Best of the Spectator

In this week’s Book Club podcast Sam's guest is Annie Nightingale - Britain’s first female DJ, occasional Spectator contributor, and longest serving presenter of Radio One. Ahead of the publication of her new book Hey Hi Hello, Annie tells Sam about the Beatles’ secrets, BBC sexism, getting into rave culture, the John Peel she knew - and how when most people never get past the music they love in their teens, she’s never lost her drive to hear tunes she’s never heard before. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Governments around the world have adopted extraordinary powers to deal with coronavirus – but could they end up doing more damage than good? (01:00) Next, is the best way to deal with the threat of Scottish secession to negotiate a hypothetical Scottish exit deal? (16:04) And finally, are Britain's graveyards suffering a spate of indecent behaviour? (31:38)The Spectator's deputy political editor Katy Balls is joined by historian Johan Norberg and the Wall Street Journal's Gerard Baker; The Spectator's political editor James Forsyth and Scotland editor Alex Massie; and journalist Andrew Watts alongside the Revd Fergus Butler-Gallie.Produced by Gus Carter, Max Jeffery and  Sam Russell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the UK faces its worst economic contraction in 300 years, there have been growing calls to adopt a ‘green recovery’. But what does that mean? While renewable energy may be getting cheaper, can it really meet our energy demands? And has the Covid crisis set back the government on its path to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050? To answer all this and more, Kate Andrews, the Spectator’s economics correspondent, is joined by Kemi Badenoch MP, minister for equalities; Chris Stark, chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change; and Keith Anderson, chief executive of Scottish Power. This podcast is kindly sponsored by Scottish Power. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can human innovation stop climate change, or will it simply manage and delay the challenges it poses? In the second of this mini podcast series featuring Bjorn Lomborg and Matt Ridley, host Kate Andrews discusses with Bjorn and Matt whether their optimism is misplaced. Bjorn Lomborg is the President of the Copenhagen Consensus Center and author of False Alarm.Matt Ridley is a Conservative peer, journalist, and author of How Innovation Works.To hear all episodes in this series, click here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can’t get far doing serious business in China without having friends in powerful places. So when her husband’s company, Jardine Matheson (which once upon a time had smuggled opium into the country), was invited back into a liberalising China in the 1990s, Tessa Keswick had rare access to the country’s top leadership. On the podcast, she recounts seeing Bo Xilai, the disgraced Chongqing party secretary, days before he was arrested by Xi Jinping; the prank that Zhu Rongji, the then Prime Minister, played on Henry Keswick; and what it was like inside Zhongnanhai, the secretive Beijing compound that China’s leaders work from.Tessa Keswick's book, The Colour of the Sky after Rain, is out now and she is pictured above with Cai Qi, Party Secretary of Beijing.Chinese Whispers is a fortnightly podcast on the latest in Chinese politics, society, and more. Presented by Cindy Yu. Listen to past episodes here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's podcast, Freddy Gray explains how Trump could still pull his greatest trick yet (00:45) Emma Byrne considers whether she will be bankrupted by the next housing scandal (12:30) Lara Prendergast argues that wearing floral masks isn't worth the hassle. (19:11) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With protests in American cities continuing and the Democrat and Republican conventions drawing to a close - are there signs that Donald Trump could win again? (00:45) Plus, could planning reforms be the next Tory battle? (13:05) And finally, can daily commutes really be enjoyable? (25:45)With editor of the Spectator's US edition Freddy Gray; the Spectator's economics correspondent Kate Andrews; the Spectator's political editor James Forsyth; economist and author Liam Halligan; the Spectator's features editor; and author Sara Yirrell.Presented by Cindy Yu. Produced by Cindy Yu and Max Jeffery. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week's Book Club podcast Sam Leith talks to Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells about their new book All The Sonnets of Shakespeare - which by collecting the sonnets that appear in the plays with the 154 poems usually known as 'Shakespeare's Sonnets', and placing them in chronological order, gives a totally fresh sense of what the form meant to our greatest poet-dramatist. They tell Sam what sonnets meant to Elizabethans, why so much of what has been said about 'the sonnets' has been wrong - they're not a sequence, and it's vain to look for a Dark Lady or Fair Youth in these candidly bisexual poems - and how they provide perhaps the most intensely inward view of the poet we have. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can the conversation around climate change all too often get heated, hysterical, and panicked? Should we be appealing for more calm in the climate debate? In the first of this mini podcast series featuring Bjorn Lomborg and Matt Ridley, host Kate Andrews challenges Bjorn and Matt on their views over the best way to conduct what some say is the most important debate of our lifetimes.Bjorn Lomborg is the President of the Copenhagen Consensus Center and author of False Alarm.Matt Ridley is a Conservative peer, journalist, and author of How Innovation Works.To hear all previous episodes in this series, click here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's podcast, Lionel Shriver says that the real determinant of coronavirus isn't race - it's obesity (01:00) Simon Cooper asks whether the return of beavers to English rivers is really something to be celebrated (09:35) Gerri Peev asks why the European Union keeps backing Bulgaria's kleptocratic government (15:40) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.