My name's Huw, and I run The Gist.
The idea is simple. Everything around us that we interact with is worth looking at. Behind everything there's economics, or power and incentives, or passion and craft, or just a very good reason why we love the thing. All we need to do is look.
That's the job.
I take one ordinary thing and explain what's really going on. I try to keep it dry. I don't always manage.
I've spent 15 years working where culture and commerce meet: theatre, advertising, media and brand strategy. It turns out that's a decent grounding for explaining why a loaf of bread costs what it costs, or why you want a Zippo when you don't smoke.
The Gist has been, hands down, the best thing I've ever done.
Huw, on year one
The Gist is UK independent media. No rolling news and no outrage cycle. I'd rather you came away informed than overwhelmed, which is also the title of my SXSW London 2026 session: "Informed, Not Overwhelmed: Restoring Confidence in Your News".
And I think we care about this stuff much more than we're led to believe. You send it to someone, wondering why this man is confidently talking about anything. You come back. That tells me it's worth doing.
Every clip starts the same way: "My name's Huw, and this is The Gist on..." And it ends the same way.
See you on the next one.
What happened in year one?
One year ago, we started The Gist. Since then, there have been 365 of them. There are 70,000 of you across platforms, and we've amassed over 10 million views.
That was the easy part.
The first year of any business runs on things that aren't really the business at all. Favours, savings, your mate's encouragement, and mainly just a determination not to quit. Ask me how I know.
For me, though, it was mainly all of you. Your curiosity, your engagement. And honestly, being stopped in the street by someone I didn't know, who said they watch me every morning on the internet, was not on my bingo card for 2026.
The Gist has been, hands down, the best thing I've ever done. We've already taken the first steps off the beaten path with the newsletter and some of the live shows. There's much more to come, and longer than it is already. I'll give you more details in due course, because I love to keep you on your toes.
The first year, you carried it. The second year, it's time to take it up a gear. Here's to you.
