Overview
Our programme is now under development for Battle of Ideas festival 2026. Further details of the discussions we will be having will be added frequently. To keep in touch, sign up to the Academy of Ideas Substack.
10:15-11:45 Saturday 17 October
From rent controls to energy caps: can the state run the market?
Convocation Hall, Church HouseControlling the narrative? The politics of misinformation and truth
Assembly Hall, Church HouseUnpicking the ‘Danish Model’: an answer to Europe’s immigration problems?
Wash House Café, The Abbey CentrePodcast Live: The Life Sci Fantastic
Harvey Goodwin Suite, Church HouseFrom womb transplants to caesareans: a brave new world of fertility?
Robert Runcie Room, Church HousePushing at an ‘open door’? Britain’s visa scandal
Hoare Memorial Hall, Church HouseThe corruption of the university?
Hospitality Suite, Church HouseStarting young: a life on benefits?
Temple Room, Church HouseCultural boycotts to cancellation: the new dilemmas facing the arts
Council Room, Church HouseGo on, convince me: We shouldn’t ban the burqa
Abbey Room, Church HouseShould you trust statistics?
Westminster Room, Church HouseEarly release: are alternatives to prison a credible alternative?
Parker Morris Hall, Abbey Centre12:15-13:30 Saturday 17 October
(How) can the UK survive the debt crisis?
Convocation Hall, Church HouseThe spiked podcast – Live: Latest in politics, free speech and the culture war
Harvey Goodwin Suite, Church HouseWho are today’s Greens?
Westminster Room, Church HouseWhat is autonomy?
Assembly Hall, Church HouseCan insurgents free us from The Blob? In conversation with Danny Kruger
Hoare Memorial Hall, Church HouseFrom first past the post to House of Lords: is our constitutional structure out of date?
Hospitality Suite, Church HouseIs America living up to the ideals of the Founding Fathers?
Wash House Café, The Abbey CentreAre localism and devolution the key to democracy?
Convocation Hall, Church HouseGo on, convince me: The United Kingdom is over
Abbey Room, Church HouseNegotiating the special-needs explosion
Temple Room, Church HouseFIFA and the future of football
Council Room, Church HouseIs it Islamism or is there a problem with Islam?
Robert Runcie Room, Church House13:45-14:30 Saturday 17 October
Exploring autonomy and identity: what is disability anyway?
Temple Room, Church HousePodcast Extra: Arts First – Sacred Virgin, Spurned Bride with Dolan Cummings
Council Room, Church HouseWhat’s the BBC ever done for us?
Parker Morris Hall, Abbey CentrePodcast Live: This Isn’t Working – battling the woke workplace
14:45-16:15 Saturday 17 October
WTF is Manchesterism – and can it save the economy?
Convocation Hall, Church HouseFrom public life to politics: does the media need reining in?
Hospitality Suite, Church HouseThe ethics of clinical trials and the puberty-blockers scandal
Robert Runcie Room, Church HouseOnce upon a time: children’s literature and the culture wars
Council Room, Church HouseWhat is the ‘national interest’?
Wash House Café, The Abbey CentreThe urban / rural divide: why the countryside matters
Parker Morris Hall, Abbey CentreCrisis in social care: who should look after Britain’s elderly?
Temple Room, Church HouseGo on, convince me: Britain needs a First Amendment
Abbey Room, Church HouseThe end of secularism?
Assembly Hall, Church HousePodcast Live: The Free Speech Union Podcast
Harvey Goodwin Suite, Church HouseWhite working class: the forgotten demographic or identity grievance-mongering?
Hoare Memorial Hall, Church House16:45-18:15 Saturday 17 October
From Vietnam to Iran, why can’t the West win wars?
Robert Runcie Room, Church HouseSurrogacy: freedom to have a family or baby business?
Robert Runcie Room, Church HousePodcast Live: The Brink
Harvey Goodwin Suite, Church HouseWill the pensions ‘triple lock’ bankrupt Britain?
Temple Room, Church HouseGo on, convince me: in defence of liberalism
Abbey Room, Church HouseShould we tolerate the intolerant?
Assembly Hall, Church HouseWe don’t need no indoctrination: the politicisation of education
Hospitality Suite, Church HouseFrom Kemi’s Tories to Andy’s Labour: can the legacy parties make a comeback?
Parker Morris Hall, Abbey CentreWhen activism meets the arts
Council Room, Church House10:00-10:45 Sunday 18 October
Influencing: the democratisation of success or crisis of aspiration?
Temple Room, Church HouseWhat’s so great about breakfast clubs?
Hospitality Suite, Church HouseBrexit: the facts strike back
Robert Runcie Room, Church HouseThe rise and rise of the black market
Council Room, Church HouseCan reading the Socratic dialogues help us navigate ethics in the age of virtue signalling?
The Chapel, Church HouseMeet the author/publisher: Jo Phoenix on ‘publishing for those who refuse to be cancelled’
Church House CaféBenjamin Britten, 50 years on
Westminster Room, Church House11:00-12:30 Sunday 18 October
China and the Middle East
Robert Runcie Room, Church HouseThe rise of the femosphere
Westminster Room, Church HousePodcast Live: Planet Normal – Views from beyond the bubble
Harvey Goodwin Suite, Church HouseIs the Social Contract broken? The rise of democratic distrust
Assembly Hall, Church HouseCriminalising parents, teachers and priests: what shall we do about conversion practices?
Hoare Memorial Hall, Church HouseWhy is policing Britain so difficult?
Hospitality Suite, Church HouseDoes AI change everything?
Convocation Hall, Church HouseAfter the wildfires: reassessing climate change
Temple Room, Church HouseWho is creating new New Media and what is its impact?
Council Room, Church HousePodcast Extra: The Booking Club with Jack Aldane – The Catcher in the Rye, 75 years on
Church House Café12:45-13:30 Sunday 18 October
Elections in France: Plus ça change…?
Robert Runcie Room, Church HouseThe dark arts of political polling
Convocation Hall, Church HouseMeet the authors: Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit
The Chapel, Church House13:45-15:15 Sunday 18 October
To Kill a Mockingbird: timeless or outdated?
Church House CaféFinally Trumped: who’s the heir to MAGA?
Robert Runcie Room, Church HouseShould we scrap The Equality Act?
Hoare Memorial Hall, Church HouseThe techlash: blaming social media – for everything
Council Room, Church HouseCan we build new towns and cities?
Parker Morris Hall, Abbey CentreFree speech for me and not for thee: the red lines in free expression?
Assembly Hall, Church HouseWomen betrayed: should we smash the unions and start again?
Hospitality Suite, Church HouseFrom quiet quitting to lazy girl jobs: why don’t we want to work?
Westminster Room, Church HousePodcast Live: The State of It – reports from the coalface of British politics
Harvey Goodwin Suite, Church HousePolitical realignment: the rise of the new right
Convocation Hall, Church House15:45-17:00 Sunday 18 October
Are drones ready for take-off?
Council Room, Church HouseAnti-social Britain: why do we feel unsafe?
Convocation Hall, Church HousePodcast live: Last Orders – the latest nanny state news
Harvey Goodwin Suite, Church HouseHave we enough energy to rebuild Britain?
Temple Room, Church HouseThe politicisation of public services – from the NHS to the police
Hoare Memorial Hall, Church HouseGo on, convince me: The AI bubble is about to burst
Abbey Room, Church HouseThe Odyssey: cinematic sensation or sin against the Greeks?
Church House CaféGrooming gangs to the Nottingham Inquiry: untangling accountability
Hoare Memorial Hall, Church HouseZoe Strimpel on Good Slut: How Money, Sex and Power Set Women Free
Westminster Room, Church HouseWhat does international development mean to you? Foreign aid and its discontents
Robert Runcie Room, Church House17:15-18:30 Sunday 18 October
The Great Sex Recession: Has Gen Z forgotten how to date?
Westminster Room, Church HouseIs anti-Zionism really antisemitism?
Hoare Memorial Hall, Church HouseA history of single-sex sport
Westminster Room, Church HouseSuicidal empathy: is the West killing itself with kindness?
Assembly Hall, Church HouseTik Tok Andy and No.10 North: performance over substance?
Convocation Hall, Church HousePopulism, political parties and the problem of leadership
Convocation Hall, Church HouseHow can we energise re-industrialisation?
Temple Room, Church HouseGo on, convince me: Smacking is OK
Abbey Room, Church HousePodcast Live: Take Me Home – Growing up in the Culture Wars
Harvey Goodwin Suite, Church House 