Best of the Spectator

In this week's Spectator Books, Sam talks to Ben Schott. The author of Schott's Miscellany, Ben's literary productions have taken an unexpected turn with the publication this week of his first novel. Jeeves and the King of Clubs is a tribute or companion piece to P G Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster novels, published with the authorisation of the Wodehouse estate. What the hell was he thinking? Ben...

Was Philip Hammond's Budget a reckless splurge, or a shrewd political budget that draws a new dividing line with Jeremy Corbyn? In this special podcast, Fraser Nelson talks to James Forsyth and Richard Buxton, Head of Merian Global Investors. We discuss why business is actually more afraid of Corbyn than Brexit, and how Hammond's budget is as good as can be expected at this point in time. Sponsore...

Britain is a world leader in many things - but not many people would say that infrastructure is one of them. When abroad, Brits marvel at the state of airports and railways, even swimming pools. When we seek to catch up - with HS2 or a new runway for London - the result is years of wrangling. Is there a British curse? The Spectator's Fraser Nelson talked to transport journalist Christian Wolmar, C...

Brought to you by Spectator Events, Fraser Nelson presents this special panel discussion with a star-studded cast. Are we heading for a no-deal Brexit? And if so, would it really be all that bad? With former Brexit secretary David Davis, former Chancellor Ken Clarke, economist Liam Halligan, former MP and Brexiteer Gisela Stuart, and the Spectator's Political Editor James Forsyth. Hosted on Acast....

Our guest this week is Matthew Hennessey. He’s an editor at the Wall Street Journal, and also the author of Zero Hour for Gen X: How the Last Adult Generation Can Save America from the Millennials (Encounter Books). It’s a fascinating read: part-political obituary of a generation that, squeezed between two larger cohorts, the Boomers and the Millennials, may have missed its historical cue; part-ra...

Join Isabel Hardman for the highlights of Sunday's political interviews. Today's podcast features Philip Hammond, John McDonnell, Justine Greening and Jacob Rees-Mogg. Produced by Matthew Taylor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Curt Mills, Foreign Affairs Reporter at the National Interest. Presented by Freddy Gray. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Somehow it has already been two years into a Trump presidency, and America is facing midterm elections. Will Democrats win in a landslide (00:45)? We also delve a little deeper at the political faultlines behind the Jamal Khashoggi story – is Turkey taking advantage of his death (15:15)? And last, is the use of wild animals in circuses really the great injustice that campaigners say it is (25:40)?...

Sam Leith talks to the behavioural geneticist Robert Plomin about his new book Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are, in which he argues that it’s not only height and weight and skin colour that are heritable, but intelligence, TV-watching habits and likelihood of getting divorced. They talk about the risks he takes publishing this book, the political third rail of race and eugenics, and what his...

With Katy Balls and James Forsyth. Presented by Isabel Hardman. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s Spectator USA Life ’n’ Arts podcast, Dominic talks to David Pryce-Jones. Novelist, correspondent, historian, editor at National Review and, most recently, author of the autobiography and family history Fault Lines, Pryce-Jones has the longest association with the Spectator of any Life ’n’ Arts podcaster yet. In 1963, Pryce-Jones began his literary journey to the status of national t...

Reporters can’t get enough of the gory details and the international intrigue in the Khashoggi case. But they seem to have forgotten the need to report basic facts, question their single-sourced material, and ask difficult questions of those who know far more than they let on. Who was Jamal Khashoggi? With Matthew Brodsky, Middle East expert at the Security Studies Group. Presented by Freddy Gray....

Sam talks to the incomparable Sara Paretsky about her latest V. I. Warshawski novel Shell Game — which pits the original feminist gumshoe against art thieves, Russian mobsters and her fink of an ex-husband. They talk about keeping Vic young (skincare doesn’t come into it), chiming with MeToo and immigration anxieties in Trump’s America, whether she feels rivalrous with other female crime writers,...

This week, Brexit negotiations grind to a halt again as Brussels and the UK draw mutually exclusive red lines on the Irish border problem. We talk to James Forsyth and Dan Hannan on what next for Brexit (00:45). We also look a little deeper into the methods and mission of Bellingcat, the investigators that unveiled the true identities of the Salisbury suspects (13:25). And last, we investigate a s...

Britain could be about to acquire a new ethnicity - Sikhs. The 2021 census could have an ethnicity tick box for the community. But isn't Sikhism a religion that anyone - of any ethnicity - can follow? Hardeep Singh thinks so - and he explains why categorising his religion as an ethnicity will be dangerous for the community and multicultural Britain. Presented by Damian Thompson. Hosted on Acast. S...

With Katy Balls and James Forsyth. Presented by Lara Prendergast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dominic Green talks to Jamie Kirchick, journalist and author, on the culture wars raging in American universities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has disappeared at his country's consulate in Istanbul, with reports emerging of his brutal murder. But who was Jamal Khashoggi, why did this happen to him and what should happen next (00:38)? Also on this podcast, the Irish may harbour more anti-EU opinion than commonly thought. Is there the prospect of an 'Irexit' (12:48)? And finally, with three top public schoo...

With James Forsyth and Katy Balls. Presented by Lara Prendergast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week's books podcast, Sam talks to Andrew Roberts in front of an audience about his new biography on Winston Churchill. It charts the leader's powerful sense of personal destiny, his ambition and bravery as a soldier and a leader. The book interprets the events that defined Churchill, from the Dardanelles disaster of 1915, his years in the political wilderness, and his summoning to save hi...

With James Fosyth and Isabel Hardman. Presented by Katy Balls. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dominic Green talks to the poet Alicia Stallings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A Spectator event with Andrew Roberts, author of a new Churchill biography, interviewed by Prof Robert Tombs. Tue 9 October, 7pm, at the Emmanuel Centre, Westminster. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With James Forsyth and Katy Balls. Presented by Lara Prendergast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freddy Gray talks to Jacob Heilbrunn, Editor of the National Interest, on the latest in the Brett Kavanagh case - and whether or not confirming him is in the Republican Party's best interests. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.