Academy of Ideas

Rob Lyons speaks to philosopher Piers Benn about the nature of happiness and why it has become a Government policy objective in recent years.

In this week's Podcast of Ideas Rob Lyons, Claire Fox and David Bowden discuss the week's news, including the migrant crisis and the drone assassinations of two British Jihadis in the Islamic State.

In this week’s Podcast of Ideas, Rob Lyons, Claire Fox and David Bowden discuss the murder of two journalists on live television by a disgruntled former colleague in the United States, and the latest tragic events in the ongoing European migration crisis. Rob talks to Martyn Perks about the growing fears about the role of artificial intelligence and robots in society in everything from manufacturi...

Discussion of the news, race and policing in America and Immanuel Kant In this edition of the Podcast of Ideas, Rob Lyons, Claire Fox and Dave Bowden discuss the big stories of the past few weeks, including the scandal at Kid’s Company, doping in sport and the row over falling milk prices. Rob speaks to Jean Smith from the New York Salon about race and policing in America ahead of her session on t...

In this edition of the Podcast of Ideas Rob Lyons, Claire Fox and Dave Bowden discuss the big stories of the last few weeks including the rise of Jeremy Corbyn, the fall of Lord Sewell, the Ashley Madison leak, David Cameron's miguided strategy for tackling ISIS and the Brighton smoking ban.

Highlights from the AOI's Justice Money Power debates at the City of London Festival In this week’s podcast we here some of the most informative and inspiring speeches from the Institute’s recent Justice, Money and Power debates at the City of London Festival, including chairman of the Night Time Industry Association’s Alan Miller’s defence of the night-time economy as a force for societal good at...

In this week’s Podcast of Ideas, Rob speaks to Greg Lukianoff from the  Foundation for Individual Rights in Education  (FIRE) about the fight for freedom of speech on US campuses amid an increasingly intolerant climate. Following the Institute’s inaugural University in One Day this week, we hear Sebastian Morello’s mini-lecture from the event on why Pico della Mirandola’s 1486 Oration on the Digni...

In this week’s Podcast of Ideas, Rob Lyons and David Bowden dissect the week’s news including the pope’s encyclical on climate change, the Rachel Dolezal fiasco and the oppressive licensing laws killing off the nation’s nightlife. Professor Alan Hudson talks about University in One Day, the Institute’s new initiative for sixth formers, and why the Renaissance matters. Jason Smith tells us about ne...

In official terms, ‘the vulnerable’ used to be narrowly defined by the 1995 Care Commission report as referring to people in extreme circumstances, like the homeless, or those unable to look after themselves mentally or physically. Today, however, it is the term of choice to describe anyone and everyone deemed to be in need of sympathy, especially those hit by government cuts – ‘a savage attack on...

In this edition of the Podcast of Ideas, Rob Lyons talks to Alastair Donald from the Future Cities Project about what can be done to solve the UK's housing crisis and barrister Jon Holbrook comes in to tell us why he would scrap the Human Rights Act. Rob also talks to Dr Fiona McEwen from King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry on new research, which appears to show that autism is largely...

In this week's podcast of Ideas David Bowden talks to Dolan Cummings about whether racial equality laws are now, or ever have been, needed in the UK, Rob Lyons addresses an event held by Policy Exchange on childhood obesity, and spiked's assistant editor Tom Slater comes in to talk about the Down With Campus Censorship! campaign.

The recent crisis in Ukraine has been widely portrayed in the West as a rerun of the Cold War, with a peaceful pro-EU Ukraine being pulled apart as the result of an aggressive and newly expansionist Russia seeking to re-establish hegemony over its neighbourhood. Russia’s annexing of the Ukrainian region of Crimea has been roundly condemned as violating international law, state sovereignty, democra...

In this episode of the Podcast of Ideas, Rob Lyons talks to economics journalist and author Daniel Ben-Ami about what tax has become one of the biggest issues in British politics and Rob Killick about whether Uber and AirBnB represent the first shoots of a new economy. Plus, Claire Fox explains why state-regulation of what appears on a cigarette pack is a free-speech issue and Institute of Ideas s...

In this episode of the Podcast of Ideas, Rob Lyons speaks to Professor Bill Durodié about last week’s terror attacks in Copenhagen and the implications they have for free speech in Europe. Claire Fox talks about how societal change and the emergence of the public has been reflected through theatre down the ages. And Bríd Hehir tells Rob about how the panic stirred up over female genital mutilation...

In late 2014 the Labour party indicated their support for legal ‘buffer zones’ around abortion clinics to prevent protests from interfering with the provision of services. The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), Britain's largest abortion provider, supported the move saying that the pro-life protests outside their clinics cause unwarranted levels of distress to those seeking to access lawfu...

Sexually explicit material has always challenged censors and traditional moralists. From the 1960s, liberal values on sex and sexual relationships became one of the markers of a civilised, modern society. Over the past decade, however, there’s a gnawing unease that sexually explicit material has gradually stepped down from the top shelf and into the mainstream. Whether it was Rihanna’s raunchy dis...

In the first podcast in a new series, Rob Lyons speaks to Dave Bowden about the state of press freedom in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, Justine Brian fills us in on the latest news from Debating Matters, and Geoff Kidder gives us the lowdown on the upcoming Greek elections.

America’s problems at home and abroad have led many to wonder if the US is in decline. US foreign policy, from Syria to Ukraine, appears rudderless and impotent. The Iraq War is widely seen to have been a failure, while US forces are leaving Afghanistan with the Taliban still active and the country far from being a happy democracy. The US recovery from the recession has been weak, too, while China...

The public outrage that followed the discovery of several ‘forced labour’ labels sewn into clothes stocked by budget clothing shop Primark has brought the issue of the ethics of the supply chain back into the headlines. Just what is the real cost of cheap goods in the West? In April 2013, 1,100 people – including garment workers who had been producing clothes for UK retailers - died when the Rana...