In this episode we answer a $100,000 question.

Writer and journalist Trish Lorenz won the global essay competition, The Nine Dots Prize, by turning anxiety about the world’s ageing population on its head and celebrating the game-changing power of Africa’s ‘youthquake’.

Part of the prize is the chance to spend a term at CRASSH, and turn that initial 3,000 word entry into a book published by Cambridge University Press.  But Trish took the long way round from her home in Berlin – arriving in Cambridge via Lagos and Abuja where she found and interviewed the young Africans who best represent the energy, the ingenuity, and the infectious generosity that she wanted to highlight.

The ‘Soro Soke’ generation in Nigeria, and beyond, are outspoken, urban, tech savvy, globally connected, and unlike any demographic that has come before. So what happens when we start tuning in to what they have to say?

Follow Trish Lorenz on Twitter here: @mstrishlorenz and on Instagram here: @mstrishlorenz

Further examples of her journalism can be found here: https://www.clippings.me/users/trishlorenz

When Trish misses Lagos, and the energy of the Soro Soke generation, she listens to this track by Wizkid (the most steamed Nigerian artist of all time): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7QiLceJSLQ

Two albums that represent the sounds of contemporary Nigeria, both released in 2020, are WizKid's 'Made in Lagos' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OJ_5aS-PdM) and Burna Boy's 'Twice as Tall' (https://open.spotify.com/album/218CJKDCszsQQj7Amk7vIu).

More information on The Nine Dots Prize, including the publication announcement for Trish's book on the Soro Soke generation in Africa, appearing in May 2022, can be found here: https://ninedotsprize.org

A recent UNICEF study on what it feels like to be young in today's world can be found here: https://changingchildhood.unicef.org 
And Africa's 'youthquake' is discussed here: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9781800241589?gC=5a105e8b&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-v6zgof49AIVdIFQBh2_fwCdEAQYAyABEgKJB_D_BwE

The story of how Jesus College, Cambridge, returned a Benin bronze to Nigeria, discussed in this episode, is here:
https://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/articles/jesus-college-returns-benin-bronze-world-first

Episode 11: We are what we disrupt

Thoughtlines brings you the best academic thinking outside the box from CRASSH at the University of Cambridge. The podcast is presented by Catherine Galloway and produced by Carl Homer at Cambridge TV.

A well as Thoughtlines episodes you can enjoy podcast episodes produced by some or our Research Networks and Research Labs.

The Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Cambridge.
Founded in 2001, CRASSH came into being as a way to create interdisciplinary dialogue across the University’s many faculties and departments in the arts, social sciences and humanities, as well as to build bridges with scientific subjects. It has now grown into one of the largest humanities institutes in the world and is a major presence in academic life in the UK. It serves at once to draw together disciplinary perspectives in Cambridge and to disseminate new ideas to audiences across Europe and beyond.