5 Speakers, 15 Minutes Each - June 2025
Arifa Akbar is chief theatre critic for the Guardian. She has previously been literary editor at the Independent, as well as a news reporter and arts correspondent. Her first book, Consumed: In Search of My Sister, was shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards, PEN Ackerley Prize and Jhalak Prize, and it was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize. Her second book, Wolf Moon, a cultural, social and sexual exploration of the night, has been chosen as a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.
John Harris is a multiple award-winning writer, journalist, podcaster and presenter. He has written professionally about music since he was 19, and is also known for his pioneering political and social writing, centred on his weekly column in The Guardian. His acclaimed books included The Last Party and Get Back, the authorised book that accompanied Peter Jackson's Beatles documentary series. His new memoir, Maybe I'm Amazed, explores creativity and neurodivergence, and tells the extraordinary story of how music opened up the world to his son.
Robert Harris is the author of fifteen bestselling novels, including the Cicero Trilogy (Imperium, Lustrum and Dictator), Archangel, Pompeii, The Ghost, An Officer and a Spy, which won four prizes including the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, Conclave, Munich, The Second Sleep, V2 and Act of Oblivion. His work has been translated into forty languages and nine of his books have been adapted for cinema and television, most recently the Oscar-nominated film Conclave. His thrilling new novel, Precipice, weaves fact and fiction to tell the story of the love affair between HH Asquith and Venetia Stanley.
De Kai is an AI pioneer honored for his contributions as a Founding Fellow in computational linguistics. He is Independent Director of the AI ethics think tank The Future Society and was one of eight inaugural members of Google’s AI Ethics council. De Kai holds a joint appointment at HKUST’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering and Berkeley’s International Computer Science Institute. His new book, Raising AI, shows how society can not only survive the AI revolution but flourish in a more humane, compassionate, and understanding world where we all play a part - alongside our artifical children.
Larry Lamb is a well-known British actor and presenter with a career spanning several decades. He is best recognized for his acting roles in the BBC soap opera EastEnders and the sitcom Gavin & Stacey. Larry has also hosted a variety of TV shows and radio programs, including Britain by Bike for Channel 5 appearing alongside his son, George Lamb, and he is is a familiar face on the Loose Women panel. Informed by his years of experience in film and television, his new novel All Wrapped Up gives an inside look at the industry; the trials, tribulations, and hard-won successes of producing a piece of cinema.