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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: Amy Jeffs Sep 04, 2024

Show notes

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the writer, artist and historian Amy Jeffs. Her new book Saints: A New Legendary of Heroes, Humans and Magic aims to recover and bring back to life the wild and fascinating world of medieval saints. She tells me what we lost with the Reformation (all the good swearing, among much else), what was the difference between magic and a miracle, and how what washes up on the Thames foreshore can give us the entry point to a whole vanished imaginarium.

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Americano: Will Kamala actually build the wall? Sep 03, 2024

Show notes

In a CNN interview, Kamala Harris has been pressed on why her policies on immigration have become more moderate since 2019, when she ran for president. Republicans have been accusing her of flip-flopping on her border wall policy. In this episode, Matt McDonald, managing editor of The Spectator's US edition, fills in for Freddy whilst he's on holiday. Matt speaks to Todd Bensman, journalist, author, and fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies.

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Chinese Whispers: Investigating China's 'historic' claims in the South China Sea Sep 02, 2024

Show notes

The South China Sea has been an area of regular clashes and heightened tensions under the leadership of Xi Jinping. It seems that, every few months, Chinese naval or coastguard ships clash or almost clash with vessels from South East Asian nations like Vietnam and the Philippines. Only last week, a Chinese ship clashed with the Filipino coast guard in the Spratly Islands, with both sides levelling angry accusations at each other.
The region is full of disputed claims, making it fertile waters for accidental escalation. China says its claims to the region – encompassed by the ‘nine-dash line’ – are historic; that island sets such as the Spratlys and the Paracels in the South China Sea are as integral to the Chinese empire as Hong Kong or Taiwan. How sound is that claim?
This episode will be digging into the origins of the nine-dash line (roughly pictured here) – and finds them not so much in ancient imperial days. The chaotic formation of China’s claims in the South China Sea is researched and detailed in Bill Hayton’s book, The Invention of China.
To hear more about Bill's book, tune in to our previous episode: What is it to be Chinese?

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Holy Smoke, from the archives: An atheist goes on a Christian pilgrimage. Why? Sep 01, 2024

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Writer Guy Stagg threw in his job to undertake a pilgrimage to Jerusalem via Rome - choosing a hazardous medieval route across the Alps. It nearly killed him: at one stage, trying to cross a broken bridge in Switzerland, he ended up partially submerged in the water, held up only by his rucksack.
On this episode of Holy Smoke, from the archives, Guy explains why his journey was a pilgrimage, not just travels. And Damian Thompson talks to Harry Mount, editor of The Oldie, about why he’s irresistibly drawn to church buildings while remaining an unbeliever - albeit an agnostic rather than an atheist.

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Spectator Out Loud: Joan Collins, Owen Matthews, Sara Wheeler, Igor Toronyi-Lalic and Tanya Gold Aug 31, 2024

Show notes

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Joan Collins reads an extract from her diary (1:15); Owen Matthews argues that Russia and China’s relationship is just a marriage of convenience (3:19); reviewing The White Ladder: Triumph and Tragedy at the Dawn of Mountaineering by Daniel Light, Sara Wheeler examines the epic history of the sport (13:52); Igor Toronyi-Lalic looks at the life, cinema, and many drinks, of Marguerite Duras (21:35); and Tanya Gold provides her notes on tasting menus (26:07).
Presented and produced by Patrick Gibbons.

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Women With Balls: Dame Karen Pierce, from the archives Aug 30, 2024

Show notes

Women With Balls has taken a summer break and will be back in September with a new series. Until then, here's an episode from the archives, with Dame Karen Pierce, who will shortly complete her term as British Ambassador to the United States.
Filmed in 2019, when Dame Karen was the UK’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, she talks to Katy Balls about her career ambitions when she was young, using Lewis Carroll to combat the Russians, and what day to day life is like at the UN.

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The Edition: Alt reich - is Germany's far right about to go mainstream? Aug 29, 2024

Show notes

This week: Alt reich. The Spectator’s Lisa Haseldine asks if Germany’s far right is about to go mainstream, ahead of regional elections this weekend. Lisa joined the podcast, alongside the historian Katja Hoyer, to discuss why the AfD are polling so well in parts of Germany, and how comparable this is to other trends across Europe (1:13).
Then: why are traditional hobbies being threatened in Britain? Writer Richard Bratby joins the podcast, alongside Chris Bradbury, the drone support officer at the BMFA, to discuss his article in the magazine this week about the challenge red-tape poses to model steam engine and aeroplane enthusiasts (18:47).
And finally: how has sound design changed the world of theatre? The Spectator's chief dance critic Rupert Christiansen argues in the magazine this week that amplified sound has become the default, to the detriment of traditional theatre, and he joins the podcast to discuss (30:15). The director Yael Farber also joins to explain why she sees sound design as the primary sensory experience within theatre (37:55).
Hosted by William Moore and Lara Prendergast.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

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Book Club: Ian Sansom, from the archives Aug 28, 2024

Show notes

The Book Club has taken a short summer break and will return in September. Until then, and ahead of the 85th anniversary of the start of World War Two, here’s an episode from the archives with the author Ian Sansom.
Recorded ahead of the 80th anniversary in 2019, Sam Leith talks to Ian about September 1, 1939, the W.H. Auden poem that marked the beginning of the war. Ian’s book is a 'biography' of the poem; they discuss how it showcases all that is best and worst in Auden’s work, how Auden first rewrote and then disowned it, and how Auden’s posthumous reputation has had some unlikely boosters in Richard Curtis and Osama Bin Laden.

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Table Talk: Will Beckett Aug 27, 2024

Show notes

Will Beckett, CEO of Hawksmoor, founded the steakhouse chain with his childhood best friend Huw Gott in 2006. It has since expanded to 13 locations, including three outside the UK, and consistently been ranked one of the best steak restaurants in the world.
On the podcast, Will tells Olivia Potts and Lara Prendergast about his journey from working in a bar to breaking America, how farming is the key to a good steak, and why pasta is actually his favourite food.

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Americano: Mearsheimer on Ukraine, Israel-Gaza and the US election Aug 26, 2024

Show notes

Professor John Mearsheimer joins Freddy Gray to discuss the wars in Ukraine and in Gaza, and the influence of both on the US election. The Israel-Gaza conflict has led to internal divisions within the democratic party, how will Kamala Harris deal with this? And as the Russia-Ukraine conflict shows no signs of ebbing, what does he see as the west’s role in the war?
Produced by Natasha Feroze and Patrick Gibbons.

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