RSA Events

This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 28th September 2017 Sleep is one of the most important aspects of our life, health and longevity and yet it is increasingly neglected in twenty-first-century society, with devastating consequences: every major disease in the developed world - Alzheimer's, cancer, obesity, diabetes - has very strong causal links to deficient sleep. And yet we’re sleeping less than ever – four out of five of us complain about disturbed or inadequate sleep, and nearly half of us get six hours or less a night. Until very recently, science had no answer to the question of why we sleep, or what good it served, or why its absence is so damaging to our health. Matthew Walker, director of the Centre for Human Sleep Science, has one defining ambition – to reunite humanity with its sleep. He visits the RSA to explain why we need a sleep revolution, and why we need it now. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/09/why-we-need-a-sleep-revolution

This event was recorded live at The RSA on Tuesday 27th September 2017 The world is facing urgent challenges – and design thinking can help us tackle them. Sue Siddall is a partner at leading design company IDEO, where she has over 20 years’ strategy experience in human-centred design and innovation; designing for behaviour change; and the role of design thinking and public private partnership in tackling systemic issues, such as climate change. To celebrate the launch of the 2017/18 RSA Student Design Awards briefs, Sue Siddall, partner at design consultancy IDEO, shares her journey to discovering design thinking. Whether it's what career path to take, how to approach innovation in business, or tackle social challenges, there's arguably never been a more turbulent time to be making important decisions. Sue looks at how design thinking can help all of us navigate the complexity, nuance, and speed of change, today, sharing her personal career journey, from law, to advertising, and design, and why sometimes, asking the right questions, learning and adaptation, are as important as having the answer. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/09/the-power-of-design-thinking

This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 21st September 2017 Royal & Derngate, Northampton, Lyric Theatre Belfast, The Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Sherman Theatre, Cardiff and The RSA present 'The United Kingdom and Europe: Nations on the World Stage' a symposium introduced by Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair of Arts Council England. As a partnership of leading theatres in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales embarks on an epic cycle of new play commissions which will explore Britain’s changing relationship with Europe, this panel discussion asks "How should theatre respond to and reflect the changing role of Great Britain, Northern Ireland and Europe over the next decade?” Chaired by journalist and broadcaster Mark Lawson, the panel brings together a diverse range of leading playwrights from across the British Isles to offer their perspective. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/09/United-Kingdom-and-Europe-Nations-on-the-World-Stage

This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 21st September 2017 Every time we queue up for petrol we empower the world’s most coercive, oppressive and dangerous regimes. But what can we do about it? ‘It’s all about oil’ may be the clarion cry of undergraduates worldwide, but the reality is deeper and darker than any half-baked conspiracy theories. ISIS, al Qaeda, Putin, Assad, Saddam, Gaddafi, the Ayatollahs - most of our biggest threats and crises come from oil states. Chair of Philosophy and Law at KCL, Leif Wenar’s work on petrocrats and ethics has been lauded by Steven Pinker, Michael Ignatieff, Angus Deaton and Rowan Williams, who called his book a ‘a serious and urgent appeal to the conscience of the west’. He visits the RSA to explain why conditions are now exactly right for us to abolish blood oil—and so to create a more secure, peaceful and just future for all. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/09/how-to-end-the-tyranny-of-oil

This event was recorded live at The RSA on Tuesday 20th September 2017 Glenn Greenwald is the Pulitzer prize-winning journalist who worked with Edward Snowden to uncover secret global surveillance programmes undertaken by the US and the UK. His partner, David Miranda, is a journalist and the first LGBTQ member of the Rio City Council. In this special RSA event, Greenwald and Miranda discuss power and accountability, surveillance and privacy, Trump and fake news, and the role of journalism in giving a voice to perspectives and events that are ignored and silenced by large media outlets. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/09/an-evening-with-glenn-greenwald-and-david-miranda

This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 14th September 2017 A decade after the global financial crisis, deep scars remain. Despite recent data signalling a closing of the income inequality gap between the highest and lowest earners, this has been accompanied by mounting economic insecurity, wage stagnation and – particularly since Brexit – rising inflation. The shock of the financial crisis might have been weathered by buoyant employment, particularly at the low end of the labour market, but this too has been accompanied by rising in-work poverty. Is ‘inclusive growth’ a utopian oxymoron, or the means to fairer, more sustainable economies? How can it be achieved locally and nationally? What are the implications for global capitalism and the process of globalisation? What are the economic choices and trade-offs we might need to face if we are to respond to the ‘politics of the left behind’? Speakers: Gabriela Ramos, OECD Chief of Staff; Hon Wayne Swan MP, Former DPM and Treasurer of Australia; Indy Johar, architect, co- founder of 00, and member of the RSA Inclusive Growth Commission Chair: Rowan Conway, Director of Innovation and Development, RSA Discover more about this event here:https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/09/towards-inclusive-growth

This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 14th September 2017 Robert Peston, who broke the story of Northern Rock’s emergency funding appeal to the Bank of England, and covered at close-hand the ensuing run on the bank, its eventual collapse, and the global crash that followed, reflects back on fast-moving events of the time, and the role of the key actors – from politicians, to bankers, to regulators - and traces the further reaching after-effects of the crash. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/09/breaking-the-northern-rock-story-and-beyond

This event was recorded live at The RSA on Monday 11th September 2017 As UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling was involved at the highest levels from the outset of the financial crisis, through the heart of the storm, and played a leading role in restoring stability to global financial markets. 10 years on from the collapse of the Northern Rock bank, an early signal of the global crash to come, he reflects on what we have and haven’t learned from the crisis, how vulnerable we remain, and what we have to do next to shape a fairer future prosperity. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/09/10-years-after-the-crash

This event was recorded live at The RSA on Friday 8th September 2017 Commissioned by the Prime Minister to undertake an independent review in 2016, last November David published his interim findings alongside an in-depth analysis which identified some of the stages in the CJS at which disproportionality is most pronounced. Among other notable points, the analysis evidenced that black men and women are sentenced more harshly than white men and women for committing the same type of crime. Having now completed his review, David will share his further findings and set out the recommendations he believes can ultimately make sure the CJS is fair for all. Speakers: Rt Hon David Lammy MP, Chair of the Lammy Review; Juliet Lyon CBE, Chair of the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody; Matthew Ryder QC, Deputy Mayor for Social Integration, Social Mobility and Community Engagement; David Isaac CBE, Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Chair: Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive, RSA Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/09/trust-fairness--responsibility-launch-of-the-lammy-review-report

This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 13th July 2017 In May this year, James Williams, a former Google employee and doctoral candidate researching design ethics at Oxford University, won the inaugural US$100,000 Nine Dots Prize. James’ winning piece argued that digital technologies privilege our impulses over our intentions, and are gradually diminishing our ability to engage with the issues we most care about. In this event – his first public event since winning the prize - he will cover: How the ‘distractions’ produced by digital technologies are much more profound than minor ‘annoyances’ How so-called ‘persuasive’ design is undermining the human will and ‘militating against the possibility of all forms of self-determination’ How beginning to ‘assert and defend our freedom of attention’ is an urgent moral and political task The Nine Dots Prize is supported by Cambridge University Press and the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), both departments of the University of Cambridge. Speakers: James Williams, Nine Dots Prize winner and recipient of Google’s Founders’ Award Jonathan Rowson, Co-founder and Director, Perspectiva Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/07/are-digital-technologies-making-politics-impossible