RSA Events

Political insider Tom Baldwin shares worrying insights from behind the curtain of power, and warns that we are in danger of pressing ‘delete’ on liberal democracy altogether. Having interviewed everyone from Tony Blair to Michael Gove, top journalists to Russian bloggers, and tech giant execs to online activists, Tom describes a vicious battle for control of the news agenda, at the expense of publ...

As the RSA launches its new Future Work Centre, an expert panel considers how we can harness new technologies to create a better world of work. Will technologies like AI and robotics exacerbate economic inequality, deepen geographic divisions and entrench discrimination in the workplace? Or can they be wielded to create a better world of work – one that is more humane, productive and purposeful? A...

Political failure is a failure of the imagination. Journalist and author George Monbiot joins us to tell the new political story we’ve been missing. A toxic ideology rules the world – of extreme competition and individualism. It misrepresents human nature, destroying hope and common purpose. Only a positive vision can replace it, a new story that re-engages people in politics and lights a path to...

In his annual RSA Chief Executive’s Lecture Matthew Taylor makes a case for radical reform of our political and policymaking systems in the face of a growing crisis of liberal democracy. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Monday 2nd July 2018. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2018/07/what-democracy-needs-now

Clive Grinyer, past RSA Student Design Awards winner and RSA Design Advisor delivers the keynote address at the 2018 SDA winners ceremony. The RSA Student Design Awards challenge emerging designers to tackle pressing social, environmental and economic issues through design thinking. Our goal is to empower a generation of savvy, employable designers who understand the potential of design to benefit...

The winners of the UK’s most prestigious awards for political writing are revealed, celebrating the best of this year’s books, journalism and innovative reporting on social issues. Each year, The Orwell Prize awards prizes for the writing and journalism which comes closest to George Orwell’s ambition ‘to make political writing into an art’. Prizes are awarded in three categories: for books, for jo...

One year on from the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower, a panel gathers to reflect on what it exposed about the social and economic state of the nation, and how to secure safety and justice for everyone. In an area home to some of the country’s richest and poorest people side by side, where average incomes can drop ten times across a street, Grenfell has come to be seen as a microcosm not just of...

Creativity guru and founder of Free Range Studios, Jonah Sachs argues that ‘safe thinking’ ultimately causes failure, and shows how we can unleash our boldness and creativity to tackle systemic challenges. Sachs draws on cutting-edge psychology and neuroscience to uncover the specific mental habits that account for the success of those who break the mould. And he reveals how, by embracing a handfu...

Internationally acclaimed social entrepreneur Hilary Cottam shows how we can remake the relationships between us, and revolutionise the welfare state. Sharing her vision at the RSA, Hilary Cottam is joined in conversation by award-winning journalist Gary Younge to explore the principles behind this radically new approach, the design process that makes the work possible and the challenges of transi...

One of the UK’s leading political scientists, David Runciman, argues that democracy is collapsing before our very eyes. But what - if anything - should replace it? Democracy has died hundreds of times, all over the world. We think we know what this looks like: chaos descends, and the military arrives to restore order until the people can be trusted again. But perhaps we are focusing on the wrong t...

Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett follow up their seminal work The Spirit Level with new insights into how inequality impacts us as individuals. Arguing that societies based on fundamental equalities, sharing and reciprocity produce much higher levels of wellbeing than those based on excessive individualism, competitiveness and social aggression, The Inner Level sheds important new light into how...

If not the EU, then what? Mike Kenny and Nick Pearce explore the idea of the ‘Anglosphere’ as a forgotten factor in the decision to leave the EU. Amidst the ongoing Brexit negotiations, a question mark looms over Britain’s future place in the world. The wish for a post-Brexit ‘global Britain’ has driven the idea of an alliance between Britain and its old Commonwealth colonies to resurface, based o...

Founder and former CEO of award-winning marketing agency Livity, Sam Conniff Allende re-purposes the innovative strategies of Golden Age pirates for 21st century would-be disruptors. How can we create radical change within an old-fashioned system, and in the face of unprecedented change and uncertainty? We must break and then re-make the rules – just like pirates did before us. This event was reco...

Why should schools be interested in the arts, and how should we be looking to understand their impact? With Global Teacher Prize winner Andria Zafirakou. The RSA, together with the Education Endowment Foundation, is currently investigating the difference made by cultural learning to pupils’ academic achievement and character development. But what else do the arts offer schools and their students?...

Trust in politics is dwindling, and authoritarian populists are seizing power around the globe. Renowned academic and author Yascha Mounk argues for radical political reforms that will benefit the many, not the few. Mounk identifies three key drivers of voters’ discontent: stagnating living standards, fears of multiethnic democracy, and the rise of social media. To reverse the march against libera...

Is modern work actually productive, or just an end in itself? 'The most influential anthropologist in the world', David Graeber, explores how ‘meaningless’ jobs have become so widespread, and what we can do about it. In doing so, he looks at how we value work, and how, rather than being productive, work has become an end in itself; the way such work maintains the current broken system of finance c...

Leading professor of psychiatry Edward Bullmore introduces breakthrough new science on the link between depression and inflammation of the body and brain. Going beyond the clinic and the lab, Professor Bullmore presents a whole new way of looking at how mind, brain and body all work together in a sometimes misguided effort to help us survive in a hostile world. Offering insights into the story of...

Do modern economies reward the extractors – not the creators – of economic value? Leading economist Mariana Mazzucato urges us to rethink how we determine value in our economy. At the heart of the crisis in modern capitalism, she says, lies the blurred line between ‘taking’ and ‘making’; those who merely extract value are rewarded more highly than those who create it, generating perverse incentive...

In this Vote100 year, Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom asks: can we really say our democracy is as equal as the Suffragettes sought to make it? Andrea visits the RSA to share the lessons of her work addressing harassment and bullying in Westminster, to explore the challenges and opportunities for Parliament posed by the digital age, and to set out her views on what both say about our...

Should you really be shocked by the Facebook revelations? Author and Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media, Jamie Bartlett argues that our fragile political system is being threatened by the digital revolution. We have given over much of our lives to shadowy powers behind a wall of code, all manipulated by a handful of Silicon Valley utopians, ad men, and venture capitalists. And...

Academic, bestselling author and Star Trek scriptwriter Leonard Mlodinow gives us the tools to harness the power of elastic thinking in an endlessly dynamic world. How can we train our brains to be more comfortable when confronting change? How do our brains generate new ideas, and how can we nurture that process? Why can diversity and even discord be beneficial to our thought process? This event w...

The Secret Barrister, one of the UK’s leading law bloggers, shares insights from the frontline of our criminal justice system, and warns that it’s now close to breaking point. Few of us find ourselves thinking critically about our criminal justice system; considering how and why we have this particular way of doing justice, or reflecting on the impact it has upon the hundreds of thousands of peopl...

UK industry is at a defining moment as technological and political advancements influence the sector. We gather an expert panel to discuss how businesses can capitalise on the value of design in navigating change. Can the principles and processes of design be harnessed to ensure UK business remains on the front foot in a rapidly changing economic and policy landscape? This event was recorded live...

Jennifer Palmieri, former Director of Communications for both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama – visits the RSA to issue an open invitation to all women to forge a new model of leadership. While wildly disappointed by the outcome of the election, Palmieri argues that the Clinton candidacy and all she experienced on the campaign trail --confusion, admiration, hate, love, acceptance, rejection-- can...

How can we galvanise renewed political interest in environmental issues to drive bolder action? With Caroline Lucas MP, Leader of the Green Party. Thirty years on from the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1988, and with thirty years to go to meet the Paris Agreement’s target of a carbon-neutral world by 2050, it’s a timely moment take stock of the current politics...