Previous Speakers
HowTheLightGetsIn gathers global thought leaders to answer the most pressing questions of our era.
Explore a few of our previous speakers and stay tuned as we release our Hay 2026 line-up!
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HowTheLightGetsIn gathers global thought leaders to answer the most pressing questions of our era.
Explore a few of our previous speakers and stay tuned as we release our Hay 2026 line-up!
“We are the cosmos made conscious and life is the means by which the universe understands itself.”
Famed for his poetic take on the cosmos, physicist and broadcaster Brian Cox has become one of the world’s most recognizable voices in science communication. A former musician turned particle physicist, Cox has played a key role in major experiments at CERN and the Large Hadron Collider, while also captivating millions through BBC series such as Wonders of the Universe, The Planets, and Forces of Nature. Cox has been showered with praise for his contributions, appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), and is the recipient of the Institute of Physics Kelvin Medal and the Michael Faraday Prize.
Beyond his work as a Royal Society professor of physics at the University of Manchester, Cox advocates for public scientific literacy and political responsibility in science funding. His style blends rigorous physics with a deep sense of awe — bringing relativity, entropy, and quantum theory into living rooms around the globe. His rare ability to fuse clarity with wonder has earned global acclaim.
"If I had a torch I would hand it to Brian Cox." — David Attenborough
"Theoretical physicists used to explain what was observed. Now they try to explain why they can't explain what was not observed."
Fearlessly critical of the scientific mainstream, Sabine Hossenfelder is a groundbreaking theoretical physicist who specialises in the foundations of science. She is a leading science communicator, best-selling author and researcher. Her recent books include Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray, and the New York Times's Best Selling Existential Physics: A Scientist's Guide to Life's Biggest Questions.
Hossenfelder is the creator behind the popular YouTube channel "Science without the gobbledygook," which has amassed over one million subscribers. Her writing has featured in some of the world's top publications including Scientific American, New Scientist, and Nautilus.
“A physicist who is utterly fearless, completely honest, and quite funny.” — Peter Woit, mathematical physicist
“A notorious inability to express emotions makes human beings the only animals capable of suicide.”
Alain de Botton is the bestselling philosopher redefining how we understand love, work, and meaning in the modern world. He first rose to prominence with Essays in Love, a novel-philosophy hybrid that became an international bestseller. He has since authored several bestselling works that blend literary elegance, psychological insight, and philosophical depth.
In 2008, he founded The School of Life, an organisation dedicated to developing emotional intelligence through philosophy, psychotherapy, and culture. De Botton has lectured widely, appeared in multiple television documentaries, and written for The Times, The Guardian, The New York Times, and others, consistently arguing for the power of ideas to transform how we love, work, and live.
“Alain de Botton, one of our era’s most uncommonly perceptive, lyrical, and lucid existential contemplatives.” — The Marginalian
“Russia is America’s Ghost of Christmas Future'
Fiona Hill is one of the most highly distinguished foreign affairs specialists and authors in the world today. Senior advisor to Presidents George W Bush, Barack Obama and briefly Donald Trump, she is a former official at the U.S. National Security Council specializing in Russian and European affairs. She was famously a witness in the November 2019 House hearings regarding the impeachment inquiry during the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
As well as a distinguished statesman, Hill is a best-selling author of numerous books including There is Nothing For You Here, and Mr Putin: Operative in the Kremlin, which argues that Vladimir Putin is in fact a man of numerous and complex identities.
"No one in the West understands Russia's strategic thinking, Vladimir Putin's strategic ambitions, as well as Fiona Hill" - Ezra Klein
"The world has far too much morality.”
Steven Pinker, joining us from America via Zoom, is a cognitive psychologist, linguist, best-selling author, and one of the world’s most influential public intellectuals. He is the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He is well known for his defense of the Enlightenment and moral progress.
Pinker has been named as one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World Today.” He is the author of Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters and Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.
“Pinker is right. Not just a bit right, but completely, utterly, incontrovertibly right.” — The Daily Mail
"I'm literally a communist, you idiot."
Ash Sarkar is a senior editor at Novara Media, best known for her media appearances throughout the UK political landscape and her strongly held libertarian communist views. She was closely associated with the media commentary around Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party and has since become a fierce defender of Palestine and critic of neoliberal politics around the world.
Alongside her work at Novara, Ash teaches at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. She is also a regular contributor to The Guardian and The Independent, as well as being a frequent panellist on BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze. Her recent book, Minority Rule, criticises identity politics and argues that the left needs to reengage with the working class. In 2023, she was ranked 45th on the New Statesman's Left Power List.
"One of the boldest and most exciting thinkers of her generation." — Naomi Klein
"The budget doesn't f*cking matter"
"We're on the Titanic, I'm the guy that's seen the iceberg. You know what I mean? I'm trying to let people know"
Gary Stevenson is a YouTuber, former financial trader, and firebrand activist against inequality. From humble origins in Ilford, Stevenson has made a name for himself by challenging the old boys' club of finance and beating them at their own game. In 2011 he was Citibank's most profitable trader by banking on increased inequality and growing poverty.
Since leaving the city, Gary has founded the GarysEconomics YouTube channel devoted to explaining economics in plain English. His recent memoir, 'The Trading Game' exposes the rotten core at the heart of the financial industry.
“Stevenson is a sharp observer, with a gift for colourful if merciless description.”—Financial Times
"All this chaos. It's part of who I am."
Jordan Stephens is a British artist, actor, and mental health advocate, best known as one-half of the chart-topping hip-hop duo Rizzle Kicks. The group succeeded with hits like “Down with the Trumpets” and performed at major festivals, including Glastonbury.
Beyond music, Stephens is an advocate for men’s mental health, speaking openly about emotional well-being and challenging traditional notions of masculinity. He has also acted in TV series such as Glue, Catastrophe, and Feel Good, and films like Rogue One and Teen Spirit. His latest book, Avoidance, Drugs, Heartbreak explores the struggles of a young man rising to fame.
"An energetic and unguarded memoir" — The Guardian on Avoidance, Drugs and Heartbreak."
"The most cognitively brilliant people usually have had to sacrifice their emotional selves."
Ruby Wax OBE is a seminal British-American talent, excelling as an actress, writer, TV personality, and mental health advocate. Her impressive career includes captivating performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company and a memorable role in the ITV sitcom Girls on Top.
Wax has been a longstanding advocate and campaigner for mental health, sharing her own experiences of bipolar disorder and depression. Recognized for her contributions, she received the Officer of the Order of the British Empire title. Recently, she released a poignant book and audiobook, I'm Not As Well As I Thought I Was, documenting her ongoing journey and relentless battle against depression.
"Nobody can make the serious funny and the funny serious quite like Ruby." — Alastair Campbell
“See you, either in Hell, or in Communism.”
Slavoj Žižek infamously said “Humanity is OK, but 99% of people are boring idiots” — Žižek himself is certainly neither boring nor an idiot. Žižek is arguably the most provocative philosopher of our times. Foreign Policy named Žižek a Top 100 Global Thinker "for giving voice to an era of absurdity”. With never a dull moment, Žižek breathes new life into Marxism, Hegel, psychoanalysis, philosophy, politics, film and culture.
Žižek is the author of more than 50 books, including most recently Against Progress. He is a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana's Department of Philosophy.
“There is something inexplicably touching about all Žižek's mischievous bombast” — The Guardian
"Humans think they are free, conscious beings, when in truth they are deluded animals."
One of Britain’s most provocative thinkers, John Gray is a political philosopher known for dismantling liberalism and exposing the illusions of human progress. Former Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics, Gray has challenged orthodoxy across the political spectrum with a body of work that ranges from critiques of Enlightenment rationalism to meditations on the limits of secular humanism.
He is the bestselling author of Straw Dogs, The Silence of Animals, and Seven Types of Atheism as well as a frequent contributor to The Guardian, New Statesman, and The Times Literary Supplement. Gray’s sharp insights and contrarian stance continue to shape contemporary debates on ethics, politics, and the future of humanity.
"One of the most important thinkers alive." — The Times
'You don't make the UK more level by making London Poorer'
Sadiq Khan is the current Mayor of London, former MP and human rights lawyer. He has had an extensive political career, most recently winning an unprecedented third term as Mayor. Prior to the mayoralty, Sadiq was an MP and member of the Shadow Cabinet under Ed Miliband where he held the posts of Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, Lord Chancellor, and Minister for London.
Throughout his time as Mayor, he has placed climate change, air quality, and social issues at the heart of his mayoralty. He has recently authored a book Breatheabout his approach to climate change and his campaign to win the climate argument.
"Khan is that rare thing: a politician with a mission and vision for the community he serves." — Guardian
“Writers should be entitled to write from any perspective, race, gender, or background they choose.”
Lionel Shriver is an award winning author and provocative voice in contemporary literature, unafraid to tackle contentious subjects with unflinching honesty. Her acclaimed novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin, delves into the complexities of motherhood and moral responsibility, which earned her the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2005.
Shriver's fearless exploration of societal norms and the individual psyche makes her one of the most compelling figures in modern literature.
"Unafraid to confront uncomfortable truths." — The New York Times
"Democracy is not just about voting every few years; it’s about people having real control over their lives."
Jeremy Corbyn is a British politician and current independent MP who served as the Labour party's leader from 2015 to 2020. Representing the constituency of Islington North since 1983, he was a vocal backbencher with a reputation of voting against his party until he was elected leader with the largest party membership for a generation. He contested the 2017 general election and won 40% of the vote, the largest Labour share since 2001.
Since he has been expelled from the Labour party, Jeremy has gone on to win his Islington seat as an independent. His views place him firmly on the progressive left where he is staunchly anti-war, anti-austerity, pro nationalisation and pro-Palestine.
"His time in the Labour Party may be over, but Corbynmania lives on." — Irish Times
Cathy Newman is the first female main presenter of Channel 4 News. She spent over a decade in Fleet Street, latterly with the Financial Times. Since joining Channel 4 News in 2006 she has broadcast a string of scoops, including allegations of violent abuse against the British barrister John Smyth, sexual harassment allegations against the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Rennard, and an investigation into a British sex offender, Simon Harris, which saw him jailed for 17 years.
She was also the only broadcast journalist to travel with Angelina Jolie and the foreign secretary William Hague to the Congo as part of a campaign against sexual violence.
"My reason for writing... was the conviction that the economy is too important to leave to the economists.”
Yanis Varoufakis is a Greek economist, academic, and politician who rose to international prominence in 2015 as Greece's Minister of Finance. His outspoken criticism of the European Union's economics and confrontational style nearly caused Greece to leave the Euro. He has since become leader of the DiEM25 party, which seeks to reform the EU from within.
Yanis has a storied career as an academic and public intellectual. He has held academic positions at the Universities of Cambridge, East Anglia, Sydney, Glasgow, Athens, Austin and Stockholm. He has since written several bestselling books around popular economics, with hist most recent book Technofeudalism outlining how capitalism has been replaced with a modern version of feudalism.
"Varoufakis is a remarkable combination of analyst and dreamer." — Financial Times
"We have to believe that things can be better, or we give up."
Alastair Campbell is one of the most important voices in modern British politics. Best known for his role as chief spokesman and strategist under Tony Blair, Campbell now works predominantly as a writer and broadcaster, remaining a leading thinker on the centre-left.
Campbell is co-host of the award-winning podcast The Rest is Politics alongside Rory Stewart. He has also recently written But What Can I Do?, in which he explores why politics has gone wrong, and suggests what each of us can do to overthrow a broken political system and make one that works for everyone.
"A loyal, brave and audacious man" — Neil Kinnock
"Quantum mechanics makes absolutely no sense."
Awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on black holes, Roger Penrose is a world-renowned mathematician and physicist. In recent years, he has investigated the relationship between physics and the mind, famously arguing that quantum mechanics plays an essential role in solving the mysteries of human consciousness.
Penrose has made numerous appearances on media such as BBC, Closer to Truth, and The Joe Rogan Experience. In 1994, he was knighted for his services to science.
"He is one of the very few people I've met in my life who, without reservation, I call a genius" — Lee Smolin
A UK First. Back To Big Thinking
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