Anjana Ahuja Livres

We are all leaders or followers - or both. We can recognise leadership in almost every area of life: in the workplace, among friends, within families, in politics and religion. But what makes a good or bad leader, why are some people followers, and what are the benefits of each? Fusing psychology, business, history and current affairs, Selected examines how and why leadership has evolved over tens of thousands of years, and presents a bold and compelling new 'mismatch hypothesis': that the slowness of evolution means that there is a mismatch between modern ideas of leadership and the kind of leadership that our Stone Age brains are still wired for. This makes for all sorts of tendencies, problems and solutions that no author has yet discussed but that affect all aspects of our lives - it's why, for example, we prefer working in small companies. Full of fascinating examples drawn from a diverse range of spheres, from politics and commerce to sport and culture, Van Vugt and Ahuja show our evolutionary history explains why taller political candidates usually win, why women chief executives attract such hostility and why we like it when the boss asks after our children. This is the first book of its kind to explore how the evolution of leadership affects us all - and, by doing so, to provide deep, practical insight for all of us into our personal and professional lives.

The UK government claims to have 'followed the science' throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. But did it? There are many stories about the COVID-19 pandemic. But there is a truthful scientific narrative to be told about how the virus played out and how the world confronted it. Spike is that story - told by Jeremy Farrar, one of the UK's leading scientists, who predicted in January 2020 that the Wuhan outbreak would turn into a pandemic. He has been on the frontline throughout: helping to release early information on the virus; bringing scientists together to probe 'lab leak' rumours; and joining SAGE, the expert group advising the UK government. Famously, ministers claimed to be 'following the science'. Farrar thinks differently. Spike reads at times like a thriller (the film Pandemic, perhaps) as Farrar struggles to get the facts out about the virus and persuade politicians to act. Co-authored with FT science columnist Anjana Ahuja, the book draws on emails, texts and Farrar's private blog to piece together how the COVID-19 crisis unfolded at the highest levels of science and government. It includes candid modellers John Edmunds and Neil Ferguson to the Prime Minister's adviser, Dominic Cummings. Together, Farrar and Ahuja take the reader on a pulse-racing journey through the science and politics of this unprecedented period and chart a course for future action