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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:

Spectator Out Loud: Katy Balls, Alexander Raubo, Damian Thompson, Daisy Dunn and Mark Mason Feb 09, 2025

Show notes

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Katy Balls analyses the threat Reform pose to the Conservatives (1:20); Alexander Raubo talks us through the MAGA social scene and the art collective Remilia (6:42); Damian Thompson reviews Vatican Spies: from the Second World War to Pope Francis, by Yvonnick Denoel (12:27); Daisy Dunn reviews the new podcast Intoxicating History from Henry Jeffreys and Tom Parker Bowles, as well as BBC Radio 4’s Moving Pictures (17:50); and, Mark Mason provides his notes on obituaries (22:46).
Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

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Coffee House Shots: The inside story of Labour under Starmer Feb 08, 2025

Show notes

This week saw the publication of Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund’s new book Get In: The Inside Story of Labour Under Starmer. It’s the second in their tell-all series of books on the Labour Party’s ups and downs and has caused quite a stir in Westminster. From the revelations about Keir Starmer’s voice coach causing a fresh lockdown row to Michael Gove’s secret dinner with Morgan McSweeney, there is a high-density of scoops and disclosures. Can Labour blame the failures of their first 100 days on Sue Gray? And is there such a thing as ‘Starmerism’? Patrick and Gabriel sat down with Katy Balls and Michael Gove to discuss.
Produced by Megan McElroy and Oscar Edmondson.

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Women With Balls: Kay Burley, from the archives Feb 07, 2025

Show notes

Kay Burley announced her retirement from Sky News this week, after 36 years, having presented more than a million minutes of live television news – more than any other presenter in the world.
To mark the occasion, here’s a special edition of Women With Balls – from the archives – when Kay Burley joined Katy Balls in 2019 to talk about how she ‘knocked the rough edges’ off her accent, her love of Jane Fonda, and why the BBC couldn’t afford her these days.

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The Edition: Labour's Irish insurgent, Germany's 'firewall' falls & finding joy in obituaries Feb 06, 2025

Show notes

As a man with the instincts of an insurgent, Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, has found Labour’s first six months in office a frustrating time, writes The Spectator’s editor Michael Gove. ‘Many of his insights – those that made Labour electable – appeared to have been overlooked by the very ministers he propelled into power.’ McSweeney is trying to wrench the government away from complacent incumbency: there is a new emphasis on growth, a tougher line on borders, an impatience with establishment excuses for inertia. Will McSweeney win his battle? And what does this mean for figures in Starmer’s government, like Richard Hermer and Ed Miliband? Michael joined the podcast alongside Starmer’s biographer Tom Baldwin. (1:04)
Next: can the AfD be stopped?
Lisa Haseldine writes about an earthquake that hit German politics last week; the much feted ‘firewall’ – the agreement by mainstream political parties not to work with the far-right – appeared to fall. Freidrich Merz, tipped to be Chancellor after the upcoming German elections, relied upon the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) for two votes on immigration. Cue protests and denouncements; Merz’s most high-profile predecessor as CDU leader, Angela Merkel, even made a rare, political intervention to denounce the decision. Has the vote helped or hindered Merz? And has the German firewall fallen permanently? Lisa joined the podcast alongside Elisabeth Dampier. Elisabeth has interviewed the controversial AfD MEP Maximilian Krah for the magazine and writes about the man who calls himself ‘the German Donald Trump’. (21:02)
And finally: the curious life of an obituary writer
Mark Mason provides his notes on obituaries for the magazine this week, stating that ‘there’s nothing as inspiring or instructive or entertaining about reading a few hundred words about someone’s time on his planet’. What’s the process behind putting an obituary together? The Times' longest serving obituary writer Damian Arnold once said, ‘The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is check to see who's dead.’ Mark and Damian joined the podcast to discuss who makes for the best obituary, if there is joy to be found in celebrating death, and whether they’ve ever published an obituary of someone who isn’t actually dead… (33:48)
Presented by Lara Prendergast and William Moore.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

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Americano: Will Trump make Gaza great again? Feb 05, 2025

Show notes

When Netanyahu visited the White House, Donald Trump said in a press conference that the US could take over the Gaza Strip and suggested the permanent resettlement of its 1.8 million residents to neighbouring Arab countries. It has sparked global condemnation raising questions about where the Gaza citizens could be resettled to, and how this could impact the hostage negotiations. To discuss this and the conflict more widely, Freddy Gray is joined by former Israel spokesperson Eylon Levy.

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The Book Club: Under A Metal Sky Feb 05, 2025

Show notes

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is Philip Marsden, whose new book Under A Metal Sky: A Journey Through Minerals, Greed and Wonder looks in thrilling and surprising detail at the wonders that are to be found beneath our feet. On the podcast he takes me through the meanings that rocks and metals have had through human history, from the bronze age, via the alchemist's quest for the philosopher's stone, to the present day.

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Coffee House Shots: Reform in 'poll' position Feb 04, 2025

Show notes

It's happened. Reform are now ahead of Labour, according to a voting intention poll by YouGov. Reform leads the landmark poll with 25 points, with Labour languishing all the way down in second place on 24 points. Meanwhile, the Conservatives place third on 21 per cent, the Liberal Democrats are on 14 per cent and the Greens on 9 per cent. While there have been a handful of polls to date putting Reform in the lead, they have so far been regarded as outliers. It's a slim lead, but does it point to a long term shift in UK politics – or can it be dismissed as a blip? Does this make a Tory-Reform pact more likely?
Oscar Edmondson speaks to Katy Balls and James Heale.
Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

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Americano: are Trump's tariffs really that bad? Feb 03, 2025

Show notes

The Spectator's economics editor Kate Andrews and Social Democratic Party leader William Clouston join Freddy Gray to try and make sense of Donald Trump's decision to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. He has since threatened the European Union, and has warned the UK. Is this a negotiation tactic or something more? What political philosophy underpins the decision? And what will the impact be?
Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Megan McElroy.

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Table Talk: Jeremy Chan Feb 03, 2025

Show notes

Jeremy Chan is the head chef and owner of Ikoyi, a West African-inspired restaurant that celebrates British seasonality. He is also the author of a cookbook of the same name.
On the podcast, he tells Liv and Lara about growing up with a number of different food influences – from Hong Kong to Canada – and why his two-Michelin-starred restaurant should never be pigeonholed.
Photo credit: Danny J Peace

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Holy Smoke: are Syrian Christians who speak the language of Jesus about to disappear after 2,000 years? Feb 02, 2025

Show notes

There has been a Christian community in Syria since the first century AD. But it is shrinking fast and faces terrifying new threats as the country’s government, following the overthrow of President Assad, forges alliances with hardline Muslims including foreign jihadists – Uighurs from China, Uzbeks from Central Asia, Chechens from Russia, Afghans and Pakistanis.
Mgr Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Anglican Bishop of Rochester who is now a Catholic priest of the Ordinariate, has written a heartbreaking piece for The Spectator about the Christians of Maaloula in southwest Syria. It’s one of the last remaining communities to speak Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ. ‘Were this community to be destroyed, something precious and irreplaceable would be lost’, he writes.
Yet that is exactly what may happen. When the then-Bishop Nazir-Ali visited the town in 2016, he discovered that the predecessors of the jihadis who recently toppled Bashar al-Assad ‘had systematically destroyed and desecrated the town’s churches and monasteries. Orthodox nuns were kidnapped and held to ransom … young men had been singled out and executed when they refused to convert to the extremists’ version of Islam.’
Will it happen again? Ahmad al-Sharaa, head of the new Syrian transitional administration, has told Church leaders they have nothing to fear. But can he be trusted? As Mgr Nazir-Ali tells Damian Thompson in this episode of Holy Smoke, it is time for the West to act.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

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

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