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by RSA
World-changing ideas. For free. For everyone.Featuring the world’s most exciting public thinkers, innovators and changemakers, RSA talks bring people and ideas together to shape a better future for all.
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- 1 weeks ago57 min
Caitlin Moran on How to Be Hopeful
It can be hard to imagine a better future when the present feels so uncertain. From climate anxiety and political polarisation to endless bad news and online arguments, it’s easy to feel that the world is getting worse – and that there’s little we can do about it. So how do we find our way back to hope? Bestselling author, journalist and broadcaster Caitlin Moran joins us for a Between the Lines conversation about her new book, How to Be Hopeful – a funny, candid and deeply personal exploration of what it means to choose hope when the world gives us plenty of reasons not to.After reaching what she calls “peak despair”, Moran set herself a challenge: could she stay in the same house, the same neighbourhood and the same messy modern world, and still find a way to make things better?Rather than trying to escape it all, she embarked on a year-long experiment in everyday action. She stepped back from the noise of social media and rolling news, reconnected with her community, picked litter, donated blood, rewilded her garden and began asking where our modern anxiety comes from – and what we can actually do about it.How to Be Hopeful is the story of what happened next, and of Moran’s discovery that hope isn’t simply something we wait to feel. It can be something we practise – through attention, connection, community and small acts that make a difference.Join Caitlin Moran live at the Royal Society of Arts for a timely conversation about finding hope – and acting on it – when the future feels uncertain. With her trademark wit and honesty, she asks a deceptively simple question: what might it mean not just to feel hopeful, but to do hopeful? Speaker: Caitlin Moran, Journalist and BroadcasterChair: Zoe Williams, Journalist and Author Donate to the RSA: https://thersa.co/3ZyPOEaBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueembFollow RSA on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thersaorg/Like RSA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theRSAorg/Listen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYUJoin our Fellowship: https://www.thersa.org/fellowship/join
- Sep 17, 202658 min
Daniel Susskind on AI and our Children’s Future
AI is changing the way we learn, work and live. It is also changing the way we have viewed education, careers and success. Now the question is being asked, how do we prepare for a future we cannot yet predict?In this Between the Lines conversation, economist and author Daniel Susskind will reveal his guide for how the next generation can flourish in the age of AI. Drawing on his 15 years of research into technology and the future of work, Susskind offers a bold, practical and hopeful perspective on some of the biggest questions facing families today: what should we teach, what should we leave in the past, and how can we give the next generation the confidence to navigate a rapidly changing world?Rather than keeping young people away from the technology changing the world around them, in his latest book Susskind asks how we can help young people master new tools while holding on to the foundations that matter most – literacy, numeracy and critical thinking.Susskind will join us for an evening of discussion with Katie Prescott, technology business editor at The Times, about the ideas behind his new book, What Should My Children Do?, and will offer an optimistic vision of how families, caregivers, and society can turn the disruption of AI into an opportunity.Speaker: Daniel Susskind, Economist and AuthorChair: Katie Prescott, Technology Business Editor at The Times Donate to the RSA: https://thersa.co/3ZyPOEaBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueembFollow RSA on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thersaorg/Like RSA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theRSAorg/Listen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYUJoin our Fellowship: https://www.thersa.org/fellowship/join
- Jun 18, 202657 min
Yes, there is an alternative
Ever since Margaret Thatcher’s declaration of TINA (There Is No Alternative) in 1980, virtually all policy proposals to fix society’s grave problems work within the dominant framework of growth-based consumer capitalism. What if this framework is the problem? What if there actually is an alternative? To reimagine and reframe the conversation, join us for an evening with George Monbiot and Jeremy Lent who will discuss what the world might look like if it were organised, not for extraction, exploitation and elite wealth accumulation, but to instead set the conditions for all beings to thrive on a regenerated Earth. Covering themes from Lent’s new book, Ecocivilization: Making a World that Works for All, they will explore the transformative ideas already put into practice around the world—spanning the globe from Mondragón, Spain, to Jackson, Mississippi and Kerala, India—and discuss how these examples might weave together into a new societal fabric. Speaker: Jeremy Lent, author and speaker Chair: George Monbiot, journalist and author Donate to the RSA: https://thersa.co/3ZyPOEa Become an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueemb Follow RSA on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thersaorg/ Like RSA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theRSAorg/ Listen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU Join our Fellowship: https://www.thersa.org/fellowship/join
- Jun 9, 20261h 3m
Is reading in decline? Lee Child on the importance of literature
Bestselling author Lee Child joins award-winning writer Dreda Say Mitchell MBE for a live conversation at The Royal Society of Arts on the 8th of June. Together, they will explore the power of reading to shape and enrich lives and unlock opportunity for all. They will discuss what authors, institutions, and readers need to do to ensure reading remains central to culture, creativity, and human connection. From Child’s global success with the Jack Reacher series to Mitchell’s work championing literacy and prison reading initiatives, this event examines how books can transform individuals and communities. The discussion will be opened by Karen Napier, Reading Agency CEO, and spotlight the role of accessible publishing, including Quick Reads, in tackling barriers to reading in an age of declining attention and growing inequality. Speaker: Lee Child, Author Chair: Dreda Say Mitchell MBE, Author Donate to the RSA: https://thersa.co/3ZyPOEa Become an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueemb Follow RSA on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thersaorg/ Like RSA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theRSAorg/ Listen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU Join our Fellowship: https://www.thersa.org/fellowship/join
- May 22, 20261h 3m
The Observer Book Club: Braver New World
At a time when democracies seem paralyzed by fear and populations are turning inward, award-winning journalist John Kampfner has travelled to ten countries confronting our shared challenges with bravery and imagination. From Japan’s inter-generational care system to Moroccan solar panels in the Sahara creating clean energy, John Kampfner’s new book Braver New World explores how countries across the globe are solving the most pressing problems. To discuss the finding in his book, John will join us at the Royal Society of Arts for a conversation with The Observer Editor-in-Chief, James Harding, and former UK Foreign Secretary, David Miliband. Join us for an evening of ideas and discussion on how we can learn from others to build a better society. Speakers: John Kampfner, Journalist David Miliband, Former UK Foreign Secretary Chair: James Harding, The Observer Editor-in-Chief Donate to the RSA: https://thersa.co/3ZyPOEa Become an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueemb Follow RSA on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thersaorg/ Like RSA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theRSAorg/ Listen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU Join our Fellowship: https://www.thersa.org/fellowship/join
- May 19, 20261h 0m
Who controls the future?
We like to think the future is open. That our lives are shaped by choices, chance, and a bit of luck. But increasingly, the future is being predicted, and those predictions are starting to decide things in advance. Whether we get a job, a loan, medical treatment, or even how we’re policed, many of life’s possibilities are now filtered through forecasts about who we are and what we might do next. In this provocative conversation, Oxford philosopher Carissa Véliz argues that prediction has always been less about seeing the future than about controlling it. From ancient oracles to modern data systems, prophecies don’t just describe what will happen – they shape behaviour, narrow our options, and quietly distribute power. Joining her is Roger McNamee, tech investor and NYT bestselling author of Zucked, who has spent years exposing how digital platforms turn prediction into influence. Together, they explore a deeper, more uncomfortable question: What happens when the future arrives pre-decided? Speaker: Carissa Veliz, associate professor at the Oxford Faculty of Philosophy and the Institute for Ethics in AI Chair: Roger McNamee, tech investor and author Donate to the RSA: https://thersa.co/3ZyPOEa Become an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueemb Follow RSA on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thersaorg/ Like RSA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theRSAorg/ Listen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU Join our Fellowship: https://www.thersa.org/fellowship/join
- May 15, 20261h 0m
The social impact of AI
In the three short years since the release of ChatGPT, AI chatbots have reshaped how millions of people live. But while the technology’s economic and political consequences are widely debated, its social and psychological impacts are only just beginning to come into focus. Mental health is emerging as one of the most pressing – and troubling – frontiers. According to OpenAI’s own data from October 2025, as many as 560,000 users a week were showing “possible signs of mental health emergencies related to psychosis or mania” in their interactions with its systems. Clinicians, researchers, and journalists are now documenting cases in which vulnerable users form intense, and sometimes harmful, relationships with AI tools. Join The Observer’s Technology Reporter Patricia Clarke, neuropsychiatrist at King’s College London Dr Thomas Pollak and Head of Research & Policy at Internet Matters Katie Freeman-Tayler for a live conversation based on reporting produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network. The panel will be discussing how AI is rewiring our emotional lives and answering questions on what risk and responsibilities come with technologies that can mimic empathy? What obligations do tech firms, regulators and governments face? And what lessons can be drawn from the slow reckoning with social media’s toll on mental health – especially among children and young people? Speakers: Patricia Clarke, Technology Reporter at The Observer Dr Thomas Pollak, Neuropsychiatrist at King’s College London Katie Freeman-Tayler, Head of Research and Policy at Internet Matters Chair: James Harding, Editor-in-Chief of The Observer In collaboration with: The Observer The Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network. Donate to the RSA: https://thersa.co/3ZyPOEa Become an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueemb Follow RSA on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thersaorg/ Like RSA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theRSAorg/ Listen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU Join our Fellowship: https://www.thersa.org/fellowship/join
- May 14, 20261h 34m
The future skills agenda of the creative industries
The Creative Industries are critical to the UK government’s growth plans. To realise the potential, action is needed across education, skills and the creative workforce. This event sees the unveiling of findings from a major new study looking at skills provision across all sectors of the creative industries from museums and music, to publishing and performing arts. Representatives from across the creative industries will discuss the findings and analyse what they mean for the future of creative education, skills and workforce planning. Download the reports: https://pec.ac.uk/research_report_entr/creative-industries-skills-audits/ This event is presented by the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (funded by the AHRC) in partnership with Work Advance, and the Royal Society of Arts. Speakers: Sir Peter Bazalgette, Co-Chair of the Creative Industries Council Heather Carey, Director of Work Advance Laura Mansfield, CEO of ScreenSkills Sinéad Rocks, Managing Director of Nations & Regions, Channel 4 Baroness Shriti Vadera, Co-Chair of the Creative Industries Council Rebecca Swarray, Principal for Creative Industries, Greater Manchester Combined Authority; freelance DJ, Curator and Producer Chair: Bernard Hay, Policy Director, Creative PEC Donate to the RSA: https://thersa.co/3ZyPOEa Become an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueemb Follow RSA on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thersaorg/ Like RSA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theRSAorg/ Listen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU Join our Fellowship: https://www.thersa.org/fellowship/join
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About RSA Events
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