The Prospect Podcast

This week on the  Prospect Podcast,  philosopher and public intellectual Slavoj Žižek joins Ellen and Alona. Slavoj discusses fatherhood and Netflix’s  Adolescence , as awareness grows around young male radicalisation via the “manosphere”. He also talks about feminism and his criticisms of #MeToo. Plus, with the release of his latest book, in which he argues that the left has hit it...

This month on  Prospect Lives : Vitali Vitaliev hits 60 and gets slammed with funeral ads, while Sarah Collins finds unexpected wisdom at the nail salon. Alice Garnett wonders how to plan for the future on a burning planet, while Alice Goodman wrestles with whether you can—or should—pray for someone like Putin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, writer and human rights lawyer Philippe Sands joins Ellen and Alona to discuss the ‘age of impunity'. Are international systems crumbling, or will they stand the test of time? Philippe reflects on the process of writing his most recent book  38 Londres Street , and the relationship between storytelling and the law. He also discusses representing Palestine at the ICJ and his thought...

Historian and broadcaster David Olusoga joins Ellen and Alona to discuss political attacks on American history, the challenges facing academia in the UK—and how future generations will view England’s colonial history. Our newsfeeds are dominated by towering figures like Trump and Elon Musk—but does the “great man” theory still hold? Is history really made by millions of ordinary people? How will h...

Asbestos might seem like a problem of the past, but it is still killing thousands every year. In the March issue of  Prospect , Charlotte wrote about how her father’s death from mesothelioma—a cancer caused by asbestos—led her into years of research, uncovering a shocking history of corporate negligence and government inaction. This week, Charlotte joins the Prospect podcast to share her find...

This week, the Prospect podcast meets  Kyoto , the new West End play dramatising the high-stakes negotiations behind the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Written by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, the play brings to life the power struggles, disruptors, and unexpected alliances that shaped the first major international climate treaty. Prospect ’s Isabel Hilton sits down with the playwrights and former UK n...

This month’s episode features journalist Kiran Sidhu on the power of communal dance, and actor and writer Sheila Hancock on the need for more women in global politics. Gen Z-er Alice Garnett imagines a world without TikTok, and journalist and host Sarah Collins grapples with the news that her therapist is retiring. Plus, Anglican priest Alice Goodman delves into doubt in the Church. Hosted on Acas...

Has the United States switched sides, acting in Russia’s interests and abandoning its European allies? Or is the transatlantic alliance still intact—albeit under strain? Prospect ’s contributing editor Isabel Hilton joins this week’s podcast to untangle increasingly urgent questions of European defence and security. From Trump cutting intelligence-sharing with Ukraine, to Russian espionage in...

How do we measure racism? In such politically charged terrain, the need for objective data is clear. By some surveys, half of Brits don’t believe that racism exists. Keon West, social psychologist and visiting professor at LSE, joins the podcast to discuss this phenomenon. Keon explains what data can tell us, and delves into the surprising ways that the UK compares to the US. He unpacks the ingeni...

In this episode of  Prospect Lives , journalist Kiran Sidhu mourns her lost cat, while actor and writer Sheila Hancock grapples with ageism at 91. Gen Z-er Alice Garnett attains “regular status” at a London chicken shop, while host and journalist Sarah Collins discusses the end of her honeymoon phase with Athens. Plus, Tilly Lawless explores the two sides of Paris with two different clients....

What is the biggest threat to the international human rights system today? And, in such an unstable world, what hope is there for the future of human rights? This week, Ellen and Alona are joined by Kenneth Roth, who served as the executive director of Human Rights Watch, the NGO, for almost 30 years. During his tenure, Human Rights Watch uncovered abuses across 100 countries and pressured offendi...

Australia is often referred to as “the lucky country”, a place where good fortune has delivered greater wealth, longer lives and better healthcare. But, as Andrew Low argues in  We Should Be So Lucky , Australia’s achievements are not merely a matter of luck—they stem from a distinctive blend of political, social and economic institutions and values. Andrew sat down with Sir Clive Cowdery, Pu...

Sudanese-born writer and broadcaster Yassmin Abdel-Magied joins Ellen and Alona on this week’s episode of the Prospect podcast. Sudan’s war has been called the “worst humanitarian crisis in the world”. And yet, media coverage is staggeringly low. But is the war really “forgotten”? Or is it being made invisible? Yassmin breaks down the situation for newcomers. She shares her family’s story, and tal...

Mehdi Hasan joins the Prospect podcast this week, talking to  Prospect ’s Ben Clark about Trump, tech bros, cancel culture and…“Gish galloping”. He opens up about his departure from MSNBC after the network cancelled The Mehdi Hasan Show and discusses his move from mainstream to alternative media, almost a year since founding Zeteo on Substack. Zeteo’s contributors now include Naomi Klein and...

Would a young Starmer join the Labour party today? Ellen and Alona are joined by Tom Clark, contributing editor at Prospect, who thinks not. From defending misfit environmentalists to denouncing them in the Daily Mail , Starmer’s evolution might dismay some on the left of the party. Once he was a young human rights lawyer and now he is a prime minister punishing MPs for rebelling on child poverty...

In this week’s special episode, we bring you an exclusive interview with Prospect’s World’s Top Thinker of 2025, Brazilian journalist Eliane Brum. Eliane is the author of  Banzeiro Òkòtó: The Amazon as the Centre of the World . In 2017, she co-founded Sumaúma, a journalism platform reporting on the Amazon from the inside, which trains young people from urban and indigenous communities. D...

Welcome back to Prospect Lives . In this episode, journalist and author Kiran Sidhu shares her journey of finding a sense of community in her rural Welsh village, while Anglican priest Alice Goodman explains how her clerical friends help her weather political turbulence. Actor and writer Sheila Hancock explores the powerful legacies left by those who change the world, both for better and for worse...

After Trump’s second inauguration, Ellen and Alona are joined by Labour peer and diplomat Catherine Ashton. Catherine was formerly leader of the House of Lords, as well as the EU's first High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security policy. She shares her experience working with previous US administrations, and what she’s expecting to see from the special relationship. In the p...

As Labour plans to remove the remaining hereditary peers from the House of Lords progress through parliament, not everybody is happy about it. Critics have called the legislation “bungled piecemeal reform”, “high-handed” and “shoddy”. Meg Russell, professor of British and Comparative Politics at UCL, joins Ellen and Alona to unpick the conflict and controversy in the second chamber. She discusses...

What's going on in Ukraine and what does 2025 hold for its people? Journalist Jen Stout has reported on the war in Ukraine for  Prospect,  the  Sunday Post  and others—and her prize-winning book  Night Train to Odesa  was published last year. Now, for our first episode of the year, she joins deputy editor Ellen Halliday to talk about the situation. What will the year...

While you're making those New Year's resolutions, how can we harness negative thought patterns and put them towards something productive? What's the best way to live a good life? In September, journalist and author Oliver Burkeman joined  Prospect ’s Ellen Halliday and  Mindful life  columnist Sarah Collins to talk mental health and building a meaningful life—and why his book, ...

For our final episode of 2024, Alan and Lionel look back at their Media Confidential year. They’ve tackled a huge range of stories: from phone-hacking and the rise of AI, to Ofcom’s battles with GB News. They’ve analysed elections on both sides of the Atlantic, were joined by Toby Jones on the Post Office scandal, and heard from courageous reporters working inside Gaza. There’s been an assassinati...

Cyborgs, a Gregg Wallace public enquiry...the Popeye slasher movie? In our end of year special, the Prospect family—editors, writers and producers—share their predictions for the year ahead. From politics to technology and culture, what will be the most interesting stories of 2025? Ellen and Alona are joined by contributors to discuss the trends that we should be watching in the UK, across the pon...

After more than 50 years of repressive dynastic rule, Bashar al-Assad has fled Syria. Ellen and Alona are joined by Syria expert Lina Khatib, director of the Middle East Institute at SOAS and associate fellow at Chatham House. While many were surprised by the rapid toppling of Assad’s regime, Lina was not. As people speculate about what HTS and other rebel groups intend for Syria, she explains why...

This week, political scientist Cas Mudde joins the Prospect podcast to analyse the “year of elections”. In 2024, around 70 countries with a combined population of 3.4bn went to the polls. In many of those elections—in the EU, India and the US, the far right did surprisingly well. But why do the far right seem to be the only group to have benefitted from the turbulence of recent years? Was it...