Berwins Salon North | 8 June 2023
- Thursday 8th June 2023 | 7.30pm
- The Crown Hotel | Harrogate
- Tickets: £17
Please note that a £1.75 booking fee applies at time of booking
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In a world dominated by other people’s opinions, Salon gives you the knowledge to form your own.
Three expert speakers deliver TED-style talks designed to change your life for the better. Presenting big ideas, and answering key questions in life, Salon was voted as number six in the ‘Top 100 Things to do in the World’ by GQ magazine.
In a time of polarised debate and online shouting it is Berwins Salon North that gives you the time and space to learn from the experts and make up your own mind. This cabaret style evening is designed to change your life for the better and excite your curiosity.
We present the most stimulating ideas in arts, science and psychology. Each expert speaker has the challenge of engaging their audience within a 25-minute set, interspersed with intervals and time for a well-crafted G&T. Our Salon evenings are Harrogate’s own style of live TED talks, where you’re guaranteed to learn something new about yourself and the world around you.
ELECTRIC LIVES
At Berwins Salon North this June, we explore the sparks that make our lives vibrant and full, whether that’s the joy that comes from listening to our favourite pieces of music, the literal sparks that fly through our bodies’ bioelectricity, or the catalyst of knowing our lives are only finite that ignites our passion to make the most of the time we have.
Award-winning science writer Sally Adee explores the history of bioelectricity: from Galvani and Alessandro Volta to the medical charlatans claiming to use electricity to cure pretty much anything, and journeys into the future of the discipline, through today’s laboratories where we are starting to see real-world medical applications being developed.
Musician and writer Oliver Condy takes the role of musical physician, using his years of experience to prescribe remedies for all manner of ailments in the form of classical music and offer musical prescriptions that offer comfort, solace and strength in the face of dark times.
Finally, Oliver Burkeman asks us how best we can use our ridiculously brief time on the planet, which amounts on average to about four thousand weeks. Rejecting the futile modern obsession with ‘getting everything done,’ he introduces tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing rather than denying our limitations.
As ever, our trio of speakers is expertly bound together and hosted by the fabulous Helen Bagnall.
We Are Electric: The new science of our body’s electrome
You may be familiar with the idea of our body’s biome – the bacterial fauna that populates our gut and can so profoundly affect our health, but join us as we cross the next frontier of scientific understanding: discover your body’s electrome.
Every cell in our bodies – bones, skin, nerves, muscle – has a voltage, like a tiny battery. This bioelectricity is why our brains can send signals to our bodies, why we develop the way we do in the womb and how our bodies know to heal themselves from injury. When bioelectricity goes awry, illness, deformity and cancer can result. But if we can control or correct this bioelectricity, the implications for our health are remarkable: an undo switch for cancer that could flip malignant cells back into healthy ones; the ability to regenerate cells, organs, even limbs; to slow ageing and so much more.
Award-winning science writer Sally Adee explores the history of bioelectricity: from Galvani’s epic eighteenth-century battle with the inventor of the battery, Alessandro Volta, to the medical charlatans claiming to use electricity to cure pretty much anything, to advances in the field helped along by the unusually massive axons of squid. And finally, she journeys into the future of the discipline, through today’s laboratories where we are starting to see real-world medical applications being developed.
The bioelectric revolution starts here.
Symphonies for the Soul: Classical music to cure any ailment
Musician and writer Oliver Condy takes the role of musical physician, using his years of experience to prescribe remedies for all manner of ailments in the form of classical music and offer musical prescriptions that offer comfort, solace and strength in the face of dark times.
Whether you suffer from loneliness or laziness, from bereavement or betrayal, a heartbreak or a mere hangover, here you’ll find the perfect piece of classical music to heal the heart, soothe the soul and cure the maladies of the modern world.
Four Thousand Weeks: Time management for mortals
What if you stopped trying to do everything, so that you could finally get round to what counts?
We’re obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, our overfilled inboxes, the struggle against distraction, and the sense that our attention spans are shrivelling. Still, we rarely make the connection between our daily struggles with time and the ultimate time management problem: the question of how best to use our ridiculously brief time on the planet, which amounts on average to about four thousand weeks.
Oliver Burkeman offers an uplifting, engrossing and deeply realistic exploration of the challenge. Rejecting the futile modern obsession with ‘getting everything done,’ he introduces tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing rather than denying our limitations.
Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Burkeman sets out to realign our relationship with time – and in doing so, to liberate us from its tyranny.
Embrace your limits. Change your life. Make your four thousand weeks count.
Dates for your diary for the next Berwins Salon North events:
Thursday 6 July (Book now)
Thursday 7 September (Booking opening soon)
Thursday 16 November (Booking opening soon)
‘After every Salon I leave the venue thinking and knowing the answer to everything – 5 mins later I’m back to normal!’
‘This talk was truly thought provoking, intriguing, scary and exciting all in a 30 min package!’
‘Geek chic’