Speakers

Adam is a geneticist at University College London (UCL), where he teaches evolution, genetics, the history of race science and eugenics, and science communication. Adam lectures extensively to audiences around the world, to academic and public audiences.  

One of BBC Radio 4’s most pre-eminent broadcasters, Adam’s recent six-part series Bad Blood: The Story of Eugenics, recently won the audio Kavli AAAS Science Journalism Gold Award. 

Adam also presents Radio 4’s flagship programme Start the Week and before that, was the host of Inside Science for eight years. His popular series The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry has been on air for a decade, and he was the presenter of the BBC’s flagship programme Inside Science for eight years. Adam is also a regular guest on Lauren Laverne’s BBC 6 music show, and the Infinite Monkey Cage with Brian Cox and Robin Ince. 

He has contributed to a host of other Radio 4 documentaries on subjects ranging from the inheritance of intelligence, MMR and autism, epigenetics, human evolution, astronomy and art, science and cinema, scientific fraud, and the evolution of sex.  

Adam has written over a hundred articles for the Guardian, the Observer, The Telegraph, The Times, Wired, Focus, Times Educational Supplement and elsewhere. In his academic writing, he has written extensively on race, genetics, evolution and trust in science.  

Adam’s first children’s book, Where Are You Really From? was published in 2023. Prior to this, Adam has written seven books, most recently, Control: The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics in 2022. This follows his hugely successful How to Argue With A Racist which was a Sunday Times Best Seller. Other books include The Book of Humans: The Story of How We Became Us and A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived. Adam's first book, Creation was shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize. His next book, Higher, Faster, Stronger, is about the science of sport, and will be out when he finishes writing it.