Outside the Box

Outside the Box

Meet the innovators whose ideas genuinely offer new approaches to resolving humanity’s challenges. Whether they’re renegotiating our relationship to time, imagining what we can learn from the future fossils that our consumerist society will make, or rethinking our relationship to familiar things including cities, the NHS, and even cooking, these thinkers fly in the face of convention with fascinating results. 

Supported by Claire and Mark Urquhart.

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Through literature, art, and science, David Farrier’s Footprints: In Search of Future Fossils asks what generations would find of today’s ecological crisis in the distant future. Musician Karine Polwart is also deeply interested in place as a site...
 

Katie Holten & Katie Paterson: Rewilding Stories

Tuesday 15 August 14:15 - 15:15

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Irish artist and environmental activist Katie Holten creates unconventional works that intersect ecology, language, and history, including The Language of Trees. Scottish artist Katie Paterson's work emphasises nature, geology, and cosmology – she has...
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The city is the supreme symbol of human endeavour and, according to the authors of Age of the City, the place where the key threats to human sustainability must be faced. Ian Goldin is a world-leading voice on globalisation and development. Tom...
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2023: the 75th anniversary of the NHS, a vital part of our lives under constant threat. Three authors join us to discuss the challenges facing the system. Polly Morland’s profile of a country doctor, A Fortunate Woman, emphasises the importance of...
 

Sunder Katwala & Sabir Zazai: The Fear of Flags

Friday 25 August 17:45 - 18:45

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British Future director Sunder Katwala’s book, How to be a Patriot, covers topics ranging from extremism and integration to the divides of Brexit. Sabir Zazai is a former refugee from Afghanistan who is now the CEO of the Scottish Refugee Council....