The Spectator Podcast

Russia and Ukraine have launched air attacks on each other, hours after Vladimir Putin told Trump that Russia would stop targeting Ukrainian energy sites. Has Putin outplayed Trump? And will Trump regret bringing Europe's militaries back to life?Deputy and US editor Freddy Gray is joined by Americano regular and author Jacob Heilbrunn to discuss.

This week: why is economic growth eluding Labour?‘Growing pains’ declares The Spectator’s cover image this week, as our political editor Katy Balls, our new economics editor Michael Simmons, and George Osborne’s former chief of staff Rupert Harrison analyse the fiscal problems facing the Chancellor.‘Dominic Cummings may have left Whitehall,’ write Katy and Michael, ‘but his spirit lives on.’ ‘We are all Dom now,’ according to one government figure. Keir Starmer’s chief aide Morgan McSweeney has never met Cummings, but the pair share a diagnosis of Britain’s failing economy. Identifying a problem is not, however, the same as solving it. As Rachel Reeves prepares her Spring Statement, ministers are bracing themselves for cuts in day-to-day spending as the public finances deteriorate.Is austerity back? Michael and Rupert joined the podcast to discuss further. (1:02)Next: survival of the fittest vs seduction by the hottestBiologist and Conservative peer Matt Ridley writes about the concept of sexual selection in

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is the novelist and journalist John Lanchester, one of the contributors to Michael Lewis’s very timely new anthology of reportage on the United States federal government, Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service. Can the public learn to love a bureaucrat? John tells me why he thinks the workings of government are misunderstood and under appreciated, why we should marvel at the making of the consumer price index, and why he thinks Elon Musk has ‘the wrong handle of the shopping bag’.

Miatta Fahnbulleh was elected as the Labour MP for Peckham at the 2024 general election. Born in Liberia, her family fled west Africa as the region descended into civil war, eventually settling in north London when she was just 7 years old. Trained as an economist, having studied at Oxford and the LSE, she went on to work in the civil service and at various think-tanks. After serving as the CEO for the New Economics Foundation, she became a senior economic adviser for Labour working with Ed Miliband during his time as leader of the Labour Party. Ed is now her boss again – at the department for energy. On the podcast, Miatta talks to Katy Balls about how the value of public service was instilled early in her life, how politics weighs heavier in west Africa than in the UK, and what it’s like to be considered a rising star in British politics. She also talks about the tough decisions this Labour government has had to make, from international aid to energy. She says that while the politics around energy are tough

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Colin Freeman explains how Islamic State tightened its grip on the Congo (1:23); Harry Ritchie draws attention to the thousands of languages facing extinction this century, as he reviews Rare Tongues: The Secret Stories of Hidden Languages by Lorna Gibb (8:00); Max Jeffery highlights the boxing academy changing young lives (13:20); Michael Gove reflects on lessons learned during his time as education secretary (20:30); and, Catriona Olding introduces the characters from her new Provence-based memoir club (29:27). Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Slashing the winter fuel allowance, maintaining the two child benefit cap, cutting international aid, cutting the civil service, axing NHS bureaucracy, possibly slashing welfare expenditure... you'd be forgiven for thinking the Conservatives were in power. But no, these are all policies pursued by the current Labour government. So on today's Saturday Shots Cindy Yu asks Michael Gove and James Heale, is Keir Starmer a Tory?While Michael admits to giving Starmer a 'painful' two cheers, he does say there is historic precedent for Labour governments enacting right-leaning measures: from Jim Callaghan's migration policies to the economic ones of Ramsay MacDonald. How has Starmer got away with it? And what does his premiership of pragmatism tell us about the future direction of Labour?Michael sets out a number of tests to judge Starmer's success by: the tests of Fraser Nelson, Robert Jenrick, Ernie Bevin, Denis Healey and Bob Mellish... Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Cindy Yu.

Freddy Gray is joined by Fox News broadcaster Deroy Murdock to discuss Trump's America. They cover what could be the real reason behind Trump's tariffs, how concerned Americans should be about a recession, the Ukraine-Russia peace plan and what the Democrats can do to recover from the election defeat. 

This week: sectarian persecution returnsPaul Wood, Colin Freeman and Father Benedict Kiely write in the magazine this week about the religious persecution that minorities are facing across the world from Syria to the Congo. In Syria, there have been reports of massacres with hundreds of civilians from the Alawite Muslim minority targeted, in part because of their association with the fallen Assad regime. Reports suggest that the groups responsible are linked to the new Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa (formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani). For some, the true face of the country’s new masters has been revealed. Whether the guilty men are punished will tell us what kind of country Syria has become since the fall of Assad’s dictatorship.Speaking to those on the ground, Wood reports of fathers who were shot in front of their families, victims made to howl like dogs as they crawled through piles of corpses, and of state security forces trying to prevent survivors from photographing or talking about what had h

James Orr was living the life of a young, high-flying lawyer when, after a few drinks at a New Year's Eve party, he asked for signs that God existed. The signs came; among other things, he narrowly avoided a fatal skiing accident. Now he is a passionate Christian and a conservative culture warrior who helped defeat an attempt to impose the tyranny of critical race theory on Cambridge University, where he is an associate professor of the philosophy of religion.He's also an intellectual mentor to the vice president of the United States; Politico describes him as 'J.D. Vance's English philosopher king'. Dr Orr says Vance is 'extremely articulate, but he takes no prisoners'. As you'll hear in his conversation with Damian Thompson, that's an observation that could easily apply to the man the vice president calls his 'British Sherpa'. Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is the publisher Anthony Cheetham, one of the biggest figures in British publishing through the second half of the twentieth century and into this one. In his new book A Life in Fifty Books: A Publisher's Memoir, he looks back on his career. He tells me why he had a soft spot for Robert Maxwell; how he launched Ken Follett's career on the top deck of a bus; how losing a press-up competition changed the landscape of publishing (and upset his then wife); how publishing has changed – and how it hasn't; and why Confessions of a Window-Cleaner has a special place in his heart.

Ash Sarkar is a journalist, academic and political activist known for her commentary on social justice and democratic socialism. She is a senior editor at Novara Media, and her work has been published extensively. Ash’s debut book, Minority Rule: Adventures in the Culture War, examines how ruling elites exploit cultural divisions to maintain power.On the podcast, she tells Liv and Lara about early memories of her grandmother’s paratha, why she is not a vegetarian and why she prefers to think of herself as a ‘Cava communist’ as opposed to a Champagne socialist.Photo credit: Jonathan Ring

Walking around Taipei a couple of years ago, I spotted a familiar sight – a bronze statue of a moustachioed man, cane in his right hand, left leg striding forward. The man is Sun Yat-sen, considered modern China’s founding father. I recognised the statue because a larger version of it stands in the city centre of Nanjing, the mainland Chinese city that I was born and raised in.That one figure can be celebrated across the strait, both in Communist PRC and Taiwanese ROC, is the curious legacy left behind by Sun. March 12th this year is the centenary of Sun’s death, so what better opportunity to look at his legacy, and who better to discuss Sun than the historian Rana Mitter, who needs no introduction with Chinese Whispers listeners.Further listening:Japan’s role in the making of modern ChinaWhat is it to be ‘Chinese’?

Freddy Gray is joined with Michael Auslin who is an academic and historian at the Hoover Institute and author of the Substack 'THE PATOWMACK PACKET'. They discuss China's response to Trump's tariffs, whether China is serious about threats of war and how concerned Trump is about China's relationship with Russia. 

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Having returned from Washington D.C., Harry Cole reads his diary for the week (1:16); Zoe Strimpel reports on the Gen Z fliers obsessed with maximalising their air miles (5:37); Michael Simmons argues that Scotland is the worst when it comes to government waste (12:00); reviewing Quentin Skinner’s Liberty as Independence, Nigel Warburton examines what it means to be free (17:45); and, Justin Marozzi provides his notes on possum (25:02). Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

It’s a special (and emotional) edition of Coffee House Shots this Saturday because it is the last with Kate Andrews on this side of the Atlantic. She joins our editor Michael Gove and political correspondent James Heale for a debate on ideology. Kate – a liberal, in the classical British sense – explains exactly why she is not a Conservative and the various tenets that distinguish liberalism from conservatism, whilst Michael makes the case for being a 'pessimistic' conservative. So, what makes a liberal? What makes a conservative? And was Hayek right in saying that while there isn’t much to choose between these two political creeds, ultimately, they need each other. Produced by Cindy Yu and Oscar Edmondson.Kate Andrews' suggested reading on liberalism:F. A. Hayek: The Road to Serfdom Adam Smith: The Wealth of NationsDeirdre McCloskey: Why Liberalism Works

Julia Lopez has been the Conservative MP for Hornchurch and Upminster since 2017. Her first political experience was working for the then-MP for the Cities of London and Westminster Mark Field, before she became a councillor for Tower Hamlets – working to improve the standards of an area marred in scandal and heightened community tensions. She went on to hold ministerial roles under three Prime Ministers and is now the PPS to Tory leader Kemi Badenoch. On the podcast, Julia talks to Katy Balls about the impact Margaret Thatcher had on the politics of her family, how she gained political experience touring London’s sewers and skyscrapers, and the mixed emotions of becoming an MP in 2017 – when the party lost its majority. She also describes what it was like to fight a campaign five days after giving birth, and her connection to The Spectator – having helped to change the law to protect British media from foreign ownership.  Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

This week: the carve-up of Ukraine’s natural resourcesFrom the success of Keir Starmer’s visit to Washington to the squabbling we saw in the Oval Office and the breakdown of security guarantees for Ukraine – we have seen the good, the bad and the ugly of geopolitics in the last week, say Niall Ferguson and Nicholas Kulish in this week’s cover piece. They argue that what Donald Trump is really concerned with when it comes to Ukraine is rare earth minerals – which Ukraine has in abundance under its soil. The conventional wisdom is that the US is desperately short of these crucial minerals and, as Niall and Nicholas point out, the dealmaking president is driven by a nagging sense of inferiority in comparison to rare earth minerals powerhouse China. Niall and Nicholas joined the podcast to talk further. (02:19)Next: why are women having caesareans being offered sterilisation?During a routine antenatal appointment, Flora Watkins was blindsided by the opening gambit from her obstetrician: ‘Why don’t we tie your tub

In this week's Book Club podcast, I'm joined by Donald Trump's outstanding Boswell, the magazine writer Michael Wolff. Michael’s new book, All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America, takes Donald Trump and his colourful cast of hangers-on from the aftermath of the 6 January riots to his triumphal return to the White House.Michael tells me why he thinks people in Trumpworld are still talking to him, how the Donald has changed over the decade he has been reporting on him, why he’s confident American democracy will survive a second Trump presidency – and how world leaders, such as Keir Starmer, are best advised to handle this volatile and unpredictable character.

Robert Bryce, an energy expert and author of The Question of Power, discusses the state of global energy, electric vehicles, and government policies both in the UK and America. Freddy and Robert look at how government subsidies and mandates have driven automakers toward unprofitable EV production, what is energy humanism, and how foreign interference has shaped climate policies over the past decade. 

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Paul Wood reads his letter from the Vatican (1:17); Matthew Parris warns Conservatives from embracing causes that could lose them as much support as they would gain (7:31); reviewing Richard Overy’s Rain of Ruin: Tokyo, Hiroshima and the Surrender of Japan, Ian Buruma argues that the atomic bombs were not only immoral, but ineffective (15:35); Hermione Eyre examines the life and work of the surrealist artist Ithell Colquhoun (23:03); and, Francis Young provides his notes on Shrove Tuesday (29:12).   Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.