This year at the Oxford Literary Festival I’ll be talking to John Blair about killing the dead, and learning from Joe Tidy how to hijack the internet.
Sunday, 22 March 2026
12:00pm
Joe Tidy
Ctrl+ Alt+ Chaos: How Teenage Hackers Hijack the Internet
Wednesday, 25 March 2026
10:00am
John Blair
Killing the Dead: Vampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World
Maurice Barrès, who first wielded the politics of identity, Gabriele D’Annunzio, whose poetry became a blueprint for fascism, Maxim Gorky, the dramatist of the working class and Stalin’s cheerleader and the Maoist Ding Ling, whose stories exculpated the regime that kept her imprisoned. All four had extravagant visions and believed they were vital to its realisation. When writers and rulers find a use for each other the consequences can be shattering for everyone.
Come hear me speak on Wednesday, 2 April 2025 at 4:00pm at the Department for Continuing Education Lecture Theatre
You can read more about the book here.
On Wednesday, 20 March 2024 at 12:00pm I’ll be talking to astronomers Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Chris Impey about efforts to bring thinking from a greater diversity of backgrounds can enhance astronomy and provide insight into the universe.
The event’s being held at Oxford Martin School’s Lecture Theatre as part of this year’s Oxford Literary Festival. You can get tickets here.
Thanks to the recent publication of Engineers of Human Souls, I got to discuss censorship, free speech and modern China with journalist Yuan Yang and philosopher Jeffrey Howard when Rana Mitter hosted Radio 3’s Free Thinking on 19 March 2024. The programme is available on BBC Sounds.
Eight days in St Petersburg, anyone?
From 27 August 2021 and 8 October 2021 I’ll be joining New Scientist’s tours round the city and its many sites of scientific interest, offering talks and walking seminars with architectural historian Andrew Spira and local guides.
Here are some details, and you can speak to an expert to book on +44 (0)20 7251 0045.
Join me on-line at the V&A’s Friday Forum Creating Wonderlands, from 10am on Friday 30 April, where I’ll be among the speakers drawn from fashion, film, theatre, music and photography to discuss the perennial appeal and inspiration of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass.
On Tuesday 2 June I had a chat with Jonathan Strahan for the Coode Street podcast.
Despots!
Plesiosaurs!
Here.
Episode 3 of the Baillie Gifford Prize’s ReadSmart Podcast, out Friday 29 May, has me discussing trends in artificial intelligence with the mathematician Hannah Fry. Razia Iqbal is in the chair. Available from all high-class streaming emporia; this is the Spotify one spoti.fi/3bJa5v7
This year I’ll be helping judge the Baillie Gifford prize for non-fiction. Radio 4 presenter Martha Kearney will chair the panel. Fellow judges are professor and author Shahidha Bari, New Statesmen writer Leo Robson, New York Times editor Max Strasser and journalist and author Bee Wilson. The winner will be announced on Thursday 19 November.
On Tuesday 3 December at 7pm I’ll be chairing a discussion at London’s Delfina Foundation about energy utopias, and the potential of hydrogen as a locally-produced sustainable energy source. Speakers include the artist Nick Laessing, Rokiah Yaman (Project Manager, LEAP closed-loop technologies) and Dr Chiara Ambrosio (History and Philosophy of Science, UCL).There may also be food, assuming Nick’s hydrogen stove behaves itself. More details here.