Best of the Spectator

This week Winston is joined by Russian-British comedian, podcaster and author Konstantin Kisin. Konstantin gives his insight into the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Russian mindset, the potent myth of fighting Nazis and a little on his forthcoming new book ‘An Immigrant’s Love Letter To The West’. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is Colm Toibin. Best known as a novelist, Colm’s new book is his first collection of poetry, Vinegar Hill. He tells me about coming late to poetry, the freedoms and austerities it offers, and why writing isn’t fun. Plus: surviving cancer and outstaying his St Patrick’s Day welcome at the White House… Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freddy talks to Anatoly Karlin, author of the Powerful Takes Substack. Speaking from Moscow, Anatoly discloses the extent of support for anti-war protests in Russia and the role of the US in inciting nationalism in Ukraine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mitch Tonks is an award-winning restauranteur and chef. He runs the Rockfish restaurant group in Devon and Dorset, and the Seahorse restaurant in Dartmouth. He has written six cookbooks. On the podcast, he tells Lara and Liv about playing cards after dinner, enjoying his school's 'bright green custard with chocolate pudding', and inventing his own fish curries. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Spectator Out Loud, Douglas Murray starts by explaining why C. S. Lewis was right about war. (00:56) Mary Wakefield is up next, looking at the founding myth that Russia and Ukraine are fighting over. (10:18) Nicola Shulman finishes the podcast, reading her piece about Philip Larkin's big problem. (16:53) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Suella Braverman is the Conservative MP for Fareham and became the first female elected Attorney General in 2020. Formerly known as one of the Brexit Spartans, she talks on the podcast, about growing up surrounded by politics where she first laid the foundations for a career as a Conservative politician.As a young woman, she studied law in Cambridge, the US and in Europe where she could excel as a linguist. Since taking her role as Attorney General, she made history by rewriting the law to become the first female Cabinet Minister to take maternity leave - named Gabriella's Law after her daughter who is now one year old. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s episode: is the UK dragging its feet when it comes to Ukrainian refugees?For this week’s cover piece, Kate Andrews and Max Jeffery report from Calais, where they have been talking with Ukrainian refugees hoping to make it to Britain. Kate joins the podcast along with former MEP Patrick O’Flynn to discuss the UK’s handling of the refugee crisis. (00:48)Also this week: are commodity traders finding a moral compass?In the wake of colossal sanctions on Russia are commodity traders feeling pressured to look more critically at the people they buy from? In this week’s issue, Javier Blas, Bloomberg’s commodities columnist and the co-author of The World for Sale, reveals what’s going on in the world of commodity trading. He joins the podcast along with Martin Vander Weyer who also writes about how effective these sanctions might be. (19:21)And, finally: is offal making a macho comeback?Gus Carter writes in The Spectator this week about offal. It’s having a comeback, he says, thanks to macho men following internet advice about what to eat. He joins the podcast with Natasha Lawson, T he Spectator’s designer and a keen organ fan, who bought in one of her favourite products for Lara, Gus and William to try. (30:19)Hosted by Lara Prendergast and William MooreProduced by Sam HolmesSubscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher:www.spectator.co.uk/voucherListen to Lara's food podcast Table Talk: https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcasts/table-talk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The UK has recently lifted almost every Covid restriction and with that, thousands of commuters will return to their offices. Will those memories of delays, cancellations, costly tickets and overcrowding come back to haunt the commuter? Most of the problems are linked to the patchwork of Victorian infrastructure that has struggled to meet the demands of the modern-day passenger. With grandstanding projects like Hs2 dominating the headlines, is this the kind of investment that's best spent for the consumer? And with other issues on the rise, such as extreme weather conditions, inflation and flexible working patterns, how will the industry prepare itself?  Joining Kate Andrews for this Spectator Briefings podcast is writer, broadcaster and specialist in railways, Christian Wolmar, Caroline Donaldson who is the managing director of West Coast Partnership Development. Finally, Wendy Morton, the Rail Minister at the Department for Transport. This podcast is kindly sponsored by West Coast Partnership. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During the pandemic, we spent more time online than ever before and this has seen a boom in online fraud. It's estimated that scam adverts have tricked 1 in 10 people on the biggest online platforms into paying for fake products. In 2020, almost 150,000 fraud cases were recorded with losses reported of up to £500 million.For the scammers, they will do anything to convince you to key in your card details and this problem has shown no sign of slowing down. The online safety bill is expected to pass Parliament in March 2022. As things stand, the government hasn't included online fraud as a type of harm when it comes to certain adverts. So could the online safety bill be an effective solution? To discuss this, Katy Balls is joined by Nicky Morgan, former Culture Secretary and chair of the Treasury Select Committee. Now a member of the House of Lords, Nicky is chairing a new inquiry into digital fraud. Also on the podcast is Lucy Powell, the Shadow Culture Secretary for Labour and Liz Ziegler who is the retail bank fraud and financial crime director at Lloyds Banking Group. This podcast is kindy sponsored by Lloyds Banking Group. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week's Book Club podcast, Sam talks to the investigative reporter Tom Burgis – just days after the High Court threw out an attempt from a London-based company run by eastern European oligarchs to suppress his book Kleptopia: How Dirty Money Is Conquering the World. Tom tells Sam how massacres in Kazakhstan connect to the City of London, how western legal frameworks struggle to cope with international crime, how international kidnapping can be perfectly legal, why Tony Blair helped launder the reputation of a blood-soaked dictator – and how the conflict in Ukraine is the new front line of an ongoing world war between kleptocracy and democracy.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.