LSE: Public lectures and events

Speaker(s): Yuval Levin, Dr Michael McQuarrie, Professor Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey | US politics are failing twenty-first-century Americans, with both parties blind to how America has changed over the past half century and why the dysfunctions of the nation's fragmented national life will need to be answered by the strengths of its decentralized, diverse, dynamic character. What are the prospects for political renewal? Yuval Levin argues that what is needed is a modernizing political revival through the middle layers of society in order to achieve not a single solution to the problems of our age, but multiple and tailored answers fitted to the daunting range of the challenges faced today. Yuval Levin is the Hertog Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and Editor of National Affairs. He is also a senior editor of The New Atlantis, and a contributing editor to National Review and the Weekly Standard. He has been a member of the White House domestic policy staff (under President George W Bush), Executive Director of the President's Council on Bioethics, and a congressional staffer. His essays and articles have appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, and others, and he is the author of The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left and The Fractured Republic: Renewing America's Social Contract in the Age of Individualism. Michael McQuarrie (@mgmcquarrie) is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at LSE. He is primarily interested in urban politics and culture, nonprofit organizations, and social movements. He has recently been awarded a Hellman Fellowship at the University of California and a Poiesis Fellowship at the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey (@Cheryl_SB) is Professor in Political Science in the Government Department at LSE, where she teaches courses in the politics of economic policy and legislative politics. Her research interests are in political economy and quantitative textual analysis. By measuring the words, arguments and deliberation of politicians and policy makers, she aims to gauge the extent to which ideas, interests and institutions shape political behavior. She is author and editor of several books including most recently Deliberating Monetary Policy. Her articles have appeared in the American Political Science Review, World Politics, the British Journal of Political Science, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Political Analysis, PS: Political Science and Politics, and Parliamentary History. Peter Trubowitz (@ptrubowitz) is Department Head of International Relations and Director of the US Centre at LSE and Associate Fellow at Chatham House, Royal Institute of International Affairs. The United States Centre at LSE (@LSE_US) is a hub for global expertise, analysis and commentary on America. Its mission is to promote policy-relevant and internationally-oriented scholarship to meet the growing demand for fresh analysis and critical debate on the United States.

Speaker(s): Dame Fiona Reynolds, Professor Giles Atkinson and Nicholas Crane | We live in a world where the drive for economic growth is crowding out everything that can't be given a monetary value and it's getting harder to find space for the things that really matter but money can't buy, including our future. Fiona Reynolds proposes a solution that is at once radical and simple - to inspire us through the beauty of the world around us. Delving into our past, examining landscapes, nature, farming and urbanisation, she shows how ideas about beauty have arisen and evolved, been shaped by public policy, been knocked back and inched forward until they arrived lost in the economically-driven spirit of today. Giles Atkinson is Professor of Environmental Policy in the Department of Geography and Environment at LSE. Giles was a member of the UK Natural Capital Committee from 2012-2015 (an independent body advising HM Government on the unsustainable use of UK natural capital) and was a member of the Advisory Board of TEEB (The Economics of Economics Biodiversity - an international study of the economic state of ecosystems initiated by the G8+5 countries and European Commission) from 2008-2015. He is currently a member of the World Bank's expert committee for its 'WAVES Partnership' (Wealth Accounting for Ecosystem Services) and a member of the Steering Group for the Natural Capital Project led by the UK Office for National Statistics. Nicholas Crane (@nicholascrane) is an author, geographer and cartographic expert. He is the recipient of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society's Mungo Park Medal in recognition of outstanding contributions to geographical knowledge, and of the Royal Geographical Society's Ness Award for popularising geography and the understanding of Britain. His books include Mercator: The Man Who Mapped the Planet, Clear Waters Rising: A Mountain Walk Across Europe, Two Degrees West: An English Journey and most recently The Making of the British Landscape: From the Ice Age to the Present. He has presented several acclaimed series on BBC Two, among them Map Man, Town, Britannia and Coast. He was elected President of the Royal Geographical Society in 2015. Fiona Reynolds (@fionacreynolds) is Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and a former Director-General of the National Trust. A noted campaigner and media figure, The Fight for Beauty: Our Path to a Better Future is her first book, distilling decades of experience and thought. Michael Mason is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Environment and an Associate of the Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and the Environment. His research interests encompass environmental politics and governance, notably issues of accountability, transparency and security. The LSE Department of Geography & Environment (@LSEGeography) is a centre of international academic excellence in economic, urban and development geography, environmental social science and climate change.

Speaker(s): Mary Dejevsky, Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett and Professor James Tilley | Brexit has been viewed by many as part of a populist revolution sweeping not only the UK, but Europe and beyond. Why did Britain vote for Brexit? Was it a result of a UKIP-led revolt on the right? This discussion will explore the motivations of the leave vote and the implications for UK politics. Mary Dejevsky (@marydejevsky) is a writer and broadcaster for The Independent newspaper. Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett (@rhiannonlucyc) is a freelance writer for The Guardian and co-founded The Vagenda blog. James Tilley is a professor of Politics at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. He is author of The New Politics of Class: The Political Exclusion of the British Working Class. Simon Hix is Harold Laski Professor of Political Science in the LSE Department of Government. The Department of Government is one of the largest political science departments in the UK. Activities cover a comprehensive range of approaches to the study of politics. Keep up to date with what Brexit means for the UK and the wider world at LSE Brexit blog (@lsebrexitvote).

Speaker(s): Phanella Mayell Fine and Alice Olins | Editor's note: Apologies for the poor quality audio in this podcast. Women's careers aren't just in the ether, they're on the front pages of newspapers, inside glossy magazines, on the radio, across the internet and they're being discussed on a daily basis in governments all around the world. Sure, if you look at gender-split statistics, the situation is as depressing as it's ever been, but the reality is slowly catching up with the legal framework. But how do you succeed as a woman today, and how do you succeed as you? In this talk, Phanella Mayall Fine and Alice Olins, authors of Step Up: Confidence, Success and your Stellar Career in 10 Minutes A Day will share their tips on how even the busiest of us can achieve success, lead authentically and find balance between work and life. The Step Up Club (@thestepupclub) is a fresh, new voice in the career conversation. Through their stylish events, online content and weekly newsletter, The Step Up Club will make you feel empowered, boost your skill set and broaden your network. Phanella Mayell Fine (@phanfine) is an executive coach and development consultant. She coaches and trains professionals across Europe for clients including top law firms and investment banks on topics including women’s leadership and advancement, self-presentation, maternity and return to work. A mother of three, her extensive practical experience is supported by her Masters in Organisational Behaviour awarded with Merit from Birkbeck, University of London. Phanella began her career as an international finance lawyer working on multi-billion dollar transactions in London and New York. She then moved to become the only female fund manager on JP Morgan’s flagship European Equity Fund desk managing in excess of 20 billion Euros. Alice Olins (@AliceOlins) has worked at or written for nearly all of the country’s broadsheets and women’s glossies. She spent a decade at The Times as its Senior Fashion Writer, where she contributed front-page stories as well as big hitting fashion and lifestyle interviews for Times2 and the Saturday Magazine. Then came a stint as Marie Claire’s Fashion Features Director, where she commissioned, wrote and edited a weighty proportion of the magazine and co-founded the new publication Marie Claire Runway. Today, with two daughters in tow, Alice is the Fashion Features Director-at-Large at Red magazine, and continues to write on a freelance basis for publications including, The Daily Telegraph, LivingEtc and The Daily Mail on fashion, lifestyle and now women's careers. Tina Fahm is CEO of a consulting firm that designs and delivers transformational learning programmes in governance. Tina became a governor of the LSE in 2010; she is a member of the School’s governing Council and chairs the Audit Committee. LSE Power (@lse_power) is LSE’s Professional Women’s Network.

Speaker(s): Stig Abell, Jim Waterson | Newspapers are now mere paper tigers, we are told, yet in the face of a tidal wave of fake news, misinformation and bias, perhaps we need good journalism more than ever. In a world where Facebook and Twitter have become the public sphere for Brexit and Trump, what is the role of news brands? Two top media executives with experience of leadership at the Sun, BuzzFeed, the Guardian and the TLS will debate the future of news with a leading media analyst. Stig Abell (@StigAbell) is the Editor of the Times Literary Supplement, Britain’s leading weekly literary newspaper. Stig joined the TLS having been Managing Editor of the Sun. Previous to this he was a fiction reviewer at The Spectator and reviewer at Telegraph Media Group. Away from print Stig can heard every Sunday afternoon on LBC with a round-up of the week’s news and a look at upcoming events from cultural happenings to political debates. He also regularly reviews newspapers on Sky News, and has appeared as a pundit on almost every broadcast channel. Stig’s previous career has taken in arts journalism, press regulation (he ran the Press Complaints Commission whilst still in his twenties) and crisis management. Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) is Political Editor of Buzzfeed UK. Charlie Beckett (@CharlieBeckett ) is the founding director of Polis, the think-tank for research and debate into international journalism and society in the Media and Communications Department at LSE. He is a regular commentator on journalism and politics for the UK and International media. Polis (@PolisLSE ) runs a series of public lectures and seminars for journalists and the public as well as a programme of Fellowships and Research. It has a Summer School and holds conferences and publishes reports.

Speaker(s): Tim Harford | Award-winning columnist Tim Harford celebrates the benefits that messiness has in our lives: why it’s important, why we resist it, and why we should embrace it instead. Using research from neuroscience, psychology, social science, as well as captivating examples of real people doing extraordinary things, he explains that the human qualities we value – creativity, responsiveness, resilience – are integral to the disorder, confusion, and disarray that produce them. Tim Harford (@TimHarford) is the award-winning author of bestselling The Undercover Economist, The Undercover Economist Strikes Back, Adapt, The Logic of Life and most recently Messy: How to be Creative and Resilient in a Tidy-Minded World. Harford is currently a senior columnist at the Financial Times and host of the BBC Radio 4 program More or Less. Richard Bronk is a Visiting Fellow in the European Institute at LSE and author of The Romantic Economist: Imagination in Economics.

Speaker(s): Victoria Broackes | You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966-70 is the V&A’s major exhibition for autumn-winter 2016-17. Co-curator Victoria Broackes discusses how the exhibition explores the significance and impact of the late 1960s through the era-defining music, performances, fashion, film, design and political activism, and raises the questions: what did the optimistic idealism of the period do for us and where are we now? Victoria Broackes is Senior Curator for the V&A Department of Theatre & Performance, and Head of Festival for the London Design Festival at the V&A. In 2013 she co-curated David Bowie is, the fastest selling exhibition in the V&A’s history. For autumn 2016 she is co-curating the major V&A exhibition You Say You Want a Revolution?, an interactive, music led exhibition about the ongoing impact of the social and cultural youth revolutions of the late Sixties. Victoria has developed several other popular music displays for the V&A, from Kylie: The Exhibition (2007) to The Story of the Supremes (2008) and The House of Annie Lennox (2011). The Ralph Miliband Programme (@RMilibandLSE) is one of LSE's most prestigious lecture series and seeks to advance Ralph Miliband's spirit of free social inquiry.

Speaker(s): Anne Applebaum, Olena Bilan, Mustapha Nayeem and Vladyslav Rashkovan | Editor's note: There was a disturbance at 43.05, please note that the podcast jumps forward at this point. The overthrow of the Yanukovich government through a popular rebellion energised Ukrainian civil society and created expectations that have been hard to live up to. The Russian occupation of Crimea and support of separatists in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions have amplified the political and economic challenges, but the revolutionary fervour still lives on in large parts of Ukrainian society – sometimes propelling further reforms, but sometimes also undermining political consensus and leading to political overreach. Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) is a Visiting Professor in Practice at the Institute of Global Affairs at LSE and a columnist for the Washington Post. Olena Bilan is Chief Economist at Dragon Capital. Mustapha Nayeem (@mefimus) is a Ukrainian journalist, MP and public figure. Formerly he was a reporter for the newspaper Kommersant Ukraine, the TVi channel, and the internet newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda. Vladyslav Rashkovan is former Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine. Erik Berglof (@ErikBerglof) is Director of the Institute of Global Affairs at LSE. The Institute of Global Affairs (IGA) (@LSEIGA) at LSE creates a dedicated space for research, policy engagement and teaching across multiple disciplines to pioneer locally-rooted responses to global challenges.

Speaker(s): Dr John Collins, Professor Lawrence Phillips, Dr Joanne Csete, Dr Michael Shiner | As countries examine new ways of managing drug issues beyond the problematic and simplistic model of the 'war on drugs', this lecture will examine how LSE research, among others, can help impact and drive government policies. Drawing on a number of LSE IDEAS reports, including the Expert Group on the Economics of Drug Policy, a decision science based approach to ranking drug harms, the outcomes of the Lancet Commission on Drug Policy, and an examination of cannabis reclassification in the UK we will examine new methods for evaluating and managing global drug issues. John Collins is Executive Director of the International Drug Policy Project (IDPP) at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Lawrence Phillips is Emeritus Professor of Decision Sciences in the Department of Management at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Joanne Csete teaches at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and is a Commissioner of the Lancet Commission on Drug Policy and lead author of the Lancet report Public Health and International Drug Policy. Michael Shiner is Head of Teaching for IDPP and an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Mary Martin is a Senior Research Fellow in LSE IDEAS and the LSE Department of International Relations. She was previously Director of Communications and Research for Human Security at LSE Global Governance, and from 2006-2010, co-ordinator of the Human Security Study Group, which reports to the High Representative of the European Union. She is also Visiting Professor in International Security at the Barcelona Institute for International Studies (IBEI). LSE IDEAS (@lseideas) is an IGA Centre that acts as the School’s foreign policy think tank. LSE Works is a series of public lectures, that will showcase some of the latest research by LSE's academic departments and research centres. In each session, LSE academics will present key research findings, demonstrating where appropriate the implications of their studies for public policy. A list of all the LSE Works lectures can be viewed at LSE Works.

Speaker(s): Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs | In his 2017 Robbins Lectures, Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs will argue for a new Moral Economics built firmly on the foundations of the new moral sciences. The goal of moral economics is to promote wellbeing. A core principle is the cultivation of individual and group virtue to help guide the behavior of both individuals and groups in the global society. Lecture 3. Cultivating the Virtues of Globalization. Global society is at once deeply interconnected and deeply divided across political, religious, class, ethnic, and linguistic lines. These divides not only threaten prosperity but even human survival. The third lecture considers the virtues needed for globalization and the ways to cultivate them. The two other lectures that are part of this series are on Monday 13 and Tuesday 14 February. Jeffrey D Sachs (@JeffDSachs) is Professor of Economics at Columbia University, a leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author and syndicated columnist. Nava Ashraf is Professor of Economics at the LSE and Director of Research of the Marshall Institute for Philanthropy and Social Entrepreneurship. The CEP (@CEP_LSE) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the LSE Research Laboratory. It was established by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in 1990 and is now one of the leading economic research groups in Europe.

Speaker(s): Diarmaid MacCulloch, Ulinka Rublack and Peter Stanford | 500 years ago Martin Luther launched the Protestant Reformation when he nailed a sheet of paper to the door of a church in a small university town in Germany. That sheet and the incendiary ideas it contained flared up into religious persecution and war, eventually burning a huge hole through 16th century Christendom. And yet the man who sparked this revolution has somehow been lost in the glare of events. Who was Luther? What made him a brilliant writer as well as a foul mouthed polemicist? And what drove him to challenge the authority of the Church? In an event hosted by BBC Radio Three’s arts and ideas programme, Free Thinking (@BBCFreeThinking) , Anne McElvoy explores the man and his passionate theology with Peter Stanford, the author of a new Luther biography, Martin Luther: Catholic Dissident and the historians, Ulinka Rublack, author of Reformation Europe and Diarmaid MacCulloch, whose most recent book is All Things Made New – Writings on the Reformation. Diarmaid MacCulloch is Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford University. His Thomas Cranmer (1996) won the Whitbread Biography Prize, the James Tait Black Prize and the Duff Cooper Prize; Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490-1700 (2004) won the Wolfson Prize and the British Academy Prize. A History of Christianity (2010), which was adapted into a six-part BBC television series, was awarded the Cundill and Hessel-Tiltman Prizes. His Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh were published in 2013 as Silence: A Christian History. His most recent television series, Sex and the Church, broadcast in 2015. He was knighted in 2012. Ulinka Rublack is Professor of Early Modern European history at Cambridge University and a Fellow of St John's College. Her recent book The Astronomer & the Witch: Johannes Kepler's Fight for His Mother was an Observer book of the year and has inspired an opera. Her other books include Reformation Europe. She is editor, most recently, of the Oxford Handbook of the Protestant Reformations and of Penguin's first graphic classic, Hans Holbein, The Dance of Death. Peter Stanford is a writer, journalist and broadcaster. His previous investigations into the history, theology and cultural significance of religious ideas include The Devil – A Biography, Heaven – A Traveller’s Guide to the Undiscovered Country, The She-Pope and Judas: The Troubling History of the Renegade Apostle. A former editor of the Catholic Herald, he writes for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph titles, as well as The Observer and The Tablet. His biography of Lord Longford was made into the BAFTA- and Golden Globe-winning film, Longford, and he has presented TV versions of his other books, including Channel 4’s Catholics and Sex. He is director of the Longford Trust for prison reform. Anne McElvoy (@annemcelvoy) is Senior Editor at The Economist, a presenter of BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking and BBC Radio 4 Moral Maze, and a London Evening Standard columnist.

Speaker(s): Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs | In his 2017 Robbins Lectures, Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs will argue for a new Moral Economics built firmly on the foundations of the new moral sciences. The goal of moral economics is to promote wellbeing. A core principle is the cultivation of individual and group virtue to help guide the behavior of both individuals and groups in the global society. Lecture 2. The Hard Problem of Inter-Group Morality. The most difficult moral challenges involve the interaction across groups, whether nation states, private companies, or ethnic groups. In all such cases, there is the deep tendency towards inter-group conflict. The cultivation of group virtue to underpin inter-group peace and cooperation is an especially daunting challenge. The two other lectures that are part of this series are on Monday 13 and Wednesday 15 February. Jeffrey D Sachs (@JeffDSachs) is Professor of Economics at Columbia University, a leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author and syndicated columnist. Richard Layard is Director for the Wellbeing Programme, Centre for Economic Performance. The CEP (@CEP_LSE) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the LSE Research Laboratory. It was established by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in 1990 and is now one of the leading economic research groups in Europe.

Speaker(s): Pankaj Mishra | Mass shootings and suicide bombs; Donald Trump, Narendra Modi and Rodrigo Duterte; the rise of nationalism, racism, sexism and homophobia; the rise of a new anti-Semitism in parts of Europe; climate change; the refugee crisis; ISIS. Pankaj Mishra identifies the unifying root cause of all of these things that we deem unintelligible and random, to reveal the unsettling ways history is repeating itself, and who and what is to blame. Modernity, secularism, development, and progress have long been viewed by the powerful few as benign ideals for the many. Today, however, botched experiments in nation-building, democracy, industrialization and urbanization visibly scar much of the world. As once happened in Europe, the wider embrace of revolutionary politics, mass movements, technology, the pursuit of wealth and individualism has cast billions adrift in a literally demoralized world, uprooted from tradition but still far from modernity. As Mishra shows, it was from among the ranks of the disaffected and the spiritually disorientated, that the militants of the 19th century arose - angry young men who became cultural nationalists in Germany, messianic revolutionaries in Russia, bellicose chauvinists in Italy, and anarchist terrorists internationally. Age of Anger is the tale of history’s ‘winners’ and their illusions, looking at how people have viewed history post-1945 as a narrative of progress, only to find themselves unable to fulfil the promises - freedom, stability and prosperity - of a globalized economy, and so become increasingly susceptible to demagogues and their simplifications. Mishra reveals how all over the world, the common reaction has been intense hatred of supposed villains, the invention of enemies, attempts to recapture a lost golden age, unfocused fury and self-empowerment through spectacular violence. Through exploring the great waves of paranoid hatreds that seem inescapable in our close-knit world, casting his eye back to the eighteenth century, before leading us to the present, Age of Anger is a history of our present predicament quite unlike any other. Mishra allows us to see that the rages tearing up so many parts of the world have their roots firmly in the West – and that without understanding the West's own dysfunction we cannot make sense of our age of anger. Pankaj Mishra is the author of An End to Suffering, Temptations of the West and From the Ruins of Empire. He writes principally for the Guardian, The New York Times, London Review of Books and New York Review of Books. Nesrine Malik (@NesrineMalik) is a contributing columnist at The Guardian and opinion writer.

Speaker(s): Ruth Davidson | Ruth Davidson will use the lecture to speak about the fresh case for the United Kingdom in the wake of the Brexit vote. Ruth Davidson (@RuthDavidsonMSP) entered the Scottish Parliament on the Glasgow regional list in 2011. Following the resignation of Annabel Goldie, Ruth was elected leader of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party in November of that year. In May 2016 she was re-elected as the constituency MSP for Edinburgh Central and now leads the official Opposition party at Holyrood. Tony Travers is Director of LSE London at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a professor in the School’s Government Department. The Department of Government (@LSEGovernment) at LSE is one of the largest political science departments in the UK. Our activities cover a comprehensive range of approaches to the study of politics.

Speaker(s): Professor Jeffrey D Sachs | In his 2017 Robbins Lectures, Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs will argue for a new Moral Economics built firmly on the foundations of the new moral sciences. The goal of moral economics is to promote wellbeing. A core principle is the cultivation of individual and group virtue to help guide the behavior of both individuals and groups in the global society. Lecture 1. Economics and the New Moral Sciences. During the past half century, a new moral science has emerged through the integration of research findings in several fields, including: Evolutionary Biology, Psychology, Neuroscience, Game Theory, Philosophy, Economics, Politics, and History. The findings of the new moral science require a reformulation of the aims and methods of economics. A key lesson is the need to place moral thinking and the cultivation of virtue back at the center of economic design and policy. The two other lectures that are part of this series are on Tuesday 14 and Wednesday 15 February. Jeffrey D Sachs (@JeffDSachs) is Professor of Economics at Columbia University, a leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author and syndicated columnist. Gus O’Donnell is Chairman of Frontier Economics (Europe) and former Cabinet Secretary. The CEP (@CEP_LSE) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the LSE Research Laboratory. It was established by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in 1990 and is now one of the leading economic research groups in Europe.