Planet Normal

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SAMHÄLLE OCH KULTUR

The podcast that speaks your language. News and views from beyond the bubble with Telegraph columnists, Allison Pearson and Liam Halligan, every Thursday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Best Voyages from the Rocket 2025 Episode 2

In our second episode of the Best of the Rocket 2025, co-pilots Pearson and Halligan dive deep into the past year’s archives and bring you some of their most intriguing and provocative voyages on the rocket of right thinking, from this past year. This week the Rocket has made a stop at Westminster with Conservative MP Helen Whately, coming on board to discuss her having one of the toughest briefs in politics - identifying welfare savings. Helen's former party colleague and high-profile defector to Reform UK Danny Kruger, is asked by Allison if he felt a bit guilty jumping ship at a time when his defection would do serious damage to a struggling Tory party. And Tory Grandee Lord Peter Lilley, gives his thoughts on why Britain should leave the European Convention on Human Rights Read more from Liam: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/l... | Read more from Allison: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/a... | Need help subscribing or reviewing? Learn more about podcasts here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/pod... | Email: planetnormal@telegraph.co.uk | For 30 days’ free access to The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/normal | Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1 tim 6 min
1 JAN.

Best Voyages from the Rocket 2025 Episode 1

In this, the first of the Best of the Rocket 2025, co-pilots Pearson and Halligan dig into the data files for some of their most explosive voyages on the rocket of right thinking from this year. There’s been no shortage of madness on the rocket over the past few months, the peak of which was definitely when Chancellor Rachel Reeves cried in the Commons and the leader of the RMT said ‘stuff it’ to the markets. There’s also been an abundance of politicians and political agitators that have graced the rocket this year, and we begin with discussions surrounding the bias of the BBC with Jake Wallis Simons, and Epping Reform deputy leader, Orla Minihane. Read more from Liam: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/l... | Read more from Allison: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/a... | Need help subscribing or reviewing? Learn more about podcasts here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/pod... | Email: planetnormal@telegraph.co.uk | For 30 days’ free access to The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/normal | Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1 tim 7 min
2025-12-25

Rocket around the Christmas Tree!

It’s a Merry Christmas from the Rocket of right thinking at Planet Normal to everyone stuck on Planet Earth Your intrepid co-pilots reflect on a year of political thrills and economic spills, honouring the "citizens of Planet Normal" while handing out awards to the figures in public life who impressed - and those who most certainly did not. Amidst the Christmas cheer, your hosts offer a heartfelt thank you to their "intelligent and inspired" listeners for their tireless contributions throughout a tough year, before signing off with a promise of more wit, reason, and levity when the podcast returns in mid-January. The festive spirit is bolstered by a special interview with British tennis star and Wimbledon doubles champion Henry Patten who straps in to tell us what a Wimbledon champion has for Christmas Dinner and shares his journey from the grass courts to the top of the sporting world. Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor | Read Allison Non-crime hate incidents may be gone, but don’t expect the police to stop censoring you: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/23/good-riddance-to-non-crime-hate-incidents/ | Read more from Allison: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/a/ak-ao/allison-pearson/ | Read Liam ‘Why I’m not cheering the pre-Christmas rate cut’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/12/21/why-im-not-cheering-the-pre-christmas-rate-cut/ | Read more from Liam: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/liam-halligan/ | Read Liam’s Substack: https://liamhalligan.substack.com/ | Read Tim Sigsworth ‘Father Christmas is ‘too white’’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/21/santas-naughty-list-too-colonial-museum/ | Need help subscribing or reviewing? Learn more about podcasts here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/podcasts/podcast-can-find-best-ones-listen/ | Email: planetnormal@telegraph.co.uk | For 30 days’ free access to The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/normal | Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1 tim 1 min
2025-12-18

Festive flu and the West’s cowardly silence after the Bondi massacre

Your Co-pilots reflect on a sombre week as the festive season is overshadowed by the beach massacre in Sydney earlier this week. Co-pilot Pearson delivers a blistering critique of Western leaders whom she accuses of failing to confront the root of Islamist extremism. Liam connects the tragedy to the rising sense of fear among the Jewish community in the UK, arguing that the ‘aggressive’ weekly protests should not be allowed to continue in the Capital. On the economic front, Liam warns of rising youth unemployment and Ed Miliband’s growing European isolation on Net Zero following the EU's retreat from petrol car bans. And the Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Claire Couthino, straps in to tell your co-pilots why Labour’s Net Zero drive won’t encourage economic growth. Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor | Read Allison ‘It’s time to end the cowardly appeasement of radical Islamism’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/16/bondi-beach-jewish-massacre-allison-pearson/ | Read more from Allison: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/a/ak-ao/allison-pearson/ | Read Liam ‘Labour’s nutty EV policies are pushing us towards economic catastrophe’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/12/14/labour-ev-policies-pushing-towards-economic-catastrophe/ | Read more from Liam: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/liam-halligan/ | Read Liam’s Substack: https://liamhalligan.substack.com/ | Need help subscribing or reviewing? Learn more about podcasts here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/podcasts/podcast-can-find-best-ones-listen/ | Email: planetnormal@telegraph.co.uk | For 30 days’ free access to The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/normal | Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1 tim 10 min
2025-12-11

Reform and Farage smears only make the Party stronger

Co-Pilots Pearson and Halligan tackle a week of political and economic madness. Starmer is dismissed as a "caretaker Prime Minister" with a weak mandate, having been supported by only 20% of the electorate. Your hosts dissect Chancellor Rachel Reeves' job tax hike and her "benefits street Budget" which funds the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap by ‘punishing 340,000 working people’ with frozen tax thresholds. They confront the escalating migration crisis, discussing the rise of illegal arrivals and the national emergency posed by migrants linked to attacks on women. Meanwhile Reform stowaway Zia Yusuf tells the co-pilots why the smear campaign against Party leader, Nigel Farage, is one of the most ‘ coordinated smear campaigns. I can remember in my lifetime’... Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor | Read Allison ‘A comeback? What planet is vile Huw Edwards living on?’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/09/huw-edwards-allison-pearson-comeback/ | Read Allison ‘Is this the scandal that will finally kill Strictly?’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2025/12/10/scandal-finally-kill-strictly-allison-pearson/ | Read more from Allison: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/a/ak-ao/allison-pearson/ | Read Liam ‘The ghost of economic meltdown hangs over this festive season’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/12/07/the-ghost-of-economic-meltdown-hangs-over-festive-season/ | Read more from Liam: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/liam-halligan/ | Read Liam’s Substack: https://liamhalligan.substack.com/ | Need help subscribing or reviewing? Learn more about podcasts here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/podcasts/podcast-can-find-best-ones-listen/ | Email: planetnormal@telegraph.co.uk | For 30 days’ free access to The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/normal | Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1 tim 13 min
2025-12-04

Liar, liar, Reeves’ pants are on fire

With reaction to the autumn Budget still on the lips of news outlets everywhere, your co-pilots are here to make sense of the chaos. Allison doesn’t hold back and thinks Reeves has ‘lied’ to the electorate and inflated her own words in order to try and sneak her Budget past everyone. Meanwhile Liam thinks the fighting between Number 10 and 11 is harming the economy on a fundamental scale. Meanwhile stowaway Lord Nigel Biggar tells the co-pilots why history should recognise the UK fought against slavery across the British Empire. Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor Read Allison ‘A jury took 17 minutes to find Jamie ‘not guilty’. I hate to think what a Left-wing judge would’ve done’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/02/jury-trials-lammy-left-wing-judiciary/ | Read Allison ‘Joyless and fake, what a strange person Meghan is’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/03/id-pay-not-to-spend-a-christmas-with-meghan-and-harry/ | Read more from Allison: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/a/ak-ao/allison-pearson/ | Read Liam ‘If Labour sticks two fingers up to the bond market, Britain will pay the price’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/11/30/labour-two-fingers-bond-market-britain-pay-price/ | Read more from Liam: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/liam-halligan/ | Read Liam’s Substack: https://liamhalligan.substack.com/ | Need help subscribing or reviewing? Learn more about podcasts here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/podcasts/podcast-can-find-best-ones-listen/ | Email: planetnormal@telegraph.co.uk | For 30 days’ free access to The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/normal | Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1 tim 1 min
2025-11-26

Reeves Budget snowstorm of discontent

The rocket of right thinking is back for a crucial Budget Special as Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveils her second major fiscal statement. Her new £30 billion tax rise means a staggering £70 billion increase in just two years, the most "punitive tax raising budget in more than three decades". Joining the co-pilots to dissect the numbers is the brilliant Telegraph columnist, Roger Bootle. Roger reveals why he thinks the budget will land "very badly with business" and discusses the "scandalous" leak of the Statement beforehand. Co-Pilot Pearson calls it a "death knell budget for Labour" and argues that by funnelling huge amounts of money into the welfare bill, Reeves has confirmed it is now the party of the "Shirking class". Whilst Co-Pilot Halligan identifies the "ghost" of the Employment Rights Bill looming over the budget, dubbed by some as the "Unemployment Rights Bill," warns that this "back to the seventies" extension of rights will be disastrous for hiring. You can watch today's episode, which we filmed in the studios at Telegraph towers: https://youtu.be/ZrIXGoJGkBU Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor Read Allison ‘Dear Rachel, do you have any clue how much hard-working people are struggling?’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/26/allison-pearson-on-rachel-reeves-budget/ | Read Allison ‘I asked people if my Reform badge made me look like a Nazi and they howled with laughter’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/25/allison-pearson-reform-badge-nazis/ | Read more from Allison: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/a/ak-ao/allison-pearson/ | Read Liam ‘Reeves’s endless tax scaremongering is killing off animal spirits’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/11/23/rachel-reeves-scaremongering-taxes-killed-off-spirits/ | Read more from Liam: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/liam-halligan/ | Read Liam’s Substack: https://liamhalligan.substack.com/ | Need help subscribing or reviewing? Learn more about podcasts here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/podcasts/podcast-can-find-best-ones-listen/ | Email: planetnormal@telegraph.co.uk | For 30 days’ free access to The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/normal | Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

56 min
2025-11-20

Reeves reverse ferret and Mahmood's immigration gamble

This week the Rocket welcomes former Prime Minister Liz Truss to discuss next week’s Budget as well as the co-pilots diving into the latest political issues. From the dramatic U-turn on immigration by the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, to the creeping tax rises hidden in Rachel Reeves's upcoming budget, there’s more than enough madness to unpack. They ask if the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood's new rhetoric to crack down on immigration is real, and will her plans work? Alison dissects the proposals, arguing that a new 'work and study' route for migrants is a disaster and a perverse incentive to enter the UK illegally. Liam, while acknowledging the political risk for Mahmood, suggests the reforms are more rhetorical than real. Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor Read Allison ‘Why Tesco Cancelled Christmas’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/19/why-tesco-cancelled-christmas/ | Read Allison: ‘Why Shabana Mahmood’s asylum plans won’t make a blind bit of difference’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/18/shabana-mahmood-misguided-asylum-plans/ | Read more from Allison: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/a/ak-ao/allison-pearson/ | Read Liam ‘Milei’s ‘shock therapy’ makes Britain’s current reforms look utterly feeble’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/11/16/mileis-shock-therapy-britains-current-reforms-look-feeble/ | Read more from Liam: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/liam-halligan/ | Read Liam’s Substack: https://liamhalligan.substack.com/ | Need help subscribing or reviewing? Learn more about podcasts here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/podcasts/podcast-can-find-best-ones-listen/ | Email: planetnormal@telegraph.co.uk | For 30 days’ free access to The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/normal | Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1 tim 3 min

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The world’s most listened to, and award-winning, podcast covering the war in Ukraine. Every weekday, the Telegraph's top journalists analyse the conflict from all angles – just as they have since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, when tanks, jets and troops crossed Ukraine's borders. Downloaded over 120 million times and trusted by listeners worldwide, the team considers military strategy, history, weaponry, economics, refugee crises, culture, and daily life in Vladimir Putin's autocratic Russia and Volodymyr Zelensky's democratic Ukraine. Our correspondents on the ground talk to experts and civilians to cover every aspect of Russia's brutal invasion. We are also available in both Ukrainian and Russian, so that people on both sides of the battle lines and across the region – including Central Asia and the Caucasus – have access to accurate reporting. We use cutting-edge AI technology to make this possible. Just search Україна: Останні Новини (Ukr) and Украина: Последние Новости (Ru) on your on your preferred podcast app to find them. Or find them here: https://linktr.ee/ukrainethelatest A new weekly newsletter is also available, where we answer your questions, provide recommended reading, and give exclusive analysis and behind-the-scenes insights – plus maps of the frontlines and diagrams of weapons to complement our daily reporting. It’s free for everyone, including non-subscribers. Join here: https://secure.telegraph.co.uk/customer/secure/newsletter/ukraine/ Telegraph subscribers get early access to bonus episodes of Ukraine: The Latest and our sister podcast Battle Lines. You can subscribe within The Telegraph app, or tap on ‘Already a subscriber’ at the top of this page to log in to link your existing subscription. For more information, head to: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/contact-us/telegraph-subscription-bonus-content-apple-podcasts/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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DAGLIGA NYHETER
Murder in the Masai Mara When Julie Ward vanishes mysteriously in the Masai Mara in 1988, her father begins a hunt for answers that stretches from a safari lodge in Kenya to MI6’s headquarters in London. The case was never solved. Nearly four decades on, The Telegraph Deputy Investigations Editor Katherine Rushton pours over classified documents, interviews the people tangled in the case, and travels to Kenya to try to understand:who tried to stop her murder being solved. What happened to Julie Ward, why did the Kenyan authorities try to cover it up, and why were MI6 agents involved? Telegraph Investigates: Discover The Telegraph’s most gripping and hard-hitting investigative journalism, all in one place. Go behind the scenes with our top reporters as they uncover untold stories, expose injustices, and reveal shocking criminal revelations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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DOKUMENTÄR

Visa vanliga frågor om abonnemang

Judith Allison Pearson

Värd
Liam Halligan

Värd
Helen Whately

Gäst

3,3

av 5

4 betyg

Two (very) uneven hosts

2023-08-02

Jim@Home

Often interesting topics but Allison’s trumpish ‘understanding’ of science and facts (i.e. as opposed to fiction) is appalling. Do not understand what value, other than her ‘feelings’, she adds to the podcast.
Voice of Reason

2021-01-05

RichInSweden

Great commentary, interesting guests and good “common sense” reporting. Provides a perspective on life and helps keep you sane in an increasingly mad mad world...
Dåligt

2020-09-22

jahhhhh1763

Idioter

The podcast that speaks your language. News and views from beyond the bubble with Telegraph columnists, Allison Pearson and Liam Halligan, every Thursday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.