Talks of the week: Battle of Ideas, Barbican, London EC2

This eighth annual weekend of serious-minded public debate, organised by the Institute of Ideas, features 12 strands, 80 sessions and more than 350 speakers, and revolves around the eurozone crisis and the state of European democracy, freedom and equality, with Ivan Krastev, Rob Riemen, Thierry Baudet, Thomas Hylland Eriksen and Gáspár Miklos Tamás among the key speakers.

Other sessions consider whether capitalism is the solution or the problem, how far freewill is an illusion, the culture wars in the US, the fate of the British media after Leveson and why society is lacking any big ideas.

Among those pondering the issues are John Haldane, Natalie Bennett, Philippe Legrain, Brendan O'Neill, Frank Furedi, Mark Borkowski, Stella Duffy, David Edgar, Timothy Garton Ash, Roy Greenslade, Martin Jacques, Roly Keating, Christina Patterson, Vicky Pryce and Raymond Tallis.

(020 7638 8891; battleofideas.org.uk) today & Sun