Best of the Spectator

Latest Episodes:

Spectator Books: Ed Vulliamy - how music helps me report from the front line Jan 02, 2019

Show notes

In this week’s books podcast we’re going to the wars. Sam's guest is Ed Vulliamy, the veteran war correspondent who has written a fascinating memoir called When Words Fail: A Life With Music, War and Peace. In it, Ed talks about how his lifelong love of music — he saw Hendrix at the Isle of Wight — has threaded through his terrifying adventures in conflict zones from Bosnia to Iraq to the Mexican/American border; and of how music really can salve the soul when everything else is broken. He describes his own terrifying experiences with PTSD, snagging the last interview with BB King, and how playing “Kashmir” over and over again while roaring unembedded around a battle-zone led him to a friendship with Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant.

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Women with Balls: Dame Helena Morrissey Dec 21, 2018

Show notes

Join Katy Balls as she interviews Dame Helena Morrissey - a financier, a campaigner for more women in the boardrooms, and the mother to nine children. How does she balance kids and a career? Why does she think men and women are fundamentally different? And what is the most effective way to get a raise?

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Spectator Books: conversing with Chris Kraus, author of I Love Dick Dec 19, 2018

Show notes

In this week’s books podcast Sam talks to Chris Kraus — author of the semi-autobiographical cult novel I Love Dick and the new essay collection Social Practices — about her strange and interesting life in the New York and LA art worlds, about taking Baudrillard to a “happening” in the desert, about ambition and fame, about how art and literature feed into one another — and about why we English should stop sneering at “theory” and learn to love its strangeness and beauty.

Presented by Sam Leith.

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The Green Room: Auctions, sculptures, and horse flesh - the best of art exhibitions in 2018 Dec 18, 2018

Show notes

Dominic talks to the team of crack art critics from The New Criterion: James Panero, Benjamin Riley and Andrew Shea in this review of the best art exhibitions of the year. In between high brow chats on Michelangelo and Sir Alfred Munnings, the panel brings the energy of the New Criterion Christmas party, raging next door, with them. Is Panero coughing because he has TB, or was it induced by the prospect of the Boston MFA’s Toulouse-Lautrec show? Who was in and who was out in the major museums this year? And is Andy Shea really caught using his cellphone in the middle of a podcast?

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Table Talk: with Sophia Money-Coutts Dec 17, 2018

Show notes

Sophia Money-Coutts is former features editor at Tatler magazine, and now columnist for the Sunday Telegraph. Her new book, The Plus One, came out earlier this year. In this episode of Table Talk, Lara and Livvy talk to Sophia about how cheese fondue helped her get through her parents' divorce as a child, how an ex-boyfriend berated her poppadom manners, and the best way to juggle a clutch bag and canapés at writers' parties.

Presented by Lara Prendergast and Olivia Potts.

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The Spectator Podcast: the Christmas Edition Dec 14, 2018

Show notes

So, it’s the end of the year, and we can safely say 2018 hasn’t been any less loopy than its recent predecessors. In this year’s final Spectator Podcast, we’ll be taking a look at some of the major political and cultural events of the year, with a star-studded cast of commentators and experts, and casting a look forward at 2019. We’ll be talking about Labour – it hasn’t had a great year, but is it closer than ever to government? Plus, what have been the divides splitting Europe, and how has Trump settled in to the second year of his tenure? But before all this, a little bit of Brexit.

With James Forsyth, Stephen Bush, Rory Stewart, Katy Balls, Paul Mason, Jess Phillips, Douglas Murray, Anne McElvoy, Freddy Gray, Christopher Meyer, and Kate Andrews.

Presented by Lara Prendergast.

Produced by Cindy Yu and Alastair Thomas.

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Coffee House Shots: has the next Tory leadership contest started? Dec 13, 2018

Show notes

With Katy Balls and James Forsyth.

Presented by Lara Prendergast.

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Spectator Books: why runners up are more interesting than those who come first Dec 12, 2018

Show notes

In this week’s books podcast Sam Leith talks to the great trivia expert Mark Mason about his new The Book of Seconds: The Incredible Stories of the Ones Who Didn’t (Quite) Win. Here’s the Christmas present for all the Tory frontbenchers in your life. Who remembers the Christmas number two in the pop charts? Who got silver at the Olympics? Who was the second man to walk on the moon? Mark — my second choice of guest for this week’s podcast — masterfully pulls together the psychological and social implications of not quite cutting the mustard.

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The Green Room: the last interview with Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks Dec 11, 2018

Show notes

Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks passed away last week at the age of 63. A long-term fan, Dominic Green talked to Pete in November this year. They talk about experimenting with punk, performing live, and the power of music.

This interview was first released as a podcast on November 27 on Spectator USA's The Green Room podcast.

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Coffee House Shots: Brexit vote cancelled - what happened? Dec 10, 2018

Show notes

With Katy Balls and James Forsyth.

Presented by Fraser Nelson.

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