About the speaker:

Dr Stuart Gillespie is a writer and freelance consultant, non-resident senior fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute and honorary associate at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex.  Since the early 1980s, he has worked on food, nutrition and health policy, research and action in various ways, in various places. He has around 200 publications including 10 books, the latest of which is Food Fight: From Plunder and Profit to People and Planet which was selected as a BBC Food Programe Book of the Year (2025) and winner of Guild of Food Writers Investigative Writer (2026) award. His newsletter Food Fight Files can be found on stuartgillespie.substack.com

About the talk:

Drawing on his recent book Food Fight, Stuart will shine a light on the historical evolution of the global food system – from colonial times, through to the last half-century of progressive corporate capture. He will unpack the ways in which growing market and financial power of a handful of companies has been used to leverage political and epistemic power to lock in their dominance. Finally, he will draw on the growing body of evidence and experience from around the world to show how things can be turned around – and how a better food system, with people and planet at its heart, can be built.

About the Speaker:

Edward Davey is Head of the World Resources Institute’s UK Office. He has worked at WRI for a decade, primarily focused on the intersecting questions of how to feed humanity while protecting and restoring the natural environment on which we all depend. Prior to WRI, Edward worked as a researcher and speechwriter to the now King, when Prince of Wales; and before that, as an adviser to the Presidency of Colombia on the environment and climate change, which included work on the Amazon Rainforest and the Colombian peace process. Edward lives in Lewes with his family and is the author of a book ‘Given Half A Chance: Ten Ways to Save the World’ and the host of a podcast, conceived in Lewes, called ‘Reasons for Hope’.

About the talk:

The world is awash with climate anxiety, as the perils of a changing climate make themselves felt each day, from Nepal to Europe to around the world. Meanwhile, biodiversity loss continues unabated, and the world faces a combination of humanitarian need, political uncertainty, geopolitical turbulence, inequality, and polarisation and disinformation. It can feel difficult to be hopeful at such a time. And yet, as Edward Davey will argue, there are qualified reasons for hope in a number of areas, thanks to the brave and valuable work of many around the world to chart a better future. And it is both necessary and possible to articulate such a better future for humanity and the natural world, and to work together across societies and coalitions of the willing to bring it into being.

The venue (Please note we have a new venue):
John Harvey Tavern, Bear Yard, Cliffe High St, Lewes, BN7 2AN

Tickets:
They are £5 and you can purchase them on the door or about a week before at the venue. Please note that the capacity of the venue is limited, we recommend buying the ticket in advance to avoid disappointment.

Times:

Starting at 7:30pm till 9:30pm

About the speaker

Dr Navina Evans CBE MBBS MRCPsych (Hon Prof) has had a distinguished career in the NHS, serving as Chief Workforce, Training and Education Officer at NHS England from 2023 to 2025. Prior to that, she was Chief Executive of Health Education England (2020–2023) and Chief Executive of East London NHS Foundation Trust (2016–2020), where the Trust achieved two consecutive ‘Outstanding’ ratings from the Care Quality Commission.With over twenty years of clinical experience in psychiatry, medicine and paediatrics, Navina has led national responsibility for workforce planning, education and training, recruitment, terms and conditions, workforce productivity, and the promotion of wellbeing, equity and inclusion across the NHS. Her work has focused on ensuring the health and care workforce has the right numbers, skills, values and behaviours to deliver high-quality care and improve population health outcomes. She has been deeply involved in medical and multiprofessional education throughout her career.

Navina is a strong advocate for staff wellbeing and for creating cultures in which people enjoy their work and thrive. She champions co-production with patients, with quality of life as a central outcome for health and care services. She promotes integrated service, workforce and financial planning to maximise value and sustainability in healthcare systems.

Navina is currently Independent Chair for Quality and Safety at Psychiatry UK, and Health Executive in Residence at UCL Global Business School for Health. She is a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a Consultant at the Chartered Management Institute, and an Honorary Advisor for Global Health Partnerships. She is Honorary Professor at Warwick Medical School and Visiting Professor at Greater Manchester University Medical School. She was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to health and care.

About the talk

Navina’s talk will range widely, taking in her personal journey and reflections; the state of healthcare today; and what the future may hold.

The venue:
The Elephant And Castle
White Hill
Lewes
BN7 2DJ

Tickets:
They are £5 and you can purchase them on the door or about a week before at the venue. Please note that the capacity of the venue is limited, we recommend buying the ticket in advance to avoid disappointment.

Times:

Starting at 7:30pm till 9:30pm

About the speaker:
Stephen Carr farms an 1800-acre farm on the South Downs near Polegate in partnership with his wife, Fizz and their five daughters. The farm, most of which is under organic management, grows arable crops and boasts a rare herd of 95 pedigree Sussex breeding cows. The breed, is believed to date back in the county to before the Norman Conquest, are listed as ‘at risk of extinction’ by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs. Stephen champions the breed for its resilience and ability to thrive on local conservation grazing on both the Downs and the Weald. The farm also runs a sheep flock of 550 North Country mules which are crossed to the local Southdown breed. He is co-owner, with Fizz and also his nephew, Jonny, of the Sussex Ox pub at Milton Street, near Polegate, which serves beef, lamb, fruit and vegetables direct from the farm. He is an award-winning journalist who has written the ‘Agri-Brigade’ farming column in Private Eye magazine under the pseudonym Bio-waste Spreader for the past 16 years. He is also a regular columnist for Farmers Weekly and South East Farmer magazines.

About the talk:
Stephen will talk about: the economic jeopardy British agriculture has found itself in, post-Brexit; the challenges the industry faces in the form of climate change; the recent controversy surrounding the government’s recent re-imposition of Inheritance Tax on farmland; and why he loathes the ‘Clarkson’s Farm’ TV series.

The venue:
The Elephant And Castle
White Hill
Lewes
BN7 2DJ

Tickets:
They are £5 and you can purchase them on the door or about a week before at the venue. Please note that the capacity of the venue is limited, we recommend buying the ticket in advance to avoid disappointment.

Times:

Starting at 7:30pm till 9:30pm

About the speaker:

Andy Stirling is a professor in ‘science and technology studies’ – ‘honorary’ at UCL, ‘visiting’ in Leiden and ‘emeritus’ at Sussex. A former Greenpeace campaign director and boardmember, he’s been an academic for more than thirty years, working with many NGOs and private firms. A fellow of the UK Academy of Social Science, he’s also served in oversight roles for UK Research and Innovation and the Higher Education Funding Council – and as a governmental advisor in the UK and EU on energy, nuclear, chemicals, biotechnology and science and society.

About the talk:

Andy will talk about international developments behind the so-called ‘nuclear renaissance’. He’ll examine claims that this reflects stated priorities around affordability, energy security and climate action. He’ll show across all these areas how the evidence is overwhelmingly against these claims. What emerges instead around the world, is a growingly clear picture that the main drivers are military. Without diverting taxpayer and consumer funding into a combined civil and military ‘nuclear industrial base’, key military nuclear capabilities become unaffordable. Research for the Foreign Office, shows annual additional hidden costs of this amount to more than 5 billion pounds per year in the UK. As a result, electricity becomes more expensive and climate action less effective, slower and more costly. Most crucially, secrecy and deception threaten democracy itself.

The venue:
The Elephant And Castle
White Hill
Lewes
BN7 2DJ

Tickets:
They are £5 and you can purchase them on the door or about a week before at the venue. Please note that the capacity of the venue is limited, we recommend buying the ticket in advance to avoid disappointment.

Times:

Starting at 7:30pm till 9:30pm

About the speaker:

Mara Yamauchi is a former elite athlete, two-time Olympian, and the UK’s 5th fastest woman over the marathon ever (2:23:12). She finished sixth in the 2008 Beijing Olympics women’s marathon, 2nd in the 2009 London Marathon, and won Commonwealth bronze over 10,000m in 2006. After retiring in 2013, she qualified as a coach and now works self-employed as a coach, writer and speaker. Since 2021, she has been campaigning for fair and safe sport for women and girls and is a member of the Sex Matters Advisory Group. Before competing full-time, she was a diplomat for ten years, serving in London and Tokyo. Her book, Marathon Wisdom, was published in 2022. 

About the talk:

Mara will talk about the latest assault on fair and safe sport for women and girls – the inclusion of males in the Female category in sport. The UK is a leading country in resisting this assault but progress is difficult. Mara will touch on policy, the law, her own experiences of unfairness and cancellation, and where we are now. Sport is just one area in which gender ideology has led to the destruction of single-sex spaces, but is perhaps the area where the impact of the inclusion of males in female-only spaces is most obvious and where we can resist most effectively. 

The venue:
The Elephant And Castle
White Hill
Lewes
BN7 2DJ

Tickets:
They are £5 and you can purchase them on the door or about a week before at the venue. Please note that the capacity of the venue is limited, we recommend buying the ticket in advance to avoid disappointment.

Times:

Starting at 7:30pm till 9:30pm

About the talk:

Should businesses operate in ‘challenging contexts’ such as countries affected by conflict or dictatorship, and if so, how?  Vicky Bowman spent over a decade encouraging responsible business in Myanmar, before ending up imprisoned and deported in 2022 after the military coup.  She will reflect on her experience of putting the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights into practice – and share a few recollections of an unexpected detention by the military junta.

About Vicky Bowman:

Vicky was a British diplomat for over twenty years, serving in Brussels as UK spokesman and in the Office of the EU External Relations Commissioner and in Rangoon, including as Britain’s youngest – at least at the time – ever Ambassador. She then worked for Rio Tinto, before returning to Myanmar in 2013 to found the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business when the country began to democratise.  She is now a Senior Adviser at the Institute for Human Rights and Business, chair of the Global Network Initiative  and on the board of ICoCA, the Responsible Security Association.

The venue:
The Elephant And Castle
White Hill
Lewes
BN7 2DJ

Tickets:
They are £5 and you can purchase them on the door or about a week before at the venue. Please note that the capacity of the venue is limited, we recommend buying the ticket in advance to avoid disappointment.

Times:

Starting at 7:30pm till 9:30pm

About the talk:

Do you think you understand people? Think again.

Most of us have a completely inaccurate picture of how we, and other human beings, think and behave. This leads us to set unrealistic expectations for ourselves, build societies that actually harm us, and struggle to solve the major problems facing our species.

Richard Docwra wants to challenge our most cherished beliefs about ourselves and argues that we need to humanise the societies and institutions we have built around us if we are to flourish and survive as a species.

Join Richard as he attempts to reveal the truth about how human beings think and behave and shows how this knowledge could help us address some of our biggest challenges, from violence to climate change, and build a better future.

About Richard Docwra:

Richard is a writer, coach and consultant with an academic background in psychology and philosophy and over 25 years’ experience of providing strategic and creative consultancy to a wide range of progressive causes, such as Oxfam and the Green Party. He also built and leads the social change agency ChangeStar and the not-for-profit Life Squared.

He has written many books on the topics of psychology, philosophy, and the art of living, including ‘Life – And How To Think About It‘, ‘The Life Trap’ and ‘Modern life – As Good As It Gets?’. Richard is also the host of the podcasts ‘Humans & Hope‘ and ‘’ with Andrew Copson, Chief Executive of Humanists UK. See richarddocwra.com for more details and resources.

The venue:
The Elephant And Castle
White Hill
Lewes
BN7 2DJ

Tickets:
They are £5 and you can purchase them on the door or about a week before at the venue. Please note that the capacity of the venue is limited, we recommend buying the ticket in advance to avoid disappointment.

Times:

Starting at 7:30pm till 9:30pm

About the talk:
Elizabeth will talk about the 1990 Environment Act and how legislation and planning
regulations are currently working in the UK in relation to the ticking time bomb of
contaminated land and water. The risks to human health, our fellow creatures, and
our environment, due to climate change and the increased risk of flooding, are of
growing concern.
Elizabeth is currently organising a summit on contaminated land and water at
Westminster in response to the growing call for a ‘Zane’s Law’ to amend and make fit
for purpose our environmental legislation, bringing it in line with other European
countries and with the UN Resolution, passed in July 2022, establishing the human
right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. She will talk about her
involvement with the campaign for Zane’s Law and how the related UK Landfills
Campaign is growing exponentially, with over 20 different local campaigns from all
over England and Wales, lobbying for action at both a local and national level.
Elizabeth was a near neighbour of the Gbangbola family, when Zane Gbangbola,
aged 7, died in the terrible Thames flooding of 2014. She‘s been actively
campaigning for the truth about his death to be uncovered, ever since. Zane’s family
and supporters, along with politicians of all persuasions, and several trade unions,
including Unison, Unite, the TUC and the Fire Brigades Union, believe that Zane
died of Hydrogen Cyanide poisoning from contaminated land next to his home.
Some of you may have watched the Netflix mini-series Toxic Town, and/or the BBC
Documentary Britain’s Toxic Secret, but if not, and if you’re interested, here are the
links:
https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81372304
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0028ypp

About Elizabeth Mansfield:
Elizabeth trained at the Elmhurst Ballet School, the Guildhall School of Music &
Drama, and later at the City of Leeds College of Music. She has spent her working
life in the theatre as an actress, singer and producer. In 2002, she founded her own
theatre company, Ensemble, together with her partner Steve Trafford, dedicated to
touring new, thoughtful work to communities, alongside educational programms.
She has been a political activist since her teenage years, when she joined the mass
demonstrations in London against the Vietnam War, alongside fellow, American
drama students dodging the draft, including the Battle of Grosvenor Square in 1968
Elizabeth has lived in Lewes since 2019.

The venue:
The Elephant And Castle
White Hill
Lewes
BN7 2DJ

Tickets:
They are £5 and you can purchase them on the door or about a week before at the venue. Please note that the capacity of the venue is limited, we recommend buying the ticket in advance to avoid disappointment.

Times:

Starting at 7:30pm till 9:30pm

About the talk:

Angus reveals how much of the UK is now US-owned and how this “Anschluss” has happened progressively.

He will show how we are all endlessly working for American corporations in our daily lives – when we shop, pay for anything, use platforms like eBay or Airbnb, or communicate on social media, and how the three prongs of American capitalism have gobbled up our economy –  multinationals, big tech, and US private equity. And why does this matter? 

It’s making us much poorer, we are losing control, and there is an exodus of people and treasure.

So what can the UK do in the face of Donald Trump – a rampant, unpredictable and highly transactional US President?

About Angus Hanton:

Angus Hanton, 65, has lived through many changes in Britain’s economic fortunes:

1960s in the period of the UK giving back the colonies – Angus was a child in South London

1970s as de-industrialisation began – Angus, as a teenager, became interested in public policy

1980s with Thatcher’s privatisations – he studied politics and economics and started a conservation business

1990s witnessed Major and Blair sticking close to the US – he and his wife started a family, and investing seriously

2000s started with the WTC attack and US/UK retaliations – he expanded his self-storage and forestry enterprises

2010s had Cameron, 2016 Brexit vote and a financial crash – Angus co-founded a Think Tank for younger people

2020s saw a European war and increased US imperialism – Angus wrote “Vassal State – how America runs Britain”

The venue:
The Elephant And Castle
White Hill
Lewes
BN7 2DJ

Tickets:
They are £5 and you can purchase them on the door or about a week before at the venue. Please note that the capacity of the venue is limited, we recommend buying the ticket in advance to avoid disappointment.

Times:

Starting at 7:30pm till 9:30pm