5x15

Best selling author and Oscar nominated documentary film maker Sebastian Junger discusses his new book Freedom with Jon Lee Anderson at 5x15. Throughout history, humans have been driven by the quest for two cherished ideals: community and freedom. The two don’t coexist easily. We value individuality and self-reliance yet are utterly dependent on community for our most basic needs. In this 5x15 podcast Sebastian Junger examines the tension that lies at the heart of what it means to be human with American author and journalist Jon Lee Anderson. Sebastian Junger is the No.1 New York Times best selling author of The Perfect Storm, Fire, A Death in Belmont, War, Tribe, and Freedom. As an award-winning journalist, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and a special correspondent at ABC News, he has covered major international news stories around the world, and has received both a National Magazine Award and a Peabody Award. Junger is also a documentary filmmaker whose debut film "Restrepo", a feature-length docume

Human beings have relied on plants throughout our evolved history - to alter consciousness, to stimulate, to calm and to radically alter the way we see the world. For this unmissable 5x15 event, award-winning author, activist and journalist, Michael Pollan joins us to talk about his groundbreaking new book This Is Your Mind On Plants in conversation with gardener and broadcaster Monty Don who for years has been leading us down all kinds of garden paths to show us why our relationship to the natural world is vital to our wellbeing and culture. This Is Your Mind On Plants explores our deep relationship with three very different plants from which we derive opium, caffeine and mescaline, and what they can do for us. Pollan reckons with the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants, and the equally powerful taboos, in this personal journey of exploration and participation in the cultures that have grown up around these drugs. He finds there is much more to say about these plants than simply debating their

Gillian Tett is editor-at-large at the Financial Times and bestselling author of Fool’s Gold. Now she’s returning to her early training to explain how anthropology can help us understand the corporate world. Join Gillian in conversation with undercover economist Tim Harford, author of How To Make the World Add Up, as they discuss Anthro-Vision. For over a century, anthropologists have immersed themselves in unfamiliar cultures, uncovering the hidden rituals that govern how people act. Now, a new generation of anthropologists are using these methods in a new context – to illuminate the behaviour of businesses and consumers around the globe. In Anthro-Vision, Gillian Tett – who holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of Cambridge – reveals how anthropology can help make sense of how we buy, sell, work and live, and outlines how to identify the ‘webs of meaning’ that underpin consumers’ behaviour. She explains how concealed systems of barter shape our relationship with Silicon Valley, reveals the subtl

Lawrence Wright has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992. He is also an author, a screenwriter and a playwright. Wright has published twelve books, including The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda's Road to 9/11 (2006), which was translated into twenty-four languages and won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. In 2018, the book was adapted into a Hulu original drama starring Jeff Daniels, Alec Baldwin, and Tahar Rahim. In April, 2020, Wright published his second novel, The End of October about a pandemic, which eerily anticipated many of the events of the coronavirus pandemic. Wright lives in Austin, Texas, with his family, and plays the keyboard for the blues band WhoDo. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

What can artists offer in response to climate change? The experience of the pandemic has shown us that a profound reimagining of many aspects of society are entirely possible. In what ways can we rethink our relationship to the environment? How can we effect change with our every action? Join us to hear from artists and thinkers delivering an urgent and innovative response to the climate emergency. Back to Earth, the Serpentine’s major environmental programme is a multi-year initiative which invites leading artists, architects, poets, filmmakers, scientists, thinkers and designers to devise campaigns, protocols and initiatives to respond to the environmental crisis. The first Back to Earth publication, 140 Artists’ Ideas for Planet Earth, edited by Serpentine Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist together with Kostas Stasinopoulos, represents the exhibition of these ideas in book form, a unique compendium of recipes, sketches, photographs, texts, actions and instructions from some of the most creative minds o

5x15 podcast with two leading environmentalists, who have helped us to understand the complex cycle of forest life and why it must be preserved before it's too late. World-renowned scientist Suzanne Simard is author of Finding the Mother Tree, a dazzling scientific detective story from the ecologist who first discovered the hidden language of trees. No one has done more to transform our understanding of trees and now she shares the secrets of a lifetime spent uncovering startling truths about trees: their cooperation, healing capacity, memory, and, she argues, wisdom and sentience. Jonathan Drori‘s Around the World in 80 Trees is a worldwide bestseller, now in 18 languages. Following in the footsteps of Phileas Fogg, he tells the stories of 80 magnificent tree species from all over the globe, entwining plant science with history, culture and folklore to illuminate how trees play a role in every part of human life. 5x15 brings together outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspiration

Arifa Akbar is the Guardian's chief theatre critic. A journalist for over twenty years, she is the former literary editor of the Independent, where she also worked as arts correspondent and news reporter. She has previously contributed to the Observer and the Financial Times. She is on the board of trustees for the Orwell Foundation and English PEN. Short pieces of her non-fiction have appeared in several anthologies. Consumed is her first book. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Often beautiful, sometimes deadly, but constantly ingenious, plants are the source of life and delight, myth and mayhem. Jonathan Drori CBE is the author of the acclaimed Around the World in 80 Trees, which sold 120,000 copies worldwide, an Ambassador for the WWF, fellow of the Linnean Society and the Royal Geographical Society, and a former Trustee of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. His new book Around the World in 80 Plants takes readers on a trip across the globe, bringing to life the science of plants by revealing how their worlds are intricately entwined with our own history, culture and folklore. Sarah Raven is the author of numerous bestselling books on both gardening and cooking, and is a regular on the BBC’s Great British Garden Revival and Gardener’s World. Her new book A Year Full of Flowers is a guide to gardening in all seasons, which reveals the hundreds of hardworking varieties that make the garden sing each month, together with the practical tasks that ensure everything is planted, staked

Two leading classicists on the remarkable stories of the women of the ancient world and the injustice in how they are often understood today. Natalie Haynes is the author of six books. Most recently Pandora’s Jar: Women and the Greek Myths (2020) and A Thousand Ships, published by Pan Macmillan in 2019, which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020. She has written and recorded six series of Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics for BBC Radio 4. Series Seven will be broadcast in summer 2021. Professor Bettany Hughes is an award-winning historian, author and broadcaster, who has devoted the last 25 years to the vibrant communication of the past. Her films on histories and culture are regularly watched by over 200 million worldwide. Her most recent book is Venus and Aphrodite: History of a Goddess (2019), published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Her Sunday Times best-selling Istanbul A Tale of Three Cities has been translated into twelve languages and was shortlisted for the Runciman Prize, her N

Emma Dabiri is an Irish-Nigerian academic, activist, broadcaster and teaching fellow in the Africa department at SOAS and a Visual Sociology PhD researcher at Goldsmiths. Beverly Daniel Tatum, PhD, is president emerita of Spelman College and author of several books, including the New York Times best-selling Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? and Other Conversations About Race. A thought-leader in higher education, she was the 2013 recipient of the Carnegie Academic Leadership Award and the 2014 recipient of the American Psychological Association Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contributions to Psychology. Interviewed by Georgina Lawton a 'twentysomething' journalist and speaker. A former Guardian Weekend columnist, she is now a freelancer contributor for the paper, and also writes for a number of other publications such as: The Independent, Stylist, gal-dem, Travel + Leisure, VICE, Time Out London and more. 5x15 brings together outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, pas

Timothy Garton Ash is the author of ten books of political writing or ‘history of the present’ which have charted the transformation of Europe over the last half century. He is Professor of European Studies in the University of Oxford, Isaiah Berlin Professorial Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. His essays appear regularly in the New York Review of Books and he writes a column on international affairs in the Guardian which is widely syndicated in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Walter Isaacson, talks about his new book The Code Breaker. Walter is a professor of history at Tulane, has been the CEO of the Aspen Institute, where he is now a Distinguished Fellow, the chairman of CNN, and the editor of TIME magazine. He is a host of the show “Amanpour and Company” on PBS and CNN, a contributor to CNBC, and host of the podcast “Trailblazers, from Dell Technologies.” He is also an advisory partner at Perella Weinberg, a financial services firm based in New York City. Isaacson is the author of Leonardo da Vinci (2017), The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (2014), Steve Jobs (2011), Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003), and Kissinger: A Biography (1992), and coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1986). 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each

Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan has been a consultant in neurology since 2004, first working at the Royal London Hospital and now as a consultant in clinical neurophysiology and neurology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. She specializes in the investigation of complex epilepsy and also has an active interest in psychogenic disorders. Suzanne’s first book, It's All in Your Head, won both the Wellcome Book Prize and the Royal Society of Biology Book Prize and her critically acclaimed Brainstorm was published in 2018. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Jaiden Corfield is an award-winning activist and campaigner from North Manchester who is currently at Oxford studying PPE. He began fighting for change seven years ago at Reclaim, a charity that aims to create the next generation of working-class leaders, launching national campaigns and delivering talks across the country. Jaiden is a trustee for Rekindle school, an advisor for Big Change and a project manager for Ashoka; and the founder of his new venture Outliers. Big Change is a small but disruptive force for positive change, working for young people and those who support them. We back pioneers and projects that deliver bold approaches on the frontline, create a community to support them, and activate diverse allies who want to reimagine and transform education. This special event asks us all to rethink our education story and what we really care about for children. Our partners at Big Change will share how you can engage with the new Co-mission on the Purpose and Future of Education. 5x15 brings toget

Adam Grant is an organisational psychologist, TED speaker and leading expert on motivation, meaning and creativity. He was recognized as one of the world’s 10 most influential management thinkers and is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 5 books that have sold millions of copies and been translated into 35 languages: Give and Take, Originals, Option B, and Power Moves. His new book, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know is out now. Big Change is a small but disruptive force for positive change, working for young people and those who support them. We back pioneers and projects that deliver bold approaches on the frontline, create a community to support them, and activate diverse allies who want to reimagine and transform education. This special event asks us all to rethink our education story and what we really care about for children. Our partners at Big Change will share how you can engage with the new Co-mission on the Purpose and Future of Education. 5x15 brings together five ou

Edmund de Waal is an internationally acclaimed artist and writer, best known for his large-scale installations of porcelain vessels, often created in response to collections and archives or the history of a particular place. His interventions have been made for diverse spaces and museums worldwide, including The British Museum, London, The Frick Collection, New York and the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. His memoir, The Hare with Amber Eyes, won the RSL Ondaatje prize and the Costa Biography Award, was named as one of the books of the decade by the Sunday Times and of the 21st century by the Guardian. It was the Independent Bookseller Book of the Decade and has been translated into 29 languages. In 2015 he was awarded the Windham-Campbell prize for non-fiction by Yale University. The White Road, a journey into the history of porcelain, was published to great acclaim in 2015. His new book is Letters to Camondo. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirati

Join us to hear master story teller and theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli in conversation with Marcus du Sautoy - the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University – as they discuss a revolutionary idea that transformed the whole of science and our very conception of the world. In his new book Helgoland, Carlo Rovelli guides us through the extraordinary story of the quantum, the debates it raises, and his own foundational contribution to the field. The book opens a century ago on a treeless windswept island in the North Sea, Helgoland, where the young Werner Heisenberg, aged just 23, had retreated to think and had an idea, “one of the most vertiginous of Nature’s secrets ever looked upon by humankind, an idea that would transform physics in its entirety – together with the whole of science and our very conception of the world.” Heisenberg had begun to glimpse the strange beauty of a world in which nothing exists until it interacts with something else, forever causi

Lee Lawrence is a social entrepreneur who works to help marginalised people find their voice, manage conflict and achieve justice. In 2014, he founded Mobility Enterprises with the hope of aiding those who would otherwise struggle in their daily life by providing public transport for the disabled. In 2016, he founded the Cherry Groce Foundation which exists to enhance the wellbeing of individuals with a physical or mental impairment. 5x15 brings together outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Michael Rosen is a beloved author, former Children’s Laureate and national treasure. In Many Different Kinds of Love: Life, Death and The NHS he brings together a collection of the words and poetry he wrote during his battle with and recovery from COVID-19, along with the messages he received from his wife and caregivers. In this reflective and life-affirming collection of poetry and words, Michael shares his experience from the edge of life, and the caring community of neighbours, loved ones, and the dedicated NHS staff, who brought him back. 5x15 brings together outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

John Preston on his new book Fall which tells the jaw-dropping life story of notorious business tycoon Robert Maxwell. John is a former Arts Editor of the Evening Standard and the Sunday Telegraph. For ten years he was the Sunday Telegraph’s television critic and one of its chief feature writers. His book, A Very English Scandal, was published to great acclaim in 2016 and turned into a BAFTA-winning BBC drama series. His 2007 historical novel The Dig has been adapted into a new major motion picture starring Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan and Lily James and directed by Simon Stone, on Netflix. 5x15 brings together outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories