Best of the Spectator

On the podcast this week: How will the war on Ukraine end? This is the question that Russia correspondent Owen Matthews asks in his cover piece for The Spectator . He is joined by Rose Gottemoeller, former deputy secretary general of Nato, to discuss whether the end is in sight (01:02). Also this week: Matthew Parris interviews the theologian and ethicist Nigel Biggar on the legacy of Empire. They...

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is the reporter Tania Branigan, whose experience as a correspondent in China led her to believe that the trauma of the Cultural Revolution was the story behind the story that made sense of modern China. In her new book Red Memory: Remembering and Forgetting China's Cultural Revolution , she explores how the memory of that bloody decade, and the drive to fo...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exposed the insecurity of the UK’s energy supply. We may not have been reliant on Russian gas like our European neighbours, but that didn’t mean we avoided higher energy bills. The government had to seriously consider how the UK would cope with a blackout. Britain’s experience this winter has prompted a discussion about how we can safeguard our energy supply and avoid...

Katy Balls, The Spectator’s political editor is joined by Isabel Hardman and John Curtice to talk about her cover piece on the latest Tory sleaze scandals. Also on the show, Mike Martin and Richard Barrons on European tanks; Freddy Gray on Biden’s docudrama; Lionel Shriver is fighting a war against words and Igor Toronyi-Lalic looks at the highs and lows of art restoration.  00:00 - Welcome from K...

On this week’s episode, Matthew Parris wonders what ‘winning’ in Ukraine really means (00:52), Lionel Shriver says she’s fighting her own war against words (08:43), and Gus Carter wonders whether it’s a good idea to reintroduce Bison into Britain (18:28). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freddy Gray talks to the Bloomberg journalist and podcaster Joseph Weisenthal about the likely rise America’s debt ceiling… once again. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's podcast, Katy Balls, The Spectator ’s political editor, writes about the return of Tory sleaze. She’s joined by Jill Rutter, a senior fellow at the Institute for Government, to discuss the problems piling up for Rishi Sunak and the Tories. (00:50) Also this week, security expert Mark Galeotti writes about why Europe has been reluctant to give Ukraine tanks. Journalist Owen Matthews...

Sam's guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the palaeobiologist Thomas Halliday, whose book Otherlands: A World In The Making takes us on an extraordinary journey through the whole history of life on earth. Thomas tells Sam why tyrannosaurus rex didn't eat diplodocus, why if you had to live in a swamp the carboniferous might be a good time to do it, and gives a jaw-dropping sense of what the n...

Winston speaks with sceptical environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg, author of the book False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts The Poor, And Fails To Fix The Planet . They discuss climate change and climate change policy. Lomborg explains how net zero and the Paris agreement will do more harm than good and suggests some alternative sustainable development goals which would balanc...

Three years ago, as people across China welcomed the Year of the Rat, a new virus was taking hold in Wuhan. In London, the conversation at my family’s New Year dinner was dominated by the latest updates, how many masks and hand sanitisers we’d ordered.  Mercifully, Covid didn’t come up at all as we welcomed the Year of the Rabbit this weekend, though my family in China are still recovering from th...

This week: Richard Madeley reads his diary in the magazine, including recollections of his Sunday lunch with George Michael (00:58). Also, Daniel Johnson shares a touching tribute to his late father Paul Johnson (05:36) and Melinda Hughes asks why BBC Radio 3 is dumbing down (12:28).  Produced and presented by Oscar Edmondson.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nimco Ali is an activist, government advisor, author and FGM survivor. Born in Somaliland, Nimco moved to the UK as a child fleeing civil war. On holiday in Djibouti aged 7, she was subjected to female genital mutilation, a traumatising moment in her life that led her to become one of the world’s leading anti-FGM activists today. She went on to set up Daughters of Eve, a survivor-led organisation...

On the podcast this week:  In his cover piece for the magazine Iain Macwhirter writes in the aftermath of the government’s decision to block the Scottish Gender Recognition Reform Bill from gaining Royal Assent. He joins the podcast with Observer columnist Sonia Sodha to discuss the Union’s new battle line (01:03).  Also this week: why are our prisons still in lockdown?  Charlie Taylor, HM’s Chief...

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Ashley Ward, author of Sensational: A New Story of our Senses , which takes us on a cultural, historical and neurobiological tour of the sensorium. Along the way he tells me why Aristotle's notion of five senses is a convenient but cockeyed idea, why men are best letting their wives pick out the curtains, why we call ginger-haired people "redheads" and,...

Luke Farrell is a restauranteur and founder of two of London's fieriest new openings, Plaza Khao Gaeng and Speedboat Bar . He has spent the last few years dividing his time between Thailand and his nursery in Dorset, where he grows a 'living library' of south-east Asian herbs and spices.  On the podcast they discuss memories of Chinese cuisine, the thrill of Thai speedboat racing and why, despite...

Freddy Gray speaks to author and founder of the venture capitalist fund 1517 Michael Gibson, about his new book Paper Belt on Fire. On the podcast they discuss the parallels between universities and the 16th century Church and how investors are spearheading a revolt against these old institutions.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the show, journalist Petronella Wyatt and historian David Abulafia discuss Prince Harry’s new book, Spare, journalist Owen Matthews explains why Putin’s plan to freeze Europe failed, Spectator editor and academic Matthew Goodwin discuss whether a Keir Starmer government is something to be afraid of, political editor Katy Balls and Financial Times journalist Stephen Bush discuss Sunak's plan to...

This week: Lionel Shriver asks whether we are kidding ourselves over Ukraine (00:56), Theo Hobson discusses Martin Luther King and the demise of liberal Protestantism (09:28), and John Maier reads his review of Quentin Tarantino's new book Cinema Speculation (18:11). Produced and presented by Oscar Edmondson. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week: Who's afraid of Keir Starmer? In his cover piece for the magazine, The Spectator's Editor Fraser Nelson says that without a Labour demon to point at the Tories stand little chance in the next election. He joins the podcast alongside journalist Paul Mason, to discuss why Keir Starmer is so hard to vilify (01:10). Also this week: In the magazine, The Spectator's newsletter editor Hannah T...

In this week's Book Club podcast, my guest is the distinguished poet A. E. Stallings, whose new selected poems This Afterlife marks her first UK publication in book form. She tells me why the idea that formal verse is stuffy is wrong, how she thinks Greek myth is a living tradition, and why women poets have to be both Orpheus and Eurydice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informatio...

President Biden is visiting Mexico this week to meet with President Obrador, and Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada. Biden is expected to bring up illegal immigration with Obrador, and hopes that he can offer him some way out of what is becoming a spiralling crisis. But is any help coming? Freddy Gray speaks to Todd Bensman, author of the upcoming book Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Biggest Bo...

Should Confucius Institutes be shut down? There are hundreds of these centres across six continents, funded by the Ministry of Education, with the stated goal of public education on and cultural promotion of China. They offer classes on language, history and culture of China, and some would say they help to plug a crucial shortage of Chinese language skills in host countries, especially across the...

Kevin McCarthy’s hopes to be voted House Speaker reaches day four still without a resolution. How much will he have to concede in order to win over the Republican rebels? Freddy Gray speaks to Amber Athey, The Spectator’s Washington Editor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week: Stuart Ritchie asks how worried we should be about falling sperm counts (0:29). Mary Wakefield wants to end the term ‘making memories’. (9:00), and Toby Young shares his disastrous Airbnb experience (15:10). Produced and presented by Natasha Feroze. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the podcast this week:  The Spectator’s deputy editor Freddy Gray writes the cover piece looking ahead to the possibility of another 6 years of President Biden. He is joined by Amie Parnes, senior staff writer at The Hill and co-author of Lucky: How Joe Biden barley won the presidency , to discuss whether anyone can stop Biden running in 2024 (01:00).  Also this week:  In the magazine Fr Patric...