Wellbeing in the 21st Century
These events explored the impact of happiness, music and medicine on the nation's health. Members of the public were able to join experts from across the disciplines in exploring how contemporary notions of wellbeing affect how we think, feel and function. These intimate and informal events included short talks, chaired discussions, open-floor debate and live performance.
What Makes us Happy?
Tuesday 11 July, 18.30-20.30, Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, London
What is happiness and why is everyone talking about it? We are healthier and wealthier than ever before, and the rising trend isn't over. We have choices, opportunities and access to education and healthcare that previous generations fought to achieve. Yet crime, depression and alcoholism are on the rise: are we happy now?
'What Makes us Happy?' brought insights from science, philosophy and the gritty reality of the street to the conundrum of human happiness, exploring what the future might hold for our wellbeing.
Speakers
Richard Schoch , Professor of the History of Culture at Queen Mary College, University of London, challenged Western models of happiness as they are currently evolving. He traced the philosophical routes to wellbeing in both East and West and explored the role of history in our future.
Sebastian Saville , Director of the drugs charity Release, analysed the social forms and beliefs that shape our contemporary identity. He asked why in the West these are beginning to break down and what part addiction plays in the human psyche.
Felicia A Huppert , Professor of Psychology, University of Cambridge and co-editor of The Science of Well-Being. Her belief is that a shift of emphasis in psychology to researching positive rather than negative human characteristics will yield unprecedented insights into human behaviour, with profound implications for a better society.
Chaired by Madeleine Bunting, the Guardian.
Richard Schoch's presentation [MP3 10.4MB]
Extract from the dialogue session with the audience [MP3 4.1MB]
Exploring the Rhythms of Life
Wednesday 19 July, 18.30-20.30, Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, London
Music has and always will play a key part in self-expression, but only now are scientists beginning to understand what part it plays in our development. Its power to affect us is well known - it can hurt and heal, motivate and move, inspire and empower. But we are only beginning to understand how, when and why.
'Exploring the Rhythms of Life' combined science, psychology and live performance to reveal what happens when music meets the mind.
Speakers
Susan Hallam , editor of 'Psychology of Music' and Head of School, Institute of Education, explored the brain mechanisms involved in our response to music, and traced their development through infancy and teenage years to old age, to discover the emotional and cognitive effects that may be the key to the power of music to move us.
Ian Cross , Director, Centre for Science and Music, University of Cambridge, developed this theme with findings from his group's experimental investigations into music as a cultural and biological phenomenon. He discussed how both humans and animals make sense of sound, how culture shapes our responses to it and whether in part our health quite literally depends upon it.
Paul Robertson , Professor of Music and Medicine at the Peninsular School, Plymouth, and past leader of the Medicii Quartet, gave a live virtuoso performance to bring together the brain, culture, emotion and feeling, and demonstrate what happens when music meets the mind.
Chaired by Natalie Wheen, Classic FM.
Does a scientific understanding of music help improve our appreciation of it? [MP3 2.1MB]
Research from Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on music and health [MP3 1.4MB]
Full life, Long life?
Wednesday 26 July, 18.30-20.30, Soho Theatre, Dean Street, London
What part does medicine play in the future of the nation's health? Can genetics tackle heart failure and biology guard against ageing? As new aspirations to lifestyle and longevity push medical demands, are we witnessing challenging new patterns in the relationship between medicine and culture?
'Full Life, Long Life?' combined forward-thinking philosophy and science to explore the choices and consequences of the lives we lead.
Speakers
Tom Kirkwood , Director, Institute for Ageing and Health, University of Newcastle. Faced with an unprecedented population boom in the over 60s and upwards trends in life expectancy in the UK, Tom Kirkwood focused on the key challenges facing the relatively new field of biogerontology - how do we understand the ageing process itself, and can we cure it? Do the exciting new leads in medical science promise a longer lived and more independent old age?
Anthony Mathur , Senior Lecturer and Consultant Cardiologist at Barts and the London NHS Trust is one of the country's leading researchers in heart disease whose work focuses on the use of innovative gene and stem cell therapies to repair muscle and arterial damage in the heart, the main causes of heart attack. Currently, Anthony is leading the 700 patient REGENERATE clinical trial to determine if a patient's own stem cells can be used to treat heart disease. He will discuss stem cells, fact or fiction?
Nick Bostrom , Director, Oxford Future of Humanity Institute, is a philosopher with a particular interest in bringing rational and rigorous argument to the science and ethics of human enhancement and the philosophy of 'progress'. With a background in physics, neuroscience, logic and artificial intelligence, he is a provocative analyst of contemporary culture and of the consequences of the choices we make.
Chaired by Gabrielle Walker, science writer and presenter.
Speakers in conversation [MP3 9.4MB]
Extract from the dialogue session with the audience [MP3 33.5MB]