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Live On Stage
Monday May 19 2025, 7pm BST

Truth Hurts: From Conflict to Connection

This event is part of Critical Conversations, a new series on the age of misinformation by Intelligence Squared and Sage & Jester, hosted by Sophia Smith Galer. To see other events in this series, click here.

Have you ever clashed with someone on social media or even a loved one? Conversations can easily escalate in a time where everyone is consuming different media with wildly different messaging. 

At Truth Hurts: From Conflict to Connection, we tackle the most divisive topics in our day-to-day lives and how we can all become better conversationalists. How can we productively engage with those who have opposing views? How can we de-escalate emotionally-charged conversations? And how can we engage others to create a more ethical, kind and sustainable world? 

We’ll dive into clever strategies for critical thinking and teach you how to dodge sneaky traps; whether you’re scrolling through your newsfeed or navigating tricky conflicts. You’ll also pick up techniques for managing emotions and sparking meaningful, empathy-driven conversations that actually get somewhere. 

Join the discussion on May 19, with host Sophia Smith Galer and social cohesion researcher Dr Julia Ebner live at the Pleasance Theatre. 

The event will begin at The Depot Pub next to The Pleasance. Doors open at 6:30pm. The event will start promptly at 7:00pm. If you arrive after 7:45pm you cannot be guaranteed entry.

Event Name

Truth Hurts: From Conflict to Connection


ATTEND IN PERSON

WATCH THE LIVESTREAM


Speaker
  • Dr Julia Ebner

    Leader of the Violent Extremism Lab at the University of Oxford's Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion

Host
  • Sophia Smith Galer

    Award-winning Journalist, Writer, and Host of Critical Conversations

Speakers are subject to change.


Location
  • The Pleasance Theatre
  • North Road
  • London
  • N7 9EF
Time
  • Monday 19 May 2025
  • 7pm to 8:30pm BST





Speakers

Speaker

Dr Julia Ebner

Leader of the Violent Extremism Lab at the University of Oxford's Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion


Leader of the Violent Extremism Lab at the University of Oxford's Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, where she has led projects on online radicalisation, terrorism, conspiracy myths and hate speech. She is an award-winning and internationally bestselling author of several books, including The Rage: The Vicious Circle of Islamist and Far-Right Extremism, Going Dark: The Secret Social Lives of Extremists and Going Mainstream: How Extremists Are Taking Over. Based on her research, she has given evidence to numerous governments, as well as advised intelligence agencies, tech firms and international organisations such as the UN, Europol and NATO. She has written for media outlets such as the Guardian, Financial Times, Washington Post and Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Host

Sophia Smith Galer

Award-winning Journalist, Writer, and Host of Critical Conversations


Award-winning journalist, writer, speaker, and content creator, credited for pioneering astute, engaging journalism on TikTok. She began her career reporting across the BBC World Service, BBC Radio 4 and BBC World News and building Webby-winning BBC social media channels before joining VICE News as a senior reporter until February 2024.  She produces and presents content on a range of topics including linguicide, innovation and disruption, health and technology, generational communication, gender equality, how to navigate mis-and-dis information, and the state of influencer culture and its ethics. She was the first journalist to report the misuse of political ads on TikTok during the 2020 US election, which was broadcast in her first television documentary The TikTok Election. She was awarded a British Journalism award for 'Innovation of the Year' in 2021, and in 2023 she became a Visiting Fellow for Brown University’s Information Futures Lab where she has developed resources for combating misinformation and misogyny in British schools. In 2024, she was named the winner of the Georgina Henry Award at the Women In Journalism awards for Digital Innovation. As part of the International Center for Journalists’ Disarming Disinformation Solutions Challenge, she developed Sophina, her AI tool that helps experts and journalists write video scripts and amplify their work online.

Speakers are subject to change.