MCR Talks is a new concept that aims to re-invent your after-work drinks. Funzing have pulled together an array of leading entrepreneurs, intellectuals, bright thinkers and incredible individuals to inspire your evenings.
Held in a hand picked range of bars across Manchester, MCR Talks make the perfect after work activity. Delve into a totally new subject and challenge your perspectives over a beer with like-minded Mancunians. This is a selection of the talks coming up this month and through December. Find out even more events on offer throughout Manchester here: More Events
Inside North Korea
Michael Glendinning & Jihyun Park
A fascinating & topical no-holds barred talk with North Korean defector Jihyun Park, and leading Human Rights activist Michael Glendinning.
While headlines across the world focus on nuclear proliferation in North Korea, 120,000 North Koreans are currently detained in the most appalling conditions in gulags, thousands are being exploited in forced labour conditions across the world for profit for the North Korean state, and millions across the country have their rights to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, association, movement, and opinion heavily violated.
The goal at Connect: North Korea is to connect you with the lives, the opinions, the experiences, and the knowledge of North Koreans to raise awareness of North Korean human rights. Michael Glendinning and Jihyun Park will reflect on the current crisis and why the human rights situation must not be relegated to an after-thought.
Our talk will help to shed some light on what North Korea really is, and what day to day life it is like for someone that lives there.
Sunday 3rd December
Texture
Doors: 7pm
Talk starts: 7:30pm
Open Immigration – Right or Wrong?
Andrew Bernstein
With much of the debate over Brexit revolving around immigration, this contentious topic is more relevant than ever. Is the free movement of people beneficial to the UK? Should government policy be based on what leaders think is best for the British people, or do the rights of all humans take precedence, regardless of where they happened to have been born? Are certain “types” of immigrants better than others? In this talk, Dr Bernstein will discuss the immigration issue in America and the UK, including the similarities, differences and, most importantly, the principles that should guide a free country when determining its immigration policy.
Andrew Bernstein holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Graduate School of the City University of New York. He has taught Philosophy at the State University of New York at Purchase, Marist College, Hunter College, the State University of New York at New Paltz, and other New York-area universities. He was selected as “Teacher of the Year” at both SUNY Purchase—and at Marymount College. In 2016-17, he was a Visiting Professor at the American University in Bulgaria (AUBG), where he taught Business Ethics.
Thursday 30th November
Texture
Doors: 7pm
Talk starts: 7:30pm
Has Spice Taken Over Our Streets?
Dr Rob Ralphs
In recent months, Manchester, and in particular its city centre homeless community has been at the forefront of national and international news headlines. These headlines, often including terms such as ‘walking dead’ and ‘zombies’ and accompanied with disturbing images of users in catatonic or ‘frozen’ states as a result of using ‘Spice’ (synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists) have brought stigma to the city and the homeless community.
This talk attempts to get behind the headlines and sets out to inform and educate the audience about spice. Drawing on 20 years of research on drug use and drug markets, Dr Rob Ralphs, a Criminologist from Manchester Metropolitan University, provides answers and opinions to pressing questions such as:
- What is Spice?
- Why has it become popular and so visible amongst vulnerable groups?
- Why is it so dangerous?
- What causes such extreme reactions?
- What is in it?
- What can be done to prevent its use?
In providing answers to these questions, the talk will explore the onset and motivations of Spice use. In particular, Rob will highlight the perversity of prohibition drug policy, illustrating how a range of criminal justice interventions and crime and disorder developments has fuelled the motivations for use and changed the drug market landscape.
Tuesday 28th November
Lock 91
Doors: 7pm
Talk starts: 7:30pm
Neuroscience of Productivity
Gabija Toleikyte
Your brain is constantly changing. Did you have a much better memory as a child? Where you able to concentrate on reading a book for a long period of time and now can barely finish a full article on the internet. Are you suffering from procrastination and can’t seem to be able to beat it no matter how hard you try? Were you much more optimistic person and now struggle to feel happy about your life?
These are just a few examples how your brain is constantly changing based on what you experience most often (scientists call it activity-dependent brain plasticity). If you would you like to take an active charge in how you want your brain to develop then this workshop by neuroscientist and business/career coach Dr. Gabija Toleikyte on Neuroscience of Productivity is exactly what you need to successfully train your brain to be better at the tasks which are important for you.
In this workshop you will learn how to achieve:
- Increased Attention Span
- Improved Memory
- Reduced Procrastination
- Improved Performance
Join if you want to train your brain to be the best that it can be.
Monday 18th December
Texture
Doors: 7pm
Talk starts: 7:30pm
Decriminalising All Drugs
David Nutt
The attempt to control drug use and harms through punitive sanctions (i.e. the war on drugs) has been a global failure.
In fact, in many cases it has intensified the problem, leading to soaring prison populations, and disproportionately pulling poor, vulnerable or minority communities into the dragnet of the criminal justice system.
In this vehement talk, Professor David Nutt will explain the reasons such failure was predictable and illustrate how decriminalisation policies (as pursued in other countries such as Portugal, Netherlands etc.) offer a rational and more humane way forward, that also have huge economic and research gains for society.
Professor Nutt will also explore new research carried out by DrugScience.org on estimating the comparative values of different policy regimes for some common drugs.
Wednesday 6th December
Manchester University (Reynold Building)
Altrincham Street
Manchester
M1 7JA
(250 metres from Piccadilly station)
Doors: 6:15pm
Talk starts: 6:30pm
Find out even more events on offer throughout Manchester here: More Events
