This event has now finished.
  • Date and time: Tuesday 21 July 2020, 7pm to 8pm
  • Location: Online event
  • Audience: Open to alumni, staff, students, the public
  • Admission: Free admission, booking required

Event details

York Festival of Ideas event

Ever wanted to know what happens backstage on the making of TV news?

Award-winning BBC broadcaster Emily Maitlis and journalist Isabel Berwick of the Financial Times, discuss the fine art - and often chaotic result - of the interview.

Using Emily’s recent publication Airhead: The Imperfect Art of Making News as the starting point of their conversation, they reveal the challenges, both editorial and technical, of making and reporting news.

The host of the BBC’s flagship Newsnight programme and the BBC’s UK and USA election coverage, Emily has interviewed everyone from Emma Thompson to Russell Brandand Donald Trump to Tony Blair, as well as covering news stories such as President Clinton's affairs, Boris Johnson's race to PM, Grenfell, #MeToo, and the Paris terror attacks.

Listen in as Emily and Isabel provide the inside scoop on life in the media, then ask them a question or two of your own.

Participants will be invited to submit questions in advance - the details of this will be on your booking confirmation.

About the speakers

Emily Maitlis is an award winning broadcaster and bestselling author of Airhead, a behind-the-scenes look at how news is made. She hosts the BBCs flagship nightly current affairs show, Newsnight, as well as the BBC’s UK and USA election coverage. She has interviewed two USA Presidents, six UK Prime Ministers, and a Prince - amongst others. In her spare time she likes running , wild swimming, dirty vodka martinis and pretending to speak languages she has long since forgotten. 

Isabel Berwick is the Financial Times's Work and Careers Editor, overseeing its coverage of leadership, management, office life and the present - and post-pandemic future- of work. She joined the FT in 1999 from the Independent on Sunday, where she was the Business Editor. 

Book sales

You can buy copies of many of our speakers’ books from Fox Lane Books, a local independent bookseller and Festival partner.  In some cases, author signed bookplates are available too.