Wisdom in fragments

We have one planet, and we have to make it work for everyone, not just one group. The same is true of the global economy – which can only really work if it works for everyone.

Philosopher, Cosmopolitanism Advocate & Princeton University Professor

You can take a form of identity that's been historically associated with repression and hierarchy, and make it more egalitarian – that's what we've been trying to do with gender. Let me be clear, I'm not in favour of the abolition of gender, but I do think there's a lot of work we need to do in order to find more equality.

Philosopher, Cosmopolitanism Advocate & Princeton University Professor

In today's United States, asking a republican parent if it was OK for their daughter to marry a democrat would elicit a response similar to asking parents years ago if their daughter could marry a black person – the polarization is astounding.

Philosopher, Cosmopolitanism Advocate & Princeton University Professor

If you had to make everything up in your life, from the start, with no input whatsoever – that wouldn't be freedom – you'd be less free; you'd have to think constantly about what you should or should not do. There would be no structure for your life choices.

Philosopher, Cosmopolitanism Advocate & Princeton University Professor

People are individuals, they have to make lives and decide how to live their individuality – and society provides labels to allow that for example, 'I am a man, and here are the things that men typically do, and so I'm going to do those things…' or 'I'm British, that means I must like tea and cricket… or a cheeky Nando's'

Philosopher, Cosmopolitanism Advocate & Princeton University Professor

People come to Glastonbury and can try out ways of living that can be rolled out across the country. If we can make a change at the festival, then why not across a whole city like Oxford, it's the same size!

Co-organizer of Glastonbury Festival with her father Michael Eavis

Glastonbury means different things to different people, but for me, there's something really life affirming about bringing people together who can live peacefully, without conflict, for 5 days in the middle of the countryside with pretty basic facilities, leaving feeling like they can change the world.

Co-organizer of Glastonbury Festival with her father Michael Eavis

I never, ever, thought – even remotely – that I would make this festival my life. It was never seen as something that would run forever – and was something which was very much done 'by the seat of our pants' you know? It was a miracle if we got through, one year at a time….

Co-organizer of Glastonbury Festival with her father Michael Eavis

It feels to us that the festival is owned by the people, and me and my Dad are kind-of custodians of it. In that sense, it's a bit like a sailing ship… me and my Dad drive it, but the ship is made of a few hundred people – our key organisers and creatives, who build each part of the ship with their own vision.

Co-organizer of Glastonbury Festival with her father Michael Eavis

The festival and the perception of it are very hard to pin down, they mean so much, in so many ways, to so many people. If you ask one person what Glastonbury means to them, it will be a very different answer to another. One of the most precious aspects of Glastonbury is specifically that we can't put our finger on it.

Co-organizer of Glastonbury Festival with her father Michael Eavis

High performance is- truly- a checklist. It's waking up, understanding how many things you can do that day to the best of your ability, getting those things done, allowing yourself time to exercise, eat, rest, engage in active recovery, get some social support, have some mindfulness and gratitude time.

Author & Researcher on Flow State & Human Peak Performance

Our brain is local and linear, and we live in a global and exponential world. If you want to keep pace, you have to perform and think at speed and scale – and we're not built for it. Flow is literally our leverage for keeping pace in a global, exponential world.

Author & Researcher on Flow State & Human Peak Performance

When you close your eyes and imagine the person you're going to be in 10 years, this area of your brain is totally deactivated – it's treating the person you are going to become as a stranger. This is why people have such a hard time getting prostate exams, staying on a diet, quitting smoking, because the person who is going to benefit the most from these things is literally not you.

Author & Researcher on Flow State & Human Peak Performance

Firms like McKinsey are self-reporting that their people are 5x more productive in-flow than out of flow… 500% more productive. That means you can work Monday in-flow and take the rest of the week off – and you'd still get as much done as your peers. Work two days a week? You're now 1000% more productive than the competition.

Author & Researcher on Flow State & Human Peak Performance

Anyone worth following in peak performance will tell you that 90% of human performance is mental. The understanding of that mental aspect of the game is brand-new – perhaps 10-20 years old. The work being done around the neuroscience of performance is creating an unprecedented rate of change; it's honestly off the charts.

Author & Researcher on Flow State & Human Peak Performance

This is a really exciting time for human space exploration, we have a lot to be hopeful about – and we have a whole bunch of private companies who have very credible strategies and vehicles. Like in so many other industries, the government has played a key role in kickstarting things – but to realise the full potential of this industry we'll need private industry to get involved seriously.

Astronaut and educator who conducted spacewalks on the Hubble Space Telescope