Best of the Spectator

Every year, The Spectator travels the country in search of the best and boldest new companies that are disrupting their respective industries. In a series of five podcasts, we will tell you about the finalists for 2023's Innovator of the Year Awards, sponsored by Investec. The awards winners will be announced in a prize ceremony in November.This episode showcases the finalists in the Sustainability and Social Purpose category. These businesses all want to make the world a better place – whether that’s through helping reduce our emissions or giving back to the local community. They believe that business isn’t just for profit, but for a purpose.Martin Vander Weyer, The Spectator's business editor, judges the awards and hosts this podcast along with three other judges: Eva-Maria Dimitriadis, CEO of The Conduit Connect, which connects businesses with an eye to social and environmental impact with investors and mentors; Clive Bawden, chief operations officer of Warwick Music Group, a company that makes affordable instruments made from plastic and a former winner of the Innovator of the Year Awards; and Michelle White, co-head of Investec's private office.The finalists in this category are:Coracle, which provides digital education to prisoners.Beam, which supports homeless and other disadvantaged people to get jobs, homes and skills.Agricarbon, which provides affordable and accurate soil carbon audits in aid of regenerative farming.Aqua Metrology Systems Ltd, which provides water monitoring to local municipalities, to ensure their water is safe.Sunamp, which uses patented 'heat batteries' to store heat produced by heat pumps, instead of water tanks.Celtic Renewables, which produces sustainable chemicals from unwanted wastes and residues.CeraPhi, which uses the earth's heat, accessible from end-of-life oil and gas wells, to produce clean energy.NatureSpace Partnership Ltd, which helps housing developers and local authorities check for newts, a protected species, in proposed sites for building.

This week: Katy Balls reads her politics column on Keir Starmer's ceasefire predicament (00:54), Matthew Parris warns us of the dangers of righteous anger (06:48), and Fabian Carstairs tells us how he found himself on an internet dating blacklist (14:29). Presented by Oscar Edmondson. Produced by Cindy Yu and Oscar Edmondson. 

This week:The Covid Inquiry has reached its more dramatic stage this week with the likes of Domic Cummings, Lee Cain and Martin Reynolds giving evidence. But in his cover piece for the magazine Carl Heneghan, professor of evidence-based medicine at the University of Oxford and director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, says that the Hallett Inquiry is asking all the wrong questions, and is preoccupied with who said what on WhatsApp. He joins the podcast alongside Tom Whipple, science editor at the Times to go through this week's revelations. (01:43). Also this week: will Israel succeed in its stated aims?In the magazine this week Hugh Lovatt, senior policy fellow at the European Council of Foreign Relations, argues that Israel has misjudged growing support for Hamas throughout the Middle East and underestimates how hard the group will be to eradicate. He joins the podcast to discuss. (17:49). And finally:Fabian Carstairs, who works for The Spectator’s digital team, writes this week about his surprise at finding himself on the Facebook group, 'Are we dating the same guy?' The group aims to highlight ‘red flag men’ in the hope of protecting women. He is joined by Flora Gill, freelance journalist who investigated the group for the Times. (29:25). Hosted by William Moore. Produced by Oscar Edmondson. 

In this week's Book Club podcast, my guest is Nicholas Shakespeare, author of Ian Fleming: The Complete Man. He tells me about the astonishing secret life of a writer whose adventures in espionage were more than the equal of his creation's; and about the damaged childhood and serially broken heart of a man far kinder and more sympathetic than his biographer had ever suspected. 

Every year, The Spectator travels the country in search of the best and boldest new companies that are disrupting their respective industries. In a series of five podcasts, we will tell you about the finalists for 2023's Innovator of the Year Awards, sponsored by Investec. The awards winners will be announced in a prize ceremony in November.The businesses in this category are reinventing the very staple goods that we, as consumers, use everyday, from pet food to laundry tabs. You might not think that much can be done to improve on them, but some bright British entrepreneurs have come up with great ideas. Finalists include a subscription service for children’s bikes, so you can trade up as your children grow, and prams that can gently rock your baby to sleep while playing soothing background sounds.Martin Vander Weyer, The Spectator's business editor, judges the awards and hosts this podcast along with three other judges: Merryn Somerset Webb, senior columnist at Bloomberg and former editor in chief of Moneyweek; Gordon Black, investor and former chairman of Peter Black Holdings, a major supplier of retail goods; and Michelle White, co-head of Investec's private office.The finalists in this category are:Rockit, which produces affordable vibrating devices that gently rock prams, strollers and cots to give parents some time off.The Friendly Chemical Co, which produces eco-friendly household, personal care and laundry products.Bike Club, which is Europe's largest subscription provider of children's bikes.Pets Purest, which creates all-natural supplements to treat ailments in pets, such as digestive, skin and joint issues.Lovat Parks Ltd, which is a provider of holiday homes and caravan parks.Net World Sports, which sells premium sports equipment at cost.Cascade Cash Management Ltd, which helps customers get the best returns on their savings.Smartify, a culture and museums app, which has partnered with more than 700 cultural institutions internationally.Picture News, which produces thought-provoking and engaging news resources to help teachers explore current affairs with pupils of all ages.

All cultures care about their cuisine, but the Chinese must have one of the most food-obsessed cultures in the world.You may have come across the classic Chinese takeaway with dishes like sweet and sour pork, or you may like Cantonese dim sum, and some of you may be big fans of Sichuanese cooking.But China has so much more to offer than what has made across into the West’s Chinese restaurants. Thankfully, that’s changing and quite fast.Part of the education campaign to bring more of the diversity and richness of Chinese cuisine to the West is the work of people like Fuchsia Dunlop. She trained to cook in Chengdu and is one of the most engaging and thoughtful writers on Chinese cuisine in the English language.Fuchsia Dunlop joins Cindy Yu on the podcast today, to mark the publication of her new book, Invitation to a Banquet, which is all about the history, meaning and diversity of Chinese cuisine.

Every year, The Spectator travels the country in search of the best and boldest new companies that are disrupting their respective industries. In a series of five podcasts, we will tell you about the finalists for 2023's Innovator of the Year Awards, sponsored by Investec. The awards winners will be announced in a prize ceremony in November.In the West, the UK was the first country to create a national health service, free at the point of use. And yet 75 years on, it’s rare that a winter goes by without some kind of crisis in the NHS. And that’s not even to mention the impact of the pandemic on waiting lists.In this category we’re looking at innovations in the British health industry. How can we do things better? Many finalists in this category are relying on AI and better data collection, which can help with screening for cancer and more efficiently distributing medicines; some of them are literally inventing new technologies, patenting new materials to use in dentistry, for example, or 3D-printing personalised vitamins.Martin Vander Weyer, The Spectator's business editor, judges the awards and hosts this podcast along with three other judges: Jonny Olson, executive chair of Touchlight, a biotech start-up specialising in producing DNA at speed; Nicholas Hardie, non-executive director at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; and Michelle White, co-head of Investec's private office.The finalists in this category are:Nourished, which uses 3D printing to produce personalised vitamin supplements.Ethoss Regeneration Ltd, which has developed and patented a novel bone graft material for use in dentistry.iEthico, which has developed an AI-powered platform to optimise the distribution of medicine to tackle shortages.Locate a Locum, which has connected locum pharmacists to pharmacies in need using a digital platform.Nuclera, which enables researchers to obtain active proteins from DNA at speed.Attomarker, which uses nanotechnology to measure human biomarkers in the diagnostics process.Kheiron Medical Technologies, which uses AI for early diagnosis of breast cancer.

Peter Oborne discusses the tragedy and fear among Palestinians, Kate Andrews talks about Rishi Sunak making her take up smoking, and Jonathan Maitland shares his growing obsession with Martin Bashir.

The UK is facing a housing crisis hitting both buyers, renters and those who aren’t in a position to live in a stable home. Factors such as rising mortgage rates and inflation mean that people are increasingly struggling to meet their housing costs, especially those on low incomes – and women disproportionately fall into that bracket. There are a number of reasons for this: of all jobs that pay less than the living wage – 60 per cent are held by women. Over the course of a woman’s lifetime her income can be seriously affected by taking time out to care for children or elderly relatives. Even in higher paid jobs, women still earn less than their male counterparts.Katy Balls speaks to a specialist panel of guests to discuss housing crisis from a female perspective: Rachel Maclean – Minister of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities; Esther Dijkstra – the Managing Director of Intermediaries at Lloyds Banking Group; and Clare Miller – the Group Chief Executive for Clarion Housing Group. This podcast is kindly sponsored by Lloyds Banking Group. 

On the podcast:In his cover piece for the mag this week, political scientist, Yascha Mounk has written about why identity politics has polarised our understanding of race. And why the left has come to divide groups into oversimplified categories of ‘the oppressors’ and ‘the oppressed’. Also this week: Can we trust photographs to paint a true picture of a story? The Israel-Palestine conflict has been one of the most documented wars to date. But with AI manipulation and staged imagery, is there a way of differentiating between real and fake news? Bryan Appleyard CBE and Eliot Higgins from Bellingcat discuss.And finally:There has been a new rise in Paganism over the past few decades and now students can apply for a degree in Magic and Occult Science – but how scientific really is it? Spectator writer Andrew Watts joins the podcast alongside Oxford PhD student Lois Heslop.