Best of the Spectator

In this week's Book Club podcast, I'm joined by Andrea Wulf to talk about the birth of Romanticism at the end of the 18th century. Her new book Magnificent Rebels tells the story of the "Jena set" – a staggering assemblage of the superstars of German literature and philosophy who gathered in a small town and collectively came up with a whole new way of looking at the world. Goethe, Schiller, Fichte, Schelling, Novalis, the Schlegel brothers, the von Humboldt brothers – and their brilliant and daring wives and lovers... their intellectual fireworks were matched by a tangle of literary feuds and hair-raising sexual complications. Here's a piece of the jigsaw of intellectual history that most British people will only vaguely know of if at all – and it's fascinating. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s estimated that the average age of a British farmer is 59. This raises questions about the future of British farming. Are young people just not interested?On this episode, The Spectator’s economics editor, Kate Andrews takes a look at the next few decades for British farming. Young farmers are part of the picture, but we’ll also be discussing the role played by immigration especially post Brexit. The agricultural pressures and questions around self-sufficiency given the war in Ukraine. And how to balance all of this with greater concern for climate change. Kate Andrews is joined by George Eustice, the Secretary of State for DEFRA, Tom Bradshaw, deputy president of the Farmers’ Union and Beth Hart, vice president for Supply Chain and Brand Trust at McDonald’s.This podcast is kindly sponsored by McDonald's. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Katy Balls, The Spectator’s deputy political editor, speaks to Freddy Gray, our deputy editor, about the FBI raid of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence:‘There’s some desperation to get Trump. It’s self-defeating because it justifies his narrative that the “deep state” is out to get him.’ – Freddy GrayMatt Purple, online editor of The Spectator’s world edition, joins Freddy. On the rest of the show, our political editor James Forsyth and the American Enterprise Institute’s Elisabeth Braw, an expert on resilience, discuss where our water industry went so wrong. Political journalists Patrick O’Flynn and Isabel Oakeshott give their takes on the Tory leadership contest. Christopher Howse, of the Telegraph and The Spectator, explains the joy of a newspaper’s letters page.Get full digital access to The Spectator for just £1 a week – www.spectator.co.uk/tvoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode: Katy Balls has written about what foreign policy would look like under a Liz Truss government (0:54). Rachel Johnson believes we can all learn from the Lionesses’ victory  (06:55) and Neil Clark shares Jim Corbett’s tiger hunting stories  (12.23).Presented and produced by Natasha Feroze. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nancy Pelosi’s controversial trip to Taiwan made headlines across the world this week, after President Xi’s warnings to the US ‘not to play with fire’. Furious, Beijing has responded with economic sanctions and a flurry of missiles over and around the island, as well as sanctioning Pelosi and her family. But as the West frets about possible escalation, often lacking from the discussion is what Taiwanese people actually think. In fact, as Taipei-based journalist Brian Hioe explains to Cindy Yu in this episode, most people there were less worried about the visit than you might expect. ‘There’s been so much in terms of Chinese military drilling or activity directed at Taiwan for a decade, people are quite used to it.’ Comparisons to the calm in Ukraine before the Russian invasion are unfounded: ‘we are not seeing troops massing’. That is not to say, though, that the situation is without danger. A more limited and realistic threat is of China imposing a blockade, or attacking one of Taiwan’s outlying islands. Other possible repercussions include a salvo of cyberattacks, one pro-China actor having already hacked supermarkets and train station displays on the island this week.So given all these dangers, why did Pelosi come at all? Perhaps telling is the Taiwanese government’s silence over whether it actually invited her. US domestic politics is probably a factor, as is her own legacy. Regardless of her motivation, President Biden said the move was unwise, and the situation remains delicate.Careful diplomatic management of the crisis requires reliable information. But in the context of Taiwan, that is by no means a given. Brian explains the bizarre dynamic that exists between international and Taiwanese media, where each assumes the other is better informed. ‘The two sides are actually somewhat bad at fact-checking each other. Then they’re just amplifying what is sometimes discrimination but primarily misinformation.’Tune in to hear more about the view from Taipei. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s episode:Is China heading for a demographic disaster?Rana Mitter and Cindy Yi discuss China’s declining birth rate and what this could do to their economy. (0.52)Also this week:What would foreign policy look like under a Liz Truss government?The Spectator's deputy political editor, Katy Balls is joined by Rishi Sunak supporter, Dr Liam Fox who is the MP for NorthWest Somerset, Former Defence and Trade Secretary. (13.40)And finally:   As Rishi comes face-to-face with the Tory members, can he win them over?Fiona Unwin, who is the vice president of the West Suffolk Conservative Association writes that to wow the grassroots, all Rishi Sunak has to do is meet them. But not all the members were persuaded. Fiona is joined by her fellow member and triple-hatted Councillor, Andy Drummond who was elected for Newmarket town, West Suffolk district and Suffolk county council. Andy is also the vice chair of the West Suffolk Conservative association and remains firmly in favour of Liz Truss. (27.30)Hosted by Lara Prendergast.Produced by Natasha Feroze. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the critic, novelist and art historian Chloë Ashby. In her new book Colours of Art: The Story of Art in 80 Palettes she takes a look at how the history of colour - how it was made, how much it cost, what it was understood to mean - has shaped the history of painting. She tells me about the age-old disagreement between the primacy of drawing and colour in composition, where Goethe and Gauguin butted heads with Newton, why Matisse was so excited by red, how Titian got blurry… and how the first female nude self-portrait was, astonishingly, as recent as 1906. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aidan Hartley is a writer and entrepreneur. Born in Kenya, he grew up in Africa and England and has worked as a reporter for Reuters all over the world. Aidan has also written The Spectator’s Wild life column for the past 21 years. On the podcast, Aidan talks about spending his younger years on safaris in the wilderness, where mealtimes consisted of handfuls of rice cooked from metal tins on an open fire.As a reporter, he talked about reporting on famine in Somalia and why that led him to where he is now – living on a remote family farm, as a disciple of John Seymour’s guide to self-sufficiency. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freddy Gray speaks with Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of The National Interest, ahead of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. They discuss if this is a turning point in US relations with Taiwan, whether we are heading for world war three, or if Pelosi is calling China’s bluff.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Winston speaks with dancer and choreographer Rosie Kay. Rosie is returning to the world of dance after being forced to resign from her eponymous company in 2021 when she ran afoul of trans ideologues. Rosie discusses the world of dance, controversial choreography, ideological capture, emotional impact of being cancelled, Virginia Woolf and much more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.