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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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Latest Episodes:

The Edition: can China escape its zero Covid trap? Feb 03, 2022

Show notes

In this week’s episode: Is China stuck in a zero-Covid trap?
For this week’s cover story, Cindy Yu looks at Xi Jinping’s attempt to grapple with Covid. She joins the podcast, along with Ben Cowling, Chair Professor of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong. (01:42)
Also this week: Whose in The Zac Pack? And what is their influence in No.10?James Heale, The Spectator’s diary editor has written in this week’s magazine about The Zac Pack. A group made up of Carrie Johnson, Lord Goldsmith and some highly influential figures in the Westminster corridors. James is joined by Christian Calgie, a senior reporter at Guido Fawkes to discuss the power this group have in No.10. And their role in Pen Farthing’s animal evacuation out of Afghanistan. (16:40)
And finally: A glance back 70 years ago, the Queen as a Princess. This weekend marks the 70th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the throne. Graham Viney, author of The Last Hurrah: South Africa and the Royal Tour of 1947, writes this week's magazine about how she was prepared for that moment. He joins the podcast, along with the royal commentator and biographer, Angela Levin, author of ‘Harry: A biography of a Prince’. (28:41)
Hosted by Lara Prendergast and William MooreProduced by Natasha Feroze
Subscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher: www.spectator.co.uk/voucher
Listen to Lara's food podcast Table Talk: https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcasts/table-talk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Book Club: The Stasi Poetry Club Feb 02, 2022

Show notes

Sam's guest in this week's Book Club podcast is Philip Oltermann, whose new book The Stasi Poetry Circle: The Creative Writing Class that Tried to Win the Cold War, unearths one of the most unexpected corners of East German history. At the height of the Cold War, members of the GDR's notorious secret police got together regularly to workshop their poems. Was this a surveillance exercise, a training module for propagandists – or something stranger than either? And were their poems any good? Philip tells me about why poetry was such a big deal in the Eastern Bloc, how – had Petrarch but known – the sonnet was the perfect model for dialectical materialism, and where those poets are now...

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Table Talk: With Russell Norman Feb 01, 2022

Show notes

Russell Norman is an award-winning restauranteur, writer and broadcaster, and the founder of the Polpo restaurant group. Last year he launched Trattoria Brutto. On the podcast, he tells Lara and Olivia about enjoying Spam fritters, blagging his way onto the Orient Express, and how he changed careers from teaching to cooking.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marshall Matters: Ignat Solzhenitsyn Jan 31, 2022

Show notes

In this inaugural episode of Marshall Matters, Winston interviews Ignat Solzhenitsyn on the pursuit of art, the state of classical music, the lasting influence of his father Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and the thunderous (or gentle) essay ‘Live Not By Lies’...

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Holy Smoke: Remembering my lovely sister Jan 31, 2022

Show notes

My dear sister Carmel died aged 57 on November 23, after a three-year cancer ordeal during which she displayed the most astonishing courage. I interviewed her twice on this podcast about her faith, her illness and her unquenchable optimism. I knew at the time that one day I'd have to record an episode paying tribute to her after she died, and here it is.

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Spectator Out Loud: Martin Vander Weyer, Laurie Graham, Michael Mosbacher Jan 29, 2022

Show notes

On this week's episode, we’ll hear from Martin Vander Weyer on the crash of crypto. (00:47)
Next, Laurie Graham on the difficulties of downsizing. (04:20)
And finally, Michael Mosbacher on the history of the fur industry. (12:20)
Produced and presented by Sam Holmes
Subscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher:www.spectator.co.uk/voucher

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Women With Balls: with Emma Gormley Jan 28, 2022

Show notes

Emma Gormley is managing director of daytime at ITV studios, where she controls flagship shows on the channel such as Good Morning Britain, Lorraine, This Morning and Loose Women. On the episode, she talks to Katy about what got her into broadcast journalism, the pressures of looking after some of the most popular shows on TV ('Having those four shows, which are juggernauts and are always in the press scrutiny, have A-lister talent... The role is everything'), and what it was like to work with Piers Morgan ('My ambition isn't to make vanilla television').

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Americano: Tucker Carlson - Why should America go to war over Ukraine? Jan 27, 2022

Show notes

On Spectator TV this week Freddy Gray interviews the Fox News host Tucker Carlson on what role the US should play in the Russia/Ukraine conflict. Here is the full unedited conversation.
'Western European nations — which I think we at this point can trust to have weapons — should defend themselves. I mean, that's the idea of the nation state!' - Tucker Carlson
Watch the full Spectator TV episode here: https://youtu.be/YbaLQKhqwFc

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Edition: The phoney war Jan 27, 2022

Show notes

In this week’s episode: Will Putin invade Ukraine?
For this week’s cover story, Owen Matthews argues that if Putin is going to invade Ukraine, he will do so later rather than sooner. He joins the podcast, along with Julius Strauss who reports on the mood in Odessa for this week’s magazine. (00:42)
Also this week: Is Brexit working?
This week marks the second anniversary of Brexit. But how successful has it been? Joining the podcast to answer that question is Lord Frost who was Chief Negotiator of Task Force Europe from January 2020 until his resignation in December last year - and the journalist Ed West, who runs the Substack, Wrong Side of History (13:12)
And finally: What is the allure of a classified ad?
In the age of Google, classified adverts have become something of a rarity. In this week’s magazine, Anthony Whitehead explores the history, influence, and appeal of back-page ads. He joins the podcast along with Lawrence Bernstein who has been running a classified ad in the back pages of The Spectator for years. (26:18)
Hosted by Lara Prendergast and William Moore
Produced by Sam Holmes
Subscribe to The Spectatortoday and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher:www.spectator.co.uk/voucher
Listen to Lara's food podcast Table Talk:https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcasts/table-talk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Book Club: Christopher Prendergast Jan 26, 2022

Show notes

In this week's Book Club podcast, Sam is joined by Christopher Prendergast, Professor Emeritus of Modern French Literature at Cambridge and the author of the new book Living and Dying With Marcel Proust. In the centenary year of Proust's death (and the English publication of Swann's Way) he tells Sam (among other things) how the structure of A La Recherche is more straightforward than many think, why that madeleine was nearly a slice of toast, and about the great unsayable at the heart of Proust's great story.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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