Theme: Provocation & Progress

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

Sage
St Mary's Square, Gateshead Quays
Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE8 2JR
United Kingdom

Bobby Duffy

Intergenerational Investigator

Bobby Duffy is Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Policy Institute. He has worked across most public policy areas in his career of 30 years in policy research and evaluation, including being seconded to the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit. Bobby sits on several advisory boards including Chairing both the Campaign for Social Science and the CLOSER Advisory Board, is a member of the Executive of the Academy of Social Sciences, a trustee of British Future and the Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education (TASO) and a Senior Fellow of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto. His first book, The Perils of Perception – Why we’re wrong about nearly everything, looked at how people misperceive key social realities. His latest book, Generations – Does when you’re born shape who you are?, came out in September 2021 and seeks a greater understanding around generational challenges.

David Alnwick

Magician & Horror Writer

David Alnwick is a writer, magician & actor with a passion for using magic to tell scary stories. After graduating from the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts in 2010, he travelled to the Edinburgh Fringe festival and performed his first show. Over a decade later, David has performed 16 one-man shows, 3 national tours, and a TV Special. In 2019, David’s one-man show ‘Actual Magic’ explored the effect Alzheimer’s disease had on his relationship with his grandfather. The show became a word-of-mouth sell-out hit receiving multiple 4-star rave reviews. During the pandemic, David performed an online show via the Nottingham Theatre Royal. ‘Ethereal Magic’ sold out its opening weekend and streamed live to audiences around the world. In August 2021, David performed an extended preview run of his new show ‘Nightmare Magic’ at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and again as part of the London Horror Festival. ‘Nightmare Magic’ will be back at the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2022.

Fuschia Sirois

Procrastination Analyst

Fuschia Sirois, PhD, is a Professor in Health & Social Psychology at Durham University. For over 20 years she has researched the causes and consequences of procrastination, and in particular the health consequences of procrastination, as well as how emotions play a key role in explaining why people procrastinate. Her research also examines the role of positive psychology traits, states, and interventions for supporting self-regulation and enhancing health and well-being. She has authored over a 120 peer-reviewed journal papers, over 200 conference papers, and edited two books. Her latest book will be published in July 2022 by the American Psychological Association and is entitled “Procrastination: What It Is, Why It’s a Problem, and What You Can Do about It”.

Heather Mills

Plant-Based Changemaker

Heather Mills is an entrepreneur, philanthropist & athlete. Her mission has centred on the creation of healthier, sustainable, plant-based nutrition and cosmetics. Having suffered amputation of her left leg in 1993, Heather adopted veganism to aid her recovery which subsequently gave birth to the VBites Food business. VBites is now one of the world’s largest manufacturers of plant-based nutrition & makeup. Heather is also a tireless campaigner to support those impacted by war and other forms of oppression. She founded ‘Adopt A Minefield’ which cleared 21m square metres of landmines in war-torn areas. She is patron of amputee clinics around the world and has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in the face of atrocities such as 9/11 and the Gujarat earthquake in India. Heather also holds 4 World Championship gold medals in skiing and at the age of 47 became the only disabled skier ever to achieve 3 world records in the downhill, skeleton and ski-jumping disciplines.

Kabantu Band

Global Northern Musicians

Kabantu is an award-winning, four-piece music group. Graduates of the Royal Northern College of Music and each born in a different country, the quartet unravel new marriages of music in a globalised 21st century. Highlights include performing at the BBC Proms (Royal Albert Hall), live sessions for BBC Free Thinking Festival, BBC Radio 3 In Tune, World on 3 and an array of renowned venues including King’s Place, Richmix, The Bridgewater Hall and Cadogan Hall. Classical festival highlights include Aldeburgh, Deal, Lichfield, Petworth, Fishguard, Swaledale and Spitalfields International Music Festivals and folk festivals include Cambridge, Warwick, Celtic Connections, Musicport, Warwick, Orkney, Shetland, Fire in the Mountain and Broadstairs. Kabantu are the winners of the coveted £10,000 Royal Over-Seas League Competition 2017. Upcoming projects for Kabantu include recording and releasing their second album Freehand in 2022.

Katherine Copeland

Olympic Gold Medalist

Katherine is an Olympic gold medallist, two-time Olympian for Great Britain in rowing, and has set world record on 3 separate occasions. She has also won multiple gold medals at the European and World Cup regattas. Since retiring in 2019, Katherine has worked as a leadership consultant to C-suite clients and has coached athletes on the high-performance Olympic pathway. Katherine is passionate about looking at the ‘whole’ person to enable peak performance in any arena; to inform this approach she has studied female athlete physiology and health, yoga, and psychology to support her own learnings from sport.

Katherine Templar Lewis

Uncertainty Investigators

Katherine is a creative scientist and neuroscience expert. She works with global brands, and award-winning creatives to bring cutting edge scientific insight into the real world through creative projects that drive innovation and foster wellbeing. On a mission to understand humans and how we can better navigate the modern world, she leads original research, is an experienced science communicator and co-founder of a female-led neuro-aesthetics studio, Kinda Studios. She is also the lead scientist on a radical new interactive documentary and global experiment in uncertainty, The Uncertainty Experts. She drives connection and inspires social change through thought leadership and a network of world class academics, creatives and disruptors. Katherine will be co-presenting at TEDxNewcastle with Sam Conniff.

Kathryn Mannix

Palliative Care Expert

Kathryn was a consultant in palliative care medicine for 20 years, working in hospices, patients’ own homes and a large teaching hospital. She took early retirement in 2016 to work for better public understanding of dying. In 2017, her first book, ‘With the End in Mind’ became a surprise international hit. Her book went on to be shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize and was The Times ‘Thought’ Book of the Year. Her second book, ‘Listen’, about tender communication, was published to critical acclaim in September 2021. Kathryn believes that by naming death, describing the process, and helping people to know what to expect, we can have honest and helpful conversations that promote better planning of end-of-life care and reduce unnecessary medical complications of dying. Her hope is that we can de-medicalise dying, and give it back to everyone as a precious time to be lived as well as possible.

Kevin Brewerton

Warrior Artist

Kevin Brewerton was born in Newcastle and currently resides in LA. He is a five-time world kickboxing champion and helped pioneer the sport of freestyle karate/kickboxing. Since then he’s pursued the arts across multiple disciplines. As an actor his work included productions such as The Fifth Element, Woman in the Red Dress, and The Dark Soul. Kevin is also a Visual Artist in the form of Directing and Painting. His artwork embodies the passion and self-expression which he originally brought to the ring as a fighter. While living in LA he trained under the tutelage of the famed director and visual artist, Milton Katselas. Kevin’s work is broadly founded in Abstract Expressionism and semi- figurative paintings. Kevin has exhibited internationally and has been featured in various publications, including, Real Simple, Houzz and Zatista. His current works include, ready-made artwork, and color field paintings, using used canvases from boxing rings.

Nick Wright

X-Prize Engineer

Nick Wright is an Engineering Professor at Newcastle University where he undertakes research in the use of digital and electronic technology applied to unusual environments. He has worked extensively with projects aimed at the marine, aerospace, space and manufacturing sectors in collaboration with many major companies. He is currently working mainly on the development of zero-carbon electric aeroplanes as part of the UK’s largest project in this field – H2GEAR. H2GEAR is developing a genuinely revolutionary passenger plane powered by liquid hydrogen and fuel cells driving electric motors. Nick is a Turing Fellow and a winner of several global engineering prizes – including an XPRIZE Moonshot Award in 2019. He is a named inventor on more than 20 patents and has published over 200 academic papers in leading journals.

Rohin Francis

Cardiologist YouTuber

Dr Rohin Francis is a full-time consultant interventional cardiologist for the NHS in Essex. On the side he is a writer, comedian and the creator of a YouTube Channel called Medlife Crisis which became very popular during the pandemic and now has 500,000 subscribers. Via his Youtube videos Rohin covers a huge range of health and medical topics from covid-19 to diet to pharmaceuticals often seeking to debunk the many myths plaguing his field.

Sabine Hossenfelder

Big Thinking Physicist

Sabine has a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a PhD in physics. Her current work is mostly in the foundation of physics. She has written over 80 research papers on topics ranging from quantum gravity to particle physics, cosmology, astrophysics, statistical mechanics, and quantum foundations. Sabine’s writing has appeared, among others, in Scientific American, Nautilus, The New York Times, and The Guardian. Her new book ‘Existential Physics: A Scientist’s Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions’ will be published in August 2022. She is also Creative Director of the YouTube channel “Science without the gobbledygook” where she talks about recent scientific developments and sets the record straight on scientific myths.

Sam Conniff

Uncertainty Investigators

Sam is the author of the international best seller and modern life guide to life, ‘Be More Pirate’. Most recently he was the Creator of Uncertainty Experts, a unique hybrid of online learning, interactive documentary and psychological intervention. He was Co-Founder of Livity, the multi-award-winning social enterprise and youth-led creative Network, Co-founder of Digify Africa, providing transformational digital skills to thousands of young Africans and Co-Founder of Don’t panic, the original activist and Bafta-winning content studio. Sam has won Entrepreneur of the year, Agency of the Year, The Queens Award and many others and he turned down an MBE in 2020. Sam will be co-presenting at TEDxNewcastle with Katherine Templar Lewis.

Sophie Scott

Neuroscientist Comedian

Professor Sophie Scott CBE is Director of the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London . She studies the neurobiology of human vocal communication, from speech and sound to social interactions and non verbal emotional expressions, such as laughter. Sophie gave the Royal Institution Christmas lectures in 2017, and was awarded the Michael Faraday prize by the Royal Society in 2021. Her TED Talks have attracted over 6 million views online.