By Hay Festival
Hay Festival Podcast
A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas became an instant classic when he recorded it on vinyl in 1952. Snow falls gently, anticipation fills the air, and Thomas' lyrical account of his childhood Christmases in a small Welsh town...
Broadcaster and historian Janina Ramirez talks to Kavita Puri about reappraising women’s roles in medieval history with her new book Femina. She then joins Poppy Evans for a chat about life outside of work, including an elaborate burial plan to...
Children’s author and activist Onjali Q Raúf talks about the inspirations behind her bestselling books and her work with refugees as well as reminiscing about childhood with Poppy Evans. Full-length Festival events can be watched over at hayfestival.org/hayplayer. Contact us at...
Physicist Jim Al-Khalili discusses his guide to leading a more rational life The Joy of Science with Glyn Morgan, before chatting to Poppy Evans about teaching, technology and his everyday life. Watch the full event Full-length Festival events can be watched over...
Rebecca Mead’s reflection of leaving America to return to her native land, Home/Land raises poignant questions about place. She discusses these with lawyer Philippe Sands, before joining Poppy Evans backstage to talk about culture, swimming and shadowing Margaret Atwood after...
Damon Galgut’s 2021 Booker Prize-winning novel charts a country in transition and a family in crisis. He discusses The Promise with author Elizabeth Day, as well as talking to Poppy Evans about everyday observations and rituals. Watch the full event Full-length Festival...
Wildlife writer and broadcaster Kate Humble talks about her debut cookbook Home Cooked with photographer Andrew Montgomery and Kitty Corrigan, before discussing everyday life, her failings at crafts and impostor syndrome with Poppy Evans. Watch the full event Full-length Festival events can...
Writer Liz Hyder discusses her new book The Gifts and how fiction illuminates the world with Sophie Haydock and Rebecca F John, before catching up with Poppy Evans about her time working at Hay Festival, and where she finds inspiration...
Comedian and writer David Baddiel joins Simon Schama to talk about his book for people on the right side of history, Jews Don’t Count, before speaking to Poppy Evans about the cassette tape that led him to comedy, writing practices...
Labour MP Jess Phillips tells Hugh Muir the inside story of Westminster with her book Everything You Really Need to Know About Politics: My Life as an MP. Afterwards Phillips speaks to Poppy Evans about childhood and life outside of...
Writer Joanne Harris talks to Sophie Raworth about her latest novel A Narrow Door before joining Poppy Evans off-stage to talk about her many eclectic interests outside of work; including writing amulets, staying in hotels and lucid dreaming. Watch the full...
Classicist and comedian Natalie Haynes reimagines the story of Medusa, putting the woman back at the centre of the story with her trademark passion, wit and feminism. She then joins Poppy Evans to talk about the crush that led her...
Global health expert Devi Sridhar delivers the John Maddox Lecture at Hay Festival with her new book Preventable: The Politics of Pandemics and How to Stop the Next One. She joins Poppy Evans for a chat about becoming a personal...
Gardener, broadcaster, and novelist Alan Titchmarsh talks to Alex Clark about his latest novel The Gift before heading backstage to discuss his earliest gardening memories, designing a garden for Nelson Mandela and more with Poppy Evans. Watch the full event Full-length Festival...
Award-winning neurologist Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan talks to writer Oliver Balch about her book The Sleeping Beauties and travelling the world to investigate so-called mystery illnesses, before joining Poppy Evans backstage to talk about storytelling and the influences on her work. Watch...
Leading mathematician Marcus du Sautoy discusses his book Thinking Better – The Art of the Shortcut with neurologist Hannah Critchlow at Hay Festival 2022, before joining Poppy Evans backstage to talk more about his influences Listen to the full event Full-length Festival...
Poppy Evans talks to bestselling author and illustrator Cressida Cowell about the influences behind her writing, from childhood adventures on an island to Shakespeare’s ambiguity, with a sneak peek of her new book series, Which Way to Anywhere. Watch the full...
The historian selects letters that have changed the course of global events or expressed a timeless idea – whether passion, rage or humour – from ancient times to the 21st century. Some are noble and inspiring, some despicable and unsettling,...
The writer and actor’s life is full of riotous adventures: Jennifer talks accidentally enrolling on a teacher training course with a young Dawn French, dressing up as punks and scaring people on the underground, bluffing her way to each BBC...
The Pakistani activist and writer Malala Yousafzai won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for her work in favour of the right of children, particularly girls, to education. Aged 17 when she received the award, she became the youngest ever person...
Peter, a brilliant scientist, is told he will lose everything he loves – his husband, family, friends. He has Motor Neurone Disease, a condition universally considered to be terminal. He is told it will destroy his nerve cells and that...
A gripping and triumphant tale of human compassion, All the Young Men is the true story of a young, single mother who finds herself driven to the forefront of the AIDS crisis and who risks everything to give victims back...
Think of any problem that we face and you may be surprised to learn that there is already a solution out there. We just need to know where to look – and have the courage to think big. Everywhere, people...
The walker discusses her mesmerising and inspirational memoir: just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of thirty-two years, is terminally ill, their home is taken away and they lose their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they...
Eric Ngalle Charles is a poet, author and playwright who has claimed asylum in Wales. His uplifting story describes how literature and creative writing helped him to overcome his hasty departure from Cameroon when he was 17, how he survived...
Leïla Slimani is the first Moroccan woman to win France’s most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, which she won for the shocking thriller and global best-seller, Lullaby. She discusses her work and her novel Adèle with lawyer Philippe Sands. Watch...
Carole Cadwalladr won the Orwell Prize and the Reporters Without Borders Award among many others for her investigative journalism in The Observer into the subversion of the democratic process and the impact of big data analytics and interventions on the...
Actor, writer and director Ethan Hawke talks to author David Mitchell at Hay Festival 2021 about his first novel in nearly 20 years: A Bright Ray of Darkness. A young man makes his Broadway debut as his marriage implodes –...
Award-winning violinist, broadcaster, author and journalist Clemency Burton-Hill discusses the joys of classical music with Peter Florence at Hay Festival 2018. Clemency’s book Year of Wonder is a personal selection of 365 pieces of music for classical music geeks and...
For the last episode of this series, stars of literature, stage and screen come together to celebrate the unique power of words in our very special Hay Festival 2021 Gala. Join host Natalie Haynes for this evening of joy and...
Poet and Professor of Languages Mererid Hopwood selects Ifor ap Glyn from Hay Festival 2017, who took Hedd Wyn as his theme for the Gwyn Jones Hay Festival Lecture, Rutger Bregman discussing his book Humankind with Lily Cole at Hay...
Artist, poet, rapper, literary activist and songwriter Rufus Mufusa selects Caleb Femi talking about his astounding debut collection to Max Porter from the Hay Book of the Month, November 2020, Kayo Chingonyi accepting the International Dylan Thomas Prize from Hay...
The award winning author of Bearmouth Liz Hyder selects Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane talking Lost Spells at the Winter Weekend 2020, the magnificent mathematician Marcus du Sautoy from Hay Festival 2013, and the incomparable Lemn Sissay performing his poetry...
Journalist and broadcaster Guto Harri selects the magnificent Maya Angelou from Hay Festival 2002, Dr David Jarret discussing a good death and Poet and Chair of Welsh and Celtic studies Mererid Hopwood exploring language at Hay Festival 2020. The Hay Festival...
Writer, novelist and columnist Tahmima Anam selects her very first Hay event back in 2012 with Helena Kennedy, Joan Bakewell, Martin Rees and Anita Anand, Shahidul Alam speaking at Hay Festival Dhaka in 2014 and the novelist, cultural commentator and...
Writer, broadcaster and comedian Natalie Haynes has chosen Colm Toibin and Lisa Dwan giving a rehearsed reading of Pale Sister in 2018, Troy Story, the Trojan War from a female perspective, an event she presented with Chris Riddell at Hay...
Welsh writer and former Hay Festival International Fellow selects the inimitable American Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison from 2014, the much missed and remarkable Jan Morris from 2009 and a conversation he held with Diana de la Vega at Hay Festival...
Former BBC journalist, writer, presenter and director of the European Literature Network Rosie Goldsmith selects the incomparable Clive James from 2007, the Man Booker International Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk from 2010 and the David and Ben Crystal double act from...
The Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford and author of Slowdown: The End of the Great Acceleration, selects Adam Rutherford on the Book of Humans from 2019, Matt Hancock talking to Amol Rajan pre-Covid in 2018 and Jeanette...
Founder of the Everyday Sexism project and author Laura Bates selects Jeanette Winterson talking Shakespeare from Hay 2016, Ali Smith’s 2005 interview with Francine Stock and writer and political activist Gloria Steinem from Hay Festival Digital 2020. The Hay Festival...
Associate Editor for Culture at The Guardian Claire Armitstead selects poet, writer, musician and activist Akala, speaking about his memoir Native, Professor of Psychology Sarah-Jayne Blakemore on the secret life of the teenage brain, both from Hay Festival 2018, and...
Journalist and author Oliver Bullough selects the Serbian revolutionary Srdja Popovic from 2015, Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexeivich and author Tom Bullough from Hay Festival 2016, and the magical and musical Julia Donaldson from 2017. The Hay Festival Podcast is supported...
Magazine Journalist Kitty Corrigan selects nature writer and farmer John Lewis-Stempel from 2015, award-winning British-Turkish novelist Elif Shafak from 2013, and one of the major poets of the 20th Century and Nobel Prize winner for literature, the magnificent Seamus Heaney...
The author and editor of GQ selects the remarkable Tracy Emin speaking in 2017, Simon Schama on the Story of the Jews, an epic tale of endurance against destruction, from Hay Festival 2014 and Brigadier James Cowan, who commanded the...
The writer and broadcaster selects Ted Hughes from 1998, reciting poetry while the wind battered the Hay marquees, the indomitable Jody Williams in 2013, Astronomer Royal Martin Rees in 2016 and the magnificent Maya Angelou from 2002. The Hay Festival Podcast...
The best-selling historical thriller writer (SJ Parris) choices include Wallander author Henning Mankell from 2011, Toni Morrison talking about her novel Beloved in 2014 and the irrepressible Jilly Cooper from 2018. The Hay Festival Podcast is supported by Baillie Gifford Investment...
The journalist and author of Greetings from Bury Park selects three distinctive and distinguished actors; Harry Belafonte from 2012, Charlotte Rampling in 2017 and the inimitable Peter Falk speaking in 2007. The Hay Festival Podcast is supported by Baillie Gifford Investment...
The broadcast journalist chooses The Tiger who came to Tea author Judith Kerr speaking in 2017, Toni Morrison talking to Razia Iqbal in 2014 and her brother and author Peter Godwin speaking at Storymoja in Nairobi in 2013. The Hay Festival...
The Professor of Law and author of Baillie Gifford Prize winning East West Street and Sunday Times bestseller The Ratline selects President Jimmy Carter from 2008, the Director of Public Prosecutions, now Leader of the Labour party, Keir Starmer speaking...
Five inspiring women writers Elif Shafak, Leila Slimani, Kapka Kassabova, Janne Teller and Hilary Cottam offer their visions for the future of Europe on the event of our digital Hay Festival Europa28. The Hay Festival Podcast is supported by Baillie Gifford...
