400 episodes
Best of the Spectator The Spectator
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4.3 • 546 Ratings
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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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Spectator Out Loud: Nick Moar, Tanya Gold, Cindy Yu
On this week's episode, we'll hear from Nick Moar on Twitter’s decision to suspend Politics for All.
Next, Tanya Gold on the importance of chicken soup. And finally, Cindy Yu who has reviewed The Kingdom of Characters, a book on Chinese language.
Subscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher:www.spectator.co.uk/voucher -
How bad was President Biden’s first year?
Freddy Gray and Lionel Shriver discuss Joe Biden's first year at the helm of the United States, and whether he is capable of tackling the challenges poised by Vladimir Putin, rampant inflation and his own capacity for gaffes.
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The Edition: The collapse
In this week’s episode: Will the Red Wall crush Boris Johnson?
In this week’s Spectator, our political editor James Forsyth and our deputy political editor Katy Balls report on the plot to oust the Prime Minister by Red Wall MPs, and No.10’s battle to save Boris. They join the podcast to give their up to date diagnosis. (00:43)
Also this week: How to save the BBC?
This week Nadine Dorries announced that she is planning a licence fee freeze. In the Spectator this week Paul Wood, a veteran journalist of the BBC writes about his love-hate relationship with the broadcaster. He joins the podcast now along with Domonic Minghella, writer, producer and former showrunner of the BBC’s Robin Hood. (14:45)
And finally: Is it moral to do good with bad money?
The Sackler family - whose fortune was built on getting thousands of Americans addicted to OxyContin, contributing to the country’s devastating opioid crisis - are now returning to philanthropy in the UK. But should their ill-gotten money be accepted for good causes? That’s the question Sam Leith and Matthew Parris have both asked for the Spectator’s website and magazine respectively. They both join the podcast to continue their moral musings. (28:07)
Hosted by Lara Prendergast and William Moore
Produced by Sam Holmes
Subscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher:
www.spectator.co.uk/voucher
Listen to Lara's food podcast Table Talk:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcasts/table-talk -
The Book Club: Bacon in Moscow
In this week's Book Club podcast, my guest is the gallerist James Birch - whose new book Bacon In Moscow describes how he achieved the seemingly impossible: taking an exhibition of Francis Bacon's work to Moscow in the late 1980s. James tells me how he negotiated between the volatile artist and the implacable Soviet bureaucracy with the help of a suave but menacing KGB middleman; and how, along the way, he nearly acquired an original Francis Bacon painting and nearly acquired a Russian wife.
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Table Talk: with Ed Smith
Ed Smith is a food writer and chef who started his acclaimed blog Rocket and Squash while he was working as a solicitor. On today’s podcast, he tells Liv and Lara about how his passion for good food started, why he left the world of law, the changing nature of the London food scene, and the ingredients for the perfect restaurant review. Since 2017, he has authored On the Side and The Borough Market Cookbook, and his latest book, Crave: Recipes Arranged by Flavour, to Suit Your Mood and Appetite, was published last May.
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Spectator Out Loud: Katy Balls, Nicholas Farrell, Lisse Garnett
On this week's episode, we'll hear from Katy Balls on who may take Boris Johnson’s place if he resigns. (00:49)
Next, Nicholas Farrell on the potential return of Silvio Berlusconi. (06:21)
And finally, And Lisse Garnett on what’s it like to date and influencer. (18:00)
Produced and presented by Sam Holmes
Subscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher:
www.spectator.co.uk/voucher
Customer Reviews
A good mixture of Spectator content
I stick to Best of Spectator podcasts as I don’t have time to follow every episode individually. It provides a good flavour of the Spectator’s thought-provoking output. I admit I tend to skip Table Talk as it’s not my thing.
Spectator Out Loud is probably one of my favourites as it allows me to access articles as a non-subscriber and there’s something extra about hearing the person who wrote it reading it out.
The Edition is also must-listen, however there is often significant overlap with Out Loud, with contributors discussing their articles but essentially making exactly the same points again. I would prefer less overlap here.
Americano, well, I expect to have my views challenged when listening to Spectator podcasts and especially so with this one, as it is a trip into the vortex of American political culture, if we can call it that. Here I feel we could do with a bit more balance. The Edition will often have a second guest with a different view, whereas Americano tends to feature a single guest with a particular viewpoint, with Freddie Grey essentially egging them on, or providing set-up questions that allow the speaker to make their next point.
The guests are eloquent and informed, but products of such a bipartisan culture that even efforts to facilitate postal voting during a pandemic are cast as “manipulation” without challenge from the host.
My feeling is that Freddie is reluctant to challenge the guests’ point of view, and as much as anything it makes the conversation somewhat one-sided.
Review Title
I listen pretty much everyday. An unparalleled current affairs pod. My favourite segment is Damian Thompson’s Holy Smoke. A shame it is not more frequent but it has so much potential
Asthma
I don’t know anyone who has asthma so the premise of your discussion is wrong.