In November 2025, Rev21 brought together some of the sharpest minds of our time—writers, activists, academics, citizens, scientists, and thinkers from across the globe—for an online festival rooted in one urgent question: What happens when we decide to remake the world?
Across a series of rich and challenging conversations, speakers confronted the realities of our moment and shared their perspectives on how we adapt, transform, and build something better.
We are compiling some more recorded videos from the festival, which are now fully available on a Youtube playlist. Whether you joined us live and want to revisit the ideas that stayed with you, or you’re discovering the festival for the first time, these recordings offer a chance to engage deeply with voices that are helping shape what comes next.
The Death of American Democracy
by Chris Hedges
Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Chris Hedges lays out a stark diagnosis of US political collapse and what it signals for the wider world. Hedges argues the “death of American democracy” has been decades in the making: a slow-motion corporate coup in which oligarchic power captured institutions, hollowed out politics into culture-war theatre, and locked in policies of permanent war, surveillance, austerity, and upward wealth transfer. The conversation also confronts Gaza and Palestine as a preview of the technologies and methods that will be increasingly deployed as the climate crisis deepens.
Collapse in the 21st Century and Apocalyptic Optimism
with Dana Fischer, Jeremy Lent, James Dyke, and Roger Hallam.
A wide-ranging panel on collapse in the 21st century and what “apocalyptic optimism” might actually mean in practice: truth-telling without despair, organising without illusions, and imagining what comes after a civilisation built on extraction.
Building a Revolution from the Ground Up
with Roger Hallam & Chris Chudley
This session lays out a practical, ground-up strategy for revolutionary organising: from listening in communities, to local campaigns, assemblies, and national coordination. It combines theory, lived organising experience, and real-world case studies.
Find the rest of the convention videos on our Youtube playlist.
Our next gathering takes place on 9th May 2026, bringing even more space for connection, sharing, and learning, alongside other organisations joining us.
