The Spectator Podcast

With Katy Balls and James Forsyth.Presented by Isabel Hardman.

With Zack Christenson. Presented by Freddy Gray.

With Katy Balls and James Forsyth.Presented by Cindy Yu.

It’s another crazy week in Westminster, and the question on everyone’s minds – what happens next? We talk to Paul Mason, Henry Newman, and Katy Balls (00:50). Plus, should councils turf out the social housing tenants whose circumstances improve (23:45)?With Paul Mason, Henry Newman, Katy Balls, Mark Piggott, and Luke Doonan.Presented by Isabel Hardman.Produced by Cindy Yu and Alastair Thomas.

In this week's episode, Sam talks to investigative journalist Kajsa Norman about her book 'Sweden's Dark Soul'. In it, she turns her gaze on the oppressive forces at the heart of Sweden’s ‘model democracy’. The story begins with the cover-up of mass sexual assaults at a Stockholm music festival. The reason? The perpetrators were unaccompanied refugee minors.Presented by Sam Leith.

With Katy Balls and James Forsyth.Presented by Cindy Yu.

With Katy Balls and James Forsyth.Presented by Isabel Hardman.

With Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of the National Interest.Presented by Freddy Gray.

With James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson.Presented by Lara Prendergast.

Lorries backing up in Kent, a Mars bar shortage, and no more Rome city breaks – these are just some of the things that we have been warned about when it comes to a no deal Brexit. But what will really happen (00:45)? Plus, is China a greater force to be reckoned with than Russia (22:35)? And last, what is it with Brits and obsessing over aristocratic sex scandals (33:15)?With Lord Peter Lilley, Ian Dunt, Kerry Brown, Tom Tugendhat MP, Cosmo Landesman, and Sophia Money-Coutts.Presented by Lara Prendergast.

In this week’s book’s podcast Sam's guest is Jonathan Ames, a writer who has produced everything from memoir (Adventures of a Mildly Perverted Young Writer) to TV writing (Bored To Death), graphic novels (The Alcoholic), pitch-black noir (You Were Never Really Here), Wodehouse homage (Wake Up, Sir!) and now, in The Extra Man, a comic novel riffing on Henry James. We talk about why he calls so many of his characters “Jonathan Ames”, how he goes about his work, and whether — as a man who has become synonymous with “overshare” — he can ever quite retreat into the background.Presented by Sam Leith.

With James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson.Presented by Lara Prendergast.

In this fascinating podcast, Dominic Green talks to author and foreign policy analyst Robert Kaplan. They look back at ‘The Coming Anarchy’ after a quarter of a century, and trace the ambitions and disasters of the last three decades of American empire, from the early Nineties to the War on Terror and the retreat of the Obama and Trump years. If you listen carefully, you can hear the clink of coffee cups on saucer. If you listen even more carefully, you’ll hear a reminder of Kipling’s ‘Recessional’, with its warning that all empires must dissolve: ‘Lest we forget.’ Listen and learn.

As we move into 2019, two big elections could shake up the rest of the year. In May, the European elections could see an unprecedented populist surge. What would that mean for the European Union (00:50)? And back home, a potential general election, and Corbyn’s chances at government have never looked better (11:15). We discuss both of these. And last, is it ever okay to call a woman ‘a girl’ (24:35)?With Fredrik Erixon, Charles Grant, Katy Balls, Conor Pope, Mark Mason and Julie Bindel.Presented by Lara Prendergast.Produced by Cindy Yu and Alastair Thomas.

With Henry Newman, Director of Open Europe, and Katy Balls.Presented by Lara Prendergast.

In this week’s books podcast we’re going to the wars. Sam's guest is Ed Vulliamy, the veteran war correspondent who has written a fascinating memoir called When Words Fail: A Life With Music, War and Peace. In it, Ed talks about how his lifelong love of music — he saw Hendrix at the Isle of Wight — has threaded through his terrifying adventures in conflict zones from Bosnia to Iraq to the Mexican/American border; and of how music really can salve the soul when everything else is broken. He describes his own terrifying experiences with PTSD, snagging the last interview with BB King, and how playing “Kashmir” over and over again while roaring unembedded around a battle-zone led him to a friendship with Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant.

Join Katy Balls as she interviews Dame Helena Morrissey - a financier, a campaigner for more women in the boardrooms, and the mother to nine children. How does she balance kids and a career? Why does she think men and women are fundamentally different? And what is the most effective way to get a raise?

In this week’s books podcast Sam talks to Chris Kraus — author of the semi-autobiographical cult novel I Love Dick and the new essay collection Social Practices — about her strange and interesting life in the New York and LA art worlds, about taking Baudrillard to a “happening” in the desert, about ambition and fame, about how art and literature feed into one another — and about why we English should stop sneering at “theory” and learn to love its strangeness and beauty.Presented by Sam Leith.

Dominic talks to the team of crack art critics from The New Criterion: James Panero, Benjamin Riley and Andrew Shea in this review of the best art exhibitions of the year. In between high brow chats on Michelangelo and Sir Alfred Munnings, the panel brings the energy of the New Criterion Christmas party, raging next door, with them. Is Panero coughing because he has TB, or was it induced by the prospect of the Boston MFA’s Toulouse-Lautrec show? Who was in and who was out in the major museums this year? And is Andy Shea really caught using his cellphone in the middle of a podcast?

Sophia Money-Coutts is former features editor at Tatler magazine, and now columnist for the Sunday Telegraph. Her new book, The Plus One, came out earlier this year. In this episode of Table Talk, Lara and Livvy talk to Sophia about how cheese fondue helped her get through her parents' divorce as a child, how an ex-boyfriend berated her poppadom manners, and the best way to juggle a clutch bag and canapés at writers' parties.Presented by Lara Prendergast and Olivia Potts.