Popular Harrogate event set to stimulate debate at Crown Hotel with star guests

With the topic ‘Simple Pleasures’, this Thursday, April 20’s thought-provoking event at the Crown Hotel will be delving into themes including making friends and keeping them, to the musical soundtrack of our lives, to how the food we eat affects our emotions

Best known for discovering Dunbar's Number - how our capacity for friendship is limited to 150 people - anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar explores the psychological and behavioural mechanisms that underpin our friendships and how complicated the business of making and keeping friends is.

Next up, Jude Rogers will ask why music plays such a deep-rooted role in so many lives, from before we are born to our last days.

The journalist, lecturer, arts critic and broadcaster’s recent book The Sound of Being Human: How Music Shapes Our Lives combines memoir and historical, scientific and cultural enquiry to show how we rely upon music for everything from comfort, to sexual connection, to coming to terms with grief and getting older.

The final speaker is chartered psychologist Kimberley Wilson, who will reveal the role of food and nutrients in brain development and mental health: from how the food a woman eats during pregnancy influences the size of her baby’s brain to how nutrient deficiencies change your personality.

Produced by Harrogate International Festivals and hosted by Helen Bagnall, Berwins Salon North runs from 7.30pm to10pm.

Tickets are available from 01423 562303 or www.harrogateinternationalfestivals.com/salon-north