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 Edition: does Keir Starmer stack up?
In her cover piece for the magazine this week, The Spectator’s political editor Katy Balls writes that whilst Keir Starmer’s accession seems certain, his agenda is less so. She tries to piece togethe…
00:38:45 |
Thu 07 Dec 2023
The 26 million: how to care for people living with long-term health conditions
How should we think of the 26 million people in the UK living with a long-term health condition? Under the current system, only a handful of long-term conditions are prioritised. This leads to a huge…
01:04:17 |
Thu 07 Dec 2023
The Book Club: Andrew Lycett
My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Arthur Conan Doyle's biographer (and historical consultant to the new BBC TV programme Killing Sherlock) Andrew Lycett. Introducing his new book The World…
00:38:10 |
Wed 06 Dec 2023
Table Talk: Tara Wigley
Tara Wigley is the in-house writer for the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen, she also has a weekly column in the Guardian and a monthly column in the New York Times which she shares with Yotam Ottolenghi.
On t…
On t…
00:31:55 |
Tue 05 Dec 2023
Spectator Out Loud: Katy Balls, Lionel Shriver and Marcus Walker
This week: Katy Balls on what the Elgin Marbles row is really about (00:56); Lionel Shriver on feckless politicians when it comes to immigration (06:43) and Marcus Walker on his rage against multi-fa…
00:22:26 |
Sat 02 Dec 2023
The Edition: carbon capture
On the podcast:
In her cover piece for the magazine, The Spectator's assistant editor Cindy Yu – writing ahead of the COP28 summit this weekend – describes how China has cornered the renewables market…
In her cover piece for the magazine, The Spectator's assistant editor Cindy Yu – writing ahead of the COP28 summit this weekend – describes how China has cornered the renewables market…
00:29:50 |
Thu 30 Nov 2023
The Book Club: Good Scammer
On this week's Book Club podcast, my guest is Guy Kennaway, whose new novel Good Scammer sprinkles a protective dusting of fiction over the true story of the real-life king of Jamaica's phone scammer…
00:45:46 |
Wed 29 Nov 2023
Chinese Whispers: Is Mandarin bad for China?
Across the span of China, a country as big as Europe, there are countless regional dialects and accents – perhaps even languages. Often, they're mutually unintelligible.
The Chinese call these ‘fangya…
The Chinese call these ‘fangya…
00:43:49 |
Tue 28 Nov 2023
Spectator Out Loud: David Swift, Mary Wakefield & Peter Hitchens
This week: David Swift looks at whether hope remains in Jaffa, Isreal (00:51); Mary Wakefield on the civil service’s ‘say my name’ campaign (06:49) and Peter Hitchens on his time in prison (13:17).
…00:19:35 |
Sat 25 Nov 2023
Women With Balls: Alison McGovern
Alison McGovern sits on Labour’s front bench as the shadow minister for work and pensions but was first elected as an MP in 2010. Growing up in Merseyside, her grandfather was a folk singer who wrote…
00:27:28 |
Fri 24 Nov 2023
The Edition: Israel's challenge
On the podcast:
Anshel Pfeffer writes The Spectator’s cover story this week. He voices concern that support from Israel’s allies might begin to waver if they don’t develop a viable plan after the war …
Anshel Pfeffer writes The Spectator’s cover story this week. He voices concern that support from Israel’s allies might begin to waver if they don’t develop a viable plan after the war …
00:41:53 |
Thu 23 Nov 2023
Americano: Have we seen the last of Mitt Romney?
Freddy Gray talks to McKay Coppins, author of the New York Times bestselling book 'Romney: A Reckoning'.
Romney has announced he will not seek reelection in 2024. What next for the 'never-Trumper', co…
Romney has announced he will not seek reelection in 2024. What next for the 'never-Trumper', co…
00:31:48 |
Thu 23 Nov 2023
The Book Club: Jonathan Jones
My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is the art critic Jonathan Jones. The term 'renaissance' is out of fashion among scholars these days, but in his new book Earthly Delights: A History of the …
00:56:19 |
Wed 22 Nov 2023
Table Talk: Celia Walden
Celia Walden is a journalist, novelist and critic whose most recent novel, The Square, is out now. On the podcast she tells Lara and Liv why lentils are her ultimate comfort food, explains the joys o…
00:16:43 |
Tue 21 Nov 2023
Spectator Out Loud: Svitlana Morenets, Sean Thomas and Angus Colwell
This week, Svitlana Morenets says Ukraine’s counteroffensive is not living up to the hype (00:59), Sean Thomas says he likes travelling to crappy towns (10:27), and Angus Colwell defends London’s ric…
00:20:55 |
Sat 18 Nov 2023
Fuel for thought: how business can make use of hydrogen
How we achieve net zero is more than just a political or environmental decision. It is one that will have huge societal impacts. How we get our energy translates to how we move around, how we heat ou…
00:40:22 |
Fri 17 Nov 2023
The Edition: back to the future
On the podcast:
It's been a busy week in Westminster. On Monday, Rishi Sunak's first major reshuffle saw Suella Braverman sacked and David Cameron make a surprise return to politics. Then two days la…
It's been a busy week in Westminster. On Monday, Rishi Sunak's first major reshuffle saw Suella Braverman sacked and David Cameron make a surprise return to politics. Then two days la…
00:44:58 |
Thu 16 Nov 2023
The Book Club: Terry Hayes
In this week's Book Club podcast my guest is Terry Hayes, author of the squillion-selling thriller I Am Pilgrim. He tells me about invisible submarines, taking advice on crucifixion from Mel Gibson, …
00:34:00 |
Wed 15 Nov 2023
Chinese Whispers: how China's 'underground historians' battle the state narrative
Controlling history is key to the Chinese Communist Party’s control of the country. Whether it’s playing up the ‘century of humiliation’, or whitewashing past mistakes like the Great Leap Forward or …
00:35:25 |
Tue 14 Nov 2023
Holy Smoke: how light filled the first Roman Churches
When I was in Rome last month, I watched the 'synod on synodality' fizzle out while the Marko Rupnik sex scandal took another sinister turn (and various Catholic journalists shamefully tried to suppr…
00:16:16 |
Mon 13 Nov 2023
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