Best of the Spectator

In this week’s episode: Is it time to rip up the idea of vaccine passports? In The Spectator’s cover story this week, our economics editor Kate Andrews writes about her disdain for the idea of vaccine passports after being exposed to their flaws first hand. She joins the podcast along with Professor Julian Savulescu from the University of Oxford. (01:01)Also this week: Is Covid putting a spotlight on understudies?In this week's Spectator, Sarah Crompton champions the understudy as one of the heroes of the pandemic. These are the community of stand-in actors who have kept productions alive during Covid. She is joined on the podcast by Chris Howell, understudy to Michael Ball in Hairspray last year and currently stand-in for Julian Clary at the Palladium, to discuss. (18:06)  And finally: Is being cancelled a badge of honour?The comedian Stewart Lee announced his pedal bin list for the new year. Essentially people he wants to put in the bin. In The Spectator this week Julie Burchill who is on the list writes about her excitement to be featured. Joining the podcast are two others who made the list: journalist Martha Gill and Winston Marshall formally of the band Mumford and Sons, but who this year is joining The Spectator family with his new show, Marshall Matters. (28:59)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/voucher Listen 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.

It's been one year since a large number of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building in Washington DC to try and prevent the certification of the 2020 presidential election. There are still many questions surrounding that infamous day and to look for some answers Freddy Gray talks with John Daniel Davidson, a senior editor at the Federalist. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sam's guest in this week's Book Club podcast is Natalie Livingstone – whose new book The Women of Rothschild: The Untold Story of the World's Most Famous Dynasty gives the distaff dish on the banking family's long history. She discovers that the Rothschild women have been just as remarkable as the men – from early modern matriarchs to jazz-club butterflies.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Poppy O'Toole (known online as Poppy_Cooks) is a Michelin-trained chef who lost her job in March of 2020 due to Covid. To pass the time during lockdown she started posting cooking videos on TikTok. Her potato series made her a viral sensation, garnering millions of views. This success has led to her publishing her first cookbook, Poppy Cooks: The Food You Need. On the podcast Poppy talks to Lara and Olivia about learning from a very young age how to cook with her grandma, the pressures of cooking in a bank, and what is needed to make the perfect TikTok food video. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Camilla Tominey is known on both sides of the pond as one of the world's go-to Royal correspondents. She began her career in journalism at the Hemel Hempstead Gazette before moving to cover the Royals for the Daily Express and is now the associate editor at the Telegraph. On the episode, she talks to Katy about how studying law ended up inspiring her to get into journalism, the differences between coving politics and the Royal family and the perils of engaging on social media.'I've been accused on the same day of being a far-right extremist and a socialist.' Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Had Covid-19 not continued to dominate the headlines this year, there's little doubt that the outcomes of the Brexit deal would have been at the forefront of our policy discussions. Britain has left the EU with a bespoke trade agreement, but it's far from perfect, as the Northern Ireland Protocol continues to cause problems, especially for trade flow between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. What have digital solutions done so far to get closer to our goal of seamless trade? Has it been enough? What problems are still left to solve and do the realities of Brexit simply mean that we can now never fully escape these new regulatory burdens?To discuss, Kate Andrews is joined by Frank Dunsmuir, Head of Customs and International Trade Practice at Fujitsu; Stephen Kelly, Chief Executive of Manufacturing NI; and Shanker Singham, Chief Executive of Competere and an advisor to Fujitsu.This podcast is sponsored by Fujitsu. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pope Francis renewed his campaign against the Latin Mass this month, permitting his liturgy chief Archbishop Arthur Roche to issue all manner of threats to clergy celebrating the ancient liturgy. This 'clarification' has been greeted with horror by bishops around the world, including many who aren't keen on the old rite. This episode of Holy Smoke puts this outrage in the context of what one distinguished priest calls the 'Wild West' of the Bergoglio pontificate. Never have I known such widespread despair among all but the most hardline liberal clergy. That this should be happening at Christmas underlines the grim unfairness of it all – and the desperate need for regime change in the Church. And if that means the Vatican as we know it ceases to exist, perhaps that isn't such a bad thing.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What are the greener solutions for heating Britain's homes? The government estimates that heating residential homes accounts for around 15 per cent of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions. For this reason, many households are concerned about the future of their gas boilers and energy bills. The government laid out its heat and building strategy this October, but do their plans address these worries? And if heat pumps and hydrogen boilers are inevitable, can we find a fair way to achieve that green future, without unnecessarily burdening the poorest in society?Kate Andrews, The Spectator's economics editor discusses all this with three experts in the field: Chris O'Shea, the chief executive officer at Centrica, Dr Tina Fawcett, the acting leader of the energy research team at the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, and the co-director of the Centre for Research Into Energy Demand, and Jacob Young, who is the MP for Redcar and chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Hydrogen.This podcast is kindly sponsored by Centrica. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Everyone knows somebody who has asthma. 5.4 million people in the UK are currently receiving treatment and 200,000 of them have severe asthma. A form of the condition that doesn’t typically respond well to medication. For many, asthma is a severe and debilitating condition but there exists a disconnect between its severity and the organisation of resources to treat it. When it comes to treating an illness, remission is rarely black and white, but for asthma it's commonly steroids.What if anything is the alternative? Steroids have become the frenemy of both patients and the healthcare system. On the one hand, they’re cheap to administer and largely effective. But on the other, the side effects they produce can be very difficult for patients and costly.Joining Kate Andrews to discuss all this is Gabby Perry, who is a student and has severe asthma; Syed Ali, medical affairs manager at AstraZeneca; David Price, professor of primary respiratory medicine at the University of Aberdeen who's currently leading the first international severe asthma registry.This podcast is kindly sponsored and co-created by AstraZeneca.The patient's individual experience of severe asthma and discussion in this podcast are not medical advice. If you have questions about your own health please discuss with your health care professional. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Beatrice ‘Bee’ Wilson is an acclaimed food writer and journalist, who has authored several books on topics from how bees make honey to the history of the sandwich. On the podcast, Bee discusses the fad of clean eating, how the internet has changed food culture, working with her charity TasteEd, her time as a contestant on Masterchef, and the experience of working on her first cookbook, The Secret of Cooking. She has also written the foreword for the reissue of Kathleen le Riche’s 1950s book ‘Cooking Alone’, which is available now in all good bookshops. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.