issues highlighted by the Good Work Guild and reflect on their own research to ask how we can build a social revolution for work, imagining what work could and should be and what impact good work could have.#RSAgoodworkBecome 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.facebook.com/rsaeventsofficialListen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU

Sep 23, 2022 • 55min
That quiet little voice: when design and ethics collide
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-for-lifewww.londondesignfestival.com#RSAdesignBecome 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.facebook.com/rsaeventsofficialListen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU

Sep 22, 2022 • 1h 16min
Is social prescribing the future for healthcare?
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 years. Find out more about our global network of entrepreneurs, educators and innovators working together for the advancement of society, the economy and the environment.#RSAhealthBecome 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.facebook.com/rsaeventsofficialListen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU

Sep 15, 2022 • 1h 7min
Social justice and health equity
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/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.facebook.com/rsaeventsofficialListen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU

Sep 15, 2022 • 44min
Exploding the stereotypes and myths of gendered emotions
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/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.facebook.com/rsaeventsofficialListen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU

Sep 1, 2022 • 37min
RSA Events at Wilderness: Lola Olufemi + Liv Wynter
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/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.facebook.com/rsaeventsofficialListen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU

Sep 1, 2022 • 40min
RSA Events at Wilderness: David Wengrow
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/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.facebook.com/rsaeventsofficialListen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU