The Gist · Live at Circle & Star

The Gist,
in the room.

Everyone thinks they already know the story. We’re built on the suspicion that you want the real one.

Read two million times a month — and never once in a room. For one night it comes off the screen and into a room of 55, with the time and the company to have the conversation out loud.

Book a seat →How the night runs

Thursday 16 July 2026 · Doors 7:30pm · Hosted by Huw Allen

MusicSacha Skarbek

FoodMark Wogan

How the night runs

First Half

Music

Huw and Sacha Skarbek on the inside of the songs you already know — how they’re made, who they’re worth, and what’s breaking.

Interval

A breath

A short break. A drink. A moment to let the first half settle before the table turns.

Second Half

Food

Huw and Mark Wogan on how Britain really eats — the disruptors, the language, and the gap between the top and the middle.

Not a panel. The long version of something you know in ninety-second pieces.

Two halves · Two subjects

On the table.

Approx. 90 minutes · incl. interval

First HalfMusic

Sacha Skarbek

Sacha Skarbek has written songs you’ve owned for twenty years without knowing his name — six on James Blunt’s Back to Bedlam, Adele’s “Cold Shoulder,” the US number-one “Wrecking Ball.” Two Ivor Novellos. A Grammy nomination. He knows exactly how, and at what cost, those songs were really made.

Three things on the table

AI didn’t kill the songwriter — the royalty split might
A song everyone knows is worth less than it has ever been
The fury over ticket prices — is the public angry at the wrong people?

Second HalfFood

Mark Wogan

Mark Wogan talks about British food not as a critic looking in, but as someone with a stake in it. Broadcaster and podcaster — he hosts Spooning with Mark Wogan and presents on Virgin Radio — he also runs a London food business, which means he talks about how Britain eats with something real in the answer.

Three things on the table

The biggest disruptor in British food isn’t a chef — it’s a drug
“Ultra-processed” — the words everyone uses and no one can define
A food culture never better at the top, never harder to afford in the middle

Your host · the throughline

Huw Allen

Huw Allen is a co-founder of The Gist — the media brand that gets beneath the brands, the businesses and the culture shaping how we live, and gets there before you’ve finished your coffee. More than 60,000 followers and two million views a month across Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and YouTube, built on a single habit: asking the question everyone else skips. On 16 July he steps out from behind the screen to host it live for the first time — drawing two guests who’ve each spent a career on the inside into the kind of conversation a feed can’t hold.

The throughline of the whole night — and the one here to bring the evening alive.

Huw Allen, co-founder and host of The Gist — Co-founder of The Gist · Your host

The room

Circle & Star Theatre

28 Heath Street, Hampstead, London NW3 6TE. Hampstead station, Northern line — thirty seconds from the door. Fifty-five seats. Every one close.

Thursday 16 July 2026 · Doors 7:30pm · Show 8:00pm

£25 · 55 seats only

Book a seat →

The Gist,in the room.