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LIFI26: Are kids still part of the plan?

10 Oct 2026

  • Tickets
    £20.00

    Bookings are subject to a £2.95 transaction fee.

  • Venue
    Courtyard
  • Running time
    90 mins

As ideals around family, freedom, and career fulfilment shift, what does it mean for society’s future?

Birth rates are falling across the developed world, and the decision to have children has become one of the defining questions of a generation – child-free by choice, not childless.

For some, parenthood feels financially, emotionally, or ethically impossible; for others, parenting requires brutal IVF, surrogacy, or adoption processes, often at huge personal cost.

Join our expert panel for a timely debate on the cultural, economic, scientific, and emotional forces reshaping modern parenthood, and why more people are rethinking what once felt like the norm.

Host: Laura Hamilton
Panel: Dr SJ Beard, Yousra Samir Imran, Betty Mukherjee and Vicky Pattison

Priority booking

For Leeds International Festival of Ideas enter your priority booking code at checkout from 4 Jun 26 at 9am. General booking will open on 10 Jun 26 at 9am.

Please log in if you are eligible.

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Sat 10 Oct
BSL
BSL Interpreted
CAP
Captioned
2pm
  • MAJOR FUNDERS

    Arts Council
  • Leeds City Council
  • LTB Foundation
  • Founded by UK government
  • Suppoprted by west Yorkshire
  • Principal Partner

    Caddick Group
  • Principal Access Partner

    Irwin Mitchell