Researching Brian Hayes

He is a senior writer and regular columnist for the magazine American Scientist, and was editor in chief for the magazine from 1990 to 1992. He has also edited and written columns for Scientific American, as well as writing for Computer Language and The Sciences. He won a National Magazine Award for his essay "Clock of Ages" in 2000.

He is the author of three books:*Infrastructure: A Field Guide to the Industrial Landscape (W. W. Norton, 2005, ; revised and updated edition: W.W. Norton, 2014, ).*Group Theory in the Bedroom, and Other Mathematical Diversions (Hill and Wang, 2008; Macmillan, 2009, ).*Foolproof, and Other Mathematical Meditations (MIT Press, 2017,

The son of a miner, he left school at age 15 and worked as a clerk for a mining company before obtaining a job as a newsreader for a radio station in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. He subsequently worked for various stations in Perth and Western Australia, in both presenting and producing roles.

He moved to the UK and joined Capital Radio at its inception in 1973, first as a producer of talk programmes, and then presenting Capital Open Line, before making his name as presenter of the morning interview and phone-in show on LBC Radio from 1976 to 1990. Here he adopted an often aggressive style with callers – making it clear he did not suffer fools gladly. Though this sometimes caused irritation it was a valuable asset to the station. (He was once satirised in Private Eye as ‘Brian Bastard').

Since 1990 Hayes has appeared on various stations, including presenting the BBC Radio 2 breakfast show throughout 1992, which was subtitled Good Morning UK throughout his tenure. He left the show at the end of the year due to unpopularity, and he was replaced by the show's former host Terry Wogan in January 1993.

Hayes presented the weekly phone-in Hayes over Britain on BBC Radio 2 in the 1990s, winning a Gold Sony Radio Award for 'Best Phone-In', a programme on Euthanasia, as well as sitting in for Jimmy Young and his successor Jeremy Vine until 2006. He worked on BBC Radio 5 Live until 2006, and BBC Radio 4, on various programmes including Not Today, Thank You. During the mid-2000s, he presented Friday nights on BBC Radio 5 Live and on Sunday nights he returned to LBC.

He is mentioned on the song Hello by The Beloved.