BRIGHTHINK

ADVANCE TICKETS available at EVENTBRITE
(RSVP is £12 on the door, on the night)

Do police patrols reduce crime? Do welfare programs help the poor? Do smaller classes aid learning? Do smartphones harm teenagers?
Today, more and more people around the globe are using scientific evidence to figure out what works - in health, government, and business, as well as conservation, schools, and parenting. This wasn’t always the case.
For many years, most medical advice was based on doctors’ opinions and conventional wisdom, not solid science. Evidence-based medicine swept the world in the 1990s, becoming the predominant form of medicine practiced today, and the idea that evidence can guide decisions is quietly transforming a host of other fields as well.
Join Helen Pearson as she discusses her new book, Beyond Belief, and underscores the importance of evidence in all facets of our lives, especially in a time when science is under attack and questionable claims run rampant .

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Helen Pearson has been a journalist and editor for Nature, the world’s leading science journal, for over 20 years, including five years leading the team as Chief Magazine Editor. She is also an Honorary Professor of Practice at University College London. Her first book, The Life Project, was named best science book of the year by The Observer, and book of the year for The Economist.

CHAIR BIOGRAPHY
Adrian Ely is Professor of Technology & Sustainability and Director of Policy Training & Executive Education at SPRU (the Science Policy Research Unit), in the University of Sussex Business School. He is interested in how societies respond to different kinds of uncertainty, and much of his research focuses on the regulation and governance of emerging (bio)technologies.

This event will take place upstairs in The Nightingale Room at The Grand Central Pub, Brighton. Unfortunately there is no wheelchair access available at this venue.

• DOORS OPEN : 19:00
• TALK STARTS : 19:30
• AUDIENCE Q&A : 20:30
• BOOK SIGNING: 21:00

ADVANCE TICKETS available at EVENTBRITE
(RSVP is £12 on the door, on the night)

Join author and expert Michael Scott-Baumann for an illuminating and timely conversation on one of the most enduring and contested conflicts of modern times.
As violence continues to escalate and global attention intensifies, questions about the origins, dynamics and future of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict feel more urgent than ever. Why has it proven so difficult to resolve? What are the human and political realities behind the headlines? And what are the wider implications for the Middle East and the world?
Drawing on his deeply researched and accessible work, Scott-Baumann traces the conflict’s roots from the late nineteenth century to the present, unpacking the forces that have shaped it and the reasons peace efforts have repeatedly faltered. At the heart of his approach is a powerful combination of clear political analysis and first-hand testimony from Israelis and Palestinians, bringing lived experience into conversation with history.
Exploring competing narratives, ongoing occupation, and cycles of violence and resistance, this event offers essential context for understanding the current moment - and what might come next.

The chair for this 'In Conversation' event is TBC.

MICHAEL SCOTT-BURMANN
Michael is a graduate of Cambridge University and has an MA from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He has thirty-five years’ experience as a teacher and lecturer in history.

This event will take place upstairs in The Nightingale Room at The Grand Central Pub, Brighton. Unfortunately there is no wheelchair access available at this venue.

• DOORS OPEN : 19:00
• TALK STARTS : 19:30
• AUDIENCE Q&A : 20:30
• BOOK SIGNING: 21:00

ADVANCE TICKETS available at EVENTBRITE
(RSVP is £12 on the door, on the night)

Join Emma-Louise Boynton in conversation with Olivia Petter for an intimate and thought-provoking discussion of Pleasure - a bold exploration of women’s relationships with their bodies, desire and sex.
Blending memoir with cultural investigation, Boynton shares her deeply personal journey from sexual disconnection and an eating disorder to rediscovering intimacy, confidence and embodied pleasure. What begins in the sex therapy room unfolds into a wider, urgent conversation about the societal forces that shape how women experience, and often suppress, their desire.
Together, Boynton and Petter will unpack the myths and pressures surrounding female pleasure, from restrictive beauty standards and damaging cultural narratives to the complexities of modern, app-driven intimacy. This is a conversation that challenges the idea that disconnection is a personal failing, instead revealing the broader systems at play.
Honest, provocative and empowering, this event offers not just insight, but a hopeful path forward — reframing pleasure not as a luxury, but as something vital to reclaim.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Emma-Lousie Boynton is a writer and the founder of Sex Talks - an award-winning live event and podcast series exploring intimacy and pleasure.
She began her career in broadcast journalism, working as a producer and editor at Sky News and BBC, covering politics. But a transformative experience in sex therapy shifted the course of her life and work, and since then, Boynton has been focused on a single mission: to open up access to the kind of conversations and insights that reshaped her own understanding of pleasure, and to make them available to other women. Pleasure: The Reclamation of My Body is her debut book.

This event will take place upstairs in The Nightingale Room at The Grand Central Pub, Brighton. Unfortunately there is no wheelchair access available at this venue.

• DOORS OPEN : 19:00
• TALK STARTS : 19:30
• AUDIENCE Q&A : 20:30
• BOOK SIGNING: 21:00