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Best of the Spectator — News & Politics
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.

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Latest Episodes:

The Book Club: Ian Buruma Mar 15, 2023

Show notes

Sam Leith's guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the writer and editor Ian Buruma, to talk about his new book Collaborators: Three Stories of Deception and Survival in World War Two. A Chinese princess who climbed into bed with Japanese nationalist gangsters; an observant Jew who sold his co-religionists to the Nazis; and Himmler’s personal masseur. Ian describes how their stories link and resonate, and how murky morality gets in a time where truth loses its meaning altogether.
Produced by Cindy Yu.

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Marshall Matters: David Zweig Mar 14, 2023

Show notes

Winston speaks with Twitter files journalist David Zweig just as the Twitter files scandal goes to congress. They discuss the significance of the hearing, Big Tech/government censorship, what he uncovered when working on the story, the failure of journalists and government during Covid, myocarditis, mask-efficiency, and the link between free speech and bodily autonomy.

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Table Talk: Eleanor Steafel Mar 13, 2023

Show notes

Eleanor is a features writer and columnist for the Daily Telegraph where she writes the the regular food column The Art of Friday Night Dinner. Her new book – of the same name – is released on the 30th March and includes recipes for every kind of Friday night.
On the podcast she reminisces about her mother's famous tomato sauce, takes us through her perfect Friday night and explains why she has always loved gathering friends around the kitchen table.
(Photo credit: Sophie Davidson)

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The Week in 60 Minutes: Trump vs DeSantis & Rishi meets Macron Mar 12, 2023

Show notes

Freddy Gray The Spectator’s deputy editor speaks to Andrew Cockburn and Danielle Lee Tomson about the battle for the American right – who will win out of Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump? Also on the show, Katy Balls looks at the Home Secretary’s plans to stop migrant crossings; Ann Törnkvist on Swedish gang violence; Mary Wakefield debates Mary Dejevsky on whether cyclists should be allowed on pavements and Francesca Peacock talks about the politics of corsets.
00:00 Welcome from Freddy Gray
02:54 Who will win the American right? With Andrew Cockburn and Danielle Lee Tomson
23:44 Is Suella Braverman in trouble over the illegal migrant bill? With Katy Balls
31:16 Why has Sweden become so violent? With Ann Tornkvist
44:24 Should cyclists be allowed on pavements? With Mary Wakefield and Mary Dejevsky
56:20 Are corsets cancelled? With Francesca Peacock
Theme song written and performed by Jon Barker © 2020 Jonathan Stewart Barker
Publisher Jonathan Stewart Barker 100%, administered by prsformusic.com
Recording © 2020 Jonathan Stewart Barker 100%, administered by ppl.com

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Spectator Out Loud: James Heale, Cosmo Landesman and Miranda Morrison Mar 11, 2023

Show notes

This week: James Heale asks whether the cabinet secretary Simon Case can carry on (01:00), Cosmo Landesman tells the story of when a man – and his axe – came to visit his home in London (05:03), and Miranda Morrison warns against the damaging obsession with STEM in secondary schools (11:10).
Produced and presented by Oscar Edmondson.
Photo Credit: © The Estate of Tom Picton

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Americano: Who on earth is George Santos... Mar 10, 2023

Show notes

Freddy Gray speaks to Shawn McCreesh, a features writer at New York Magazine who recently spent time with Republican Congressman, George Santos.

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The Edition: Don vs Ron Mar 09, 2023

Show notes

In the cover piece of this week's magazine, deputy editor Freddy Gray writes about the fight for the American right: it's Don (Trump) vs Ron (DeSantis). Who will win? On the podcast, Freddy is joined by Amber Athey, Washington editor of The Spectator's world edition. (00:37)
Political editor Katy Balls writes in this week's magazine that small boats are a big election issue. Rishi Sunak has promised to stop the illegal crossings, but what will it cost him? Katy is on the podcast with Spectator contributor Patrick O'Flynn. (10:49)
And finally, would you let a man with an axe into your house for the sake of art? Cosmo Landesman's father did, and he writes about it in the magazine's arts pages this week. Cosmo joins the podcast with Igor Toronyi-Lalic, The Spectator's arts editor, to talks about destructive art. (20:28)
Presented by William Moore and Lara Prendergast.
Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Max Jeffery.

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The Book Club: Sara Wheeler Mar 08, 2023

Show notes

On this week's Book Club podcast, my guest is Sara Wheeler, who looks back on her travelling life in Glowing Still: A Woman's Life on the Road. She tells me why it's 'a book about tits and toilets', as well as a meditation on the past and future of travel writing and a lament for the books – in one case thanks to having children and the other to the modern fatwa on 'cultural appropriation' – she didn't get to write.

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Marshall Matters: Simon Fanshawe Mar 07, 2023

Show notes

Winston speaks with Perrier Award-winning comedian, writer, author and co-founder of gay rights charity Stonewall, Simon Fanshawe. They discuss the history of Stonewall, Fanshawe’s recent book ‘The Power of Difference’, his new company Diversity by Design, and how it aims to promote diversity in the workplace. Together they debate the case for and against diversity and Stonewall's 'strategic pivot' towards trans rights.

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Chinese Whispers: spy planes and infiltrators Mar 06, 2023

Show notes

The Chinese Communist Party likes to blame its domestic political problems on foreign interference, and it has done so since the days of Chairman Mao.
But sometimes, does this paranoia, this narrative, have a point? Or at least during the depths of the Cold War, when the United States, via the CIA, was countering communism across the world through so-called ‘covert operations’.
Cindy Yu's guest today is Professor John Delury, a historian at the Yonsei University in Seoul, and author of a new book looking at the history of the CIA in China. It’s called Agents of Subversion – some of the incredible exploits detailed in there are nothing short of what you'd find in a spy thriller.
Pictured here is CIA agent John T. Downey, who was imprisoned by China for over two decades after an exfiltration mission over Manchuria failed. He was eventually released following Nixon's visit to China.
Further listening:
Bill Hayton on Liang Qichao and the other Chinese reformers whose followers became the so-called 'Third Force' discussed in this episode: https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/what-is-it-to-be-chinese/.
Professor Rana Mitter and Jessica Drun on the history of Taiwan and what happened after Chiang Kai-shek fled there: https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/why-does-china-care-about-taiwan/

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