Bristol Cultural Development Partnership www.ideasfestival.co.uk

3-6 may

Ginsberg and 60sCounterculture 13 May 14.00-15.45£6.00/£4.50Watershed Media Centre

Poet, performer, social critic and culturalphenomenon Allen Ginsberg is undoubtedlythe quintessential figure of the BeatGeneration and the countercultural revolutionof the 1960s, and this selection of filmsfeatures footage of him and hiscontemporaries in action. Wholly Communioncaptures the first meeting of American andEnglish Beat poets at the Royal Albert Hall in1965, while Anatomy of Violence records thespectrum of leftwing politics and personalitiesat the 1967 Dialectics of Liberation conferencein London. Adapted from a Kerouac play, PullMy Daisy is considered the first truly Beat film.

Sympathy for the Devil Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard France 1968Subtitled 1hr 42mins4 May 14.00-17.00£6.00/£4.50Watershed Media Centre

Made at a time when students were taking tothe streets of France and featuring the biggestand baddest band of the day – the RollingStones – Sympathy For The Devil blends rock‘n’ roll, counterculture and politics to examinethe role of the revolutionary within westernculture. Rather than creating swinging sixtiesrock ‘n’ roll mythology, Godard attempted todemystify it, to show it as cultural production,incorporating episodes featuring black poweractivists and an interview with anti-corporategraffiti artist Eve Democracy (Wiazemsky).Four decades on, this is a fascinatinghistorical artefact twice over – a musical oneand a political one. Introduced by MarkCosgrove, Head of Programme Watershed.

Sylvia Harvey May ‘68 and Film Culture revisited6 May 18.30-20.00£6.00/£4.50Watershed Media Centre

Sylvia Harvey’s seminal book May ‘68 and FilmCulture articulated the evolution of radicalcultural and film theory and the impact of theevents of May 68. In this talk she will reflecton her original thesis and ask is culture andfilm now living out the radical aspirations of40 years ago. Sylvia Harvey is Professor ofBroadcasting Policy at the University of Lincolnwhere she is Co-Director of the Centre forMedia Policy, Regulation and Ethics. She haspublished widely on the subject of film andbroadcasting policy.

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The Festival of Ideas returns to stimulate the minds and passions of the people of Bristol. Our fourth May festival addresses many issuesincluding schisms in the Christian Church, the impact of globalisation,science today – a new partnership with Science City Bristol – fair trade(celebrating the Bristol Ethical Expo that takes place in Castle Park inMay) and transition to a greener society, changing America, the mediaand truth, and what the world would be like without human beings. We also look back at the sixties and the legacy of idealism, assess the impact of the Iraqi surge and look at matters of the mind andalternative medicine.

There’s two film seasons with Watershed Media Centre: May ‘68: When Culture was Radicalised(on cinema and the 1960s – with each screening accompanied by archive news footage) andSocial Issues: Documentaries and Debates, which touches on the big issues affecting public life,from globalisation to climate change.

There’s also Gerry Anderson’s life and work, Jon Ronson on the foibles of contemporary craziness,the philosophy of Monty Python and the politics of James Bond. So, whether it’s war and peace,climate change, politics and poetry, changing America, Thunderbirds or God, there’s something for you.

Thanks to all staff, partners, publishers and sponsors for helping to make this happen. Watch thewebsite, www.ideasfestival.co.uk, for updates and additions. Please note that free events needpre-booking. Booking details for all events are on the back cover.

Andrew KellyDirector

FESTIVAL OF IDEAS3-29 MAY 2008

Above: Sympathy for the Devil

Opposite: Manufactured Landscapes, Leonardo DiCaprio,

A Crude Awakening, Treasure Island, Our Daily Bread,

Raymond Tallis

15

15

7-8 may

Charles Freeman on Heretics, Pagans and the Christian State 7 May 18.00-19.00£6.00/£4.00Watershed Media Centre

Charles Freeman follows his stunning The Closing of the Western Mind with hisstudy of one of the most important momentsin Church history in AD 381, which definedChristian orthodoxy and condemned all other theories of the Godhead heretical and suppressed freedom of thought for the first time in a thousand years of Greco-Roman civilization.

Atheism, Agnosticism and God John Cornwell, Mark Vernon and Julian Baggini7 May 19.30-20.45£6.00/£4.00Watershed Media Centre

Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion hassparked massive debate. One to respond ishistorian and journalist John Cornwell withDarwin’s Angel, in which he argues thatDawkins is dogmatic and extremist. Hediscusses his book with the atheistphilosopher Julian Baggini, author of Atheism:a short introduction and Mark Vernon,agnostic, who in After Atheism, argues that acommitted, even passionate, agnosticism isvital for the future of our planet and our souls.

A Crude AwakeninG:the oil crashDirected by: Basil Gelpke/Ray McCormack 20068 May 18.00-20.30£6.00/£4.50Watershed Media Centre in associationwith Science City Bristol

Balancing superb archival footage with thedire warnings of contemporary scientists andpolitical experts, this is a compelling,intelligent and highly entertaining look at whatwill happen when our supply of cheap oil runsout. Amidst a dark and disturbing vision of ourfuture, the film hints at a humbler way of lifebuilt around sustainability and alternativeenergy, providing a visually stunning, boldlyprophetic testament which provokes not justthought but action. Following the film a panelwill discuss issues of peak oil, energy, fear andour response. Speakers include JamesWoudhuysen, Professor of Forecasting andInnovation at De Montfort University,journalist and author of Energise: why thefuture of energy is too important to leave topoliticians and rock stars and Peter Lipman,Director, Liveable Neighbourhoods & LowCarbon Travel, Sustrans.

8-10 may

Alan Sokal on pseudo-science,religion, and misinformation in public life8 May 18.30-19.30£6.00/£4.00Watershed Media Centre

Alan Sokal’s 1996 paper in the cultural-studiesjournal Social Text ‘Transgressing theBoundaries: towards a transformativehermeneutics of quantum gravity’ was a hoaxdesigned to expose and parody extremepostmodernist criticism of science. It becamefront-page news, triggering a fierce and wide-ranging controversy. Sokal remains a powerfulvoice in the debate about the status ofevidence-based knowledge. In Beyond theHoax he targets pseudo-science, religion, andmisinformation in public life arguing that clearthinking, combined with a respect for evidence,are of the utmost importance to the survival ofthe human race in the twenty-first century.

Ginsberg and 60sCounterculture 210 May 14.00-16.00£6.00/£4.50Watershed Media Centre

This selection features glimpses into thechanging scene in 1960s London alongsidemore contemporary reflections on Ginsberg’slegacy. 1967 Granada programmeUnderground documents the undergroundnewspaper International Times and its launchat Camden’s Roundhouse featuringappearances by Paul McCartney, Ginsberg andFerlinghetti as well as an early performance byPink Floyd. Ginsberg also appears inconversation with Jeremy Isaacs in 1995 inFace to Face, and is the focus of 1998’s TheWindows of the Skull from Channel 4’sModern American Poets series.

Harriet Lamb on Fairtrade vs airmiles10 May 14.00-15.00FREE but must be booked (see booking details)Castle Park Ethical Expo

Harriet Lamb, director of the FairtradeFoundation and author of Fighting the BananaWars and Other Fairtrade Battles, looks at thedilemma of promoting fair trade at the sametime as use of aircraft to bring food to the UK.Is fair trade food a form of offsetting? Are webuying our way ethically to further climatedisaster or is ethical trading and sustainabilitycompatible?

Living the Good LifeHarriet Lamb and Andrew Simms10 May 15.30-16.30FREE but must be booked (see booking details)Castle Park Ethical Expo

Harriet Lamb talks about one of the greatest –and most successful – global campaigns of alltime, one that has ranged from bananas andcoffee beans to cotton and chocolate, withAndrew Simms, New Economics Foundation’sPolicy Director and head of the ClimateChange programme at nef’s Centre for GlobalInterdependence. His books include Tescopolyand Do Good Lives Have to Cost the Earth?which examines how to live a good life.

4 5

Harriet LambA Crude Awakening

PG

15

11-12 may

The philosophy of Monty Pythonwith Julian Baggini11 May 14.00-15.30£6.00/£4.00Watershed Media Centre

If life is as absurd as it often seems to be, thenmight not the best comedy have the greatestinsights into its meaning? Baggini argues thatthe Pythons provide an ironic Anglo-Saxonalternative to gloomy European existentialism,one which is both wiser and funnier.Ridiculous? Possibly. True? Quite probably.Always looking on the bright side of philosophy,Baggini – who looked at the philosophy of theSimpsons in a sell-out show last year –nonetheless promises to stop if it all gets toosilly. Illustrated with clips from the films.

The sixties and violence Astrid Proll and Iain Sinclair12 May 18.00-19.00£6.00/£4.00Arnolfini

Astrid Proll was a member of the earlyBaader-Meinhof group (Red Army Faction)and spent time in prison. She wrote about hertime in Baader-Meinhof – pictures on the run 1967-1977. In discussion with writer andcommentator Iain Sinclair she talks aboutGermany in 1968, why she came to England in1970 and what happened afterwards.Sinclair’s next book, a ‘documentary fiction’Hackney: that rose-red empire, includescoverage of Proll’s life in England.

The sixties and the legacyof idealismAndrew Anthony, Sheila Rowbotham,Dominic Sandbrook, Peter Tatchelland Helen Taylor12 May 19.30-21.00£6.00/£4.00Arnolfini

Forty years on the sixties look like the lastgreat outpouring of optimism and idealism, as signalled in that incredible year of 1968.How do we look back at the sixties now? Whatdo activists then think of society and politicsnow? Does idealism exist anymore in the faceof criticism of multiculturalism and loomingenvironmental disaster? Is liberalism nowdoing more damage than good? SheilaRowbotham, socialist feminist theorist andwriter with a long history of activism, is theauthor of the memoir Promise of a Dream:remembering the sixties. Peter Tatchell is ahuman rights campaigner and a member ofthe queer rights group OutRage! and the leftwing of the Green party. Andrew Anthony isan Observer and Guardian journalist, andmember of the liberal left. His latest book, The Fallout is about broken dreams, darkenedillusions and big questions that no longermatch their received answers. DominicSandbrook’s two books Never Had It So Good:a history of Britain from Suez to the Beatlesand White Heat: a history of Britain in theSwinging Sixties: 1964-1970 have been widelypraised. Chaired by Helen Taylor, University ofExeter, who was active in the United States inthe late sixties as a graduate student.

Charles Leadbeater on mass creativity 14 May 18.00-19.00£7.50Watershed Media Centre in associationwith Science City Bristol

Charles Leadbeater’s work has led thedevelopment of the creative economy and thenew knowledge industries. His new book, We-Think – the result of a new way of writing,where readers contributed material via theauthor’s website – is the story of moderninnovative participation, from Wikipedia,YouTube and Craigslist to new forms ofscientific research and political campaigning.Leadbeater analyses not only these changes,which are reshaping the way we work, playand communicate, but also how they will affectus and how we can make the most of them.

George Ferguson onregeneration by design 14 May 19.30-21.00£6.00Watershed Media Centre in associationwith West of England Design Forum

Successful regeneration is not a quotient ofthe size of a development, but of quality, mix,and atmosphere. This requires well informed‘design’ not about style but about observationand an intelligent and creative response to theneeds and opportunities that a place offers.Regeneration is best measured by the level ofactivity that it generates and is only to do withbuildings in so far as those buildings enablethe activity. Ferguson, active in many Bristoldevelopments, and a recent President of theRoyal Institute of British Architects, illustrateshis argument with examples of what he callsreal regeneration as opposed to the blandmonocultures so loved by the corporatedevelopment world.

6 7

Andrew Anthony

13-14 may

Sebastian Peake on Mervyn Peake13 May 18.00-19.00FREE but must be booked (see booking details)City Museum and Art Gallery

Mervyn Peake was one of the greatest artistsand writers of the twentieth century, author ofGormenghast, his illustrations for TreasureIsland, a novel forever associated with Bristol,are considered among the best ever producedfor R L Stevenson’s masterpiece. 2008 beingthe 40th anniversary of his death, his sonSebastian Peake, co-compiler of MervynPeake: the man & his art, will be speakingabout his father’s life and work, displayseveral recently-discovered drawings,paintings, and the designs for a stageadaptation of Gormenghast for which it wasintended Benjamin Britten would write themusic, and also read some of Peake’s poems.

Raymond Tallis 13 May 19.30-20.30FREE but must be booked (see booking details)City Museum and Art Gallery in associationwith Science City Bristol

Raymond Tallis is a leading Britishgerontologist, philosopher, poet, novelist andcultural critic. His new book, The Kingdom ofInfinite Space is a journey around our headsbringing together biological science andphilosophical interrogation in search of theplace where our souls, and consciousness,reside. From the act of blushing and theamount of manganese in our tears to thecuriousness of a kiss, The Kingdom of InfiniteSpace explores the astonishing range ofactivities that go on inside our heads, most ofwhich are entirely beyond our control.

Dominic Sandbrook

14-15 may

Jon Ronson – tales of everyday craziness14 May 19.30-20.30£6.00/£4.00Arnolfini

Award-winning journalist, writer anddocumentary film maker, Jon Ronson has longexplored the craziness of everyday life. Oureveryday lives are determined by the craziestthoughts and we inevitably spend too muchtime getting worked up by complete nonsense.There are clever people worldwide who areemployed to spot, nurture and exploit theirrationalities of those among us who canbarely cope as it is. Nobody more than JonRonson is aware and capable of making uslaugh about our obsessions and neuroses. Hisbooks Them: adventures with extremists andThe Men Who Stare At Goats are currentlybeing turned into movies. He has recentlypublished What I Do: more true tales ofeveryday craziness.

Jean Moorcroft Wilson onIsaac Rosenberg 15 May 18.00-19.00FREE but must be booked (see booking details)City Museum and Art Gallery

Painter and poet Isaac Rosenberg died on the Western Front in 1918 aged 27. T S Eliotcalled him the ‘most extraordinary’ of theGreat War poets, but he differed from othersin race, class, education, upbringing,experience and technique, and he madeeloquent the voice of the “poor bloodyTommy”. Moorcroft Wilson, author of the first biography of Rosenberg for 30 years,focuses on the relationship between his lifeand work – Bristol childhood, his time at theSlade School of Art and his harrowing life as a private in the British Army. Illustrated with Rosenberg’s work and readings from his poetry.

The second Museum of BristolLecture: The Historian and the CityAdrian Tinniswood 15 May 19.30-21.00FREE but must be booked (see booking details)City Museum and Art Gallery

Historian Adrian Tinniswood’s most recentbook is The Verneys, which has receivedwidespread critical acclaim. As regional chairof the Heritage Lottery Fund he has beeninvolved in many Bristol heritage projects, and now, in the lead-up to the opening of theMuseum of Bristol in 2010, Adrian reflects onhis own work as a historian, looks at ways inwhich historians have defined the city in thepast, and outlines the vital role that historyhas in shaping Bristol’s future.

16-20 may

Communities leading changeAndrew Mawson and Paul Kingsnorth16 May 18.00-19.00£6.00/£4.00Watershed Media Centre

When Andrew Mawson arrived in Bromley-by-Bow in the east end of London, in the 1980s, it was in a state of social,economic and material disrepair. Living there,he soon realized that by unlocking itsuntapped potential, the community couldbegin to turn itself around and established theBromley-by-Bow Centre, which has encouragedliteracy, housing, business, health, welfare andenterprise in the area to flourish. Mawsontalks about his book, The Social Entrepreneur,with Paul Kingsnorth, author of Real England.Kingsnorth’s book explores the impact ofbreakneck globalisation on the cultures andlandscapes of England, exploring thehomogenising of the landscape, the death ofthe small, the local and the individual, and the people fighting for a different kind of future.

The politics of James Bond with Ben Macintyre18 May 14.00-17.00£6.00/£4.50Watershed Media Centre

Ben Macintyre, author of the bestsellingZigZag, explores the politics of James Bondand his creator, Ian Fleming. Fleming’s 007emerged against the background of theSecond World War and the Cold War, andBond’s world was based on the realities (and fantasies) of Fleming’s life as a wartimespy-master and peacetime bon viveur.Macintyre talks about the real people behindthe fictional creations and explains theastonishing legacy of the Bond books and theenduring appeal of a fictional secret agentwho not only lived twice, but proved to beimmortal. The talk will be accompanied by a showing of Goldfinger (PG).

Gerry AndersonIn association with West of EnglandDesign Forum20 May 18.00-19.30£10.00Watershed Media Centre

The great television and film producer,director and writer, Gerry Anderson famousfor his futuristic television programmes, comesto Bristol to talk about his long anddistinguished career – from The Adventures ofTwizzle in the 1950s to the hugely popularsixties series, to the present day work in filmand television. There’ll be clips fromThunderbirds, Fireball XL5, Captain Scarlet,Joe 90, Space 1999, among many others.

Baroness Susan Greenfield onID: the quest for meaning in the 21st century20 May 18.00-19.00£6.00/£4.00Arnolfini in association with Science City Bristol

Our individuality is under attack as neverbefore. Two huge new forces – newtechnology and the rise in fundamentalism – are combining to threaten the control of ourown minds and the way our society functions.Baroness Greenfield, Director of the RoyalInstitution of Great Britain, draws on thelatest findings in neuroscience to show howfar we are and can be in control of thedevelopment of our brains and minds – andthe actions we need to take now both tosafeguard our individuality and to find thefulfilment which our current unfetteredmaterialism cannot provide.

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Jon Ronson

20-21 may

Nick Davies and Gordon Burn on truth and the media20 May 19.45-21.00£6.00/£4.00Arnolfini

Can we trust modern media? Award-winningjournalist Nick Davies investigated his ownprofession and found an industry in crisis. InFlat Earth News journalism is undermined bycommercialism: most reporters are no longerable to go out and find stories, make contactsor even check the facts which they recycle.Gordon Burn, novelist, artist and true crimeauthor, wrote his most recent book as thenews unfolded. Born Yesterday: the news as anovel, looks at Summer 2007: floods, foot andmouth, the disappearances of Tony Blair andMadeleine McCann, the arrival of GordonBrown, and terror attacks in Glasgow andturned them into an utterly unique novelabout the way news is made, and how themedia creates and manipulates the stories we see before us.

Simon Singh and Edzard ErnstTrick or Treatment?: alternative medicine on trial21 May 18.00-19.00£6.00/£4.00Arnolfini in association with Science City Bristol

Prince Charles is a staunch defender andmillions of people swear by it; most UK doctorsconsider it to be little more than superstitionand a waste of money. What treatments reallyheal and which are potentially harmful? Edzard Ernst, the world’s first professor ofcomplementary medicine, has spent over adecade analysing the evidence for and againstalternative therapies. He is supported in hisfindings by Simon Singh, the highly respectedscience writer of several internationalbestsellers. Honest, impartial but hard-hitting,they provide a thorough examination and

judgement of more than 30 of the mostpopular treatments: acupuncture, homeopathy,aromatherapy, reflexology, chiropractic andherbal medicine, among others, with clarity,scientific rigour and authority.

Patrick Cockburn and JonathanSteele on Iraq 21 May 19.30-20.30£6.00/£4.00Arnolfini

Patrick Cockburn is the Middle Eastcorrespondent for The Independent. His newbook, on Muqtada Al-Sadr, whose men arekilling more British troops than any othergroup in the world today, charts his rise topower, his links with Hezbollah and theIranians and his confrontation with theAmerican and British military, combining firsthand accounts with vivid and dismayingreportage of the civil war now raging in afractured country. Cockburn discusses thiswith Guardian correspondent, JonathanSteele, whose new book, based on his work inthe region, Defeat: why they lost Iraq looks atthe failure of the Allied invasion. John Simpsoncalled it ‘a superb book – the best account sofar of what went wrong in Iraq, and why’.

22 may

The Osborne Clarke Ideas Law LecturePhilippe Sands on torture and the law22 May 18.00-19.00£6.00/£4.00Watershed Media Centre

What happens when lawyers do politicians’bidding? International lawyer Philippe Sands,author of the acclaimed Lawless World:making and breaking global rules, uncoversthe story behind the human-rights abuses thatthe US government sanctioned and the terribleconsequences of their actions. Who were thelawyers, military personnel and politicians whoconstructed the policy and provided therationale for the one-page memorandumsigned by Donald Rumsfeld on 2 December2002 authorizing interrogation techniquesforbidden under the Geneva Convention?Torture Team traces the origins of thememorandum through interviews with the keyfigures speaking out for the first time. This is achilling and compelling story of men andwomen corrupted by power and the few whobravely stood out against them.

Matt Frei on America22 May 19.30-20.30£6.00/£4.00Watershed Media Centre

What does the state of Washington today tellus about the United States? For Matt Frei, BBC Washington correspondent, it is the newRome: all powerful, yet it cannot prevent a 17-year-old boy from shooting half a dozenpeople in a month; so rich, and yet so poorthat its streets are frequently as potholed asthose of any forgotten backwater in thedeveloping world; more armed officers persquare mile but has earned the title of beingits country’s murder capital; where the mayorfor 12 years was a convicted crack addict whobelieved that every law in his own country wasracist, ‘including the law of gravity’. Indiscussion with Cynthia Enloe GovernmentDepartment, Clark University, USA.

10 11

Simon Singh

Philippe Sands

Matt Frei

23 may

Manufactured LandscapesDirected by: Jennifer Baichwal, Canada 200623-27 May 18.20-20.00 and 20.20-22.0028-29 May 18.20-20.00£6.00/£4.50Watershed Media Centre

This award-winning documentary centres onrenowned artist Edward Burtynsky whoselarge-scale photographs portray thedevastating impact of industrial expansion onthe environment. Baichwal observes the artistat work amid some of the most surreallandscapes of the twenty-first century: China’smountains of computer waste, the YangtzeRiver where whole towns are disappearing inthe flooding caused by the Three Gorges Damand the shipbreaking yards of Bangladesh. Asobering meditation on human endeavour andits impact on the planet.

Naomi Klein 23 May 18.00-19.00£6.00/£4.00Arnolfini

Naomi Klein calls the story of how the ‘freemarket’ came to dominate the world fromChile to Russia, China to Iraq, South Africa toBritain the ‘shock doctrine’. Based onbreakthrough historical research and fouryears of on-the-ground reporting, Naomi Kleinexplodes the myth that ‘free markets’ lead to‘free people’. She argues that our world isincreasingly in thrall to a little understood yethugely influential ideology: the shock doctrine– a doctrine that sees moments of collectivecrisis as a ‘window of opportunity’. From the1970s dictatorships of South America, throughthe Falklands War, Tiananmen Square and thecollapse of the Soviet Union, Naomi Kleinreinterprets our past to trace the rise ofdisaster capitalism, a programme of social andeconomic engineering advanced throughshock. Playing out today around the world inIsrael, Iraq, New Orleans and South-East Asia,The Shock Doctrine reveals the true beliefsthat lie behind global policy.

26-27 may

OUR Daily BreadDirected by: Nikolaus Geyrhalte26 May 18.10-19.55£6.00/£4.50Watershed Media Centre

This visually stunning and evocativedocumentary is a wide-screen tableau of afeast which isn’t always easy to digest, but in which we all take part. To the rhythm ofconveyor belts and immense machines, thefilm looks into the places where food isproduced in Europe – cool, industrialenvironments comprised of monumentalspaces, surreal landscapes and bizarre soundswhich wouldn’t be out of place in sciencefiction. With no voiceover or music, the filmunfolds in long, slow shots both beautiful andhorrific in their indictment of the industry’sritual, mass destruction and contamination of both land and animals.

The 11th HourIn association with Triodos BankDirected by: Nadia Conners/Leila ConnersPetersen, USA 2007 27 May 18.00-20.30£6.00/£4.50Watershed Media Centre in associationwith Science City Bristol

This expose of the state of the naturalenvironment confronts viewers about theindelible human footprint that humans haveleft on this planet, and the catastrophic effectsof environmental neglect and abuse. Producedand narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, the filmpresents a flood of striking images ofenvironmental turbulence interspersed withcommentary from prominent figures includingStephen Hawking. Though the issues are stark,the film is ultimately hopeful, suggesting thatby working together and developing moresocially responsible attitudes we can shapea better future. An expert panel discusseswhat we need to do next: Peter Melchett (SoilAssociation and organic farmer), John Pontin,Bristol businessman and environmentalist,whose book, The Converging World, tells thestory of making Chew Magna a ‘zero waste’society, Susan Warren, Head of SustainableCities, Forum for the Future and JamesVaccaro, Triodos Bank, an authority onrenewable energy and sustainability.

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Naomi Klein Leonardo DiCaprio

Manufactured LandscapesOur Daily Bread

U 12A

PG

28 may

Alan Weisman – On the worldwithout human beings 28 May 18.00-19.00£6.00/£4.00At-Bristol in association with Science City Bristol

Would the world be better off without humanbeings? Alan Weisman looks to the future todiscover what the world might be like, andhow it would change if humans disappearedright now for good. Would the climate returnto where it was before we fired up ourengines? Could nature ever obliterate alltraces of human civilization? How would itundo our largest buildings and public works,and could it reduce our myriad plastics andsynthetics to benign, basic elements? Andwhat about architecture and art? Weismanwrestles with some of the key concerns of ourtime and reveals a picture of the future that isboth illuminating and terrifying. Weisman is indiscussion with environmental writer andactivist Mark Lynas, author of Six Degrees: our future on a hotter planet.

Kate MosseBlackwell Book Talk 28 May 18.30-19.30£6.00/£4.00St George’s Bristol in association with Blackwell

The bestselling author of Labyrinth, and Richardand Judy favourite, Kate Mosse, reveals allabout her stunning new novel, Sepulchre. Ahaunting mystery of revenge and obsession, setagainst the rich backdrop of Southern France,the story centres around two women whoselives become entwined, despite living a hundredyears apart. Expertly weaving the present withthe past, Mosse creates another gripping tale ofrevenge, murder, treasure and forgotten secretsthat is just as addictive as her last.

Gary Marcus and SusanBlackmore on the mind 28 May 19.30-20.30£6.00/£4.00At-Bristol in association with Science City Bristol

New York University psychologist Gary Marcusunveils a fundamentally new way of looking atthe human mind. He argues that the mind isnot an elegantly designed organ but a kluge(an engineering term for a makeshift solution,an inelegant construction that somehowworks). Arguing against a whole tradition thatpraises our human minds as the most perfectresult of evolution, Marcus shows howimperfect and ill-adapted our brains really are,having had to adapt from the environment ofour early hominid origins to a complex worldin which our penchant for short-termsatisfactions is literally fatal. He examines whypeople often vote against their own interests,why money can’t buy happiness, and whyleaders often stick to bad decisions. He is indiscussion with Dr Susan Blackmore, author ofConsciousness: an introduction, and A VeryShort Introduction to Consciousness.

29 may

George JohnsoN ON THE TENGREATEST MOMENTS IN SCIENCE 29 May 18.00-19.00£6.00/£4.00Watershed Media Centre in associationwith Science City Bristol

One of the world’s finest science journaliststells the story of the ten greatest momentswhich profoundly changed our understandingof the universe; from Galileo, William Harveyand Isaac Newton to Michael Faraday, JamesJoule and Ivan Pavlov; from gravity and thecirculation of the blood to the movement oflight and the nature of electricity. Johnsonlooks at how the diligence of all thesescientists was rewarded: in an instant,confusion was swept aside, and somethingnew about nature leapt into view. With theseten entertaining histories, Johnson reminds usof a time when all research was hands-on andthe most earthshaking science came from asingle mind confronting the unknown.

14 15

John Bolton

Ambassador John Bolton 29 May 19.30-20.30£6.00/£4.00Watershed Media Centre

The son of a Baltimore fireman and the firstperson in his family to go to university, withscholarships to Yale College and Yale LawSchool, John Bolton candidly recounts his 16month tenure as US Ambassador to the UnitedNations, his Senate confirmation battle, andthe highlights of his career in public service intwo Republican administrations. He describeswhy practices such as the Oil for Food scandal,procurement fraud and sexual exploitation andabuse by UN peacekeepers are explained awayor ignored. He also details how he made surethat UN Secretary General Kofi Annan did notrun for a third term and that another ‘secularPope’ did not succeed him and why no countryexcept the United States has done much aboutending the genocide in Darfur. With a no-holdsbarred approach, John Bolton provides aunique insight into the workings of the UnitedNations and America’s place within it.

Kate Mosse

Gary Marcus

Booking details

Arnolfiniwww.arnolfini.org.uk ContactArnolfini directly on: 0117 917 2300 orvisit in person. Box office openinghours are 10.00-21.30 daily.

At-Bristolwww.at-bristol.org.uk At-Bristol boxoffice, Explore-At-Bristol (10.00-17.00weekdays; 10.00-18.00 weekends andbank holidays); booking line 0845 3451235 (local rate calls), 09.00-17.00Monday to Friday. Booking fee of 50pper telephone booking applies.

St George’swww.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk Contact St George’s directly on: 0845 40 24 001 or visit in person. St George’s boxoffice is located on the right hand sideof the building, accessible from Great George Street. Box office openinghours are Monday to Friday 10.00-18.00, Saturday 12.00-17.00.

Watershed Media Centrewww.watershed.co.uk ContactWatershed Media Centre directly on: 0117 927 5100 or visit in person.

Free events Places at free events must be booked in advance and are subject toavailability. If you would like to enquire about reserving places for any of our free events, please emailideas@businesswest.co.uk.

The Bristol Festival of Ideas is an initiative of Bristol Cultural Development Partnership:

Festival Partners, Sponsors and Supporters:

BCDP culture | ideas | arts and sciencesLeigh Court, Abbots Leigh, Bristol BS8 3RA www.ideasfestival.co.uk