- How can we make sure food shortages don’t keep happening?
- Can we stop fake climate news holding up action?
- Are we ready for a four-day working week?
- And how do we stop becoming more stupid?
These questions and more are set to be answered during this year’s Cambridge Festival, which begins on Friday and runs until Sunday 2nd April.
The programme features a wide-ranging series of more than 360 mostly free events on everything from climate change and technology to politics and health. There is also an extensive line up for children and families.
Empty supermarket shelves and worries about supply chain have focused people’s minds on issues of food security. In HOW CAN WE IMPROVE OUR FOOD SECURITY? (27 March), researchers help to address the practical and political problems. With Professor Tim Lang, a former consultant to the WHO and the UN, and a special advisor to four House of Commons Select Committee inquiries; Anoop Tripathi, a PhD student whose current research seeks to find a way to increase rice yields; David Christian Rose, Professor of Sustainable Agricultural Systems; and Dr Emelyn Rude, founding editor of Eaten: the Food History Magazine. The event chair is Dr Nazia Mintz Habib, Research Centre Director for the Centre for Resilience and Sustainable Development.
Neuroscientist Hannah Critchlow and award-winning science writer David Robson are in conversation about Dr Critchlow’s new book in JOINED UP THINKING : THE SCIENCE OF COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AND ITS POWER TO CHANGE OUR LIVES (29 March). Dr Critchlow is an internationally acclaimed neuroscientist, broadcaster and author based in Cambridge where she is Science Outreach Fellow at Magdalene College. David Robson is an award-winning science writer specialising in the extremes of the human brain, body and behaviour. He is a former features editor at New Scientist and was a senior journalist at BBC Future.
Dr Critchlow said: “We're at a pivotal moment in our evolution. The range and complexity of problems that we face, from the climate emergency to global water and food shortages and the threat of the next pandemic, mean that we need all brains on deck. Joined up Thinking: the science of collective intelligence and its power to change our lives explores the new neuroscience research of how we can nudge our behaviours to boost intelligence and wellbeing and increase the collective intelligence for our species for the success of future descendants. This is important – recent studies show IQ scores falling across Europe – we seem to be getting stupider. Are there ways we can better access our cognitive capacity?”
Can our political structures adapt to the pace of climate change? How can we better confront climate misinformation around the world? What role can technology play? And how can we educate young people for the challenges to come? These are the questions asked during CLIMATE CHANGE: FROM DESPAIR TO ACTION (30 March). With Professor Laura Diaz Anadon, a Lead Author of the IPCC Working Group III on Mitigating Climate Change; Professor Peter Sutoris, an environmental anthropologist and author of Educating for the Anthropocene (Nov 2022); Samira Patel, a PhD student in Polar Studies at the University of Cambridge; and Dr Ramit Debnath, the inaugural Cambridge Zero Fellow. The event chair is Professor Emily Shuckburgh, Director of Cambridge Zero. The panel emphasises the need to involve local communities in action on climate change. Professor Anadon talks about not imposing western models on the South. Professor Sutoris focuses on what schools can learn from activists about climate change education. Dr Ramit Debnath examines climate change misinformation and how we need to understand people's response to conspiracy theories and work with them. Samira Patel discusses what is happening to communities in the crisis areas – Arctic and Himalayas (described as the third pole) and policies to address it.
In THE 4-DAY WEEK: HERE TO STAY? (31 March) a full account of the results from the largest trial in the world are presented by the lead researchers from Cambridge, Professor Brendan Burchell and Dr David Frayne, with recommendations for organisations wanting to reduce their working hours. What was the impact on the wellbeing of employees, and the performance of the organisations?
Dr Frayne said: “One of the things that stood out to me were the financial savings people could make by working one day less, which is obviously very significant in a cost-of-living crisis. People could do more for themselves. We had participants, for example, who had childcare responsibilities and a partner working in the same company. By taking alternating days off, these couples could reduce their reliance on private childcare by 40%, which is a big financial saving. It led me to wonder what other savings people could make with the benefit of a permanent four-day week.”
Further Festival highlights include:
- COULD WORKAROUNDS BE THE ANSWER TO THE WORLD’S COMPLEX PROBLEMS? (28 March) Oxford University professor and award-winning researcher Paulo Savaget talks to Professor Jaideep Prabhu about his new book on how the most valuable lessons about problem-solving can be learned from the poorest groups.
- BIG TECH: THE NEW COLONIALISTS? (29 March) Are governments able to restrain big tech firms? With Dr Sebastián Lehuedé from Harvard and Cambridge, and from Cambridge: Professor Jaideep Prabhu, Alina Utrata, and Dr Jennifer Cobbe.
- HOW CAN WE KEEP UP WITH POLITICAL CHANGE? (30 March) The Guardian’s John Crace and David Runciman, professor of politics at Cambridge and host of the popular and well-regarded Talking Politics podcast, talk about the struggle journalists, let alone academics, face to keep up with and make sense of the turbulent nature of today’s politics.
- OWNED BY EVERYONE? – CHALK STREAMS IN CULTURE AND CRISIS (30 March) Cambridge Festival coincides with a major interdisciplinary conference on the culture, science and future of chalk streams, featuring conservationists, environmental and literary historians, NGOs, regulators, water companies, politicians and community groups. This event is the Conference’s public session.
- BRITAIN: A CRISIS OF IDENTITY? (31 March) A discussion about Britain’s place in the world amid great upheaval and shifting global geopolitics. Speakers include Professor Michael Kenny, whose new book, Governing a Troubled Union, is due out later this year; Dr Chandrika Kaul; Professor Saul Dubow; and Zoë Billingham, director of the IPPR North think tank. The event Chair is Peter Geoghegan, editor-in-chief at the news website openDemocracy.
David Cain, Cambridge Festival Manager, said: “Our aim with this incredibly far-reaching programme is to get people thinking and considering their place in the world. We want everyone who attends the events, whatever age they are, to ask questions of the speakers, of themselves, of society.
“As well as the meatier topics, there is a huge amount on offer for children and families, from hands-on events, interactive exhibitions, comedy, film premieres, and tours. The weekend of the 25th and 26th March is our family-focussed series, with hundreds of free events that aim to educate, entertain and inspire the next generation of thinkers. Some of the highlights include the hugely entertaining Mathematical stories with Katie Steckles and Amazing African Kingdoms. And why not take a tour of the stars with the Cambridge Science Centre in Spectrum Science?
“With only a few days to go, we’re getting super excited and looking forward to welcoming everyone to this year’s Festival!”
Visit the Cambridge Festival website for further information and to view the full programme: www.festival.cam.ac.uk
Image: John Cameron, Unsplash
