1. No fewer than six online (and f2f, if you’re in/near Cambridge) seminars from the REAL (Research for Equitable Access and Learning) Centre here in Cambridge over the next three months. This is the Eventbrite page for the first in the series, Using data & evidence in scaling girls’ education outcomes in rural India; if you scroll down you’ll find three of the other five https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/using-data-evidence-in-scaling-girls-education-outcomes-in-rural-india-tickets-1119758972229

The last event in the series, Growing pains: Hip-Hop pedagogy confronts neoliberalism in Senegal, sounds intriguing!

The REAL Centre website’s forthcoming events listing is not perhaps quite as good as I’d expect, so here below is a home-made PDF flyer of all six events. The ‘register here’ links should still work on it, I think.

2. Two pieces from The Guardian that make one fear for the future of democracy (as we currently know it, at least):

Turnout inequality in UK elections close to tipping point, report warns https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jan/01/turnout-inequality-uk-elections-close-to-tipping-point-ippr

One in five Britons aged 18-45 prefer unelected leaders to democracy, poll finds https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jan/12/one-in-five-britons-aged-18-45-prefer-unelected-leaders-to-democracy-poll-finds

3. A podcast from Himal on a refugee crisis I knew nothing about. I’d always assumed Bhutan – with its Gross National Happiness (GNH) index https://tinyurl.com/vrj64vz8 – was all sweetness and light https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/susan-banki-on-the-battles-of-nepali-bhutanese/id1464880116?i=1000683742709

4. The top 10 houses of 2024 from Dezeen https://www.dezeen.com/2024/12/02/top-10-houses-2024/ There’s also an audio version.

5.And, finally and heart-stoppingly, learn about ‘heart-driven time distortions’ in this TED talk by Irena Arslanova from Royal Holloway, Does your heartbeat shape your sense of time? https://www.ted.com/talks/irena_arslanova_does_your_heartbeat_shape_your_sense_of_time

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