Ideas Matter

Ideas Matter
  • 5.0 (7)
  • EDUCATION
Ideas Matter

Ideas Matter Podcast is home to talks from leading contemporary thinkers on the most important political and cultural issues and intellectual trends of our times. Many were recorded at or reflect the topics discussed at Ideas Matter events, including Living Freedom summer school, The Academy residential weekend and Debating Matters schools debating competition.

  1. 21/08/2023

    Living Freedom: ’Online harms to trigger warnings: safetyism versus freedom.’

    Trigger warnings and microaggression policies have become increasingly familiar on campus. But while we can snigger at ‘de-stressing parties’ with colouring books, are students any different from the rest of society? After all, many people believe we face an unprecedented range of threats. Anxiety allied to yearning for safety is evident in warnings over formula milk and processed foods, panics over drink-spiking and catcalling, and paranoid parenting that is creating a generation of ‘cotton wool’ kids. What happened to resilience and how do we explain our existential insecurity? What is the balance between safety and freedom, and how do we successfully argue for taking risks? In the face of society-wide preoccupation with safety, what are the arguments we need today to renew the case for liberty? SPEAKERS Ella Whelan, journalist; co-convenor of the Battle of Ideas Festival READ ON Letter on Liberty: The case for women’s freedom Ella Whelan, Academy of Ideas, July 2022 https://academyofideas.org.uk/letters-on-liberty-the-case-for-womens-freedom/ Letter on Liberty: Beyond the Harm Principle Rob Lyons, Academy of Ideas https://academyofideas.org.uk/letters-on-liberty-beyond-the-harm-principle/ The danger of safetyism Matthew Crawford, UnHerd, 15 May 2021 https://unherd.com/2020/05/the-hypocrisy-of-safetyism/ LIVING FREEDOM Living Freedom exists to renew freedom through education and debate, offering young adults the opportunity to explore ideas and debate ideals as they relate to the past, present, and future of freedom. See https://livingfreedom.org.uk/ and @LivingFreedomUK IDEAS MATTER PODCAST Ideas Matter is a podcast that takes the most important issues of our times and explores the ideas and intellectual trends that have shaped where we are today. Subscribe via Spotify, iTunes, Podbean or SoundCloud. Email us at info@ideasmatter.org.uk

    20 min

  2. 16/08/2023

    Living Freedom: ’The ’stolen years’: understanding the lockdowns’

    Features the discussion ‘The ‘stolen years’: understanding the lockdowns’ recorded at Living Freedom Summer School 2023.   It’s not surprising lockdown was experienced as an era of loneliness, anxiety and fear. In every arena, freedom, autonomy and social life were restricted in favour of Zoom calls, family bubbles, and vaccine passports. Some say we are seeing a permanent shift in the experience of growing up. But to what extent has Covid given rise to a distinct generational outlook? Have habits of fraternity and solidarity been damaged irreparably or can we rescue the idea of freedom from widespread fatalism?    LECTURER  Dr Jennie Bristow sociologist, co-author, The Corona Generation    READ ON  Why do young people still support lockdowns? Max Mitchell, UnHerd, 25 March 2023  Generation CUB – how the events of Covid, Ukraine and Brexit will shape our teenagers’ lives forever Jennie Bristow, Telegraph, 10 March 2022    LIVING FREEDOM  Living Freedom exists to renew freedom through education and debate, offering young adults the opportunity to explore ideas and debate ideals as they relate to the past, present, and future of freedom. See www.livingfreedom.org.uk and @LivingFreedomUK    IDEAS MATTER PODCAST  Ideas Matter is a podcast that takes the most important issues of our times and explores the ideas and intellectual trends that have shaped where we are today.  Subscribe via Spotify, iTunes, Podbean or SoundCloud.   Email us at info@ideasmatter.org.uk

    18 min

  3. 08/08/2023

    Living Freedom: ’What does it mean to be human in a world of generative AI?’

    Features the discussion ‘What does it mean to be human in a world of generative AI?’ recorded at Living Freedom Summer School 2023.   People are fascinated, amused and alarmed – often all three at once, at the generative AI tools that have taken the internet by storm over the last year. Some people welcome the new possibilities that these tools seem to offer for human creativity and flourishing. Others fear the consequences – from students getting AI to write their homework, to artists and journalists losing their livelihood to AI, to reputations being ruined and public discourse polluted by AI-generated scams and 'deepfakes'. What 20th-century events and philosophies originally shaped the invention of AI? What 21st-century phenomena are shaping the way we understand AI now? Will generative AI add to, or detract from, the meaning in our lives?    LECTURER  Sandy Starr deputy director, Progress Educational Trust, author of the Letter on Liberty AI: Separating Man from Machine      READ ON  Computing machinery and intelligence Alan Turing, Mind, Volume LIX, Issue 236, October 1950, Pages 433–460  The cynical hysteria around AI Timandra Harkness, UnHerd, 2 June 2023    LIVING FREEDOM  Living Freedom exists to renew freedom through education and debate, offering young adults the opportunity to explore ideas and debate ideals as they relate to the past, present, and future of freedom. See www.livingfreedom.org.uk and @LivingFreedomUK    IDEAS MATTER PODCAST  Ideas Matter is a podcast that takes the most important issues of our times and explores the ideas and intellectual trends that have shaped where we are today.  Subscribe via Spotify, iTunes, Podbean or SoundCloud.   Email us at info@ideasmatter.org.uk

    23 min
  4. Living Freedom: ‘The dangers of progress?’

    30/07/2023

    Living Freedom: ‘The dangers of progress?’

    Features the discussion ‘The dangers of progress?’ recorded at Living Freedom Summer School 2023. Historically, the quest for freedom was often understood to be bound up with the ideal of progress, but today, society seems less certain of the benefits of progress.  Key features of modernity such as urbanisation, mobility, secularism and affluence are often deemed counterproductive to liberty. How should we define ‘progress’ and how do we account for collapsing belief in its benefits?  Are progress and tradition necessarily in direct and bloody competition or can we make the case for a creative tension worth celebrating for social benefits? From industry to the internet, cars to contraceptive pills, has progress gone too far and become a threat to contemporary freedoms? LECTURERSNina Power writer and philosopher; senior editor, Compact Ralph Schoellhammer political theorist, Webster Vienna Private University READ ONSocialism or Barbie-ism, Nina Power, Compact, 24 July 2023Degrowth is a suicidal ideology, Ralph Schoellhammer, 30 May 2023 LIVING FREEDOMLiving Freedom exists to renew freedom through education and debate, offering young adults the opportunity to explore ideas and debate ideals as they relate to the past, present, and future of freedom. See www.livingfreedom.org.uk and @LivingFreedomUK IDEAS MATTER PODCASTIdeas Matter is a podcast that takes the most important issues of our times and explores the ideas and intellectual trends that have shaped where we are today. Subscribe via Spotify, iTunes, Podbean or SoundCloud. Email us at info@ideasmatter.org.uk

    30 min
  5. Living Freedom: ‘Dystopian or dysfunctional? The 21st-century state’

    23/07/2023

    Living Freedom: ‘Dystopian or dysfunctional? The 21st-century state’

    Features the lecture ‘‘Dystopian or dysfunctional? The 21st-century state’ recorded at Living Freedom Summer School 2023. In recent years, governments have appeared directionless and often incompetent. Institutions riven with disputes over cultural values seem unsure of what they stand for. Crisis seems to be the word of the year - energy crisis, cost-of-living crisis, climate crisis, housing crisis – meaning a ‘state of emergency’ is now ubiquitous. What is distinct about today’s elites and their attempts to exercise authority? How should we understand the relationship between authority and authoritarian? For those keen to make the case for freedom, what should we be concerned about today and how do we make the case for renewing liberty? LECTURERJosie Appleton director, Manifesto Club; author, Officious: Rise of the Busybody state. READ ONThe emergency addiction Josie Appleton, Notes on Freedom, 21 May 2023Officious: Rise of the busybody state, Zer0 Books, 2016 LIVING FREEDOMLiving Freedom exists to renew freedom through education and debate, offering young adults the opportunity to explore ideas and debate ideals as they relate to the past, present, and future of freedom. See www.livingfreedom.org.uk and @LivingFreedomUK IDEAS MATTER PODCASTIdeas Matter is a podcast that takes the most important issues of our times and explores the ideas and intellectual trends that have shaped where we are today. Subscribe via Spotify, iTunes, Podbean or SoundCloud. Email us at info@ideasmatter.org.uk

    13 min

  6. 16/07/2023

    Living Freedom: ‘Freedom in the age of identity politics’

    Features the lecture ‘Freedom in the age of identity politics’ recorded at Living Freedom Summer School 2023. Loved or loathed, identity politics is inescapable in contemporary battles over freedom. To some, the political embrace of the personal is a vital tool in the struggle against oppressive institutions and practices. To others, identitarian politics is a divisive force in society and represents the antithesis of liberal ideals. In making the case for the free individual, how do we avoid reducing freedom to a lifestyle or consumer choice? Beyond the culture war of identity politics, how should we seek to construct a sense of ourselves and of freedom today? LECTURERDr Joanna Williams, director, Cieo, columnist, spiked, and author of How Woke Won: The Elitist Movement That Threatens Democracy, Tolerance and Reason READ ONFreedom in the age of identity politics, Joanna Williams, CIEO, 2023How identity politics destroys freedom, Roger Scruton, Acton Institute, September 2021 LIVING FREEDOMLiving Freedom exists to renew freedom through education and debate, offering young adults the opportunity to explore ideas and debate ideals as they relate to the past, present, and future of freedom. See www.livingfreedom.org.uk and @LivingFreedomUK IDEAS MATTER PODCASTIdeas Matter is a podcast that takes the most important issues of our times and explores the ideas and intellectual trends that have shaped where we are today. Subscribe via Spotify, iTunes, Podbean or SoundCloud. Email us at info@ideasmatter.org.uk

    26 min

  7. 09/07/2023

    Living Freedom: ‘Freedom of conscience - 21st-century challenges’

    Features the lecture ‘Freedom of conscience: 21st century challenges’ recorded at Living Freedom Summer School 2023.    For many centuries, in religious and secular times alike, societies have wrestled with dilemmas as to how we should live in accordance with our inner-most thoughts and beliefs. What should we understand by the term freedom of conscience, how did it emerge and why is it so important? What are the main threats to conscience-based freedoms today? LECTURER Professor Frank Furedi, sociologist and social commentator; author, 100 years of identity crisis and How Fear Works: culture of fear in the 21st century. READ ON On Tolerance: A Defence of Moral Independence, Frank Furedi, Continuum, 2011 There is nothing wrong with unconscious bias Don't let them control your thoughts! Frank Furedi, Roots and Wings, 29 August 2022 LIVING FREEDOM Living Freedom exists to renew freedom through education and debate, offering young adults the opportunity to explore ideas and debate ideals as they relate to the past, present and future of freedom.  See www.livingfreedom.org.uk and @LivingFreedomUK IDEAS MATTER PODCAST Ideas Matter is a podcast that takes the most important issues of our times and explores the ideas and intellectual trends that have shaped where we are today. Subscribe via Spotify, iTunes, Podbean or SoundCloud. Email us at info@ideasmatter.org.uk

    49 min

  8. 19/04/2023

    Living Freedom: Artificial Intelligence and implications for freedom

    Living Freedom Forum in London in April explored Artificial Intelligence and the implications for freedom. Generative AI like ChatGPT and Midjourney have captured the public imagination and barely a day now passes without claim and counter-claim as to benefits or threats posed by artificial intelligence. But what actually is generative technology? How have we come to realise this new technology? And what are the potential benefits and threats? Speaker: Sandy Starr, deputy director of the Progress Educational Trust To find out more about Living Freedom visit livingfreedom.org.uk/

    15 min
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5
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About

Ideas Matter Podcast is home to talks from leading contemporary thinkers on the most important political and cultural issues and intellectual trends of our times. Many were recorded at or reflect the topics discussed at Ideas Matter events, including Living Freedom summer school, The Academy residential weekend and Debating Matters schools debating competition.

Information

  • Creator
    Ideas Matter
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2023
  • Episodes
    51
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2019 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Ideas Matter

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