Throughout history, adventurers and explorers have shown that, in the pursuit of their dreams, humans are capable of astonishing levels of resilience and ingenuity. What kinds of people thrive in hostile environments? What drives them to willingly endure intense challenges and privations, including extreme temperatures, dizzying heights, hunger and loneliness? Join us this evening to explore what we might learn from success and failure at the edge, to help us better cope with the stresses and strains of everyday life.

Emma Barrett

Speaker

Emma Barrett’s audiences often consist of Polar explorers, astronauts, cavers, long-distance sailors, mountaineers and fieldworkers, among others – and for good reason. Her fascination with the qualities and motivations of people who choose a life of adventure, and her co-authorship of Extreme: Why Some People Thrive at the Limits (2014) are a testament to her expert authority on the psychology of extreme environments. Emma’s work as professor of psychology, security and trust at the University of Manchester also encompasses her interests in the cutting-edge intersections between psychology and technology.

Emma is on Mastodon at @crimepsychblog@mstdn.social and on Twitter at @takingrisksbook.

Charles Hayward

Artist

Charles Hayward is an English drummer, singer and composer whose unmistakable musical output arose from the UK’s creative underground in the 1970s. His career began playing with the Amazing Band, Quiet Sun and Gong, before he became a founding member of one of the most influential experimental rock groups to come from the UK, This Heat. In the late 1980s, he turned his focus to solo projects and collaborations, which he continues to this day. Charles’s idiosyncratic approach to his soundwork spans improvisation, song, sound as sound, and draws on the dichotomy of order and chaos as creative energies.

Charles can be found on Facebook.

Christian Jarrett

Host

Christian Jarrett is editor of Psyche. A cognitive neuroscientist by training, his popular books on psychology and neuroscience have been translated into 14 languages. Christian can’t wait to think out loud with our guest speakers, to explore how psychology and philosophy can help us to make sense of our place in this world.