Groundbreaking Harrogate event returns with stimulating and thought-provoking guest speakers at Crown Hotel

Simple pleasures is the hot topic for April’s Berwins Salon North - Harrogate’s very own TED-style talks, which have become a popular fixture of the town’s cultural calendar, with the last event selling out within weeks.

Taking place on Thursday, April 20 at 7.30pm, at the Crown Hotel, Berwins Salon North will this month bring together three brilliant speakers all exploring the simple pleasures of life.

Presenting big ideas, and answering key questions in life, Salon was voted as number six in the ‘Top 100 Things to do in the World’ by GQ magazine.

From making friends and keeping them, to the musical soundtrack of our lives, to how the food we eat affects our emotions – they’re digging deep into the latest big ideas in the arts, science and psychology to uncover the hidden truth about the little things we take for granted.

In a time of polarised debate and online shouting it is Berwins Salon North that gives you the time and space to learn from the experts in an entertaining way.

Best known for discovering Dunbar's Number - how our capacity for friendship is limited to 150 people - anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar explores the psychological and behavioural mechanisms that underpin our friendships, why friendships are so important and just how complicated the business of making and keeping friends actually is.

Jude Rogers, journalist, lecturer, arts critic and broadcaster, asks why music plays such a deep-rooted role in so many lives, from before we are born to our last days.

From ABBA's Super Trouper to Neneh Cherry’s Buffalo Stance, Kraftwerk’s Radioactivity to Martha Reeves and the Vandellas’ Heat Wave, Jude combines memoir and historical, scientific and cultural enquiry to show how we rely upon music for comfort, for epiphanies, and for sexual and physical connection; how we grow with songs, and songs grow inside us, helping us come to terms with grief, getting older and powerful memories.

The final speaker is chartered psychologist Kimberley Wilson, revealing the role of food and nutrients in brain development and mental health: from how the food a woman eats during pregnancy influences the size of her baby’s brain, why hunger makes you mean; to how nutrient deficiencies change your personality.

Martin Whincup, from Berwins, said: “With an amazing roster of speakers lined up, we are very excited for the second in this series of Berwins Salon North events.

“The topics that will be discussed are not only highly interesting, but also deeply relevant to our lives. I think we all have moments where we take the simples pleasures in life for granted – I am sure the speakers will inspire us to remember how much they matter.”

The trio of speakers, which is expertly bound together and hosted by Helen Bagnall, is sponsored by Berwins Solicitors and produced by Harrogate International Festivals.

Each expert speaker is challenged to engage the audience with a 25-minute set, which is designed to excite our curiosity and change our lives for the better.

Berwins Salon North will run from 7.30pm to10pm.

Tickets for the event, priced at £17, are available from the Harrogate International Festival website or by calling the Box Office on 01423 562303.