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
- 2370
- Years Active
- 2016 - 2025
Spectator Out Loud: Christina Lamb, Simon Clarke and Hannah Moore
On this week's episode, Christina Lamb reads her letter from Kabul about the situation on the ground under the new Taliban control (00:56). Simon Clarke makes the case for Covid boosters (06:19). And…
00:21:24 |
Sat 11 Sep 2021
The Edition: Assetocracy, the inversion of the welfare state
On this week's episode: why is the Prime Minister so desperate to support the assetocracy? In The Spectator’s cover story this week, after Boris Johnson revealed his plan to pay for social care with …
00:33:04 |
Thu 09 Sep 2021
The Book Club: Oliver Burkeman on Time
Sam's guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the writer Oliver Burkeman. His new book 4,000 Weeks offers some bracing reflections on time: how much we have of it, how best to use it, and why “time…
00:39:53 |
Wed 08 Sep 2021
Chinese Whispers: ancestors, demons and a brief history of Chinese religion
Are the Chinese religious? The government’s treatment of Christians and particularly Muslims have been under scrutiny in recent years. But these religious groups only form around 4 per cent of the Ch…
00:37:55 |
Tue 07 Sep 2021
Americano: What will the new Texan abortion law mean for the pro-life movement?
With Texas's controversial new 'heartbeat' law seemingly left unchallenged by the Supreme Court the abortion debate is hotting up in the States yet again. Will this success lead the pro-life movement…
00:17:59 |
Mon 06 Sep 2021
Spectator Out Loud: Kate Andrews, Mary Wakefield and Caroline Crampton
On this week's episode, Kate Andrews argues that the government's social care reform plans simply don't add up (00:55). Mary Wakefield makes the case for church doors to reopen (06:55) and Caroline C…
00:18:59 |
Sat 04 Sep 2021
The Edition: how have animals captured politics?
On this week's episode: should animal lives be considered as valuable as human lives? It’s often said that Britain is a country of animal lovers, but have we taken it too far? Pen Farthing’s evacuati…
00:34:19 |
Thu 02 Sep 2021
The Book Club: Hermione Lee on what inspires Tom Stoppard
Sam Leith's guest on this week’s podcast is the biographer and critic Hermione Lee. Her biography of Tom Stoppard is newly out in paperback, and she tells Sam about the decade of work behind Sir Tom’…
00:41:27 |
Wed 01 Sep 2021
Table Talk: with Charlie Stebbings
Charlie Stebbings is an acclaimed food director and photographer. On the podcast, he tells Lara and Liv about taking photographing M&S's melt in the middle chocolate puddings, treating himself to bak…
00:40:58 |
Tue 31 Aug 2021
Spectator Out Loud: Sascha O'Sullivan, Ian Williams and Toby Young
On this episode, Aussie journalist Sascha O'Sullivan begs to be let home (00:50); Ian Williams wonders whether China is experiencing its own MeToo moment (04:25); and Toby Young on his trip up north …
00:16:21 |
Sat 28 Aug 2021
Holy Smoke: Joe Biden and the betrayal of religious freedom
Religious freedom is already being mercilessly attacked in Taliban-run Afghanistan: Muslim women in particular face a living hell unless they're happy to submit to their new rulers' psychotic brand o…
00:26:27 |
Fri 27 Aug 2021
The Edition: Australia's zero Covid trap
On this week’s episode, we’ll be taking a look at the fortress that Australia has built around itself, and ask – when will its Zero Covid policy end (01:00)?
Also on the podcast: is it racist to point…
00:38:47 |
Thu 26 Aug 2021
The Book Club: Michael Bracewell on London before it became digital
Michael Bracewell’s new book Souvenir is a vivid and poetic evocation of London on the brink of the digital era - the neglected in-between times between 1979 and 1986. He joins Sam Leith to talk abou…
00:31:03 |
Wed 25 Aug 2021
Americano: what will Biden's lab leak report show?
Freddy Gray speaks to the investigative journalist Katherine Eban, author of Bottle of Lies: the Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom, about the classified report into the possibility that Covid-19 …
00:23:39 |
Tue 24 Aug 2021
Spectator Out Loud: Lara Prendergast, Cindy Yu and Gus Carter
On this week's episode, Lara Prendergast asks if it's so wrong to talk about whether the Covid vaccine affects periods. (01:05) Cindy Yu says China's 'zero Covid' strategy can't last. (06:50) And fin…
00:16:59 |
Sat 21 Aug 2021
Chinese Whispers: will China become Afghanistan's new sponsor?
Last month, the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi welcomed senior Taliban leaders to Beijing, standing shoulder to shoulder for the photographers. China is carefully watching events unfold in Afghanis…
00:36:21 |
Fri 20 Aug 2021
The Edition: America abandoned this fight before the Afghans did
On this week’s podcast:
In the latest issue of The Spectator, we cover the Afghanistan issue extensively, looking at everything from why the West was doomed from the start, to how events in Afghanista…
00:38:36 |
Thu 19 Aug 2021
The Book Club: the glory years of Antwerp
In this week's Book Club podcast Sam Leith is talking to Michael Pye about his new book Antwerp: The Glory Years. For most of the 16th century, as he tells Sam, Antwerp was the most important town in…
00:34:37 |
Wed 18 Aug 2021
Table Talk: With Rory Bremner
Rory Bremner is one of Britain's leading comedians, impressionists and political satirists. On the episode, he tells Lara and Liv about his first impression (of a school history teacher), doing shows…
00:26:09 |
Tue 17 Aug 2021
Americano: Who is to blame for America's failure in Afghanistan?
With Kabul now taken back by the Taliban and the Americans in full retreat after two decades of war, what will the USA learn from this catastrophe, if anything? Freddy Gray talks to author of After t…
00:24:50 |
Mon 16 Aug 2021
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