
LSE: Public lectures and events
The London School of Economics and Political Science public events podcast series is a platform for thought, ideas and lively debate where you can hear from some of the world's leading thinkers. Listen to more than 200 new episodes every year.
Latest episodes

Jun 13, 2024 • 56min
Left behind: a new economics for neglected places
Contributor(s): Professor Paul Collier | Left behind places can be found in prosperous countries — from South Yorkshire, integral to the industrial revolution and now England’s poorest county, to Barranquilla, once Colombia’s portal to the Caribbean and now struggling. More alarmingly, the poorest countries in the world are diverging further from the rest of humanity.

Jun 13, 2024 • 51min
Lawfare: do law and courts have power to solve global problems?
Contributor(s): Professor Gerry Simpson, Dr Joana Setzer, Sir Howard Morrison KC, Professor Larry Kramer | There is a growing expectation for law and courts, whether domestic or international, to be remedies for international problems. Our panel explore the power of law and courts in the face of contemporary international challenges.

Jun 13, 2024 • 55min
Power and social change: 5 ways we can challenge inequalities of power
Contributor(s): Kerryn Krige, Dr Jonathan Roberts | You will learn five practical skills to challenge and reshape power dynamics:
Understanding social problems
Prioritising coproduction with communities and users
Considering organisational design
Leading systems change
Building (and sometimes not building) market-based solutions

Jun 13, 2024 • 1h 1min
Geography of discontent: euroscepticism in regions of stagnant growth
Contributor(s): Professor Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, Dr Özge Öner, James Blagden | Recent EU research highlights a clear connection between stagnant growth within some European regions and their support for Eurosceptic parties, also suggesting that the longer the period of stagnation, the stronger the opposition to European integration.

Jun 12, 2024 • 1h 1min
Global middle powers and the changing world order
Contributor(s): Dr Bugra Susler, Dr Yolanda Spies, Professor Chris Alden | Now, as emerging global middle powers begin to assert their influence in their respective regions, and on the global stage, diverse perspectives on pressing global issues, spanning international conflicts to climate change, present various visions for the future of the international system.
With recent elections in Turkey, and forthcoming voting in South Africa and the Western world (the UK, EU and the US), our panel will delve into the aspirations and perspectives of global middle powers, and will analyse the impact of their rise on the global order.

Jun 12, 2024 • 59min
Empowering communities? Exploring devolution's impact on low-income areas
Contributor(s): Professor Tony Travers | Devolution offers an opportunity to reshape where power resides in the UK. But after years of austerity, the impact of the pandemic, and the cost-of-living crisis, can it be made to work for our most deprived communities?

Jun 12, 2024 • 1h 1min
How does data regulation work for our digital society?
Contributor(s): Professor Andrew Murray |
Learn the fundamentals of data regulation – how data is gathered and processed, held and stored according to the law
Discuss how regulation supports opportunities for data use, and how regulation sets limitations on abuse or misuse of data
Explore the latest legal developments including the Data Act and the AI Act
Consolidate your understanding with the Q&A

Jun 12, 2024 • 1h 13min
Understanding China's views of the world
Contributor(s): Xiaolu Guo, Professor William A. Callahan, Dr Elena Barabantseva | Elena Barabantseva’s Chinese-Russian Group Wedding (5 min) explores the relations of these two superpowers through the intimate geopolitics of mixed-marriages, and William A. Callahan’s The Nose Knows (15min) traces how Chinese artists and officials have imagined foreigners in terms of their “big noses” both historically and up to the present day.
The films challenge stereotypes by showing a multifaceted understanding of the UK and the world, exploring personal experience, foreign policy agendas, and artistic creativity through the eyes of different groups of Chinese people.

Jun 11, 2024 • 29min
Is history a guide to politics?
Contributor(s): Dr Angus Wrenn, Professor Gordon Barrass | LSE Language Centre, in collaboration with the LSESU Drama Society, presents an evening of theatre and discussion, featuring Professor Gordon Barrass, a specialist on strategy assessment and perception.

Jun 11, 2024 • 1h 10min
100 days to kickstart Britain: what should the government's priorities be?
Contributor(s): Danny Sriskandarajah, Sam Richards, Eshe Nelson, Soumaya Keynes | The UK’s economy has waned in recent years – low growth and productivity coupled with rising inflation and poverty. Our panel explore how to respond.