Last Week in The Garden

Jonathon Porritt is this week's fellow in Last Week in The Garden, can we build a climate-resilient world? We are already on track for a 1.5C world, with estimates now looking at 2 degrees this century - how can half a percent cause catastrophic change? Join us for this week's episode in Last Week In Garden to hear Jonathon Porritt on our world's climate crisis. His full talk can be found here https://onegarden.com/science/earth-day-climate-resilience

Humans have always speculated about what a perfect world might look like, whether as a reward in the afterlife, part of an origin story like the Garden of Eden, or a real place on Earth. How do we see these ideas play out in the art we create? Dr. James Fox, is an art historian at the University of Cambridge, a curator, an author and an award-winning broadcaster. James joined us in The Garden to explore how humans have attempted to create paradise on Earth through our art. You can watch his full talk here https://onegarden.com/art/james-fox-utopia

Many societies have become more economically unequal over the last 50 years; the world's richest 1% now owns nearly 50% of the world's wealth. Join us this episode with Paul Johnson to discuss what has driven this increase in inequality, and is it actually a problem? Paul Johnson is the Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the UK's leading economic research institute. He joined us in The Garden last week to make sense of how today's economic inequality has arisen, and explore whether we could, or should, do something about it. You can watch his full Garden talk here https://onegarden.com/society/paul-johnson-inequality

Prof. Katie Field takes you on the journey through our Secret Life of Plants collection. How did fungi help create life as we know it? Taking us back 500 million years into our planets history, Katie takes us on a journey from how these seemingly brainless organisms evolved to help plants become the living and breathing species we know today. You can find Katie's full talk here https://onegarden.com/science/katie-field-secret-life-of-plants

Today we're going to take a step back and take a look at the science of mindfulness. Consciousness is a very complex system, and meditation is one form of trying to understand how our mind works. Through science and emerging technologies, we can analyse the mind when one practices this accent tradition. We have Prof. Steven Laureys, Professor at the CERVO Brain Centre at Laval University Canada, who joined us last week for his Garden talk “What happens in the brain when you meditate?”. Steven has published over 500 scientific articles on the human mind and its inner workings, and has founded the GIGA Consciousness and Coma Science Group at the University of Liège, Belgium, where his team of 60 people study consciousness in all its forms, from anaesthesia to dreaming. You can watch his full talk here https://onegarden.com/psychology/steven-laureys-meditation

In today's episode, Dr. Lyndon Burford takes us through the history, misconceptions and reality of nuclear war. How do we achieve nuclear disarmament, how are nuclear weapons used to maintain power, and what can we learn from previous encounters? Join us in today's episode to discuss these exact questions with Dr. Lyndon Burford. Lyndon studies the politics, technologies and theories of nuclear disarmament at King's College London in the UK. His PhD thesis looked at the relationship between national identity and nuclear disarmament policy. You can watch his full talk at https://onegarden.com/society/nuclear-weapon-standoff

In this episode of Last Week in The Garden, we welcome Dr. Jennifer Cassidy to discuss What exactly is digital diplomacy? How has it changed our world politics, and how is social media being used in today's crisis of the ongoing Ukrainian war? As a former diplomat, Jennifer is working at the cutting edge of the new discipline of digital diplomacy as a Lecturer in International Relations at Oxford University. Her PhD focused on the changing nature of diplomacy in the information age, examining the digitisation of diplomatic communication. You watch her full Garden talk at https://onegarden.com/society/digital-diplomacy-cassidy.

In today's episode, we'll be taking a special look at the history and the context of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. What are the factors at play which have led us to this moment in time, what is the history between the 2 nations, and how have the tensions risen throughout this past century? We'll be looking back at Prof. Nathaniel Knight Garden talk on “Why can't Putin accept Ukraine's independence?” in this week's episode of Last Week in The Garden. Prof. Knight will share a look back on how the end of the USSR has shaped the world we live in now - right up to the atrocities we see playing out on our screens today. Nathaniel Knight is Professor of History at Seton Hall University, where he teaches Russian and East European history, Western Civilization and Historical Methods. Nathaniel has also gained on-the-ground insight about the changing political landscape in Eastern Europe from his time spent living in the region in the early 1990s. You can find Nathaniel's full at https://onegarden.com/history/long-view-ukraine

How does love help us survive? Does where you're from change how you dream? What turns a leader into a dictator? Join us in this episode to discuss these questions with Dr. Anna Machin, Prof. Sidarta Ribeiro and Prof. Fathali Moghaddam. Each fellow dives into their thoughts to talk on how love and dreams are designed for our survival, and how a dictator springboards to becoming a dictator. All of these talks are recorded live at onegarden.com, where you can watch the full talks and sign up for all of our other upcoming talks.

In this week's episode, Dr. James Fox takes us on a journey on what colour is exactly. Over the course of the episode, James will be answering some of colour's most interesting questions: Why do some cultures have no word for blue? Why do we think white means pure? How has modern science transformed colour?