The Prospect Podcast

As tech insiders warn about an impending apocalypse, Ellen and Imaan are joined by Ethan Zuckerman, Prospect contributor and associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to examine those claims. He discusses AI agents going rogue in the Hugging Face incident, as well as recent calls from tech leaders to slow down AI development. With Trump dismissing safety concerns, Ethan also d...

This month, Rural life writer Kiran Sidhu shares her love for her late father, who was an imperfect but brilliant parent. Meanwhile, Second life writer Vitali Vitaliev is reminded of his former, Soviet life when he reads about the hounding of Cambridge academic Jason Arday. Mindful life writer Sarah Collins extolls the benefits of embracing a beginner's mindset when approaching new hobbies. Hosted...

Have scientists found the secret to eternal power? Engineers, inventors and sci-fi writers have long dreamed of harvesting the constant power of the sun. Now, plans to build solar panels in space are tantalisingly close to fruition. This week, Ellen is joined by Prospect contributing editor Isabel Hilton to explains why it could just work. From rocket launches to robots assembling solar farms in s...

Who really runs the United Kingdom? Power is badly misallocated, argues journalist and author Phil Tinline, and Andy Burnham understands that better than most of his recent predecessors. But there is still a major gap in the prime minister’s analysis. This week, he joins Ellen and Alona in a wide-ranging conversation that covers the shift away from centralised state power in the 1980s and the weak...

According to Nobel prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu, liberal democracy made three promises: that prosperity would be shared equitably, that capable government would deliver public services and that citizens would have voice to express their opinions and participate in governance. But in recent decades, these promises have been broken across the world. This week, Ellen and Alona are joined by...

What can a taxi ride tell us about the state of the UK? Driving home is an immersive documentary staged inside a real black cab where audiences hear from taxi drivers across the UK about migration, belonging, politics, and community. Today on the podcast, Daphna Attias and Terry O’Donohue, the co-founders and artistic directors of Dante or Die, the theatre company behind the documentary, join Pros...

Billionaires, millionaires and biohackers are plying themselves with supplements and consulting AI to extend their lives indefinitely. But would you want to live forever? This week, Ellen and Alona are joined by journalist and author Katherine Stewart, who investigates the politics of the longevity movement. Katherine shares her experiences undercover at exclusive longevity conferences, trying sup...

As Andy Burnham marks his first two weeks in Downing Street, the polls are registering a bump in support for Labour. This week, Ellen and Imaan are joined by Prospect ’s contributing editor Tom Clark to assess the prime minister’s first steps in office. Tom discusses surprising policy pledges, “sugar-rush politics” and how Burnham’s thinking has changed, from devolution to drastic social care refo...

This month Rural life writer Kiran Sidhu decides to embrace materialism, while Anglican priest Alice Goodman recounts the ballad of the Tithe pig. Actor and writer Sheila Hancock is taken to hospital after a fall and is very impressed by the attractive doctors treating her. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Citizenship has been described as “the right to have rights”. But, in recent years, the UK government has increasingly stripped people of their citizenship— effectively leaving many stateless.     This week, Ellen and Alona are joined by journalist and author Samira Shackle, who tracks the rapid expansion of citizenship deprivation laws in Britain.     She explains ho...

The UK’s young adults are ready to be taken seriously—so why aren’t they? This week, Alona and Imaan are joined by journalist and author Marie Le Conte to discuss why a whole generation seems stuck in an extended adolescence, priced out of housing and routinely ignored by politicians. In an intergenerational conversation, they discuss whether the social mobility experiment has failed, the reality...

As Nigel Farage continues to face scrutiny over his finances and undeclared donations, is big money hurting our democracy? This week, Alona and Imaan are joined by Peter Geoghegan, investigative journalist and founder of Democracy for Sale. Peter unpacks the scandal and introduces a cast of Reform backers, from “Posh George” to Thailand-based billionaire Christopher Harborne. He also discusses the...

Humans have collected data for thousands of years—but now we’re doing it on a whole new level. This week, Ellen and Alona and joined by Roopika Risam, professor of Digital Humanities and Social Engagement at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, whose new book Data Empire explores the ancient roots of data-gathering and the rise of the “data state”. Drawing on examples from the East India Company to...

Lying, lobbying, and luxury donor gifts—has UK politics gone crooked? This week, Ellen and Imaan are joined by Robert Barrington, professor of anti-corruption practice at Sussex University’s Centre for the Study of Corruption. He argues that corruption is more widespread than assumed in Britain, from politicians to prisons, the monarchy to the Met. Robert discusses the Boris Johnson era misconduct...

This month, our Mindful life writer Sarah Collins explains how her OCD had her singing her thoughts, while Second life writer Vitali Vitaliev asks: what’s in a nose? A trip to the Museum of Brands takes actor Sheila Hancock down memory lane, while Alice Garnett asks her parents for advice on uncertainty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As a heatwave sweeps across Europe, Ellen and Imaan are joined by sociologist Jens Beckert, the author of 'How We Sold Our Future: The Failure to Fight Climate Change'.  He argues that the cultural, political and economic structures of capitalist modernity are themselves barriers to fighting the climate crisis. From profit maximisation to short term limits for politicians, is capitalist democ...

The UK has a maternal mental health support crisis. The leading cause of maternal deaths in the UK is mental health issues, including suicide, with maternal deaths from suicide having risen by seventy-four per cent in the last seven years alone. How can we address this urgent need for improved support? Speaking to Prospect's Alona Ferber, Biogen's medical lead Teresa Shering, consultant adult and...

What does the World Cup mean to you? This year’s tournament has been highly political so far: as it began, one of the host nations was at war with one of the competitors and referees and staff have been banned from the United States. This week, Philip and Ellen are joined by sports writer and sociologist David Goldblatt, the author of Injury Time: Football in a State of Emergency to discuss the st...

The country feels stuck. But can Britain prosper again? On the Prospect podcast this week, Prospect e ditor Philip Collins is joined by Ravi Gurumurthy to discuss this question.  Ravi is CEO of Nesta, which is a research foundation and “innovation agency”. He is a lead non-executive of the Department for Energy and Net Zero and sits on the board of NHS England. Writing in a personal capacity,...

Would you want to work with a robot? A new technological revolution is underway—but what that revolution looks like, and where it takes us, is still being determined. This week, Ellen and Alona are joined by Sarah O’Connor, award-winning reporter and associate editor at the Financial Times , whose new book We Are Not Machines charts how AI is shaping the workplace. Sarah shares her experience work...

From nurseries to nursing homes, private equity increasingly affects all of us. This week, Ellen and Alona are joined by journalist Hettie O’Brien, who investigates the rise of private equity in her book The Asset Class: How Private Equity Turned Capitalism Against Itself . Hettie traces the rise of private equity partnerships and their profound impact on our economy. She tells the story of how th...

Although the world seems full of war and conflict, love—of all kinds—is everywhere. This week, Ellen and Alona are joined by Sally Hayden, award-winning journalist and author of This is Also a Love Story: Searching for Good in a Divided World. As a reporter, Sally has witnessed first-hand the consequences of human brutality, as well as moments of hope. She shares stories from across the globe, fro...

This month our family of writers is in a whimsical mood: Vitali Vitaliev reflects on the very different purpose toilet paper once had in Soviet Ukraine, while Anglican priest Alice Goodman laments the poor quality of the Church’s Cheeky Pandas cartoons for children. Actor and writer Sheila Hancock suffers terrible stage fright, while Sarah Collins celebrates the human antidepressants in her local...

It’s been a nightmare week for Keir Starmer. After devastating results for Labour in the 7th May elections, pressure has this week mounted on the prime minister to resign. He has said that he will stay, and that he wants to lead Labour into the next general election—but how long can he hang on, and what would it mean for Labour’s fortunes if he did? Ellen and Alona are joined by veteran pollster a...

It’s the week every political nerd has been waiting for. Tomorrow, voters go to the polls in England, Scotland and Wales to elect local councils, Holyrood and the Senedd.  Just how bad do things look for Labour—and Keir Starmer? Why are Reform UK and the Greens surprisingly similar? And how come Kemi Badenoch, whose Tories are a mere shadow of their former selves, isn’t facing a leadership ch...