How Bad History Poisons Politics (TBC)
Otto English, Utter Bollocks Podcast and author of Fake Heroes and Fake History
Trump, Brexit, the rise of Putin, Xi, the global migration crisis and many political crises across the world are all rooted in dangerous ahistorical narratives of lost paradise, stolen greatness and the notion that if we could turn the clock back and reset it all our present would be safe once more. Much of it is informed by Fake History which poisons the well of understanding of who we are and what really happened in the past and we need to seek to urgently address that more than ever. In this presentation I will explain why we need to question those narratives and understand the ‘truth’ of who we are.
About Otto
Grew up in Essex. Live in London. Lucky to do what I do.
I am a journalist and author who has spent the last decade fighting misinformation and disinformation whether that be in politics or the historical narratives that feed it. My books, podcast and articles reflect that and I have written for Byline Times, Politico, New Statesman, Independent and others.
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Fake History Book
An alternative history of the world that exposes some of the biggest lies ever told and how they’ve been used over time. Lincoln did not believe all men were created equal. The Aztecs were not slaughtered by the Spanish Conquistadors. And Churchill was not the man that people love to remember. In this fascinating new book, journalist and author Otto English takes ten great lies from history and shows how our present continues to be manipulated by the fabrications of the past. He looks at how so much of what we take to be historical fact is, in fact, fiction.
Utter Bollocks Podcast
Otto English, author of Fake History and Fake Heroes, and John Mitchinson, one of the creators of the hit BBC quiz show QI and cohost of the podcast Backlisted, pit their wits against AI Jo (played by the BAFTA award-winning actor Joanna Scanlan) in a quest to separate fact from fiction, truth from myth and urban legend, and find the holy grail of ‘Utter Bollocks’.