The Rest Is Science: Live — First Ever Stage Edition
The Rest Is Science podcast makes its live debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, bringing big science questions to a Southbank Centre stage for the first time.
Why we picked this
The first live outing for one of the UK's most popular science podcasts, staged as part of a three-day festival of ideas at Europe's largest arts centre.
The Rest Is Science takes the format that has made it one of the most downloaded science podcasts in Britain and brings it to the Queen Elizabeth Hall stage for the very first time. Hosts Robin Ince and Giles Yeo — along with guests yet to be confirmed — will field the questions that the podcast does best: those that sit at the edge of current knowledge, where certainty frays and curiosity takes over.
The live edition is part of Goalhanger: The Rest Is Fest, a three-day takeover of the Southbank Centre running from 4 to 6 September 2026 and timed to mark the venue’s 75th anniversary. The festival spans the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Purcell Room, assembling live recordings of some of the UK’s most popular intellectual podcasts. Science sits alongside history, politics, and money for a weekend positioned as a festival of ideas in the tradition of the 1951 Festival of Britain.
For regular listeners, this is a chance to experience a format that usually arrives through earbuds as something communal and theatrical. The Queen Elizabeth Hall’s intimacy makes it well suited to a show built on wit, curiosity, and the willingness to say “we don’t know yet.”