Nathalie Olah discusses how this bright generation came to be, and what effective means are still at their disposal to challenge the establishment and ultimately win. By rejecting the established routines of achieving prosperity, and by stealing what you can from them on the way, this book offers hope to anyone who feels increasingly frustrated by …

Why flawed logic puts us all at Risk, and How Critical Thinking can save the World.David Robert Grimes shows how we can be lured into making critical mistakes or drawing false conclusions, and how to avoid such errors. Given the power of modern science and the way that movements can unite to protest a cause via social media, we are in dangerous tim…

One thing we know for certain is that sex is personal: perhaps the most intimate thing of all. But sex is also shaped by a complicated web of cultural, social and political forces outside of ourselves.Fear-mongering, moral panic and outdated attitudes prevail, but if #MeToo has taught us anything, it’s how dangerous it is to keep conversations abou…

The New Science of how we Walk and why it’s Good for us.Walking enabled us to walk out of Africa and to spread as far as Alaska and Australia. It freed our hands and freed our minds. We put one foot in front of the other without thinking – yet how many of us know how we do that, or appreciate the advantages it gives us?In this tribute to walking, n…

Mudlark (/’mAdla;k/) noun A person who scavenges for usable debris in the mud of a river or harbourLara Maiklem has scoured the banks of the Thames for over fifteen years, in pursuit of the objects that the river unearths: from Neolithic flints to Roman hair pins, medieval buckles to Tudor buttons, Georgian clay pipes to Victorian toys. These objec…

What is masculinity? Dominating the world around us, from Trump’s twitter outbursts to deadly gun violence, from male suicide rates to incels on Reddit and 4chan, masculinity is perceived to be ‘toxic’, ‘fragile’ and ‘in crisis’.JJ Bola exposes masculinity as a performance that men are socially conditioned into. Using examples of non-Western cultur…

Will Brexit boost jobs? Or wreck the NHS? Or cause food shortages? From strawberries to passports, the broadcaster and journalist Gavin Esler sets out how the most momentous change in Britain for decades will change everyday life. From the food markets of Kent to NHS operating theatres to the boardrooms of big employers, Brexit throws up many surpr…

Pixie Turner will unpack why diet and nutrition misinformation is so problematic, on social media, in mass media, and on a public health level, and why we could all benefit from taking a moment to assess our personal relationship with food. Expect some mythbusting, diet rants, and lots of fully-referenced evidence-based science.—Pixie Turner is a n…

What if you aren’t who you think you are?What if you don’t really know the people closest to you?And what if your most deeply-held beliefs turn out to be … wrong?In her book Stop Being Reasonable, philosopher and journalist Eleanor Gordon-Smith tells six lucid, gripping stories that show the limits of human reason. She discusses some of these stori…

Jonathan H. Marks argues that public-private partnerships create “webs of influence” that undermine the integrity of public health agencies and distort health policy and research. These collaborations also frame public health problems and their solutions in ways that protect and promote the commercial interests of corporate “partners.” We should ex…

Kerry Hudson discusses her book Lowborn with James Bloodworth. Lowborn is a powerful, personal, agenda-changing work of non-fiction on poverty in Britain – a book like nothing that’s been written before, and a book that we all need to pay attention to.Kerry Hudson grew up in all-encompassing, grinding poverty. Always on the move with her single mot…

What do we see when we watch a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat or read a person’s mind? We are captivated by an illusion; we applaud the fact that we have been fooled. Why do we enjoy experiencing what seems clearly impossible, or at least beyond our powers of explanation? In this talk Dr Gustav Kuhn examines the psychological processes that un…

How we lost our green and pleasant land, and how to take it back.For centuries, England’s elite have covered up how they got their hands on millions of acres of our land, by constructing walls, burying surveys and more recently, sheltering behind offshore shell companies. But with the dawn of digital mapping and the Freedom of Information Act, it’s…

The new neuroscience that shatters the myth of the female brain. This is not feminist science – it’s just science. - Prof Gina Rippon.Conway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedConway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedConway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedConway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedConway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedConway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedConway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedConway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedConway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedConway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedConway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedConway Hall

Pause for Thought was a humanist alternative to the BBC Radio 4 programme Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC World Service from 1997-99.Produced by Christopher Templeton. Donated to Conway Hall Library & Archives Aug 2018.© Christopher Templeton, Tempting Films Ltd & Pemberton Publishing LimitedConway Hall