Changed My Mind

Former advisor to the Foreign Secretary at the time of the Iraq War, Ed Owen, on why he now feels differently about the decision to go to war in Iraq. 

Peter Geoghegan, author of Democracy for Sale and investigative journalist, left Ireland as a young man desperate to get away but has returned in lockdown to find a country much changed. He tells us why, from his childhood bedroom, and explains the need to dig deeper into unaccountable money in politics, in the UK as well as the US.

The Director of Change.org in the UK Kajal Odedra talks about realising no platforming tended to backfire, her changing relationship with her own identity and how Change.org's supporters come from a much broader base than most people imagine. 

Author Derek Bardowell used to think mainstreaming would be enough to tackle racism. Over decades over work he's realise that on it's own, it is far from enough.

Aimen Dean was a bombmaker for Al-Qaeda before leaving to become an MI6 informant. He and the Middle East expert Thomas Small join us to explore why and what we can learn from a 14th century Muslim scholar.

Social psychologist, rising star at UCL & MIT, and author of new book Messengers on why he’s changed his mind (several times) on positive discrimination. Plus, learn why the messenger is now the message and what you can do (and should NOT do) to be heard.

Chief Leader writer at The Observer and The Guardian, Sonia Sodha was very active in the campaign to make higher education free. Fifteen years on, she has changed her mind. We talk about why, what her 20 year old self would make of it and the role of the media in polarization.

Jeff Pfeffer once wrote that leaders often made little difference to a company, now he thinks they can. We talk about why telling people to be authentic is terrible advice and how flattery helps change people's minds with one of the world's leading management thinkers.

Stanford Professor and expert in protest movements on how she performed a total u-turn on the value of online learning. From thinking it was never going to work to leading courses and persuading colleagues to join in. With such a strong background in protest we also talked to her about when they work, why and how in 2019 our political polarization problems are playing out so very differently.

Carwyn Jones, the former First Minister of Wales talks leadership, why he switched his position to be in favour of another referendum on the UK's membership of the EU and what chastisement of children is reasonable.

World renowned negotiations expert Stanford's Professor Maggie Neale talks about becoming comfortable with conflict, learning that you don't always need to be nice and the importance of owning a dog.

Georgetown University's Dr Marcia Chatelain takes it to a meta level with us. We talk about her work looking at the relationship between race and fast food in the States, why people don't own up to mistakes and how she has changed her mind on capitalism.

When are people more likely to change their minds? Steve Martin, one of the world's leading experts on behaviour change and persuasion talks about the limitations of information in influencing people. 

Former UK Government Minister Jo Swinson MP talks about gradually changing her mind on how to get more women into politics, the experiences and gentle persuasion that achieved it, and the times former colleagues in Government surprised her.