The Prospect Podcast

Mehdi Hasan joins the Prospect podcast this week, talking to  Prospect ’s Ben Clark about Trump, tech bros, cancel culture and…“Gish galloping”. He opens up about his departure from MSNBC after the network cancelled The Mehdi Hasan Show and discusses his move from mainstream to alternative media, almost a year since founding Zeteo on Substack. Zeteo’s contributors now include Naomi Klein and...

Would a young Starmer join the Labour party today? Ellen and Alona are joined by Tom Clark, contributing editor at Prospect, who thinks not. From defending misfit environmentalists to denouncing them in the Daily Mail , Starmer’s evolution might dismay some on the left of the party. Once he was a young human rights lawyer and now he is a prime minister punishing MPs for rebelling on child poverty...

In this week’s special episode, we bring you an exclusive interview with Prospect’s World’s Top Thinker of 2025, Brazilian journalist Eliane Brum. Eliane is the author of  Banzeiro Òkòtó: The Amazon as the Centre of the World . In 2017, she co-founded Sumaúma, a journalism platform reporting on the Amazon from the inside, which trains young people from urban and indigenous communities. D...

Welcome back to Prospect Lives . In this episode, journalist and author Kiran Sidhu shares her journey of finding a sense of community in her rural Welsh village, while Anglican priest Alice Goodman explains how her clerical friends help her weather political turbulence. Actor and writer Sheila Hancock explores the powerful legacies left by those who change the world, both for better and for worse...

After Trump’s second inauguration, Ellen and Alona are joined by Labour peer and diplomat Catherine Ashton. Catherine was formerly leader of the House of Lords, as well as the EU's first High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security policy. She shares her experience working with previous US administrations, and what she’s expecting to see from the special relationship. In the p...

As Labour plans to remove the remaining hereditary peers from the House of Lords progress through parliament, not everybody is happy about it. Critics have called the legislation “bungled piecemeal reform”, “high-handed” and “shoddy”. Meg Russell, professor of British and Comparative Politics at UCL, joins Ellen and Alona to unpick the conflict and controversy in the second chamber. She discusses...

What's going on in Ukraine and what does 2025 hold for its people? Journalist Jen Stout has reported on the war in Ukraine for  Prospect,  the  Sunday Post  and others—and her prize-winning book  Night Train to Odesa  was published last year. Now, for our first episode of the year, she joins deputy editor Ellen Halliday to talk about the situation. What will the year...

While you're making those New Year's resolutions, how can we harness negative thought patterns and put them towards something productive? What's the best way to live a good life? In September, journalist and author Oliver Burkeman joined  Prospect ’s Ellen Halliday and  Mindful life  columnist Sarah Collins to talk mental health and building a meaningful life—and why his book, ...

For our final episode of 2024, Alan and Lionel look back at their Media Confidential year. They’ve tackled a huge range of stories: from phone-hacking and the rise of AI, to Ofcom’s battles with GB News. They’ve analysed elections on both sides of the Atlantic, were joined by Toby Jones on the Post Office scandal, and heard from courageous reporters working inside Gaza. There’s been an assassinati...

Cyborgs, a Gregg Wallace public enquiry...the Popeye slasher movie? In our end of year special, the Prospect family—editors, writers and producers—share their predictions for the year ahead. From politics to technology and culture, what will be the most interesting stories of 2025? Ellen and Alona are joined by contributors to discuss the trends that we should be watching in the UK, across the pon...

After more than 50 years of repressive dynastic rule, Bashar al-Assad has fled Syria. Ellen and Alona are joined by Syria expert Lina Khatib, director of the Middle East Institute at SOAS and associate fellow at Chatham House. While many were surprised by the rapid toppling of Assad’s regime, Lina was not. As people speculate about what HTS and other rebel groups intend for Syria, she explains why...

This week, political scientist Cas Mudde joins the Prospect podcast to analyse the “year of elections”. In 2024, around 70 countries with a combined population of 3.4bn went to the polls. In many of those elections—in the EU, India and the US, the far right did surprisingly well. But why do the far right seem to be the only group to have benefitted from the turbulence of recent years? Was it...

Are Jews white? Is criticism of Israel antisemitic? Why is the “Judeo-Christian” grouping a myth? To unpack these big questions, Ellen and Alona are joined by journalist Rachel Shabi, whose new book  Off-White: The Truth About Antisemitism  was released earlier this month. Rachel explores the rising tensions of the past year, including the impact of Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon, and...

This month we introduce a new Lives columnist, Kiran Sidhu, who writes about the rural Welsh village where she lives. Kiran celebrates the power of nature, as does actor and writer Sheila Hancock, who welcomes a robin to her roof garden. Alice Garnett asks whether Gen Z have killed the office romance, while Anglican priest Alice Goodman explains her secret love of weightlifting. Hosted on Acast. S...

Families are spending years living in hotels, households are being moved miles across the country, and government is spending billions on a system that harms those it is designed to protect. What can be done? This week, Ellen and Alona are joined by researcher and local government expert Jack Shaw to talk about his exclusive investigation into the growing scandal of temporary accommodation. This f...

Why do some women like tradwife videos? And why does it even matter? This week, Ellen and Alona are joined by writer Sarah Manavis to discuss the small but significant group of women who promote anti-feminist values online—and why so many others watch their videos. Sarah argues that the success of right-wing young men with large social media followings has distracted from a boom in similarly react...

Would legalising assisted dying end unnecessary suffering? Or would it instead enable the abuse of some of society’s most vulnerable people? As parliament discusses assisted dying once again,  Prospect  invited two of our most profound thinkers—Rowan Williams and Brenda Hale—to debate the issue. As archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams led a Church that publicly opposes any form of as...

For the first time, Ellen and Alona host a special Q&A episode, recorded with a live audience. They’re joined by Jill Abramson, former executive editor of the  New York Times , who has been has been covering the presidential election for  Prospect . Jill describes how this American election compares to what she’s seen in the past, and answers listeners’ questions. What’s the mood in...

As Halloween approaches, Ellen and Alona are joined by journalist Gabriel Gatehouse to discuss his plunge into the world of conspiracy theories, QAnon and the extreme fringes of US politics. What have witches in the dark ages got to do with American democracy? How has the internet destabilised state power? And what does that mean for this November’s election? Conspiracy theories about satanic caba...

This week, Ellen and Alona look ahead to COP29, the annual climate summit, hosted this year in Baku, Azerbaijan. They are joined by Isabel Hilton,  Prospect ’s contributing editor who shares her experiences at COP, and Sam Alvis, a policy advisor and director of energy and environment at Public First. 25 out of the 35 key “planetary vital signs” are out of bounds, and biodiversity is rapidly...

This week, Ellen and Alona talk to investigative journalist Peter Geoghegan. Peter is the former editor-in-chief of the award-winning website openDemocracy and is the author of  Democracy for Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics . Public faith in democracy has been undermined by hidden influence and undisclosed donations—but how susceptible is the new government to this? In an entertaining con...

This month, our columnists are busy with new difficult tasks. Sarah Collins, our Mindful life columnist, boards the emotional rollercoaster that comes with preparing to live abroad, while Anglican Priest Alice Goodman composes her first carol. Farmer Tom tries to rescue seven baby pheasants, while Alice Garnett is moving out of her shared house and navigating London’s rental hellscape.  Hoste...

Baroness Warsi, former Conservative cabinet minister and lawyer, joins Ellen and Alona to talk about her new book  Muslims Don’t Matter, about “the silencing, stereotyping and stigmatising of Muslims by the British press and political parties.” Politicians, media outlets, think tanks and even the entertainment industry have poisoned public discourse about Muslims, culminating in this summer’s...

This week,  Prospect ’s commissioning editor Emily Lawford joins Ellen and Alona to discuss a dark side of the internet: the “manosphere”. Emily spent months reporting “The incel trap” for this month’s issue of the magazine, meeting with self-proclaimed misogynists in real life. On the podcast, Emily shares what she learned about why young men are radicalised—including the role of mental heal...

Jon Sopel, co-host of the News Agents podcast and a former BBC North America editor, joins Ellen Halliday and Alona Ferber to discuss his new book,  Strangeland: How Britain Stopped Making Sense.  He reflects on his time covering the Trump administration—including what he saw unfold on 6th January—and on the upcoming US election. Jon also shares his view on the problems with Robbie Gibb...