The lost world of the London coffeehouse | Dr Matthew Green | TEDxEastEnd

Would you go up to a stranger in a coffee shop and ask them for the latest news? Dr Matthew Green takes us back to the 17th and 18th century when London's original fleet of coffeehouses were very different from the current crop of branded cafes. Matthew calls for a coffeehouse revolution to bring us out of digital isolation and back into physical community. Historian and public speaker Dr Matthew Green is the author of the acclaimed book London: A Travel Guide Through Time (Penguin) and the founder of Unreal City Audio, which produces immersive, critically acclaimed tours of London as live events and downloads. He writes for some of our biggest newspapers, appears in documentaries across the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, and has a PhD from Oxford University in the history of the media. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx