Our Adoption Project: Conversations- Talkaoke Host Training

Take the mic and learn how to host with The People Speak and their conversation station- Talkaoke. Talkaoke is a live, television-style talk show format developed by The People Speak art collective from East London. The conversation is a creative medium and a journey from one unexpected subject to another. It can be topical, funny, deep, surreal, or something else. The participants generate the subjects and the host in the middle keeps everybody engaged. Picture a doughnut-shaped table with a mic in the middle, like a chat show set, except there’s no host telling you what to think and no script deciding what’s “on topic.” Whoever’s holding the mic steers the conversation. People rotate in and out. Strangers end up talking to strangers about things that actually matter to them, face to face, in real time — not through a screen, not through an algorithm deciding what they get to see. The People Speak have been running this format for almost 30 years, in places ranging from the Science Museum to King’s College London to youth services across the country. Learn a set of skills that turn out to be useful almost everywhere: • how to ask a better question? • how to hold space for someone whose view you disagree with? • how to keep a live, unpredictable conversation from falling apart? • how to actually listen instead of just waiting for your turn to speak? It’s free. It’s three hours. No experience required, no particular background expected. Just curiosity. Trainee hosts are also invited to stick around for snacks and then a live Talkaoke into the evening from 6pm-9pm (optional) The collective have delivered workshops at: The Science Museum, Natural History Museum, Newham Youth Services, King’s College London, The British Library, In Situ, Kunstenpunt (Belgium), Bielefeld University (Germany) and many more. For more information on Talkaoke and The People Speak you can check out their website Link to our FAQs + Safeguarding statement