Academy of Ideas

#LockdownDebates: The divided state of America?

LOCKDOWN DEBATE: Have voters really given up on politicians and the political system more widely? Is there any possibility of the country rallying around the president or is politics simply hopelessly divided? Is America’s position as the leading global power under threat and what impact will this have on the elections? What is needed to inject political direction into the 2020 elections? Sohrab Ahmari, Dr Richard Johnson, Wendy Kaminer, Helen Searls and Michael Tracey discuss.

#LockdownDebates: Can we cancel ’cancel culture’?

LOCKDOWN DEBATE: Some suggest that marginalising unpleasant and offensive people – not doing business with them, not giving them a platform, not employing them in your business – is an entirely reasonable, personal decision. When do such actions become a systematic marginalisation of certain views – and what’s wrong with marginalising repulsive views anyway? Many seem eager to ‘fight fire with fire’ – calling out the double standards of their opponents in a tit-for-tat round of cancellations – but how can we expect that to lead to a greater range of opinion and debate? Perhaps we need to ask a fundamental question: what does it mean to live in a genuinely tolerant democracy? Nick Buckley MBE, Alex Deane, Claire Fox, Helen Pluckrose and Calvin Robinson discuss.

#Arts&SocietyForum: Gabriella Swallow on JS Bach and Helmut Lachenmann

ARTS & SOCIETY FORUM: Gabriella Swallow, one of the most versatile and exciting cellists of her generation, gives a lecture on her twin inspirations: German composers JS Bach and Helmut Lachenmann. These two musicians - 200 years apart - tackled the same instrument. Both were experimental and strove for the same kind of experience, but in completely different ways.

#SocialPolicyForum: Behind the NHS frontline

SOCIAL POLICY FORUM: While the nation has been getting behind the NHS and care workers, stepping onto doorsteps to ‘clap for carers’ battling with Covid-19; there has been a growing sentiment that we don’t appreciate enough the vital – and sometimes dangerous – work they do. But is the wartime rhetoric and applauding of ‘heroes’ overdone, and the list of key workers overlong? Will everything return to normal after the crisis is over, or will public support and gratitude lead to better pay and services, and a new appreciation of public service? Jon Bryan and Dr Frankie Anderson discuss.

#EconomyForum: The Covid-19 global economy - from Italy to South Africa

ECONOMY FORUM: In their different ways, Italy and South Africa are very important economically. Italy is the eighth largest in the world by nominal GDP and the third largest in the EU. South Africa is the second largest economy in Africa and the only African country in the G20. Moreover, both countries have been badly hit by the crisis. Dominic Standish and Russell Grinker discuss.

Book Launch: Why borders matter, with Professor Frank Furedi

ACADEMY OF IDEAS BOOK LAUNCH: Limits, boundaries and borders are increasingly unfashionable. Whether its support for the ‘no borders’ approach of Europhiles or the rejection of binaries by gender-theory enthusiasts, arguing for borders is difficult these days. In his new book, Why Borders Matter: why humanity must relearn the art of drawing boundaries, Professor Frank Furedi argues that the key driver of the confusion surrounding borders and boundaries is the difficulty that society has in endowing experience with meaning. Timandra Harkness and Professor Frank Furedi discuss.

#Arts&SocietyForum: Gericault, Picasso and the art of composition

ARTS & SOCIETY FORUM: Theodore Gericault’s ‘The Raft of the Medusa’ is not only an enormous painting of high drama and tragedy on a cinematic scale, but it is also an assertion of the power of underlying geometry, shape and colour to carry a narrative. It is a constant inspiration to me for the creation of meaning in art through composition, a balance of both form, shape and subject. Picasso’s ‘Three Dancers’ is equally assertive through its brightly coloured, flat geometric shapes, and like Gericault’s ‘Raft’ it also has a complex human narrative. Dido Powell is a painter who rejects the separation of the painting categories ‘abstract ‘ and ‘figurative’. For years, she has been interested in including abstract shapes in my paintings that she has observed from her surroundings, such as reflections and shadows. Painter Dido Powell explains how these paintings, separated by a century, convey their meanings and deal with poignant human struggles.

#Arts&SocietyForum: Morality and hell - the power of Dante’s Inferno

ARTS & SOCIETY FORUM: Dante’s Divine Comedy, composed 700 years ago, is one of the foundational texts of Western literature. It was written in Dante’s own Florentine dialect, and according to those able to read the original, no translation has ever adequately conveyed both its poetic force and imaginative power. Even in translation though - and there are hundreds in English alone - the poetry, narrative and imagery of Dante’s work have made a lasting impression on generations of readers, as they have followed the author on his own tour of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. And of the three parts of the poem, it is Hell that is most loved. Why, asks writer and author Dolan Cummings.