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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: Robert Kaplan Feb 08, 2023

Show notes

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the American writer, reporter and foreign policy expert Robert Kaplan, whose new book The Tragic Mind: Fear, Fate and the Burden of Power argues that it's in Greek tragedy that we can find the most important lessons in how to navigate the 21st century. He tells me how the reflections in the book arose from his remorse at having influenced the Bush administration with his support for the Iraq War, why it still makes sense to think about 'fate' in a world without gods and why George H W Bush was a paragon of the tragic mindset while his son George W Bush was a tragic hero.

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Marshall Matters: Dr Jay Bhattacharya Feb 07, 2023

Show notes

Winston speaks with Stanford University professor, physician, epidemiologist, health economist and public health policy expert, Dr Jay Bhattacharya. They discuss the history of the Great Barrington Declaration which he co-authored, advocating against lockdowns, and its censorship by Big Tech and at Stanford. He tells Winston about meeting Elon Musk at Twitter HQ, how censorship kills and why public health lies undermine trust.

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Liz Truss: The interview Feb 06, 2023

Show notes

What went wrong for Liz Truss? In her first interview since leaving 10 Downing Street, she talks to Spectator TV about her leadership election, her 49-day premiership and her plans for the future. Truss admits to some mistakes, says her premiership was probably doomed after she fired her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, and says Whitehall orthodoxy stopped her from doing what she wanted.

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Americano: what is America doing in Ukraine? Feb 05, 2023

Show notes

Freddy Gray speaks to Professor John Mearsheimer, American political scientist and international relations scholar about America's foreign policy on the war in Ukraine.

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Spectator Out Loud: Svitlana Morenets, Rana Mitter and Mia Levitin Feb 04, 2023

Show notes

This week: Svitlana Morenets explains why Ukraine won't accept compromise in any form (00:56), Rana Mitter details Japan's plans for an anti-China coalition (05:43), and Mia Levitin reads her review of Muppets in Moscow by Natasha Lance Rogoff (13:17).
Produced and presented by Oscar Edmondson.

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Women With Balls: Miriam Cates Feb 03, 2023

Show notes

Miriam Cates is the Conservative MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge. Before becoming a Member of Parliament, Miriam worked as a science teacher and business owner and spent some years raising her three children at home.
On the podcast, Miriam talks about her entry into politics through village life as the local Parish Councillor; how her life as a mother has shaped her views on gender and online harm; and how the 2019 caucus operates.
Produced by Natasha Feroze.

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The Edition: how will it end? Feb 02, 2023

Show notes

On the podcast this week:
How will the war on Ukraine end?
This is the question that Russia correspondent Owen Matthews asks in his cover piece for The Spectator. He is joined by Rose Gottemoeller, former deputy secretary general of Nato, to discuss whether the end is in sight (01:02).
Also this week:
Matthew Parris interviews the theologian and ethicist Nigel Biggar on the legacy of Empire. They have kindly allowed us to hear an extract from their conversation, printed as a dialogue in this week's issue. They discuss Nigel's motivations for writing his controversial new book Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning, and reconsider the economics of colonialism (18:52).
And finally:
Neil Clark writes that greyhound racing should not be banned, despite the news that the RSPCA has changed it position to oppose the sport. He is joined by Vanessa Hudson, leader of the Animal Welfare Party, to debate whether dog racing has had its day (29:03).
Hosted by William Moore.
Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

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The Book Club: Tania Branigan Feb 01, 2023

Show notes

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is the reporter Tania Branigan, whose experience as a correspondent in China led her to believe that the trauma of the Cultural Revolution was the story behind the story that made sense of modern China. In her new book Red Memory: Remembering and Forgetting China's Cultural Revolution, she explores how the memory of that bloody decade, and the drive to forget or ignore it, shapes the high politics and daily lives of the Chinese nation. She tells me why official amnesia on the subject is a surprisingly recent development, how 1989's Tiananmen Square protests changed the course of the country, and why so many ordinary Chinese people still, extraordinarily, pine for the days of Mao.

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Can the UK secure its precarious energy supply? Jan 30, 2023

Show notes

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exposed the insecurity of the UK’s energy supply. We may not have been reliant on Russian gas like our European neighbours, but that didn’t mean we avoided higher energy bills. The government had to seriously consider how the UK would cope with a blackout.
Britain’s experience this winter has prompted a discussion about how we can safeguard our energy supply and avoid another precarious winter. On this podcast, Cindy Yu, The Spectator’s assistant editor, is joined by Laura Sandys, a former Tory MP who also chaired the government’s Energy Data Taskforce; James Murray, an environmental journalist who founded the website BusinessGreen; and Greg Jackson, the founder and CEO of Octopus Energy Group.
This podcast is kindly sponsored by Octopus Energy Group.

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The Week in 60 Minutes: Tory sleaze & Biden's docudrama Jan 29, 2023

Show notes

Katy Balls, The Spectator’s political editor is joined by Isabel Hardman and John Curtice to talk about her cover piece on the latest Tory sleaze scandals. Also on the show, Mike Martin and Richard Barrons on European tanks; Freddy Gray on Biden’s docudrama; Lionel Shriver is fighting a war against words and Igor Toronyi-Lalic looks at the highs and lows of art restoration.
00:00 - Welcome from Katy Balls
00:52 - Can Sunak stop Tory sleaze? With Isabel Hardman and John Curtice
14:27 - Tank weaponry with Mike Martin and Richard Barrons
27:01 - Is Biden in trouble? With Freddy Gray
35:51 - Is there a war on words? With Lionel Shriver
45:40 - Art restoration– the good, the bad and the ugly with Igor Toronyi-Lali

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