Wide-ranging line-up for latest Lewes Speakers Festival

Festival director Marc Rattray has announced the following:

Friday, May 8:

15.30 Anne-Laure Le Cunff – cognitive neuroscientist, shows how small, curiosity-driven experiments can replace rigid goal-setting to create a more fulfilling way to work and live.

17.00 Sumit Paul-Choudhury – former editor-in-chief of New Scientist, makes the case for optimism as a practical tool for progress.

18.30 Jeremy Hunt – former Chancellor of the Exchequer and Foreign Secretary, explains why a dangerous world still needs a confident, influential Britain.

20.00 Prof Bill McGuire – leading volcanologist and climate scientist, explains how Earth’s deep past reveals the scale of climate change now unfolding—and why our actions today will determine the future of the planet.

Saturday, May 9:

9.50 Fola Yahaya – AI expert and founder of Strategic Agenda, offers a clear and engaging introduction to artificial intelligence, explaining how it works and how we can prepare for the changes it will bring.

11.20 Ian Williams – award-winning journalist and foreign correspondent, returns to update his analysis of China’s state-driven economy and how its rise continues to reshape global business, politics and power.

12.50 Andrew Bayliss – associate professor of ancient history at the University of Birmingham, explores how Sparta rose to become Greece’s most feared power.

14.20 Jason Burke – Guardian international security correspondent and leading foreign reporter, examines how militant movements from the radical 1970s reshaped global politics, security and extremism in ways still felt today.

15.50 David Torrance – historian and House of Commons Library researcher, brings the 1926 General Strike to life, exploring how Britain came to the brink of upheaval and how the crisis reshaped the nation’s politics for decades.

17.20 Prof Leah Ruppanner – leading sociologist and director of the Future of Work Lab, reveals why the mental load continues to exhaust women and how recognising and reshaping these hidden pressures can help reclaim balance and wellbeing in modern life.

18.50 Helen Pilcher – neuroscientist and award-winning science writer, explores how the nocebo effect shows our expectations and beliefs can shape real illness—and how understanding this mind–body link can help us become healthier.

20.20 Thant Myint-U – former UN official, recounts the life of his grandfather UN Secretary-General U Thant and reveals how his quiet diplomacy helped steer the world through the most dangerous crises of the Cold War.

Sunday, May 10:

9.50 Brian Groom – journalist and former Financial Times senior editor, explores how the histories and identities of Britain’s regions help explain the nation’s past and shape its future beyond London-centric narratives.

11.20 Philip Coggan – award-winning financial journalist and former Economist columnist, explains how Donald Trump’s trade war is reshaping global trade and what it means for economies, businesses and households worldwide.

12.50 Prof Colin Shindler – Emeritus Professor of Jewish and Israel Studies at SOAS, examines the history of the Israel–Palestine conflict and asks whether an impartial understanding of this long and deeply contested struggle is possible.

14.20 John Kampfner – award-winning author and foreign-affairs commentator, explores how countries around the world are boldly solving social, economic and environmental challenges that others, including Britain, struggle to confront.

15.50 Johnny Teague – historian and author, revisits the ideas of Thomas Paine to ask how common sense, civic responsibility and constitutional principles might help renew democracies facing crisis today.

17.20 Liam Byrne – MP and former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, examines why populist movements are gaining ground around the world and argues for practical ways to rebuild trust and counter their appeal.

18.50 Maria Romanenko & Jez Myers – leading Ukrainian journalist and British photographer/writer give a darkly funny, deeply moving account of trying (and sometimes failing) to flee Kyiv as the invasion began.