Academy of Ideas

#BattleFest2018: Understanding anti-Semitism today

Recording of a debate from the Battle of Ideas Festival 2018.
From racist attacks to ominous  propaganda, anti-Semitism appears to be  making a comeback in Europe. In the UK,  the Labour Party has been very publicly  split over how it deals with the issue.  In one respect, it looks like the simple  return of what has been called ‘the longest  hatred’. But while anti-Semitism has long  been seen as a right-wing phenomenon,  particularly since the Nazis, today’s anti-Semites are more likely to rail against Jews  in the name of the Palestinians, a favourite  cause of the left. Is hatred of Jews really on  the rise? Is it re-emerging in new forms? 
RICHARD ANGELL  director, Progress; elected member,  TUC’s LGBT committee; formerly worked  for All Party Parliamentary Group on  Combatting Antisemitism 
DR STEPHEN LAWphilosopher; author, The War For Children’s  Minds 
BRENDAN O’NEILL  editor, spiked; columnist, Penthouse; writer  the Sun and the Spectator; author, A Duty  to Offend 
JULIAN PETLEY  professor of journalism, Brunel University;  editorial board member, British Journalism  Review; principal editor, Journal of British  Cinema and Television 
MELANIE PHILLIPS columnist, The Times; regular panellist,  BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze; author, The  Legacy and best-selling book, Londonistan 
CHAIR: JACOB FUREDI junior commissioning editor, Daily Mail 

#BattleFest2018: How fear works

A recording of a discussion at the Battle of Ideas Festival 2018.
Published in 1997, Frank Furedi’s book Culture of Fear was widely acclaimed as perceptive and prophetic. In his new book, How Fear Works, Furedi seeks to explore two interrelated themes: why fear has acquired such a morally commanding status in society today and how the way we fear has changed from the way it was experienced in the past.
How has fear become detached from its material and physical source, so that it is now experienced as a secular version of a transcendental force? What is the role of the media in promoting fear and does anyone benefit from this culture of fear?
TIMANDRA HARKNESSjournalist, writer and broadcaster; presenter, FutureProofing; author,Big Data: does size matter?
IN CONVERSATION WITH:
PROFESSOR FRANK FUREDIsociologist and social commentator; author, How Fear Works: culture of fear in the 21st century and Populism and the European Culture Wars

#BattleFest2018: Automatic lovers - should we be worried about sex robots?

A recording of the debate at the Battle of Ideas Festival 2018.
Science fiction has long explored the use of robots for sex, but the application of new technologies has been pushing the boundaries of sexuality towards the mechanical in real life. Interaction with fully functioning robotic sexual partners could soon be a practical alternative to actual sex. Advocates claim many people could benefit, from men who struggle with intimacy to women trafficked into sex work. Critics claim sex robots are a ‘pornified’ ideal of female sexuality and they are concerned about how these robotic partners will represent women. So are sex robots an innovation to be embraced or a step towards sexual dystopia?
Please note that, given the subject matter, this podcast contains adult themes and language.
DR PIERS BENNadjunct professor at Fordham University London Centre
DR KATE DEVLINsenior lecturer in social and cultural AI, King’s College London; author, Turned On: the science of the sex robot
SIMON EVANScomedian; regular panellist, BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz
TIMANDRA HARKNESSjournalist, writer and broadcaster; presenter, FutureProofing; author, Big Data: does size matter?

#BattleFest2018: Does our DNA define us?

A recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas Festival 2018 at The Barbican, London on Sunday 14 October. 
In Blueprint: how DNA makes us who we are, the world’s leading behavioural geneticist, Robert Plomin, argues that our inherited DNA differences make us who we are as individuals. This conclusion is at odds with the importance ascribed to our education and the environment in which we grow up in shaping the person we become. But are there scientific or other good reasons to doubt Plomin’s conclusions? If we start making predictions about people’s lives and potential on the basis of their DNA, does this risk reducing their autonomy? How much can our DNA tell us about who we are?
DR PHILIP BALLscience writer; broadcaster; author; presenter, BBC Radio 4, Science Stories
ROBERT PLOMINprofessor of behavioural genetics, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience; author, Blueprint: how DNA makes us who we are

#BattleFest2018: Democracy under siege?

A recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas festival at the Barbican in London on 14 October 2018.
Over the past year, debates about democracy and its woes have been ubiquitous. There are fears tech giants and algorithms are undermining elections. Liberal democratic values such as free speech and universalism are questioned, even by liberals. Populism is variously claimed to be a threat to democracy or its very embodiment. Some claim undereducated voters were conned into voting for Brexit or Donald Trump and argue citizens should have to earn the right to vote by passing a test. Elected governments in Poland and Hungary have been censured by the EU. But managerial style of rule suggests anti-democratic tendencies have been developing for decades, excluding and ultimately angering voters. Many government powers are now exercised by unelected experts and quangos. Is it time to give more power to The People? What is democracy and what threatens it today? Can liberalism renew itself sufficiently to save democracy?
ZANNY MINTON BEDDOESeditor-in-chief, The Economist
DANIEL MOYLANformer deputy chairman, Transport for London; co-chairman, Urban Design London
STEVE RICHARDSbroadcaster; political commentator; presenter, BBC Radio 4’s Week in Westminster; author, The Rise of the Outsiders
BRUNO WATERFIELDBrussels correspondent, The Times; co-author, No Means No

#BattleFest2018: What is a woman anyway?

A recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas festival 2018 in London on Saturday 13 October.
What does it mean to be a woman? For some it’s about motherhood, others femininity, and some reject the whole idea of ‘womanhood’ outright. The Conservative Party’s proposed changes to the law around gender recognition have caused a fair amount of controversy around the question of what gender means and what it takes to be a woman. Is it about experience? Is it simply an identity which can be picked up by anyone? And, beyond the trans debate, is there anything worth defending in the idea of ‘womanhood’? Do women share a collective identity? What is a woman anyway?
SPEAKERS
HEATHER BRUNSKELL-EVANSacademic and writer; co-editor, Transgender Children and Young People
CHRISSIE DAZschoolteacher; cabaret performer; writer on transgender and gender variant identity
KATHY GYNGELLco-editor, The Conservative Woman
JOANNA WILLIAMShead of education and culture, Policy Exchange; author, Women vs Feminism; associate editor, spiked

#PodcastOfIdeas: the 2018 culture wars

In the third of our end-of-year round-ups for 2018, the Academy of Ideas team - Claire Fox, Alastair Donald, Geoff Kidder, Rob Lyons, Jacob Reynolds and Ella Whelan - discuss everything non-Brexit in 2018. Is there a populist revolt spreading across Europe? What has happened in the gender wars of 2018? And is free speech still under threat?

#PodcastOfIdeas: Brexit special

In the second of our end-of-year round-ups for 2018, the Academy of Ideas team - Claire Fox, Alastair Donald, Geoff Kidder, Rob Lyons, Jacob Reynolds and Ella Whelan - discuss a year of Brexit battles, the prospect of a second referendum and what the future holds for British democracy.