Technology

Carl Frey talks to

How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sat 21 Saturday, 21 March 2026 See this event
Joe Tidy

Ctrl+ Alt+ Chaos: How Teenage Hackers Hijack the Internet
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sun 22 Sunday, 22 March 2026 See this event
Alan Winfield and Marina Jirotka chaired by Tilda Storey Law

Oxford Debate. Artificial Intelligence: Promise or Peril?
Magdalen College: Auditorium 2:00pm Tue 24 Tuesday, 24 March 2026 See this event
Richard Susskind and Charlotte Blease

Future Vision: Can AI Improve our Lives and Wellbeing?
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 10:00am Wed 25 Wednesday, 25 March 2026 See this event
Charli Howard and Freya India chaired by Julie Bindel

What it Means to be a Woman in the 21st Century
Oxford University Mathematical Institute: Lecture Theatre 3 12:00pm Sat 28 Saturday, 28 March 2026 See this event
Matthew Ford

War in the Smartphone Age: Conflict, Connectivity and the Crises at Our Fingertips
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sun 29 Sunday, 29 March 2026 See this event

Festival information:

I loved the whole atmosphere of the Oxford Literary Festival. From breakfast, alongside some of the attendees, who were talking books with each other a mile a minute, to the public event at The Sheldonian where everyone was lively and engaged – I felt I had arrived in a kind of literary heaven.

The Oxford festival is the most elegant and atmospheric of literary festivals. It’s a pleasure to both attend and perform there.

Often as an author, I only occasionally get to meet the public who buy and read my books. The Oxford Literary Festival was a special opportunity for me and certainly one of the highlights of my career – it was an honour I will never forget.

A stimulating and rewarding on-stage conversation; a lively informed and tolerant audience; privileged access to the great treasures of the Bodleian, and finally, wonderfully interesting dinner companions to help me conclude the best day I have enjoyed at any festival – anywhere.

The Oxford Literary Festival has in my mind become the leading literary festival of the year. The organisation, the roster of speakers, the ambience and the sheer quality of it all is superb. May it now go from strength to strength each year stretching its ambition more and more. I believe it will.

The night in Oxford was the most beautiful event I have ever done. Not just the spectacular setting (of the Sheldonian), but an unforgettable evening.

It was a privilege for me to visit the festival to receive the Bodley Medal. As an incidental blessing I saw Oxford at its most mysterious and atmospheric. It was a day of piercing cold and as I walked through the twilight from the Sheldonian to Christ Church, the streets were empty and the whole city was shutting itself away. Christ Church was silent except for the footfall of unseen persons around corners and the sounds of evensong creeping from behind closed doors. For the first time I understood thoroughly the power of college ghost stories.

I came away buzzing and reassured that we still have in this century a wide ranging community fascinated not just by famous authors (I’ve rarely seen so many concentrated in one place) but by challenging ideas and questions.