RHLSTP | Richard Herring

Stefan Stern

19 July 2024

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Fair or Foul

The Lady Macbeth Guide to Ambition - Richard chats to journalist and friend Stefan Stern about his terrific book about the positives and negatives of ambition, Fair or Foul. What prompted him to tackle this subject? Why is the play Macbeth the perfect scaffolding for this discussion and what do people need for their ambitions to be considered a success. They chat about Boris Johnson, Elizabeth Holmes, the effect of lockdown and mortality on ambitions, why you need to set goals and why you need to be able to change those goals as you move along. Why do we lose ambition somewhat in middle age and is it just to do with our failure to achieve what we hoped to achieve and is ambition tied to mental illness or is that only the case if we are only out for ourselves.