5x15

Kassia St Clair studied the history of women's dress and the masquerade during the eighteenth century at Bristol and Oxford. She has since written about design and culture for the Economist, House & Garden, TLS, Quartz and New Statesman, and has had a column about colour in Elle Decoration since 2013. Her first book The Secret Lives of Colour was a top-ten bestseller, a Radio 4 Book of the Week and has been translated into over a dozen languages; her second, The Golden Thread, was a Sunday Times Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Somerset Maugham Award. She lives in London. Her new book,The Race to the Future, tells the incredible true story of a quest against the odds that shaped the world we live in today. With thanks for your support for 5x15 online! Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Paul Caruana Galizia became a reporter after his mother Daphne was assassinated and since then has won a British Journalism Award, a Media Excellence Award from the Association of International Broadcasters, a silver medal at the British Podcast Awards, and a bronze medal at the Radio Academy ARIAs. With his two brothers, he won a Magnitsky Human Rights Award and an Anderson-Norman-Lucas Award for. His book A Death in Malta is a spellbinding account of the shocking murder of his muckraking mother and the search for justice that has reverberated far beyond their tiny homeland. With thanks for your support for 5x15 online! Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Rosamund Young is the bestselling author of The Secret Life of Cows - named a Times book of the year - and the recently published The Wisdom of Sheep & Other Animals. Alongside her brother Richard and her partner Gareth she runs Kite’s Nest Farm on the edge of the Cotswold escarpment, where nature is left to itself as much as possible and the animals receive exceptional kindness and consideration. The farm produces beef and lamb from 100% grass-fed animals which are sold in the farm shop. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Adam Sisman is a writer specialising in biography, living in Bristol, England. He is the author of Boswell's Presumptuous Task, winner of a National Book Critics Circle Award, and the biographer of John le Carré, A. J. P. Taylor and Hugh Trevor-Roper. Among his other works are two volumes of letters by Patrick Leigh Fermor. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an Honorary Professor at the University of St Andrews. "Mr. Sisman has an ideal biographical style: inquisitive and open, serious yet not severe," Dwight Garner wrote of Sisman's life of Hugh Trevor-Roper in the New York Times: "I’d read him on anyone.” With thanks for your support for 5x15 online! Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

The Six Ideas to Change the World series, in partnership with Keystone Positive Change Investment Trust, concludes in November with writer and journalist Jeff Goodell, author of the best-selling book The Heat Will Kill You First. The planet is changing in extreme ways. Spring is arriving a few weeks earlier and autumn a few weeks later. Heatwaves are becoming more intense and more common. Heat is the first order threat that drives other climate change impacts, and it will affect everything from our food supply to disease outbreaks. The basic science behind rising temperatures is not complicated, but the failure to act now is revealing significant fault lines in our governments, our economy and our values. For the final event in this series on the future of the planet, join us for an eye-opening conversation about heat, and how it it will dramatically change the world as we know it. Award-winning journalist and bestselling author Jeff Goodell will be live at 5x15 in conversation with the BBC's Climate Editor

The Six Ideas to Change the World series, in partnership with Keystone Positive Change Investment Trust, continues in October with award-winning writer and journalist Elizabeth Kolbert, author of the international best-seller The Sixth Extinction. Plastics are poisoning us. In the midst of a global pollution crisis, research clearly illustrates the toxic effects of microplastics, which both release and attract dangerous chemicals. But while plastics are a relatively recent human invention, they have become so ubiquitous as to seem indispensable. Will our planet ever be rid of them? Join us to hear Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Kolbert discuss life beyond plastics and the wider conundrums posed by human inventions and technologies; how they contribute to and create environmental problems, but also retain important uses and may even be used as solutions. Speakers Elizabeth Kolbert is the author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change and the international best-seller The Sixth E

The first event in 5x15's new series with Rathbones, in collaboration with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is a celebration of Nature's Diversity. This panel discussion explores how nature can teach us to challenge traditional expectations. From plants and fungi living outside orthodoxies, to the symbolic connections between plants and queerness through LGBTQ+ history, and the stories of writers and artists who have been drawn to nature, our expert panel of scientists and storytellers will illuminate how the natural world can inspire new ways of thinking. Brigitte Baptiste is one of Colombia’s most eminent scientists, an expert in matters related to the environment and biodiversity, and a leading expert in gender diversity. She was director for 10 years of the Alexander Von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute and currently serves as Chancellor of Universidad Ean, a higher education institution focused in sustainable entrepreneurship. She is considered an expert in environmental issues and biodivers

When it comes to playing games, asking the right questions is everything. Where should you move first in Connect 4? What is the best property in Monopoly? And how can pi help you win rock paper scissors? In his new book Around the World in 80 Games, the award-winning mathematician Marcus du Sautoy explores the maths behind the games we love to play, and why we love to play them. Spanning millennia, countries and cultures, he discovers how maths and games have been integral to human psychology and culture. For 5x15, Marcus is in conversation with Alex Bellos a grandmaster of the puzzling world, brilliant on all things cryptic. His bestselling, award-winning books include Alex’s Adventures in Numberland, Alex Through the Looking-Glass and Can You Solve My Problems? For as long as there have been people, there have been games, and for nearly as long, we have been exploring and discovering mathematics. Join us for a playful and adventurous discussion about our human passion for both. Speakers Marcus du Saut

What is the meaning of home? As the nights begin to draw in and we head into the autumn, 5x15 is delighted to welcome the wonderful authors Kate Humble and Helen Rebanks for a special conversation about the time we spend at home. Kate Humble has inspired many readers with her positive and purposeful approach to life, whether it's reconnecting with nature or changing our lifestyles. Now, in her new book Where the Hearth Is, she turns her attention to life indoors. In the move away from office buildings and traditional workplaces, how do we create spaces that feel happy and healthy, and make the most of our time spent with loved ones? In her debut book The Farmer's Wife, Helen Rebanks offers a gorgeous and unvarnished glimpse at the labour and glory of keeping a home and raising a family. Populated with chickens, sheepdogs, ponies and cattle, and joined by her husband James and their four children, Helen's story on the farm offers a chance to think about where our food comes from, and who puts it on the table

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. Mark O’Connell is the author of A Thread of Violence, Notes from an Apocalypse, and To Be a Machine, which was awarded the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize, the 2019 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, and was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. He is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Slate, and The Guardian. He lives in Dublin with his family. In his new book A Thread of Violence, about a shocking double murder in Ireland in the 1980s, O'Connell is pushed into a confrontation with his own narrative: what does it mean to write about a murderer? Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

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. Sarah Ogilvie teaches at the University of Oxford, and specializes in language, dictionaries, and technology. As a lexicographer she has been an editor at the Oxford English Dictionary and was Chief Editor of Oxford Dictionaries in Australia. As a technologist she has worked in Silicon Valley at Lab 126, Amazon's innovation lab, where she was part of the team that developed the Kindle. She originally studied computer science and mathematics before taking her doctorate in Linguistics at the University of Oxford, and then taught at Cambridge and Stanford. Her new book The Dictionary People dives deep into previously untapped archives to tell a people's history of the Oxford English Dictionary, and traces the lives of thousands of contributors who defined the English language. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5

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. Justine Picardie is the author of six books, including her bestselling memoir If the Spirit Moves You; Miss Dior: A Story of Courage and Couture; and the international bestseller, Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life, which will be reissued in a new, revised edition in August 2023 to coincide with the forthcoming Chanel exhibition at the V&A. She has also contributed essays to several anthologies and museum exhibitions on art, fashion and photography. She is a contributing editor to Harper’s Bazaar, having previously been its editor-in-chief. She was formerly an investigative journalist for the Sunday Times, a columnist for the Telegraph, editor of the Observer Magazine, editor of Town & Country and features director of Vogue. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15storie

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. Octavia Bright is a writer and broadcaster. She co-hosts Literary Friction, the literary podcast and NTS Radio show, with Carrie Plitt. Recommended by the New York Times, Guardian, BBC Culture, Electric Literature, Sunday Times and others, it has run for ten years and has listeners worldwide. She has also presented programmes for BBC R4 including Open Book, and hosts literary events for bookshops, publishers, and festivals – such as Cheltenham Literature Festival and events for The Southbank Centre. Her writing has been published in a number of magazines including the White Review, Harper’s Bazaar, ELLE, Wasafiri, Somesuch Stories, and the Sunday Times, amongst others. She has a PhD from UCL where she wrote about hysteria and desire in Spanish cinema. Her first book, This Ragged Grace: A Memoir of Recovery and Renewal, was published by Canongate

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. Ed Yong's first book, I Contain Multitudes, about the amazing partnerships between microbes and animals, was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize and the Wellcome Book Prize. It was a New York Times bestseller. He is a science writer on the staff of The Atlantic, where he won the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory journalism for his coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and the George Polk Award for science reporting, among other honours. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, National Geographic, Wired, The New York Times, Scientific American, and more. He lives in Washington, D.C. In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, welcoming us into previously unfathomable dimensions - the world as it is truly perceived by other animals. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5

5x15 welcomes Colm Tóibín, novelist, critic, essayist and one of the most highly acclaimed writers of our time. In his new essay collection A Guest at the Feast, Tóibín traverses life in all its complexity, capturing moments that are both melancholy and amusing, rich and strange. Travelling between the streets of Buenos Aires and a deserted Venice, and the works of writers such as John McGahern and Marilynne Robinson, these essays uncover the places where life and fiction overlap. Don't miss the chance to hear this most erudite and important storyteller, live in conversation with award-winning poet and author Seán Hewitt. Praise for Colm Tóibín and A Guest at the Feast 'The clarity of the novelist's descriptive ability shines through essays on topics ranging from his treatment for cancer to the joys of an empty Venice . . . On every subject, Tóibín's writing is what people these days inevitably describe as nuanced, a word that has become a kind of shorthand for expressing a person's rare ability to under

The Six Ideas to Change the World series, in partnership with Keystone Positive Change Investment Trust, continues in July with Gaia Vince on Migration. Migration is one of the most underreported consequences of the climate crisis, but it is also one of the most seismic. Put simply, the changing temperatures on our planet will force us to change where - and how - we live. What will the ongoing climate upheaval mean practically? How can we prepare for mass migration, and who will be the most affected by these changes? To address these urgent and complex questions, we are thrilled to welcome award-winning journalist and author Gaia Vince back to 5x15's virtual stage. Gaia's latest book, Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval, is a groundbreaking investigation into this species emergency. It provides a rousing call to arms, showing us that migration is not the problem, but the solution. She will be in conversation with Henry Mance, Chief Features Writer at the Financial Times and author of How to

In July, 5x15 is thrilled to welcome the highly acclaimed and best-selling authors Polly Morland and Rachel Clarke, for a vital conversation about medicine, the NHS and the fascinating story behind Morland's new book A FORTUNATE WOMAN: A Country Doctor's Story, a Sunday Times bestseller that was shortlisted for the 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. Polly Morland was clearing her late mother’s house when she found a battered paperback fallen behind the family bookshelf. Opening it, she was astonished to see reproduced in it an old photograph of the remote, wooded valley in which she lives. The book was A Fortunate Man, John Berger’s classic 1967 account of a country doctor working in the same valley more than half a century earlier. This chance discovery led Morland to the remarkable doctor who serves that valley community today, a woman whose own medical vocation was inspired by reading the very same book as a teenager. A Fortunate Woman tells her compelling story, and how the tale of the old doct

If you were going to do just one thing to transform your health, what would it be? With the sheer amount of information we consume daily about diet, fitness and wellbeing, this can be an increasingly difficult question to answer. But Dr Michael Mosley, No.1 international best-selling author of the 5:2 diet books, is here to help. We are delighted to welcome him to 5x15's virtual stage for an energizing conversation about small changes that make all the difference, with cook, writer and presenter Thomasina Miers. Based on the popular BBC podcast, Just One Thing, Dr Mosley’s new book unearths a range of impactul, intriguing and surprising transformations. Having reversed his own Type 2 diabetes in 2021 with the 5:2 fast diet, Dr Mosley now brings us groundbreaking research about everyday methods for improving our health. From the benefits of eating chocolate for heart health, to the natural 'high' of singing and the effects of house plants on mood and productivity, he has chatted to experts and road tested ti

The Six Ideas to Change the World series, in partnership with Keystone Positive Change Investment Trust, continues in June with Tim Smedley and Alok Jha on Water. Water scarcity is an urgent problem. While some of the world's water crisis can be attributed to changes wrought by climate change, like droughts and floods, there is also a long history of human mismanagement. What can we learn from past mistakes, and how will those lessons inform the future? In his new book The Last Drop: Solving the World's Water Crisis, the award-winning environmental journalist Tim Smedley offers a timely and ultimately optimistic account of the global situation. In this "smart, sobering and scholarly" book, Smedley argues that there are many solutions, from regenerative agriculture and desalination, to water-footprint labelling for consumers. Join us to hear an inspiring and in-depth discussion of the actions we must take to better use and manage the world's water supply. Tim Smedley will be in conversation with Alok Jha, s

5x15 is delighted to welcome two best-selling and award-winning authors back to our virtual stage. This time, Lucy Jones and Amy Liptrot will be in conversation about Jones's highly anticipated new book MATRESCENCE: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Early Motherhood. Other than adolescence, there is no other time in a human's life course that entails such dramatic change than pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood. So why has this transformation been so neglected by science, medicine and philosophy, and gone largely unrepresented across literature and the arts? Lucy Jones's new book is a groundbreaking, deeply personal investigation into the emerging concept of 'matrescence', and an urgent examination of the modern institution of motherhood. Join us for an inspiring conversation between Lucy Jones and Amy Liptrot, author of The Outrun and The Instant. They will be discussing important questions around motherhood and femininity; interdependence and individual identity; as well as our rel