Latika Takes: The Podcast

This week Latika Takes: The Podcast speaks to Doug Sosnik, who served as political director to former US President Bill Clinton. Sosnik is steeped in the party, advising more than 50 U.S. senators and governors and working on several Democratic presidential bids. Latika and Doug discuss whether Donald Trump is showing fascist tendencies and why the Democrats and the rest of the country have failed...

This week Latika Takes: The Podcast interviews Richard Tice, Reform’s Deputy Leader and Foreign Affairs Spokesman. With Reform leading in the polls and speculation the party could even lead a government at the next election, Latika questions Mr Tice on how Reform would approach China policy, NATO, Ukraine, Russia and the party’s views on Vladimir Putin. Mr Tice says the party wants to re-industria...

This week Latika Takes is in Kyiv, Ukraine and interviews Jeffrey Hartman, founder of Ukrainian Action , a charity that delivers pick-up trucks from London to Ukrainians. In July, Latika became the first journalist to volunteer to join a Ukranian Action convoy into Ukraine. She took part in a five-truck convoy that began in London and travelled across the Channel, through France, Belgium, Germany...

🇺🇦 This week Latika Takes: The Podcast is in Kyiv, Ukraine. Her guest is Oleksandr Merezhko, Chair of the Ukrainian parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. He discusses why he nominated and then revoked Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine and China’s accomplice role in killing Ukrainians. Latika Takes is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and supp...

In this episode, Jim Stokes, NATO’s Director of Nuclear Policy, joins Latika Bourke from the recent GLOBSEC Forum security conference in Prague. They discuss how NATO is strengthening the nuclear deterrent, how it would be used in the event of a war, China’s nuclear build-up and if US President Donald Trump is undermining Article 5. Latika Bourke quizzes Jim Stokes about whether more nuclear-armed...

This week Richard Spencer, former Secretary of the US Navy and current Chairman of shipbuilder Austal Ltd and strategic adviser to Bondi Partners , joins Latika Takes: The Podcast to discuss the review into AUKUS, the prospect of conflict in the Indo-Pacific and the Trump Administration’s ‘bullyship.’ He believes that US production of submarines can increase to the tempo needed in order to honour...

In this week’s edition of Latika Takes: The Podcast, Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles speaks to Latika M Bourke on the sidelines of the NATO summit in the Hague. Mr Marles was attending as one of the Indo-Pacific 4 countries, comprising Australia, Japan, Korea and New Zealand, which are regularly invited to the annual NATO gatherings. He discussed the Trump Adm...

This week, Jonathan Schanzer from the Foundation for Defence of Democracies joins Latika Takes: The Podcast to discuss Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, which he describes as a ‘massive milestone’ that could reorient Iran’s course. Schanzer has written numerous books on the region ,and his most recent, published in 2021, is Gaza Conflict 2021: Hamas, Israel and Eleven Days of Wa...

This week, Liberal Senator James Paterson joins Latika Takes: The Podcast to discuss what went wrong for the Coalition opposition in the recent Australian election. A close ally of the former and fallen leader Peter Dutton, Senator Paterson was the Coalition’s campaign spokesman and was embedded in the Coalition Campaign’s headquarters in Parramatta, Sydney, throughout the five-week campaign. He s...

In this episode of Latika Takes: The Podcast, Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie discusses his party’s devastating wipeout in the recent Australian election and the day he knew it was over for the Coalition. Touted by many as a future Liberal leader and possibly Prime Minister, Mr Hastie, a former SAS Captain, discusses why he decided against running for the leadership now. The Member for Canning...

In this episode of Latika Takes: The Podcast, former Liberal Party Senator and President of the Australian Senate Scott Ryan discusses the Canadian election. Mr Ryan served as Australia’s High Commissioner to Canada between 2021 and 2024. He says there is plenty of reason for the Conservatives to feel optimistic about the result, which was railroaded by Donald Trump, because of the realignment and...

In this special edition of Latika Takes: The Podcast, recorded in collaboration with The Nightly , Opposition Leader Peter Dutton discusses the Australian election due for May 3. Speaking ahead of a full day of campaigning in Melbourne and Sydney, Mr Dutton, who polls say will fall short of ousting the centre-left Labor government, says he can still win it. He discusses how the Coalition is bankin...

In this special edition of Latika Takes: The Podcast, recorded in collaboration with The Nightly , Prime Minister Anthony Albanese discusses Australian foreign policy in light of the Trump Administration. Speaking on a flight between Cairns and Darwin between campaign stops, Mr Albanese, who is fighting for re-election on May 3, says he trusts the US President, believes only the markets had sway o...

Mark Carney has called a snap election for April 28 in a poll the Liberals were set to suffer a devastating wipeout under former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Carney, a former central and investment banker, replaced Trudeau as leader and prime minister despite not holding a seat in the House of Commons and has narrowed the Conservatives’ 20-point lead in the polls to just four. David Col...

This week Latika Takes: The Podcast catches up with Jon Ashworth the head of the Labour Together think tank. Ashworth, is one of British Labor’s most experienced operators having worked for Gordon Brown and was poised to sit in Cabinet. But in a shock result, he lost his super-safe seat to a Gaza independent at the last election. Latika and Jon discussed UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s sudden ris...

In this episode of Latika Takes: The Podcast, Democratic strategist and former adviser to Kamala Harris Michael Nellis joins Latika M Bourke to discuss what went wrong for the Democrats in the 2024 election. Michael Nellis discusses the fury he feels over former President Joe Biden’s decisions not to stand down early enough to allow Kamala Harris a clear run at the Presidency. Nellis is convinced...

In this episode, pollster James Johnson of The Next America and JL Partners returns to Latika Takes: The podcast to discuss the wash-up from the US election and the first few weeks of US President Donald Trump’s second go in the White House. Latika and James are joined by former Liberal party adviser Tony Barry, co-founder of RedBridge Group and Luke Tryl, a former Special Adviser to David Cameron...

On Christmas Eve Hong Kong police issued bounties for six more Hong Kongers living overseas. One of those was 19-year-old Chloe Cheung who left Hong Kong in 2020 with her family after the National Security Law crackdown. She is the youngest Hong Konger to have a warrant issued for her arrest — it was for her work helping the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong. Chloe Cheung joins this week’s episod...

In this episode of Latika Takes: The Podcast, Latika is in Tallinn to interview Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna. Mr Tsahkna, also a former Defence Minister of Estonia, discusses his call for ‘boots on the ground’ to make sure whatever security guarantees given to Ukraine are meaningful, unlike the 2014 Minsk agreements. He says the entry of North Korean troops into the War in Ukraine was...

This week’s episode is a special edition and comes from the Australian Institute of International Affairs annual conference in Canberra where I hosted the all-star final panel focussing on American power after the shock return of US President-elect Donald Trump. Panellists include Australia’s former Home Affairs boss and author of the 2009 Defence White Paper and a familiar voice to listeners of t...

This week Latika Takes interviews John Spencer, Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at Modern War Institute at West Point and is the world’s leading expert on urban warfare. Spencer, who served 25 years in the US Army, discusses the evolution of urban warfare in Ukraine and Gaza. He has recently visited Gaza and is one of the few people to have been inside Hamas’ vast tunnel network. He discusses the c...

This week Latika Takes is in Australia and sits down with Dr Michael Green, the head of the United States Studies Centre at Sydney University. Dr Green is a specialist on Indo-Pacific policy, having authored several books on Japanese politics and lived there as well as in Australia. He previously served in the Pentagon and sat on the National Security Council in George W Bush’s Administration. He...

In this episode, Latika interviews John Hennessey who served as US Ambassador to the Pacific nation of Palau, which is holding an election on Tuesday. Palau is one of the few countries that recognises Taiwan and has formal diplomatic ties with the self-governed democratic island. The retired Ambassador made history and headlines when he visited Taiwan in 2021, becoming the first serving US Ambassa...

In this episode, Latika Takes collaborates with The Next America to discuss the key factors determining the race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. James Johnson , founder of JL Partners was chief pollster in Number 10 when Theresa May was Prime Minister. He says this US election is so difficult to poll that many pollsters have given up. He breaks down how gender, character, strength and fore...

Welcome to the refreshed version of the podcast which will reflect more of the content you see in the text version of Latika Takes. This week I caught up with Stephanie Baker at Bloomberg. Stephanie has just published her book Punishing Putin: Inside the Global Economic War to Bring Down Russia. We talked about her time as a foreign correspondent reporting in Russia during the rise of Vladimir Put...