My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the psychoanalyst and writer Josh Cohen. With anger seemingly the default condition of our time, Josh’s new book All The Rage: Why Anger Drives the World seeks to unpick where anger comes from, what it does to us, and how it might function in the human psyche as a dark twin of the impulses we think of as love.

Photo credit: Charlotte Speechley

Freddy Gray sits down with Jacob Heilbrunn, a longstanding friend of Americano to discuss Biden's decision to allow Ukraine to send long range missiles into Russia, how significant this decision is ahead of an incoming Trump administration, and what the rest of foreign policy could look like with Trump. 

Julian Metcalfe is a British entrepreneur and one of the most influential individuals on the London high street. He revolutionised the grab-and-go lunchtime food industry in 1986 by co-founding Pret and did the same again in 1997 when he commercialised Japanese cuisine with the first Itsu.

On the podcast, he tells Liv and Lara about the influence of his Ukrainian mother; why he decided to start Itsu, in many ways a competitor to Pret; what he thinks is the future of the grab-and-go industry; and why uni is the ultimate comfort food.

As Donald Trump selects his new cabinet, Elon Musk has been chosen to head up the new efficiency department. Douglas Murray, Spectator columnist, joins Americano host Freddy Gray to discuss. How will their relationship shape Trump’s presidency? What will Musk’s ownership of X, formerly Twitter, mean for free speech? And will their newfound friendship last the stretch of Donald Trump’s second term?

The Spectator's Michael Gove, Katy Balls, and Kate Andrews are joined by Paul Abberley, Chief Executive of Charles Stanley, to discuss and unpack Labour's first budget in 14 years. Now the dust has settled from the policies, key questions continue to arise. Can Labour create the growth it desperately needs? Why are farmers so upset with the budget? And can they define a working person yet?

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Nadine Dorries reads her diary (1:12); Katy Balls analyses the politics behind the Assisted Dying debate (5:58); Edmund West allows us a glimpse into Whitby Goth Week (11:55); reviewing Avinash Paliwal’s book India’s New East, Sam Dalrymple looks at the birth of Bangladesh (17:39); and Tanjil Rashid reveals William Morris’s debt to Islam (21:23). 
 
Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Freddy Gray is joined by Todd Bensman, journalist and fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies. They discuss the border crisis that Trump will inherit from the Democrats, and whether he can do anything to solve it. 

This week: welcome to Planet Elon.

We knew that he would likely be a big part of Donald Trump’s second term, so it was unsurprising when this week Elon Musk was named – alongside entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy – as a co-leader of the new US Department of Government Efficiency, which will look at federal government waste. When Musk took over Twitter, he fired swathes of employees whose work was actively harming the company, so he’s in a perfect position to turn his sights on the bloated federal government. It is, writes Douglas Murray, a once-in-a-generation opportunity to strip a whole layer of rot from the body politic. But can he translate his success in the private sector to the public sector? James Ball, political editor of The New European, and Bridget Phetasy, Spectator World contributing editor, joined the podcast to discuss. (02:17)

Then: what’s next for the Church of England?

The nature of Justin Welby’s resignation as Archbishop of Canterbury has no historic precedent in the C of E, writes William Moore, of this parish. One certainty is that the Church leadership will now be under enormous pressure to create a new independent body for safeguarding, but who could be next? The Smyth scandal means that appointing a conservative evangelical would be difficult, but appointing an out-and-out progressive would have its own problems. Whoever eventually succeeds Welby, he or she will inherit a Church more at war with itself than at any time in living memory. Joining the podcast is Rev Julie Conalty, the Bishop of Birkenhead and deputy lead bishop for safeguarding. (20:58)

And finally: can you tell your Claret from your Beaujolais?

In the magazine this week, drinks writer Henry Jeffreys discusses Beaujolais Day, the festivities started in the famous French appellation d’origine contrôlée that celebrate the first wine of the season. He joined us to discuss everything Beaujolais with Johnny Ray, The Spectator’s wine critic. (35:39)

Hosted by William Moore and Lara Prendergast.

Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is the writer, musician and editor Michael Moorcock, whose editorship of New Worlds magazine is widely credited with ushering in a 'new wave' of science fiction and developing the careers of writers like J G Ballard, Iain Sinclair, Pamela Zoline, Thomas M Disch and M John Harrison. With the release of a special edition of New Worlds, honouring the 60th anniversary of his editorship, Mike tells me about how he set out to marry the best of literary fiction with the best of the pulp tradition, how he fought off obscenity charges over Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron, about his friendship with Ballard and his enmity with Kingsley Amis – and why he's determined never to lose his vulgarity.   

Freddy Gray speaks to the Spectator's Russia editor Owen Matthews about Trump's plan for Ukraine. How much leverage does he have in negotiations with Putin? Plus, what does a Trump presidency mean for the future of NATO itself?

After mounting pressure, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has resigned. His resignation comes days after a damning report into the child abuser John Smyth who was associated with the Church of England. Welby was apparently made aware of the allegations in 2013, yet Smyth died in 2018 before facing any justice. Since the report was published, Welby and the Church have faced questions about the failure to act and the lack of urgency. The Spectator’s editor Michael Gove joins Damian Thompson to discuss what Damian calls ‘not just a shocking moment in the history of the Church of England, but in the history of English Christianity’.  

Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Natasha Feroze.