Sarah Stein Lubrano
Sarah reveals why talking about politics doesn’t change minds — and what actually does.
Sarah Stein Lubrano is a cultural critic and public intellectual whose work can help us to understand and operate in a modern political world that sometimes feels out of control.
Sarah is a writer and researcher whose work sits at the intersection of politics, psychology, and communication. Her debut book, Don’t Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds (2025), argues that “debate” and the “marketplace of ideas” don’t actually change people’s minds — and makes the case that modern societies urgently need to rebuild the democratic and social infrastructure that really does.
Sarah holds a DPhil in Political Theory from Oxford, where she studied the intersection of cognitive dissonance theory and critical theory, an MPhil from Cambridge, and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard. For many years she was Head of Content at The School of Life in London, where she helped build the organization’s YouTube channel into one with more than five million viewers. She is currently Head of Research at the Future Narratives Lab, where she works on narratives about social and political change, and co-founded the Sense and Solidarity Initiative with Max Haiven, a platform for people working to build collective capacity for change. She also co-hosts the podcast What Do We Want?, on what brings social movements together and what drives them apart.
Sarah’s writing and interviews have appeared on the London Review of Books podcast, Planet Critical, and in outlets covering politics, culture, and psychology. She lives in London.
“A very timely book indeed, full of wise, hopeful, sometimes sad, sometimes funny truths, about how we have reached the place we are in. It asks to put aside so much of what we think we know in the name of a more realistic assessment of how politics, language, communities and beliefs really work. Eye opening and necessary.”
—Alain de Botton
Trinity Says
“When I hear Sarah speak I’m reminded of the excitement of discovery that comes with true curiosity and unbridled intellectualism. Remember that feeling?”
Expertise
- Explains why debate and the “marketplace of ideas” fail to change minds — and what actually does, from psychology to social infrastructure
- A leading voice on cognitive dissonance, bringing together behavioral science and critical theory to explain political communication and persuasion
- Draws on experience building content at The School of Life and the Future Narratives Lab to help audiences understand narrative, emotion, and belief change in the 21st century
Video Highlight
“Infrastructure is very sexy.”