Much has been written about stuart hall in the short space of time since his death on 10 february 2014, a lot of which encompasses the range of feelings of admiration and respect that i, too, have for him as a person, scholar and public intellectual. for me, it is not only that his work is significant for socialists and scholars, but also that he was a model socialist public intellectual, which is the case i want to make in this reflection. most assessments of the influence of scholars and public intellectuals tend to focus on their ideas, by which there is an implicit assumption that the widespread circulation of those ideas are based upon some sense of the veracity and strength of the ideas themselves, rather than the processes of production and distribution, including the scholar’s or intellectual’s own contribution to their ideas’ popularity by attending conferences, public rallies and so on. that is, the recognition of the appeal or influence of someone like stuart hall becomes tautological: their ideas are great and significant because a lot of people have read and discussed them which demonstrates their veracity and appeal which is why people read and discuss them. these kinds of assumptions ignore how the relations of power, or the social relations of production in particular, within society help to shape the reception and popularity of ideas. drawing upon cultural materialism, we need to focus on how ideas are produced and distributed by scholars and public intellectuals, such as stuart hall