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Festival of Ideas

Festival of Ideas Brochure, 2005

Download Festival
of Ideas brochure, 2005 here
(3MB PDF file)

Festival of Ideas brochure, 2006

Download Festival
of Ideas brochure, 2006
here
(1MB PDF file)

Festival of Ideas brochure, 2007

Download Festival
of Ideas brochure, 2007 here
(1MB PDF file)

Festival of Ideas brochure, autumn 2007

Download Festival
of Ideas brochure, autumn 2007
here
(1MB PDF file)

Festival of Ideas brochure, 2008

Download Festival
of Ideas brochure, 2008 here
(3MB PDF file)

Audio AUDIO
Please click the audio button on the left to listen interviews and recordings from this year's events and speakers

Gallery GALLERY
Please click the gallery button on the left to see photographs from this year's events and speakers

Festival of Ideas has featured the following speakers and events in 2008, shown in chronological order. Please click on the speaker images below for more information.

Book cover: 'Suckers: How Alternative Medicine Makes Fools of Us All' by Rose Shapiro

Rose Shapiro
Suckers: How Alternative Medicine Makes Fools of Us All
11 June 08
Bristol Grammar School, Bristol

John Prescott

John Prescott
Pulling No Punches
5 June 08
St George's, Bristol

George Johnson

George Johnson
The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments
29 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol

Alan Weisman
Alan Weisman
The World Without Human Beings
28 May 08
At-Bristol, Bristol
Kate Mosse

Blackwell Book Talk: Kate Mosse
On her new novel Sepulchre
28 May 08
St George's, Bristol
Gary Marcus and Susan Blackmore discuss the human mind

Gary Marcus and Susan Blackmore
On the Human Mind
28 May 08
At-Bristol, Bristol


FILM: 'The 11th Hour'

Social Issues: Documentaries and Debates
 The 11th Hour
Directed by: Nadia Conners / Leila Conners Petersen, USA 2007
Followed by a panel discussion with Peter Melchett, John Pontin, Helen Clarkson and James Vaccaro
27 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol

FILM: 'Our Daily Bread'

Social Issues: Documentaries and Debates
 Our Daily Bread
Directed by Nikolaus Geyrhalter
26 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol


FILM: 'Manufactured Landscapes'

Manufactured Landscapes
Directed by: Jennifer Baichwal, Canada 2006
24-29 May
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol


Naomi Klein

Naomi Klein
The Shock Doctrine
23 May 08
Arnolfini, Bristol

Philippe Sands
The Osborne Clarke Ideas Law Lecture
Philippe Sands on Torture and the Law
22 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol
Matt Frei
Matt Frei
On America
22 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol

Simon Singh discusses alternative medicine with Edzard Ernst
Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst
Trick or Treatment?: Alternative Medicine on Trial
21 May 08
Arnolfini, Bristol
Patrick Cockburn and Jonathan Steele on Iraq
Patrick Cockburn and Jonathan Steele
On Iraq
21 May 08
Arnolfini, Bristol

Gerry Anderson

Gerry Anderson
On Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and other work in his long and distinguished career
20 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol
Baroness Susan Greenfield
Baroness Susan Greenfield
ID: The Quest for Meaning in the 21st Century
20 May 08
Arnolfini, Bristol
Gordon Burn discusses Truth and the Media with Nick Davies
Truth and the Media
With Nick Davies and Gordon Burn
20 May 08
Arnolfini, Bristol

Ben Macintyre

The Politics of James Bond
With Ben Macintyre
18 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol
Followed by a showing of Goldfinger

Andrew Mawson
Communities Leading Change
With Andrew Mawson and Paul Kingsnorth
16 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol

Jean Moorcroft Wilson
On Isaac Rosenberg
15 May 08
City Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol
Adrian Tinniswood
Adrian Tinniswood
The Second Museum of Bristol Lecture: the Historian and the City
15 May 08
City Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol

Charles Leadbeater
Charles Leadbeater
We-think: the Power of Mass Creativity
14 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol
George Ferguson
George Ferguson
Regeneration by Design
14 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol

Jon Ronson
Jon Ronson
Tales of Everyday Craziness
14 May 08
Arnolfini, Bristol

Sebastian Peake
Sebastian Peake
Mervyn Peake: The Man and His Art
13 May 08
City Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol

Raymond Tallis
Raymond Tallis
The Kingdom of Infinite Space
13 May 08
City Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol

Astrid Proll
The Sixties and Violence
Astrid Proll and Iain Sinclair
12 May 08
Arnolfini, Bristol
Dominic Sandbrook discusses 'The Sixties and the Legacy ofm Idealism'
The Sixties and the Legacy of Idealism
With Andrew Anthony, Sheila Rowbotham, Dominic Sandbrook, Peter Tatchell
and Helen Taylor
12 May 08
Arnolfini, Bristol

Monty Python

The Philosophy of Monty Python
With Julian Baggini
11 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol


Allen Ginsberg

May '68: When Culture was Radicalised
 Ginsberg and 60s Counterculture 2
Selection of films including: Underground, Face to Face, The Windows of the Skull
10 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol

Harriet Lamb

Fairtrade vs Airmiles
Harriet Lamb
10 May 08
Ethical Expo 2008, Bristol
Andrew Simms

Living the Good Life
With Andrew Simms and Harriet Lamb
10 May 08
Ethical Expo 2008, Bristol

FILM: 'Hotel Diaries'

May '68: When Culture was Radicalised
 Hotel Diaries
Directed by John Smith
9-13 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol

FILM: 'A Crude Awakening'

Social Issues: Documentaries and Debates
 A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash
Directed by: Basil Gelpke / Ray McCormack, Switzerland 2006
Followed by a panel discussion with James Woudhuysen and Peter Lipman
8 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol
Alan Sokal

Alan Sokal
On Pseudo-Science, Religion and Misinformation in Public Life
8 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol

Book cover: 'AD 381: Heretics, Pagans and the Christian State' by Charles Freeman
Charles Freeman
Heretics, Pagans and the Christian State
7 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol
Julian Baggini discusses athesim, agnoticism and God

Atheism, Agnosticism and God
With Julian Baggini, Mark Vernon and Rev. Robert Grimley
7 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol

Sylvia Harvey

May '68: When Culture was Radicalised
Sylvia Harvey
May '68 and Film Culture Revisited
6 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol


FILM: 'Sympathy for the Devil'

May '68: When Culture was Radicalised
 Sympathy for the Devil
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard, France 1968
4 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol


FILM: 'Pull My Daisy'

May '68: When Culture was Radicalised
Ginsberg and 60s Counterculture 1
Selection of films including: Wholly Communion, Pull My Daisy and Anatomy of Violence
3 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol

Nicholson Baker

Nicholson Baker
On War and Peace
1 May 08
Borders bookshop, Bristol

Robert Fisk

Robert Fisk
The Age of the Warrior
5 April 08
St George's, Bristol

Tim Harford

Tim Harford
The Logic of Life
28 March 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol

Samantha Power

Samantha Power
Chasing the Flame
4 March 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol

Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus
Creating a World Without Poverty
17 February 08
St.George's, Bristol

Catherine Fieschi

Catherine Fieschi
Demos and Everyday Democracy
6 February 08
University of Bristol

Sir David King

Sir David King
The Hot Topic: How to Tackle Global Warming and Still Keep the Lights On
29 January 08
Council House, Bristol