5x15

The writer-director Mike Leigh is one of world cinema’s pre-eminent figures, a multi-award winning writer-director and one of Britain’s most internationally recognised and critically acclaimed filmmakers. He joins 5x15 to talk about his life and work in an unmissable online conversation with the long-time presenter of The Film Programme, Francine Stock. In Mike Leigh on Mike Leigh, the director reflects on films including his much-loved Mr Turner and recent epic Peterloo; classic films including Nuts In May and Abigail’s Party; his approach to universal themes; his inimitable working method of developing characters through improvisation; and the influences that have shaped his vision. 5x15 brings together outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

A 5x15 and Penguin Classics series of Green Ideas special event with Jared Diamond who discusses his short book The Last Tree on Easter Island. Life on earth has become irrevocably altered by humans. What can we do to acknowledge our impact on the earth and pave the way for a fairer, saner, greener world? The Last Tree on Easter Island is Jared Diamond's haunting account of visiting the mysterious stone statues of Easter Island. As the multi-award winning author and geographer proposes in his best-selling book, Collapse, Easter Island is the ‘clearest example of a society that destroyed itself by overexploiting its own resources.’ Diamond’s new book hones in on this theme with powerful brevity. In his exploration of how a remote civilization dismantled itself by exploiting its own natural resources he urges us to recognise why we must heed this warning for our own era. Penguin Green Ideas: The Last Tree on Easter Island is in the Penguin Classics series of Green Ideas; twenty short books which bring you t

Award-winning journalist Dan Saladino discusses his new book and call to arms Eating to Extinction with Rosie Boycott. A captivating and urgent exploration of some of the world's most endangered foods, Eating to Extinction by Dan Saladino is essential reading for our times, an astonishing journey through the past, present and future of food, a love letter to the diversity of global food cultures, and a work of great urgency and hope. From a tiny crimson pear in the west of England to great chunks of fermented sheep meat in the Faroe Islands, from pistachios in Syria to flat oysters in Denmark, from a wild honey harvested with the help of birds to an exploding corn that might just hold the key to the future of food - these are just some of the thousands of foods around the world today that are at risk of being lost for ever. Intensive agriculture and the standardization of taste are not only wiping out many edible plants, but also the food cultures, histories and livelihoods that go with them. It is an age

Mathematics is full of better ways of thinking, and with over 2,000 years of knowledge to draw on, Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy interrogates his passion for shortcuts in this fresh and fascinating guide in conversation with Roger Highfield. After all, shortcuts have enabled so much of human progress, whether in constructing the first cities around the Euphrates 5,000 years ago, using calculus to determine the scale of the universe or in writing today’s algorithms that help us find a new life partner.

Drawing on her first-hand experience of the high-pressure, starkly white world of book publishing, novelist Zakiya Dalila Harris joins us from America to talk about The Other Black Girl. At once a gripping thriller and a witty and shrewd piece of social commentary, The Other Black Girl was an instant New York Times bestseller and is one of the most talked about debut novels of the year. 'The funniest, wildest, deepest, most thought-provoking ride of a book' Attica Locke.

Pioneering neuroscientist, Anil Seth, discusses Being You: A New Science of Consciousness in conversation with Adam Rutherford at 5x15. Join 5x15 for an electrifying discussion about consciousness that will turn what you thought you knew about yourself on its head. Anil Seth, will be in conversation with broadcaster Adam Rutherford to discuss a radical new theory of consciousness that challenges our understanding of perception and reality. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Step into the extraordinary and mysterious world of Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author Susanna Clarke as she discusses her spectacular novel, Piranesi, with the one and only Neil Gaiman live and online exclusively for 5x15. An unmissable conversation between two of our best loved, most powerfully imaginative writers. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

In her frank and funny talk for 5x15, Jess Phillips MP discusses her new book Everything You Really Need to Know About Politics with Rosie Boycott and lifts the lid on what a career in politics is really like and why it matters – to all of us. From agonizing decisions on foreign air strikes to making headlines about orgasms, from sitting in on history-making moments at the UN to eating McCain’s potato smiles at a black-tie banquet in China, the life of a politician is never dull. And it’s also never been more important. But politics is far bigger than Westminster, and in her new book and in this event, Jess Phillips makes the compelling case for why now, more than ever, we all need to be a part of it. Taking us from the sublime to the ridiculous, Jess gives us a look at the inner workings of politics and the rules governing us all that are often a mystery to an outsider. She covers it all in her own inimitable style giving us the inside track on party politics, changing laws, standing for election, consti

In this 5x15 short talk, Nick Crane discusses his new book Latitude: The True Story of the World's First Scientific Expedition and shares a story of courage, collaboration, initiative and adversity. Nick Crane is an award-winning writer, journalist, geographer and explorer, as well as the presenter of the prime-time BAFTA-winning BBC TV series Coast, Great British Journeys, Map Man and Town. Born in Norfolk, his career has seen him travel extensively in Tibet, China, Afghanistan and Africa. He also identified and visited for the first time the geographical Pole of Inaccessibility, the point on the globe most distant from the open sea, located in the Gobi Desert. In Latitude, he tells the greatest true scientific adventure story yet to be heard: the story of the world’s first ever international scientific expedition, which aimed to discover the shape and magnitude of the earth. An epic tale of survival and science in the 18th century spanning ten years, oceans and continents, volcanoes and rainforests, mutiny

In our latest 5x15 podcast, award winning poet Hollie McNish will take you on a whistle stop tour of her funny, frank and timely new poetry and prose collection Slug: And Other Things I’ve Been Told to Hate From Finnish saunas and soppy otters to grief, grandparents and Kellogg's anti-masturbation pants, Slug is a book which holds a mirror lovingly up to the world, past and present, through Hollie's driving, funny, hopeful poetry and prose. Slug is about the human condition: of birth and death and how we manage the possibilities in between. Hollie McNish is one of Britain’s best-loved poets, and numbers Matt Haig, Paapa Essiedu, Benjamin Zephaniah and Jo Brand among her fans. She won the Ted Hughes Award for Nobody Told Me, her verse memoir of parenthood, and in 2016 co-wrote Offside, a play about the history of British women in football. She was the first poet to record at Abbey Road Studios, releasing an album of poetry and music entitled Versus, and is also a patron of Breast Milk Action. In Slug and Oth

Lionel Shriver discusses the complexities of life and the politics of death in her darkly funny new novel Should We Stay or Should We Go? at 5x15. Lionel Shriver was christened ‘the Cassandra of American letters’ by the New York Times in recognition of her writing’s unerring prescience. Her first novel, The Female of the Species, was published in 1987, but it was with the Orange Prize-winning We Need to Talk About Kevin that she took up her position as one of our leading novelists and social commentators. She has written for the Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, The New York Times, The Economist and Harper's, and is a contributor to The Spectator. Her acclaimed new novel, Should We Stay or Should We Go, begins in pandemic-hit Britain but spins off into multiple futures as it provocatively and wittily explores what makes a good life – and a good death. 5x15 brings together outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts an

What can the planet’s oldest plants teach us about our humanity and our place in the world? In this special 5x15 podcast, journalist Lucy Jones, author of the best-selling book Losing Eden, is joined by acclaimed thinker, writer and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment conversation Robin Wall Kimmerer, who explains the biology of mosses, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating organisms have to teach us. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants and Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. She lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. Lucy Jones is a writer and journalist based in Hampshire, England. She previously

In this funny and poignant talk for 5x15, Jack Guinness takes us on a short journey through queer history. He speaks about his incredible project, The Queer Bible, and discusses the value of freeing oneself from the trappings of narrow identity. Jack Guinness is a model and fashion commentator, a contributing editor at British GQ, and has also contributed to Sunday Times Style, the Guardian, the Gentleman’s Journal and Tatler. In The Queer Bible – published this June to celebrate Pride Month – he has brought together a stellar line-up of today’s queer icons to write about the queer trailblazers who inspired them. Based on Jack’s popular website QueerBible.com, it continues his mission to create a space dedicated to the celebration of queer history, and features contributors including Elton John, Munroe Bergdorf, Graham Norton, Lady Phyll, Paris Lees, Russell Tovey, Tan France and Courtney Act, as well bespoke illustrations from LGBTQ+ and ally artists. 5x15 brings together outstanding individuals to tell o

In this special 5x15 podcast, Join George Monbiot, Franny Armstrong on their quest to restore our rivers to their rightful place - not only in the nation’s imagination - but also to make them clean, swimmable, a rich diverse home to fish, birds and animals. Franny and George will be discussing their innovative, "live documentary"- Rivercide- and from other leading experts and campaigners. To find out more about Rivercide and how you can watch the live documentary on 14th July at 7pm on rivercide.tv. Twitter (@rivercide_live), Insta (@rivercide_live) and Facebook (facebook.com/rivercideTV). Rivercide is the world's first live investigative documentary, presented by George Monbiot, directed by Franny Armstrong and with the livestream produced by Peter Armstrong. The 60 minute programme will be broadcast live online - free to view - on July 14th at 7pm via rivercide.tv. This 5x15 discussion features: Investigative journalist, author, campaigner and self-described "professional troublemaker," George Monbiot.

Kate Mosse joins interviewer Rosie Boycott to discuss An Extra Pair of Hands: A story of caring, ageing and everyday acts of love. Kate Mosse is an international bestselling novelist, playwright and nonfiction author with sales of more than eight million copies in 38 languages. Renowned for bringing unheard and under-heard histories to life, she is a champion of women's creativity. Kate is the Founder Director of the Women's Prize for Fiction, sits on the Executive Committee of Women of the World and is a Visiting Professor of Contemporary Fiction and Creative Writing at the University of Chichester. Kate lives in West Sussex with her husband and mother-in-law. Rosie Boycott is a cross bench peer in the House of Lords. For ten years she was chair of The London food Board, responsible to the Mayor of London for food policy in the City. She is a well known food activist with particular interest in food poverty, health, environment and agricultural sustainability. She is a trustee of the Food Foundation and Fe

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