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Doctors, teachers and junior bankers of the world, unite!

Doctors, teachers and junior bankers of the world, unite!

Economist28-05-2025
The best place to consider class consciousness in Britain today is beneath the canvas of a £283-per-night ($381) yurt at Hay Festival, a literary jamboree in Wales. Revolutionary fervour is building among those who 'glamp', as if someone had given Colonel Qaddafi a subscription to the London Review of Books.
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What's Up Docs?  Doctors' Notes: Smiling Special at Hay Festival
What's Up Docs?  Doctors' Notes: Smiling Special at Hay Festival

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What's Up Docs? Doctors' Notes: Smiling Special at Hay Festival

In this 'uncut' special episode, recorded before an audience at the Hay Festival in Wales, Chris and Xand discuss the anatomy of the smile, explore its evolutionary origins and examine some of the health claims about the power of the smile. Can a smile really give your brain the same reward as two thousand bars of chocolate? Will putting a pencil in your mouth make you feel happy? And how do you fake the perfect smile when realising you've failed to win a BAFTA for the eighth time?! Expect some science and some silliness and a dog that looks like a loaf of bread. Featuring Professor Ben Garrod from the University of East Anglia, Dr Magdalegna Rychlowska from Queen's University, Belfast, Sinead Rushe from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London and jack the African street dog. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at whatsupdocs@ or WhatsApp us on 08000 665 123. Presenters: Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken Guest: Professor Ben Garrod, Dr Magdalegna Rychlowska, Sinead Rushe Producer: Rami Tzabar Executive Producer: Jo Rowntree Editor: Kirsten Lass Assistant Producers: Maia Miller-Lewis and Grace Revil Tech Lead: Reuben Huxtable Social Media: Leon Gower Digital Lead: Richard Berry Composer: Phoebe McFarlane Sound Design: Melvin Rickarby At the BBC: Assistant Commissioner: Greg Smith Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.

Edinburgh Festival shows the power of culture in our fractured world
Edinburgh Festival shows the power of culture in our fractured world

The Herald Scotland

time17-06-2025

  • The Herald Scotland

Edinburgh Festival shows the power of culture in our fractured world

Peter Florence, the former Director of Hay Festival, put it simply: 'When politics and society pull people apart, festivals are invaluable places to bring people together.' This belief is in the DNA of the Edinburgh International Festival. It was our founding purpose in 1947, when a Jewish refugee and opera director named Rudolf Bing, alongside civic leaders and artists, envisioned a way to heal post-war Europe – not through politics or hard power, but through culture. The idea of that original festival – which still resonates in our meeting rooms, green rooms, theatres and concert halls today – was to use the arts to transcend division and bring people of disparate nations together. Edinburgh still maintains that purpose, and as Tereza Raabová, from Culture Matters, a platform for creative businesses in the Czech Republic, claimed, 'Edinburgh is indeed the city of festivals'. Alongside the Czech Republic we had truly international representation from Ukraine, Bosnia, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, and dozens of other nations. Some are working in contexts of censorship or underfunding. Others face different pressures – shrinking resources, climate volatility or changing audience behaviours. But the sense of shared purpose was palpable. Haris Pašović from East West Centre Sarajevo said, 'You could literally see the satisfaction and joy on the shining faces of the participants.' The important thing now though, is that those conversations move beyond rooms of the like-minded and into more mainstream public and political discourse. The Edinburgh International Festival is uniquely placed to lead this kind of international cultural dialogue. As the original festival – the one that sparked a global movement – it sits at the heart of what has become one of the world's great cultural ecosystems. Every August, alongside our sister festivals the Festival Fringe, the International Book, Art and Film Festivals, and the Tattoo – we help transform Edinburgh into a truly international meeting place where ideas and perspectives are exchanged, business is conducted and friendships formed. Together, each year, we form the largest cultural gathering outside the Olympic Games, right here in the capital. We welcome thousands of artists, producers, diplomats and millions of visitors, every August, putting Scotland on the map and generating more than £600 million for its economy each summer. The chance to host such an event once in a lifetime is something many cities would gladly bid for; that Scotland gets to host it every year is truly a windfall. What became clear during the summit is that this collective effort – across festivals, borders, and disciplines – can be both insightful and strategic. Festivals, in their very nature, are built on the act of welcoming. As Raabová reflected: 'Festivals seek to blur boundaries and differences between people, seeking common interests and understanding.' This is not just sentiment – it is a form of soft power. Showing that our country is a welcoming and open place for the exchange of ideas, is critical in a world where democratic institutions are being tested, and global crises require long-term, human-centred thinking. A particularly resonant moment from the summit came in a session titled 'Being Good Ancestors'. It asked not just what festivals can do now, but what kind of world we want to leave behind. That question echoed with Llaria Laaghi, from Lugo Music Festival, Romania, she had 'never thought of [her] work in those terms before… to think of festivals as a way of spreading peace, to leave something to the next generations.' But that's exactly what the best of gatherings do. They create space to seek different truths. That sentiment underpins our programme this year, with the theme The Truth We Seek. This year, and indeed every year, we will support artists in telling complex and difficult stories, sharing with us a perspective on the world that we cannot hope to glean from the internet or TV alone. They give audiences the chance to connect across differences by being in the same physical space – and, through that, to encourage new or deeper thinking. The Edinburgh International Festival will continue to do just that. We will present the highest quality art for the broadest possible audience. But more than that, we will convene and spark conversation, with an unshakeable belief in the role festivals can play in our future. Francesca Hegyi is Chief Executive, Edinburgh International Festival

Edinburgh Festival faces a summer of Gaza sponsorship rows
Edinburgh Festival faces a summer of Gaza sponsorship rows

The Herald Scotland

time12-06-2025

  • The Herald Scotland

Edinburgh Festival faces a summer of Gaza sponsorship rows

A quick recap, then a look at why this matters. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg pulled out of an appearance at the Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) in 2023 on account of its long-standing relationship with Edinburgh-based investment firm Baillie Gifford. She viewed this hook-up as an example of 'green-washing' by a firm gaining from investments in companies whose interests were inimical to her beliefs. 'Green-washing efforts by the fossil fuel industry, including sponsorship of cultural events, allow them to keep the social license to continue operating,' she said in a statement. 'I cannot and do not want to be associated with events that accept this kind of sponsorship.' Following Ms Thunberg's withdrawal, and on the eve of the festival, over 50 authors published an open letter calling on the EIBF to end its relationship with Baillie Gifford. In May 2024, the EIBF announced it was doing just that. The Hay Festival, also sponsored by Baillie Gifford, announced the same decision a week earlier. Full disclosure: I was entirely on the side of the authors in the 2023 row and had little time or patience for the arguments of those who opposed them. Certainly not the cultural warriors of the right, who viewed the campaign as a chance to pour scorn on the 'wokerati' – but not even those festival directors and high-placed arts practitioners in the invidious position of having to defend tie-ins with companies such as Baillie Gifford. Grow up, they said, the arts wouldn't exist in their current form without this sort of corporate sponsorship. Really? I'm not so sure. Anyway, if you're right would that be such a bad thing? Fast forward another year and we have just had the launch of the 2025 EIBF. In the absence of Baillie Gifford as a corporate sponsor (a relationship which was always and self-evidently transactional in nature) we now have (cue drum roll) Sir Ian Rankin. As revealed in The Herald, the sainted knight has stepped in – though stepped up might be a better phrase – and agreed to help back the festival financially, along with fellow author Jenny Colgan and other organisations and companies including Edinburgh-based legal firm Digby Brown and privately funded arts charity the Hawthornden Foundation. I'm not saying it was easy to fill the funding gap left by Baillie Gifford, and I don't know how well it has been plugged, but the festival has announced its largest number of events since the pre-pandemic days. Just saying. But don't think this issue is going away. Even as I write this, in Tel Aviv Greta Thunberg is being forced onto a plane, a method of travel she abhors and avoids for conscientious reasons. This is following her detainment while attempting to deliver aid to Gaza aboard UK-flagged humanitarian vessel The Madleen. Greta Thunberg was detained by Israeli authorities while attempting to deliver aid to Gaza (Image: AP) Along with the wider situation in Gaza and the West Bank and the ongoing climate emergency – and as tensions, tempers, emotions and body counts mount – there will be more and more scrutiny by more and more activists of more and more companies and institutions with links to, say, arms sales to Israel or fossil fuels or [insert injustice of your choice]. This will inevitably impact on the UK's arts institution and, as Edinburgh gears up for August, it will be inevitably be felt in Scotland. Actually it already is. A body signing itself the 'Edinburgh International Festivals' was one of the co-signatories supporting a recent open letter by Sir Alistair Spalding and Britannia Morton of London's Sadler's Wells venue published in the Financial Times (ha!). In it the authors complained about the 'relentless negativity' of 'activist groups' such as the one which 'pushed out' Baillie Gifford from its place as a sponsor of the arts. They added: '[P]artnering with businesses ensures our work goes further and has a greater impact. It adds more value and enables growth, ambition and risk taking.' Quoted in The Art Newspaper last week, corporate fundraising expert Martin Prendergast addressed the open letter and said 'the causes are right but the targets are wrong'. But creative producer Naomi Russell had a different take. 'I think protest and resistance drive change and historically this has great precedent,' she told the publication. 'That can be uncomfortable for the powers and established structures.' And so we come full circle: which side are you on? It's a question being asked a lot these days. Think carefully before you answer. Read more: Reel life Do you remember your first time? No not that. I mean the first time you realised there was more to the big screen than the latest James Bond or superhero offering. The first time you had your eyes opened to the kinds of films that maybe did not have car chases or shoot-outs and maybe did have subtitles and which – just as important – were shown in venues dedicated to what you later learned was called 'art-house cinema'. If you don't, I'm sorry. If you do, you'll know why I'm so delighted that Edinburgh's Filmhouse has announced its re-opening date: Friday June 27, just in time for this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) to return to its spiritual home. I was 16 the first time I went to the Filmhouse – in 1982, to see Jean-Jacques Beineix's Diva. It was also the first subtitled film I had ever seen. A little later, still at school, I saw Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 film Rumble Fish. It's still my favourite of his films and definitely in my all-time top five. Matt Dillon in Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 film Rumble Fish (Image: Universal/Criterion) In the same year I also saw director Nicolas Roeg discuss working with Gene Hackman in a Q&A following a screening of Roeg's film Eureka. Many decades later I found myself in my usual spot on the back row of Cinema One and chatting to an older man in the next seat. I told him about my love of the Filmhouse, and about these seminal events in my cinematic life and how vividly I could still remember them. It turned out I was talking to former EIFF director Jim Hickey, who ran the Filmhouse between 1979 and 1993. He was the one on stage interviewing Roeg that night 30 or so years earlier. I could have cried. Him too, probably. It's a very personal story, but it is in no way meaningless because so many people in Edinburgh have similar ones to tell. That's why the Filmhouse's absence since the collapse in 2022 of parent organisation the Centre for the Moving Image has left such a huge hole. Sure there's still work to do to keep Filmhouse 2.0 afloat. But now, thanks to the efforts of those who battled to keep the flame alive, it has returned. Eureka! Read more: And finally The Herald's theatre critic Neil Cooper has been busy recently. His peregrinations have taken him first to Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum where he watched The Mountaintop, a production of Katori Hall's Olivier Award-winning play about Martin Luther King Jr's last night alive. Five stars for that one. Just around the corner at the Traverse Theatre he took in Ramesh Meyyappan's radical reworking of King Lear, then watched the entertaining Meme Girls at Oran Mor in Glasgow, part of the ongoing A Play, A Pie And A Pint season, and hot-footed it to Pitlochry for Nan Shepherd: Naked And Unashamed, the latest chapter in the cult Aberdeenshire writer's move from the margins of literary history to the centre. Elsewhere music critics Keith Bruce and Teddy Jamieson have also been busy, Keith at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall where he heard the Royal Scottish National Orchestra perform 'the mighty juggernaut' that is Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No 11 and Teddy at Glasgow's O2 Academy where he watched Morrissey. A slew of Smiths songs will have pleased many in the audience but Teddy was left wondering who the bequiffed Narcissus is really addressing these days.

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