One night in Brighton

During the past decade I've written a series of talks and delivered them all over the UK and overseas. They're usually about some aspect of human culture and society that interests me, and they are deliberately written to be a mix of interesting facts and a good few funnies. 

My first talk was called Intelligent Design Fault which involved pointing out all the problems human bodies suffer due to their long and clumsy evolutionary history. It sets out to proves that we are the end result of four billion years of constant adaptation rather than the product of some kind of intelligent designer. The audience was invited to point to any part of my body and I then would explain why it wasn't as well-designed as it could have been. I mean ... just one of all the most vital organs like heart and brain, but two of things we don't need two of like kidneys and testes? Or making the reproductive system use the same 'equipment' as the waste disposal system? Come on ...

My second talk was called What's luck got to do with it? and told the story of how I spent six months using every behaviour and talisman supposed to bring good luck and six months doing allegedly unlucky things like smashing mirrors and walking under ladders. I periodically checked my 'luck quotient' by throwing a pair of dice under controlled conditions and consequently winning or losing money to a mate depending on how many 'Lucky Sevens' I rolled. It was also a talk about positivity and 'making your own luck' by making the most of opportunities and taking chances.

Talk Three was Life, the Universe and Elderberries, a talk about the very large, the very small, fractals, multiverses, evolution and interconnectedness. It explained why a cross-section of the Earth looks like an orange and why the expanding universe mirrors the way seeds are dispersed in a dragonfruit. It was my attempt to tell the story of of almost everything, beginning with the contents of Einstein's fruit bowl.

Talk four was The Skeptical Bobby which was semi-autobiographical and told the story of my police career and how I challenged existing orthodoxy and policing practice to try to create a more customer-focussed, empathic and more effective form of policing. I spoke about empathy, crime science, forensics, and how to use behavioural insights and problem solving to reduce victimisation. This was by far, my most popular talk to date and got me gigs in far flung places like the USA, Malaysia and Germany as well as festivals and events from Lands End to John O'Groats (okay, Plymouth to Aberdeen). I also performed at QEDCon, Nudgestock, Edinburgh, Hay ...

Talk Five was Mr Green and Mr Grey won't be visiting today, a talk about the unlikelihood of life developing elsewhere that looks human and also the problems involved in them visiting us. The talk took in the history of terrible alien design in TV and movies and also made some predictions about what aliens could looks like - life as we don't know it.

And now, after a break for Covid, I'm back with my new talk Do we need a new Witchcraft, which I performed for the first time in Brighton yesterday evening. 

It's a talk about negotiating the future and making better choices as a species and it discusses everything from meat eating to morris dancing and developments in AI to the rise of neo-paganism. Oh, and there's some Grayson Perry in the mix too. It's a very upbeat show but it also sets some challenges for us as individuals. We create the worlds we inhabit but, collectively, can we create a world that's good for everyone?

I'm now starting to book in more venues for this talk so if you're interested, mail me - mail@stevyncolgan.com.