Post-Truth: why we have reached peak bullshit and what we can do about it [Audio]

10/18/17 • 86 min

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Speaker(s): Evan Davis | Never has there been more concern about dishonesty in public life. From President Trump to the Brexit debate, we hear constant talk of falsehoods and fake news, and appeals to alternative facts. In his new book, Post-Truth: Why We Have Reached Peak Bullshit and What We Can Do About It, which he will discuss at this event, Evan Davis steps inside the panoply of deception and spin employed not just in recent politics, but in all walks of life to explain why bullshit is both pervasive and persistent. Drawing on behavioural science, economics, psychology and his knowledge of the media, Evan will discuss why bullshit has apparently become the communications strategy of our time. Evan Davis (@EvanHD) is a well-known broadcaster, presenting the current affairs programme Newsnight, on BBC 2; The Bottom Line on Radio 4 and Dragons’ Den on BBC 2. He was a presenter on Radio 4s The Today programme for six years and prior to Today he was the Economics Editor of the BBC. Professor Charlie Beckett is Director of LSE's Commission on Truth, Trust and Technology, and Director of Polis, LSE's journalism think-tank. The Institute of Public Affairs (@LSEPubAffairs) is one of the world's leading centres of public policy. We aim to debate and address some of the major issues of our time, whether international or national, through our established teaching programmes, our research and our highly innovative public-engagement initiatives. Polis (@PolisLSE) is part of the Department of Media and Communications aimed at working journalists, people in public life and students in the UK and around the world. Polis is the place where journalists and the wider world can examine and discuss the media and its impact on society.

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Outside Insight: navigating a world drowning in data [Audio]

Speaker(s): Jorn Lyseggen | The Internet has changed the way we make decisions, but the way executives make decisions hasn't changed at all. Board members focus on internal data when every day competitors are leaving behind online breadcrumbs filled with valuable external data. This could be a job advert, filing a new patent, launching a new product, social media and more. Using insights gleaned from this data will help companies to look ahead and make more informed decisions. In this lecture, Jorn Lyseggen will talk about his new book Outside Insight, which includes case studies of the success and failures of international companies including Nike, Volvo, L’Oreal, Manchester United, the World Wide Fund for Nature, as well as the Obama 2012 campaign. Jorn Lyseggen (@jorn_lyseggen) is the CEO of Meltwater: a company that develops and markets media monitoring and business intelligence software. The company was founded in 2002 in a shack in Norway with just $15,000 start-up money. Now, Meltwater employs more than 1,000 people in 60 offices across six continents, and has over 23,000 clients across the world. The company has won various awards and Jorn also founded the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology, a training programme and seed fund for African entrepreneurs. Kenneth Benoit is Professor of Quantative Social Research Methods and Head of the Department of Methodology at LSE. SEDS (@SEDS_LSE) is an interdisciplinary research unit established to foster the study of data science and new forms of data with a focus on its social, economic, and political aspects. SEDS aims to host, facilitate, and promote research in social and economic data science. SEDS is a collaboration between the Departments of Statistics, Methodology and Mathematics.

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Hard Brexit, Soft Brexit, No Brexit? [Audio]

Speaker(s): Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska, David McAllister | 2016 was unquestionably a year of political and economic shocks with Brexit and the election of President Trump. The UK elections in June 2017 created further difficulties for the Brexit negotiations with the Conservative and Democratic Unionist party agreement which left the Brexit process in uncertain territory. This event explores what Brexit will mean for the relationship between the UK, Germany and the EU. Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska (@AgataGostynska) is a research fellow at the Centre for European Reform. David McAllister (@davidmcallister) is Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the European Parliament and a vice president of the European People's Party. John Ryan is Visiting Fellow, LSE IDEAS and a senior adviser for private and public sector organisations on Brexit. LSE IDEAS (@lseideas) is LSE's foreign policy think tank. We connect academic knowledge of diplomacy and strategy with the people who use it. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (@KAS_UKIRL) is a political foundation, closely associated with the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU).