Speaker(s): Marina Benjamin, Professor Russell Foster, Professor Simon Morgan Wortham | Philosophers have diligently examined consciousness, but what do they have to say about our nightly loss of consciousness? In an age of mindfulness, is there something to be said for sleepfulness too? And for those of us still rubbing our eyes at 4am, what i ...…

Speaker(s): Professor Sir Paul Collier | Following the publication of his latest book, The Future of Capitalism, Paul Collier will discuss this book and his wider work. Paul Collier is Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and a Professorial Fellow of St Antony’s College. From 1998–2003 he took a five-ye ...…

Speaker(s): Professor Susan Halford | It is now well-established that digital devices, techniques and new forms of data are deeply implicated in the re-working of social life, and this has only just begun. At the same time, these devices, techniques and data are shaping what we know about social life, fuelling stark questions about the value of ...…

Speaker(s): Vassilios Skouris | Based on his experience as Judge in the Court of the European Union, Vassilios Skouris will explore the differences between how judgements are made in the common law and civil law legal systems. The common law legal system allows judges to give personal opinion on a case. Alternatively, in civil law legal systems ...…

Speaker(s): Dr Steffen Hertog, Dr Elisabeth Kendall, Azadeh Moaveni, Professor Peter Neumann | Exploring new data showing why someone joins ISIS. A discussion of the sources of extremism and how to make societies more resilient. Steffen Hertog is Associate Professor in Comparative Politics, LSE. His book about Saudi state-building, Princes, Bro ...…

Speaker(s): Professor Dominic Lieven, Professor Janet Hartley, Professor Alexander Semyonov | This event launches the Paulsen Programme at LSE International History Department, which has been set up to allow historians in Russia to realise their full potential in their research and to enable them to make a powerful impact within the worldwide c ...…

Speaker(s): Baroness Corston | The overwhelming majority of women in our prisons are serving very short sentences for non-violent offences frequently associated with mental ill health, abuse, addiction and poverty. Every year, about 17,000 children are affected by their mothers’ imprisonment, and, far too often, the family link is broken foreve ...…

Speaker(s): Professor Quinetta Roberson | Scholars and practitioners have highlighted how diversity of identities, cultures and experiences within workforces can be of benefit to organisations. Yet, the meaning and design of inclusive organisations remains elusory. Drawing upon her research and experiences working with organisations, Quinetta R ...…

Speaker(s): Dr Anat Pick, Professor Mark Post, Dr Adam Shriver | Lab-grown meat promises burgers and foie gras without the side-order of animal suffering and environmental damage. Is fake meat a real solution to these problems? Anat Pick is Reader in Film Studies, Queen Mary, University of London. Mark Post is Professor of Vascular Physiology, ...…

Speaker(s): Pascal Lamy | At a time when globalisation is under attack, Pascal Lamy exposes why Peter Sutherland was, and still is, right in promoting a rules based open international system. Pascal Lamy is former General Director of the World Trade Organization. Minouche Shafik is Director of the London School of Economics and Political Scienc ...…

Speaker(s): Emma Howard Boyd, Professor Dame Judith Rees, Professor Lord Stern, Lord Turner | The panel will explore how climate action needs to develop in the next ten years to successfully deliver the Paris Agreement. Emma Howard Boyd is Chair of the Environment Agency. Judith Rees is Vice Chair of the Grantham Research Institute. Nicholas St ...…

Speaker(s): Dr Lori Allen, Dr Ayça Çubukçu, Professor David Graeber, Professor Kimberly Hutchings, Dr Tor Krever, Haifa Zangana | Comprised of experts in anthropology, international law, sociology, political science, and literature, this panel will discuss Ayça Çubukçu’s book, For the Love of Humanity: the World Tribunal on Iraq, addressing cha ...…

Speaker(s): Professor Kate Pickett | The speakers will focus on the psychological effects of inequality, on how larger income differences increase feelings of dominance and subordination, and the consequences for mental illness. Kate Pickett @ProfKEPickett and Richard Wilkinson @ProfRGWilkinson are Professor and emeritus Professor of Social Epi ...…

Speaker(s): Vítor Constâncio | Vítor Constâncio, the former Vice President of the European Central Bank will explore the possible reforms proposed to strengthen the EMU and their predicted consequences. Vítor Constâncio (@VMRConstancio) is the former Vice President of the European Central Bank and Former Governor of the Bank of Portugal. Iain B ...…

Speaker(s): Amy Goldstein | What really happens to workers, families and a community when good jobs go away? Come hear the story of one small, proud city in the American heartland that lost the United States’ oldest operating General Motors assembly plant two days before Christmas in the midst of the Great Recession – and the lessons it offers ...…

Speaker(s): Eduarda La Rocque | Drawing on a range of contemporary urban experiences included in a new book, Shaping Cities in an Urban Age, the panel discussion will explore the dynamics and challenges of urban change. Three of the authors included in the new LSE Cities publication Shaping Cities in an Urban Age will draw on a range of contemp ...…

Speaker(s): Ramachandra Guha | At this event, Ramachandra Guha tells the epic story of Gandhi's life and how he changed the world armed only with his arguments and example. Gandhi lived one of the great 20th century lives. At this event, Ramachandra Guha tells the epic story of Gandhi's life from his departure from South Africa to his assassina ...…

Speaker(s): Professor Lord Skidelsky | Robert Skidelsky's new book, Money and Government: A Challenge to Mainstream Economics, which he will discuss in this lecture, is a major challenge to economic orthodoxy, contesting the dominant view that money and government should play only a minor role in economic life and emboldening the next generatio ...…

Speaker(s): Mário Centeno | In his lecture Eurogroup President Mário Centeno will speak about the push to reform the Euro and the politics behind it, and discuss how the single currency could shield the European economy from both internal and external shocks in the future. Mário Centeno (@mariofcenteno) was elected President of the Eurogroup on ...…

Speaker(s): Rahul Gandhi | Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi), President of the Indian National Congress and member of the Parliament of India will be in conversation with LSE’s Mukulika Banerjee (@MukulikaB), Director of the South Asia Centre, and Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at LSE. This event is in collaboration with the Na ...…

Speaker(s): Professor Adam Tooze | In September 2008 the Great Financial Crisis, triggered by the collapse of Lehman brothers, shook the world. A decade later its spectre still haunts us. As the appalling scope and scale of the crash was revealed, the financial institutions that had symbolised the West's triumph since the end of the Cold War, s ...…

Speaker(s): Professor Anne Applebaum, Dr Cristian Nitoiu, Peter Pomerantsev | We hope you’ve enjoyed listening to this year’s programme of public events and that you’ll stay tuned for the exciting programme of events we have lined up, for the new academic year. In the meantime we have another podcast series we think you might enjoy. LSE IQ is a ...…

Speaker(s): Professor Danny Dorling | When we think of economic inequality we tend to think of a trend that is ever rising and destined to continue rising; that is far from inevitable. There are many statistics today that point at Britain being at a peak of inequality. However, having allowed the gaps between us to grow so wide has had dire imp ...…

Speaker(s): Jesse Norman MP | At a time when economics and politics are both increasingly polarized between left and right, this book, Adam Smith: What He Thought, and Why it Matters, which Jesse Norman will discuss at this event, returns to intellectual first principles to recreate the lost centre of public debate. It offers a Smithian analysi ...…

Speaker(s): Ann Pettifor | In February 2018, Jeremy Corbyn accused bankers of taking the economy hostage, and said in a speech that Britain's financial sector will be "the servant of industry not the masters of all" if the Labour Party wins the next election. How realistic is that promise? In this lecture Ann Pettifor will argue that given the ...…

Speaker(s): Kenneth Clarke, Professor Tony Travers | This event, in memory of Maurice Fraser, will see former Chancellor of the Exchequer Kenneth Clarke in conversation with LSE's Tony Travers and Kevin Featherstone. Kenneth Clarke, MP for Rushcliffe since 1970, held several Ministerial offices in the Governments of Margaret Thatcher and John M ...…

Speaker(s): Professor Gilles Kepel | ISIS has been defeated militarily, but the fight for the Middle East is just beginning. At this event Gilles Kepel, author of The Rise of Jihad in the West, discusses the future of the region and how it will shape global politics in the decades ahead. Hear more about how sectarian conflict, bold new leaders, ...…

Speaker(s): Sir Nick Clegg | Battered, bruised and blamed for so many of the world's problems, liberal values have found themselves under attack from left and right. But these values have multiple virtues and with many enduring strengths. In his inaugural lecture as a visiting professor in practice at LSE's School of Public Policy, Sir Nick Cle ...…

Speaker(s): Lorraine Ansell, Saj Jetha, Dr Sunita Malhotra, Nina Mohanty, Professor Sandy Pepper | Organisations are increasingly leveraging diversity to drive success, with generational diversity beginning to take centre stage. How will the arrival of Generation Z impact today’s working culture and how do you combine the wisdom of age with the ...…

Speaker(s): Lucas Chancel, Duncan Green, Rebecca Simson, Paul Segal | The first World Inequality Report (WIR2018), documents a sharp rise in global economic inequality since the 1980s despite strong growth in emerging economies. It also discusses country-to-country inequality trajectories (including UK's wealth inequality dynamics) and highligh ...…

Speaker(s): Professor Philippe Aghion | This event is the annual Economica Coase lecture. Philippe Aghion is a professor at the College de France and LSE, and a fellow of the Econometric Society and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Oriana Bandiera (@orianabandiera) is a Professor of Economics and the Director of the Suntory and Toy ...…

Speaker(s): Yogendra Yadav | What can we learn from the current challenge to the idea of a diverse and democratic India? Does this demand rethinking the idea of India as a “State-Nation”? Yogendra Yadav (@_YogendraYadav) is a nationally-renowned Indian psephologist, an expert on comparative democracy and National President of the newly-formed S ...…

Speaker(s): Professor Simon Critchley, Dr Gerald Moore, Dr Emily Ryall | ‘All that I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football’, observed Albert Camus. And it is football, above all other sports, that so many philosophers revere. So there’s everything to play for in this panel discussion exploring the relationship betwe ...…

Speaker(s): Jason Farrell, Paul Goldsmith | In their book, How To Lose A Referendum, which they will talk about at this event, Sky News senior political correspondent Jason Farrell and political blogger and economics and politics teacher Paul Goldsmith identify eighteen key reasons why the UK made its choice, from Britain’s absence at the birth ...…

Speaker(s): Professor Jean Pisani-Ferry, Christine Ockrent | The lecture takes stock of the transformation of French economic policy following the sweeping electoral success of Emmanuel Macron, and appraises its achievements. Jean Pisani-Ferry (@pisaniferry) is a professor at Sciences Po Paris and the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, and ...…

Speaker(s): Dr Maxim Bolt | This lecture will reflect on an apparently dated concept: structure. Spanning institutions of state and market, it will focus on formality as a kind of structuring, and a lens for understanding the production of difference. This event is the annual Malinowski Memorial Lecture. Maxim Bolt is Reader in Anthropology and ...…

Speaker(s): Professor Olmo Silva, Amy Finch | Olmo Silva will discuss the conceptual framework and empirical evidence underpinning the idea that autonomy and choice can lead to improvements in education standards in England. Recent reforms in many countries around the world have injected ‘private sector’ elements in the provision of public educ ...…

Speaker(s): Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala | Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s new book, Fighting Corruption Is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines, draws on her years as Nigeria’s Finance Minister to provide practical lessons on the difficult, sometimes-dangerous, always-necessary work of fighting graft and corruption. Determined to root out the fraudulent ...…

Speaker(s): Lawrence Wright | Come learn about the most controversial state in America and what it tells us about Donald Trump and the future of the US. This event marks the publications of Lawrence's new book, God Save Texas: A Journey into the Future of America. Lawrence Wright (@lawrence_wright) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, screenwrit ...…

Speaker(s): Juan Carlos Varela Rodríguez | President Juan Carlos Varela R. (@JC_Varela) studied primary and secondary in Javier College, under the direction of the Company of Jesus Order. He graduated as an Industrial Engineer from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), in the United States. He was elected Vice President of the Rep ...…

Speaker(s): Nomi Prins | In her new book, which she will talk about at this event, former Wall Street insider Nomi Prins shows how the 2007–2008 financial crisis turbo-boosted the influence of central bankers and triggered a massive shift in the world order. Central banks and international institutions like the IMF have overstepped their tradit ...…

Speaker(s): Professor Julia Black, Professor Simon Deakin, Sean Ennis | Theresa May’s claim that free market capitalism constitutes “the greatest agent of collective human progress ever created” raises a complex question: can markets pursue social values? Julia Black is Pro Director for Research and Professor in the Department of Law, LSE. Simo ...…

Speaker(s): Professor Elizabeth Anderson, Omar Khan | Women and minority groups are significantly under-represented in politics and various other walks of life. 'Affirmative action' is one response in tackling this enduring issue. But what is it? Who is it for? And why does it generate so much controversy? We discuss these questions and explore ...…

Speaker(s): Rachel Holmes | On the centenary of the Representation of the People Act, Rachel Holmes remembers and reflects on the roles of revolutionary thinking and militancy in winning votes for women. The complacency of hindsight leads many in modern Britain to believe universal suffrage and votes for women to have been obvious and inevitabl ...…

Speaker(s): Dr Pedro Sanchez | The leader of the opposition in Spain, Pedro Sánchez, will analyse the political, social and economic factors that have led to the growth of populism and secessionism in Catalonia and will propose possible solutions to the current political blockade in Spain. Dr Pedro Sanchez (@sanchezcastejon) is currently Secret ...…

Speaker(s): Dr. Dambisa Moyo | In Dr. Dambisa Moyo's new book, Edge of Chaos, which she will talk about at this event, she offers a radical menu of ten ways to improve democracy: making it better able to address the range of headwinds that the global economy faces (including technology and the prospects of a jobless underclass, demographic shif ...…

Speaker(s): James Ball, Professor Charlie Beckett, Sophie Gaston | The LSE Truth, Trust and Technology Commission is working with experts, practitioners and the public to identify structural causes of media misinformation and set out a new framework for strategic policy. The four themes it is looking at are: journalism credibility, platform res ...…

Speaker(s): Professor Simon Glendinning, Professor Elspeth Guild, Dr Natascha Zaun | What does a map tell us about Europe? What does it leave out? Prominent scholars in law, philosophy and political science reflect on how the age of cross-border flows from within and without Europe pose questions of how to map Europe and its peoples with renewe ...…

Speaker(s): Professor Nic Cheeseman, Dr Brian Klaas | In this talk, Nic Cheeseman and Brian Klaas show how to rig an election - with the hopes that the lesson will help save democracy. The greatest political paradox of our time is this: there are more elections than ever before but the world is becoming less democratic. Elections are often the ...…

Speaker(s): Dr Jessica Chiba, John Crace, Tim Crouch | For Victor Hugo, ‘all forms of the multiple reality, actions and ideas, man and humanity’ can be found in Shakespeare. Perhaps this is the reason why, over 400 years after his death, we continue to study, perform, and re-read his plays in search of truths about ourselves and the world. Shou ...…