Samira Ahmed

Samira Ahmed is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster. She presents Front Row on Radio 4, Newswatch on BBC1 and co-hosts the vintage TV podcast Through The Square Window. She writes a column in New Humanist and is President of the Twentieth Century Society, which campaigns to protect modern architectural heritage. Samira is a trustee of the Centre for Women’s Justice.

Her BFI Film Classics book on the Beatles’ first film A Hard Day’s Night is published in April 2026 by Bloomsbury. 

Phoenix Andrews

Dr Phoenix CS Andrews is a writer and researcher, specialising in politics, fandom, and internet cultures from conspiracy theories and radicalisation to TikTok and data privacy.

Phoenix has written for a range of popular publications, including The Times, Independent, Slate, New Statesman and Prospect magazine, alongside academic articles and book chapters. He posts on Bluesky at @thatdocphoenix.com and regularly appears on broadcast media, including BBC Radio 4, World Service, Times Radio.

Erica Buist

Erica Buist is a writer, journalist, and author based in London. She is the author of The Party’s Dead: Grief, Joy, and Spilled Rum at the World’s Death Festivals. The book is an account of her journey to understand how other cultures deal with mortal terror, how they move past the knowledge that they’re going to die in order to live happily day-to-day, how they celebrate rather than shy away from the topic of death – and how when this openness and acceptance are passed down through the generations, death suddenly doesn’t seem so scary after all.

Erica has written for Guardian, the BBC, Medium, Newsweek and in various literary magazines and anthologies. She has been awarded writing residencies at The Wellstone Center in the Redwoods, Vermont Studio Center, Faber, Arte Studio Ginestrelle, and VCCA.

Andrew Copson

Andrew Copson is Chief Executive of Humanists UK, responsible for day-to-day management of the organisation as a whole, and management of the staff team. He has been Chief Executive of Humanists UK since 2010, prior to which he worked across educational and public affairs roles within the charity. He is an expert on humanism who has written widely on the subject, and is regularly invited to appear on TV and radio news programmes.

Andrew is also trustee of the Religious Education Council. From 2015 to 2025, he was President of Humanists International – the umbrella body bringing the global humanist movement together to pursue human rights at an international level – where he now serves as an Ambassador.

Alf Dubs

Lord Alf Dubs is a prominent Labour peer, veteran human rights campaigner, and a long-standing patron of Humanists UK. Born in Prague, he was one of the 669 children saved from the Holocaust through the Kindertransport, an experience that has profoundly shaped his lifelong commitment to social justice. A former Member of Parliament for Battersea and former minister in the Northern Ireland Office, he is widely celebrated for sponsoring the ‘Dubs Amendment’, which sought to provide safe passage for unaccompanied refugee children.

Named Humanist of the Year in 2016 and serving as treasurer of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group, Lord Dubs remains a powerful advocate for compassion, reason, and international human rights, frequently drawing on his own lived experience to champion the rights of the displaced and the vulnerable.

Madeleine Goodall

Madeleine Goodall is Humanist Heritage Manager at Humanists UK. Since 2019, she has been researching and sharing the rich history and influence of non-religious people in the UK, alongside a team of volunteers and experts, on the Humanist Heritage website and through a range of events and resources. A particular passion has been uncovering the stories of women in the humanist movement, and she has written about these for publications including New Humanist, History Workshop Online, and The Humanist (US).

Madeleine gives regular talks on humanist history, and has also developed a series of heritage walks across the UK, often working closely with local humanist groups. In 2025, she concluded the two year National Lottery Heritage Fund supported project ‘Humanist Heritage: Doers, Dreamers, Place Makers’, which included an oral history project, public exhibition, and range of events marking the 45th anniversary of LGBT Humanists

Emma Monk

Emma Monk is a researcher, writer, and anti-misinformation campaigner dedicated to dismantling misleading narratives in public discourse. Originally trained as a molecular geneticist, she applies scientific rigour to debunk falsehoods across mainstream and social media. Emma is the creator of the Monk Debunks: Beyond the Narrative Substack, providing evidence-based analysis of complex data and sensationalist headlines.

Emma’s work bridges the gap between scientific literacy and public understanding, equipping individuals with the psychological tools to resist cognitive bias, identify logical fallacies, and evaluate source credibility in an increasingly polarized and information-dense digital landscape.

Alice Roberts

Professor Alice Roberts is Vice President of Humanists UK. She is Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham, and holds honorary fellowships at Hull, York Medical School, and the University of Bristol.

She is a past President of the British Science Association, a member of the Advisory Board of the Cheltenham Festival of Science, and Patron of the Association of Science and Discovery Centres. She received the Royal Society’s David Attenborough Award for Public Engagement in 2020.

Alice has presented over 100 TV documentaries on human biology, history, and archaeology. Her television debut was as a human bone specialist on Channel 4’s Time Team in 2001. Since then, she has hosted BBC Two’s Coast, and written and presented landmark series such as The Incredible Human Journey, Origins of Us, and Ice Age Giants. She has also presented history and archaeology series like Britain’s Most Historic Towns, Fortress Britain, Ancient Egypt by Train, Curse of the Ancients, and Royal Autopsy. Her longest-running series, BBC Two’s Digging for Britain, is now in its 13th season.

Alice is author of Ancestors (2021), Buried (2022), Crypt (2024), and Domination (2025), and, with Andrew Copson, of The Little Book of Humanism (2020), The Little Book of Humanist Weddings (2021), and The Little Book of Humanist Funerals (2023).