Best of the Spectator

With Texas's controversial new 'heartbeat' law seemingly left unchallenged by the Supreme Court the abortion debate is hotting up in the States yet again. Will this success lead the pro-life movement to attempt to get similar laws on the books in other states?  Freddy Gray talks to Mairead Elordi, an investigative journalist for the Daily Wire. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more infor...

On this week's episode, Kate Andrews argues that the government's social care reform plans simply don't add up (00:55). Mary Wakefield makes the case for church doors to reopen (06:55) and Caroline Crampton reviews Tom Chivers's new book,  London Clay  (13:25). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode: should animal lives be considered as valuable as human lives? It’s often said that Britain is a country of animal lovers, but have we taken it too far? Pen Farthing’s evacuation has shown how some people value animal lives more than human lives. William Moore writes our cover piece this week, arguing that the public outcry is emblematic of our faith-like approach to animal...

Sam Leith's guest on this week’s podcast is the biographer and critic Hermione Lee. Her biography of Tom Stoppard is newly out in paperback, and she tells Sam about the decade of work behind Sir Tom’s overnight success, his unexpected influences, and the challenge to a biographer of getting to the heart of this elusive genius. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Charlie Stebbings is an acclaimed food director and photographer. On the podcast, he tells Lara and Liv about taking photographing M&S's melt in the middle chocolate puddings, treating himself to baked beans and red wine and measuring mayonnaise from a syringe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, Aussie journalist Sascha O'Sullivan begs to be let home (00:50); Ian Williams wonders whether China is experiencing its own MeToo moment (04:25); and Toby Young on his trip up north with his two boys (11:35). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Religious freedom is already being mercilessly attacked in Taliban-run Afghanistan: Muslim women in particular face a living hell unless they're happy to submit to their new rulers' psychotic brand of Sharia.  The United States is required by its own laws to do everything it can to champion religious liberty around the world. But Afghan's moderate Muslims, China's Uighurs, Myanmar's Rohynga and Ch...

On this week’s episode, we’ll be taking a look at the fortress that Australia has built around itself, and ask – when will its Zero Covid policy end (01:00)? Also on the podcast: is it racist to point out Britain’s changing demographics (14:35)? And is trivia just another way for men to compete (27:00)? With former Australian High Commissioner, Alexander Downer; chair of the All Party Parliamentar...

Michael Bracewell’s new book Souvenir is a vivid and poetic evocation of London on the brink of the digital era - the neglected in-between times between 1979 and 1986. He joins Sam Leith to talk about fine art and post-punk, T S Eliot and William Burroughs - and the dangerous lure of nostalgia. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freddy Gray speaks to the investigative journalist Katherine Eban, author of Bottle of Lies: the Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom, about the classified report into the possibility that Covid-19 escaped from a Chinese laboratory. An edited version of the report is expected to be released publicly next week. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode, Lara Prendergast asks if it's so wrong to talk about whether the Covid vaccine affects periods. (01:05) Cindy Yu says China's 'zero Covid' strategy can't last. (06:50) And finally, Gus Carter spends an hour in a sensory deprivation tank. (13:05) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last month, the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi welcomed senior Taliban leaders to Beijing, standing shoulder to shoulder for the photographers. China is carefully watching events unfold in Afghanistan. And while it hasn’t yet recognised the Taliban government, the Beijing meeting was a nod towards a potential alliance. But replacing America in Afghanistan wouldn’t be without its risks – can Beij...

On this week’s podcast: In the latest issue of The Spectator , we cover the Afghanistan issue extensively, looking at everything from why the West was doomed from the start, to how events in Afghanistan have transformed central Asian politics. On the podcast, journalist Paul Wood and our own deputy editor Freddy Gray, both of whom feature in this week’s issue, join Lara to talk Biden, Boris and th...

In this week's Book Club podcast Sam Leith is talking to Michael Pye about his new book Antwerp: The Glory Years. For most of the 16th century, as he tells Sam, Antwerp was the most important town in the western world – a city in which, as never before, ideas, information, goods and money circulated free of almost any authority. It was a time of extraordinary excitement – here are Bruegel, Thomas...

Rory Bremner is one of Britain's leading comedians, impressionists and political satirists. On the episode, he tells Lara and Liv about his first impression (of a school history teacher), doing shows with Ainsley Harriott, getting stuck in a storm in Turkey at the same time as Betty Boothroyd, and helping refugees and asylum seekers through food. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more inf...

With Kabul now taken back by the Taliban and the Americans in full retreat after two decades of war, what will the USA learn from this catastrophe, if anything? Freddy Gray talks to author of After the Apocalypse: America’s Role in a World Transformed, Andrew Bacevich about the goals not met, allies abandoned and lives lost.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode, Jonathan Miller, author of France, a Nation on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown talks about the French 'vaccine passport' protests; Financial columnist Matthew Lynn reflects on 50 years without the gold standard; and Melissa Kite tells us about her own ways of treating Covid.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the last episode of Holy Smoke, I discussed Pope Francis's brutal and petty new document which seeks to ban as many Latin Masses as possible. This week we look at the other recent developments, which are arguably just as disturbing: two criminal prosecutions in which close allies of the Pope are accused of a range of hair-raising offences – and the question of how much Francis knew about their...

This week on The Edition:  How expensive will it be to get to net zero and what is the cost of not reaching this goal?(00:48) Also on the podcast: Are international PCR tests a new racket?(17:56) And finally…  is the American Dream dead?(27:39) With journalists Ross Clark & James Kirkup. Producer Matt Quinton & Virginia Messina the acting CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council. Writer Sean Th...

Andrew Cuomo has resigned as governor of New York after an inquiry found he sexually assaulted multiple women. Why was the Governor so loved by Democrats, should he really have resigned over the state's care homes scandal, and might we soon see him as a CNN contributor? Freddy Gray speaks to Spectator World contributor Grace Curley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Conversations about ‘modernising’ the NHS have been happening for almost as long as the NHS itself. The 2019 Long Term Plan put so-called ‘patient-centred care’ at the forefront, writing that: “The NHS also needs a more fundamental shift in how we work alongside patients and individuals to deliver more person-centred care, recognising – as National Voices has championed – the importance of ‘what m...

It might be an understatement to say that China has a difficult relationship with drugs. Most infamously, the Opium Wars of the 1800s saw British soldiers fight against the Qing dynasty to protect the British right to sell opium to China. When the Qing lost, it wasn’t just the sobriety of their people that they lost – but a series of ports, concessions and reparations signed away in so-called ‘une...

Cindy Yu is joined by Professor Ciaran Martin, former chair of the National Cyber Security Centre; Robert Bigman, former chief information security officer at the CIA; Andy Owen, author and former intelligence officer; Dr Mike Martin, author of An Intimate War; Rory Sutherland, The Spectator's Wiki Man columnist; Suzanne Moore, Telegraph columnist; and a team of Spectator journalists. Hosted on Ac...

On this week's episode, former intelligence officer Andy Owen gives his reflections on where we went wrong in Afghanistan - based on what he saw on the ground; Spectator  columnist Mary Wakefield talks about the rise in neighbourhood crime; and Toby Young asks - why have my suits shrunk in lockdown? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freddy's guest on this week's episode is the famed journalist Michael Wolff, author of three books on Donald Trump - the bestseller Fire and Fury , its very popular follow up Siege and the latest, Landslide. The final in the trilogy tells the story of the last days of the Trump presidency, including the 2020 election – one that the former president still claims he won. On the episode, Michael reco...