The Prospect Podcast

Can the Stoics help solve the mental health crisis? Should we adopt an Epicurean approach to pleasure? On this week's podcast, writer and lecturer Jane O'Grady joins Prospect's Mindful life columnist Sarah Collins to discuss whether the ancient Greeks can teach us how live. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two years on from the fall of Kabul, is the west's soft engagement with the Taliban working? David Loyn, an award-winning foreign correspondent who was with the Taliban when they took Kabul in 1996 and has visited Afghanistan ever since, explains to  Prospect  deputy editor Ellen Halliday why he thinks the UK government should change its approach. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy f...

In this week’s episode, managing editor Alex Dean speaks to science writer Philip Ball on artificial intelligence: what it is, how it works and how it might even change our perception of what it means to have a mind. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is the British criminal justice system heading towards the same level of dysfunction as its US counterpart? Former executive editor of the New York Times , Bill Keller, reports back to Alan Rusbridger, after visiting prisons across the UK for a feature in the latest issue of Prospect. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christopher Nolan's new film inspires Prospect's arts and books editor Peter Hoskin and contributing editor Matthew d'Ancona to consider how the atomic bomb has impacted our culture. They discuss 'Oppenheimer' and the other books, films and video games that have grappled with the events of August 1945. If you enjoyed this podcast, listen to our Prospect Lives podcast here: https://podfollow.com/pr...

For the latest issue of Prospect, we asked Sam Fankhauser, professor of climate change economics at the University of Oxford, and Kate Raworth, author of ‘Doughnut Economics’, how to build an economy that supports rather than damages nature and the climate. This episode of the Prospect Podcast—hosted by deputy editor Ellen Halliday—is an audio extract from their conversation. Hosted on Acast. See...

Lawyer and human rights defender Stella Assange joins Alan Rusbridger to discuss the US government's attempts to extradite her husband Julian, his imprisonment in HMP Belmarsh, her recent meeting with the Pope and the threat to journalism posed by secrecy laws. Music Credit: "JUMBO" from the album "MUSIC FOR THE LEFT-HANDED" by Mick Bass & Tot Taylor   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priva...

Barristers Richard Hermer QC and Zoe McCallum from Matrix Chambers are joined by Dr Tim Lillicrap, research director at Google DeepMind to discuss artificial Intelligence and the future of justice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The novels inspired by the pandemic have, so far, been very inward-looking. But the form is already mutating. Critic and editor Lucy Scholes and author Daisy Hildyard join Prospect ’s arts and books editor Peter Hoskin to discuss the first wave of Covid literature. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How did the comedian, actor and political provocateur of the early 2010s become an influential voice among the alt right? Sarah Manavis—who profiled Russell Brand for the most recent issue of Prospect— joins Ellen Halliday to delve into his conspiratorial world. If you enjoyed this podcast, listen to our Prospect Lives podcast here: https://podfollow.com/prospect-lives/view Music Credit: "JUMBO" f...

Throughout centuries of imperial and Soviet history, the Ukrainian language was denigrated as something “less” than Russian. After Putin’s invasion, that tide is rapidly turning. In this episode, writer and photojournalist Jen Stout reports on Ukraine's war of the words to Prospect deputy editor Ellen Halliday. If you enjoyed this podcast, listen to our Prospect Lives podcast here: https://podfoll...

For Prospect 's brand new cover story—out today—journalist and author David Aaronovitch reports back from the National Conservatism Conference to Prospect editor Alan Rusbridger. They discuss how the conference exposes a dark undercurrent to the modern right, and ask an important question: are these so-called patriots the future—or an embarrassing sideshow? If you enjoyed this podcast, listen to o...

Coastal towns are home to some of the highest levels of deprivation in Britain and our nostalgia for the seaside is holding them back, argues award-winning journalist and author Madeleine Bunting in her new book The Seaside: England's Love Affair. On the podcast, she joins Ross Mudie, a research analyst at The Centre for Progressive Policy, and assistant editor Sarah Collins to discuss Britain's c...

The academic and cultural commentator Sarah Churchwell wrote a book on how Gone with the Wind —novel and film—has afflicted US politics. In a live recording of the  Prospect  Podcast, she talks to  Prospect ’s books and culture editor, Peter Hoskin, about the books, movies, albums and other cultural items before and since  Gone with the Wind  that have also changed the wid...

For years, Britain’s most powerful newspapers spied on anyone they thought might lead them to a juicy story. No victim was ever so angry and so fabulously wealthy that they could afford to risk everything in fighting back. Until now. Freelance writer Tom Lamont joins Alan Rusbridger to tell the inside story of the bitter battle between Prince Harry and the newspapers that hounded him, and how the...

After decades of environmental destruction in the Niger Delta, the fossil fuel giant Shell faces the prospect of a trial. Can legal action make amends, retrospectively, for the human and planetary consequences of pollution? Journalist and podcaster Mathilda Mallinson, Matthew Renshaw, a partner in the international department at Leigh Day, and Pedi Obani, associate professor at the University of B...

In a new documentary film Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power, award-winning independent filmmaker Nina Menkes puts the male gaze in cinema under the microscope. She joins Prospect's arts and books editor Peter Hoskin on the podcast to discuss how Hollywood taught us to objectify women. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How did our politics become so polarised? Do governments listen to protest? And what should people who are angry about the state of the country do to change it? Journalist, author, co-host of The Rest is Politics podcast and former Downing Street director of communications Alastair Campbell joins Alan Rusbridger to discuss his new book But What Can I do? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...

Has Britain reached peak inequality and is it becoming more equal for the first time in a century? Danny Dorling, professor of Human Geography at the University of Oxford advances this radical argument in discussion with Deborah Hargreaves, former CEO of the High Pay Centre and Prospect's deputy editor Ellen Halliday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What impact will the bank holiday nurses' strike have on patients? Will the government ever get round the negotiating table with junior doctors? And will this industrial action bring the already struggling NHS to its knees? Pat Cullen, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing and Rachel Sylvester, columnist at The Times and chair of The Times Health Commission join assistant editor Sarah...

Former treasury chief Nick Macpherson and eminent Keynesian economist Ann Pettifor debate whether the coalition's cuts were necessary—and whether they worked. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After the 2020 election, Fox News gave airtime to an outright fiction: that Biden had stolen the presidency. As the company is sued over what it broadcast, legal documents reveal how far the Murdochs will go to keep America’s biggest channel on top. Journalist Matthew d'Ancona, who is a former editor of the Spectator, and Sarah Ellison, staff writer at the Washington Post join Alan Rusbridger to d...

Richard Hermer KC speaks with Raza Husain KC and Sile Reynolds (Freedom from Torture) about the pressing Migration Bill—designed to deter refugees arriving into the UK on small boat—being pushed through UK Parliament. They discuss whether the bill can be overruled by the ECHR or the Refugee Convention. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does the big libertarian idea of "zones of exception" mean for the nation state? Award-winning author and professor of history Quinn Slobodian joins contributing editor Tom Clark to discuss his new book Crack-up Capitalism , Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if the reason poverty persists in capitalist democracies like the US and Britain is because the rest of us benefit from it? What if the solution means facing up to the ways we all profit from the exploitation of low-income people? Pulitzer Prize winning author Matthew Desmond joins the podcast to discuss his radical new book Poverty, By America with Tom Clark, editor of new book Broke: Fixing...