Best of the Spectator

This week's Holy Smoke examines the fragmentation of American Catholicism following the election of pro-choice Catholic Joe Biden. It focuses on the strangest current of thought among the many conservative Catholics calling for an urgent change of approach in order to confront what promises to be an authoritarian liberal administration.It's called integralism, a label previously attached to distinctly un-American European Catholic reactionaries such as Action française and General Franco's Falangists. In its US incarnation it's less nationalist but in some ways equally extreme. Its proponents want to turn the United States into a nation in which, in the long run, only Catholics will be full citizens eligible to hold office. This new integralism is a medieval fantasy built around the teachings of St Thomas Aquinas.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Suzanne Moore is a journalist. On the podcast, she tells Katy about interviewing to work for Marxism Today, feeling out of place at The Guardian, and standing to be an independent MP. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How are China and Russia getting ahead in the great game of vaccine diplomacy? (00:50) Has the US press lost its way? (11:30) Why is Anglo-Saxon history making a comeback? (27:20)With The Spectator's broadcast editor Cindy Yu; journalist Owen Matthews; Harper's publisher Rick MacArthur; The Washington Post's media critic Erik Wemple; journalist Dan Hitchens; and Sutton Hoo archaeologist Professor Martin Craver.Presented by Lara Prendergast.Produced by Max Jeffery and Matt Taylor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sam's guest in this week’s books podcast is the historian Judith Flanders, whose A Place For Everything tells the story of a vital but little considered part of intellectual history: alphabetical order. Judith tells Sam how this innovation both reflected and enabled the movement from oral to written culture, from a dogmatic to a secular worldview, and made possible the modern administrative state. They touch on, among other things, prototypes of the Post-It note, the contribution of the French Revolution to indexing, the bizarre British Library shelfmark for Gawain and the Green Knight, and why Dewey, of decimal fame, was an utter rotter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eliot Higgins is an investigative journalist. He is the founder of Bellingcat, a platform specialising in open source intelligence. Bellingcat is known for its work on the Syrian civil war, the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, and the Salisbury poisonings. On the podcast, he tells Lara and Olivia about his love of custard, what he snacks on while working, and why he doesn't eat out.This episode is sponsored by Berry Brothers and Rudd. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode, Andrew Neil is joined by Professor Sharon Peacock CBE, chair of the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium; Douglas Ross, leader of Scottish Conservatives; Wolfgang Munchau, director of Eurointellgence; and a team of Spectator journalists.We discuss how genomics can combat new Covid variants, if the Scottish Tories can stop independence, and why Germany is sidling up to Russia.To watch the show, go to www.spectator.co.uk/tv. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Spectator Out Loud, Andrew Sullivan reflects on Trump's second impeachment trial (01:05), Lara Prendergast questions whether vaccine passports are really the solution (08:20) and Deborah Ross reviews an unorthodox film about a school shooting (20:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freddy Gray talks to Republican political consultant Luke Thompson about the demise of the Lincoln Project, the political action committee set up to oppose Donald Trump's re-election.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode, we talk vaccine passports (1:10), Nord Stream 2 (14:55) and the appeal of chess (30:50).With entrepreneur Louis-James Davis, journalist James Ball, analyst Wolfgang Munchau, academic Kadri Liik, chess columnist Luke McShane and chess streamer Fiona Steil-Antoni.Presented by Lara Prendergast.Produced by Cindy Yu, Max Jeffery and Alexa Rendell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s books podcast, Sam is joined by the philosopher Toby Ord to talk about the cheering subject of planetary catastrophe. In his book The Precipice, new in paperback, Toby argues that we’re at a crucial point in human history - and that if we don’t start thinking seriously about extinction risks our species may not make it through the next few centuries. Asteroids, supervolcanoes, nuclear immolation, killer AI, engineered pandemics... Toby weighs up the risks of each, and tells us why we should care. The Book Club is a series of literary interviews and discussions on the latest releases in the world of publishing, from poetry through to physics. Presented by Sam Leith, The Spectator's literary editor. Hear past episodes here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.