Ed Maklouf discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Ed Maklouf attended school in England before moving to the USA to study at Stanford University, where he conducted specialized research into group communication and how people make decisions together. After graduating, he went on to found several start-up companies in the emerging field of “democracy technology,” building tools designed to improve participation, representation, and large-scale deliberation.

His work eventually led him to Barcelona, where he began a sustained research project on voting systems. During this period, he came to know and collaborate with leaders of the Arhuaco tribe in Colombia, whose sophisticated traditions of consensus and guardianship of the Sierra Nevada deeply influenced his thinking. Maklouf now serves as ambassador for the Arhuaco Sen Foundation, helping to connect Indigenous perspectives on agreement with contemporary debates about democracy and governance.

The Majority Myth grows out of several years of research into Collective Agreement: a framework that combines formal voting theory and Indigenous knowledge systems to ask when a decision can truly claim to speak for ‘the people’. It is available at https://bit.ly/MajorityMyth.

1. The truth about Voting and its origins https://www.ft.com/content/4df5c927-00d1-43dc-9731-b1fac4980dca

2. The Arhuaco Indigenous Tribe https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20190329-the-ancient-guardians-of-the-earth

3. Friendship https://www.townandcountrymag.com/education-college/a38866811/boarding-school-friends-memoir-admissions-kendra-james/

1. My Mum's Paintings My dad is a well known sculptor, Raphael Maklouf, who sculpted the portrait of the Queen on UK coins, but my mum never shows her work.

2. Trees Roots https://www.trees.org.uk/Trees.org.uk/files/61/6181f2b7-e35d-4075-832f-5e230d16aa9e.pdf

3. Etymology https://www.youtube.com/RobWords

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Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen discuss with Ivan six things which they think should be better known.

Emer McLysaght & Sarah Breen are co-authors of the Aisling series. Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling was the bestselling fiction title of 2017 in Ireland and its sequel, The Importance of Being Aisling, won the award for best popular fiction book at the 2018 Irish Book Awards. The third book in the series, Once, Twice, Three Times an Aisling, won the same award the following year and the fourth book in the series, Aisling and the City, won again in 2021. The final book in the series, Aisling Ever After, was published in Autumn 2023 and was an instant number one bestseller. Combined, the Aisling books have sold more than 400,000 copies to date. Their new novel is Our Deadly Summer, which is available at https://www.waterstones.com/book/our-deadly-summer/emer-mclysaght/sarah-breen/9781526692153.

1. In 2015 Ireland legalised a number of Class A drugs for 24 hours because of a loophole in legislation.

2. An Irishman invented cheese and onion crisps at his kitchen table in 1954

3. The Irish language

4. Nearly all the world’s Viagra is made in a small Irish town

5. Ireland is the only country in the world to have had a female, democratically elected head of state be succeeded by another female, democratically elected head of state, and both were called Mary

6. Republic of Loose

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Charles Moore discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known.

Charles Moore was editor of the Daily Telegraph from 1995 to 2003, editor of the Sunday Telegraph from 1992 to 1995 and editor of the Spectator magazine from 1984 to 1990. He is now the Chairman of The Spectator. He became a non-affiliated peer in July 2020. He wrote the authorised biography of Margaret Thatcher, which is available at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/458867/margaret-thatcher-by-moore-charles/9780241687673.

1. The 18th century https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-oct-26-bk-46704-story.html
2. East Sussex https://www.thekeep.info/places/eastsussex/
3. The Psalms https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2025/12-september/features/features/finding-inspiration-in-the-psalms-food-for-the-christian-journey
4. Ordet https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/d06c8e31-324e-5886-bfb3-200802199b37/ordet
5. Auckland Castle https://aucklandproject.org/attraction/auckland-palace/
6. Hedges https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/expert-advice/garden-management/wildlife-gardening/plant-a-hedge

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