Lives worth knowing: thinkers, scientists, artists and people of the land.
Banksy, the anonymous British street artist, has used satirical stencils in public spaces to comment on war, capitalism and power since the 1990s, while his documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop screened at the Sundance festival and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary.
Nikos Tsiforos brought together journalism, literature, theatre and cinema, writing more than 40 plays and over 60 screenplays. His stories often focused on people on the margins of Athens society, while his writing also included satirical accounts of history and mythology.
Ilias Petropoulos documented rebetiko, Kaliarda and aspects of urban life that fell outside official folklore studies. His work was associated with prosecutions and imprisonment, as well as criticism of his disparaging attacks and unsupported claims.
Kurt Gödel proved that formal mathematical systems have fundamental limits and contributed to logic, computability and cosmology. His life was shaped by his escape from Nazi Europe, his friendship with Einstein and serious mental health difficulties.
John von Neumann contributed to the foundations of quantum mechanics, computer science and game theory. His scientific career was also connected with the Manhattan Project and the development of the first American intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Douglas Hofstadter is an American cognitive scientist known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning book Gödel, Escher, Bach and his theory of “strange loops”. His work ranges from analogy and poetry translation to ambigrams and scepticism about artificial intelligence.
Donald Hoffman, a cognitive psychologist at UCI, argues that our senses do not reveal reality but act as an evolutionary interface, and that consciousness is the foundation of the physical world.
The British mathematician and physicist was awarded a Nobel Prize for proving that black hole formation is a robust prediction of general relativity, while his views on consciousness remain controversial.
American writer and professor Joseph Campbell developed the theory of the monomyth, showing that the world’s major mythologies share a common structure, and profoundly influenced modern cinema and thinking about the meaning of life.
One of Greek cinema’s most popular comedians, Thanasis Veggos appeared in 126 films and directed another seven, while his life was marked by exile, financial ruin and an unforgettable, constantly moving stage presence.
The American political scientist won the prize in 2009 for showing through field research that communities can manage shared resources sustainably, without necessarily requiring state intervention or privatization.
Once groomed by the Theosophical Society as the “vehicle” for the expected World Teacher, Jiddu Krishnamurti renounced all organized belief in 1929 and taught that “truth is a pathless land” — a journey marked by mystical episodes, secret relationships and international recognition.
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