Hay Festival Anytime - Listen and watch writers and thinkers from Hay Festivals around the world

How do we save the planet? Political economist and economic geographer Brett Christophers argues that first we need to look at our understanding of capitalism and climate, and accept that saving the planet is not profitable enough for markets and the private sector. Today’s consensus that curbing climate change can be done through green electricity and measures such as ever-cheaper solar and wind power aren’t the key, says Christophers, because investment is driven not by price but by profit. He talks about his illuminating book The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won’t Save the Planet, challenging our long-held views about how to combat climate change.

Hay resident Mary Morgan and local historian Elizabeth Bingham return to the Festival following previous years’ popular talks on local churches and castles. Now they’ve turned their attention to local monuments and memorials – their subjects include the Chartists’ cave, artists and actors, the Brute stonemasons, a Methodist martyr, a notorious ghost, aircraft crashes, Victorian vicars, a murdered pedlar, a Neolithic monument, a bulldog, water troughs and a wood.

Vanessa Walters discusses her British debut, a thriller about family, motherhood, identity and diaspora, with Alex Wheatle, author of Cane Warriors. Author of two books for young adults, this is Walters’ first adult fiction, described by writer Afua Hirsch as “a brilliantly original novel.”

Nicole Oruwari disappears during a boat trip. Born in south London, she had moved to Lagos to begin a new life with her perfect husband, but something went wrong. Back in London, her busybody aunt Claudine decides to fly to Lagos to investigate the mystery...

Ruby Wax speaks with Hay Festival guests about mental health issues. She is well known for advocating an open and honest approach, most recently in her book and touring show I’m Not as Well as I Thought I Was. Wax is one of our Hay Festival 2024 Thinkers in Residence – a group of writers and readers hosting events throughout the week questioning norms, finding new perspectives and challenging us to action.

Writer and broadcaster Horatio Clare is the author of Heavy Light: A Journey Through Madness, Mania and Healing. Journalist Bryony Gordon's latest book is Mad Woman and Robin Ince is a comedian, author and broadcaster.

Join us for an enlightening session with acclaimed climate scientist Michael Mann. Mann’s The New Climate War, which garnered high praise in the UK, showed how fossil fuel companies have waged a thirty-year campaign to deflect blame and responsibility and delay action on climate change. In his latest book Our Fragile Moment, Mann delivers a compelling narrative outlining the urgent threat of the unfolding climate crisis. His clear and impactful message emphasises the crucial need for immediate action to avert further devastation to our planet. In conversation with Chair of Wales Net Zero 2035, former Environment Minister for Wales, and author of #futuregen: Lessons from a Small Country, Jane Davidson.

Radical cultural historian, writer and activist Dr Diarmuid Hester brings to life the stories of seven remarkable figures – from EM Forster to Derek Jarman – and illuminates the connections between where they lived, who they loved and the art they created. He shows that a queer sense of place is central to the history of the twentieth century and powerfully evokes how much is lost when these spaces are forgotten. Hester is a research associate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and a BBC New Generation Thinker. He co-founded Cambridge’s queer performance and music night Club Urania.

Pioneering human rights campaigner, patriot, traitor, romantic and LGBTQ+ martyr, Roger Casement is one of the 20th century’s most complex and compelling figures. Roland Philipps (author of A Spy Named Orphan) discusses his biography of this contradictory man, Broken Archangel: The Tempestuous Lives of Roger Casement.

Internationally celebrated for unearthing the grotesque violence of the Belgian Congo, Casement won a knighthood for his humanitarian work in the Amazon jungle. But his internal fault lines ran deep, caught between England and Ireland, Protestant and Catholic, contemporary mores and private emotions. He was tried and executed for treason – only now can we fully understand his surprisingly modern and deeply relevant life and legacy.

The food and nutrition experts discuss eating for health and gut happiness.

Having a healthy gut is fundamental to good health, and the best way to harness the benefits of gut health is by eating plants, says the River Cottage author. He shares the know-how in How to Eat 30 Plants a Week: 100 Recipes to Boost Your Health and Energy, to help us put more plants on our plates, whether we are omnivores, vegetarians or vegans.

In Food for Life, scientist Tim Spector investigates everything from environmental impact and food fraud to allergies, ultra-processed food and deceptive labelling. He is author of Spoon-Fed and The Diet Myth, and Professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London. He also leads the ZOE Health Study, which analyses our unique gut, blood fat and blood sugar responses, so that we can improve our long-term health.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews and eye-witness accounts, David Van Reybrouck (Congo) brings the gripping story of Indonesia’s struggle for independence alive with human detail at every turn in Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World. Four million civilians had died during the WW2 occupation by the Japanese. In the grim aftermath of the war, another 200,000 people would lose their lives as the Dutch used savage violence to reassert their former colonial regime against the guerrilla war of resistance: the ‘revolusi’. But the Netherlands would be forced to cede all sovereignty, ending 350 years of colonial rule and setting a precedent that would reshape the world.

In the history and story of Africa is the history and story of human civilisation, and yet little of the continent’s early and modern story is widely known. Award-winning broadcaster and SOAS president Zeinab Badawi sets the record straight in her seminal book, An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence, which takes readers from the origins of our species, through ancient civilisations and medieval empires with remarkable queens and kings, to the miseries of conquest and the elation of independence. She tells Areeba Hamid, joint executive director of Greenpeace UK and the first woman and first person of colour to lead the organisation, about travelling to 30 countries in Africa, the people she spoke to, and why it’s essential the history of Africa is told through the voices of Africans themselves.

Jasper Fforde is here to show you the UK, but not as we know it. Civilisation has been rebuilt after an unspoken ‘Something That Happened’ five hundred years ago. Society is now colour-based, the strict levels of hierarchy dictated by the colours you can see. From the economy to the health service, the shadowy National Colour reigns supreme. Negotiating the narrow boundaries of the Rules, Jane and Eddie must find out the truth of their world: what is it, where is it and is there a safe place that they can escape to?

On an Eardisley farm, in conservative, rural Mid Wales, lives Dean Goodwin-Evans aka Boo La Croux: farmer, organiser of Hereford Pride, professional hairdresser, son of an Aston Villa footballer, husband of Paul, lover of horses, and Miss Drag UK 2021. Billie Charity is an award-winning portrait and reportage photographer who has worked closely with David Hurn, John Bulmer and Niall McDiarmid. She has published two critically-acclaimed photo books, People of Hay and Colour.

How many times have you wished you were able to explain something clearly and confidently? In this event, the BBC presenter and journalist Ros Atkins, creator of the Ros Atkins on… explainer series, shares the secrets he’s learned from years of working in high-pressure newsrooms, identifying the ten elements of a good explanation and the seven steps you need to take to express yourself as persuasively and accurately as possible.

Whether you’re preparing for a presentation, taking an exam or interviewing for a job, in The Art of Explanation Atkins provides the ultimate guide to communicating as effectively as possible. Atkins is BBC News’ analysis editor and the creator and presenter of Outside Source on the BBC News Channel and BBC World News. In conversation with journalist and author, Oliver Bullough.

Get an exclusive preview of Jodi Picoult’s new novel By Any Other Name, to be published in October. Moving between Elizabethan England and modern-day Manhattan, it explores the theme of identity and the ways in which two women, centuries apart – one of whom might be the real author of Shakespeare’s plays – are both forced to hide behind another name to make their voices heard. Jodi Picoult describes her 29th novel as the “book of my heart”, the one she was destined to write. She describes the sleuthing she carried out to establish her character Emilia’s links to Shakespeare, and her personal experiences as playwright and author.

Join comedian Robin Ince for his unique Book Club, in which he chats with guests about the weirdest books and strangest stories they have read, and their secret reading obsessions. He brings along many of his favourite pulpy horrors, awkward romances and most eccentric self help guides. Expect an exhilarating tour around these books, where readings from Crabs on the Rampage will be twinned with Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin. Robin was named Author of the Year by the Booksellers Association and his most recent book, Bibliomaniac: An Obsessive’s Tour of the Bookshops of Britain was described by the TLS as “a tonic”. Don’t miss this event exclusively designed for Hay Festival 2024.