Best of the Spectator
Home to the Spectator's best podcasts on everything from politics to religion, literature to food and drink, and more. A new podcast every day from writers worth listening to.
Episodes
May 18, 2024 • 18 mins
Matt McDonald, managing editor of the US edition of The Spectator, joins Freddy Gray to discuss whether Biden is losing the swing states, the potential outcome of the Trump-Biden TV debates, and who the polls are spelling trouble for.
Produced by Megan McElroy.
Produced by Megan McElroy.
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May 18, 2024 • 32 mins
On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Max Jeffery interviews Afghan resistance leader Ahmad Massoud (1:13); former prisoner David Shipley ponders the power of restorative justice (8:23); Patrick Kidd argues that the Church should do more to encourage volunteers (14:15); Cindy Yu asks if the tiger mother is an endangered species (21:06); and, Hugh Thomson reviews Mick Conefrey’s book Fallen, examining George Mallory’s tragic Evere...
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May 17, 2024 • 45 mins
Shabana Mahmood is the shadow secretary of state for justice. She was born in Birmingham to migrant parents. After studying Law at Lincoln College, Oxford, where Rishi Sunak was a contemporary, she qualified as a barrister and lived and worked in London. First elected to Parliament in 2010, representing Birmingham Ladywood, she was one of the UK’s first female Muslim MPs.
On the episode, Katy Balls talks to Shabana ab...
On the episode, Katy Balls talks to Shabana ab...
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May 16, 2024 • 47 mins
This week:
Veep show: who will Trump pick for his running mate? Freddy Gray goes through the contenders – and what they say about America (and its most likely next president). ‘Another thought might be buzzing around Trump’s head: he can pick pretty much whoever he wants because really it’s all about him. He might even choose one of his children: Ivanka or Donald Junior. What could sound better than Trump-Trump 2024?’...
Veep show: who will Trump pick for his running mate? Freddy Gray goes through the contenders – and what they say about America (and its most likely next president). ‘Another thought might be buzzing around Trump’s head: he can pick pretty much whoever he wants because really it’s all about him. He might even choose one of his children: Ivanka or Donald Junior. What could sound better than Trump-Trump 2024?’...
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May 15, 2024 • 31 mins
Freddy Gray talks to American columnist and commentator Guy Benson about who is in the running to be Trump's VP. Who does Trump want? But more importantly what does the Trump ticket need?
Also: Biden/Trump debates appear to have been confirmed. Who will the debates benefit most? And how relevant are they in the digital age?
Produced by Natasha Feroze and Patrick Gibbons.
Also: Biden/Trump debates appear to have been confirmed. Who will the debates benefit most? And how relevant are they in the digital age?
Produced by Natasha Feroze and Patrick Gibbons.
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May 15, 2024 • 32 mins
A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot! On this week's Book Club podcast I'm joined by Olivia Laing to talk about her new book The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise. Olivia explores what it is we do when we make a garden, through her own experience of restoring the beautiful garden in her now home. She tells me about what gardens have meant in literary history and myth, how they have occluded certain real-worl...
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May 13, 2024 • 46 mins
Last week, President Xi Jinping visited Serbia. An unexpected destination, you might think, but in fact the links between Beijing and Belgrade go back decades. One event, in particular, has linked the two countries – and became a seminal moment in how the Chinese remember their history.
In 1999, the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was bombed by US-led Nato forces. Three Chinese nationals died. An accident, the Americans i...
In 1999, the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was bombed by US-led Nato forces. Three Chinese nationals died. An accident, the Americans i...
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May 13, 2024 • 45 mins
Freddy Gray talks to writer and philosopher Curtis Yarvin about how Alexander Hamilton was America's Napoleon, why Putin is more of a royal than King Charles, and why Yarvin admires FDR.
Yarvin is voting for Joe Biden at the next election, but not for the reasons you might think. Could Biden 2024 strengthen the case for American isolationism?
Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Megan McElroy.
Yarvin is voting for Joe Biden at the next election, but not for the reasons you might think. Could Biden 2024 strengthen the case for American isolationism?
Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Megan McElroy.
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May 12, 2024 • 37 mins
Freddy Gray speaks to the journalist Nellie Bowles about her new book: Morning after the Revolution: Dispatches from the wrong side of History. As someone who had fit into the progressive umbrella, her book recounts issues that arose when she started to question the nature of the movement itself.
Freddy and Nellie discuss the challenges of the progressive-conservative divide, bias within the media, and whether privile...
Freddy and Nellie discuss the challenges of the progressive-conservative divide, bias within the media, and whether privile...
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On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Philosopher Slavoj Zizek takes us through his diary including his Britney Spears Theory of Action (1:08); Angus Colwell reports from the front line of the pro-Palestinian student protests (8:09); Svitlana Morenets provides an update on what’s going on in Georgia, where tensions between pro-EU and pro-Russian factions are heading to a crunch point (13:51); Cindy Yu analyses President Xi’s visi...
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May 10, 2024 • 32 mins
Lisa Cameron was born in Glasgow and grew up in East Kilbride, the constituency she now represents. After three elections under the SNP, she memorably defected to the Scottish Conservatives in 2023. At the time, Humza Yousaf described it as the least surprising news he’d had since becoming first minister.
On the podcast, Lisa tells Katy about the need for increased investment into mental health provision, her defecti...
On the podcast, Lisa tells Katy about the need for increased investment into mental health provision, her defecti...
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May 9, 2024 • 38 mins
This week:
On Monday, tents sprung up at Oxford and Cambridge as part of a global, pro-Palestinian student protest which began at Columbia University. In his cover piece, Yascha Mounk, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, explains how universities in both the US and the UK have misguidedly harboured and actively encouraged absurdist activism on campuses. Yascha joined the podcast to discuss further. (01:57)
On Monday, tents sprung up at Oxford and Cambridge as part of a global, pro-Palestinian student protest which began at Columbia University. In his cover piece, Yascha Mounk, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, explains how universities in both the US and the UK have misguidedly harboured and actively encouraged absurdist activism on campuses. Yascha joined the podcast to discuss further. (01:57)
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May 8, 2024 • 38 mins
This week, my guest on the Book Club podcast is the poet Jackie Kay, whose magnificent new book May Day combines elegy and celebration. She tells me about her adoptive parents – a communist trade unionist and a leading figure in CND – and growing up in a household where teenage rebellion could mean going to church. We also discuss her beginnings as a poet, her debt to Robbie Burns and Angela Davis and how grief itself can be a...
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May 7, 2024 • 27 mins
Michael Zee is an author, cook and the creator of SymmetryBreakfast, which started as an Instagram account, before amassing over 670,000 followers and becoming one of the ‘most popular food books of 2016’. He is now based in Italy and known for his particular brand of British-Chinese fusion food. His third book, Zao Fan: Breakfast of China, is out now.
On the podcast he tells Lara about working in his father's restau...
On the podcast he tells Lara about working in his father's restau...
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May 5, 2024 • 24 mins
Freddy speaks to Norman Ornstein, political scientist and emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. They discuss the possibility of Donald Trump becoming a dictator, his ongoing court cases, and if there's a double standard in the treatment of Trump vs Biden.
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On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Sean Thomas worries that Paris has lost some of its charm (1:21); Kara Kennedy reports on US-style opioids arriving in Britain (8:43); Philip Hensher describes how an affair which ruined one woman would be the making of another (15:32); Damian Thompson reflects on his sobriety and his battle with British chemists (23:58); and, Toby Young argues a proposed law in Wales amounts to an assault on...
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May 3, 2024 • 54 mins
Freddy speaks to Victor Davis Hanson, classicist, military historian and political commentator.
They discuss his new book The End of Everything, and ask whether the west should be taking note of history in order to avoid annihilation, and where the US is heading.
They discuss his new book The End of Everything, and ask whether the west should be taking note of history in order to avoid annihilation, and where the US is heading.
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May 2, 2024 • 33 mins
This week:
Survival plan: is Rishi ready for the rebels? Ever since his election, Rishi Sunak has been preparing for this weekend – where the most likely scenario is that dire local election results are slow-released, leaving him at a moment of maximum vulnerability. He has his defences ready against his regicidal party, says Katy Balls: the Rwanda plan, a welfare reform agenda and a 4p NI cut (with hints of 2p more t...
Survival plan: is Rishi ready for the rebels? Ever since his election, Rishi Sunak has been preparing for this weekend – where the most likely scenario is that dire local election results are slow-released, leaving him at a moment of maximum vulnerability. He has his defences ready against his regicidal party, says Katy Balls: the Rwanda plan, a welfare reform agenda and a 4p NI cut (with hints of 2p more t...
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May 1, 2024 • 35 mins
On this week's Book Club podcast I'm joined by Ariane Bankes, whose mother Celia was one of the great beauties of the early twentieth century. Ariane's new book The Quality of Love: Twin Sisters at the Heart of the Century tells the story of the defiantly bohemian lives of Celia and her twin sister Mamaine, whose love affairs and friendships with Arthur Koestler, George Orwell, Albert Camus, Edmund Wilson and Freddie Ayer put ...
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April 30, 2024 • 47 mins
Freddy Gray speaks to writer, podcaster and musician Coleman Hughes. His latest book The End of Race Politics, The: Arguments for a Colorblind America put forward Martin Luther King's teachings for a colourblind society. On the podcast they discuss Coleman's recently appearance on The View; whether Coleman thinks Trump is racist and how the Israel-Gaza war exposed the failings of US universities.
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