Best of the Spectator

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.

  • 40 minutes 40 seconds
    Spectator Out Loud: James Heale, Andrew Kenny, Lara Prendergast, Ysenda Maxtone Graham and Nina Power
    On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: James Heale wonders what Margaret Thatcher would make of today’s Conservatives (1:28); Andrew Kenny analyses South Africa’s expropriation act (6:13); Lara Prendergast explores the mystery behind The Spectator’s man in the Middle East, John R Bradley (13:55); Ysenda Maxtone Graham looks at how radio invaded the home (30:13); and, Nina Power reviews two exhibitions looking at different kinds of rage (35:13). 

    Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.
    16 February 2025, 7:00 am
  • 14 minutes 24 seconds
    Coffee House Shots: Kemi vs Nigel - who would Thatcher have backed?
    It is 50 years since Margaret Thatcher was elected Conservative leader, and at this week’s shadow cabinet meeting, Lord Forsyth was invited as a guest speaker to mark the occasion. He noted the similarities between 1975 and 2025. Back then, the party was broke, reeling from defeat and facing the fallout from a reorganisation of local government. But, despite threadbare resources, Thatcher managed to rebuild to win power four years later. ‘You have the potential to do the same,’ Forsyth told Kemi Badenoch.

    However, when asked if a young Thatcher would have been drawn to the right’s insurgent Reform Party, Nigel Farage replied, ‘I don’t think there’s any doubt about it.’ He even claimed that Thatcher had voted UKIP in 1999. ‘She believed in meritocracy, she put Jewish people in her cabinet, working-class people like Norman Tebbit. She would have hated wokery and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI),’ said Farage. 

    What would Mrs Thatcher have thought of the current state of the Conservative Party? Might Reform have appealed to her? 

    James Heale speaks to Lord Forsyth.

    Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
    15 February 2025, 7:00 am
  • 56 minutes 2 seconds
    Americano: does Trump’s foreign policy make any sense? with Prof John Mearsheimer
    Professor John Mearsheimer comes back on the Americano show with Freddy Gray to discuss how seriously we should take Trump's foreign policy. They cover the President's plans to rebuild Gaza, why Netanyahu and Trump won't agree on what to do with Iran and whether Trump can strike a deal with Putin.
    14 February 2025, 12:00 pm
  • 39 minutes 14 seconds
    The Edition: Britain’s bureaucratic bloat, debating surrogacy & is smoking ‘sexy’?
    This week: The Spectator launches SPAFF

    The civil service does one thing right, writes The Spectator’s data editor Michael Simmons: spaffing money away. The advent of Elon Musk’s DOGE in the US has inspired The Spectator to launch our own war on wasteful spending – the Spectator Project Against Frivolous Funding, or SPAFF. Examples of waste range from the comic to the tragic. The Department for Work and Pensions, Michael writes, ‘bought one Universal Credit claimant a £1,500 e-bike after he persuaded his MP it would help him find self-employment’. There’s money for a group trying to ‘decolonise’ pole dancing; for a ‘socially engaged’ practitioner to make a film about someone else getting an MBE; and for subscriptions to LinkedIn. Lord Agnew, who used to hold the ‘Pythonesque’ title of ‘minister of state for efficiency and transformation’, backs The Spectator’s new SPAFF campaign and says total reform is the only option. Michael and Theo joined the podcast to discuss. (1:04)

    Next: is surrogacy a blessing or a sham?

    Debates about surrogacy have raged again following the announcement that the actress Lily Collins has had a baby via surrogate. Mary Wakefield says that there is a ‘sadness’ behind surrogacy, and that babies could be affected by being separated from their birth mother. Surrogacy is illegal in many countries, such as Spain and Italy, and Mary worries about potential legal changes that would make it easier to pursue here in the UK. So, is surrogacy a lifeline for many couples looking to conceive, or is it a practice that we should be more concerned about? Mary joined the podcast to discuss alongside Sunshine Hanson. Sunshine is the president and co-founder of the US-based surrogacy agency Surrogacy Is, and has also been a gestational surrogate three times. (16:26)

    And finally: is smoking sexy again?

    Flora Watkins revels at the news that Generation Z are shedding their vapes and taking up ‘real’ smoking, saying that everyone looks ‘hotter with a fag in their mouth’. Disregarding familial disapproval, Flora says that smoking makes her feel cool, young and attractive. Does this mean that smoking is sexy again? And why is smoking proving more popular with younger generations? It appears that the proposed smoking ban, proposed by both the Conservatives and now Labour, is having the opposite effect. Flora joined the podcast - with a cigarette in hand - to discuss, alongside the writer Zak Asgard. (29:35) 

    Presented by Lara Prendergast and William Moore.

    Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
    13 February 2025, 4:06 pm
  • 30 minutes 40 seconds
    Coffee House Shots: Keir Starmer and the lost art of political oratory
    From Churchill to Thatcher to Blair to Farage, Parliament has seen some truly fantastic rhetoricians over the years. But last week came the news that – in a bid to improve his own oratorical skill – Keir Starmer employed a voice coach: former actress Leonie Mellinger. Mellinger has been at the centre of a fresh COVID-19 row, as the Prime Minister considered her to be so important that she qualified as a ‘key worker’ in 2020, visiting Labour headquarters in a mask on Christmas Eve 2020 to advise Starmer.

    It is not an unusual practice to employ a voice coach to improve a politician’s public speaking, and on the podcast Michael Gove is joined by his own former coach  Graham Davies, to recover the lost art of political rhetoric. They discuss what makes a great political speech, share some of their favourite examples and ask: has Mellinger actually improved Starmer’s delivery?

    Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Megan McElroy.
    13 February 2025, 6:00 am
  • 33 minutes 2 seconds
    Book Club: Radiohead's Colin Greenwood
    Sam Leith's guest on today’s Book Club podcast is the musician, writer and photographer Colin Greenwood, who joins me to discuss his new book of photographs and memoir How To Disappear: A Portrait of Radiohead. Colin tells me about the band’s Mr Benn journey, photographing what you want to see… and what it takes to make Radiohead open a gig with 'Creep'.

    Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Oscar Edmondson.
    12 February 2025, 3:53 pm
  • 24 minutes 39 seconds
    Americano: could Trump target Britain with tariffs?
    Angus Hanton, author of Vassal State: How America Runs Britain, joins Freddy Gray to talk about the economic relationship between Britain and America. As the world adjusts to the new US administration, every day seems to bring news of new potential tariffs. Is the UK a prime target for Trump? What could the impact of tariffs be? And what are the long-term questions facing British politicians about both the economic and political relationship with the US?

    Produced by Megan McElroy and Patrick Gibbons.
    11 February 2025, 5:23 pm
  • 18 minutes 52 seconds
    Table Talk: Groove Armada's Andy Cato
    Andy Cato is a musician, record producer and DJ, and is perhaps best known as one half of the Grammy Award-winning electronic music duo Groove Armada.

    Andy is also a farmer and now puts his energy into championing a better food system as co-founder of Wildfarmed, the UK’s leading regenerative food and farming company. Backed by Jeremy Clarkson and hundreds of farmers nationwide, regenerative farming methods place nature at the heart of food production: protecting natural landscapes, minimising pesticide use and building food security.

    On the podcast, he tells Lara about nutrition on world music tours, his favourite food spot at Glastonbury Festival and why he sold the rights to his music to pursue regenerative farming.
    11 February 2025, 10:00 am
  • 57 minutes 6 seconds
    Chinese Whispers: Have America's chips controls backfired?
    Beginning in the first Trump presidency and expanded under Joe Biden, the US has taken a strategy of technologically containing China through restricting its access to cutting edge semiconductors. As Chinese Whispers has looked at before, these chips form the backbone of rapid advances in AI, telecoms, smartphones, weaponry and more. Washington’s aim was clear: to widen the technological gap between the two powers

    But has this strategy worked? Lately this has become a hot topic of debate as Chinese tech companies such as Huawei and DeepSeek have nevertheless made technical strides. Some even argue that the export controls have spurred on Chinese innovation and self-reliance.

    In this episode of Chinese Whispers, two very informed and smart guests debate this issue. Ryan Fedasiuk is U.S. Director of The Future Society, an independent nonprofit organization focused on AI governance, and former Advisor for U.S.-China Bilateral Affairs at the US State Department. Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics at Michigan State University and a start-up founder. He also hosts the podcast, Manifold.

    Produced by Cindy Yu and Joe Bedell-Brill.
    10 February 2025, 1:00 pm
  • 26 minutes 22 seconds
    Spectator Out Loud: Katy Balls, Alexander Raubo, Damian Thompson, Daisy Dunn and Mark Mason
    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. 
    9 February 2025, 7:00 am
  • 22 minutes 55 seconds
    Coffee House Shots: The inside story of Labour under Starmer
    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.
    8 February 2025, 7:00 am
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