Mindfulness and connection in a time of climate, migration and technology challenges

18 June at the London School of Economics

Hosted by LSE Festival: How to save the planet

In-person public event (Marshall Building)

Thursday 18 June 2026 11.30am - 1.30pm

We are living through a time with multiple global challenges - from climate change and migration to rapid technological change. These issues often cause division and doubt about how to move forward together.

This workshop is open to anyone interested in looking for grounded ways to engage with these topics and navigate the overwhelming and strong emotions that come with the uncertainty, stress and tensions. Using practical and mindfulness-based approaches, guided reflections and exercises, participants will learn how to remain calm and present at a time when technology is reshaping how we think and connect.

Meet our workshop facilitators

Greta Byrum, founder of Present Moment Enterprises, is a leader in digital opportunity, resilience, wellbeing, and imagination. She was the inaugural director of the Just Tech Program at the Social Science Research Council, director of The Digital Equity Laboratory at The New School, director of New America's Resilient Communities Program, and co-founder and director of the organization Community Tech New York. Her work focuses on building technological self-determination with communities by strengthening connection, deliberating together, and taking collective action. Greta lives in New York's Hudson Valley, where she practices Zen Buddhism in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hahn and leads a Plum Village Sangha.

Innah Gaspar is a Campaigner and Organizer working on the intersections of migrant, climate and tech justice. With over 15 years of experience in communications and campaigns, Innah has worked for global organisations such as CARE International and Amnesty International, to grassroots groups as an organiser and facilitator. Innah holds a MSc in Media, Communication and Development at LSE (2019). Living in Berlin, Innah helps coordinate ALPAS Pilipinas a Filipinx Migrant Collective and is working on her first short documentary.

Dr. Seeta Peña Gangadharan is Associate Professor in media and communications at LSE. Her work focuses on inclusion, exclusion, and marginalization, as well as questions of democracy, social justice, and technological governance. She co-leads two projects: Our Data Bodies, which examines the impact of data collection and data-driven technologies on U.S. marginalized communities, and Justice, Equity, and Technology, which studies data-driven technologies and infrastructures in European civil society. She is also an Affiliated Fellow of Yale Law School’s Information Society Project and Affiliate Fellow and Advisory Board Member of Data & Society Research Institute.

Zara Rahman is a British-Bangladeshi author and researcher whose interests lie at the intersection of power, technology and justice. Her book, Machine Readable Me: The Hidden Ways Tech Shapes Our Identities was published in October 2023 by 404 Ink, and builds upon over a decade of research on how data about who we are is used to shape the paths available to us in life. She is currently co-Managing Director at SUPERRR Lab, a feminist non-profit working to expand the role digital technologies play in our societies to be in service of justice and hope.

More about this event

This event is part of the LSE Festival: How to save the planet running from Monday 15 to Saturday 20 June 2026. This year's Festival explores how existential threats including the climate crisis, conflict and AI are affecting all parts of the world, transforming the way and where we live, and how our societies function. With a series of events asking what can we be doing to save the Earth, its people and environment?

Booking for all Festival events will open on Monday 18 May.

The Department of Media and Communications (@MediaLSE) is a world-leading centre for education and research in communication and media studies at the heart of LSE’s academic community in central London.

For any queries relating to this event please email events@lse.ac.uk.