Tuesday January 13th, 6.30 for 7pm

Philosophy was, for much of its history, synonymous with the rational investigation of the nature of the world and of how to live. As such, its defining characteristics were its complete generality, and its pursuit of vital human concerns.

Today, philosophy has been reduced to a specialised discipline and its role has become unclear. It used to be thought that philosophy could have the special task of clarifying what is said in other disciplines, or providing a foundation for those disciplines, but no one seriously believes in such justifications for its existence any longer.

In this talk, Christoph Schuringa will advocate for the revival of an ancient conception of philosophy – one that gives philosophy the scope of rational enquiry – as put through a radical transformation by Karl Marx. Philosophy, as Marx argued, does not stand apart from the world. It is our human living thinking in action.

Recovering this idea, Christoph will claim, has profound implications for human action and activism today. Rather than relegating the role of philosophy to the working out of theories that then await ‘application’ to the ‘real’ world, to do philosophy is to actualise the power of thinking that we all possess as humans acting in the world. Our embrace of ‘real philosophy’ in turn brings the complex challenges of today’s world, in particular the crises of capital and climate, into the heart of philosophy.

Thursday January 22nd, 6.30 for 7pm

Many scientists believe that science already understands the nature of reality, in principle; the fundamental questions are answered, leaving only the details to be filled in.

The impressive achievements of science and technology seem to support this attitude. But recent research has revealed unexpected problems at the heart of physics, cosmology, biology, medicine and psychology. The sciences are being constricted by assumptions that have hardened into dogmas.

In the skeptical spirit of true scientific inquiry, Rupert Sheldrake turns the fundamental dogmas of science into questions, opening up startling new possibilities. Rupert is a biologist, the author of The Science Delusion (among other books and scientific publications), a fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, California and the Temenos Academy, London, and formerly Director of the Perrott-Warrick Project for research on unexplained human abilities.

In this talk, he will explore some of those possibilities: The universe may be more like a living organism than a machine. The total amount of matter and energy may be increasing. Consciousness may be widespread in nature. Children may inherit characteristics acquired by their parents. Memories may not be stored in brains, and minds may extend beyond heads.

Wednesday January 28th, 6.30 for 7pm

For our January Book Club we’re reading Eleanor Catton’s 2023 novel “Birnam Wood”.

Publishers description: “A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass in New Zealand’s South Island, cutting off the town of Thorndike, leaving a sizeable farm abandoned. This land offers an opportunity to Birnam Wood, a guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice. But they hadn’t figured on the enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine, who also has an interest in the place. Can they trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust each other?

A gripping literary thriller from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries, Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its wit, drama and immersion in character. It is a brilliantly constructed tale of intentions, actions, and consequences, and an unflinching examination of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.”

Thursday February 19th, 6.30 for 7pm

In a future shaped by rapid AI-driven changes to the labour market and intensifying climate risks, Universal Basic Income (UBI) is an essential structural reform, not a welfare tweak. As work and communities are transformed, UBI could provide a secure, unconditional income, buffering households against upheaval, enhancing social cohesion and sustaining purposeful human activity.

In this talk, Kate Pickett – epidemiologist, Director of the Born in Bradford Centre for Social Change at the University of York, author of “The Good Society” and co-author of “Basic Income” – will outline how UBI can protect health, education and opportunity in the face of the systemic shocks that are on the way.

She will show how UBI can act as a shield against poverty-related stress, a key determinant of health and inequality: A predictable income supports preventive care, stable housing and continuous learning, and mitigates the health and educational disparities exposed by volatile labour markets and climate events. The policy is particularly protective for vulnerable groups – women, disabled people, migrants and youth – who are most at risk when shocks hit.

Kate will explore the crucial design choices behind any UBI scheme. How much do people get, who is eligible and how do we administer and fund it? How can we develop feasible and acceptable processes and design elements and fund them through progressive taxation and public investment?

UBI is a potential lever to reduce inequality, improve health outcomes, and strengthen democratic legitimacy by decreasing precarity and increasing participation in civic life. Kate will invite us to join a collective ambition – grounded in evidence, tested through pilots and scalable to diverse contexts – to move a universal basic income from a distant ideal to a practical, transformative policy.

Saturday February 21st, 1 for 2pm

How can we craft the stories that we can live by in the future, and that we’ll be proud to leave behind?

We’re at a crossroads. With every day that passes, our choices become starker: do we give everything we’ve got to a future in which all of humanity flourishes in co-creation with the web of life? Or do we accelerate the rush to species-level extinction?

While this is the question of our times, we don’t always have the stories that will offer us the keys to get there. Our Dystopias are being lived in real time and the downward trajectory is all too obvious. Utopias feel like a distant fantasy, becoming less real by the day. And yet we are a storied species: everything we do arises from the stories we tell ourselves and each other about ourselves and each other. If we can fashion the stories of a way through to the flourishing future our hearts know is possible, then we can get there.

Tuesday February 24th, 5.15 for 5.45pm

The Trial of the Chicago Seven, directed by Aaron Sorkin (2020, 2hr 9min) tells the story of a group of radicals accused of conspiring to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The trial that resulted stands as one of the most memorable and unusual courtroom spectacles in American history.

Politically and culturally, 1968 was a year of unprecedented radicalism and revolutionary agitation in a decade of significant turbulence that saw the assassinations of John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and the abdication of Lindon B Johnson. The Vietnam war became the longest war in the US history; American casualties passed the 30,000 mark. When the Viet Cong mounted their Tet offensive, anti-war protests grew larger and louder on college campuses. Black Nationalists movements such as the Black Panther Party were already organising and protesting police brutality and systemic racism.

The Chicago conspiracy trial is a culmination of these developments. The defendants transformed the courtroom into a political stage, using the devices of law and justice to counter the charge of conspiracy with theatrical defiance, aiming to put the state itself on trial for the “absurdity” of prosecuting dissent against the Vietnam War, systemic racism, and economic inequality. The courtroom spectacle crystallised the 1960s radical spirit, and brought about a rupture, putting the American body politic in contradiction with its professed values and ideals.

There are significant parallels between that period and the recent decade, particularly the targeting of various movements supporting Palestine liberation. The proscription of Palestine Action recently and the Defend Our Juries protests and prosecutions carry resemblances with the radicalism and defiance that characterised the 1960s.

Following the screening, Awol Allo, Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Sheffield will lead a discussion on the parallels between these two moments, and on the appropriation of the legal system as a site of struggle against the state.

Watch the trailer

Wednesday February 25th, 6.30 for 7pm

For our February Book Club, we’re reading “The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World…” a posthumously published collection of essays by David Graeber.

Publisher’s description: “‘The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently,” wrote David Graeber, as well-known for his sharp, lively essays as he was for his iconic role in the Occupy movement and his paradigm-shifting tomes.

There are converging political, economic, and ecological crises, and yet our politics is dominated by either business as usual or nostalgia for a mythical past. Thinking against the grain, Graeber was one of the few who dared to imagine a new understanding of the past and a liberatory vision of the future — to imagine a social order based on humans’ fundamental freedom. In essays published over three decades and ranging across the biggest issues of our time — inequality, technology, the identity of ‘the West,’ democracy, art, power, anger, mutual aid, and protest — he challenges the old assumptions about political life. A trenchant critic of the order of things, and driven by a bold imagination and a passionate commitment to human freedom, he offers hope that our world can be different.

During a moment of daunting upheaval and pervasive despair, the incisive, entertaining, and urgent essays collected in “The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World . . . “, edited and with an introduction by Nika Dubrovsky and with a foreword by Rebecca Solnit, make for essential and inspiring reading. They are a profound reminder of Graeber’s enduring significance as an iconic, playful, necessary thinker.”

Tuesday March 3rd, 6.30 for 7pm

Join us for our regular open mike night, where we learn about each other’s projects, build connections and offer each other support.

Open Projects Night is for: Anyone with a radical idea they’d like to share and workshop. Anyone setting up or running a small Kairos-aligned project who needs support. Anyone with skills and experience they’d like to share. Anyone who would like to help grow our interconnectedness.

The evening will include a series of presentations, followed by questions, discussion and offers of support, and a one-pot vegan supper that we’ll eat together.

All are welcome to attend. If you’d like to present, please send a brief description of your idea or project, along with any multi-media to events@Kairos.London by Sunday March 1st. If you’d like to just come and listen you are also most welcome.

Thursday March 12th, 6.30 for 7pm

In the modern age, it’s easy, and can seem harmless, to outsource memory to databases, photography, AI, and even tech as simple as books and the written word. But the pre-moderns knew that memory is far more than just a mechanical function. They understood it as the source of creativity and imagination, a vital way of relating to land, a living repository of ancestral wisdom, and more.

In this talk, writer and independent scholar Eleanor Robins will offer a fresh and urgent picture of what we’ve lost by forgetting our memories, suggesting that rediscovering memory practices is a powerful form of resistance in the current paradigm shift. Then we’ll put these ideas into practice, using a selection of memory arts to collectively memorise a short poem.

Eleanor writes about imagination and the possibility that we’re living through a paradigm shift in consciousness, primarily through Substack, where she is currently running the World Swallowers’ Memory Club, a group devoted to memorising poetry as an act of resistance.

Fridays, 10am-5pm
Community Day
We’re now opening our doors on Fridays for aligned groups needing a place to meet. This is non-exclusive, daytime use of our space for brainstorms and strategy meetings, book group discussions and other creative get-togethers. Only by arrangement. Email events@kairos.london.

The Third Wednesday of Every Month
Book Club
Look out for listings on this page, or email events@kairos.london if you’d like to join the Book Club WhatsApp group.

The First Tuesday of Every Other Month
Open Projects Night
Our regular open mike night, where we’ll learn about each others projects, build connections and offer each other support. Look out for listings on this page or email events@kairos.london with details of the project you’d like to share.