Why does politics feel increasingly frantic, economics increasingly deluded, culture increasingly empty - even when led by seemingly good people?

Charles Foster explores how, at root, modern ways of life uncouple us from the heart of what makes us human: a love of horizons and edges. With that perspective lost, power is mostly about control, not allure, and society organises around safety rather than spirit.

What does this mean for notions like nation states and sciences of prediction? Drawing particularly on the work of Iain McGilchrist, Charles asks again about the meaning of life, individual and collective, by stepping towards uncertainty.

Charles is speaking with Mark Vernon and will be at the Realisation Festival, at St Giles House, Dorset, June 25-28, 2026.

For more about Realisation 2026 - https://realisationfestival.com/

For more about Charles Foster - https://charlesfoster.co.uk/

How can myths and fairytales help us, personally and collectively? What stories, often almost lost, can aid us with contemporary crises? Why does the imagination so very much matter?

Sharon Blackie will lead us in the exploration of these themes and more on the opening of the first day of the Realisation Festival, 2026. She will invite us to consider possibilities beyond the hero's journey and also how to draw on images, community and the land.

Sharon was talking with Mark Vernon.

For more on Sharon's work, not least her new book, Ripening, see https://sharonblackie.net/

For more on the Realisation Festival, see https://realisationfestival.com/

The Realisation Festival is a soulful response to the crises of our times. So, with two months to go before this year’s gathering, Nick Shaftesbury, Pippa Evans and Ed Haddon sat down with Mark Vernon to explore the shape of the programme this year.

Why does this space to share the complexities of today so much matter? What encounters are they hoping for? How might the big theme of story, that has emerged in planning this year, help us stay with confusion and worry, aspiration and hope?

Find out more about the festival online - https://realisationfestival.com/

The pre-festival in-person meeting on 21st April will be at Kairos in London. For more details, email olivia@realisationfestival.com.

Do listen to other episodes of the podcast, including conversations with economist Guy Standing and biochemist Pauline Rudd.