Best of the Spectator

Tzipi Hotovely is the current Israeli Ambassador to the UK. She was formerly a politician in Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, having climbed the ranks to become deputy foreign minister. On the episode, she talks to Katy about her 2,500 strong wedding reception, campaigning for mother's rights in Israel and what modern-day anti-Semitism look like. They also discuss the time when she had to be esco...

Welcome to the special Christmas episode of The Edition!  In this episode, we look at five major topics that dominated the news this year and the pages of The Spectator .  First up a review of the year in politics with our resident Coffee House Shot's team James Forsyth, Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman. We discuss how Boris seemed to make such a strong start to the year through the vaccine rollout,...

Sam's guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the writer Siri Hustvedt, whose latest book is a collection of essays: Mothers, Fathers and Others . She tells Sam what literary critics get wrong, why she has a rubber brain on her desk, how Ancient Greek misogyny is still with us, why the 17th-century Duchess of Newcastle has yet to get her due – and how long it took her to stop smiling politely wh...

We've long known that where you live, who you live with, how you grew up and your quality of life can have long-lasting consequences for your health. Socioeconomic backgrounds are directly linked to healthcare outcomes. Those that live in inner-city neighbourhoods with dense populations and traffic are likely to have different health outcomes than residents living in leafy suburban London. But wha...

We've long known that where you live, who you live with, how you grow up, and how much money you have can have long lasting consequences for you health. Those that live in inner city neighbourhoods are far more exposed to health risks such as air pollution or drug abuse compared to leafy suburban residents. Does this connection between socioeconomic background and health fall on the responsibility...

When the tennis star Peng Shuai had a row with her former lover, the retired Party cadre Zhang Gaoli, she took to Weibo, the Chinese social media platform, where she had half a million followers. It was in that statement that she accused Zhang of starting their affair with sexual assault. The statement was taken down within minutes, demonstrating the power, speed – and, arguably, the manual nature...

On this week's episode, we’ll hear from Douglas Murray on the political fate of US vice president Kamala Harris. (00:58) Next, Mary Wakefield on her experience during storm Arwen and subsequent media coverage. (09:39) And finally, Peter Hitchens on his fears regarding the future of the city of Oxford.  (15:58) Produced and presented by Sam Holmes Subscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amaz...

The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell has gripped the world, a woman accused of truly horrendous crimes. But have we as a society thrown out the cardinal rule of innocent until proven guilty? Freddy Gray sits down with her brother Ian Maxwell who believes that her treatment pre-trial has been nothing short of torturous.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When the Glasgow climate jamboree ended after two weeks, COP26 President Alok Sharma broke down in tears and seemed to apologise for his failure to get countries like China and India on side. But now that the dust has settled from Glasgow's COP26 summit, but how will this one be remembered? There were protestors, no shows from state leaders and new commitments were made whilst backroom wrangling h...

In this week’s episode: Is there any substance to the government’s new drugs agenda? In The Spectator this week Fraser Nelson writes the cover story on the government’s new 10 years drugs plan and finds that while on the surface this seems like a new war on drugs, it might actually have some thoughtful and effective policies buried within it. Fraser is joined on the podcast by Christopher Snowden,...

Sam's guest in this week's Book Club podcast is Kevin Birmingham, whose new book The Sinner and The Saint: Dostoevsky, A Crime and its Punishment , tells the extraordinary story of how Dostoevsky came to write Crime and Punishment – and the under-explored story of the real-life murderer whose case inspired it. Physical agony, Siberian exile, vicious state censorship, old-school nihilists – and the...

Lord Alf Dubs is a politician. He moved to the UK as a child when the Nazis invaded what was then Czechoslovakia, and went on to become an MP, a parliamentary under secretary for Northern Ireland, and a member of the House of Lords. He is a campaigner for refugee rights. On the podcast, he tells Lara and Olivia about his evacuation from Prague, eating langoustine straight from a loch in Northern I...

On this week's episode, we’ll hear from Wolfgang Munchau on the political situation in Germany. (00:49) Next, Andrew Watts on his year long battle against a parking ticket. (11:01) And finally, Hannah Tomes on her love of Baileys. (15:33) Produced and presented by Sam Holmes Subscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher: www.spectator.co.uk/voucher   Hosted on Acast. See acast...

Bridget Phillipson is the shadow education secretary and MP for Houghton and Sunderland South. On this episode, recorded just before Labour's last reshuffle where Bridget was promoted, she talks to Katy about what it was like to go to Oxford from a humble upbringing, how Labour can win the next election, and why she didn't take career advice from school telling her to be a fence-builder. Hosted on...

In this week’s episode: Is the current NHS crisis a bug or a feature? In the Spectator’s cover story this week, our economics editor Kate Andrews writes about the state of the NHS and why even though reform is so clearly needed it's nearly politically impossible to try to do so. She joins the podcast with Isabel Hardman who is currently writing a book on the history of the NHS. (00:53) Also this w...

Money is not generally discussed at the dinner table, and inheritance even less so. So, do parents do enough to pass down responsible personal finance habits to the next generation? And if not, how can those conversations be had? On this live recording of The Spectator’s Women With Balls podcast, deputy political editor Katy Balls will be joined by Charlotte Ransom and Dame Helena Morrissey to dis...

This year Faber and Faber started the project of republishing the late Nobel Laureate William Golding's back catalogue -- starting with Pincher Martin , The Inheritors and The Spire . Sam is joined by his daughter Judy Golding -- author of The Children of Lovers: A Memoir of William Golding By His Daughter -- to talk about Golding the writer and Golding the man. What were the deep fears that drove...

Sun Yat-sen was the founding father of China's first republic, when the Qing dynasty was overthrown. Here he sits, with his successor Chiang Kai-Shek standing behind. They were two among many intellectuals and politicians whose agitations helped contribute to modern Chinese national identity. In his book, The Invention of China , journalist Bill Hayton argues that this is where 'China' and the key...

Katy Balls speaks to broadcaster Jeremy Vine; Oxford ethics professor Dominic Wilkinson; former Liberal Democrats leader Vince Cable; Penguin books editor Henry Eliot; and Spectator journalists Cindy Yu, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Sam Leith. We discuss Boris's CBI speech, whether a lockdown of the unvaccinated is morally justifiable, and what makes a classic book. Click here to watch the ful...

On this week's episode, we’ll hear from Douglas Murray who says that the case of Kyle Rittenhouse shows nothing in America matters more than your identity. (00:55) Next, Henry Eliot wonders, what makes a book a classic? (08:30) And finally, Sam Holmes tells us about his time as a Hamleys Christmas elf. (16:31) Produced and presented by Max Jeffery Subscribe to The Spectator today and we'll send yo...

In this week’s episode: Just who is protesting new Covid rules in Europe?  In The Spectator this week we have three articles that cover the riots and protests all over Europe about new covid policies. Two of them report the scene on the ground in different countries. Lionel Barber and Nick Farrell write respectively about the situations in Holland and Italy and talk on the podcast about why this i...

Freddy Grays talks to Mark P Mills, the energy and tech expert at the Manhattan Institute think tank about his new book 'The Cloud Revolution'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's Book Club podcast, Sam is joined by one of the most distinguished poets in the language, Paul Muldoon, to talk about his new book Howdie-Skelp. He tells Sam of his unfashionable belief in inspiration; why he thinks poetry – even his – needn't be difficult just because it's difficult; how writing song lyrics differs from writing poetry; and how he came to work with Sir Paul McCartney...

Theo Fennell is a jewellery maker. He has been designing and making jewellery in Fulham, London for over forty years and in 2008 founded The Original Design Partnership. On the podcast, he talks to Lara and Liv about his childhood growing up in the colonies during the last days of the British Empire. He gives his top tips for being the perfect guest (so you never have to cook again), and his love...

On this week's episode, we’ll hear from Katy Balls on the political power of Angela Rayner. (00:49) Then Lionel Shriver on the unscientific divisions between the vaxxed and unvaxxed. (06:52) And finally, Nick Newman looks at the differences between British and American cartooning. (15:47) Produced and presented by Sam Holmes Subscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher: www.s...