

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

Sep 1, 2022 • 39min
RSA Events at Wilderness: Hannah Rose Woods
Being misty-eyed about the past is nothing new; but what does romanticising our history mean for our present? Historian and star of University Challenge Hannah Rose Woods investigates why nostalgia has been such an enduring state in Britain over hundreds of years, revealing the vast influence that its backwards glance has had on British society, politics, and identity. Debunking pervasive myths about our past, she shines a light on how our nostalgic country’s history has been written, re-written, and (rightly or wrongly) remembered.#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

Jul 15, 2022 • 1h 4min
Three centuries of the RSA
For almost three centuries the RSA has played an important role in many of our major social reforms and innovations. It helped construct the public education system, encouraged the planting of more than sixty million trees, sought technological alternatives to child labour, and even once purchased and restored an entire village. And did plenty more in-between.Drawing on exclusive access to a wealth of rare papers and artefacts from the RSA Archives, historian Anton Howes shows how this vibrant and singularly ambitious organisation, whose members have been drawn from all walks of life and from across the political spectrum (and include the founding fathers of liberalism, conservatism and communism, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke and Karl Marx) has evolved and adapted according to the spirit of the age.From its first meeting in 1754 in a Covent Garden coffeehouse, to today’s global community of 30,000 Fellows, join us to trace the RSA’s rich, and often surprising history of public-spirited improvement.#RSAChangeBecome 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

Jul 14, 2022 • 37min
Cash, cards, crypto: inside the war for our wallets
We are increasingly reaching for cards, apps and even cryptocurrencies to make payments and manage our money. Though cash is still widely used, the narrative around it suggests it is outdated and presents cash dependency as a problem we need to solve. The shift to digital, ‘cloudmoney’ is presented as inevitable and defended by claims of consumer convenience.Developments in the global payments arena are fuelling this change. Big banks, FinTech apps and Big Tech are forming new alliances and launching joint products, attracted by the great volumes of personal data that can be gathered from digital payments.If a cashless society really is inevitable, how can we ensure this future is fair, inclusive, and not a threat to data privacy?Join campaigner and monetary anthropologist, Brett Scott, as he explores the forces shaping the war for our wallets, who stands to gain from a cashless society, who gets left behind and what role cryptocurrencies might play in our future finances.If you're interested in the benefits and drawbacks of the growing cashless economy, read our Cash census report (March 2022). #RSACashBecome 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

Jul 8, 2022 • 1h 20min
Where next for the UK’s local and regional economies?
The West Midlands and Greater Manchester are leading the way on devolution with more control over transport, planning, housing, policing and skills. The combined authorities were both singled out in the Levelling Up White Paper for trailblazer devolution deals with Government, with negotiations beginning imminently. The elected Mayors in these regions act as a single point of accountability – both to local people and central government. Should Mayoral combined authorities be given even more autonomy in order to bring back prosperity and pride to the places they govern? Are they on the right track to become examples for other areas of the UK to follow? And how are they approaching their negotiations with Government?#RSADevolutionBecome 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

Jul 7, 2022 • 48min
Stories of modern England: a nation at a crossroads
From ‘take back control’ to ‘levelling up’, from the tragedy of Morecambe Bay to the remaking of English football culture, award-winning journalist and editor Jason Cowley re-examines recent key news events and reflects on the human stories behind the headlines, taking stock of the state of the nation in 2022, and searching for the shared experiences and values that unite us through difference and change.#RSAStoriesBecome 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

Jul 1, 2022 • 52min
Designing our futures: The 2022 RSA Student Design Awards
Design Emergency: How can design help us to build a better future?Join us for this special event celebrating the 2021/22 RSA Student Design Awards programme and the power of design to help us build a better future.The 2022 SDA keynote address will be delivered by award-winning design critic, author and co-founder of Design Emergency, Alice Rawsthorn.In her address, Alice will describe how she and MoMA design curator Paola Antonelli are using their research platform, Design Emergency, to explore the work of the global design leaders who are giving us hope by developing ingenious solutions to problems caused by the climate emergency, refugee crisis, abuses of technology and other complex challenges.Following the address, the RSA’s chief impact officer Andrea Siodmok will present the 2022 awards, sharing an overview of each winning project, and inviting the people behind these inspiring ideas on stage to receive their awards.The RSA Student Design Awards is a global competition focused around a set of project briefs that challenge participants to tackle pressing social, environmental and economic issues through design thinking. Winners receive practical and financial support from the RSA and our partners, as well as the opportunity to join a remarkably diverse community of alumni.#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

Jun 30, 2022 • 46min
The social distance between us
The pandemic exposed and intensified the deep-rooted problems gripping the nation – from poverty to precarity to underfunded public services. But social distance has been at the heart of our biggest challenges since long before Covid-19 struck: in particular, the distance that those in power often keep from the issues they are in charge of solving.If proximity to a problem makes us better placed to understand how to address it, then it’s no wonder we are faltering. The distance – be it geographical, economic, or cultural – between those who make decisions and those on the receiving end of them has never been clearer, and the parameters of the discussion about social inequality are set by those who have little experience of it. Prize-winning writer, commentator and rapper Darren McGarvey interrogates the social remoteness at the root of our biggest problems, and explores what it would take to centre lived experience in developing clear-sighted, hopeful solutions.#rsainequalityBecome 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

Jun 23, 2022 • 52min
Can we be free in the age of the internet?
We unthinkingly grant internet companies access to our homes, relationships, and most private thoughts. This information is used to mould our realities, influencing our everyday choices and actions – from who we date to how we vote. How can we safeguard our freedom of thought in an age when our minds are for sale?As human rights lawyer Susie Alegre explores, this is a new frontier in an age-old struggle: the powerful have always sought to influence how we think, and these latest tools for doing so threaten our mental freedom like never before. She examines the long history of the effort to liberate our minds, and lays out how we can recast our human rights for the digital age to protect our most fragile and fundamental freedoms. #RSAFreedomBecome 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

Jun 16, 2022 • 44min
Fighting and fixing systemic gender injustice
From policing and politics to education and the media, systemic gender prejudice is embedded in the pillars of our society. Potential solutions often require change from the women experiencing the problem rather than the systems that perpetuate the problem.Whether for walking home alone at night or for not demanding a seat at the table, we blame women for not overcoming odds that are stacked against them. In the wake of violent behaviour from men, we turn to women to change lifestyles and behaviours.By combining overlapping themes from thousands of personal stories with shocking statistics, Everyday Sexism founder, Laura Bates demonstrates why asking women for change is not fair or effective. We need to fix the system, not the women. Here with Pragya Agarwal, Laura paints a shocking picture of gender inequality in Britain today and explores how society can usher in systemic change.#RSAGenderInjusticeBecome 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

Jun 9, 2022 • 36min
Dismantling racism in British education
Minority ethnic teachers are still under-represented in all lanes of education, routes into education lack focused training on structural racism and unconscious bias, and exclusion rates for mixed white and black Caribbean boys continue to be disproportionally higher than that of white British boys. The education system in Britain needs drastic change.With experience both as a black teacher and a black student, Jeffrey Boakye’s journey through education has been one of exploration, from the outside looking in. Reflecting on what he has observed and learned, Jeffrey will discuss the habits, presumptions, silences, and distortions that underpin British education and offer his thoughts on the change that is urgently needed. #RSAeducationBecome 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