Interview - Leigh and Maureen (2014)

Grace Blakeley & Ian Goldin: Creating Global Change from Crisis The pandemic has demolished global norms more emphatically than anything we have seen since the Second World War. But rather than simply hoping the world can bounce back, is there a chance for a more fundamental rethink? In The Corona Crash, economics… Aravind Adiga (2017 event) The last debut novelist to win the Man Booker Prize (in 2008 with White Tiger), Aravind Adiga now brings us Selection Day, widely held to be even better. In this event filmed live at the 2017 Edinburgh International Book Festival, he tells us about his… Jeremy Atherton Lin: Coming Out, Going Out For the past generation it has been possible for LGBTQIA+ people in most of Britain and the USA to go out in an open display of solidarity and sexual freedom that was long denied to those who came before them. The culture of the Gay Bar is the subject of… David Wengrow: Reimagining Prehistory It’s a pervasive belief that early human history involved a pivotal bargain; when cities and agriculture developed, primitive hunter-gatherers exchanged their freedom and equality for the hierarchies of civilisation. This is far from the truth, argue… Mara Menzies: A Story of Identity Perhaps because it is such a natural human impulse, storytelling has sometimes been overlooked as an art form. Yet we are content to take it for granted as a building block for films, plays and the written word. Mara Menzies is a performance storyteller… James Naughtie: When Knowledge Could Be Deadly James Naughtie has witnessed much political skulduggery as a special correspondent for BBC News, and he’s put this knowledge to use in his gripping spy thriller series. Today, Naughtie introduces The Spy Across the Water: the third outing for the Flemyng… UNBOUND: Dummy Jim Artist Matt Hulse and actor Samuel Dore enchanted with live music, readings, puppetry and elaborate knitwear, all devoted to the story of deaf cycling… Jan Carson, Fergal Keane & Aoife Moore: After Good Friday How fragile is peace, even 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement? Three Irish writers discuss their perspectives. Jan Carson is a community arts worker and writer of The Raptures and east Belfast-set The Fire Starters; Fergal Keane was the BBC’s… Madhumita Murgia & Georgina Voss: The Systems Which Govern Us Two fascinating technology writers reveal the disorientating extent to which we are already governed by AI and complex systems. Hear Financial Times AI editor Madhumita Murgia (author of Code Dependent) and artist and academic Georgina Voss (author of… Elizabeth Knox: The Political Force of Fantasy In January 2020, an article appeared on Slate with the headline, 'This New Zealand Fantasy Masterpiece Needs to Be Published in America, Like, Now.' The article went viral with readers as they raced to order 'the majestic, brain-bending novel' from New…