RSA Events: Audio

In his 2014 Chief Executive’s lecture, Matthew Taylor will explore new RSA thinking on how we can empower people to choose to pursue creative lives, and to contribute to enabling others to do so as well.

How should we prepare for the time when machines surpass humans in intelligence? Professor Nick Bostrom explores the frontiers of thinking about the human condition and the future of intelligent life.

Jon Cruddas MP visits the RSA to discuss unleashing creativity in a fast paced world, to enable people to shape a better future for themselves and others.

In his outgoing speech as Chair of the Environment Agency, Lord Smith reflects on the extreme weather patterns that are affecting the UK and other parts of the world, talks about the prospect of climate change, and call for a new policy importance for environmental issues and concern.

Organisational change expert Professor Lynda Gratton shows that it is now critical that corporations step up to play their role in the world by building inner resilience, actively anchoring themselves in their communities and supply chains, and leveraging their unique capabilities to address complex global challenges.

If a fuller life requires a deeper acceptance of death, what stops us facing up to the inevitable? Writer Will Self, philosopher Stephen Cave and Dr Joanna Cook lecturer in Medical Anthropology at UCL ask: if we could look mortality more squarely in the eye, what effect would it have on our personal and political lives?

Anyone can buy a share, go to a company AGM and raise questions on issues from profits and strategy to tax practices and environmental concerns. But why don't more people engage? We gather an expert panel to discuss shareholder power and the shifting balance of responsibility and influence. Speakers include David Pitt-Watson, executive Fellow, London Business Shool and Catherine Howarth, CEO, ShareAction.

Scientific indicators suggest the global economy is heading south, but public debate on sustainability is paralysed between deniers and doomsayers. By framing sustainability as an opportunity for innovation and transformation, can we chart a new pathway from the “magnetic north” of incremental change to the “True North” of a sustainable economy?

What goes behind the scenes of the highly secretive commodities trading market? Financial journalist Kate Kelly looks at the key players behind the industry and how their actions have global consequences.

What is the future of news? John Ryley, head of Sky News explores how traditional journalistic values, new technology and changing consumer behaviour have an impact on the gathering and delivery of news.

In the global race to reinvent the state, which political values will triumph – the liberal values of democracy and freedom, or the authoritarian values of command and control? With John Micklethwait, Editor-in-Chief of the Economist and Adrian Wooldridge, Management Editor and ‘Schumpeter’ columnist.

The rewards of curiosity have never been higher, yet it remains misunderstood and undervalued. Drawing on the latest research into this fundamental human trait, author Ian Leslie explains why.

Is there anything more to the self than brain cells and processes? Mary Midgley, one of Britain’s most respected moral philosophers, and writer and comedian Rob Newman discuss the implications of the scientific materialism that equates self with brain.

Author and broadcaster Kenan Malik travels from Homer's Greece to Mao's China, from ancient India to modern America, to find out what the history of moral thought tells us about the nature of morality.

A new survey by the Alcohol & Crime Commission has found that while many prisoners will be able to manage their alcohol problems during their sentence, a lack of support upon being released can lead them straight back into criminal behaviour. Former prison governor John Podmore leads a panel to explore ways to break the cycle.