5x15

Katy Hessel On The Story Of Art Without Men

28 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Katy Hessel is an art historian, broadcaster and curator dedicated to celebrating women artists from all over the world. How many women artists do you...

Tom Mustill and Lucy Jones on How to Speak Whale

25 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Join 5x15 for a thrilling investigation into whale science and animal communication with Tom Mustill, author of the ground-breaking new book How to Sp...

Jack Parlett on Fire Island

21 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jack Parlett is a writer, poet and scholar specialising in queer studies and American literature. In FIRE ISLAND, he tells the story of a slim strip o...

For The Love Of Plants: Jonathan Drori And Nicola Spence

17 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The hugely popular Jonathan Drori – writer and plant-lover – returns to 5x15 for a very special conversation with Professor Nicola Spence CBE, Def...

Carlo Rovelli And Oliver Burkeman In Conversation

23 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Join two of 5x15’s favourite guests, Carlo Rovelli and Oliver Burkeman, to discuss time, the universe and our place in it. Carlo Rovelli’s HELOGL...

Robert Harris On Act Of Oblivion

19 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

5x15 is thrilled to welcome Robert Harris to our virtual stage for a conversation with 5x15 co-founder Rosie Boycott. Robert Harris is the author of ...

Andrea Wulf And Kirsty Lang On Magnificent Rebels

06 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Join 5x15 in September to hear about acclaimed biographer Andrea Wulf’s thrilling, and timely, story of a group of friends who changed the world in ...

Hannah Critchlow And Rowan Williams On Joined Up Thinking

02 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

At a time of existential global challenges, we need our best brainpower. How do we create genius environments, help our brains flourish and boost grou...

Chris Blackhurst & Oliver Bullough on Too Big to Jail

02 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A special 5x15 event with Chris Blackhurst- an acclaimed writer, commentator, former editor of The Independent and author of Too Big To Jail (Macmilla...

Karen Armstrong On Sacred Nature

29 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Join 5x15 to hear Karen Armstrong on her powerful new book Sacred Nature - an urgent manifesto and a practical guide on how to rekindle our spiritual ...

Sarah Churchwell and Justin Webb on The Wrath To Come

22 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Join 5x15 for an online event with the acclaimed historian Sarah Churchwell in conversation with Today presenter Justin Webb to delve into American my...

Geoff Dyer on The Last Days Of Roger Federer

04 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Geoff Dyer is a ‘national treasure’ (Zadie Smith): the award-winning author of ten non-fiction books and four novels, including Out of Sheer Rage ...

Jackie Morris on Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone

01 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jackie Morris is an author and illustrator. The Lost Words, which she wrote with Robert Macfarlane, won the 2019 Kate Greenaway Medal for distinguishe...

Jonathan Freedland on The Escape Artist

27 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jonathan Freedland is an award-winning Guardian columnist, presenter of BBC Radio Four’s The Long View, and a multi-million selling thriller author ...

Leila Mottley on Nightcrawling

24 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Leila Mottley has been hailed as ‘the voice of a generation’. An acclaimed youth poet, her first novel, NIGHTCRAWLING, was bought in a thirteen-wa...

Amia Srinivasan And Lisa Taddeo On The Right To Sex

20 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Philosopher Amia Srinivasan, bestselling author of The Right to Sex, in conversation with the author of Three Women, Lisa Taddeo. '[This] ambitious, ...

William Atkins On Exiles

17 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

William Atkins’s third book, EXILES, tells the story of three nineteenth-century dissidents whose lives were profoundly shaped by the winds of empir...

The Secret Barrister On Nothing But The Truth

13 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Secret Barrister is a junior barrister specialising in criminal law. Their first book, The Secret Barrister, won a number of awards and has been i...

Lea Ypi On Free

10 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Lea Ypi’s memoir of growing up in communist Albania, FREE, is an unforgettable coming-of-age story exploring the meaning of freedom in all its forms...

Luke Harding On Ukraine, Russia, Putin And What Happens Next

06 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Luke Harding returns to 5x15 to discuss Ukraine, Russia, Putin and what happens next. Luke is an award-winning foreign correspondent with the Guardian...

John Crace And Viv Groskop On A Farewell To Calm

03 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Join 5x15 for an unmissable live event back at The Tabernacle in London's Notting Hill with the wildly entertaining John Crace, parliamentary sketch w...

Brian Eno And James Bridle On Ways Of Being

30 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A special online event with musician and visual artist Brian Eno and writer and artist James Bridle on AI, non-human intelligence, ecology, biological...

Delia Ephron On Left On Tenth

27 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Delia Ephron is a bestselling author, screenwriter and playwright, whose movies include You’ve Got Mail, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Hang...

Elif Shafak On The Island Of Missing Trees

23 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elif Shafak is an award winning Turkish British writer, and the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of nineteen books, which have been translated into 55 ...

Howard Jacobson On Mother's Boy

20 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Howard Jacobson has written sixteen novels and five works of non-fiction. He has twice won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Award for comic fiction, a...

Julia Samuel On Every Family Has A Story

16 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Julia Samuel, MBE, is a leading British psychotherapist and the author of the bestsellers This Too Shall Pass and Grief Works. She is Founder Patron o...

Patrick Radden Keefe on Empire Of Pain

29 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Patrick Radden Keefe discusses Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty in conversation with Rosie Boycott. Empire of Pain is a swe...

Damon Galgut and Chris Power on The Promise

25 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

5x15 welcomes 2021 Booker Prize-winning author Damon Galgut for a very special online event to celebrate the paperback launch of his sensational novel...

Amitav Ghosh On The Nutmeg's Curse

22 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

5x15 with Amitav Ghosh and Rosie Boycott as they discuss his ground breaking new book The Nutmeg's Curse. In 1621, Dutch East India Soldiers went on ...

Amy Liptrot And Lucy Jones On The Instant

18 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Instant is the outstanding new book from Amy Liptrot, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Outrun. She joins us on the eve of publication for a ...

Justin Webb on The Gift of a Radio

15 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Justin Webb is the longest serving presenter of BBC Radio 4’s flagship news and current affairs programme ‘Today.’ In THE GIFT OF A RADIO, he de...

Clover Stroud On The Red Of My Blood

11 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Clover Stroud is a journalist and the award-nominated author of books including the Sunday Times bestselling My Wild and Sleepless Nights. In The Red ...

Johann Hari and Stephen Fry on Stolen Focus

08 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Why have we lost our ability to focus? What are the causes? And, most importantly, how do we get it back? Join 5x15 to hear about Johann Hari's journ...

Hannah Lowe On The Kids

04 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Hannah Lowe's third full collection of poems, The Kids, won the 2021 Costa Poetry Award and went on to be named Costa Book of the Year, and was also s...

Kate Humble On Recipes From The Farm

01 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Kate Humble joins us to talk about her debut cook book Home Cooked: Recipes From The Farm. After the huge success of the documentary series 'Escape To...

Monica Ali On Love Marriage

28 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Monica Ali’s new novel, Love Marriage, is her first in a decade. Funny and poignant, sharp and sympathetic, it is a tour de force of storytelling th...

Osman Yousefzada On The Go-Between

25 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Osman Yousefzada is a celebrated multi-disciplinary artist whose global fashion label is worn by celebrities including Beyoncé, Lupita Nyong’o, Tha...

Angela Saini on Superior: The Return of Race Science

18 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Angela Saini is an independent British science journalist and the author of three books. She presents radio and television programmes on the BBC and h...

Paul Mendez on Rainbow Milk

14 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Paul Mendez is a London-based novelist, essayist and screenwriter. Born in 1982 and raised in the Black Country, the eldest of four children by Jehova...

Ben Rawlence on The Treeline

11 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ben Rawlence has written for publications including the Guardian, London Review of Books, New York Times, New York Times Book Review and the New Yorke...

Emma Gannon on How to Stay Human in an Online World

08 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Emma Gannon is a Sunday Times bestselling author, speaker, novelist and host of the award-winning creative careers podcast in the UK, Ctrl Alt Delete,...

Isabel Allende and Alex Clark on Violeta

04 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

5x15 presents: Isabel Allende - novelist, feminist & philanthropist - in conversation about her new novel Violeta with journalist Alex Clark Isabel A...

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers on The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois

04 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers in conversation about her breath-taking debut novel, The Love Songs Of W.E.B Du Bois, which chronicles the journey of multipl...

Huma Abedin on Both/And

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Huma Abedin often made the headlines as a long-time aide to Hillary Clinton during her years as First Lady, US Senator, presidential candidate, Secret...

Michael Ignatieff on Consolation

28 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Ignatieff is a Canadian writer, philosopher, historian, professor and former politician. His award-winning books have been translated into twe...

James Rebanks on English Pastoral

23 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Join 5x15 to hear bestselling author James Rebanks as he reflects on his prize-winning new book, English Pastoral; the countryside we’ve inherited, ...

Shon Faye and Emma Dabiri on Coalition-Building

06 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Best-selling and ground-breaking authors Emma Dabiri – What White People Can Do Next: From Allyship to Coalition – and Shon Faye - The Transgender...

Rationality: Steven Pinker in conversation with Tim Harford

03 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Rationality matters. Steven Pinker discusses a user’s guide to rationality during an epidemic of unreason. Join 5x15 for an enlightening discussion...

Jay Rayner on Chewing the Fat

29 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jay Rayner is an award-winning writer, broadcaster, author and jazz pianist. However he is best known - and beloved - as the restaurant critic of the ...

Raynor Winn on The Wild Silence

26 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Raynor Winn's first book, The Salt Path, charted her extraordinary and uplifting journey around the South West Coastal Path, as she battled homelessne...

Hannah Rothschild on The House of Trelawney

23 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Hannah Rothschild - award winning writer, documentary filmmaker and businesswoman - returns to 5x15 to discuss her latest acclaimed novel, House of Tr...

Aja Barber on Consumed: the need for collective action and change

22 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Why do we consume the way we do? Aja Barber is a writer and stylist with over 230,000 followers on Instagram, whose work explores the connections betw...

Lucy Kellaway on Re-educated: How I changed my job, my home, my husband and my hair

19 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For years Lucy Kellaway’s life was the model of success- a columnist at the Financial Times, married to the same husband for decades, she appeared ...

Oliver Burkeman on Four Thousand Weeks: Time and How to Use It

15 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Four thousand weeks is the amount of time the average person can expect to spend on this planet. But what, exactly, should we do with our brief spell ...

Lara Maiklem on a Mudlarker's Guide to London

13 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Lara Maiklem is the founder of The London Mudlark and author of Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames, which was the story of the river told ...

Justine Picardie on the incredible story of Miss Dior

12 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Justine Picardie is the author of six books, including her critically acclaimed memoir, If the Spirit Moves You: Life and Love After Death, and the in...

Sarfraz Manzoor on They: A Story of Modern Britain

08 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Sarfraz Manzoor is a British journalist, documentary maker, broadcaster, and screenwriter of Pakistani origin. Growing up in a working-class Muslim fa...

Richard Powers on Bewilderment in conversation with Rosie Boycott

02 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With its soaring descriptions of the natural world, its tantalizing vision of life beyond, and its account of a father and son’s ferocious love, Bew...

Mike Leigh on Mike Leigh in conversation with Francince Stock

01 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The writer-director Mike Leigh is one of world cinema’s pre-eminent figures, a multi-award winning writer-director and one of Britain’s most inter...

Jared Diamond and Rosie Boycott - The Last Tree on Easter Island

30 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A 5x15 and Penguin Classics series of Green Ideas special event with Jared Diamond who discusses his short book The Last Tree on Easter Island. Life ...

Dan Saladino on Eating to Extinction

27 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Award-winning journalist Dan Saladino discusses his new book and call to arms Eating to Extinction with Rosie Boycott. A captivating and urgent explo...

Marcus du Sautoy and Roger Highfield on The Art of the Shortcut

25 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Mathematics is full of better ways of thinking, and with over 2,000 years of knowledge to draw on, Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy interrogates ...

Zakiya Dalila Harris on The Other Black Girl

22 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Drawing on her first-hand experience of the high-pressure, starkly white world of book publishing, novelist Zakiya Dalila Harris joins us from America...

Anil Seth and Adam Rutherford on a new science of consciousness

14 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Pioneering neuroscientist, Anil Seth, discusses Being You: A New Science of Consciousness in conversation with Adam Rutherford at 5x15. Join 5x15 for...

Neil Gaiman and Susanna Clarke on Piranesi

13 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Step into the extraordinary and mysterious world of Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author Susanna Clarke as she discusses her spectacular...

Jess Phillips: Everything You Really Need to Know About Politics

19 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In her frank and funny talk for 5x15, Jess Phillips MP discusses her new book Everything You Really Need to Know About Politics with Rosie Boycott and...

Nick Crane - Latitude: The True Story of the World's First Scientific Expedition

16 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this 5x15 short talk, Nick Crane discusses his new book Latitude: The True Story of the World's First Scientific Expedition and shares a story of c...

Hollie McNish - Slug: and other things I've been told to hate

09 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In our latest 5x15 podcast, award winning poet Hollie McNish will take you on a whistle stop tour of her funny, frank and timely new poetry and prose ...

Lionel Shriver: Should We Stay or Should We Go?

05 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Lionel Shriver discusses the complexities of life and the politics of death in her darkly funny new novel Should We Stay or Should We Go? at 5x15. Li...

Robin Wall Kimmerer & Lucy Jones: Gathering Moss

03 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What can the planet’s oldest plants teach us about our humanity and our place in the world? In this special 5x15 podcast, journalist Lucy Jones, au...

Jack Guinness- The Queer Bible

29 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this funny and poignant talk for 5x15, Jack Guinness takes us on a short journey through queer history. He speaks about his incredible project, The...

Rivercide with George Monbiot and Franny Armstrong

23 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this special 5x15 podcast, Join George Monbiot, Franny Armstrong on their quest to restore our rivers to their rightful place - not only in the nat...

Kate Mosse - An Extra Pair of Hands

20 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Kate Mosse joins interviewer Rosie Boycott to discuss An Extra Pair of Hands: A story of caring, ageing and everyday acts of love. Kate Mosse is an i...

Sebastian Junger and Jon Lee Anderson on Freedom at 5x15

20 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Best selling author and Oscar nominated documentary film maker Sebastian Junger discusses his new book Freedom with Jon Lee Anderson at 5x15. Through...

This is Your Mind on Plants: A conversation with Monty Don and Michael Pollan

15 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Human beings have relied on plants throughout our evolved history - to alter consciousness, to stimulate, to calm and to radically alter the way we se...

Gillian Tett and Tim Harford on Anthro-Vision

13 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gillian Tett is editor-at-large at the Financial Times and bestselling author of Fool’s Gold. Now she’s returning to her early training to explain...

Lawrence Wright - The Plague Year

11 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Lawrence Wright has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992. He is also an author, a screenwriter and a playwright. Wright has published twel...

Artists’ Ideas for Planet Earth: Brian Eno, Rob Hopkins & Carolina Caycedo

07 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What can artists offer in response to climate change? The experience of the pandemic has shown us that a profound reimagining of many aspects of socie...

Suzanne Simard and Jonathan Drori - Finding the Mother Tree

25 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

5x15 podcast with two leading environmentalists, who have helped us to understand the complex cycle of forest life and why it must be preserved before...

Arifa Akbar - Consumed

23 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Arifa Akbar is the Guardian's chief theatre critic. A journalist for over twenty years, she is the former literary editor of the Independent, where sh...

Jonathan Drori, Sarah Raven and Tim Smit on the stories of plants

18 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Often beautiful, sometimes deadly, but constantly ingenious, plants are the source of life and delight, myth and mayhem. Jonathan Drori CBE is the au...

Natalie Haynes & Bettany Hughes: Reclaiming the Women of the Ancient World

13 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Two leading classicists on the remarkable stories of the women of the ancient world and the injustice in how they are often understood today. Natalie...

Emma Dabiri and Beverly Daniel Tatum on Race and What Comes Next

07 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Emma Dabiri is an Irish-Nigerian academic, activist, broadcaster and teaching fellow in the Africa department at SOAS and a Visual Sociology PhD resea...

Timothy Garton Ash - The Future of Liberalism

23 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Timothy Garton Ash is the author of ten books of political writing or ‘history of the present’ which have charted the transformation of Europe ove...

Walter Isaacson - The Code Breaker

09 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Walter Isaacson, talks about his new book The Code Breaker. Walter is a professor of history at Tulane, has been the CEO of the Aspen Institute, where...

Suzanne O’Sullivan - The Sleeping Beauties

07 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan has been a consultant in neurology since 2004, first working at the Royal London Hospital and now as a consultant in clinical ...

Jaiden Corfield - Outliers

05 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jaiden Corfield is an award-winning activist and campaigner from North Manchester who is currently at Oxford studying PPE. He began fighting for chang...

Adam Grant - Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know

29 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Adam Grant is an organisational psychologist, TED speaker and leading expert on motivation, meaning and creativity. He was recognized as one of the wo...

Edmund de Waal - Letters to Camondo

26 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Edmund de Waal is an internationally acclaimed artist and writer, best known for his large-scale installations of porcelain vessels, often created in ...

Carlo Rovelli on Helgoland in conversation with Marcus du Sautoy

22 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Join us to hear master story teller and theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli in conversation with Marcus du Sautoy - the Charles Simonyi Professor for ...

Lee Lawrence - The Louder I Will Sing

13 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Lee Lawrence is a social entrepreneur who works to help marginalised people find their voice, manage conflict and achieve justice. In 2014, he founded...

Michael Rosen - Many Different Kinds of Love: Life, Death, and The NHS

30 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Rosen is a beloved author, former Children’s Laureate and national treasure. In Many Different Kinds of Love: Life, Death and The NHS he bri...

John Preston: Fall - The Mystery of Robert Maxwell

25 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

John Preston on his new book Fall which tells the jaw-dropping life story of notorious business tycoon Robert Maxwell. John is a former Arts Editor ...

Natural Capital, Biodiversity and Oceans - The Earth Convention

21 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Biodiversity - crucial to human, economic and planetary health - is declining faster than at any time in human history. It is thought that one million...

Elizabeth Kolbert & David Wallace-Wells: Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future

08 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Two incredible environmental writers and thinkers take part in this special event for 5x15 on Under A White Sky: The Nature of the Future. This is the...

Rachel Clarke - Breathtaking: Inside the NHS in a Time of Pandemic

01 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Rachel Clarke is a palliative care doctor and former television journalist who cares deeply about standing up for her patients and the NHS. She retrai...

Jason Hickel - Less Is More

25 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jason Hickel is an economic anthropologist, Fulbright Scholar, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is originally from Swaziland and spent a nu...

Rathbones - The Earth Convention: What We Eat and Why It Matters

21 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This fourth session in the Earth Convention series explores the huge global impact of food production on the environment and climate change - and inde...

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall: Eat Better Forever

12 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a writer, broadcaster and campaigner. His series for Channel 4 have earned him a huge popular following, while his Rive...

A masterclass on writing and life - George Saunders and Max Porter in conversation

10 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

George Saunders has been teaching the Russian short story for over twenty years. In his new book, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he explores seven icon...