Book Storehouse Tickets
A digitally edited photograph of Sophie Smith Galer who is host of Intelligence Squared presents Sage & Jester Critical Conversation: Tricks, Trolls, and LOLs: Comedy’s Crash Course in Spotting Lies. The second person is Rachel Parris who is a special guest at the event. The background is a solid teal color with a yellow paintbrush-style border at the bottom. A digitally edited photograph of Sophie Smith Galer who is host of Intelligence Squared presents Sage & Jester Critical Conversation: Tricks, Trolls, and LOLs: Comedy’s Crash Course in Spotting Lies. The second person is Rachel Parris who is a special guest at the event. The background is a solid teal color with a yellow paintbrush-style border at the bottom.

Intelligence Squared presents
Sage & Jester
Critical Conversations 

Tue 13 May 2025
Pleasance Theatre, London

Hosted by Sophia Smith Galer
Featuring Rachel Parris

Sometimes the best way to expose a lie is to laugh at it. Satire is a force to be reckoned with in any democracy and artists are essential in shedding light on the truth. Comedy has long been a way to bring difficult conversations to the fore, and to challenge narratives.

At Tricks, Trolls and LOLs, find out how humour and creative expression can serve as a counterbalance to misinformation; how satire can dismantle it, why authoritarian regimes fear comedians, and how art can be a powerful antidote to propaganda.

A series of interactive talks presented by Intelligence Squared and Sage & Jester that bring you into the conversation with journalist Sophia Smith Galer, helping audiences to cut through the noise, build resilience and connect with community. Are you ready for change?

 

Check out the
Critical Conversations series:

Truth Hurts: From Conflict to Connection
How To Cure Your Algorithm

Watch Trick, Trolls & LOLS
Sophia Smith Galer

Sophia Smith Galer

Host

Sophia Smith Galer

Sophia Smith Galer

Host

Award-winning journalist, writer, speaker, and content creator, credited for pioneering astute, engaging journalism on TikTok. Sophia began her career reporting across the BBC World Service, BBC Radio 4 and BBC World News and building Webby-winning BBC social media channels before joining VICE News as a senior reporter until February 2024. She produces and presents content on a range of topics including linguicide, innovation and disruption, health and technology, generational communication, gender equality, how to navigate mis-and-dis information, and the state of influencer culture and its ethics. She was the first journalist to report the misuse of political ads on TikTok during the 2020 US election, which was broadcast in her first television documentary The TikTok Election. She was awarded a British Journalism award for ‘Innovation of the Year’ in 2021, and in 2023 she became a Visiting Fellow for Brown University’s Information Futures Lab where she has developed resources for combating misinformation and misogyny in British schools. In 2024, she was named the winner of the Georgina Henry Award at the Women In Journalism awards for Digital Innovation. As part of the International Center for Journalists’ Disarming Disinformation Solutions Challenge, she developed Sophina, her AI tool that helps experts and journalists write video scripts and amplify their work online.

Rachel Parris

Rachel Parris

Special Guest

Rachel Parris

Rachel Parris

Special Guest

Award-winning musical comedian, actor, improviser and presenter. Rachel was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance and beat Tiffany Haddish, Ellen DeGeneres and Amy Schumer to become Female First’s Comedian of the Year. She is best known for both her viral satirical segments on The Mash Report and Late Night Mash which have had over 100 million views, and as one of the founding cast members of the award-winning improv group Austentatious. She has also appeared on Live At The Apollo, Would I Lie To You, Mock the Week, and Q.I and is a regular on radio shows I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue and The Now Show.

sign up background