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TECH & DEMOCRACY with Maria Koomen & Nicoleta Prutean
TECH & DEMOCRACY
with Maria Koomen & Nicoleta Prutean
Ideas / Action | Sat 31st Jan | 2-4:30 pm
*Act On sessions offer quarterly action-oriented get-togethers on a specific issue, between experts and an audience willing to DO something about it.*
A lot is going on around the world that shows just how fragile our democracies are, with plenty of examples of what it can degenerate into: authoritarianism, tyranny, fascism, oligarchy..
The role that tech can and does play in the weakening and strengthening our democracies is only partially obvious. We need to start learning exactly how and where are the points of contact, and which buttons to push to reinforce our democratic behaviours, systems & processes, rather than add to the decline.
With backgrounds in policy, neuroscience and tech, our hosts Maria Koomen and Nicoleta Prutean, have been reflecting deeply on how to inject a citizen reset into the workings of democracy. Are we fit enough to listen, engage, disagree, make wise collective decisions? Are we well informed? Can we hold our representatives to account? In our busy, distractible times it's on us to train our democratic fitness.
If you're under the impression that you can't achieve much, persuade a soul or make any difference, join this session and reclaim your citizen power. Together we'll proactively flex our democratic muscles.
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Maria Koomen is a Democracy, governance & tech analyst and advocacy specialist. She is the former governance director at the Centre for Future Generations, working on the challenges at the intersection of emerging technologies, democracy, and governance. Her work focused on ensuring that governance systems evolve to keep pace with technological and societal change. Maria led the Open Governance Network for Europe, a joint initiative of Open Government Partnership and Democratic Society to drive connection, dialogue, and learning around public participation, transparency, and accountability with an eye to improving democracy and governance in and across the European Union. Prior to that Maria was senior programme manager on the Democracy Conflict & Governance program at the Carnegie Europe.
Nicoleta Prutean is a neuroscientist and policy analyst, currently leading research on tech & the brain at the Centre for Future Generations. Drawing on her expertise in brain science, her mission is to ensure that evidence on how emerging technologies affect mental health translates into policies that both protect and empower future generations.
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ADDITIONAL INFO
ACCESS
Bar & snacks
Social | Sat 31st Jan | 4.30-6pm
Curious about Full Circle? Join us for a drink & discover what we're all about.
Whether you're already part of our community or simply intrigued, you’ll have the opportunity to meet the team, explore the house & hear more about our future plans – including what the different types of Full Circle memberships have to offer. It’s a relaxed & informal setting, ideal for asking questions & seeing if this is a place where you feel at home.
We warmly welcome current members & their guests too – so feel free to bring a friend or two along. It's a lovely way to connect with others who share a curiosity for ideas, culture & community. No pressure, just good company & a great conversation.
We're looking forward to welcoming you!
New Year's DrinkMembers | Sat 31st Jan | 6-8pm
[Members & guests only]
We look forward to seeing you all for drinks in the members' lounge.
Thanks for telling us you're coming!
Gong Bath
Wellbeing / Sat 31th Jan - Sun 1st Feb 8.30 pm - 7.30 am
To reserve your place, please follow this link
To find out more about the evening: Gong Night
The Gong is an extraordinary instrument, used since time immemorial in ceremony and healings, Gongs are becoming increasingly popular, as their soothing sound allows for deep relaxation. Gong baths and Gong therapy are becoming increasingly common in places like New York, London and increasingly in mainland Europe.
A Gong Puja is a ceremony that lasts a full night. No previous experience is needed to participate in this very special event and everybody is welcome as of 16 years of age. Guests arrive around 9:00pm with their own yoga mats/ inflatable mattresses and after a few stretching exercises, some chants in order to bring together our frequencies and an opening ceremony, the gongs are played gently throughout the night into early morning while guests sleep bathed in their healing vibrations.
Immersed in the sound of the gong and in the subtle ethers of the sound bath, we repair and rejuvenate as the cosmic ocean of vibrations wash over us; cleansing, unblocking and freeing us. The functional harmony created by the gong tones bring about an inner stillness where deep healing can occur. During the Puja, we meditate – or we sleep – a sleep like no other, where we are awake in a dream. We will be accompanied by more than 15 gongs with all sorts of healing frequencies.
After the gongs go silent at 6:30am there is space for integration in silence, and an ayurvedic breakfast is served to start brightly the new day.
Gabriela Garcia Toledo has dedicated herself to personal and holistic development since 2005 when a life-altering brain injury prompted to reevaluate her path. Leaving a career in EU affairs, she embraced a new path by becoming a certified yoga instructor for children and adults, and developed a deep proficiency in gong therapy, driven by her belief in the restorative power of sound. Her vision is that sound therapy will offer innovative insights to healthcare, providing safe and effective solutions for a wide range of conditions without adverse effects.
Claudio Salinas is a dedicated practitioner and teacher of sound and frequency therapy. Based in Brussels, he is originally from Argentina. His journey as a seeker has led him to specialize in tools like gongs, singing bowls, and tuning forks, aiding individuals in their personal transformation journeys. Claudio has trained intensively with renowned masters in the field of gong and sound therapy, gaining a wealth of knowledge and experience. In recent years, he has broadened his practice to include vocal techniques and a deep understanding of frequency, using the power of voice to release blockages and facilitate self-expression as well as addressing in particular issues related to stress and burnout.
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We only have 120 tickets and we always sell out!!
It's time to dust off your dancing shoes and join a traditional Scottish ceilidh.
No previous experience or dancing skills required - the band will be calling out the steps as we go along. If you're a ceilidh regular then you know how much fun it is!
Bring your friends or come along but please, no spikey heels on our rather beautiful wooden floor.
*7.30pm - Doors open
*8.00pm - Start dancing!
*10.30pm - Band finishes
*Ticket includes 1 drink (beer, wine or soft)
*Book your dinner by clicking the image below:
Bar & light food
The Hoggies are the original Brussels-based Scottish ceilidh band.
with Andreea Petre-Goncalves
Ideas / Conversations | Sat 7th Feb | 5-7pm
Join us for a hopeful conversation with Andreea.
How many breathtakingly godawful, surreal news headlines did we wake up to in 2025? Nobody knows anymore. Short of running into the woods screaming, this is a good time to plan for a future that is not societal breakdown, mass hallucination and apocalyptic conflict.
The world as we know it is already gone. A small number of humans hold disproportionate power over technology, capital, politics and our collective war capabilities. Our societal arrangements have long favoured the powerful, and now we’re in vulgar inequality dystopia, our livelihoods precarious and minds warped by technology-enabled mass delirium. This needs knocking over before it’s too late.
The far right have known it a long time, and have put in the hard work and investment to reap the rewards. They have funded political parties, community building, think-tanks, rent-a-gobs. We need to be just as diligent.
It’s time to get serious about funding and organising a progressive societal resurgence, and look ahead to 5, 10, 15 years from now. A progressive army will march on its stomach, not only on sarcastic memes, funny though we are. The infrastructure of change (places like Full Circle for instance) can’t survive on air and positivity alone. New societal principles are within our reach, as is a new paradigm that will replace the set-up that has landed us here. We need to fund and organise the path to this in a committed, abundant and strategic way. Those who hold resources have moral and strategic responsibility to fuel our collective recovery.
Tall order? No, the alternative is worse.
Join us to discover the movement building already happening and find your own space.
Open to everyone
Andreea Petre-Goncalves was 8 years old when totalitarian Communism collapsed overnight in her native Romania. She saw then how quickly yesterday’s absolute truth can become tomorrow reviled atrocity. She knows that societal narratives can shift fast, and when they do, they make deep system re-set possible. For two decades she worked for international development, human rights, health and sustainability in the EU institutions and international NGOs. In 2019 she set up Flare, a Brussels-based think-and-do tank that experiments with practical ways of shifting the collective ideas we hold of what is normal and desirable. This work builds on 15 years of her researching and writing about societal narrative shifts. She is a BMW Foundation Responsible Leader and a member of Global Diplomacy Lab.
Hosted event:
STANDING TOGETHER: A conversation with Israeli & Palestinian grassroots leaders from Israel
Sat 7th Feb I 6 - 8.30 pm
Dinner available after event (Reservation required)
In one of the most painful and polarizing periods in the history of Palestine–Israel, Standing Together (Naqab Ma’an – Omdim B’Yachad) brings together Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel to resist violence, inequality, and occupation, and to work toward a shared future based on equality and justice.
Amal Ghawi and Itamar Avneri, two leading figures in the movement, will be in Brussels for a conversation about joint Palestinian–Jewish organizing today—its limits, its risks, and its political potential. They will reflect on the movement’s work during the war in Gaza, the challenge of resisting dehumanization from within Israeli society, and the role of international solidarity.
This event will be moderated by TV journalist and author Majd Khalifeh
Founded in 2015, Standing Together is a progressive grassroots movement organizing across communities around a shared struggle for peace, equality, and social justice. In recent years, the movement has played a visible role in opposing mass violence, calling for a permanent ceasefire and hostage deal, and supporting humanitarian access to Gaza through joint protests, civilian protection of aid convoys, and aid collection within Palestinian communities in Israel.
This event offers an opportunity to listen, ask questions, and engage with voices that refuse the logic of separation and inevitability.
Amal Ghawi is a Palestinian journalist and activist focusing on the experiences of Israel’s Palestinian minority. She is a content editor at Rosa Media, Standing Together’s Arabic-language socialist magazine, and holds an MA in Gender Studies from Tel Aviv University.
Itamar Avneri is a co-founder of Standing Together, a member of its national leadership, and a council member of the Tel Aviv–Jaffa Municipality. He holds degrees in philosophy, sociology, and cultural studies, and has long been active in joint political organizing.
Moderator: Majd Khalifeh is a TV journalist, public speaker, and author of The Light of Doubt (2025), exploring the human stories behind the numbers in Gaza. He believes in questioning everything except universal values like dignity, empathy, and justice, seeing doubt as both a journalistic and human act of resistance.
Friends of Standing Together Belgium is a diverse network amplifying the movement’s work locally and fostering dialogue across communities in Belgium in pursuit of justice and peace.
KEY LINKS
https://www.standing-together.org/
DINNER DINING I Sat 7th Feb I 7-9.30pm Book your dinner before the event **OPEN TO ALL**
Delicious 1-course meal, vegetarian meal.
Booking required.
Voice & Connection: A Singing Circle for All
with singer & vocal coach Gudrun Roos from “Zing je zen”
Wellbeing / Wed 11th Feb / 7.15-8.45pm
*This event will only go ahead if there are 15 people registered.
Let go of the belief that you can’t sing or that your voice isn’t good enough - singing is a natural way to express yourself and connect with others.
Join us for a unique singing circle where we focus on feeling the vibrations of our voices, not on perfection or technique.
Together, we’ll explore rhythms, melodies, and sounds, allowing everyone’s unique voice to shine without judgment. Whether we’re drawing inspiration from shamanic chants, mantras, or spontaneous melodies, this is a space for deep connection and relaxation.
Singing in a group is a powerful, energizing experience that will leave you feeling rejuvenated and free.
Come as you are - no musical experience or knowledge is needed!
ACCES
Bar & snacks & light food
Website: www.zingjezen.be
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zingjezen/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zingjezen
Flesh by David Szalay
Culture | Thurs 12th Feb | 7:00-8:30 pm
Monthly meet up to discuss a great read, along with drinks & good company.
*Doors open at 6.30pm. The book club begins at 7pm.
Fifteen-year-old István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he becomes isolated, with his neighbour – a married woman – as his only companion. When a clandestine relationship begins between them, his life spirals out of control. As the years pass, István moves from the army to the circles of London’s elite. His competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth win him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely.
A propulsive, hypnotic novel about a man whose future is derailed by a series of events that he is unable to control.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Szalay is the author of six works of fiction, including London and the South-East, for which he was awarded the Betty Trask and Geoffrey Faber Memorial prizes, All That Man Is, for which he was awarded the Gordon Burn Prize and Plimpton Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Turbulence, which won the Edge Hill Prize. Born in Canada, he grew up in London, and now lives in Vienna. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages.
Bar open with snacks
Ideas / Salon | Fri 13th Feb | 6.30-8.30 pm
*Doors open at 6.30pm. The speaker will start at 7pm.
Not a Member yet? Join Full Circle now & come to events at the Members' rate!
Some 2-billion people a day play a commercial game and the gaming industry is bigger than film, music and publishing combined. Mainstream and fringe political parties and movements around the world are using (or hijacking) games and creating "gamified" experiences with dangerous consequences.
As newspapers were to the 19th century and as radio and TV were to the 20th, so too are games to our 21st century political realities. What are the consequences? What makes games unique is the way they seduce our sense of agency in a world where many feel disempowered and helpless. How is this being used, for good and for ill?
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Max Haiven is an associate professor and Canada Research Chair in the Radical Imagination at Lakehead University. He teaches Social Justice Studies and Media Studies programs and also directs the ReImagining Value Action Lab (RiVAL). As part of Sense & Solidarity, he offers strategy and communications workshops for social movements, produces podcasts and builds infrastructure for the next generation of transformative public intellectuals. His writing has been published widely for both academic and non-academic readers on topics including the imagination, (anti-)capitalism, social movements, art and financialization. Max has produced several research-driven podcasts about themes including financialization and anxiety, conspiracy theories and cultures, Amazon and science fiction, capitalism and play, social movements and psychology and games and (anti)fascism. He also makes and thinks about games. Billionaires and Guillotines is his latest board game.
GOOD READS
The Player and the Played, From Gamed Capitalism to 21st Century Fascism (forthcoming 2026); Palm Oil: The Grease of Empire (2022); Revenge Capitalism: The Ghosts of Empire, the Demons of Capital, and the Settling of Unpayable Debts (2020); Art after Money, Money after Art: Creative Strategies Against Financialization (2018).
Max Haiven, website
BOARD GAME Billionaires and Guillotines
by Max Haiven
Social | Sat 14th Feb | 2.30-4.30pm
Play as billionaires on the edge of collapse. Players will take on the roles of rival plutocrats, competing to accumulate the wealth of the world before their actions trigger a revolution and they all lose… a lot more than their assets.
Will you play the media baron or the property speculator? The aristocrat or the tech overlord? Whoever you play, the aim is to acquire five extravagant assets prized by the super-rich (a mega yacht, a celebrity spouse, art masterpieces and more!) and prevent your opponents from achieving their dreams.
But watch out! As you gobble up ever more resources, crises cascade out of control: wildfires and floods, pandemics and doomsday cults… Will you collaborate to put down the rebellions, or escape into your luxury bunker?
Played in under 90-minutes, the game is fun for all sorts of players, even those who usually don’t like board games.
To help completely disconnect from your screens.
Website Billionaires & Guillotines
Max Haiven
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Other things to stay for on this day!
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FOOD & DRINK
Contagion and Conflict Sandra Melone & Xavier De Radigues
Contagion and Conflict
Sandra Melone & Xavier De Radigues
Conversations | Sat 14th Feb | 5-7pm
What can epidemiology tell us about war? And how can it help build peace? Join us for an eye-opening conversation on the powerful role of epidemiology in conflict zones - one that helps reveal the hidden toll of war, predict emerging crises, and shape life-saving responses.
Together with Sandra Melone and epidemiologist Xavier de Radiguès, we'll explore how epidemiologists measure the real impacts of conflict - excess mortality, famine, massive population displacement and outbreaks - and how this knowledge guides humanitarian action and global advocacy.
Our co-host, Xavier de Radiguès is a seasoned medical epidemiologist who has spent the majority of his career working in contexts of natural and/or man-made disasters with Médecins Sans Frontières/Epicentre, Médecins du Monde, and the World Health Organization.
Open to everyone | Booking required
Bar open
Hosting the Series is Sandra Djuvara Melone, CEO of Zancora Consulting, which she founded in 2021, with a strong expertise in peacebuilding, conflict resolution, crisis management, human rights and, not last, gender. With a vast experience on the ground, she has worked across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. She knows first hand what living through civil war is like. Sandra is the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Search for Common Ground, Europe, one of the world’s leading international non-governmental organisations working in peacebuilding and conflict transformation, where she's been involved in various roles since 1995. Sandra is a founding member of the European Platform for Conflict Prevention and Transformation (EPCPT), of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office (EPLO), and of the Child Soldiers Initiative (CSI). Before dedicating her career to conflict transformation, Sandra worked in human rights advocacy with Amnesty International, and in international education.
SINGLES APERO
Social | Sat 14th Feb | 7-9pm
The Singles Apero is our popular series of monthly encounters where you can meet other social singles in a safe space without matching pressure. Feel free to bring any single friends along or just come by yourself.
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Maël Idris
Step into a warm, intimate jazz night with the exceptional, young jazz talent Maël Idris. Join us at the House for a special evening as rich harmonies, soulful melodies and daring improvisations fill the room. Drawing inspiration from classic jazz traditions while weaving in a contemporary, personal touch, Maël creates a sound that is both timeless and refreshingly alive.
Whether you’re a devoted jazz lover or simply curious to discover something new, this evening invites you to listen closely, feel deeply, and share the moment. Expect music that breathes, conversations that linger, and an atmosphere where every note tells a story.
ABOUT THE MUSICIAN
Maël Idris is a gifted Belgian jazz pianist. He grew up following his saxophonist father on the roads and was constantly surrounded by music. He started studying classical piano at the academy. At the age of 12, he studied at the Kuntshumaniora in Brussels, where he developed his passion for jazz. At 16, he attended the Brussels Royal Conservatory and took classes with Eric Legnini, Nathalie Loriers, and Vincent Bruyninckx among others. After successfully graduating from the conservatory, he is now doing his Master's at the internationally renowned Basel Academy of Music in Switzerland. Wynton Marsalis noticed Maël at the age of 14, and would later be responsible for the strong relationship he has with his mentor Nduduzo Makhathini with whom he regularly gets lesson from. Meanwhile, he also learned from Aaron Parks, Hamilton de Holanda, Grégoire Maret, and Kenny Werner.
Ideas / Conversations | Sat 7th Mar | 5-7pm
Join us for a hopeful conversation with Andreea Stay tuned, more details coming soon
Ideas / Salon | Thurs 12th Mar | 6.30-8.30 pm
In today’s atomised and polarised world, we need to zoom into the processes happening inside each of us. Why do some people become radicalised? And who is most susceptible to ideological thinking? Can we unchain our minds from toxic dogmas? Dr Leor Zmigrod is a pioneer in the field of ‘political neuroscience’, and drawing on her groundbreaking research she uncovers the hidden mechanisms driving our beliefs and behaviours.
Political beliefs and ideologies are not just transient thoughts in our minds, divorced from our bodies, but deeply connected to the biology of our brain, able to even change our neural architecture. Regardless of your political stance, Zmigrod will challenge you to reassess your convictions – and what they are doing to your brain. Find out about rigid thinking in ourselves and others, and how to recognise our ability to resist irrational rules and authority.
Dr Leor Zmigrod is an award-winning scientist and author, political psychologist and neuroscientist investigating why some brains are susceptible to extreme ideologies and how minds can break free from rigid dogmas. The Ideological Brain is her first book. Her research has also been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, TIME, New Scientist, Financial Times, The Times, amongst other international outlets. She was listed on Forbes 30 Under 30 in the Science & Healthcare category, and has received numerous awards in science. Her research explores the psychology of ideological extremism using methods from experimental psychology, cognitive science, political science, and neuroscience. In particular, she investigates the cognitive, emotional, and neurobiological characteristics that might act as vulnerability factors for radicalization and ideological behaviour.
The Ideological Brain. A radical science of susceptible minds (2025).
Leor Zmigrod website
Social | Sat 14th Mar | 7-9pm
Open to all singles | Booking required
Indignity by Lea Ypi
Culture | Thurs 26th Mar | 6-7 pm
*Exceptionally, doors open at 5.30pm. The book club begins at 6pm sharp.
This month we exceptionally gather around a great read in the company of the author herself! Join Lea Ypi and fellow readers to discuss Indignity: A life reimagined.
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When Lea Ypi discovers a photo of her grandmother, Leman, honeymooning in the Alps in 1941 posted by a stranger on social media, she is faced with unsettling questions. She investigates the truth about her family's past by tracing the steps of her grandmother through the vanished world of Ottoman aristocracy, the making of modern Greece and Albania, a global financial crisis, the horrors of war and the dawn of communism in the Balkans. With its philosophical depth and historical context, the book blends memoir and historical investigation, exploring the struggle to preserve individual dignity against grand political narratives and surveillance. Indignity is both about Ypi's personal journey and about survival in an age of extremes, about what we can truly know about those closest to us and about the moral authority with which we can judge the acts of previous generations.
Lea Ypi holds the Ralph Miliband Chair in Politics and Philosophy at the London School of Economics. Her first trade book, Free: Coming of Age at the End of History won the Ondaatje Prize and the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize and was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize and the Costa Biography Award. It is translated into over thirty languages.
Ideas / Salon | Thurs 26th Mar | 6.30-8.30 pm
Political philosopher Lea Ypi returns to Full Circle to explore themes of dignity, history, memory, identity, and nationhood - prompted by an online photo of her happy grandparents on their 1941 honeymoon, while war raged all over Europe. Records of her grandmother’s youth were destroyed in the early days of communism in Albania - or at least that had been the official story until that moment. What follows is a thrilling reimagining of the past - the vanished world of Ottoman aristocracy, the making of modern Greece and Albania, a global financial crisis, the horrors of war and the dawn of communism in the Balkans. While investigating the truth about her family delving into secret police archives, Ypi grapples with uncertainty.
By turns epic and intimate, profound and gripping, she explores what it means to survive in an age of extremes. It reveals the fragility of truth, both personal and political, and the cost of decisions made against the tide of history. Ultimately, she asks, what do we really know about the people closest to us? And with what moral authority do we judge the acts of previous generations? Blending memoir with historical investigation, we dive into the struggle to preserve individual dignity against surveillance and grand political narratives.
Lea Ypi (FBA, FAE) is Ralph Miliband Professor in Politics and Philosophy at LSE, a permanent fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and an Honorary Professor in Philosophy at the Australian National University. A native of Albania, she has degrees in Philosophy and in Literature from the University of Rome La Sapienza, a PhD from the European University Institute and was a Post-Doctoral Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. She is the author of Indignity: A Life Reimagined and Free: Coming of Age at the end of History, both published by Penguin Press as well as Global Justice and Avant-Garde Political Agency, The Meaning of Partisanship (with Jonathan White), and The Architectonic of Reason, published by Oxford University Press. Her work has been translated into more than thirty-five languages and won numerous prizes, including the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, the Slightly Foxed First Biography Award, the Ridenhour Prize for truth-telling, the British Academy Prize for Excellence in Political Science and a Leverhulme Prize for Outstanding Research Achievement. She coedits the journal Political Philosophy and occasionally writes for the Financial Times and the Guardian.
Indignity, A life reimagined (2025); Free: Coming of Age at the End of History (2021); The Architectonic of Reason (2021); The Meaning of Partisanship (2016, with Jonathan White)
Big Kiss, Bye-Bye by Claire-Louise Bennett
Culture | Thurs 16th Apr | 7:00-8:30 pm
‘Bennett writes like no one else. She is a rare talent.’ ― Karl Ove Knausgaard
Uprooted by circumstance from city to deep countryside, a woman lives in temporary limbo, visited by memories of all she’s left behind. The most insistent are those of Xavier, whom she still loves but no longer desires, a displacement he has been unable to accept. An unexpected letter from an old acquaintance brings back a torrent of others she’s loved or wanted. Each has been a match and a mismatch, a liberation and a threat to her very sense of self. The ephemera left by their passage –a spilled coffee, an unwanted bouquet, a mind-blowing kiss—make up a cabinet of curiosity she inventories, trying to divine the essence of intimacy. What does it mean to connect with another person? How do we let them go? In this tour de force of fiction, the inventive Claire-Louise Bennett explores the mystery of how people come into and go out of our lives, leaving us forever in their grasp.
Claire-Louise Bennett grew up in Wiltshire and studied literature and drama before moving to Ireland where she worked in and studied theatre for several years. In 2013 she was awarded the inaugural White Review Short Story Prize and her debut book, Pond, was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize in 2016. Claire-Louise's fiction and essays have appeared in a number of publications including The White Review, Stinging Fly, gorse, Harper's Magazine, Vogue Italia, Music & Literature, New York Times Magazine and New Yorker. Big Kiss, Bye-Bye is her third work of fiction.
Ideas / Conversations | Sat 18th Apr | 5-7pm
HOW A MORE EQUAL ECONOMY CAN SAVE OUR POLITICAL IDEALS
Ideas / Salon | Mon 20th Apr | 6.30-8.30 pm
Democracy has been hollowed out by capitalism. A narrow view of markets and their aims—prioritizing efficiency, profit, and growth—now dominates thinking about democracy itself. Citizens are ignorant of the deep principles of self-governance, having long since adopted a facile equation between democracy and voting as a consumer choice. Lisa Herzog argues that democracy is still possible, but only if democratic values get embedded in everyday experience—including economic experience. That requires new ways of thinking about markets and their goals, and real reforms.
Lisa speaks about the foundational structures of a democratic economy, in which markets are not just tools for maximizing profit, but instead balance growth with goals like ecological sustainability and the preservation of time outside of work. These are not utopian dreams, Herzog contends. The proposals of democratic economics are already being tested around the world. And the shift in social norms that are needed is already under way.
Lisa Herzog is Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Groningen. She works at the intersection of political philosophy and economic thought. Herzog has published on the philosophical dimensions of markets (both historical and systemical), liberalism and social justice, ethics in organizations and the future of work. She currently focuses on workplace democracy, professional ethics, and the role of knowledge in democracies. She is a co-editor of the interdisciplinary journal Review of Social Economy.
The Democratic Marketplace: How a More Equal Economy Can Save Our Political Ideals (2025); Citizen Knowledge: Markets, Experts, and the Infrastructure of Democracy (2022).
Ideas / Conversations | Sat 16th May | 5-7pm
Helen Of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman
Culture | Thurs 21st May | 7:00-8:30 pm
‘A furious energy runs through Helen of Nowhere, whose every sentence is a joy to read.' ― Ayşegül Savaş, author of The Anthropologists
In the middle of the countryside, a realtor is showing a disgraced professor around an idyllic house. She speaks not only about the home's many wonderful qualities but about its previous owner, the mystifying Helen, whose presence still seems to suffuse every fixture. Through hearing stories of Helen's chosen way of living, the man begins to see that his story is not actually over – rather, he is being offered a chance to buy his way into the simple life, close to the land, that's always been out of reach to him. But as evening fades into black, he will learn that the asking price may be much higher, and stranger, than anticipated. Philosophically and formally adventurous, at once intimate and cosmic in scope, Helen of Nowhere asks: What must we give up in exchange for true happiness?
Makenna Goodman is an American editor and a writer. She is the author of two novels: Helen of Nowhere and The Shame and has written for international publications including the New York Review of Books, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Harvard Review, The White Review, BOMB, The Common, ASTRA Magazine and Mousse Magazine. She has worked in publishing for two decades as an editor with gardeners, horticulturalists, artists, farmers, essayists, cultural critics, designers, scientists, composters, seed savers, foragers, and fermenters, and books she has developed and edited have won awards including the James Beard Award, the American Horticultural Society Award, and the IACP award. She is currently executive editor at Timber Press.
All My Precious Madness by Mark Bowles
Culture | Thurs 25th Jun | 7:00-8:30 pm
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This month we are exceptionally sitting down with the author of this award-winning novel and enjoying a great last discussion together before the summer break. Join Mark Bowles for a special, memorable book club!
‘Unapologetically erudite and frequently brutal' - The Telegraph
Henry Nash has hauled his way from a working class childhood in Bradford, through an undergraduate degree at Oxford, and into adulthood and an academic elite. But still, he can’t escape his anger. As the world – and men in particular – continues to disappoint him, so does his rage grow in momentum until it becomes almost rapturous. And lethal. This is the story of a man at odds with the world. A man who wants to escape his violent past but instead – most emphatically – repeats it.
A savagely funny novel that disdains literary and moral conventions, All My Precious Madness is also a work of deep empathy – even when that also means understanding the darkest parts of humanity. One of the most electric debuts of the last decade.
Mark Bowles is a published author and a committed teacher. Born and raised in Bradford, he went on to study at Liverpool and Oxford Universities. His first novel, All My Precious Madness, was published by Galley Beggar in 2024, and has been nominated for the Goldsmiths Prize and the Authors’ Club First Novel Prize. His second novel, How Do People Stay the Same, will be out in Spring 2025.
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