The Spectator Podcast

Our guest this week is Matthew Hennessey. He’s an editor at the Wall Street Journal, and also the author of Zero Hour for Gen X: How the Last Adult Generation Can Save America from the Millennials (Encounter Books). It’s a fascinating read: part-political obituary of a generation that, squeezed between two larger cohorts, the Boomers and the Millennials, may have missed its historical cue; part-rallying cry because, as Matthew explains in our midlife crisis of a conversation, it’s not over yet.‘It’s zero hour. Don’t just stand there. Bust a move.’Presented by Dominic Green.

Join Isabel Hardman for the highlights of Sunday's political interviews. Today's podcast features Philip Hammond, John McDonnell, Justine Greening and Jacob Rees-Mogg. Produced by Matthew Taylor.

With Curt Mills, Foreign Affairs Reporter at the National Interest.Presented by Freddy Gray.

Somehow it has already been two years into a Trump presidency, and America is facing midterm elections. Will Democrats win in a landslide (00:45)? We also delve a little deeper at the political faultlines behind the Jamal Khashoggi story – is Turkey taking advantage of his death (15:15)? And last, is the use of wild animals in circuses really the great injustice that campaigners say it is (25:40)?With Freddy Gray, Leslie Vinjamuri, Hannah Lucinda Smith, Azzam Tamimi, Tim Phillips and Vanessa Toulmin.Presented by Isabel Hardman.Produced by Cindy Yu and Alastair Thomas.

Sam Leith talks to the behavioural geneticist Robert Plomin about his new book Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are, in which he argues that it’s not only height and weight and skin colour that are heritable, but intelligence, TV-watching habits and likelihood of getting divorced. They talk about the risks he takes publishing this book, the political third rail of race and eugenics, and what his discoveries mean for the future of our data and for medical care. You can read Kathryn Paige Harden’s review of Blueprint, meanwhile, in this week’s magazine.Presented by Sam Leith.

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

In this week’s Spectator USA Life ’n’ Arts podcast, Dominic talks to David Pryce-Jones. Novelist, correspondent, historian, editor at National Review and, most recently, author of the autobiography and family history Fault Lines, Pryce-Jones has the longest association with the Spectator of any Life ’n’ Arts podcaster yet. In 1963, Pryce-Jones began his literary journey to the status of national treasure on both sides of the Pond by becoming books’ editor of our London mothership.‘I think the common theme in everything that I’ve done, really, is: what makes people believe the extraordinary things they do believe?’Presented by Dominic Green.

Reporters can’t get enough of the gory details and the international intrigue in the Khashoggi case. But they seem to have forgotten the need to report basic facts, question their single-sourced material, and ask difficult questions of those who know far more than they let on. Who was Jamal Khashoggi?With Matthew Brodsky, Middle East expert at the Security Studies Group.Presented by Freddy Gray.

Sam talks to the incomparable Sara Paretsky about her latest V. I. Warshawski novel Shell Game — which pits the original feminist gumshoe against art thieves, Russian mobsters and her fink of an ex-husband. They talk about keeping Vic young (skincare doesn’t come into it), chiming with MeToo and immigration anxieties in Trump’s America, whether she feels rivalrous with other female crime writers, spotting her own writerly tics, and making friends with Obama.Presented by Sam Leith.

This week, Brexit negotiations grind to a halt again as Brussels and the UK draw mutually exclusive red lines on the Irish border problem. We talk to James Forsyth and Dan Hannan on what next for Brexit (00:45). We also look a little deeper into the methods and mission of Bellingcat, the investigators that unveiled the true identities of the Salisbury suspects (13:25). And last, we investigate a sex industry that is trying to become more ethical (25:25).With James Forsyth, Dan Hannan, Owen Matthews, Mary Dejevsky, Cosmo Landesman, and Renée Denyer.Presented by Isabel Hardman.Produced by Cindy Yu and Alastair Thomas.

Britain could be about to acquire a new ethnicity - Sikhs. The 2021 census could have an ethnicity tick box for the community. But isn't Sikhism a religion that anyone - of any ethnicity - can follow? Hardeep Singh thinks so - and he explains why categorising his religion as an ethnicity will be dangerous for the community and multicultural Britain.Presented by Damian Thompson.

With Katy Balls and James Forsyth.Presented by Lara Prendergast.

Dominic Green talks to Jamie Kirchick, journalist and author, on the culture wars raging in American universities.

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has disappeared at his country's consulate in Istanbul, with reports emerging of his brutal murder. But who was Jamal Khashoggi, why did this happen to him and what should happen next (00:38)? Also on this podcast, the Irish may harbour more anti-EU opinion than commonly thought. Is there the prospect of an 'Irexit' (12:48)? And finally, with three top public schools scrapping the common entrance exam, should we lament the demise of the eccentric admissions test for schoolchildren (22:54)?With Bill Law, Akbar Shahid Ahmed, John Waters, Brendan O'Neill and Harry Mount.Presented by Lara Prendergast.Produced by Alastair Thomas.

With James Forsyth and Katy Balls.Presented by Lara Prendergast.

In this week's books podcast, Sam talks to Andrew Roberts in front of an audience about his new biography on Winston Churchill. It charts the leader's powerful sense of personal destiny, his ambition and bravery as a soldier and a leader. The book interprets the events that defined Churchill, from the Dardanelles disaster of 1915, his years in the political wilderness, and his summoning to save his country in 1940. Sam and Andrew discuss Churchill's belief that he was 'walking with destiny', his prophesies of European disaster in the 1930s, as well as his drinking habits, the racist charges against him, and his singular ability to deliver some of the most memorable speeches of the 20th century.Presented by Sam Leith at Daunt Books, Marylebone.

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

Dominic Green talks to the poet Alicia Stallings

A Spectator event with Andrew Roberts, author of a new Churchill biography, interviewed by Prof Robert Tombs. Tue 9 October, 7pm, at the Emmanuel Centre, Westminster.

With James Forsyth and Katy Balls.Presented by Lara Prendergast.