Description
Join us in the Festival Hub for this live recording of hit podcast Stories Seldom Told. In each episode, host Smita Tharoor asks guests from around the world to share their story and to reflect on their life experiences with unconscious bias.
This summer, Smita returns to BLF to interview novelist Leila Abouela. Leila Aboulela is a fiction writer, essayist, and playwright of Sudanese origin based in Aberdeen, Scotland. Join us for what is sure to be a fascinating and enlightening conversation around Unconscious Bias and how it influences all of us. The perfect way to round off your Sunday.
“We are defined by our narrative, our personal story, our experiences. These have an impact on how we make judgements and form opinions. A lot of time that’s just fine but every once in a while, we make snap conclusions that have a negative outcome either for the other person or ourselves. Just one particular experience can lead to a lifelong belief. That is our unconscious bias.”
About the Speaker

Smita Tharoor
Smita Tharoor is a motivational keynote speaker and thought leader on the Unconscious Bias and how it influences all of us. Smita has spoken at conferences all over the world from Philadelphia to Penang with Berlin and Bangalore in the middle. She talks about emotional resilience, change management, leading in times of uncertainty and other similar topics all embedded by our unconscious bias. She is the co-founder of Culturelytics a company that uses artificial intelligence to understand culture in an organisation and the founder of Tharoor Associates a Training, Coaching and Organisational development company. She is a TEDx speaker, Broadcaster, Trainer, Coach, Mentor, Mindfulness Practitioner and Associate Lecturer. She also hosts a podcast Stories Seldom Told where she interviews people around the world to share their stories of Unconscious Bias.
About the Author

Leila Aboulela
Leila Aboulela’s sixth novel, River Spirit, was published in March 2023 and described by The New York Times as ‘Dazzling… a novel of war, love, faith, womanhood and – crucially – the tussle over truth and public narratives’. Leila’s previous novels are Bird Summons, The Kindness of Enemies, The Translator, Minaret and Lyrics Alley, Fiction Winner of the Scottish Book Awards. Her short story collection Elsewhere, Home, won the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year. Leila is the first-ever winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, and her work has been translated into fifteen languages. She is Honorary Professor of the WORD center at the University of Aberdeen.
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