Lectures in pubs are selling out. Sorry Michael Gove – experts are back
Once shunned by a populace ‘tired of experts’, a new generation is embracing intellectualism with personal curriculums, educational apps and lectures for leisure. Anna Moloney finds out why
It was in the simpler days of 2016 that Michael Gove uttered the infamous words that would come to define our era of anti-intellectualism: “I think the people in this country have had enough of experts.” Knowing things was somehow inferior to feeling them on a gut level. Suspecting was better than learning.
But there are signs the pendulum may finally be swinging in the other direction.
When faced with a rare free evening, a colleague of mine chose to go to an educational talk, rather than out on the lash. As a millennial, she naturally felt ashamed, though for Gen Z there are no such qualms, and not only because they don’t like to drink as much. Now, to be smart – dare I say, even nerdy – is actually kind of cool.
The man bringing lectures to London pubs
Take Pints of Knowledge, an organisation that runs lectures in London pubs. It’s academic, but also social, with talks designed to be “pint-sized” (around 40 minutes) and paired with a beer. They’re followed by a Q&A session, after which punters are encouraged to discuss their learnings.
Founder Callum Campbell says he’s seen similar events spring up across the world, but noticed a gap in London. “I thought, ‘This is something I would love to attend’. So why don’t I just create it?”
He held three last June and a few more over the summer. When we spoke in March – a little flustered before the start of a lecture in Camden Town Brewery – he told me he is now putting on around 20 lectures a month, the majority of which sell out (discussions on science and outer space have proven particularly popular, while other subjects have included a history of tax and the origin of eukaryogenesis, a process in early evolutionary science).
Who’s going and why?
When I arrive at the Camden lecture I find myself at the back of a young crowd, struggling to find a seat. Titled The Algorithmic Divide: How the Internet is Pulling Men and Women Further Apart, the talk, priced at a not inconsiderable £20 a ticket, had proven so popular they’re running two 100-member sessions back to back.
Campbell says about 60 per cent of Pints of Knowledge’s followers are female, and most aged between 25 and 34. A significant number – just over a third – attend the talks alone, and there are social tables designed to help attendees mingle. “If you go to the pub on a Saturday night, everyone’s interests are going to be varied and skewed, whereas here you’re in the same room as 100 people with the same interests who you can geek out with,” Campbell says.
It’s an apt choice of words. Going to a lecture, especially one where you might like to make friends, is, let’s face it, never going to be ‘cool’ – which is kind of the point. Pints of Knowledge says it is appealing to a generation with a new “respect for expertise and authentic enthusiasm” (enthusiasm is arguably the very antithesis of ‘cool’, often defined by a perceived lack of care and effort).
A new Enlightenment
This fits into a wider revival of intellectualism among the young, itself likely a response to the imposing fear of brainrot. A generation of self-confessed doomscrollers and bedrotters, cognitive decline has become a real worry, compounded by new studies on the neurological impacts of AI.
Gen Z feel they’re getting dumber, and they’re fighting against it. In 2026, “going analog” is the new status symbol, with everything from film cameras to dumbphones to paper diaries gaining popularity. New apps like Nibble urge social media users to “replace doomscrolling with world history,” co-opting the addictive form of scrolling feeds, but replacing it with educational content on art, history, science and philosophy. Meanwhile on Tiktok, devising one’s own ‘personal curriculum’, in which you pick a subject and then map out a series of tasks and projects for how you’re going to educate yourself on it, has become a trend. It reminds a little of Jane Austen’s women, for whom being ‘accomplished’ was the highest form of regard.
True to form, at the Algorithmic lecture, attendees are keen to snap a picture of the opening slide, presumably to post on social media afterwards. There’s an element of performance, but doesn’t negate the substance. During the talk, attendees were impressively engaged. Hardly anyone used their phone and there were active small group discussions throughout. What a nice advert for experts: Michael Gove take note.
Anna is books editor at CityAM The Magazine