Julian Baggini

Philosophical Times
2024-11-23 10:30 - 11:30, 2024-12-07 10:30 - 11:30 (Europe/London) | St Georges Bristol, Great George Street, Bristol, BS1 5RR, United Kingdom
A regular exploration of some of the big ideas that connect with and emerge from the month’s news stories. Sit back and enjoy the live conversation or take part as much as you like – this is always a lively and inspiring discussion!

How the World Eats
2024-12-02 10:30 - 12:30 | Wells and Mendip Museum, 8 Cathedral Green, Wells, BA5 2UA, United Kingdom
Julian Baggini offers a comprehensive overview of the global food network. He makes a convincing case for philosophy to spearhead a multi-disciplinary approach that will provide a framework for managing the demands, conflicts, inequities, and dangers that jeopardise the network’s effective operation

Building a fairer food system in the face of the climate crisis
2025-01-16 18:30 - 21:00 | Financial Times, Bracken House, 1 Friday St, London, EC4M 9BT, United Kingdom
What does a truly equitable food system look like in the face of climate change?
And more particularly, how will we tackle the crisis in the continent most threatened by climatic shocks: Africa. Where 110 million people have been directly affected by dramatic climate events.
A thoughtfully selected panel will bring diverse perspectives from rural smallholders, academia, private philanthropy and business in agriculture to provide actionable steps we can all take to create a just and sustainable global food system.

Global food philosophy
2025-02-04 19:30 - 21:00 | Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Initution, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath, BA1 2HN, United Kingdom
The global food system is incredibly complex and in crisis. In his new book, How the World Eats, Julian Baggini argues that we can use philosophical tools to identify the key principles that should govern a food system fit for the 21st century and beyond, drawing on the empirical base of how humans have fed themselves across the globe and history.

The Light in the Middle of the Tunnel
2025-02-07 - 2025-02-08 | Online
Existential philosophy has from the outset prided itself on an unblinking view of reality at it is, without illusions. As such, it is unable to provide the kind of reassurance, hope and comfort that many feel they need in our turbulent times. It can nonetheless, give us resources to cope with adversity, affirm life and uphold values. This talk will explore ways which we can use such resources without what Sartre called the false hope in belief that we will prevail and the end of the tunnel will come.

How the World Eats
2025-02-10 18:00 - 19:30 | The Conduit Club, 6 Langley St, London, WC2H 9JA, United Kingdom
Julian Baggini embarks on a thought-provoking exploration of food across cultures, uncovering the best and worst of how societies approach feeding themselves. From cutting-edge technologies like cultured meat to the ethics of aquaculture and food commodification, Baggini exposes the big ideas shaping our plates—and our futures.
Baggini comes to The Conduit with a global food philosophy that is humane and resourceful, offering new ways to create fair and sustainable food systems for the 21st century.

Feast and Famine
2025-03-13 15:30 - 16:30 | Theatre by the Lake, Lakeside, Keswick, Cumbria, CA12 5DJ, United Kingdom
Philosopher Julian Baggini delves into the best and worst food practices in a huge array of societies, past and present, exploring new farming methods, cultured meat, GM astronaut food and the ethics and health consequences of ultra processing. Joining Julian is Pen Vogler who investigates the history of food and drink at the centre of social upheavals: medieval inns boosted by the plague; the Enclosures that finished off the celebratory roast goose; the Victorian chemist searching for unadulterated mustard and the post-war supermarkets luring customers with strawberries.

Philosophy Café
2025-03-15 11:00 - 12:00 | Stonewell Spring, 5 Stonewell, Lancaster, LA1 1NJ, United Kingdom
Welcome to Julian Baggini’s Philosophy Café at Stonewell Spring, the delicious deli and café just down Moor Lane from The Dukes and The Quarterhouse, to discuss ‘how to think like a philosopher’ with best-selling popular philosophy author Julian Baggini.

How the World Eats
2025-03-16 11:30 - 12:30 | Lancaster Library, Market Square, Lancaster, Lancashire, LA1 1HY, United Kingdom
“In his latest book, Julian Baggini explores how we grow, make, buy and eat our food around the world, and proposes the principles for a perennial and global philosophy of food.:

Philosophy Matters
2025-04-05 19:30 - 21:00 | St Georges Bristol, Great George Street, Bristol, BS1 5RR, United Kingdom
Celebrate the inaugural National Philosophy Fortnight with an evening showcasing the impact of philosophy on a range of vital social issues, including asylum, medicine and historical racial injustice.
In the first part, our philosopher in residence Julian Baggini will host a panel discussion with University of Bristol philosophers Joanna Burch-Brown, Rebecca Buxton and Havi Carel. After the break you’ll have the opportunity to talk more informally with the philosophers over a drink.

How the World Eats
2025-04-09 19:30 - 20:30 | Kent House, Kent House, Rutland Gardens, London, SW7 1BX, United Kingdom
An essential guide to food and nutrition from the bestselling author and popular philosopher. Should we buy organic and become vegan? Is personalised nutrition a fad? Is modern-day agriculture humanity’s big mistake? Baggini offers fascinating and important insights…

Philosophical Times
2025-04-12 10:30 | St Georges Bristol, Great George Street, Bristol, BS1 5RR, United Kingdom
Join the writer, thinker and St George’s resident philosopher, Julian Baggini, as he explores some of the big ideas that connect with and emerge from this week’s news stories.

How the World Eats
2025-05-11 18:50 - 20:00 | The All Saints, Lewes, BN7, United Kingdom
Extracting essential principles to guide how we eat in the future, Baggini advocates for a pluralistic, humane, resourceful and equitable global food philosophy, so we can build a food system fit for the twenty-first century and beyond.

How the World Eats
2025-10-09 18:30 - 19:30 | Birmingham Rep, 6 Centenary Square, Birmingham, B1 2EP, United Kingdom
How we live is shaped by how we eat. As a Western society, whose food is farmed or bred in vast and complex global networks, we are increasingly reliant on a precarious system for our food.
Julian Baggini’s How the World Eats argues that it is more urgent than ever that we have a better understanding of how we feed ourselves. His latest book examines cutting edge technologies – new farming methods, cultured meat, genetically modified foods – as well as the ethics and value of ultra processed foods, delving into the best and worst food practices from across the world

Intelligence Squared
2025-10-28 19:00 - 20:30 | Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL, United Kingdom
How Philosophy Explains Our World
On October 28 philosopher Julian Baggini comes to Intelligence Squared to help us understand the world of politics through philosophy. He will set out why ‘polarisation’ need not be a dirty word, what differentiates conspiracy theorists from skeptics, and how to apply precepts such as: follow the facts, be humble and think for yourself but not by yourself.
Join us live at Conway Hall with Julian Baggini and host Ritula Shah, and have your questions answered in the audience Q&A.

Philosophy Salon
2025-10-29 19:15 - 21:10 | St Georges Bristol, Great George Street, Bristol, BS1 5RR, United Kingdom
Do we have a duty to rescue?
If you passed a child drowning in a pond, would you have a moral obligation to save them? Most people would say we do. But in 1972 the philosopher Peter Singer argued that if that is true, we also have a duty to help people far away too. In his new book, David Edmonds unpicks the argument and its implications. In this informal salon hosted by St George’s Philosopher-in-residence Julian Baggini, Edmonds will be joined by Bridget Anderson to explore our duties to refugees, the poor and others at home and abroad.

Philosophy Salon
2025-11-17 07:15 - 21:10 | St Georges Bristol, Great George Street, Bristol, BS1 5RR, United Kingdom
Atheism & Religion – Across the Divide
What can people who put God at the centre of their lives and those who completely deny his existence learn from each other? Debates between atheists and believers have often been bitter, but in this informal salon hosted by St George’s Philosopher-in-residence Julian Baggini, atheist philosopher Richard Norman and the Dean of Bristol Cathedral, Revd Mandy Ford, will be discussing and modelling better ways to do difference.

Night of the Philosopher
2025-11-22 19:00 - 20:00 | De Vooruit Gent, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 23, Gent, 9000, Belgium
Denken kan je leren
𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗣𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗼𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗿
Every day, our minds become overloaded with tons of information stimuli. How do we separate fact from fiction in a world full of noise? Philosopher Julian Baggini shows how better thinking is not about intelligence, but about a better attitude of sincerity, accuracy and patience.

Philosophical Times
2025-12-06 10:30 - 11:30 | St Georges Bristol, Great George Street, Bristol, BS1 5RR, United Kingdom
Join writer, thinker and St George’s resident philosopher, Julian Baggini, as he explores some of the big ideas that connect with and emerge from this week’s news stories. Sit back and enjoy the live conversation or take part as much as you like – this is always a lively and inspiring discussion!

How the World Eats
2026-01-05 19:30 - 21:00 | YHA Bristol, 14 Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4QA, United Kingdom
In this season of celebrations, all traditionally including significant amounts of feasting and food consumption, we welcome back Bristol’s philosopher, Julian Baggini to delve into the timely issue of ‘How the World Eats’.
How we live is shaped by how we eat. You can see this in the vastly different approaches to growing, preparing and eating food around the world: the hunter-gatherer Hadza in Tanzania whose sustainable lifestyle is under threat in our crowded planet is in stark contrast to “developed” societies whose food is produced in vast intensive enterprises. Most of us now rely on a complex global food web of production, distribution, consumption and disposal, which is now facing unprecedented challenges.
The need for a better understanding of how we feed ourselves has never been more urgent. Julian’s exploration takes him from cutting-edge technologies, such as new farming methods, cultured meat, GM and astronaut food, to the ethics and health of ultra processed food and aquaculture, as he takes a forensic look at the effectiveness of our food governance, the problem of food wastage and the effects of commodification.
He will advocate for a pluralistic, humane, resourceful and equitable global food philosophy, so we can build a food system fit for the twenty-first century and beyond.

Coffee, A Philosophy: In Conversation with Matthew Green
2026-04-07 19:00 - 20:30 | Foyles, 107 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0DT, United Kingdom
Julian Baggini has long been fascinated by the philosophical underpinnings of how we eat and drink, and the chance discovery in Tokyo of a copy of The Book of Tea by Kakuza Okakura (published in 1906) led him on a journey to explore our relationship with coffee. His latest book on coffee is something ultimately enriching and life affirming, an elevation of the everyday and a pleasure to read – a treatise on how we can infuse the seemingly mundane with moments of mindful attention and meaning.
The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A and book signing. Your ticket includes a complimentary glass of wine and a sample of historic seventeenth-century style coffee.
