Best of the Spectator

Freddy Gray is joined by pollster and writer Patrick Ruffini. They talk about why the strengthening economy isn’t improving Biden’s numbers, and the other factors that will influence the 2024 election. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At last count, the Chinese Communist Party has 98 million members, more people than the population of Germany. Its membership also continues to grow, making it one of the most successful and resilient political parties of the last a hundred years, perhaps with the exception of India’s BJP, which boasts 180 million members. And yet the CCP's track record is strewn with bloody crackdowns and systema...

Last week Donald Trump was ordered to pay more than seventy million dollars to E. Jean Carroll, the writer who accused him of sexual assault. Freddy speaks to Spectator columnist Lionel Shriver about some of the oddities of this case against the former president.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s episode, Lionel Shriver asks if Donald Trump can get a fair trial in America (00:39), Angus Colwell speaks to the Gen-Zers who would fight for Britain (08:25), Matthew Parris makes the case for assisted dying (13:15), Toby Young tells the story of the time he almost died on his gap year (20:43), and Harry Mount tells us about the grim life of a Roman legionary (25:38). Hosted on Aca...

Freddy Gray is joined in the office by Mike Baker a former CIA operations officer, CEO of the global intelligence and security firm Portman Square Group and host of the popular news podcast the President’s Daily Brief.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gina Miller was born in Guyana to a political family, but was sent to England for her education. Fleeing dictatorship, she couldn’t receive financial support from her family, and so began finding work in hotels and handing out flyers. With an entrepreneurial spirit, Gina set up her first company in 1987 – a property photographic company. Since then, her CV boasts a myriad of achievements, degrees,...

On the podcast: have the Tories given up on liberty?   Kate Andrews writes the cover story for The Spectator this week. She argues that after the government announced plans to ban disposable vapes and smoking for those born after 2009, the Tories can no longer call themselves the party of freedom. Kate is joined by conservative peer and former health minister Lord Bethell, to discuss whether the s...

In this week's Book Club podcast my guest is Sathnam Sanghera, author of the new book Empireworld about the effect of British imperialism around the globe. He tells me why he's trying to get beyond the 'balance-sheet' view of imperial history, why we should all read W E B Dubois, and why he's not good at going on holiday.  Produced by Patrick Gibbons. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mor...

Freddy Gray sits down with host and producer of the 538 Politics podcast Galen Druke to discuss whether a Taylor Swift endorsement could sway the general election. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Edward Stourton is a broadcaster who has worked as foreign correspondent for the BBC, Channel 4 and ITN. He is the presenter of BBC Radio 4's Sunday Program, and presented the Today Program for ten years. He has authored eight books including his most recent, Sunday: A History of Religious Affairs through 50 Years of Conversations and Controversies which is available now.  On the podcast, he recal...

Julie Bindel speaks to Pala Molisa, an academic and life coach from Vanuatu. Pala has become an outspoken critic of sex work and the left's failure to accept the implications that a sexually liberated culture can have on women's safety. On the show, Pala and Julie discuss how the porn industry deliberately grooms children into becoming a 'customer for life'; Pala's research into post-colonial powe...

Freddy Gray speaks to Jonathan Askonas, assistant professor of politics at the Catholic University of America about Jon Stewart's return to TV, and what role, albeit inadvertent, he played in Tucker Carlson’s success. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, Richard Dawkins explains how to convert an atheist like him to a Christian (00:37), Lisa Haseldine says the German army is in a dire state (05:53), Douglas Murray looks at the return of the Trump show (12:44), Cindy Yu reviews a Chinese intelligence officers account of life under the CCP (20:14), and Mary Wakefield wonders if it’s wrong to track her child (25:14). Hosted on Acast....

On the podcast: gangsterism or government? The Covid Inquiry has moved to Scotland and, in his cover story for the magazine, our editor Fraser Nelson looks at the many revelations uncovered by Jamie Dawson KC. Fraser describes how civil servants were enlisted into what he calls an ‘SNP secret state’ and how SNP corruption is threatening devolution. Joining us to discuss is the Coffee House Scots t...

On this week’s Book Club my guest is the writer and psychoanalyst Adam Phillips, whose new book is On Giving Up . He tells me how literature relates to psychoanalysis, why censorship makes life possible, and what Freud got wrong.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freddy Gray is joined in New Hampshire by Ben Domenech, editor at large of Spectator World. On the podcast they discuss the pro-Trump establishment of the Republican party; how the Republican cohort have changed since the Obama election and what issues Trump can identify that appeal to voters.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, the US and China are at loggerheads. There’s renewed talk of a Cold War as Washington finds various ways to cut China out of key supply chains and to block China’s economic development in areas like semiconductors and renewables. There’s trade, of course, but the imbalance in that (some $370 billion in 2022) tilts in China’s favour and only serves as another source of ammunition for America...

Julie Bindel speaks Bob Jensen who is an academic and writer based in Toronto. Bob has authored several papers on the damaging and exploitative effects of the porn industry. On the podcast, Julie and Bob's feminist critique of pornography; why they have both become disillusioned by the left and how Bob got cancelled when he weighed into the gender wars.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...

For this special Americano podcast, Freddy Gray is in New Hampshire with the Spectator US team, Matt McDonald and Zach Christenson covering the chilly primaries. Are both Ron De Santis and Nikki Haley's defeat a foregone conclusion? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week: Spectator editor Fraser Nelson on why the Emirati ownership of the magazine matters (00:30), Robert Hardman on the time the King could have poisoned Rishi Sunak (06:24) and Michael Simmons on why sobriety isn't worth it (13:02). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Theo Clarke is Conservative MP for Stafford. She is the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Kenya and sits on the International Development Select Committee. Before being elected she set up and sold her business and then went on to be Chief Executive of an international development charity backed by Bill Gates. Theo got involved in politics after the election expenses scandal and stood in Bristol East...

This week: The Spectator’s cover story looks at how Britain is sobering up, forgoing alcohol in favour of alcohol free alternatives. In his piece, Henry Jeffreys – author of Empire of Booze – attacks the vice of sobriety and argues that the abstinence of young Britons will have a detrimental impact on the drinks industry and British culture. He joins the podcast alongside Camilla Tominey, associat...

In this week’s Book Club podcast, I’m joined by Rebecca Boyle to talk about her new book Our Moon: A Human History . She tells me how we know that the moon is more than just an inert lump of rock in the sky and how the whole of human life  – and civilisation – may depend on it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alexandra Collier is a Melbourne-based writer who has written for theatre, screen and print. She is a MacDowell fellow and a recipient of the RE Ross Trust playwrites' award. Her memoir Inconceivable , about her journey to becoming a solo Mum by choice, is out now.  On the podcast she tells Lara and Liv why restaurants are inherently theatrical places, discusses her experience with IVF, and explai...

Just before Christmas, the Vatican's new doctrinal chief Cardinal Victor ‘Tucho’ Fernandez unveiled a new style of blessing designed to make gay couples feel at home in church without changing the Church's teaching on marriage. The Argentinian Tucho has for years been Pope Francis's protégé – but for how much longer? The new gay blessings, supposedly blessing the couple but not their union, have b...