Science

Two bird enthusiasts take us under their wing in this celebration of our feathered friends and our relationship with them.

Broadcaster, author and lifelong birder Jon Gower (Birdland) reminds us that birds are commonplace miracles that have inspired artists for centuries, from the symphonic song of the wren and the clack of a puffin’s beak to epic migrations and sunset murmurations. History and nature writer Adam Nicolson (Bird School) recently decided to redress his ignorance of bird life, observing nightingales, cuckoos, turtle doves, pheasants, robins and owls; where they nest, how they sing, how they mate and fight, what preys on them, what they are like as living things.

Our birds face climate threat and decline in biodiversity, and their call has in many ways fallen silent. Join Gower and Nicolson in conversation with presenter, actress and author Anni Llŷn, to find out more about the inhabitants of our skies and what can be done to restore their soundtrack.

How can we protect ourselves from the pollution, chemicals and toxins that pervade our environment? And how important is nature to our lives? Proponent of Ecological Medicine Dr Jenny Goodman, nature connections researcher and writer Durre Shahwar and Oxford Professor of Biodiversity Kathy Willis connect the health of our planet with our own well-being.

Goodman (Getting Healthy in Toxic Times) seeks to understand how environmental factors affect our health, from pollution to toxins to radiation. Shahwar is co-editor of Gathering, an anthology on nature and climate by women of colour. Her research has explored how marginalised communities form connections with nature. Professor Willis (Good Nature) has dedicated her research to proving the link between the amount of green space in our lives and our better health, mood and longevity. In conversation with author, conservationist and award-winning broadcaster, Ben Garrod.

Explore the complexity of rivers and the way they’re integral to the landscapes they run through. Our experts – Simone Lowthe-Thomas of Bannau Brycheiniog National Park and author Robert Macfarlane – talk to the chair of the National Trust, René Olivieri, about how we get the balance right between sustainable approaches to environmental, agricultural and urban needs.

Lowthe-Thomas works for the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority as Director of Nature Recovery and Climate Change. Macfarlane is internationally renowned for his writing on nature, people and place. His books include Underland, Landmarks and The Lost Spells, co-created with artist Jackie Morris. Olivieri previously served as the chair of organisations including the RSPCA and the Wildlife Trust.

Gain a unique and heartfelt insight into the healing nature of our relationship with animals from Jay Griffiths, author of Wild: An Elemental Journey, Kith: The Riddle of the Childscape and Pip Pip: A Sideways Look at Time.

She discusses the evidence showing that animals can heal us, drawing on Indigenous knowledge, scientific discoveries and history to explore how animals can have a role in every level of healing, from the individual to the collective.

In conversation with writer, editor and producer Kathryn Tann, Griffiths tells stories from her new book How Animals Heal Us, including that of a pot-bellied pig who saved her owner’s life, and lions who guarded a girl from kidnappers.

The anthropologist and broadcaster sheds fresh light on how people have lived in Britain, by examining the stories of the dead. Her three books on burial, Ancestors, Buried and Crypt, revive characters from the past, starting with the earliest Britons and journeying through the Roman occupation and on to the Middle Ages.

From the murky world of prehistory to Roman graveside feasts, and from richly furnished Anglo Saxon graves to a pit of murdered Vikings, she shows that the information we can extract from archaeological human remains represents an essential tool for understanding our own history.

Professor Alice Roberts was a presenter on Channel 4’s Time Team, and went on to write and present The Incredible Human Journey, Origins of Us and Ice Age Giants on BBC2. She is also presenter of Digging for Britain.

Guides from the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park lead a walk through the beautiful surrounds of Hay-on-Wye, discussing the impact of the climate emergency on national parks.

Hay-on-Wye is located within 520 square miles of beautiful landscape that makes up the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. The National Park is driving change to bring about a sustainable future, meeting our needs within planetary boundaries. Their Hay Festival series of walks take you into the town’s local environment while offering the opportunity to learn more about the Park’s work and its treasured landscape.

Please wear appropriate footwear and outdoor gear.

Building homes – one and a half million of them – is at the top of the government’s agenda, and no NIMBYs, newts or bats will be allowed to get in the way. Nor will any planning rules, with the government set to rewrite them so that homes can be built on the Green Belt, which was instituted to stop urban sprawl.

But how can we solve the very real housing crisis without destroying the countryside?

Join architect, author and Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud, wildlife TV presenter, conservationist, author and campaigner Chris Packham, and the founder of the Community Planning Alliance, Rosie Pearson, for a look at a common sense approach to tackling the country’s housing needs.

They talk to Sarah Lamptey, presenter, writer, DJ and founder of Showerbox, which brings free showers to enhance the lives of those facing homelessness in London.

How do we hold on to hard-won reproductive rights, in the UK and internationally? How can we secure the same rights for future generations? At a time when reproductive rights are in retrograde in the US, our panel, chaired by broadcaster Stacey Dooley, celebrates the UK’s proud history and continued fight for a world where everyone is empowered to make decisions about their own health and body.

Kate Gilmore is Chair of the Board for International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and co-chair of the WHO Gender and Human Rights Advisory Panel on Human Reproduction. Family law barrister Dr Charlotte Proudman researches and teaches gender inequality under law at the University of Cambridge. She founded Right to Equality, campaigning to put gender justice at the top of the legal agenda.

They are joined by Nikki, a young activist representing the 16–19 Participation Advisory Group from Brook, the only national charity to offer both clinical sexual health services and education and well-being services. Nikki will talk about the impact the US rights changes are having, and why it is crucial to educate young people about their reproductive rights.

Truth is a much-debated concept in our modern world, but according to Mike Berners-Lee (There is No Planet B) there’s nothing more important. The climate and sustainability expert delves into his new book A Climate of Truth, to spell out why, if humanity is to thrive in the decades ahead, the most critical step is to raise standards of honesty in our politics, our media and our businesses. By turning our attention to the principle of truth, he argues, we can all have much more impact on the issues we care about. The professor in the Institute for Social Futures at Lancaster University talks to journalist Rosie Boycott.

Zahaan Bharmal argues that, far from being abstract, physics can help us answer some of the most urgent questions about life. Why are some relationships unstable, while others last a lifetime? Why do the rich keep getting richer? And why do we all make so many irrational decisions?

You don’t need to be a scientist to have a stake in these answers. Join Bharmal for an abstract-free, accessible look at the hidden and surprising ways in which physics can help us to make sense of our unpredictable world.

Bharmal works for Google as a senior director of strategy. He writes about science for the Guardian and won NASA’s Exceptional Public Achievement Medal for services to science communication.

OCD is often used as a shorthand for tidiness or as the punchline of a joke, but obsessive compulsive disorder is one of society’s most misunderstood conditions. Actor Tuppence Middleton has lived with OCD since the age of 11, struggling with obsessive thoughts and compulsions which she visualises as scorpions inhabiting her mind.

In this candid event, Middleton will talk about her diagnosis, how OCD manifests in her life, and discuss her memoir Scorpions, a visceral and uncompromising look at living with OCD. Middleton works in film, television and theatre; she starred in Netflix’s Sense8 and had roles in The Imitation Game and Shadowplay.

When was the last time you really stayed away from your phone? Or picked it up just to do the one task you intended, and didn’t fall into scrolling through your apps for hours? There is little doubt that we’re addicted to our smartphones, but interacting with the online world is an essential component of modern life, so it’s difficult to work out how to step away and find a balance.

In this offline session Dr Kaitlyn Regehr discusses her book Smartphone Nation: Why We’re All Addicted to Screens and What We Can Do About It, and shows how to keep the advantages and joy of the internet while also identifying the dangers. Look out for tips on how to withdraw when we’re being over-reliant on our devices! Regehr is an associate professor at University College London.

Podcast series The Kill List tells the gripping story of a four-year true crime investigation centred on the dark web, but with real world victims across the globe. In this event, podcast presenter Jamie Bartlett and host Carl Miller share the story of how Miller, a British journalist, secretly intercepted hundreds of paid murder orders on a scam hitman-for-hire website on the darknet.

They follow his journey from first making the disturbing discovery; his race against time to warn those in danger; and the increasingly urgent battle to persuade the global authorities to get involved. Miller’s collaboration with the police agencies around the globe has led to 34 arrests and 28 convictions to date across 11 countries.

Jamie Bartlett is the presenter of several hit BBC podcasts, including The Missing Cryptoqueen. Carl Miller is a tech journalist and founder of CASM, the digital research team at the think tank Demos UK.

In today’s polarised and polarising world, we need to zoom into the processes happening inside each of us. Why do some people become radicalised? Who is most susceptible to ideological thinking? Can we unchain our minds from toxic dogmas? Dr Leor Zmigrod is a pioneer in the field of ‘political neuroscience’, and drawing on her groundbreaking research she uncovers the hidden mechanisms driving our beliefs and behaviours.

Learn more about our political beliefs and ideologies – not transient thoughts in our minds, divorced from our bodies, but actually changing our neural architecture, our cells. Find out about rigid thinking in ourselves and others, and how to recognise our ability to resist irrational rules and authority. Regardless of your political stance, Zmigrod will challenge you to reassess your convictions – and what they are doing to your brain.

Guides from the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park lead a walk through the beautiful surrounds of Hay-on-Wye. You’ll be joined by local experts who will give their insights into this treasured landscape.

Hay-on-Wye is located within 520 square miles of beautiful landscape that makes up the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. The National Park is driving change to bring about a sustainable future, meeting our needs within planetary boundaries. Their Hay Festival series of walks take you into the town’s local environment while offering the opportunity to learn more about the Park’s work and its treasured landscape.

British broadcaster Naga Munchetty (BBC Breakfast) leads a candid discussion about women’s health and pain, exploring why the healthcare system can often feel rigged against women.

Munchetty spoke out in 2023 about her diagnosis of the gynaecological condition adenomyosis and her struggles to be taken seriously by healthcare professionals despite years of pain and symptoms. In response, scores of women shared their own stories of feeling dismissed by doctors, and Munchetty went on to campaign on the issue. Her book It’s Probably Nothing explores the challenges of being heard, diagnosed and treated.

In this event Munchetty looks at why women’s pain and health issues have historically been ignored – and why pain has been viewed as an innate part of being female – and highlights the things women need to do to advocate for themselves in the healthcare system.

The leading environmental experts examine the uncomfortable truths at the heart of the climate and nature crises, and reveal the system shifts needed to achieve real change, in conversation with the co-Executive Director of Greenpeace UK.

Climate researcher Dr Friederike Otto, author of Climate Injustice, has been described as “the scientist finding climate change’s smoking gun” (Wired). Her bracing investigation into extreme weather’s impact on the world’s most vulnerable reveals the failures of political and social infrastructures around the world and shines a light on the damage inflicted on real lives.

Leading environmentalist and Chair of Natural England Tony Juniper CBE (Just Earth) identifies the real problem – that inequality is the main obstacle blocking action. We can’t fight the climate and nature crises without addressing the ever-widening gaps between the rich and poor, the powerful and the weak.

Dying: do we all have a right to defend ourselves against intolerable suffering? Or should the law prohibit assisted dying; revere human life for its own sake? Our panel discuss the moral, legal and practical issues arising from the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill 2024 that is now working its way through Parliament.

Henry Marsh is a neurosurgeon, author of And Finally: Matters of Life and Death, who defends a right to euthanasia. Sonia Sodha is a journalist whose recent exploration of assisted dying for a BBC Radio documentary led her to change her mind, and now opposes it. Lord Sumption is an historian and former Supreme Court judge who decided the last ‘test’ case on assisted dying (Nicklinson). Alex Goodman KC is a barrister specialising in human rights, who briefed MPs in Westminster on the 2024 Bill.

Nuclear war is a far greater immediate threat to humanity’s survival than climate change, yet we are in near-total denial. The environment campaigner and Six Degrees author puts the issue back to the top of the global agenda.

We are standing on a nuclear knife edge, and while climate heating threatens humanity over many decades, nuclear war could destroy civilisation in just a few hours. But the climate experience teaches us that a worldwide mobilisation can work. Lynas presents an unflinching view of the nuclear nightmare, and describes the imperatives for human civilisation to survive long term.

The sociologist, the digital literacy expert and the tech journalist discuss the interplay between digital technology and politics.

Mikael Klintman explains how the framing of information influences the way we see the world, revealing how canny communicators mislead us without relying on overt deception; Dr Kaitlyn Regehr questions how the relationship between tech and politics should work to protect us all in the digital space; and Carl Miller leads us into the deep heart of digital and explains how its lawlessness could be a threat to democracy.

Klintman is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Lund and a former Fellow of Environment and Sustainability at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His most recent book is Framing. Dr Regehr is an associate professor at UCL, and is a consultant to MPs and to the Metropolitan Police. Miller is a founder of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think tank Demos.

We live in a manufactured world, and all of us are constantly in contact with multiple manufactured products. But how do all these things – from the clothes we wear to the smartphones we use – get to us?

Tim Minshall, head of the Institute for Manufacturing, traces the journeys of manufactured goods from mega-factory floors, engineering laboratories and seaports to distribution hubs, supermarkets and into our homes. And he takes a look at how manufacturing could offer a path to a truly sustainable future.

Minshall is the inaugural Dr John C Taylor Professor of Innovation at the University of Cambridge, and author of Your Life is Manufactured.

How prepared for food shocks is the UK? A new national report launched in February 2025 sets out a challenge: the need to take food shocks more seriously and to improve civil food resilience. Join the report’s author and the crisis expert in conversation with Executive Director of the Food Foundation Anna Taylor, to hear about the future of our national and global food systems, the threats, and how we ensure everyone gets the food they need.

Lang (Feeding Britain) is Emeritus Professor of Food Policy at City University London’s Centre for Food Policy, and has consulted for the WHO. Professor Sir David Omand was the first UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator and, before that, Director of GCHQ. His book How to Survive a Crisis uses intelligence strategies to explore how to spot crises early.

Charlie and David Blandford open the gates to their farm for a visit led by agronomist Jonathon Harrington and vet Barney Sampson. Brobury Farm lies alongside the River Wye, in the heart of Kilvert country, and produces top quality lamb and arable crops. Walk around the farm (a distance of up to a mile), watch working sheep-dogs, learn about sheep shearing and wool spinning, and taste lamb that has been produced on the farm.

With thanks to Charlie & David Blandford for welcoming us to their farm.

Please wear walking boots or wellies and waterproof clothing in case of inclement weather. These are visits to real working farms and are suitable for anyone interested in learning more about food and farming. Families are welcome but children must be supervised at all times.

“I feel like there’s a leopard in my house, locked in a room. I’ve contacted the leopard authorities and they assure me they are used to dealing with leopards like this, and they have a plan for removing the leopard. It will take a while, though, and once in a while I can hear it growl. And that’s all very reassuring. Even so, several times a day I think to myself: ‘Hang on, there’s a leopard in my house.’”

One morning, while shaving, comedian Mark Steel noticed that one side of his neck seemed larger than the other. After a whistlestop tour of assorted medical professionals, a consultant delivered the ominous words that would define the next months of his life: “I’m afraid it’s not good news, Mr Steel.” And so began a journey into the heart of the NHS, as he embarked on the long and uncertain road to cancer recovery via a range of mildly tortuous and entirely miraculous treatments. What, if anything, might he learn about himself – and our capacity for coping with life when times get tough – as he becomes part of a club that one in two British people will ultimately join?

We live in a world where uncertainty is inevitable. How should we deal with what we don’t know? And what role do chance, luck and coincidence play in our lives? Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter dissects data in order to understand risks and assess the chances of what might happen in the future. His The Art of Uncertainty: How to Navigate Chance, Ignorance, Risk and Luck guides us to live calmly with risk and uncertainty.

Join him at the Festival to learn how we can all do this better. He’ll take us through the principles of probability, suggesting that it can help us think more analytically about everything from medical advice to pandemics and climate change forecasts. He’ll explore how we can update our beliefs about the future in the face of constantly changing experience. We’ll also hear why roughly 40% of football results come down to luck rather than talent, and why we can be so confident that two properly shuffled packs of cards have never, ever been in the exact same order.

A panel of experts assesses whether our current food system is fit for purpose, both now and in a changing world in which we may have to cope with a series of shocks and challenges.

Campaigner Minette Batters, academic Tim Lang, food grower Claire Ratinon and farmer James Rebanks tell us what we should be worrying about when it comes to food, and what solutions to problems of sustainability, social justice, public health and food security look like.

Batters is former president of the National Farmers’ Union, and was the first woman to hold the post. Lang is Emeritus Professor of Food Policy at City University London's Centre for Food Policy, and author of Atlas of Food. Ratinon is an organic food grower and writer, author of Unearthed: On Race and Roots and How the Soil Taught Me I Belong. Rebanks is a farmer based in the Lake District, author of The Shepherd's Life.

Guides from the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park lead a walk through the beautiful surrounds of Hay-on-Wye. You’ll be joined by local experts who will give their insights into this treasured landscape

Hay-on-Wye is located within 520 square miles of beautiful landscape that makes up the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. The National Park is driving change to bring about a sustainable future, meeting our needs within planetary boundaries. Their Hay Festival series of walks take you into the town’s local environment while offering the opportunity to learn more about the Park’s work and its treasured landscape.

Two environmental researchers find themselves confronting the same nexus of grief for beloved ancestors and grief at climate breakdown. They discuss their books with natural history writer Patrick Barkham.

Marianne Brown’s The Shetland Way tells how travelling to her father’s funeral leads her to investigate a huge wind farm project in a tight-knit Shetland community, and how her questioning is tied up with grief. Alice Mah’s Red Pockets recounts how she returns to her ancestors’ village in China only to find she has debts to pay because their graves haven’t been swept for decades. She starts seeing a deep connection with her research on pollution, which intensifies her own experience of climate grief.

Raised in Edinburgh, Brown spent many years working as a journalist in Southeast Asia and later in Britain as the editor of an environmental magazine. Alice Mah is a Chinese Canadian-British writer and Professor of Urban and Environmental Studies at the University of Glasgow.

Psychologist Dr Julie Smith (Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?) offers comfort and perspective on a multitude of sticky situations. When being human gets complicated; when you feel overwhelmed; when there’s pressure to perform; you’re grieving; making big decisions; when you get it wrong as a parent; when you want to win the argument; when you’re overthinking everything; when you want to fit in; and many more.

She gives her trademark simple and straightforward advice to help us see clearly how best to respond and act, returning us to a place of calm, strength and positivity.

The author, online educator and clinical psychologist has a combined following of almost nine million, gained from her drive to create accessible, good quality mental health resources.

Dale Vince, nicknamed ‘Labour’s Green Knight’, is a green industrialist dedicated to championing environmental sustainability. Since founding the world’s first green energy company, Ecotricity, he has been on a mission to change the face of the industry by leading the move away from fossil fuels towards renewables.

Using business as a tool for environmentalism, Vince is helping to lead the eco revolution. He runs Forest Green Rovers FC, dubbed the world’s greenest football team by FIFA; creates diamonds out of atmospheric carbon; builds windmills for export around the world; has launched a range of vegan burgers; and last year launched the world’s first electric airline. He also made the world’s first electric supercar and built the UK’s first national network of EV charging stations.

He has been awarded an OBE for services to the environment and was appointed UN Ambassador for Climate Change in 2019. His book Manifesto shares the tools for changing the world.

In conversation with broadcaster, journalist and TV presenter, Bidisha.

Neuroscientist Russell Foster and comedian Ruby Wax discuss one of the most important contributors to our health: sleep. The pair take a look at society’s obsession with getting the ‘perfect’ night of sleep, and why a one-size-fits-all approach to sleep doesn’t work, with Foster sharing popular theories about why we sleep and busting myths about how much sleep we need at different ages.

Foster and Wax also cover topics including sleep anxiety, the effects of not getting the sleep we need, and why good sleep is different for each person.

Foster is a circadian neuroscientist, studying the sleep cycles of the brain. He is author of Life Time, a book about the body clock. Wax is a mental health campaigner and comedian whose latest tour, I’m Not As Well As I Thought I Was, is based on her book of the same name.

Writers Meg Clothier and Dan Richards examine the fascinating worlds of the shipping forecast and nocturnal adventures on land and sea in this lively discussion.

Clothier’s The Shipping Forecast celebrates a century of the essential, though also soporific, BBC Radio 4 broadcast that keeps us in tune with the gloriously fickle British weather. She explores our maritime history, from stormy weather up above to the seabed far below, and from fishing boats and battleships to the songs and poems inspired by the forecast.

Richards (host of BBC Radio 4’s Only After Dark) leads us on an exploration of the night – the nocturnal world, insomnia, the people and services that keep the modern world safe and moving, and the creative potential of the dark hours. His Overnight: Journeys, Conversations and Stories After Dark seeks out and celebrates the workers, wildlife and stories of the night.