Conway Hall: Where Ethics Matter

The very best journalism from one of Britain’s most admired and outspoken science writers, author of the bestselling "Bad Science" and "Bad Pharma" and his new book "I Think You'll Find It's a Bit More Complicated Than That"

Prof Lisa Jardine talks about her father, Jacob Bronowski, his involvement in being spied upon by M.I.5. during World War II, McCarthyism in the UK and surveillance culture, and how he ended up being a TV personality.

Jonny Scaramanga attended a fundamentalist Christian school in the '90s where he learned that the Loch Ness Monster disproved evolution, God disapproved of the NHS, and homosexuals were an abomination to God. He talks about what students learn in these schools today, and what we should do when the parent's right to freedom of religion conflicts with the child's right to a sound education.

Human Rights campaigner, Naomi McAuliffe, talks about how women's rights are treated as an optional extra to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and argues that a change needs to come when all other rights have been won, which is vital to women's survival.

Recorded Sun 5 May 2013

Alex was homeless in the first year of his life and grew up with a single mum on benefits. Now he's a full time atheist who thinks we need to talk more about class.

Doubt and skepticism don't cost money, but movements built around them often do. Secularists are broadening their image, but their cause remains seen, not totally unfairly, as middle class. We have to take action to reach hard up atheists and skeptics, or risk being a community for the well off. In this talk, Alex discusses how.

Alex Gabriel is the author of Godlessness in Theory, a blog on religion and how to leave it, popular rhetoric and political dissent, secular, nerd and LGBT culture, sexuality and gender or whatever comes to mind. His writing appears at AlterNet, the Rationalist Association and elsewhere. Follow his work, or find him on Twitter @AlexGabriel.

Recorded Sun 23 Mar 2014

Omar has been in touch with human pain and suffering since very early in life. After being in two wars and one violent uprising in Iraq, he finally escaped to London in 1996 as a refugee. He now works in London as a physician and a trainee psychiatrist. Murad has witnessed all kinds of traumas and has dealt with all kinds of wounds. Through his work as a doctor for the last two decades, his job has helped him to understand what people actually need.

His talk will teach understanding, how we can learn to be 'better quality humans' and how to have a better quality life for everyone everywhere, all of the time.

Dr. Omar Sheikho Murad is originally from Zakho City, Kurdistan, Iraq. He is the author of ten books, seven of those using the "Water-Logic" instead of "Rock-Logic" (i.e., using peaceful means instead of violence and aggression) which are about understanding life and understanding humans.

Dr Mark Fielding on Do Philosophy and Politics mix?

Philosophy tries to picture the world as it is in general terms, but politics focusses on the way the world should be. Martin Heidegger provides an example through which to consider the difficulties which emerge when Philosophy and Politics come together. To what extent can and should Philosophy inform politics? And should we take seriously the idea that Politics can change the nature of Philosophy?

Dr Mark Fielding has taught at UCL, Birkbeck College, The Open University, and The University of Greenwich. He holds degrees from the University of Manchester and UCL. His principal interests are in the areas of Philosophy and Film, contemporary political thought, 20th Century French and German Philosophy, and Philosophy and Biology. He has recently been working on books on Philosophy and Horror and the nature of political utopias in the contemporary world.

Recorded on Sun 1 Jun 2014