Wayward: The Price of Life with Jenny Kleeman

We say that life is priceless. Yet the cost of saving a life, creating a life or compensating for a life taken is routinely calculated and put into practice. What do we lose and what do we gain by leaving the judgments that really matter up to cold, hard logic? 

Join us for a fascinating discussion with Jenny Kleeman about the people who put a price on our lives, how and why these numbers are calculated, and what this means for our humanity. 

Jenny Kleeman is a journalist, documentary maker and radio presenter. Her first book, Sex Robots and Vegan Meat was published in 2020 to great acclaim and her second book, The Price of Life is published in March 2024. You can find out more about The Price of Life & Wayward Book Festival here.

Jenny will be joined in conversation by award-winning local journalist Jemma Woodman. 

The Price of Life

We say that life is priceless. Yet the cost of saving a life, creating a life or compensating for a life taken is routinely calculated and put into practice. In a world in love with data, it is possible to run a cost-benefit analysis on anything – including life itself.

For philanthropists, judges, criminals, healthcare providers and government ministers, it’s just part of the job. In The Price of Life, journalist, broadcaster and documentary-maker Jenny Kleeman takes us on an adventure to meet some of the people who decide what we’re worth. In a series of extraordinary encounters – with people who have faked their own death or lost a loved one to terrorism, with hitmen and with modern day slaves – she discovers more questions than answers.

What does it mean for our humanity when we crunch the numbers to decide who gets the expensive life-saving drugs, and who misses out? What do we learn about ourselves when philanthropic giving by the effective altruists in Silicon Valley is received by some, while others are left to suffer? Are some lives really worth more than others? And what happens when we take human emotions out of the equation? Does it make for a fairer decision-making process – or for moral bankruptcy?

Exploring the final frontier in monetization, Kleeman asks what we lose and what we gain by leaving the judgments that really matter up to cold, hard logic.

This event will be held at Above the Bookshop, 21 Church Street, TR11 3EG

Tickets: £8 

All tickets have an additional £1 Poly Fund added at checkout.

Check times : Book now