Best of the Spectator

In this week’s episode: Can Cop26 deliver on its grand promises? In our cover story this week, Fraser Nelson assesses the state of the upcoming Cop26 summit in Glasgow and questions their very effectiveness in dealing with climate change in a world of global players with very different priorities. He is joined on the podcast by reporter Jess Shankleman, who is covering Cop26 for Bloomberg. (00:48)...

In this week’s Book Club podcast, Sam Leith's guest is the historian Jane Ridley, talking about her new book George V: Never A Dull Moment . She tells him there’s so much more to the 'boring' monarch than shooting grouse and collecting stamps. Hear how he navigated some of the worst constitutional crises in memory, saved the British monarchy as the grand dynasties of Europe started toppling… and t...

Rachel Roddy is an author and food writer based in Rome. She has written for several publications, including the Financial Times , the Telegraph , Food and Wine , The Spectator , and has a weekly column in the Guardian . On the podcast, Rachel talks to Lara and Liv about growing up in Hertfordshire, coping with an eating disorder, why she chose to move to Italy and life under lockdown there over t...

On this week's episode, we’ll hear Douglas Murray on how the Prevent scheme has lost sight of its founding intention. (00:43) Then Owen Matthews on Rome’s rubbish. (12:35) And finally, Lionel Shriver gives her review of Dave Chappelle’s transgressive new Netflix Special. (19:20) Produced and presented by Sam Holmes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nikki da Costa is the former director of legislative affairs at No 10 Downing Street. She served under Theresa May and Boris Johnson and was pivotal in the government's wrangles with Parliament over Brexit. On the podcast, she talks to Katy Balls about why she and David Davis didn't quite get on; why she quit May's government and rejoined under Johnson; and what it was like to carry through her br...

In this week’s episode: Who is Eric Zemmour – can he take on President Macron?  In our cover story this week, Freddy Gray looks at the rise of Eric Zemmour, the TV presenter who looks set to stir up French politics ahead of next year’s election. Freddy is joined on the podcast by Sophie Pedder, Paris bureau chief for The Economist and a biographer of French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss. (0...

Freddy Gray talks to the academic Victor Davis Hanson about his latest book The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week's Book Club podcast Sam is joined by the historian James Holland to talk about his fascinating new book Brothers In Arms: One Legendary Tank Regiment's Bloody War from D-Day to VE-Day. James's story follows the Sherwood Rangers from El Alamein to the D-Day Landings, and on through the last push through Europe into Germany. On the podcast he tells Sam how he put together this richly de...

Will the green agenda really create new jobs - or will the cost of net zero dampen economic growth? Katy Balls, the Spectator's deputy political editor is at Conservative Party Conference for a live recording with: Will Gardiner, CEO of Drax Jake Berry MP, chair of the Northern Research Group Bim Afolami MP, chair of the Parliamentary Renewable & Sustainable Energy Group Shevaun Haviland, Director...

Aftershock is an occasional podcast series by award-winning journalist Isabel Hardman. In every episode she asks how we can fix the damage caused by the pandemic to a different part of British society. In this episode, Isabel looks at how schoolchildren have been affected by 18 months of lockdowns and remote schooling. Some have been hit harder than others: in fact, there are now more children mis...

Last week, the US and Canada each sent a warship through the Taiwan Strait and Taiwan has appealed to the US for faster delivery of fighter aircraft. It's been a tense month in the Strait, kicked off by China's celebration of its national day on October 1 through flying a record number of aircraft through Taiwan's air defense identification zone. Could war really happen? Could China really success...

Can the company that feeds the world beef burgers lead hospitality in reaching net zero? That’s what McDonald’s hopes to do as they lay out their Plan for Change 2021. With 1400 restaurants, over 23,000 British and Irish farmers and four million customers visiting them every day, will it be enough? Or is it just a drop in the ocean? McDonald’s strategy will result in a number of sustainability-ori...

On this week's episode, we’ll hear Douglas Murray on how the pandemic has made cynics of us all. (00:50) Paul Wood on why after 10 years he and his family are leaving Lebanon. (08:02) And finally Tanya Gold gives her review of a Batman-themed restaurant. (14:32) Produced and presented by Sam Holmes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s episode: Why are a growing number of people putting the planet before parenthood? Madeleine Kearns writes about this phenomenon in this week’s issue and thinks that some of these fears might be unfounded. Tom Woodman author of Future is one of these people that Madeleine’s piece talks about. Tom has very real worries about bringing a child into the world. It's not only the least gre...

In this week’s Book Club podcast Sam's guest is Joan Bakewell, who talks on the podcast about her new book The Tick Of Two Clocks: A Tale of Moving On. It describes how she made the decision to sell the house she lived in for half a century, and what it meant to her to face up to old age, and take stock of the past. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Laurie Woolever is a writer and editor, and for nearly a decade worked as the assistant to the late author, TV host and producer Anthony Bourdain. On the podcast, she talks to Lara and Liv about tending to garden peas from the age of four, finishing co-writing a book with Bourdain after he passed away, and finding comfort at a local bakery during the pandemic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privac...

The University of Nottingham has been forced to abandon its sinister attempt to ban Fr David Palmer from becoming its Catholic chaplain because his defence of unborn life might upset snowflakes. In this episode of Holy Smoke, I talk to one of Fr Palmer's key allies, Ryan Christopher, UK director of Alliance Defending Freedom, about that appalling episode and its backdrop: a sneaky culture of below...

On this week's episode, we’ll hear Matthew Lynn’s thoughts on how the gas shortages could lead to a very cold winter. (00:51)  Then, Tanya Gold with a critical take on critics. (04:41) And finally, James Innes-Smith bigs up the bungalow. (08:58) Presented by Sam Holmes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dehenna Davison is the MP for Bishop Auckland, and a rising star in Boris Johnson's 2019 'red wall' intake. On this episode, recorded just after Conservative party conference, Dehenna tells Katy about what it was like to lose her father to a pub brawl so young, getting her work marked in Latin by Jacob Rees-Mogg and her plans to go to a Taylor Swift concert with the Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. Ho...

In this week’s episode: with the energy crisis picking up pace who are set to be the winners and losers in this cold war for gas? Domestically we are seeing queues for petrol, rising gas prices all in the face of the Government’s net-zero agenda. And internationally things are looking just as turbulent, with China buying up as much fuel as possible, America becoming more isolationist when it comes...

On the 15th anniversary of Wikileaks , Freddy Gray speaks to its Editor in Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson about the recent Yahoo article that exposed the fact that the Trump Administration along with the CIA was working on plans to either kidnap or kill Julian Assange while he was still in hiding at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Throughout Chinese history, as seen by poems and novels, drinking has been seen as a source for literary inspiration; or a form of manly competition; or, as ever, a status symbol. After a century of political turmoil in which the way people lived was radically disrupted, drinking culture is now coming back with China's growing wealth. As well as the traditional rice and sorghum spirits, grape wine...

Our Midlands regional final took place on Zoom — a blast from the regional past, you might say — but was no less enjoyable and stimulating for that, all four regional entrants giving an excellent account of themselves.  They were Blutick, which is taking maths teaching online to a new level; Petalite, which offers powerful solutions for electric vehicle recharging; Regionally, which connects priva...

Our venue for the Yorkshire & North East regional final was the former Leeds Club — where the entrepreneurs of the region’s textile and other manufacturing industries would once have congregated.  We welcomed back guest judges Caroline Theobald, a leading promoter of entrepreneurship in Newcastle and the North East, and Gordon Black, a venture capitalist and former manufacturer from West Yorkshire...

Kate Andrews is joined by writer and political activist Paul Embery; journalist Ayesha Hazarika; Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith; security expert Elisabeth Braw, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; Spectator contributor Matthew Lynn; and a team of Spectator journalists. We discuss Labour's weekend in Brighton and whether Keir Starmer is taking the party in the right direction, how Brit...