Hello!

Lynsey here. I’m the creative director of the Nerve and this is the first time I’ve introduced the newsletter. Be kind. I’d always promised the others that I’d write it if there was something to shout about, particularly when it comes to design. And so, with that, I’m here to announce our first ever zine! In celebration of our first birthday, issue one of the Nerve in print form is here.

It’s been a real labour of love for all of us; we’re still a tiny team so in order to make it happen we worked evenings and weekends, fitting it in around the millions of tasks that starting up a media company entails.

In the tradition of zines gone by, and absolutely in the punk spirit of the Nerve, I wanted a DIY look. So it’s got a hand-painted cover – by longtime friend and collaborator Paul Tansley – and headlines written in magic marker, along with images printed out, chopped up and photographed. I particularly enjoyed imagining what Christopher Harborne’s donation receipts might look like spilling from his wallet, too. Working with paint and inks, scalpels and cutting mats really took me back to my student days at the end of the last millennium (speaking of – and despite the decidedly mixed reviews – I’m excited about visiting the 90s exhibition at Tate Britain this weekend; see what our own critic thinks in the Review of the Week).

One aspect that was harder to revisit was the finality of working in print. Online, articles can be forever corrected and updated, pictures tweaked and words given more context. Peter Thiel looking too creepy? Here, let me fix that. (Or not.) But with print you get one shot – once the ink has dried, that’s it. So I had a Nerve™-racking wait between sending it to press and the issues arriving. But, miraculously, it’s all fine! And how thrilling to actually hold it in your hands, this tactile, lovely thing. We will be selling copies via our website as soon as we’ve smoothed out a few technical hitches.

Now I’ll hand over to Carole to introduce what’s in this weekend’s edition. 

Hi all. This week, I hosted a live conversation between Yuval Harari, the historian who wrote a blockbuster history of the world (Sapiens), and Maria Ressa, the journalist who won the 2021 Nobel peace prize, on the subject of our AI future dystopia. It’s fair to say I’ve never done an event quite like it. I think it’s a measure of how disturbed and confused we all are by what’s happening with AI that there was a 900-capacity crowd sitting on hard wooden benches on a Monday evening, and my attempts to bring the event to a close were ambushed by people insistently shouting questions from the floor. The core message from both Yuval and Maria is that nothing is inevitable. Don’t believe the bros: the future is ours to shape. There’s a link to the piece below, along with the rest of the Weekend Edition – including a dispatch from Paris on the high-school protests, an interview with John Cooper Clarke, and the latest on our members’ events.

In a country already wrestling with political and social division, the impact of France’s student uprising has been explosive, writes Phineas Rueckert from Paris. Discontent with overcrowded classrooms and insanitary buildings (one teacher reports seeing mouse droppings in a staffroom microwave and cockroaches on the walls) has led to protests so widespread – and police action so repressive – that they echo the epoch-making unrest of 1968. Public opinion is split over the issues, but the students say their spirit is strong. As one of them tells Phineas in Saint-Denis: “We’ll continue until the end of the year. It only works if everyone gets involved.” Read his report here.

This week, Nobel prize-winning Philippine journalist Maria Ressa and bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari spoke at an event – “The State of the World” – hosted by our own Carole Cadwalladr. Their focus soon turned to the need to oppose totalitarianism – the subject of Ressa’s latest book – and what Harari called potentially “the most important moment in the evolution of life”: the advent of AI “superintelligence”. Read our edited extract of their compelling, wide-ranging – and sometimes chilling – discussion here.

Now that he’s a bit older, does John Cooper Clarke, the punk poet laureate, head to the gym to get prepped before he goes on tour? “No, nothing. No, no. Some clean clothes, have a shave and step out.” At 77, and with a new collection of poetry just published, the Bard of Salford talks to Ursula Kenny about friendship (and funerals) in later life, the joys of cycling in Essex (“flat as a pancake”) and the mysteries of new technology (“I’ve done 1,000 podcasts. I don’t know what they are”). He also reveals who the all-time best poets are at performing their works live (clue: Oscar Wilde is very much not among them). Read the interview here.

While A-listers tread the boards in prestige shows on our main stages this autumn, elsewhere across the country theatremakers are creating innovative performances to engage audiences with some of the key social issues of our times. From a clowning show about food poverty and a catwalk show about debt to a production about an immigration raid that blends dance and documentary, Maddy Costa reports on how three fiercely independent companies are using theatre to bring about change. Read her piece here.

Hopes were high for former Vogue editor Edward Enninful’s celebration of the 90s, which opened this week at Tate Britain – greeting visitors with photos of Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas, Kate Moss and co smoking fags at the entrance and Wannabe by the Spice Girls blasting out. “The time does feel ripe for an analysis of a decade that has been contorted by myth,” writes Nerve art critic Ben Luke. So how did the Tate manage to make such a mess of it, despite the abundance of great artworks on display? Read Ben's review to find out – and check out his top five shows to see during Frieze month in London. Find the piece here.

Ali Stoner grew up north-west of Glasgow and now lives on the opposite side of the world in Melbourne. A self-described “home cook”, she stepped up to a new culinary level after appearing on Masterchef Australia. In her debut cookbook, Scran, she draws on memories of her mother’s cooking to create traditional Scottish dishes with a modern twist. Today’s recipe is built around a classic soup. Get the details here.

According to Patti Smith, “it’s almost mystical”. To Irvine Welsh, “there’s nothing comparable”. This is the annual Laugharne Weekend, for which the Nerve will be media partner for a second year in 2027. Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the festival, which celebrates books and music and takes place in the county of Carmarthenshire, south Wales between 19-21 March. Tickets go on sale at 9am on Monday; the line-up announced so far includes Stewart Lee, Carole Cadwalladr, John Cooper Clarke, Joanne Harris, Brian Bilston and Gemma Cairney. Book here. (Nerve members get a £25 reduction: see code below.)

And there’s still time to secure a ticket to hear Stephen Sackur, formerly of the BBC’s HardTalk, in conversation with Carole Cadwalladr. This is a How To Academy / Nerve event on Monday 12 October, 6.30-7.45pm at the Conduit Club, London, WC2. Book here. Nerve members get a £15 reduction.

Bye for now. We’ll see you again on Tuesday.