Best of the Spectator

Freddy Gray talks to Pano Kanelos, the president of the newly announced University of Austin, about what his project is hoping to achieve.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sarah Vine is a columnist for the Daily Mail and formerly wife of Cabinet minister Michael Gove. On the podcast, Sarah talks to Katy about growing up in Italy, working her way up tabloid journalism (including what it was like to work for Paul Dacre), and her reflections on being a columnist with a politician (ex-)husband. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s episode: Are migrants the new munitions?  In our cover story this week, our political editor James Forsyth looks at the growing troubles in Eastern Europe and how this small part of the world stage could end up splintering the scaffolding of global peace. He is joined on the podcast by Mary Dejevsky, a columnist for the Independent. (00:42) Also this week: Will the monarchy survive...

Sam's guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the historian Tessa Dunlop. Tessa's new book is Army Girls: The Secrets and Stories of Military Service from the Final Few Women Who Fought In World War Two . She tells Sam about how she gathered testimony and formed friendships with the nonagenarian veterans of the Second World War amid the Covid lockdown; about the class-ridden rivalries between th...

Deng Xiaoping used to say, 'let some people get rich first'. Four decades on from the start of his economic experiment with marketisation, Xi Jinping is, these days, talking about 'common prosperity' instead - prosperity for the many, not the few. But what does this new economic direction mean in practice, and could it, in fact, stifle the very market forces that made so-called 'socialism with Chi...

Freddy Gray talks to Iain Dale about his new book 'The Presidents', which takes a look at every holder of the office from George Washington to Joe Biden.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode, we’ll hear from Mary Wakefield about the pattern of misandry in modern media. (00:48) Then Lloyd Evans on the British tradition of the pub theatre. (07:19) And finally, Tanya Gold on getting drunk on tiramisu. (13:55) 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 ac...

Freddy Gray talks to Michael Wolff about his latest book 'Too Famous', and looks back at how the quest for fame has affected politics over the last two decades. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s episode: Who is advising the PM?  In our cover story this week, our editor Fraser Nelson takes a deep dive into No. 10 politics and finds a court of chaos inside. With a large parliamentary majority, an extremely young team and the departure of Domonic Cummings is there anyone left in the Conservative party who can stand up to the Prime Minister? Fraser talks on the podcast with for...

Sam's guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Armando Iannucci – the satirist behind Alan Partridge , The Thick of It , Veep and The Death of Stalin . What many of his fans might not know is that he's also a devoted scholar of Milton – whose influence is to be found in his first published poem Pandemonium: Some Verses on the Current Predicament . Armando tells Sam what hurt him into verse, ident...

Dee Rettali is an artisan baker. She founded Patisserie Organic in 1998, and afterwards the Fortitude Bakehouse in London. She is the author of Baking with Fortitude: sourdough cakes and bakes . On the podcast, she tells Lara and Liv about enjoying tinned fish, relying on the custom of cyclists in lockdown, and learning from 1970s French patisserie that baking was better without kitchen machinery....

Over 25 million smart meters have been installed in homes across Britain. Does this mean that smart meters have been a success? In 2019, The Spectator hosted Smart Energy GB on a podcast to discuss their rollout and now we are back again to reflect on what we have learnt over the years and where there are still challenges. Have people’s understanding of smart meters changed? And are they really as...

Fraser Nelson is joined by Spectator columnist Lionel Shriver; Gavin Schmidt, senior adviser at Nasa; Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation; Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of National Interest ; Labour MP Stella Creasy; and Spectator journalists. We discuss whether Biden is on the decline, how the Tories found themselves in another sleaze scandal, and whether there's a problem wi...

On this week's episode, we’ll hear from Lionel Shriver on how the Biden Administration’s border policies are a gift for Trump and the Republicans. (00:52) Then Kit Wilson on what we can expect from Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse. (09:53) Third, it's Peter Hanington talking about his love of haikus. (18:48) And finally, Robert Porter’s notes on the bagpipes. (24:32) Produced and presented by Sam Holme...

Freddy Gray talks to Amber Athey and Matt McDonald about the results of the race for the governorship of Virginia and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ruth Davidson is the former leader of the Scottish Conservatives and now sits in the House of Lords as the Baroness of Lundin Links. On the episode, she speaks to Katy about her happy upbringing as an active tomboy despite a near-death car accident at the age of five; her mother's reaction when she left the BBC to join the Scottish Tories ('she was appalled'); and gave a punchy defence of Theresa...

In this week’s episode: Has the Biden Presidency stalled or crashed? In our cover story this week, Freddy Gray assesses the state of the Biden presidency. With steadily lowering approval ratings, a disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, and this week’s failure of the Democrats to hold on to the Virginia Governorship, how much trouble is the US’s oldest inaugurated president in? Freddy talks to Lara al...

Over the past months, under the weight of a global pandemic, scientists and medical professionals have had to rethink the way they do things. We found not one - but numerous - vaccines within the space of a year; new treatments have been discovered, some repurposed from existing drugs; and manufacturers and politicians alike have had to think creatively to plug the gaps of the pandemic. There must...

In this week’s Book Club podcast, Sam's guest is Claire Tomalin. Claire’s new book, The Young H G Wells: Changing the World, tracks the extraordinary life and rocket-powered career of one of the most influential writers of the Edwardian age. She talks to Sam about how drapery’s loss was literature’s gain, why casting the goatish Wells as a #metoo villain isn’t quite right - and why we should all b...

It's not easy to talk about the Cultural Revolution inside China - let alone teach it. In recent years, one of the last professors to have taught the period has been hounded out of her role at a top university. Sun Peidong has now taken a post at Cornell, after Chinese journals stopped publishing her work, the university party secretary banned her lectures, and even her students turned on her - de...

As the global shortage of gas continues to drive up energy costs, we take a look at these rising energy prices and the cost of living crisis that looms over the UK. How can we protect people from fuel poverty when bills are predicted to rise by hundreds of pounds? Moreover, as COP26 kicks off, how can this crisis be framed within the government's plans for a green future? Kate Andrews speaks to Re...

Freddy Gray is joined by Peter Hitchens, Spectator contributor; Glenn Greenwald, journalist and author; Tim Spector, principal investigator on the ZOE app; Rod Liddle, The Spectator 's associate editor; Ben Smith, New York Times media columnist; Peter Betts, lead climate negotiator for the European Union, 2010-16; and Spectator journalists. We discuss the Autumn Budget, whether drugs or mental ill...

On this week's episode, we hear from Max Jeffery on his first impressions visiting Israel. (00:45) Then Kate Andrews on her difficult relationship with Newcastle Football Club. (04:58) And finally, Maggie Fergusson's review of the new book Blacksmith: Apprentice to Master: Tools and Traditions of an Ancient Craft. (10:53) Produced and presented by Sam Holmes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...

Freddy Gray talks to Ben Schreckinger, political correspondent at Politico, about his new book, The Bidens: Inside the First Family's Fifty-Year Rise to Power. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

These days the Conservative party is not just associated with the colour blue - it’s also the winner of the red wall seats; the pursuer of a green agenda. But do these new identities, achieved under Boris Johnson, all fit together? In particular, critics often label tackling climate change as a middle class pursuit, not what ‘real people’ around the country are concerned with. And indeed, the Trea...