Stuart Jeffries discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Stuart Jeffries was born in Wolverhampton in 1962. He was educated in Dudley, Oxford and London.

Stuart started his journalistic career as a cub reporter at the Birmingham Post and Mail in 1985. He used to edit the Walsall Observer's children's page under the pseudonym Uncle Tom. Later he was the jazz critic of the Morning Star under the pseudonym Lew Lewis. In 1987, he moved to the Hampstead and Highgate Express, where he had many duties, chief among which was interviewing Hampstead lady novelists, which he liked a lot.

In 1990, he started work for the Guardian, working as subeditor, TV critic, Friday Review editor, Paris correspondent and feature writer. In 2010 he took voluntary redundancy and since then has been a freelance journalist and author. His work has appeared in the Guardian, the Observer, The Spectator, the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph, Prospect, the New Statesman. and the London Review of Books, among others. He is the author of Mrs Slocombe’s Pussy (2000), Grand Hotel Abyss (2016), and Everything, All the Time, Everywhere (2021) and A Short History of Stupidity (2025), which is available at https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=a-short-history-of-stupidity--9781509563494.

1. Several Nazis tried at Nuremberg were judged geniuses according to IQ tests.
2. IQ tests are terrible for establishing a person's stupidity or intelligence.
3. Until 1975 hysterectomies were performed on black women in certain US states to stop them breeding morons.
4. Stupidity has its uses - especially in the office.
5. Donald Trump is more stupid than he thinks he is.
6. What the prostate is.

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Pete Brown discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Pete Brown (https://petebrown.net/) is a British author, journalist, broadcaster and consultant specialising in food and drink. Since February 2025, he has been the Sunday Times Magazine’s weekly beer columnist – the only regular broadsheet newspaper or magazine beer columnist in the UK.

He is currently Chair of Judges for the World Beer Awards. He was named British Beer Writer of the Year in 2009, 2012, 2016 and 2021, has won three Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards, been shortlisted twice for the André Simon Awards, and in 2020 was named an “Industry Legend” at the Imbibe Hospitality Awards. His books include Tasting Notes and Clubland.

1. Burton-on-Trent (the most important beer town in world history) https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/food-drink/article/burton-upon-trent-beer-town-zctn9787n

2. Perry (what some people refer to as pear cider) https://cideruk.com/what-is-cider-and-perry/

3. How working men’s clubs shaped modern Britain https://www.petebrown.net/book/clubland-how-the-working-mens-club-shaped-britain/

4. Norwich https://www.number82theunthank.co.uk/10-surprising-facts-about-norwich/

5. How music changes your perception of flavour https://www.petebrown.net/book/tasting-notes-the-art-of-science-of-pairing-beer-with-music/

6. It’s possible to disagree with someone politically and still have a civil, enriching conversation https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/smarter-living/learn-to-argue-productively.html

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Sandy Pentland discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Alex Pentland is a Stanford HAI Fellow and MIT Toshiba Professor. Named one of the “100 People to Watch This Century” by Newsweek and “one of the seven most powerful data scientists in the world” by Forbes, he is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, an advisor to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority Lab, and an advisor to the UN Secretary General’s office. His work has helped manage privacy and security for the world’s digital networks by establishing authentication standards, protect personal privacy by contributing to the pioneering EU privacy law, and provide healthcare support for hundreds of millions of people worldwide through both for-profit and not-for-profit companies. His new book is Shared Wisdom, which is available at https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262050999/shared-wisdom/.

1. Casual conversation is typically what leads to wisdom and culture
2. Polarization comes from influencers and other loud voices
3. AI-aided search can really help weaken echo chambers
4. Given a conversation platform that is safe space and given participants with shared interests people naturally generate good decisions
5. Hierarchical organizations are inflexible and poor performing by design
6. Uniform rules are bad for the majority of people

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