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
- 2368
- Years Active
- 2016 - 2025
The Book Club: The legacy of Franz Kafka
June 3rd marks the centenary of Franz Kafka's death. To talk about this great writer's peculiar style and lasting legacy, I'm joined by two of the world's foremost Kafka scholars. Mark Harman has jus…
00:50:07 |
Wed 29 May 2024
Holy Smoke: Calm fire - the consolation of listening to Bruckner
Here's an episode of Holy Smoke to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Anton Bruckner later this year. This embarrassingly eccentric genius was, perhaps, the most devoutly Catholic of all the …
00:30:23 |
Tue 28 May 2024
Chinese Whispers: Life in a changing China
Since 1978, China has changed beyond recognition thanks to its economic boom. 800 million people have been lifted out of poverty as GDP per capita has grown eighty times. Some 60 per cent of the coun…
00:39:23 |
Mon 27 May 2024
Americano: Would a conviction hurt Trump?
This week the world may know whether Donald Trump becomes the first US President to receive a criminal conviction. But could this verdict help or hinder him? Tom Lubbock, co-founder of pollsters J L …
00:23:42 |
Mon 27 May 2024
Americano: What is Trump’s new foreign policy?
Freddy Gray speaks to author Jacob Heilbrunn about what another term in office for Donald Trump might mean for America's foreign policy, its relationship with Israel, and the war in Ukraine.
How have …
How have …
00:25:28 |
Sun 26 May 2024
Spectator Out Loud: Quentin Letts, Owen Matthews, Michael Hann, Laura Gascoigne, and Michael Simmons
On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Quentin Letts takes us through his diary for the week (1:12); Owen Matthews details the shadow fleet helping Russia to evade sanctions (7:15); Michael Hann reports …
00:30:09 |
Sat 25 May 2024
Americano: Why is Biden so unpopular?
New York Post writer Miranda Devine joins Freddy Gray to discuss Joe Biden's unpopularity. Why are Americans increasingly not supporting him? And how have Biden family scandals and rumours affected t…
00:22:59 |
Fri 24 May 2024
The Edition: Rishi Sunak’s election gamble
It’s a bumper edition of The Edition this week. After Rishi Suank called a surprise – and perhaps misguided – snap election just a couple of hours after our press deadline, we had to frantically come…
00:52:40 |
Thu 23 May 2024
The Book Club: Conn Iggulden
My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Conn Iggulden, probably the best selling author of historical fiction of our day. This week Conn publishes Nero, the first in a new trilogy about the noto…
00:42:54 |
Wed 22 May 2024
Table Talk: Tim Hayward
Tom Hayward is an award-winning food writer, a broadcaster, and proprietor of the bakery Fitzbillies in Cambridge. He writes regularly for the FT Magazine and often appears on BBC Radio 4. Following …
00:44:22 |
Tue 21 May 2024
Americano: is Biden losing the swing states?
Matt McDonald, managing editor of the US edition of The Spectator, joins Freddy Gray to discuss whether Biden is losing the swing states, the potential outcome of the Trump-Biden TV debates, and who …
00:18:32 |
Sat 18 May 2024
Spectator Out Loud: Max Jeffery, David Shipley, Patrick Kidd, Cindy Yu, and Hugh Thomson
On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Max Jeffery interviews Afghan resistance leader Ahmad Massoud (1:13); former prisoner David Shipley ponders the power of restorative justice (8:23); Patrick Kidd ar…
00:32:50 |
Sat 18 May 2024
Women With Balls: the Shabana Mahmood Edition
Shabana Mahmood is the shadow secretary of state for justice. She was born in Birmingham to migrant parents. After studying Law at Lincoln College, Oxford, where Rishi Sunak was a contemporary, she q…
00:45:02 |
Fri 17 May 2024
The Edition: who will Trump pick for his running mate?
This week:
Veep show: who will Trump pick for his running mate? Freddy Gray goes through the contenders – and what they say about America (and its most likely next president). ‘Another thought might b…
Veep show: who will Trump pick for his running mate? Freddy Gray goes through the contenders – and what they say about America (and its most likely next president). ‘Another thought might b…
00:47:23 |
Thu 16 May 2024
Americano: Who could be Trump's VP?
Freddy Gray talks to American columnist and commentator Guy Benson about who is in the running to be Trump's VP. Who does Trump want? But more importantly what does the Trump ticket need?
Also: Biden…
Also: Biden…
00:31:22 |
Wed 15 May 2024
The Book Club: Olivia Laing
A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot! On this week's Book Club podcast I'm joined by Olivia Laing to talk about her new book The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise. Olivia explores …
00:32:59 |
Wed 15 May 2024
Chinese Whispers: China's vendetta against Nato
Last week, President Xi Jinping visited Serbia. An unexpected destination, you might think, but in fact the links between Beijing and Belgrade go back decades. One event, in particular, has linked th…
00:46:22 |
Mon 13 May 2024
Americano: Should America have a Monarch?
Freddy Gray talks to writer and philosopher Curtis Yarvin about how Alexander Hamilton was America's Napoleon, why Putin is more of a royal than King Charles, and why Yarvin admires FDR.
Yarvin is vo…
Yarvin is vo…
00:45:36 |
Mon 13 May 2024
Americano: What's this revolution really about?
Freddy Gray speaks to the journalist Nellie Bowles about her new book: Morning after the Revolution: Dispatches from the wrong side of History. As someone who had fit into the progressive umbrella, h…
00:37:23 |
Sun 12 May 2024
Spectator Out Loud: Slavoj Zizek, Angus Colwell, Svitlana Morenets, Cindy Yu, and Philip Hensher
On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Philosopher Slavoj Zizek takes us through his diary including his Britney Spears Theory of Action (1:08); Angus Colwell reports from the front line of the pro-Pales…
00:32:09 |
Sat 11 May 2024
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