Battle of Ideas festival

Home
United Kingdom
London
Battle of Ideas festival

Annual festival for those interested in discussing big ideas FREE SPEECH ALLOWED!
(33)

This annual weekend festival, initiated by the Institute of Ideas (IoI) and organised and supported by a wide range of partners and sponsors, makes virtues of free-thinking and lively exchanges of views. The festival, which launched in 2005, fosters an atmosphere of intellectual freedom and open-ended exploration of new ideas, research and social trends.

08/07/2024

I had a great evening talking to award-winning author Lionel Shriver about the US election, her new book Mania and WTF is going on with a world, as she put it, 'woked up the ass'.

You can read the whole thing and watch clips - if you sign up to the Academy of Ideas Substack. We're taking it up a notch and paid subscribers will now get access to this kind of exclusive content, with more interviews and guest posts from the world's most interesting thinkers out each month.

Sign up now to read on:

EXCLUSIVE: Award-winning author and social commentator Lionel Shriver talks to the AOI's Ella Whelan about cancel culture, Joe Biden's meltdown and her new book, Mania.

05/01/2024

14/10/2022

A very scenic shout out! Looking forward to having you Gareth Wyn Jones!

11/03/2022

The Academy of Ideas is hosting a special public meeting on MONDAY in central London:

Ukraine in the crosshairs of history
MONDAY 14 March
7pm
Royal National Hotel in Russell Square

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ukraine-in-the-crosshairs-of-history-tickets-291254789917

Speakers include Professor Frank Furedi, Joan Hoey, Tim Stanley and CHAIR Claire Fox.

A famous old Russian once said: ‘There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.’ The past week feels exactly like that since Russia’s appalling decision to invade Ukraine. Not only will there be enormous bloodshed, but a nation’s independence and sovereignty is under threat. It feels like an earthquake has taken place in international relations, with old certainties undermined and gathering trends suddenly coming to fruition. We need to ask how we got to this point, what we need to do now and what the wider ramifications are.

How did we get here? In all the confusion, the ‘Vladimir Putin is a mad dictator’ explanation really isn’t a good enough answer. We need a much better historical perspective than we’ve been getting so far, at the very least on events since the fall of the Soviet Union, but also how the current world order is, in many respects, an anomaly from the far longer experience of great-power politics. And we need to examine the chain of events in an open and honest way; it’s not ‘treason’, as some have claimed, to question NATO or the West’s approach to Russia in recent decades. Such questions, and a commitment to open inquiry, should not be demonised. Solidarity with Ukraine should not imply that we must suspend critical thinking.

Join us for this Academy of Ideas special public meeting on the war in Ukraine, and what it means for the future of geopolitics.

Live-streaming will be announced on Sunday.

04/02/2022

Want to be part of the biggest and bravest free-speech festival?

Become a Battle of Ideas festival volunteer - join us on 15 and 16 October for behind-the-scenes access and free tickets.

Sign ups are NOW OPEN: https://surveymonkey.co.uk/r/NC8XZZ9

More info about what volunteering entails at: https://battleofideas.org.uk/volunteering-at-the-battle-of-ideas/

Be part of the biggest free-speech festival of 2022.

06/12/2021

Listen to Frank Furedi and Rakib Ehsan on the podcast outline their views on identity politics and how it influences the culture wars.

WHO ARE WE? IDENTITY IN CRISIS - a recording from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021, out now on all good podcast platforms: https://soundcloud.com/institute-of-ideas/who-are-we-identity-in-crisis?si=5d149508d2704419ae21bfca478e3f44

08/11/2021

Why have disinformation and conspiracy theories become such mainstream preoccupations? What is a healthy distrust of officialdom, and when does it start to move away from reality? Have we become afraid of ourselves and our own ability to make judgements, and do we need a new series of official authorities to determine what’s real and what’s not? Or is the collapse in trust – and in each other – a matter for us all to take up?

Listen to our keynote debate with Dr Tim Black from spiked, Dr Sean Lang, the The Social Democratic Party's William Clouston and TRIGGERnometry's Konstantin Kisin at the Battle of Ideas festival on Disinformation and Conspiracy - Tackling the Crisis of Trust.

You can support the by subscribing, sharing and leaving us a review:

Thanks for listening to the BattleFest podcast - you can support us by subscribing, sharing and leaving us a review. Check back next week for more recordings from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021. D

26/09/2021

There are just TWO WEEKS left to book your tickets.

Join the people’s takeover of Westminster: https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/battle-ideas-2021-tickets/

Address

Church House Westminster
London
SW1P3NZ

Website

http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Battle of Ideas festival posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Battle of Ideas festival:

Videos

Listen to Frank Furedi and Rakib Ehsan on the #BattleFest podcast outline their views on identity politics and how it influences the culture wars. WHO ARE WE? IDENTITY IN CRISIS - a recording from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021, out now on all good podcast platforms: https://soundcloud.com/institute-of-ideas/who-are-we-identity-in-crisis?si=5d149508d2704419ae21bfca478e3f44

There are just TWO WEEKS left to book your #BattleFest tickets. Join the people’s takeover of Westminster: https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/battle-ideas-2021-tickets/

Who are 'the establishment'?

Schemers or dreamers: the role of political advisers

Does democracy need a makeover?

Who are 'the people'?

Is socialism making a comeback?

Is it the end of the world as we know it?...

Who - or what - can we trust anymore?

Elif Shafak and Tim Parks ask: are we losing the will to read?

Gross-out feminism: is the political now too personal?

Incels, 'toxic masculinity' & Jordan Peterson...

Shortcuts

Our Story

This annual weekend festival, initiated by the Academy of Ideas and organised and supported by a wide range of partners and sponsors, makes virtues of free-thinking and lively exchanges of views. The festival, which launched in 2005, fosters an atmosphere of intellectual freedom and open-ended exploration of new ideas, research and social trends. FREE SPEECH ALLOWED!