Four Thought

Anthony McGowan, award-winning author of novels for young adults and teenagers, thinks that the world would be a better place if we cast ourselves as the villains rather than the heroes of our own life stories and he has a personal confession to make. Four Thought is a series of talks which combine thought provoking ideas and engaging storytelling. Recorded live in front of an audience at the RSA in London, speakers air their latest thinking on the trends, ideas, interests and passions that affect our culture and society.Producer: Sheila Cook.

David Perks, state school physics teacher and founder of the Physics Factory in London, believes current science teaching is depriving children of the academic science education they deserve.Four Thought is a series of talks which combine thought provoking ideas and engaging storytelling. Recorded live in front of an audience at the RSA in London, speakers air their latest thinking on the trends, ideas, interests and passions that affect our culture and society.Producer: Sheila Cook.

Science writer Angela Saini confesses that as a late adopter of new technology. She struggles to reconcile a deep human desire to make, mend and recycle with the throwaway culture on which the development of new computers, gadgets and phones seems to depend. Much of this is inherited from the thrifty traditions of her parents. Four Thought is a series of talks which combine thought provoking ideas and engaging storytelling. Recorded live in front of an audience at the RSA in London, speakers air their latest thinking on the trends, ideas, interests and passions that affect our culture and society.Producer: Sheila Cook.

Clinical veterinary anatomist at Cambridge University and science writer David Bainbridge dispels the myth of the mid-life crisis and celebrates the evolution of middle age as a distinctively human phenomenon, central to the success of our species. Middle age is not about getting old but rather "the changes of middle age represent a developmental stage of life as distinct as infancy or adolescence," he says. Four Thought is a series of talks which combine thought provoking ideas and engaging storytelling. Recorded live in front of an audience at the RSA in London, speakers air their latest thinking on the trends, ideas, interests and passions that affect our culture and society.Producer: Sheila Cook.

James Daunt issues a ringing defence of printed books, and argues that libraries and local bookshops - the 'purveyors of the written word' - are vital social and cultural spaces.Brought in to turn around the Waterstones chain of bookshops, James argues that book chains should continue to play a vital role in introducing readers to books, but will only succeed if they re-connect with their communities.Four Thought is a series of talks which combine thought provoking ideas and engaging storytelling. Recorded in front of an audience at the RSA in London, speakers take to the stage to air their latest thinking on the trends, ideas, interests and passions that affect our culture and society.Producer: Giles Edwards.

American designer Aza Raskin proposes a design renaissance in healthcare, making it easier and more enjoyable.Whose fault is it that video recorders are hard to programme, he asks? And why do we complete so few courses of antibiotics - with all the terrible individual and social consequences?His answer in both cases is that the products are badly designed, and they don't take into account how human beings actually behave. He argues that by applying cognitive psychology, design, and feedback loops to some of our most intractable medical problems, we can dramatically improve our health.Four Thought is a series of talks which combine thought provoking ideas and engaging storytelling. Recorded in front of an audience at the RSA in London, speakers take to the stage to air their latest thinking on the trends, ideas, interests and passions that affect our culture and society.Producer: Giles Edwards.

Author Dreda Say Mitchell argues that the importance of cultural institutions like family, faith and community has been ignored in the debate about social mobility.Born into an extended working-class family, she found her own upbringing was influenced by each of these institutions, and she believes their importance in promoting social mobility has been underestimated.Four Thought is a series of talks which combine thought provoking ideas and engaging storytelling. Recorded in front of an audience at the RSA in London, speakers take to the stage to air their latest thinking on the trends, ideas, interests and passions that affect our culture and society.Producer: Giles Edwards.

Novelist and former paediatric nurse Christie Watson asks whether there are some things worse than death.She describes the extraordinary medical breakthroughs which allow children to be kept alive today who previously would have died. But she asks whether community care and medical ethics have kept up with the increasing number of technology-dependent children, that is, children who cannot breathe without life support machines.Four Thought is a series of talks which combine thought provoking ideas and engaging storytelling. Recorded in front of an audience at the RSA in London, speakers take to the stage to air their latest thinking on the trends, ideas, interests and passions that affect our culture and society.Producer: Giles Edwards.

Science journalist and blogger Ed Yong explores the physical and philosophical implications of being host to billions of microbes.He reports the latest science showing how the bacteria we come into contact with can profoundly affect our lives - from the ability to digest different foodstuffs to our susceptibility to asthma, diabetes and even stress and anxiety. And, he asks whether he should be seen as a human, or a universe of bacteria in a "human shaped sack"?Four Thought is a series of talks which combine thought provoking ideas and engaging storytelling. Recorded in front of an audience at the RSA in London, speakers take to the stage to air their latest thinking on the trends, ideas, interests and passions that affect our culture and society.Producer: Giles Edwards.

Social anthropologist Kate Fox argues that we need to re-learn much of what we think we know about the effects of alcohol.Alcohol does not make us disinhibited, violent or anti-social, she says. Many cultures around the world, some of which drink more than we do, have none of these problems. So what causes them here?Kate Fox, whose research centre has conducted numerous studies into the social and cultural aspects of alcohol for the government, the drinks industry and others, argues that it is down to what we believe alcohol will do to us. And while she cites science and sociology, it is her conclusions about how we fight the harm currently caused by our mistaken beliefs which are so far-reaching. Out should go the approach which says alcohol causes bad behaviour, she says, with a focus instead on taking responsibility and normalising alcohol.Four Thought is a series of talks which combine thought provoking ideas and engaging storytelling. Recorded in front of an audience at the RSA in London, speakers take t

Advertising guru Cindy Gallop argues that if as businesses and individuals we define what we stand for and stay true to it, we could embrace a world of zero privacy.Cindy describes her own embrace of zero privacy as rather more extreme than most, after a frank admission two years ago which has since gone viral online. She explains why she designed her internet startup to require its users to pause and reflect on what they stand for, and urges people from every walk of life to redesign their lives around what they want to do.Four Thought is a series of talks which combine thought provoking ideas and engaging storytelling. Recorded in front of an audience at the RSA in London, speakers take to the stage to air their latest thinking on the trends, ideas, interests and passions that affect our culture and society.Producer: Giles Edwards.

Matthew Goodwin says supporters of the far right are generally neither irrational nor isolated, and that a far right party without extremist baggage could be electable in Britain.He has spent much of the last decade with members and supporters of the British far right, examining their hopes and aspirations, what they wish to achieve.As an expert in electoral behaviour and extremism at the University of Nottingham, he has also been carefully studying hundreds of polls to explore whether there is a wider resonance for their message. It is an intensely controversial area of study - particularly in the light of the recent atrocities in Norway.Four Thought is a series of talks which combine thought provoking ideas and engaging storytelling. Recorded in front of an audience at the RSA in London, speakers take to the stage to air their latest thinking on the trends, ideas, interests and passions that affect our culture and society.Producer: Giles Edwards.

After the internet and social media, what will be the next technological revolution?Writer, blogger and social entrepreneur Russell M. Davies argues that like the early days of blogging, we are about to witness another flowering of individual creativity. This time, he says, it will unleash "all sorts of interesting gadgety things", and determine our relationships with them."It's about making your own stuff, which might be a bit silly and a bit trivial and pointless, but you get the satisfaction of making it yourself," he says. This revolution in individual gadgetry - and designing our relationship with them - will prove "exciting, radical, life-affirming stuff".Four Thought is a series of talks which combine thought provoking ideas and engaging storytelling. Recorded in front of an audience at the RSA in London, speakers take to the stage to air their latest thinking on the trends, ideas, interests and passions that affect our culture and society.Producer: Giles Edwards.

Scotland has the highest rate of Multiple Sclerosis in the world. This progressive neurological disease can lead to disability, balance problems and paralysis. But Scotland also happens to be the centre of research into MS, much of it focussing on a new generation of drugs which could help the body heal itself. Charles ffrench-Constant is the Professor of Multiple Sclerosis Research at the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine at The University of Edinburgh.Four Thought is a series of talks which combine thought provoking ideas and engaging storytelling. Recorded live in front of an audience during the Edinburgh International Festival, speakers take to the stage to air their latest thinking on the trends, ideas, interests and passions that affect our culture and society.Producer: David Stenhouse.

You don't need to read the folk tales of the Brother's Grimm or go to Werewolf movies to realise that humankind has always had a fear of wolves. But is all this just anti-wolf propaganda? Historians believe the last wolf in Britain was dispatched near Findhorn, Moray, in 1743 amid an outcry that it had killed two children. Now, more than 250 years later, could we finally learn to coexist peacefully with wolves? Indeed could we even learn something from them? Jim Crumley has been described as 'the best nature writer working in Britain today'. He was born and grew up in Dundee, and has written over twenty books about natural history. Producer: David Stenhouse.

Ed Howker is a co-founder of the Intergenerational Foundation and co-author of 'Jilted Generation: How Britain has Bankrupted its Youth'. The London riots have unleashed a storm of recrimination and anger, much of it focussing on the people, some of them very young, who looted shops and burned homes and businesses to the ground.Are the London rioters bad or merely misguided? Have they failed us because we first failed them? If it's true that society gets the children it deserves, do we deserve this because of our indifference to what is happening in our own cities? Ed asks if young people deserve their reputation?Producer: David Stenhouse.

The writer Andrew Robinson has studied the lives of scores of geniuses and written about them, most recently in his new book, 'Genius, a Very Short Introduction'. Since time immemorial humanity has been fascinated by genius and geniuses - those extraordinary men and women whose abilities mark them out from the rest of us. Are geniuses born not made? Or do they have habits and skills which the rest of use can learn from? Andrew poses the question: What can we learn from geniuses?Four Thought is a series of talks which combine thought provoking ideas and engaging storytelling. Recorded live in front of an audience at the Edinburgh International Festival, speakers take to the stage to air their latest thinking on the trends, ideas, interests and passions that affect our culture and society.Producer: David Stenhouse.

Writer and cultural critic Owen Hatherley attacks the architectural results of recent "urban regeneration". He regrets the loss of confidence in a vision of how cities of the future should be. Defending the buildings of the 1960s, he says: "Even the most reviled of blocks contain spacious apartments," whereas "the new blocks you can see everywhere are designed from the outside in - irregular windows and brightly coloured cladding hides the tiny mean proportions and a total lack of planning for human use." Four Thought is a series of talks which combine thought provoking ideas and engaging storytelling. Recorded live in front of an audience at the RSA in London, speakers take to the stage to air their latest thinking on the trends, ideas, interests and passions that affect our culture and society.Producer: Sheila Cook.

Writer and entrepreneur Dominic Hobson argues that organised, competitive sport damages - rather than builds - the character of players and spectators alike. In common with war, Dominic condemns it as a zero sum game: what one side gains, the other loses: "Rich in triumphalism, disdain and pride". "I still recoil in horror from the behaviour of the parents, let alone the players, when my oldest son played for a youth football team in south London," he says. Producer: Sheila Cook.

"I have a lot of followers but I have no idea where I'm leading them," says poet and musician Musa Okwonga as he explores the downside of living a life on Twitter and Facebook.He describes his recent, but powerful, addiction to Tweeting and checking his Facebook page, explaining how a painful break-up with his girlfriend led him to reassess this dependence. "I clicked on a button and changed my relationship status from 'in a relationship' to 'single'," he says. "Thing is, I never even wanted to list that I was in a relationship in the first place." He is inspired anew by the words of an Egyptian revolutionary whose uprising was achieved on the streets - not in cyberspace. As Musa says: "While we retweet, they don't retreat." His solution is to get away from his computer and out into the real world, listening to his favourite soul-sustaining music. Producer: Sheila Cook.