Best of the Spectator

On the podcast: In his cover piece for the magazine, journalist Jonathan Miller argues that President Macron is pitting himself against the people by refusing to back down from his plans to raise the age of retirement. He is joined by regular Coffee House contributor Gavin Mortimer, to ask whether this could be Macron's last adventure (01:06). Also this week: In the magazine, travel journalist Sea...

On this week's Book Club podcast my guests are the former government food tsar Henry Dimbleby and his wife and co-author Jemima Lewis, to talk about their new book Ravenous: How To Get Ourselves and Our Planet Into Shape . They tell me about the perils and pleasures of working with your spouse, why exercise doesn't make you lose weight, what we don't understand about nutrition, when the state need...

Winston speaks with Dutch legal philosopher, writer and political activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek. Three and a half years of farmer demonstrations against technocratic environmentalist policy has culminated in election victory for the farmers of one of the world's great farming nations. What happened? How did it happen? Eva explains the different worldviews in contention, gives her perspective on ne...

Britain’s high energy prices, insecure supply, and climate change commitments mean people’s relationship with energy will need to change. How could consumers change their attitude to energy consumption so that they use less? Will doing so give them a worse standard of living? On this podcast, Kate Andrews, The Spectator ’s economics editor, is joined by Dan Brooke, the CEO of Smart Energy GB, a no...

Cindy Yu, the Spectator's assistant editor speaks to Katy Balls about Boris's future – is the show over for the political influencer? Also on Spectator TV, Harriet Sergeant reveals the stories of children who never returned to school after lockdown; Gideon Rachman looks at China's shifting foreign policy; Danny Shaw on the rotten culture inside the Metropolitan Police and Sasha Hinkley believes th...

This week: Ian Williams asks how China will cope with the rise of AI chatbots (00:56), Kara Kennedy recounts her upbringing in the Welsh ‘murder capital’ of Pontypridd (08:11), and Oscar Edmondson makes the case for the BBC World Service (13:38).  Presented by Natasha Feroze.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freddy Gray speaks to the Republican strategist and advisor Roger Stone about the Trump's possible arrest; his views on Ron De Santis and the end of honest journalism.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week:   In her cover piece for The Spectator , Harriet Sergeant asks what's happened to the 140,000 pupils who have been 'severely absent' from school since the pandemic. She is joined by The Spectator's data editor Michael Simmons to account for the staggering number of children who were failed by the government's Covid response (01:08). Also this week: Owen Matthews, The Spectator's Russia...

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the writer Victoria Smith, whose new book Hags: The Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women explains why one of the oldest forms of misogyny is seeing a vicious resurgence in our own age. She says some of the worst of it now comes from young women. She tells me why she thinks feminists of each new generation seem destined to forget or reject the lessons learn...

As Xi Jinping visits Vladimir Putin in Russia this week, this episode of Chinese Whispers is returning to one of the missions of this podcast series – to look at things as the Chinese see them.  My guest today is Zhou Bo, a retired Senior Colonel of the People’s Liberation Army whose military service started in 1979. He is now a senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy a...

Freddy Gray is joined by Joe Weisenthal, co-host of the Odd Lots podcast at Bloomberg. On the podcast, Joe talks about the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, and the moral hazard of state intervention. How gloomy should people be? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week: Cindy Yu discusses Britain’s invisible East Asians (00:51), Leah McLaren discloses the truth about single motherhood (06:02), and Hannah Tomes reads her notes on dining alone (12:08).  Produced and presented by Oscar Edmondson.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ash Regan is the MSP for East Edinburgh who has served as minister for community safety. Since Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation, she has put herself forward to be the next First Minister for Scotland. Born in Biggar, Ash moved to England as a child and grew up in Devon. She surprised her family during the referendum for Scottish Independence, deciding she would vote to leave.  Ash began her foray int...

On the podcast: The Spectator's economics editor Kate Andrews looks back on a week of economic turbulence and asks whether we should be worried, for her cover piece in the magazine. She is joined by the economist – and former 'Trussketeer' – Julian Jessop, to discuss whether we are entering a new era of economic uncertainty (01:06). Also this week: In the magazine, The Spectator’s deputy features...

Sam Leith's guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the writer and editor Ian Buruma, to talk about his new book Collaborators: Three Stories of Deception and Survival in World War Two . A Chinese princess who climbed into bed with Japanese nationalist gangsters; an observant Jew who sold his co-religionists to the Nazis; and Himmler’s personal masseur. Ian describes how their stories link and r...

Winston speaks with Twitter files journalist David Zweig just as the Twitter files scandal goes to congress. They discuss the significance of the hearing, Big Tech/government censorship, what he uncovered when working on the story, the failure of journalists and government during Covid, myocarditis, mask-efficiency, and the link between free speech and bodily autonomy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.c...

Eleanor is a features writer and columnist for the Daily Telegraph where she writes the the regular food column The Art of Friday Night Dinner. Her new book – of the same name – is released on the 30th March and includes recipes for every kind of Friday night.  On the podcast she reminisces about her mother's famous tomato sauce, takes us through her perfect Friday night and explains why she has a...

Freddy Gray The Spectator’s deputy editor speaks to Andrew Cockburn and Danielle Lee Tomson about the battle for the American right – who will win out of Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump? Also on the show, Katy Balls looks at the Home Secretary’s plans to stop migrant crossings; Ann Törnkvist on Swedish gang violence; Mary Wakefield debates Mary Dejevsky on whether cyclists should be allowed on pavem...

This week: James Heale asks whether the cabinet secretary Simon Case can carry on (01:00), Cosmo Landesman tells the story of when a man – and his axe – came to visit his home in London (05:03), and Miranda Morrison warns against the damaging obsession with STEM in secondary schools (11:10).  Produced and presented by Oscar Edmondson.  Photo Credit: © The Estate of Tom Picton Hosted on Acast. See...

Freddy Gray speaks to Shawn McCreesh, a features writer at New York Magazine who recently spent time with Republican Congressman, George Santos. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the cover piece of this week's magazine, deputy editor Freddy Gray writes about the fight for the American right: it's Don (Trump) vs Ron (DeSantis). Who will win? On the podcast, Freddy is joined by Amber Athey, Washington editor of The Spectator 's world edition. (00:37) Political editor Katy Balls writes in this week's magazine that small boats are a big election issue. Rishi Sunak has promi...

On this week's Book Club podcast, my guest is Sara Wheeler, who looks back on her travelling life in Glowing Still: A Woman's Life on the Road. She tells me why it's 'a book about tits and toilets', as well as a meditation on the past and future of travel writing and a lament for the books – in one case thanks to having children and the other to the modern fatwa on 'cultural appropriation' – she d...

Winston speaks with Perrier Award-winning comedian, writer, author and co-founder of gay rights charity Stonewall, Simon Fanshawe. They discuss the history of Stonewall, Fanshawe’s recent book ‘The Power of Difference’, his new company Diversity by Design, and how it aims to promote diversity in the workplace. Together they debate the case for and against diversity and Stonewall's 'strategic pivot...

The Chinese Communist Party likes to blame its domestic political problems on foreign interference, and it has done so since the days of Chairman Mao. But sometimes, does this paranoia, this narrative, have a point? Or at least during the depths of the Cold War, when the United States, via the CIA, was countering communism across the world through so-called ‘covert operations’. Cindy Yu's guest to...

In response to Seymour Hersh's recent appearance on Americano , Freddy speaks with open-source intelligence analyst Oliver Alexander, who unpacks his argument against Hersh's claims about the U.S. blowing up the Nordstream pipeline. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.