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hetanshah.bsky.social
Hetan Shah
@hetanshah.bsky.social
19K followers 1.5K following 28K posts
Chief Executive, The British Academy
Chair, Our World in Data
Board, National Audit Office
Visiting Professor, Kings College London
Fellow, Birkbeck College
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hetanshah.bsky.social
Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · Oct 10
'Taking the time to do things right isn’t anti-innovation – it is what is required to get deep-rooted change in social systems.'
My piece on AI and public services in this week's @newstatesman.com
www.newstatesman.com/comment/2024...
Tony Blair is wrong – AI will not magically solve our public services
Too many people might be left out of its revolution.
www.newstatesman.com
hetanshah.bsky.social
Useful guide to safeguarding democracy from extremism from @fromtga.bsky.social - including the counter intuitive but persuasive argument that constitutional monarchy can be helpful. Are we doing enough on this checklist?
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
My guide to populist-proofing your democracy – before it’s too late | Timothy Garton Ash
From public service broadcasting to an independent judiciary, these are the things that we must fight to keep, says Guardian columnist Timothy Garton Ash
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:08 PM
hetanshah.bsky.social
Zoe Strimpel on the myth of the decline of family, as inspired by her @britishacademy.bsky.social postdoctoral fellowship
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11...
The decline-of-family-panic that has been stalking the land since the early 1970s, when marriage rates began to rapidly decline as divorce finally became more accessible and the dam of marital discontent finally burst. I got interested in all this when I was researching the history of gender and relationships at Sussex and Warwick universities, where I undertook a PhD and postdoc (Sussex) and a British Academy postdoctoral fellowship (Warwick). After all, it seemed to me, this panic ignored the other narrative that I had spent my 20s and 30s observing as a young woman intermittently on the dating scene, and a keen consumer of media. Namely: romantic marriage and the nuclear family are still the ideal, and by many measures, thriving.
November 25, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Reposted by Hetan Shah
hetanshah.bsky.social
Important role - new Chair of the Board of @ukri.org
£33k for one day a week. Closes 11 Jan. Would be good from my perspective to get someone who understands higher education and the value of the arts, humanities and social sciences!
plusportal.perrettlaver.com/VacancyDetai...
Perrett Laver - Leading Global Executive Search Firm
plusportal.perrettlaver.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:17 PM
hetanshah.bsky.social
I was thinking this as I saw the story on Breakfast this morning
jim.londoncentric.media Jim Waterson @jim.londoncentric.media · 7h
I guess it’s a compliment that the top story on BBC London’s TV/online output today is a direct lift of a month-old London Centric story? But once again the BBC is consistently the worst news outlet for actually remembering to credit others.
November 25, 2025 at 8:13 AM
hetanshah.bsky.social
Are you worried about the devastating cuts we are seeing to arts, humanities & social sciences in UK universities? Last call for my lecture in Leicester this Thurs 27th Nov on the value of these subjects and how they support UK security, cohesion and prosperity www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/shaping-a-...
Shaping a Brighter Future
The first event in our Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Lecture Series, delivered by Hetan Shah, Chief Executive, The British Academy
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 24, 2025 at 9:03 PM
hetanshah.bsky.social
Important role - new Chair of the Board of @ukri.org
£33k for one day a week. Closes 11 Jan. Would be good from my perspective to get someone who understands higher education and the value of the arts, humanities and social sciences!
plusportal.perrettlaver.com/VacancyDetai...
Perrett Laver - Leading Global Executive Search Firm
plusportal.perrettlaver.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:17 PM
hetanshah.bsky.social
I know you don’t need another substack but you do
November 24, 2025 at 4:18 PM
hetanshah.bsky.social
‘We need to think about the value of arts, humanities & social sciences. Look at any of the successful companies & they are full of people with a mix of disciplines.’ Great to hear Lord Vallance the Science Minister talking about the importance of the full range of research for future UK prosperity
UKRI panel including Lord Vallance
November 24, 2025 at 2:06 PM
hetanshah.bsky.social
‘People have realised that there is little to gain, & a huge amount to lose, by creating free content for a billionaire's online platform. All those monolithic platforms now have the air of deserted out-of-town malls built during a boom’
@mscaitlinmoran.bsky.social
www.thetimes.com/article/7e46...
Social media is dead — none of my friends are posting any more
‘Everyone is scared that something they share might attract the attention of social media’s angry hordes, always ready to accuse on X, Facebook and Instagram’
www.thetimes.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Hetan Shah
hetanshah.bsky.social
See my thread above as to why this is a bad idea
bsky.app/profile/sgfm...
sgfmann.bsky.social George Mann @sgfmann.bsky.social · 1d
i: Reeves to unveil £600m raid on foreign student
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
November 23, 2025 at 10:38 PM
hetanshah.bsky.social
Just finished watching the third (and final) season of the Newsreader. If you haven’t come across this show you are in for a treat - pretty much flawless TV in my opinion
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
The Newsreader
1986: The big news is behind the camera. In a world on the cusp of change, star anchor Helen and rookie reporter Dale join forces to survive the cut-throat world of commercial TV.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 23, 2025 at 10:04 PM
hetanshah.bsky.social
‘In a sordid twist, South Africa’s ambassador to France — another former police minister accused of covering up corruption, who was due to testify to Madlanga — was in September found dead after falling from a hotel. Police were investigating his death as a possible suicide.’
on.ft.com/4o8yy1g
How South Africa’s underworld infiltrated its government
A televised inquiry probing the nexus of rogue police, officials and gangsters has electrified the country
on.ft.com
November 23, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Reposted by Hetan Shah
sianushka.bsky.social
This is so so so much worse than you think it is going to be - absolutely phenomenal reporting by Sirin Kale & Lucy Osborne

www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...
Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world
A year-long investigation reveals how mothers lost children after being radicalised by uplifting podcast tales of births without midwives or doctors
www.theguardian.com
November 22, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Reposted by Hetan Shah
hetanshah.bsky.social
When Harry Truman left office he ‘lived on income from his memoirs and an army pension worth $1,350 a month in today’s money. What a sucker!’
Good piece on the rise of public corruption in the US. You know it all, but it’s helpful to see in one place
economist.com/leaders/2025...
What a sucker! Had he been president in the 21st century, Truman could now be flying private to paid speaking engagements, soliciting donations to his foundation from foreign governments and watching his daughter serve on company boards and his former staffers run their own lobbying shops.
November 22, 2025 at 12:14 PM
hetanshah.bsky.social
The Charlotte Edwardes interview with Danny Kruger is as good as everyone says. A great skill to get someone to open up in such revealing ways, like this bit about how much he disliked Eton, but still sent his son to it.

There is a deep natural order to things…
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
He remembers the school's ritual humiliation: the reading out of results in graded order, how his scholar cousin in the same year would be first or second out of 259, "and I would be 249th". '. It doesn't sound like he much enjoyed the place, so I am surprised he's sent his son there. "I didn't really think very hard about it," he says. "They all went to state primary, which we were happy with."
November 22, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Reposted by Hetan Shah
iholowaty.bsky.social
And good news also for those looking for UK theses: "interim, metadata-only version of EThOS (E-Theses Online Service) in early 2026" with links to repositories & further worked planned. 👍
hetanshah.bsky.social Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 3d
Latest update from @britishlibrary.bsky.social says they are launching a new version of their main catalogue on Monday 8 December and around that time also launch an interim version of their Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue. Hooray!
www.bl.uk/stories/news...
Restoring our services – November 2025 update
In the coming weeks and months we will be restoring a number of key functions.
www.bl.uk
November 22, 2025 at 7:13 PM
hetanshah.bsky.social
When Harry Truman left office he ‘lived on income from his memoirs and an army pension worth $1,350 a month in today’s money. What a sucker!’
Good piece on the rise of public corruption in the US. You know it all, but it’s helpful to see in one place
economist.com/leaders/2025...
What a sucker! Had he been president in the 21st century, Truman could now be flying private to paid speaking engagements, soliciting donations to his foundation from foreign governments and watching his daughter serve on company boards and his former staffers run their own lobbying shops.
November 22, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Reposted by Hetan Shah
hetanshah.bsky.social
Well this is rather delicious from @emilylawford.bsky.social on being mansplained to about the roots of sexism by the Revolutionary Communist Party
www.newstatesman.com/politics/the...
"I don't know if you've heard of the beginning of the oppression of women," he began. I said I hadn't. This delighted him. "In the early days, as Engels said, everyone 'lived frivolously' - everyone fucked." He looked wistful. "It was only with the start of class society we started producing a surplus, and men wanted to pass their surplus on to their children. So they couldn't let women sleep around." It all came down to who's inheriting your wealth. "You have to know your children are yours." He shook his head. "It blew my mind." The idea that class is the root of sexism - as opposed to, say, I don't know, men - is the sort of thing revolutionary communists like.
November 21, 2025 at 8:49 PM
hetanshah.bsky.social
‘We cannot distribute what we have not produced.’

So much interesting material in this FT lunch with @britishacademy.bsky.social Fellow and Nobel Prize winner Philippe Aghion
on.ft.com/487ZfwT
Economist Philippe Aghion: ‘Macron’s legacy will be better than people think’
France’s new Nobel laureate on stimulating growth, the power of creative destruction — and why Karl Lagerfeld helped him with his homework
on.ft.com
November 22, 2025 at 7:55 AM
hetanshah.bsky.social
In case you are feeling too cheerful at the start of the weekend this @richardaljones.bsky.social piece on the likely future breakdown of consensus on science/R&D should take care of that
softmachines.org?p=3192
UK Science in a post-liberal world – Soft Machines, by Richard Jones
softmachines.org
November 21, 2025 at 9:45 PM
hetanshah.bsky.social
The new @tanitatikaram.bsky.social album is also fab #TOTP
November 21, 2025 at 9:02 PM
hetanshah.bsky.social
Well this is rather delicious from @emilylawford.bsky.social on being mansplained to about the roots of sexism by the Revolutionary Communist Party
www.newstatesman.com/politics/the...
"I don't know if you've heard of the beginning of the oppression of women," he began. I said I hadn't. This delighted him. "In the early days, as Engels said, everyone 'lived frivolously' - everyone fucked." He looked wistful. "It was only with the start of class society we started producing a surplus, and men wanted to pass their surplus on to their children. So they couldn't let women sleep around." It all came down to who's inheriting your wealth. "You have to know your children are yours." He shook his head. "It blew my mind." The idea that class is the root of sexism - as opposed to, say, I don't know, men - is the sort of thing revolutionary communists like.
November 21, 2025 at 8:49 PM
hetanshah.bsky.social
This is a piece worth pondering. On how Averil Coleridge-Taylor had to grapple with her identity, having been brought up so comfortably that she didn’t have to.

The dilemma of parenting - you can’t ever fully shield your kid & if you do it causes its own issues
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...
Out of the shadows: why Avril Coleridge-Taylor deserves to be heard
The daughter of the British composer Samuel made controversial choices that took her on a different path to her father’s activism. Ahead of the premiere recording of her piano concerto, its soloist lo...
www.theguardian.com
November 21, 2025 at 8:34 PM
hetanshah.bsky.social
Their mom had always told them she had an expensive comics collection but never showed them.

"It's a twist on the old 'Mom threw away my comics' story."
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Superman edition found in mum's attic is most valuable comic ever at $9.12m
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a new record after Man of Steel comic found in a California home is auctioned.
www.bbc.com
November 21, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Reposted by Hetan Shah
martinnhw.bsky.social
Good to see the BL's problems finally getting attention. But research libraries are also crucial components of our national STEM infrastructure, managing access to digital content, open access repositories, and research data. Libraries are a lot more than the laboratories of the arts & humanities.
November 21, 2025 at 7:07 PM