Full Festival Programme Released!
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22-25 May
Big Ideas
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22-25 May
Sign up
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Big Ideas
Music & Performance
Programme
Accommodation
Experiences
Sixth Form & Family
Info
Tickets
Festivals
Explore IAI
IAI Events
Education
Volunteer
Support Us
Debates
Explore the first glimpse of our cutting edge ideas programme coming to HowTheLightGetsIn Hay 2026.
Click the boxes below to explore the clashes you can expect at our next world-leading festival.
Click here to discover the speakers attending this year's festival!
Book Tickets Now
New
The End of the Great Alliance
Jeremy Corbyn, Michael Ignatieff, Gillian Tett
New
Spacetime and the Framework of the World
Avshalom Elitzur, Jonathan Oppenheim, Ivette Fuentes
New
Gutenberg vs Zuckerberg
Jimmy Wales, Cory Doctorow, Mary Harrington
The Unintelligible Universe
Brian Greene, Adam Frank, Chiara Marletto, Hilary Lawson
Patriotism, Populism, and the Fate of Nations
Zia Yusuf, Mahmood Mamdani, Slavoj Žižek, Gillian Tett
New
Judgement Day In A Post-Truth Age
Graham Harman, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Kehinde Andrews
Gender Equality and the Freedom Trap
Minna Salami, Mary Harrington, Kathleen Stock, Lucy Jones
New
The Good, the Bad, and the Universal
Simon Critchley, Kehinde Andrews, Kathleen Stock
The Return of the Grand Narrative
Steve Fuller, Michael Shermer, Chiara Marletto
Work, Leisure, and the Meaning of Life
Maurice Glasman, Sophie Scott-Brown, Richard Sennett
New
Neural Networks and Neural Nonsense
Cory Doctorow, Federico Faggin, Alison Gopnik
New
The Not So Blind Watchmaker
Denis Noble, Eva Jablonka, Samir Okasha
New
The Age of the Illiberal Democracy
Kishore Mahbubani, Michael Ignatieff, Marlène Laruelle
New
Escaping the Shackles of Language
Martha Fiennes, Lera Boroditsky, Richard Sennett
New
The Mystery of the Self and the Body
Slavoj Žižek, Martine Nida-Rümelin, Federico Faggin, Monima Chada
New
Water is not H2O
Hilary Lawson, Michael Shermer, Ivette Fuentes
New
One Giant Conflict for Mankind
Kishore Mahbubani, Adam Frank, Laura Grego
Reason and Revolution
Rowan Williams, Cornel West, Susan Neiman
Cosmology in Crisis
George Ellis, Adam Frank, Claudia de Rham
New
In Search of Place and Purpose
James Orr, David Wengrow, Thangam Debbonaire
New
Everything We Knew about Economics is Wrong
Zia Yusuf, Paul Johnson, Zarah Sultana
New
Freedom, Democracy, and the Law
James Orr, Christopher Steele, Marlène Laruelle, Philippe Sands
New
New Rebels and A Failed Establishment
Matt Goodwin, Thangam Debbonaire, Louisa Munch, Eric Kaufmann
New
Closer to the Truth
Steve Fuller, Tim Maudlin, Cheryl Misak
Maps of the Mind
Simon Baron-Cohen, Karl Friston, Victoria Trumbull
New
The Planck Paradox
Federico Faggin, Chiara Marletto, Tim Maudlin, Jonathan Oppenheim
New
Doctors vs Machines
Xand van Tulleken, Denis Noble, Charlotte Blease
New
The Reckless and the Rational
Gillian Tett, Paul Johnson, Zachary Karabell, Byrne Hobart
New
New Age, Old Gods
Simon Critchley, Jessica Frazier, Steve Stewart-Williams
Memes, Minds, and the Myth of Control
Victoria Trumbull, Tony D. Sampson
Lost in the Universe
George Efstathiou, Claudia de Rham, Steve Fuller
New
Desire and Danger in the Age of Self Love
Trudy Barber, Maureen Down, Farha Khalidi
New
The Edge of the Known
Hilary Lawson, Graham Harman, Jessica Frazier
New
Affluence and Its Aftershocks
Guy Standing, Roy Baumeister, Janne Teller
New
Trad Wives and New Feminists
Farha Khalidi, Julie Bindel, Mary Killen
New
Music and The Sound of the Unsayable
Sheila Atim, Janne Teller, Steven Mithen, Magnus Fiennes
New
Warfare in the Academy
Michael Gove, John Ralston Saul, Minna Salami
New
The Edge of the World
Erling Kagge, Joanna Kavenna, Steven Mithen, Maria Balaska
New
A New Story of Humanity
Kishore Mahbubani, Eric Kaufmann, Martha Fiennes, Maureen Dowd
New
All the World's a Game
Ruth Kinna, Roy Baumeister, Emily Ryall, Jonny Thomson