The world feels increasingly chaotic — borders are shifting, alliances are fracturing, and doomsday warnings are arriving on what feels like a weekly basis. But is this disorder really something new, or just the latest chapter in a very old story?
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Journalist and non-fiction writers Jonn Elledge (New Statesman, Guardian) and Tom Phillips (editorial director and senior writer for BuzzFeed) join forces to chart the messy realities of geopolitics and our enduring obsession with the apocalypse.
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As author of the Sunday Times Bestselling A History of the World in 47 Borders, Jonn reveals how the lines on our maps — often born of chance, conflict or colonialism — conceal centuries of history, from Roman frontiers to the secret carve-up of the Ottoman Empire, from Detroit’s city limits to the curious case of Bolivia’s navy (despite having no coastline). In Tom's latest book A Brief History of the End of thr F*cking World he offers a darkly comic tour of humanity’s recurring doomsday obsessions — from medieval prophets and sex cults to asteroid scares, nuclear standoffs and conspiracy theorists convinced the end is just around the corner.
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Between them they will look back across the rich pageant of history while circling more thorny questions from the recent year, like whether Greenland and Canada should consider building a wall and if AI will end humanity, or just keep writing bad poetry.
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Led by two of the sharpest journalistic voices writing today, this session will be witty, insightful and just the right side of unnerving. And it will (hopefully!) serve as a reminder that while history is full of chaos and calamity, we’ve always muddled through — and probably will again.​
About Jonn Elledge and Tom Phillips
Authors of A History of the World in 47 Borders and A Brief History of the End of the F*cking World
Jonn Elledge is a columnist for the New Statesman and a contributor to the Guardian, the Evening Standard, and the Big Issue. His books include the international bestseller A History of the World in 47 Borders, The Compendium of (Not Quite) Everything and Conspiracy: A History of Bollcks Theories, and How Not to Fall for Them* (with Tom Phillips).
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Tom Phillips is the former editor of BuzzFeed UK and a journalist whose work has appeared widely in international media. He is the author of the bestselling Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up, Truth: A Brief History of Total Bullsh*t, Conspiracy: A History of Boll*cks Theories* (with Jonn Elledge), and most recently A Brief History of the End of the F*cking World*.
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