“Zaidi creates multifaceted motivations for every character, from Marya’s decision to become a surrogate to Jake and Sam’s desire to have one, throughout this drama of ideas. They are all textured, trapped by their own beliefs, hopes and histories, and the actors rise to the challenge of channeling these diverse perspectives.”

Mohsin Zaidi’s play ‘The Surrogate’ has opened in Toronto, Canada,  examining the complicated terrain surrounding surrogacy — the personal, ethical, and economic questions that sit behind modern decisions about parenthood.

For audiences familiar with Mohsin’s speaking, the play reflects the same instinct that runs through his work more broadly: examining the structures that shape people’s lives, and the quiet pressures operating beneath public debate.

The Surrogate is now prompting thoughtful discussion on stage — exactly where complex social questions often benefit from being explored in full view.

Earlier this month in Barcelona, Spencer Kelly interviewed the inventor of the world wide web Tim Berners-Lee at the Talent Arena of Mobile World Capital Barcelona Congress. Their conversation explored the future of the web — from data ownership and decentralised applications to the role AI may play in how personal data is used. Sir Tim remains deeply engaged in steering the direction of the web he created, particularly around efforts to give individuals greater control over their data and digital identity.

Dr Aaron Balick speaks to the BBC about technology's growing role in mediating our relational lives, and what that means for how we understand, engage with, and manage our human to human relationships. What happens when AI companionship and advice becomes the principle mediator of self-understanding for young people?

Psychotherapist Dr Aaron Balick admits that even his professional knowledge of social media's psychological tricks couldn't stop him from a multi-day doomscrolling spiral during a bad news cycle. His key insight: he wasn't seeking catastrophe but reassurance — what he calls "hopescrolling." Social media exploits this by rationing hope just enough to keep you scrolling, mirroring addiction patterns seen in therapy. His solution is to be honest about what you're actually looking for, then find it in the right places — real-world connection, community, and action — where fleeting digital hope can become something more lasting and meaningful.

Meta was granted a patent in December 2025 for an AI model that uses a deceased user's posts, likes, and comments to continue interacting with others on their behalf — framed partly as solving an "engagement problem" caused by account inactivity.

Cyberpsychologist Elaine Kasket, who has studied digital afterlives for over two decades, described the patent's rationale as reframing user death as an engagement problem as a troubling commercial lens on bereavement. She called the approach psychologically unhelpful, pushing back on tech founders who claim they want to "solve grief" within a decade, which she dismissed as a ridiculous notion. She also noted that grief is highly personal, and different grievers could react very differently to the same AI-generated profile built from a person's digital remains.

https://fortune.com/2026/03/03/meta-patent-ai-model-death-profile-commenting-psychology-grief/

Laura Bates argues that proactive, well-designed regulation — not reactive patchwork laws — is urgently needed before the damage inflicted by AI on girls and women becomes irreversible.

AI tools are rapidly becoming instruments of gender-based harm, and regulation is failing to keep pace. From xAI's Grok generating millions of non-consensual intimate images to "nudify" apps downloaded hundreds of millions of times, technology is enabling abuse of women and girls at unprecedented scale. Meta's smart glasses have been used for covert filming, and AI video tools have been exploited to create graphic violent content targeting women.

Beyond deliberate abuse, AI systems trained on biased data are compounding existing inequalities — advising women to request lower salaries, downplaying their medical conditions, and discriminating against them in credit and recruitment. With women making up just 12% of AI researchers and receiving 2% of venture capital, they have little say in how these tools are built.

Read the full article here: https://www.ft.com/content/60e2a900-8999-46cc-8107-4f468f442aae

Lee Warren sat down with Alberto Zandi and discussed how his work challenges one of the most common myths in business and leadership, that people are persuaded by logic, data, and facts. In reality, most decisions are made emotionally first, and only justified rationally afterwards. Topics covered are:

• How to influence people without being manipulative

• How to build trust in the first moments of a conversation

• What makes someone instantly more persuasive

• How to tell when someone is trying to persuade you

• The golden methods to network and communicate without feeling awkward or fake

Watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLv76jd13Ys

Why are teens so anxious — and what can we actually do about it?

Matt Barbet’s latest piece for iNews looks at the science behind the teenage brain, and how understanding it has shaped the way he talks to his own children about the news and the world around them.

It turns out a lot of teen anxiety has as much to do with biology as it does with what they're actually seeing and hearing.

Lorraine Heggessey has received the Special Recognition award at the Broadcast Awards ceremony.

According to Broadcast, she “was a trailblazer as the first female controller of BBC1 in the early 2000s, and her influence is best measured in the remarkable cadre of shows she helped usher to screen.  

At the corporation alone, her credits include Blue Planet, Spooks, Imagine, State of Play, Strictly Come Dancing, My Family, Doctor Who and The Secret Policeman.  

Those titles are stellar mix of broad popular hits, provocative and inspiring factual, and thrilling scripted series and sum up the eclectic range of programmes that Heggessey helped deliver.  

When she swapped the BBC for Talkback Thames, the indie label upped the entertainment ante with new titles such as Take Me Out and Britain’s Got Talent supercharged fledgling mega-formats including The Apprentice and The X Factor.  

By the time she left in 2010, the latter was being watched by the best part of 20 million people.”

In her timely piece for The Independent, Eleanor Mills uses a current political moment as a lens to reflect on how mid-life women can find their experience questioned or reconfigured, even after long records of achievement — and what that reveals about gendered assumptions that persist beneath the surface.

These dynamics aren’t confined to politics. Her own travails at The Sunday Times followed a similar pattern: credibility was judged, opportunities taken away and experience devalued despite a successful career in journalism, leading to a mid-life pivot.

Closely attuned to how the same script plays out at scale, Eleanor uses her keynotes to help audiences make sense of less readily welcomed shifts in their own lives — how confidence can wobble mid-career, how experience is reinterpreted, and why change at this stage can feel disorienting rather than linear.

Global Gurus has ranked actionable futurist Andrew Grill as one of the world’s Top 30 Futurists for 2026, at number 19.

The Global Gurus Top 30 Futurists list recognises futurists whose work has a real-world impact on how organisations navigate what is coming next. This list highlights practitioners who translate future trends into practical actions that leaders and teams can apply today.

Global Gurus applies a rigorous set of criteria that goes far beyond simple popularity, balancing public opinion with originality of ideas, real impact, practicality, presentation style and published work.

Public opinion contributes 30 per cent of the overall score, originality of ideas a further 30 per cent, impact and practicality together 20 per cent, with presentation style and publications and “guru factor” making up the remaining 20 per cent.

Being placed 19th globally is a meaningful acknowledgement that Andrew’s Actionable Futurist approach and Digitally Curious book, podcast, and course are helping people not only understand the future but also do something with it.

Congratulations to Andrew for being recognised alongside a remarkable group of fellow futurists from around the world.

Lea Karam, behavioural scientist and founder of Mindscope, has supported the BBC’s expanded YouTube strategy announced today, contributing expertise to help shape its approach to younger audiences.

Mindscope’s work focused on translating youth psychology and YouTube-native behaviours into practical guidance for content design, formats, and community experiences that resonate with under-25s. This insight helped inform early channel development, including initiatives such as Deepwatch and Perspectives.

The collaboration supported the BBC team led by Dan McGolpin, Mariel Capisciolto, and Beatrice Cooke, and reflects an evolution in how public service media can meaningfully engage younger audiences by meeting them on platforms they actively choose.

Cyberpsychologist Elaine Kasket commented on the rise of AI “boyfriends” and emotionally intimate relationships with chatbots in a recent article for The Sun.

Dr Elaine Kasket shared her expert perspective on why people are forming strong emotional bonds with generative AI companions, noting that chatbots can feel like safe, non-judgmental listeners. However, she warned that these relationships are commercially driven rather than therapeutic, requiring users to hand over personal data and money while prioritising engagement over wellbeing. Elaine also cautioned that reliance on agreeable AI partners may reduce people’s tolerance for the challenges of real-world relationships and increase emotional isolation.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/37682996/ai-tech-relationship-boyfriend-online/

We’re delighted to learn that Alessandra Bellini has been awarded an OBE in the 2026 New Year Honours for services to advertising and marketing.

Alessandra’s marketing career, first at multinational Unilever and then at Tesco, where she spearheaded the collaboration with Jamie Oliver and the relaunch of its ClubCard, is distinguished by an ability to combine commercial judgment with deep strategic insight — using data, creativity and leadership to drive growth at scale across complex organisations. Her contribution has helped shape how brands and businesses approach long-term value creation. An honour such as this reflects influence exercised consistently at the highest levels.

Our congratulations, Alessandra!

Misha Glenny is taking over as presenter of In Our Time, succeeding Melvyn Bragg after 27 years. Glenny promises continuity rather than radical change, describing his approach as “evolution, not revolution,” while recognising the need for the programme to remain relevant in a changing media landscape.

He questions the show’s long-standing slogan, “Never knowingly relevant,” arguing instead that its discussions of history, science, and philosophy are often unknowingly relevant, especially during times of political and social uncertainty. Glenny believes audiences still have a strong appetite for serious, expert-led conversation despite the dominance of smartphones and short-form content.

While acknowledging competition from popular history podcasts such as The Rest Is History, he has no plans to imitate their style. Instead, he intends to preserve In Our Time’s tightly structured, rigorous format while ensuring it continues to engage new generations of listeners.

In a recent interview with The Times, Luke Donald reflects on captaining Europe to a demanding away victory in the Ryder Cup, describing it as more stressful but ultimately more rewarding than his previous success. He argues that the hostile New York crowd, while often crossing the line, ended up strengthening the European team, creating unity and mental resilience rather than distraction.

Donald is critical of how crowd behaviour was handled, particularly abuse directed at players such as Rory McIlroy and their families. Rather than ignore it, he chose to prepare for it, building what he calls “anti-fragility” — the ability to grow stronger under pressure.

His leadership approach was obsessively detailed: months of communication with players, psychological preparation, simulated heckling, data-driven pairings, and a strong focus on culture and shared purpose. He contrasts Europe’s motivation — pride and identity — with the fact that US players were paid, using that difference as fuel.

We are thrilled that our client Emilie Bellet has been named one of Metro.co.uk Metro’s top UK “finfluencers you need to follow.” As Vestpod founder/CEO and author of You’re Not Broke, You’re Pre-Rich, Emilie champions financial wellbeing as a right for women—breaking the gender wealth gap, boosting confidence amid pay disparities and life events like motherhood, and equipping them via keynotes on investing and ditching taboos to claim independence and security.

The UK Government has launched a new Women In Tech Taskforce to 'help women "enter, stay and lead" in the UK tech sector.' Leading the taskforce alongside Technology Secretary Liz Kendall is our very own Dr A-Marie Imafidon MBE, and we can't think of anyone better for the role, because Anne-Marie has been doing this work for over a decade. Through Stemettes, she's reached 65,000+ young people, hosted the Women In Tech podcast for the Evening Standard, and written a book that argues that a lack of women in tech means technology reflects limited experiences, creating biased products that don't serve everyone. She's consistently shown up to make tech more inclusive.

It's just been confirmed last week that Julian Treasure will be curating a TED Conferences series on listening for their 2026 conference, which tells you everything about the importance of listening in our time and where Julian stands in the field. In a world where everyone's talking and nobody's hearing each other, Julian's spent his career showing organisations why listening might be the most powerful skill we're all neglecting, and that's why companies bring him in when conversations break down and real understanding goes missing. Julian doesn't just talk about listening—he knows exactly what will get teams to actually communicate, collaborate, and connect.

In his nomination, the Prime Minister praised Roe’s “distinguished record of public service”, noting that he joined the London Fire Brigade in 2002 and rose through every rank before being appointed commissioner in 2020. Before joining the brigade, Roe served as an officer in the British Army and later worked with young refugees in London.

The Prime Minister highlighted Roe’s leadership of the brigade through the pandemic and its programme of reform following the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, culminating in a 2024 statutory inspection that deemed the LFB the most improved service in the country.

https://emergencyservicestimes.com/2025/12/12/former-london-fire-commissioner-given-peerage-by-prime-minister/