TJ Power
“This month I have been fascinated by The Huberman Lab Podcast and its latest ideas around circadian rhythm and ADHD. ADHD is an incredibly prominent challenge in our modern world for many people and new research is revealing our daily relationship with light, nutrition, movement and sleep is having a huge impact on it.
Research is now showing that having consistent sleep-wake times, eating your meals at regular intervals and ensuring you are viewing sunlight quickly after waking and frequently throughout the day improves some of the negative symptoms people are experiencing. This New Year, get yourself focused on consistency. Consistency with your bed time, your wake time, your morning sunlight and your meals and observe how your brain operates in a far better way! You can learn about exactly how to optimise your brain in my new book - The DOSE Effect.”
TJ Power, author of ‘The DOSE Effect’, out 16th January
Food: La Môme London
Credit: La Môme London
Since Marcus Wareing's restaurant at The Berkeley closed just over a year ago we’ve been wondering what would take its place and now we know that restaurateurs Ugo and Antoine Lecorché are opening a London branch of the brothers' Southern French restaurant La Môme. Their restaurants in Cannes and Monaco are known for serving up a range of Mediterranean dishes in a glamorous setting, as well as being a draw for the A-listers that frequent the film festival each year. So it’s a fair assumption that London’s site may also be a new celeb hangout. Expect plenty of high-style theatre throughout- Whole tabletops will be changed in an instant as waiters carry freshly laid ones above their heads through the restaurant to replace a previous sitting. Dishes will be prepared in front of guests, from the snipping of thyme into verdant olive oil for dipping freshly baked bread, still warm from the oven, to deboning a whole wild fish of the day, flame grilled to perfection and ready to be shared. Cocktails and digestifs promise to arrive with a flourish of drama, shrouded in a cloud of dry ice until released from underneath a glass cloche. The bar will serve cocktails and small bites; the main restaurant will seat 220 inside and 30 outside on a newly created terrace. Both will open seven days a week for lunch and dinner. Evenings will be accompanied by live music – including a DJ, chanteur and pianist. "We are trying to bring to The Berkeley an experience that is about all the senses," says Antoine. not only about the food, but about the welcome, the service, the music, the energy, where something interesting is happening every day."
Fitness: The Lighthouse
Credit: The Lighthouse Club
If you have made the decision for 2025 to expand on your personal wellbeing and improve your fitness then may we suggest joining the coolest gym in the biz? The Lighthouse is a chic and special gym aimed at the creative industries. Based in Fitzrovia, the epicentre of London creativity, the Lighthouse is an ultra clean underground secret that offers not just top end facilities for all your fitness needs (including infrared saunas and ice baths) but also a place to work away from the humdrum of your office and a place to chill out post gym session as you wind down both body and mind. Members are encouraged to find a natural flow that works with their needs to achieve a healthy sense of balance and clarity. The founders are the epic team behind Before The Lights, a fitness enterprise that worked primarily with actors and film companies. George, Josh and David- the 3 musketeers behind the venture, have firmly established themselves as the leading health and fitness experts to London's creative community. Apply for membership to this coveted club and unlike Fight Club, the first rule of The Lighthouse is to shout from the rooftops that you made it in as a member. Head to the website to learn more and apply for membership to one of the coolest clubs for 2025.
Kids: Hot Wheels Monster Trucks, Glow-N-Fire
Credit: Toy Insider
Monster trucks meet the beloved Hot Wheels kids toys in a demolition derby for the young, live at the O2 this month! It is never too young (we guess!) to introduce the little ones to the joys of monster truck rallies, and in this show Glow-N-Fire, the trucks are designed to look like their favourite Hot Wheels characters, like Mega Wrex, Tiger Shark, Bone Shaker, Bigfoot and more. Even if your kids aren’t huge Hot Wheels fans then the Monster Truck phenomenon is still enough to enthral them. Following the success of Glow Party, Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live is thrilled to announce its new theme for 2025: Glow-N-Fire. This exciting new experience will feature the same level of fun and excitement that fans have come to expect, but with an added fiery twist. Get ready for more heat and action as Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live™ continue to bring the ultimate monster truck show to London’s O2 on the 11th and 12th of January. Fans can also witness a special appearance from a transforming robot, plus the high-flyers of Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live Freestyle Motocross Team. It will certainly make for a different evening!
Theatre: The Years
Credit: The Years Play
Following its sell-out run at Almeida Theatre, Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux’s impactful book, The Years, comes to the West End stage at Harold Pinter Theatre. The Years is a play spanning generations that tells the story of a woman whose life is impacted by the ever-changing world around her. This story of womanhood masterfully weaves the personal history of the woman’s life within the larger history of the world, from air raid sirens to Vietnam and the invention of the internet. Through a combination of dialogue and narration, Annie Ernaux’s words from her beloved 2008 memoir take on brand new life on the stage. The five women playing the five versions of the main character are the incredibly talented Olivier-winning actress Deborah Findlay, Golden Globe Award-nominated actress Romola Garai, BAFTA award-winning actress Gina McKee, Anjli Mohindra and Harmony Rose-Bremner. All five women are reprising their roles from the Almeida Theatre performances.
Event: TS Eliot Prize - Shortlist readings
Credit: Zealous
On the 12th January you can head over to the Southbank centre for a wonderfully inspired evening to listen to 2 and a half hours of the best poetry coming out of the UK right now at the TS Eliot Prize. Poetry will be read by the ten shortlisted poets for this year’s prize, in an event hosted by poet Ian McMillan. The TS Eliot Prize is among the world’s most celebrated awards. Inaugurated in 1993 to celebrate the Poetry Book Society’s 40th birthday and to honour its founding poet, the prize is now awarded by the TS Eliot Foundation. This year, the shortlist has been chosen by judges Mimi Khalvati (Chair), Hannah Sullivan and Anthony Joseph. The shortlisted names are as follows: Raymond Antrobus: Signs, Music (Picador Poetry), Hannah Copley Lapwing (Pavilion Poetry), Helen Farish The Penny Dropping (Bloodaxe Books), Peter Gizzi Fierce Elegy (Penguin Poetry), Gustav Parker Hibbett High Jump as Icarus Story (Banshee Press), Rachel Mann Eleanor Among the Saints (Carcanet Press), Gboyega Odubanjo Adam (Faber & Faber), Carl Phillips Scattered Snows, to the North (Carcanet Press), Katrina Porteous Rhizodont (Bloodaxe Books) and Karen McCarthy Woolf Top Doll (Dialogue Books). Tickets are just £12 and can be bought via the website.
Event: Battersea Power Station Light Festival
Credit: Battersea Power Station
The winter nights can seem so long and dreary in January so we want to brighten up the month for you with a joyful Light Festival at Battersea Power Station, one of our fave London hangouts. It’s totally free to attend firstly, helpful for the post Xmas frugal period and it will be more interactive than ever before. There are going to be eight spectacular installations from British and international artists on display inside and outside the Power Station from British and international artists, a number of which are making their UK or London debut. Taking place from the 23rd January to the 23rd February 2025, many of the installations will offer more than just a visual experience, enhanced with soundscapes and interactive elements that respond to movement and more. Once you’ve toured the displays and captured some illuminating content for your insta then make the most of the great mix of cafes, bars and restaurants, many of whom will have special menus and offers to celebrate the return of the festival. Once refuelled, continue the evening with some retail therapy or enjoy some friendly competition at Bounce Ping Pong or relax with one of the latest blockbusters at The Cinema in The Power Station.
Exhibition: Soil
Credit: Somerset House
Somerset House are consistently at the forefront of innovative and alternative exhibitions and this latest one is no different. Soil is a ground-breaking exhibition that unites visionary artists and thinkers from around the world to explore the remarkable power and potential of soil. Through a range of artworks, artefacts and innovative approaches, visitors are invited to reconsider the crucial role soil plays in our planet's health. The exhibition delivers a message of hope and urgency, encouraging a more sustainable, harmonious relationship with the Earth—if we choose to act now. Soil is more than dirt. Soil is a secret world at our feet, an ecosystem as diverse in life as our night sky is full of stars. The billions of bacteria contained in its rhizospheres do for plants what the microbes in our stomachs do for us: sustain life. Our relationship with soil is our connection to Earth itself. Without soil, there is no us. The exhibition brings together a range of stories and responses to soil from a group of global artists, writers, musicians and scientists. Combining sensory artworks, historical objects, scientific artefacts and documentary evidence, the exhibition sets out to inspire and educate visitors about the power and the fragility of soil, its fundamental role in human civilisation and its remarkable potential to heal our planet.
Art: New Contemporaries
Credit: The Institute of Contemporary Arts
Since 1949, New Contemporaries has presented an annual survey exhibition of emerging and early career artists from UK art schools and alternative peer-to-peer learning programmes. From the 15th January at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, the annual exhibition returns having had a regular presence here in the 1960s, 70s, 80s and more recently in the 2010s. This edition features 35 artists who have been selected through an open call by artists Liz Johnson Artur, Permindar Kaur and Amalia Pica. The works on show offer an overview of urgent lived concerns, interests and social realities from this generation of artists. Themes include the fluctuations and cycles in the natural world, sustainability and decay; boundaries, borders and fragmented memories; the commodification of mindfulness, self-care, pop culture and consumerism. Other works explore kinship amongst communities, juxtaposed with those that suggest an alienation or ambivalence towards a digitally accelerated world. Be sure to visit and check out the next best artists of the future.
Charity of the Month: Race Against Dementia
Credit: Race Against Dementia
Race Against Dementia is a global charity founded by Sir Jackie Stewart OBE in 2016 to raise awareness and funds with the mission to advance worldwide research and development in the pursuit of a dementia cure or treatment.
Since his wife Helen, Lady Stewart was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, Sir Jackie Stewart and his team have been racing to beat dementia with a Formula One attitude, by finding new ways to accelerate research and achieve RAD’s objectives. Grand Prix racing thrives on innovation, skill and passion. It has seen the fastest technological change of any business, industry or sport in the world and Race Against Dementia is working with F1 industry leaders to deliver results in the dementia research laboratory. Race Against Dementia Day is a day dedicated to raising funds to help beat dementia. Everyone can get involved and make a change by joining the race.
The aim is to raise £127,000 for Race Against Dementia charity. 1 in 3 people born today will die of dementia. That is the equivalent of 127,000 babies born in the UK every day and the goal is to raise £1 for each of these babies.
The funds raised for RAD Day will provide support for the Race Against Dementia Fellows’ Leadership Programme that aims to develop the Fellows’ skills and take them to an F1 level of collaboration, teamwork and innovation. Race Against Dementia Day will take place on 21 January each year, which is also Lady Stewart’s birthday. To play your part simply do “3” your way. This could be:
3k run, scoot or walk
3 hours of reading
Playing 3 board games with your family
Complete a 3-person challenge, such as a car racing game
Then you donate a minimum of £3 and share your activity online and nominate 3 people to join you in your race against dementia using #RADDay. If you’d like to download resources to help you plan and fundraise for Race Against Dementia Day, visit RAD’s website here.