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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- Update frequency
- every day
- Average duration
- 33 minutes
- Episodes
- 2366
- Years Active
- 2016 - 2025
Coffee House Shots: should Labour ditch the ‘doom and gloom’ narrative?
We have some new inflation figures today. Inflation rose 2.2 per cent in the 12 months to August. This is pretty much in line with the Bank of England's target and should be good news for Labour, so …
00:10:55 |
Wed 18 Sep 2024
Americano: Are Democrats to blame for the repeated attempts to kill Trump?
As if there hadn’t been enough drama in America in 2024, Donald Trump has survived another assassination attempt.
The attempted killing of the 45th president at his golf course in Palm Beach, Florida …
The attempted killing of the 45th president at his golf course in Palm Beach, Florida …
00:22:54 |
Tue 17 Sep 2024
Chinese Whispers: a father and son at the edge of the Chinese empire
As a child, the New York Times journalist Edward Wong had no idea that his father had been in the People’s Liberation Army. But as he grew up, a second generation immigrant in the United States, Edwa…
00:38:31 |
Mon 16 Sep 2024
Spectator Out Loud: Fraser Nelson, David Whitehouse, Imogen Yates, Sean McGlynn and Ruari Clark
On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Fraser Nelson reflects on a historic week for The Spectator (1:15); David Whitehouse examines the toughest problem in mathematics (6:33); Imogen Yates reports on th…
00:30:36 |
Sat 14 Sep 2024
Women With Balls: Lucy Powell
From working on the 1997 general election campaign, to serving in the shadow cabinets of three leaders, politician Lucy Powell has been a prominent figure in the Labour Party for many years. First el…
00:27:10 |
Fri 13 Sep 2024
The Edition: Trump’s debate woes, how to catch a paedo & the politics of the hotel breakfast buffet
This week:
The US election is back on a knife-edge. Republicans hoped this week’s debate would expose Kamala Harris’s weaknesses. ‘They forgot that, when it comes to one-on-one intellectual sparring …
The US election is back on a knife-edge. Republicans hoped this week’s debate would expose Kamala Harris’s weaknesses. ‘They forgot that, when it comes to one-on-one intellectual sparring …
00:38:35 |
Thu 12 Sep 2024
Book Club: Craig Brown
In this week's Book Club podcast my guest is the satirist Craig Brown, talking about his brilliant new book A Voyage Round The Queen. Craig tells me what made him think there was something new to say…
00:31:51 |
Wed 11 Sep 2024
Americano: Andrew Neil & Piers Morgan on America's 2024 election
The Spectator's chairman Andrew Neil and journalist Piers Morgan join Freddy Gray, host of the Americano show, to analyse the presidential race so far. Piers reveals what Donald Trump told him after …
00:28:02 |
Tue 10 Sep 2024
Table Talk: Simon Raymonde
Musician Simon Raymonde is perhaps best known as part of the Scottish band the Cocteau Twins, but he has found further success as the co-founder of Bella Union Records. Bella Union produce music by F…
00:27:49 |
Tue 10 Sep 2024
Americano: Has everyone got election fatigue?
Freddy Gray is joined by Bridget Phetasy, comedian and Spectator World columnist. They discuss whether everyone is suffering a bit of election, and Trump fatigue - including Trump himself. They also …
00:36:51 |
Mon 09 Sep 2024
Holy Smoke: Losing faith - will Labour’s VAT policy hit religious schools hardest?
In this week’s copy of The Spectator, Dan Hitchens argues that a lesser reported aspect of Labour’s decision to impose VAT on private schools is who it could hit hardest: faith schools. Hundreds of i…
00:24:30 |
Sun 08 Sep 2024
Spectator Out Loud: Ian Thomson, Andrew Watts, Sam Leith, Helen Barrett and Catriona Olding
On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Ian Thomson reflects on his childhood home following the death of his sister (1:20); Andrew Watts argues that the public see MPs as accountable for everything thoug…
00:31:55 |
Sat 07 Sep 2024
Americano: Nate Silver on risk-takers, the US election & the power of luck in politics
Labor Day is a critical mile-marker on the road to the general election, now just two months away. Pollsters are busy processing data and making predictions, but nobody really knows whether America w…
00:33:34 |
Fri 06 Sep 2024
The Edition: Miliband's net zero madness, meet Reform’s new poster boy & the plight of the restaurant critic
This week: Miliband’s empty energy promises. Ed Miliband has written a public letter confirming that Labour plans to decarbonise the electricity system by 2030. The problem with this, though, is that…
00:38:30 |
Thu 05 Sep 2024
The Book Club: Amy Jeffs
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 wi…
00:45:56 |
Wed 04 Sep 2024
Americano: Will Kamala actually build the wall?
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-flop…
00:31:57 |
Tue 03 Sep 2024
Chinese Whispers: Investigating China's 'historic' claims in the South China Sea
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 …
00:43:11 |
Mon 02 Sep 2024
Holy Smoke, from the archives: An atheist goes on a Christian pilgrimage. Why?
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 b…
00:22:39 |
Sun 01 Sep 2024
Spectator Out Loud: Joan Collins, Owen Matthews, Sara Wheeler, Igor Toronyi-Lalic and Tanya Gold
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 T…
00:29:52 |
Sat 31 Aug 2024
Women With Balls: Dame Karen Pierce, from the archives
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 …
00:29:25 |
Fri 30 Aug 2024
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