Podcast Hall Matt

Nathalie Olah discusses how this bright generation came to be, and what effective means are still at their disposal to challenge the establishment and ultimately win. By rejecting the established routines of achieving prosperity, and by stealing what you can from them on the way, this book offers hope to anyone who feels increasingly frustrated by …

Why flawed logic puts us all at Risk, and How Critical Thinking can save the World.David Robert Grimes shows how we can be lured into making critical mistakes or drawing false conclusions, and how to avoid such errors. Given the power of modern science and the way that movements can unite to protest a cause via social media, we are in dangerous tim…

One thing we know for certain is that sex is personal: perhaps the most intimate thing of all. But sex is also shaped by a complicated web of cultural, social and political forces outside of ourselves.Fear-mongering, moral panic and outdated attitudes prevail, but if #MeToo has taught us anything, it’s how dangerous it is to keep conversations abou…

The New Science of how we Walk and why it’s Good for us.Walking enabled us to walk out of Africa and to spread as far as Alaska and Australia. It freed our hands and freed our minds. We put one foot in front of the other without thinking – yet how many of us know how we do that, or appreciate the advantages it gives us?In this tribute to walking, n…

Mudlark (/’mAdla;k/) noun A person who scavenges for usable debris in the mud of a river or harbourLara Maiklem has scoured the banks of the Thames for over fifteen years, in pursuit of the objects that the river unearths: from Neolithic flints to Roman hair pins, medieval buckles to Tudor buttons, Georgian clay pipes to Victorian toys. These objec…

What is masculinity? Dominating the world around us, from Trump’s twitter outbursts to deadly gun violence, from male suicide rates to incels on Reddit and 4chan, masculinity is perceived to be ‘toxic’, ‘fragile’ and ‘in crisis’.JJ Bola exposes masculinity as a performance that men are socially conditioned into. Using examples of non-Western cultur…

Will Brexit boost jobs? Or wreck the NHS? Or cause food shortages? From strawberries to passports, the broadcaster and journalist Gavin Esler sets out how the most momentous change in Britain for decades will change everyday life. From the food markets of Kent to NHS operating theatres to the boardrooms of big employers, Brexit throws up many surpr…

Pixie Turner will unpack why diet and nutrition misinformation is so problematic, on social media, in mass media, and on a public health level, and why we could all benefit from taking a moment to assess our personal relationship with food. Expect some mythbusting, diet rants, and lots of fully-referenced evidence-based science.—Pixie Turner is a n…

What if you aren’t who you think you are?What if you don’t really know the people closest to you?And what if your most deeply-held beliefs turn out to be … wrong?In her book Stop Being Reasonable, philosopher and journalist Eleanor Gordon-Smith tells six lucid, gripping stories that show the limits of human reason. She discusses some of these stori…

Jonathan H. Marks argues that public-private partnerships create “webs of influence” that undermine the integrity of public health agencies and distort health policy and research. These collaborations also frame public health problems and their solutions in ways that protect and promote the commercial interests of corporate “partners.” We should ex…

Kerry Hudson discusses her book Lowborn with James Bloodworth. Lowborn is a powerful, personal, agenda-changing work of non-fiction on poverty in Britain – a book like nothing that’s been written before, and a book that we all need to pay attention to.Kerry Hudson grew up in all-encompassing, grinding poverty. Always on the move with her single mot…

What do we see when we watch a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat or read a person’s mind? We are captivated by an illusion; we applaud the fact that we have been fooled. Why do we enjoy experiencing what seems clearly impossible, or at least beyond our powers of explanation? In this talk Dr Gustav Kuhn examines the psychological processes that un…

How we lost our green and pleasant land, and how to take it back.For centuries, England’s elite have covered up how they got their hands on millions of acres of our land, by constructing walls, burying surveys and more recently, sheltering behind offshore shell companies. But with the dawn of digital mapping and the Freedom of Information Act, it’s…

The new neuroscience that shatters the myth of the female brain. This is not feminist science – it’s just science. - Prof Gina Rippon.Oleh Conway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedOleh Conway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedOleh Conway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedOleh Conway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedOleh Conway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedOleh Conway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedOleh Conway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedOleh Conway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedOleh Conway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedOleh Conway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedOleh Conway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedOleh Conway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedOleh Conway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedOleh Conway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedOleh Conway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedOleh Conway Hall

Traditional songs are full of folklore about ghosts. They tell you why people become ghosts, what ghosts look like, what the living must do to allow the dead to rest in peace. Paul Cowdell, folklore expert on ghosts and a fine singer, will be talking about ghostlore in and around traditional songs, and singing some. Songs may include ‘The Yarmouth …

Camille Ralphs will recite the entirety of acclaimed poetry pamphlet Malkin, ‘an ellegy in 14 spels’ in the voices of those accused in the 1612 Pendle Witch Trials.Award for Best Poetry Pamphlet, and featured on BBC Radio 6 Music’s Sunday show with Cerys Matthews. Ralphs served as 2016-17 President of Oxford University Poetry Society, won the Unive…

The four confessions given by Isobel Gowdie to a Scottish court, in May 1662, are seminal witchcraft texts; bringing folk belief in the faerie, the world of familiar spirits, night flight and the coven to stark prominence. This talk shows how a marginal figure, in her own day, moved towards the cultural mainstream, through the works of modern compo…

Whether one believes in ghosts or not, it is an easy assumption that sightings of ghosts must have been common on the First World War battlefields considering the sheer number of traumatic deaths and the intensity of individual and collective emotions. There is certainly a long tradition of the appearance of ghostly armies. So what sort of ghostly …

The dead don’t always stay peacefully in their graves. British folklore and chronicle relates from very early times instances of vampire-like and undead behaviour, spelling disaster for communities. Radical social upheaval – such as the Norman Conquest – spawns narratives about the undead; later chroniclers remark that there are so many tales of th…

The idea that the dead can return to haunt the living is deeply rooted in the British imagination, and ghosts are central to countless plays and paintings, stories and ballads, photographs and films. But why has the appearance and behaviour of ghosts in art and literature altered over time? When did they stop wearing shrouds and put on white sheets…

Emily Cleaver recounts a recent ‘scouring’ of the Uffington White Horse, the traditional cleaning event that has kept the chalk figure from becoming overgrown since its construction in the Iron Age. Exploring the archeological evidence for the origins of the figure, plus local folklore from fertility rituals to furniture arrangement.Emily is a writ…

A discussion as to an alternative vision for education systems, institutions and people in the United Kingdom. Speakers:David Scott, University College London, Institute of EducationRobin Street, Co-Principal of UCL AcademyOrganised and Chaired by Francis Sealey (GlodbalNet21)and Prof Evan Parker (Conway Hall Ethical Society).…

Michael Rosen has a new memoir, So They Call You Pisher! In this conversation with Daniel Hahn, Rosen recalls the first twenty-three years of his life.In partnership with Newham Books.Recorded: Thursday 16th November 2017 at Conway Hall.Oleh Conway Hall

Will Ashon, author of Strange Labyrinth: Outlaws, Poets, Mystics, Murderers and a Coward in London’s Great Forest, discusses his journey out in to the edges of London.Hosted by Scott Wood from New Lands/London Fortean Society.Oleh Conway Hall

Long ago a path was created by the passage of feet tramping through endless forests. Gradually that path became a track, and the track became a road. It connected the White Cliffs of Dover to the Druid groves of the Welsh island of Anglesey, across a land that was first called Albion then Britain, Mercia and eventually England and Wales. Armies fro…

In this talk, Professor Joseph Uscinski will show that conspiracy theories follow a strategic logic: they are tools used by the powerless to attack and defend against the powerful. Conspiracy theories must conform to this logic, or they will not be successful. In this way, conspiracy theories are for losers.Joseph Uscinski is associate professor of…

London Fortean Society, in partnership with Conway Hall, present a night marking the centenary of the Cottingley Fairies case.Michael Terwey of the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford discusses how the photographs were taken and how they fitted in to the Spiritualist culture of the time and Professor Diane Purkis asks why Sherlock Holmes …

John Grindrod tells of the vision behind green-belts, their creation, and discusses the fiery emotions they stir up and tells a story of growing up there, recounted in his poignant social history Outskirts. Hosted by Scott Wood of New Lands http://dirtymodernscoundrel.blogspot.co.uk/Oleh Conway Hall

WARNING: Contains some strong language.Will Storr comes to Conway Hall to take us on a journey of self-obsession; from the shores of Ancient Greece, through the Christian Middle Ages, to the self-esteem evangelists of 1980s California, the rise of narcissism and the selfie generation, and right up to the era of hyper-individualistic neoliberalism i…

Paul Robeson was a modern renaissance man: lawyer, linguist, actor, professional athlete, civil rights activist and one of the greatest singers of the twentieth century, famous for "Ol Man River" on Broadway and The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London. The son of an escaped slave, Robeson became an international superstar before his socialist politic…

Jacqueline Wilson talks about her new book, Wave Me Goodbye, which is set at the beginning of WWII. Jacqueline will also talk about her life, how she has become one of the best-selling authors of recent years and about a host of her well known characters such as Hetty Feather and Tracy Beaker.In aid of Refugee Week, Battersea Cats & Dogs Home and C…

A. C. Grayling explores the long, tragic history of war and how warfare has changed in response to technological advances.Oleh Conway Hall

Radicals is an exploration of the individuals, groups and movements rejecting the way we live now, and are attempting to find alternatives. In it, Jamie Bartlett, one of the world’s leading thinkers on radical politics and technology, takes us inside the strange and exciting worlds of the innovators, disruptors, idealists and extremists who think s…

The Conway Memorial Lecture 2016. Lawrence Krauss. Chaired by A. C. Grayling. Recorded on 16th December 2016.Oleh Conway Hall

Francis Sealey chairs a panel of Matt Scott, Charlie Blowers, Professor Evan Parker discussing the importance of how we can all be involved in cultural change is very empowering as it shows us that the path to making a better world can rest with us all and not just Parliamentarians.Oleh Conway Hall