"the optimism we need is going to come from our fellow human beings"
Elif Shafak
5x15 EartH Hackney
"A luminous evening – hopeful, heartfelt & deeply inspiring."
Akram Khan Company
"The line-up, under any circumstances would have been intriguing... the event was sold out... there was an electricity in the room..."
The New Yorker
"5x15's packed soirees feel like an evening of offline, communal surfing, it's due as much to the eclectic menu of speakers as to the short time allotted to each..."
The New York Times
"The ability to 'think intelligently' about subjects that tickle, exercise and expand your mind is at last tangible with entertaining talks at 5x15."
The Telegraph
"a brilliant concept of five 15-minute talks delivered by significant voices..."
The Financial Times
Upcoming Events
5 Speakers, 15 Minutes Each - February 2026
5x15's 2026 season continues in February with more remarkable speakers and gripping stories.
The Tabernacle, W11
The Tabernacle, W11
Featuring Talks By:
Jon Lee Anderson
on the fall and rise of the Taliban
Oliver Bullough
on money laundering and dark financial secrets
Charles Foster
on the world's edges (where all the most interesting things happen.)
Justine Picardie
on royal fashion and conflict behind the couture
Jane Rogoyska
on wartime life in one of Paris's great hotels
5 Speakers, 15 Minutes Each - February 2026
5x15's 2026 season continues in February with more remarkable speakers and gripping stories.
The Tabernacle, W11
Conway Hall, WC1R
Featuring Talks By:
Antony Beevor
Rasputin and the Downfall of the Romanovs
5x15 Special: Antony Beevor on Rasputin
A special event with Britain’s foremost historian of war and no.1 bestselling author of Stalingrad, speaking about one of history's most destructive masterminds.
Conway Hall, WC1R
The Tabernacle, W11
Featuring Talks By:
Martin Gayford
on his conversations with Tracey Emin about painting
Megha Mohan
on societies where women make the rules
Frank Tallis
on purpose, meaning and life after 40
5 Speakers, 15 Minutes Each - March 2026
Join us in March for another inspiring evening of thought-provoking stories and superb speakers, live at The Tabernacle. Further speakers to be announced soon.
The Tabernacle, W11
Emmanuel Centre, SW1P
Featuring Talks By:
Jung Chang
Fly, Wild Swans
Rosie Boycott
In conversation
5x15 Special: Jung Chang on Fly, Wild Swans
More than 30 years have passed since Jung Chang’s Wild Swans was banned in China and embraced across the world. Now she returns to the 5x15 stage to discuss the long-awaited sequel
Emmanuel Centre, SW1P
5 Speakers, 15 Minutes Each - April 2026
Join us in April for more captivating stories, from an award-winning line-up of speakers, live at The Tabernacle.
The Tabernacle, W11
The Tabernacle, W11
Featuring Talks By:
Margaret Busby
on the people and places that have shaped her exceptional life.
Nick Crane
on the secret history of Britain's footpaths.
Serena Kutchinsky
on the object that consumed her father’s dreams, and spelled her family’s downfall.
Sara Wheeler
on the life and work of pioneering travel writer Jan Morris.
5 Speakers, 15 Minutes Each - April 2026
Join us in April for more captivating stories, from an award-winning line-up of speakers, live at The Tabernacle.
The Tabernacle, W11
5x15: Art Experts on the Art That Changed Them
Five leading cultural figures each deliver a fifteen-minute talk on an artwork that holds particular significance for them.
Royal Geographical Society, SW7
Royal Geographical Society, SW7
Featuring Talks By:
Geoff Dyer
on a photograph that has had a lasting impact on his way of looking at the world.
Ekow Eshun
on an artwork that has shaped his thinking about identity, beauty and power.
Andrew Graham-Dixon
on his favourite painting by Vermeer, re-seen through his radically new interpretation of the artist’s greatest works.
Katy Hessel
on an artwork by a woman artist that transformed how she sees the story of art.
Sir Grayson Perry
on an artwork that has influenced his creative life and ideas about art.
5x15: Art Experts on the Art That Changed Them
Five leading cultural figures each deliver a fifteen-minute talk on an artwork that holds particular significance for them.
Royal Geographical Society, SW7
5 Speakers, 15 Minutes Each - May 2026
Join us at The Tabernacle in May for an evening of cutting-edge thinking, intriguing stories and inspiration.
The Tabernacle, W11
The Tabernacle, W11
Featuring Talks By:
Hannah Critchlow
on the cutting-edge neuroscience of the future.
Jill Dawson
on the most famous occult artist you've never heard of.
Philippa Perry
on therapy and her cosy crime caper.
Tim Spector
on fermentation and the life-changing power of microbes.
5 Speakers, 15 Minutes Each - May 2026
Join us at The Tabernacle in May for an evening of cutting-edge thinking, intriguing stories and inspiration.
The Tabernacle, W11
About
5x15 produces events of ideas, insight and inspiration for the world’s leading organisations and most discerning audiences. We bring internationally acclaimed speakers to the stage to share stories that are informative, provoking, and above all, entertaining.
Wade Davis @ 5x15 - Cultures at Risk
Wade Davis is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker whose work has taken him from the Amazon to Tibet, Africa to Australia, Polynesia to the Arctic.
About
5x15 produces events of ideas, insight and inspiration for the world’s leading organisations and most discerning audiences. We bring internationally acclaimed speakers to the stage to share stories that are informative, provoking, and above all, entertaining.
