LevelUp Europe 2025: Speakers

Craig Biddle is cofounder and executive director of Objective Standard Institute, cofounder and editor in chief of The Objective Standard, and executive director of Prometheus Foundation. His books include Loving Life: The Morality of Self-Interest and the Facts that Support It; Rational Egoism: The Morality for Human Flourishing; and the forthcoming Forbidden Facts: Moral Truths Your Parents, Preachers, and Teachers Don’t Want You to Know. His book-in-progress is on thinking in principles.

Program: Objectivity in One Question: A Query for Keeping Your Mind Connected to Reality and Q&A on Philosophy and Independent Thinking

Johan Norberg is an author, lecturer and documentary filmmaker, born in Sweden. He received his M. A. in the History of Ideas from the University of Stockholm and is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington D.C. He has achieved a worldwide readership with such books as Progress and Open, translated into more than thirty languages. His most recent book is The Capitalist Manifesto, a book of the year in the Financial Times, and, according to Elon Musk, “an excellent explanation of why capitalism is not just successful, but morally right.”

Program: Golden Ages and How to Create Them

Africa Brooke is a Zimbabwean-born consultant, developmental coach, speaker, and author of The Third Perspective: Brave Expression in The Age of Intolerance. She is known for her work in overcoming self-sabotage and self-censorship. As the founder and CEO of Africa Brooke International, she provides consulting and coaching to a global audience. She hosts two personal development podcasts and is a frequent guest on TV, podcasts, and radio. Her insights have been featured in publications like The Guardian, and she has delivered keynotes at venues like Cambridge University.

Program: Brave Expression: The Courage to Speak Up

Ely Lassman is the CEO of XG University, a startup that will offer affordable, personalized, university-level education worldwide by leveraging LLM technology. Ely previously founded Prometheus on Campus, a nonprofit focused on promoting philosophy for freedom and happiness. He earned his degree in economics from the University of Bristol, where he also founded the UoB Liberty Society.

Program: Stoicism: Medicine for the Soul?

Angelica is a fellow at Objective Standard Institute, an assistant editor and writer for The Objective Standard, and an Ayn Rand Fellow with Foundation for Economic Education’s Hazlitt Project. Her roles at OSI include managing the junior fellowship and LevelUp scholarship programs, course administration and development, and mentoring. She is a voracious reader of fiction in her spare time, and writes about the ideas in fictional works at fictionosophy.substack.com.

Program: Character Arcs and the Arc of Your Life: How Fictional Heroes Can Help You Thrive and Q&A on Philosophy and Independent Thinking

Thomas Walker-Werth is associate editor at The Objective Standard and a fellow at both Objective Standard Institute and Foundation for Economic Education. He is currently writing his first full-length book, Reason for Living: A Rational, Fact-Based Approach to Living Your Best Life.

Program: Creating and Climbing Your Ladder of Happiness and Q&A on Philosophy and Independent Thinking

Roxana Nicula is the chair of the Board of Trustees at the Foundation for the Advancement of Liberty (Fundalib), Spain’s most active pro-liberty think tank. She is the co-author of two books: Twice Free: The Roads of Women Towards Liberty and The Liberal Guide. Through Fundalib, she promotes property rights, free market policies, and the right of women to be treated equally under the law, along with supporting political dissidents who are in danger in countries including Venezuela, Iran, Russia, and Cuba.

Program: The Value of Entrepreneurship: Building the Future

Speakers are subject to change.

LevelUp Europe 2025: Program Description

Objectivity in One Question: A Query for Keeping Your Mind Connected to Reality

Craig Biddle

Objectivity, you may have heard, is impossible. We can’t know “truth” in absolute terms. We can’t know anything as it “really is.” The best we can do is to “approximate” truth or get closer to it. Conclusive knowledge, in this view, is forever elusive.

Craig Biddle will show what is wrong with such claims. More importantly, he will show that knowledge is not only possible but also widespread—including in your head; and he will show how a particularly powerful question, when properly applied, can help you to see which ideas are grounded in reality, and which are not.

Character Arcs and the Arc of Your Life: How Fictional Heroes Can Help You Thrive

Angelica Walker-Werth

Have you been deeply moved by any fictional characters—whether from novels, movies, or series? If so, why? Did you learn something important from their journeys? Did their choices and experiences help you to think more clearly about your own? 

Character arcs can have a profoundly positive impact on our lives—especially if we clearly identify the stages of the arc and what caused the character to change. Angel Walker-Werth will examine a few powerful arcs from great fiction, showing the kinds of observations and questions that can help us get the most from the characters we love.

Creating and Climbing Your Ladder of Happiness

Thomas Walker-Werth

How can you decide what to make of your life? How can you choose among the countless alternatives? And, when you do decide, what must you do to follow through and build a life you love? Answering such questions is essential to making your life the best it can be. And it isn’t easy.

Thomas Walker-Werth will provide a step-by-step plan for deciding what you want, organizing your goals with respect to their relative importance, and achieving a life of happiness.

Stoicism: Medicine for the Soul?

Ely Lassman

Stoicism is a deeply mixed philosophy, consisting of powerful, practical guidance that can help one improve their life—scattered amidst a sea of confusing, bizarre, and even harmful ideas. To truly appreciate the Stoic system, one must first understand the historical and philosophic context from which it arose.

Drawing from various philosophers in this broad and increasingly popular school of thought, Ely Lassman will highlight some of the good elements, discuss some of the bad, and provide guidance on how to tell the difference so you can embrace the former and ditch the latter.

Golden Ages and How to Create Them

Johan Norberg

Throughout much of history, oppression and misery have prevailed. But there have also been spectacular episodes of creativity, innovation, and growth—from ancient Athens and Rome to Song China and the Dutch Republic. What made these golden ages possible? Why did they eventually come to an end? 

Johan Norberg will examine these periods of prosperity, identifying the ideas and values that can help us to safeguard freedom, foster flourishing, and build a new golden age. 

Brave Expression: The Courage to Speak Up

Africa Brooke

Are you ready to claim your voice in a world that often demands silence? Blending personal stories, timeless principles, and practical tools, this talk will empower you to overcome “self-censorship” and the fear of judgment, manage the discomfort of challenging the status quo, and contribute meaningfully to the conversations that shape our lives. Africa will explore what it takes to stand by your values, express your ideas, and navigate the challenges of being authentically visible in an increasingly polarised world. You’ll be inspired and better equipped to use your voice as a powerful instrument for change.

The Value of Entrepreneurship: Building the Future

Roxana Nicula

Description coming soon …

Q&A on Philosophy and Independent Thinking

Craig Biddle, Thomas Walker-Werth, and Angelica Walker-Werth

Do people really have free will? Can morality truly be objective? Is certainty or absolute knowledge possible? Is there any role for faith in life? How about sacrifice? Might God exist? Are rights real or made up? Should immigration be restricted? How about abortion?

If you are active-minded, you ask these kinds of questions—and you want to know what’s true. The panelists in this Q&A, however, will not focus on what is true. Rather, they will focus on the method by which you can discover for yourself what is true.

Bring your hard or pressing questions, and get ready for a deep, illuminating discussion about philosophy and independent thinking.

The program is subject to change.