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Flex Your Imagination Muscle With Albert Read And Alice Thomson

Art &
Culture

As technology advances, it is more pressing than ever to harness the power of our imaginations

What is it to imagine exactly? How do we go about it, and why is it so important that we imagine for ourselves? In July 2023 author and Condé Nast Britain managing director Albert Read came to Intelligence Squared to explain that the imagination is not just the preserve of artists and creatives but rather a muscle – an essential faculty of the mind which we can all train and develop throughout our lives. Drawing on his new book The Imagination Muscle, Read explained how the imagination is central to human achievement. He showed how it has evolved over the millennia, discussing Thomas Edison’s serial embrace of failure, Jane Jacobs’ vision of how we should build cities together, Steve Jobs’ approach to office design and the Japanese concept of Ma. 

In conversation with Times columnist Alice Thomson he touched on art, music, film, literature, science and entrepreneurship. And he argued that as technology advances and threatens to take over the creative aspects of our lives it is more pressing than ever to harness the power of our imaginations.

Praise for Albert Read’s The Imagination Muscle 

‘Beautiful, moving, profoundly imaginative in itself – this book is as entertaining as it is relevant and practical’ – Alain de Botton

‘Anyone who has an imagination – that is, everyone – should read this book’ – Edward Enninful 

‘An extraordinary book – an elaborate cabinet of curiosities’ – The Spectator

Speakers for the motion

  • Albert Read

    Managing Director of Condé Nast Britain and author of The Imagination Muscle .

Chair

  • Alice Thomson

    Columnist and interviewer at The Times

Speakers

Speakers

Albert Read

Managing Director of Condé Nast Britain and author of The Imagination Muscle .

Managing Director of Condé Nast Britain who has launched and led businesses for the company in the UK, and across Europe and Asia, overseeing titles such as Vogue, GQ, Wired, Condé Nast Traveller and Vanity Fair. A former journalist, he has written for The Spectator, the TLS, The Times and The Telegraph. His new book is The Imagination Muscle.   
Chair

Alice Thomson

Columnist and interviewer at The Times

Columnist and interviewer at The Times. A former Times trainee, she became a foreign correspondent, feature writer and political reporter for the paper before moving to The Telegraph as a columnist, restaurant reviewer and leader writer. She returned to The Times in 2008. She is the co-author with Rachel Sylvester of What I Wish I’d Known When I Was Young: The Inspirational New Book About the Art and Science of Growing Up, and co-host of the Past Imperfect podcast.