Adam Rutherford

Scientist, broacaster and author

The scientist and author Adam Rutherford is one of BBC Radio 4’s most pre-eminent broadcasters. He frequently presents their flagship programme Start the Week and is a regular guest on the Infinite Monkey Cage with Brian Cox and Robin Ince and on Lauren Laverne’s BBC 6 music show. In addition, he hosted Inside Science for eight years, and The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry for a decade.

A prolific author, Adam’s hugely successful book How to Argue With A Racist was a Sunday Times Best Seller. His first children’s book, Where Are You Really From? was published in 2023. Other books he’s written include Control: The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics, The Book of Humans: The Story of How We Became Us, Creation and A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived. His next book, Higher, Faster, Stronger, is about the science of sport, and will be out when he finishes writing it.

Adam is a geneticist at University College London (UCL), where he teaches evolution, genetics, the history of race science and eugenics, and science communication.

Sessions

Adam Rutherford appears in the following sessions. Select a session to find out more:
Who do you REALLY think you are?
Sat 8th March 2025

Want to hear Adam Rutherford?

If you’d like to see Adam Rutherford speak at this year’s Malvern Festival of Ideas, you can book onto their session(s), or get tickets to a wide range of talks.