Annie Besant and the Liberal, Radical, Socialist and Feminist Opposition to Birth Control in the 19th Century
This talk by Deborah Lavin is fifth in the series Writing Wrongs, curated by Deborah Lavin as part of the Heritage Lottery funded project Victorian Blogging. The story of birth control is usually told as one of almost linear progress against blinkered bigotry. Opposition to contraception may have been blinkered and bigoted, but it was also often liberal, radical, […]
Blasphemy, the Individual and the State: From Historical Flashpoint to Contemporary Grievance
This talk by Prof David Nash is fourth in the series Writing Wrongs, curated by Deborah Lavin as part of the Heritage Lottery funded project Victorian Blogging. After a long battle, lasting well over two hundred years and with many martyrs, the age-old law of Blasphemy was abolished in 2008. It seemed a great victory for the dream of a […]
The Elimination of Slavery from the Whole World: Problems of Anti-Slavery in Victorian Britain
This talk by Dr Joseph Kelly is second in the series Writing Wrongs, curated by Deborah Lavin as part of the Heritage Lottery funded project Victorian Blogging. The 1830s saw the end of slavery in the British Caribbean, but it continued elsewhere, including Africa itself. This talk examines the slavery abolition movement in Britain as it sought against both […]
Becoming White Elk: The Bizarre Adventures of the Jazz Age’s Greatest Imposter
The spellbinding tale of hustler Edgar Laplante—the king of Jazz Age con artists—who becomes the victim of his own dangerous game. Edgar Laplante was a smalltime grifter, an erstwhile vaudeville performer, and an unabashed charmer. But after years of playing thankless gigs and traveling with medicine shows, he decided to undertake the most demanding and […]
After Man: A Zoology of the Future
What would life on earth look like in 50 million years; long after the extinction of humanity? Join Dougal Dixon, palaeontologist, geologist and author, in conversation with vertebrate palaeontologist and science writer Darren Naish to mark the return of Dixon’s astonishing speculative-evolution book ‘After Man: A Zoology of the Future’. Dougal imagined and beautifully illustrated this new […]
Will Democracy Survive The Age Of Big Data & Artificial Intelligence?
For the fifth of our Out-of-the-Box Thinking series, co-hosted by GlobalNet21 and Conway Hall, join us for a discussion with David Wood, Indra Adnan and Dr Lina Dencik about whether the age of big data and artificial intelligence will mean the demise of democracy as decisions are taken over by the algorithms of big data and artificial intelligence. We have in the course of […]
Understanding Humanism Teachers Conference 2018
Following the success of last year’s highly-praised Understanding Humanism Teachers Conference, attended by 100 teachers, it will return on Tuesday 10 July 2018. This day of free CPD will include a series of stimulating seminars and workshops for primary and secondary teachers, subject leaders, and headteachers, designed to enhance your subject knowledge of humanism (a non-religious worldview) and […]
Thinking on Sunday: Turning The Tide On Plastic
At the current rate pieces of plastic will outnumber fish in the ocean by 2050. That is the legacy we are leaving our children and grandchildren. Plastic flows into our lives from every direction and most of it is not recycled. Instead it is incinerated or ends up in landfill, where it will sit for […]
Thinking on Sunday: The Almighty Dollar
From a shopping trip in suburban Texas, via China’s central bank, Nigerian railroads, the oilfields of Iraq and beyond, economist and broadcaster Dharshini David follows the incredible journey of a single dollar to reveal the truths behind what we see on the news every day, and to see how the global economy really works. Why […]