BEN PLATTS-MILLS
BEN PLATTS-MILLS
"An extraordinarily gifted story-teller"
- Robert Newman
I'm a UK-based writer and artist. My work strays across the boundaries between art, science and medicine and uses prose and drawing to tell lesser-known stories. My memoir, Tell Me The Planets, about my work with survivors of brain injury, was published by Penguin in 2018. You can also read a life-writing project I ran with the same people called Who Are You Now? My essays have been published by Aeon, Psyche and BBC.com. You can hear me being interviewed on the History Hit podcast. I also work as a facilitator, helping people communicate across professional and political boundaries so they can investigate difficult subjects safely.
BLOG
ESSAYS
July 2024
A profile of the clergyman who anticipated black holes in 1783. On faith and science; on balancing imagination and rigour.
June, 2024
On the intellectual history of black holes, why Einstein resisted them, and the role of faith in theoretical physics.
July 2023
About a fatal accident at the Manhattan Project in 1946. On confidence, the politics of science and the role of human bodies in quantum mechanics.
'WHO WAS ROBERT OPPENHEIMER?'
- BBC.COM
July 2023
A profile of Robert Oppenheimer, 'father of the atomic bomb'. On physics, poetry and negative capability.
'ANIMAL VEGETABLE MINERAL'
- AEON.CO
April 2023
About my step mother, a zoologist and writer who had a stroke in 2010. On the violent history of taxonomy, and on re-valuing unconscious lives.
Oct 2020
On embodied memory: brain injury survivors keep on being themselves, even when they can't consciously recall events in their lives.
July 2020
About my friend Matthew, a computer scientist who had a cyst removed from his brain. On materialism, identity and teleportation.
BOOKS
TELL ME THE PLANETS
Penguin, 2018
A memoir drawn from the 16 years I spent working with survivors of brain injury at the non-profit organisation, Headway East London. Seen here with John Gray's beautiful hardback cover design.
"Platts-Mills founds his portrait on meticulous observation... The net effect is not only aesthetic and clinical, but political as well"
- Times Literary Suppliment
"Probably the best book I know about what it's like to live with brain injury" - Vaughan Bell
"An absorbing and moving account" - Penelope Lively
"In Platts-Mills’ extraordinary book, the characters of people damaged by violence, stroke or accident of birth outshine the medical details... what really defines these individuals, even as memory fails and words elude them, is their stubborn vitality"
- Nature
Read an out-take from Tell Me The Planets
ENGLISH LANGUAGE FOR BEGINNERS
Writers and Readers, 1998
Many years ago I co-wrote and illustrated this documentary comic book about linguistics. It included sections on psycholinguistics and child language acquisition, the history of the English language, and contemporary political theory. It also contained a rather decent drawing of a young Noam Chomsky.
Here are my faviourite Amazon reviews:
"As a teacher of A level English Language I've never understood why this very useful guide was discontinued. It is truly excellent for a very wide range of abilities." - Scampo
"I am shocked that this brilliant book is out of print... I treasure my copy and would love to see it back in print because I am always recommending it to people I encounter in my life as an educator and inset lecturer."
- M.A. Topping
AUDIO & VIDEO
OPPENHEIMER
July 2023
Dan Snow interviewed me again for the History Hit podcast. This time on the life of Robert Oppenheimer, 'father of the atomic bomb'.
THE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL THAT FOUGHT THE NAZIS
March 2023
An interview with Dan Snow for the History Hit podcast, about Saint Alban psychiatric hospital and its role in the French Resistance during World War II.
BARBICAN SCREEN TALK: OUR LUCK HOURS
March 2021
In support of their Jean Dubuffet exhibition, I was invited by the Barbican to discuss Martine Deyres' brilliant film Our Lucky Hours with Sarah Lombardi, director of the Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne. The film tells the story of the psychiatric hospital at Saint-Alban and inspired my essay Asylum for Aeon (Sept 2021).
BLUE PLANET BLACK HOLE
May 2019
A film about ecology, climate change, acquired disability and speculative futures, commissioned by the Barbican. I interviewed Graham Naylor for this collaboration with the wonderful Nicky Deeley. We conducted most of the interview by email and used computer-generated voices to bring it into the film - a way of overcoming Graham's challenges with speech and of reflecting on the role of technology in his life. You can hear us talking in person towards the end.
THE WORLD BEYOND MY HEAD
May 2019
A podcast I helped to make for Headway East London. Brain injury survivors Victoria and Lewis make a journey to University College London to interview neuropsychologist Vaughan Bell. Victoria's dad Henry, a cab driver, gives them a lift and, on the way, father and daughter share an emotional exchange.
SPEAKING & FACILITATION
I love working live as a speaker and facilitator. I have spoken at venues including the Wellcome Collection, Science Museum, Barbican and the Cheltenham Festival. My broadcast appearances include BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio London, Sky News and ITV News. I have appeared in conversation with artists, writers, scientists and experts-by-experience. I specialise in non-adversarial public facilitation: I work inclusively, acknowledge emotions and prioritise accessibility. I don't chair debates, I support conversations that allow honesty and safe questioning. If you or your organisation need help to create positive public discourse around challenging topics, please get in touch. You can see some examples of my work below.
CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL
CRICK INSTITUTE: GENOME EDITING
June 2024
I co-hosted a talk with ecologist Jasmine Isa Qureshi on queer approaches to ecological questions. I chaired a discussion between historian Subhadra Das and Professor of Classics Genevieve Lively about existential threat narratives. And I was interviewed along side particle physicist David Wark about the life and work of Robert Oppenheimer. (Photo credit Sarah Cosgriff).
June - November 2023
I facilitated five evenings of public conversation on the subject of genome editing as part of the Francis Crick Institute's Cut + Paste season. The conversations created a safe setting for scientists, sociologists, philosophers, psychologists and people living with genetic conditions to explore the opportunities and risks represented by new editing techniques as well as their social, political and personal implications. You can read about and listen to clips from these events here.
BARBICAN: REBEL REBEL
HEADWAY EAST LONDON: BRAIN INJURY
October, 2022
I was invited to facilitate a public conversation with artist Soheila Sokhanvari at her exhibition Rebel Rebel at the Barbican: a collection of portraits of Iranian women who were famous at the time of the 1979 revolution. The show coincided with major political protests in Iran, raising the show's profile and heightening the expectations placed on Soheila as a spokesperson for the protests. I was asked to hold a safe space for Soheila to discuss her work and life as well as the events in Iran.
2004-2020
While at Headway East London, I supported survivors of brain injury to develop public-speaking practices, appearing with them at venues including London's Science Museum and Welcome Collection. I interviewed them one-to-one and chaired panels that included them alongside researchers and clinicians. I developed methods to ensure that survivors weren't held back by communication barriers, that experts spoke plainly and that public spaces were safe for the discussion of traumatic experiences.
