Topics including race and identity, unconscious bias in tech, and inequality in STEM and the culture sector will all be tackled in the first tranche of Open Talk events, beginning with a special live-streamed edition of The Guilty Feminist podcast on 4th March.

Speakers in the series will include comedian Jo Brand, science writer Angela Saini, former chief medical officer for England Dame Sally Davies, The Gadget Show’s Ortis Deley, and Christian Aid CEO Amanda Khozi Mukwashi.

“Our mission is to inspire futures with the wonders of science, technology, engineering and maths, and to achieve this we need to ensure STEM is open for all,” states Sir Ian Blatchford, Science Museum Group’s director and chief executive.

“We hope our Open Talk series will encourage our audiences to challenge themselves, but also celebrate the diversity of people in science that continue to enrich our understanding of the world.”

What's on?

The first sessions announced in the series include:

  • Thursday 4th March
    In celebration of International Women’s Day, the Open Talk series will begin with a live broadcast of award-winning comedy podcast The Guilty Feminist
  • Thursday 25th March
    Ortis Deley, presenter of The Gadget Show, will be joined by creative technologist Alex Fefegha to explore the question: does tech discriminate?
  • Tuesday 20th April
    Science Museum Group chief executive Sir Ian Blatchford will be joined by Christian Aid CEO Amanda Khozi Mukwashi to discuss the themes of her thought-provoking debut book, But Where Are You Really From?

The new season of online events forms part of an ongoing push by the museum group to address broad societal issues within its programming. Recent months have seen Labour MPs David Lammy and Chris Bryant join the Science Museum Group chief executive for sessions exploring topics of identity and the Second World War contributions of young, queer British MPs respectively.

The Open Talk series will run concurrently to the organisation’s Climate Talks, a series of events leading public engagement around climate science as the UK prepares to host the COP26 climate summit in November.


More events in the Open Talk series will be announced soon. All additional information is available here.

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