Recorded at the Battle of Ideas festival 2025 on Saturday 18 October at Church House and the Abbey Centre, Westminster.
ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION
Risk is everywhere. Taking the bus, crossing the street, swimming in the ocean, going somewhere alone. Everything is risky – and we are, in many ways, more concerned about life’s riskiness than ever before. In Running the Risk: From Shark Attacks to Nuclear Disaster – understanding life’s biggest risks and how we build a safer future, David Reid aims to help us navigate a world full of risks.
Some risks we accept, like sitting next to a person on the Tube and hoping they don’t have a virus. Some risks we find harder to welcome as a fact of life, like shark attacks and plane crashes. The unknown risk affects people differently. Some still swim in the ocean and fly on planes, while some stick to swimming in lakes and traveling by train.
Some risks are merely par for the course of life, but some are preventable, and have only arisen in the contemporary world due to contemporary problems. Delving into issues like climate change, nuclear instability and AI advancements surpassing human capabilities, Reid illustrates what risk is, and how we can learn to live with and mitigate it.
Running the Risk is more than a grim explanation of modern issues; it is a guide to ‘building resilience’ and navigating the interconnected world. Drawing on historical examples like the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Reid masters the art of risk and elucidates how our world can be made safer, healthier and happier.
Are sentiments like ‘no risk, no reward’ courageous or dangerous? Is mitigating risk crucial to happiness or a barrier to it? Is security necessary for well-being? Will the world ever truly be risk-free? Should it be?
SPEAKERS
Jon Bryan
gambling writer and poker player
Timandra Harkness
journalist, writer and broadcaster; author, Technology is Not the Problem and Big Data: does size matter?; presenter, Radio 4's FutureProofing and How to Disagree
David Reid
visiting fellow, Institute for the Public Understanding of Risk, the National University of Singapore; director, Global Advocacy; author, Running The Risk
Sandy Starr
deputy director, Progress Educational Trust; author, AI: Separating Man from Machine
CHAIR
Dr Dominic Standish
writer and commentator on risk and sport; professor, University of Iowa; author, Venice in Environmental Peril? Myth and reality
