Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History
In 2020, statues across the world were pulled down in an extraordinary wave of global iconoclasm. From the United States and the United Kingdom to Canada, South Africa, the Caribbean, India, Bangladesh, and New Zealand, Black Lives Matter protests defaced and hauled down statues of slaveholders, Confederates, and imperialists. Edward Colston was hurled into the […]
Terry castle: Some Mortifications of Family history
Terry Castle reflects on the life of her first cousin at four removes, Henry Francis Finn (1852-1924), who led a celebrated cavalry charge against the dervishes of Sudan at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898, one of the most grotesquely lopsided and horrific battles in military history. Terry Castle has taught at Stanford since 1983. […]
Clair Wills: How to Plot an Abortion
Following the US Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and other challenges to reproductive rights, Clair Wills considers the stories we tell about abortion – in fiction, film, court rulings and clinics. Clair Wills teaches at Cambridge. Her books include Lovers and Strangers, an immigrant history of postwar Britain. She is finishing a […]
William Davies: The Reaction Economy
Reactions – facial expressions, gestures or emojis – are the main currency of the digital public sphere. Ubiquitous surveillance and smartphones have made the spontaneous reaction a thing to be cultivated, collected and stored. How did we come to endow reaction with such significance, and what might an escape from the reaction economy look like? […]
Humanly Possible: 700 Years of Humanist Freethinking, Enquiry, and Hope
If you are reading this, it’s likely you already have some affinity with humanism, even if you don’t think of yourself in those terms. You may be drawn to literature and the humanities. You may prefer to base your moral choices on fellow-feeling and responsibility to others rather than on religious commandments. Or you may […]
The Big Con – How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Economies and Harms Democracy
Mariana Mazzucato is no ordinary economist. Author of 3 blockbuster books, winner of the Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought, and heralded as one of the ‘3 most important thinkers about innovation’ (New Republic), ‘one of the 50 most creative people in business’ (Fast Company), and one of the ‘25 leaders shaping […]
Vex King – Get Closer to Love
Are you ready to experience true, unconditional love? Modern relationships are more complex than ever, and our approach to love often comes from a place of lack – but Vex King argues that the purest love is built on self-love. The bestselling author of Good Vibes, Good Life has become an icon of compassion, inspiring […]
Mervyn King Meets Martin Wolf
We are living in an age when economic failings have shaken faith in global capitalism. Political failings have undermined trust in liberal democracy and in the very notion of truth. The ties that ought to bind open markets to free and fair elections are being strained and rejected, even in democracy’s notional heartlands. Some now […]
A Sunday for Science
Sunday Assembly presents, A Sunday for Science. Our assembly this week will feature science themed talks, poetry and live music from our Sunday Assembly house band. Stick around after the assembly for tea, coffee and cake!