Rutger Bregman to Deliver 2025 Reith Lectures
The BBC has announced that author Rutger Bregman will deliver the 2025 Reith Lectures. The series,titled with the segments “A Realist’s Utopia” and “Zoom Out,” will explore ancient moments of transformative moral change – citing the suffragette and abolitionist movements as examples – and consider thier relevance to contemporary progressive movements. Bregman will also address the rapid technological advancements of recent years, examining both the risks and opportunities they present for the future.
Bregman is the author of several bestselling books, including Utopia for Realists (2017) and Humankind (2020), both Sunday Times and New York Times bestsellers, as well as Moral Ambition released earlier this year, also a Sunday Times bestseller. His works have been translated into 46 languages and have collectively sold over two million copies. He gained international recognition in 2019 during a discussion at the davos World Economic Forum for challenging billionaire panelists regarding their tax contributions.
The lectures will be recorded before live audiences in london, Liverpool, Edinburgh, and the United states. They will subsequently be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service, and made available on BBC Sounds.
Mohit Bakaya, Director of Speech and Controller of BBC Radio 4, stated that Bregman “consistently challenged us to reimagine the world” and that the lectures are “a provocation – arguing that we are in an age of crisis, but offering hope about where we could go from here.”
Bregman himself expressed his honor at being selected, noting that periods of societal decline have frequently enough been followed by renewal and a redefinition of values. He views the present moment in this very way a crossroads and intends the lectures to explore how “moral ambition can definitely help us face the challenges of our age.”
The lectures and accompanying question-and-answer sessions will be chaired by journalist, presenter, and author Anita Anand.
Free tickets to the recordings will be available via the BBC website from late September.
The Reith Lectures were established in 1948 by the BBC to commemorate the contributions of Sir John Reith, the corporation’s first director-general. Reith believed broadcasting should serve the public by enriching the nation’s intellectual and cultural life.Each year,the BBC invites a prominent figure to deliver a series of lectures aimed at fostering public understanding and debate on crucial contemporary issues.
Bertrand Russell was the inaugural Reith Lecturer in 1948, speaking on ‘Authority and the Individual.’ Subsequent lecturers have included Robert Oppenheimer, J.K. Galbraith, Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Onora O’Neill, Daniel Barenboim, Michael Sandel, Stephen Hawking, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Hilary Mantel, Margaret MacMillan, Jonathan Sumption, Mark Carney, and Stuart Russell.
