Battle of Ideas 2014
18 & 19 October |
London

The Battle of Ideas 2015 is a weekend of high-level, thought-provoking public debate taking place on 17 & 18 October at the Barbican. You can keep up to date with our latest events and news about the 2015 festival by signing up to our newsletter. We also have satellite events in the UK and across Europe before and after the main festival.

This year's festival featured 80+ sessions, over 400 speakers and nearly 3,000 attendees

Thanks to Tom Fenn, Tamara Hussain and Chris Sharp for the images
Battle of Ideas in the media

The Battle of Ideas 2014 has been widely covered in the press, and speakers and organisers have featured on TV and radio. Read the media coverage of the festival.

Speakers included
Phil Booth, coordinator, medConfidential

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, philosopher and novelist; author, Plato at the Googleplex: why philosophy won’t go away; visiting professor of philosophy, New College of the Humanities

Clare Gerada, GP; past chair, Royal College of General Practitioners

Sarah Harper, international adviser on ageing issues; director, Oxford Institute of Population Ageing

Frank Furedi, sociologist and social commentator; author, What's Happened to the University?, Power of Reading: from Socrates to Twitter, On Tolerance and Authority: a sociological history

Robin Aitken, co-founder, Oxford Food Bank

Ian Crawford, professor of planetary science and astrobiology, Birkbeck College, University of London

Brendan O'Neill, editor, spiked; columnist, Big Issue; contributor, Spectator; author, A Duty to Offend: Selected Essays

David Lammy MP, Labour MP for Tottenham; author, Out of the Ashes: Britain after the riots

+ Full list of speakers
Readings

The future of transport, Kevin McCullagh

The Emperor's New Clothes? The dangers of the anti-FGM campaign, Bríd Hehir

Should we feel sorry for Tesco? The human cost of cheap food , Dave Watson

The EU's culture war against The People, Frank Furedi

Community treatment orders are not helping people with mental illness, Sarah Wollaston

Nasa approves 'impossible' space engine design that apparently violates the laws of physics and could revolutionise space travel, James Vincent

The strange death of individualism, Ross Clark

The end of the party: how we could be heading for a post-democratic era, Michael Kenny and Nick Pearce

Big data needs big judgement, Nesta

Chantal Mouffe: The future of democracy, The Anthropo.Scene

The EU’s war on immigration, Rossa Minogue

Evidence based medicine: a movement in crisis?, Trisha Greenhalgh

It’s official: Fairtrade screws over labourers, Rossa Minogue

Stop Worrying About Girls versus Boys, Public Education Sucks for Everyone, Cathy Reisenwitz

Why Philosophy Is Still Relevant - And Has Useful Applications, Alexander Leivesley

+ All Battle Readings
The Battle of Ideas is produced by the
Academy of Ideas
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“Some of the freest speech I have enjoyed in years.”
Baroness Ruth Deech QC, crossbench peer; chairman, Bar Standards Board

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