Best of the Spectator

With Freddy Gray and Jacob Heilbrunn. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With James Forsyth and special guest David Shiels, Policy Analyst at Open Europe.Hosted by Katy Balls. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson. Presented by Katy Balls. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Barbara Boland. Presented by Freddy Gray. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Katy Balls and James Forsyth. Presented by Lara Prendergast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, May prepares for her last shot with Brussels, but can she get what she wants (0:35)? We also talk to Stephen Gibbs, a journalist on the ground in Caracas, about the nightmare in Venezuela (14:30). And last, we take a look at another big issue of the day - are induction hobs simply reinventing the wheel (25:35)? With James Forsyth, Peter Foster, Stephen Gibbs, Joanna Rossiter,  Ysenda Maxtone Graham and James Ramsden. Presented by Isabel Hardman. Produced by Cindy Yu and Siva Thangarajah. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week's books podcast Sam is joined by Josh Cohen, author of the Not Working: Why We Have To Stop. Josh is a literary critic and a working psychoanalyst, and his book is a thoughtful and subtle discussion of the way in which work dominates not only our lives and identities but our leisure time too -- and a speculation about some of the ways we might set about changing that. His references range from Max Weber and Freud to Orson Welles, Andy Warhol, Emily Dickinson and David Foster Wallace. Is it all the fault of "late capitalism"? Has the digital age made quiet contemplation impossible? And why, Sam queried, does his eccentric list of great idlers include some of the most insanely productive people in history?Presented by Sam Leith. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a picture of my sister Carmel and I having tea a few days after our mother’s funeral. She looks cheerful, doesn’t she? That’s because she was: although we both missed our mother intensely, and always will, we had done most of our grieving before she died, as we watched her tortured by Parkinson’s disease and severe dementia.Carmel looks well, too. And she thought she was. Ovarian cancer plays that trick on women. The first symptoms tend to be annoying rather than alarming. A few weeks after this photograph was taken, I was reassuring her that Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a common response to bereavement – which it is. But that’s not what was wrong with her. On November 1, I was sitting next to her in the consulting room at Guy’s Hospital when the specialist confirmed that she had advanced ovarian cancer.Carmel is my guest on today’s Holy Smoke podcast. Please listen to it. I guarantee that you’ll be surprised by what she has to say. And you will understand why I’m so proud of my sister.Presented by Damian Thompson. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sarah Baxter is Deputy Editor of the Sunday Times. Katy talks to Sarah about what it was like to be a woman in the lobby before 'Blair's Babes', the best way to tackle sexism (she says, ignore it and go 'full speed ahead'), and whether Jeremy Corbyn is quite the Labour leader she hopes for.Presented by Katy Balls. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.