Theme: TEDxLondon: Festival of Ideas

Ideas shaping tomorrow.

This January TEDxLondon is back. You can expect the same great TEDx talks from the world's most inspiring and innovative speakers – plus the opportunity to meet a community of people who believe in the transformative power of storytelling and ideas.

Drawing on the themes from past events, TEDxLondon’s Festival of Ideas will connect the dots across different movements and ask how do we solve these complex issues, together? The day will be a true festival, bringing together talks, workshops, film screenings and networking events.

Join us and be part of a community exploring how we can reshape our city and our world to build a more joyful, just and sustainable future – together.

291 Mare Street
London, London, City of, E8 1EJ
United Kingdom

Adam Kucharski

Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology

Adam is a professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and bestselling author of The Rules of Contagion, which was Book of the Year in The Times, Guardian and Financial Times. A mathematician by training, his work on global outbreaks has included Ebola, Zika and COVID, and he has advised multiple governments and health agencies. His new book, Proof: The Uncertain Science of Certainty, will be published in March 2025.

Alaa Shehada & Nish Kumar

Co-founder of The Palestine Comedy Club & Stand Up Comedian

Alaa is a Palestinian actor, comedian and a graduate of The Freedom Theatre acting school in Jenin camp, a theatre company nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2024. He is also the co-founder of The Palestine Comedy Club - a platform for Palestinian comedians to share their stories, humour and Palestinian culture. Alaa’s new comedy show, The Horse of Jenin, is a profound and imaginative performance about humour, history and resilience. Nish Kumar has achieved huge success on the stand-up circuit with five rave reviewed solo stand-up shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, two of which have been nominated for the prestigious Comedy Award for Best Show in 2015 and 2016. Nish’s last show, Your Power, Your Control, is available on Sky and he is touring his latest show Nish: Don’t Kill My Vibe.

André Anderson

Headmaster & Founder of Freedom & Balance

André is the Headmaster and Founder of Freedom & Balance, an Art College for the artist in everyone. He designs and leads creative programmes for communities and organisations of all kinds, helping them to playfully grow into the type of leaders their world looks for. His most notable programme, Authors of the Estate, resulted in dozens of local residents of Chalkhill and St.Raphael’s estate in London becoming confident, self-published authors.

Ben Williams

Marine biologist & data scientist

Ben is completing a PhD at University College London and the Zoological Society of London. His work focuses on using AI to study the soundscape of coral reefs to support conservation and restoration. Ben collaborates closely with the world’s largest reef restoration programme, led by Mars' Sheba Hope Grows campaign, and has worked with Google DeepMind's bioacoustics team. He collaborates with both local researchers and industry leaders to protect coral reefs together.

Hackney Empire Creative Futures

Young artists & producers

Hackney Empire Creative Futures is designed to support and fuel young artists and creative entrepreneurs. TEDxLondon experienced an exclusive original piece created by a small number of young participants from the programme ranging from 16-18. Everything was composed, written and directed by the young artists. Moving away from the notions of young people not having the wisdom to speak up, this is a group willing to express and prove those people wrong.

Jodie Mitchell / John Travulva

Stand-up comedian, writer & Drag King

Jodie Mitchell, aka John Travulva, is a stand-up comedian, writer and Drag King. They’ve appeared on Comedy Central Live, Channel 4’s Jokes Only a Lesbian Can Tell, and award-winning BBC Radio 4 sketch show Time of The Week, which they were also a writer for. They were featured in The New York Times for their work on trans representation in Netflix’s Sex Education. Their debut stand-up show, Becoming John Travulva, sold out at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and they’ve co-created numerous hit shows with their Off Broadway Award winning Drag King troupe "Pecs".

Jolyon Maugham KC

Founder of Good Law Project

Jolyon Maugham KC founded Good Law Project in 2017. Good Law Project uses the law to hold power to account, protect the environment and ensure no one is left behind, such as taking the government to court on their unlawful net zero plans, the right to swim and tackling transphobia. A tax barrister by trade, Jolyon became a Queen’s Counsel in 2015. He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Durham and is the author of the bestseller Bringing Down Goliath.

Kiana Hayeri

Visual Storyteller

Kiana is an Iranian-Canadian photographer and visual storyteller whose work focuses on migration, adolescence, identity and women's experiences in conflict zones. She lived in Kabul for eight years and stayed after the Taliban's return to power, documenting the rapidly changing social landscape for women. Kiana has received numerous prestigious awards and is laureate of the 14th Carmignac Photojournalism Award.

Nathalie McDermott

Founder & CEO of Heard

Nathalie is the Founder and Co-CEO of Heard, a charity that works with people and the media to inspire content and communication that changes hearts and minds. With 20 years of experience in the media and charity sectors, Nathalie is passionate about finding common ground on big, important issues, such as climate change, poverty, domestic abuse and migration. Her work aims to create the necessary conditions for long-term social change.

Sophie Morgan

TV host & Disability Advocate

Sophie Morgan is a TV presenter, producer, travel writer, and disability advocate dedicated to breaking barriers in accessibility and representation. She has fronted award-winning programs for NBC, Channel 4, and the BBC, covering everything from travel and disability rights to major global events like the Paralympics. She recently co-founded Making Space Media with Reese Witherspoon’s 'Hello Sunshine', together they co-produced the critically acclaimed documentary 'Fight to Fly' (Channel 4), exposing the aviation industry’s failures toward disabled travellers. The documentary launched her global campaign, Rights on Flights, which fights for accessible and equitable air travel. A renowned travel writer, Sophie contributes to leading travel publications, and her bestselling memoir, Driving Forwards, chronicles her journey of resilience and advocacy following a spinal injury.

Tinuke Awe & Clotilde Abe

Co-Founders of Five X More

Tinuke and Clotilde are pioneering advocates for Black maternal health and well-being in the UK. They co-founded Five X More CIC, an organisation that campaigns for improved health outcomes for Black mothers. Five X More was inspired by research that revealed Black women were five times more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth compared to white women in the UK. Since they started their work, this disparity has slightly improved, but still sees Black women facing 2.9 times the risk as white women.