Best of the Spectator

My guest in this week's Book Club is Joel Morris, an award-winning comedy writer whose credits run from co-creating Philomena Cunk to writing gags for Viz and punching up the script for Paddington 2. In his new book Be Funny Or Die, he sets out to analyse how and why comedy works. He tells me why there are only three keys on the clown keyboard, what laughter does for us in neurological terms, and why Laurel and Hardy could get away with anything. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freddy Gray talks to political science lecturer Damon Linker about the latest developments in the Biden and Trump campaigns. Why did Biden’s fiery State of the Union Address provide him no uptick in the polls? In what ways does Trump fatigue affect each candidate’s chances? And does Trump’s greater popularity with non-white low propensity voters skew the polls in his favour? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the last episode, I discussed Chinese rural lives with Professor Scott Rozelle. One point he made which particularly stuck with me was the dying out of farming as an occuption – he'd said that most rural people under the age of 35 have never farmed a day in their lives.So that got me thinking, what do they do instead? In this episode I’ll be looking at one, very high profile, alternative – vlogging. I’ve noticed through my hours of scrolling through Chinese social media that there is a huge genre of rural, pastoral content. This is an interesting phenomenon both for what it says about the rural population today, as well as what it reveals about the – often – urban viewers on the other end. So today I’m joined by Yi-Ling Liu, a writer on Chinese society who has had bylines in the New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine and WIRED. She’s looked in detail at the phenomenon of the rural influencer.On the episode, we talk about a few of our favourite rural influencers. You can watch Li Ziqi's videos on YouTube here and 王大姐来了 (the middle aged rappers I mention) here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freddy Gray speaks to Matt McDonald, Spectator World's managing editor about the the vote to force a sale of TikTok to a US company, and foreign lobbying for and against the move in Washington. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guests on the podcast discuss a range of interesting topics, from the Church of England's potential apology for Christianity to private landowners as conservationists, ayahuasca experiences in Colombia, warnings against pathological niceness in immigration debates, and a play at the Olivier about Nye Bevan.

In this episode of Holy Smoke, I'm joined by The Spectator's features editor William Moore, who asks in this week's issue of the magazine whether the Church of England is 'apologising for Christianity'. A report by the Oversight Group, set up by the Church Commissioners to make reparations for African slavery, not only wants to see unimaginable sums transferred to 'community groups' – its chair, the Bishop of Croydon, thinks a billion pounds would be appropriate – it also deplores the efforts of Christian missionaries to eradicate traditional religious practices. But, as Will's article points out, those traditional practices included idol-worship, twin infanticide and cannibalism. Are these part of the religious heritage that the C of E patronisingly wants African Christians to rediscover? Did missionaries and early converts to the faith who gave their lives for the faith die in vain?  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When it comes to retirement, working out how much you will need to set aside can seem like a monumental task. The average person has between 8 to 10 jobs over their lifetime. People are living longer – with the median retirement age at 65 and life expectancy at 80. What should people think about when planning for their pension? And what challenges do people face? Women are the most likely to suffer from pension inequality, with single women being the poorest of all pensioners. Almost a fifth of private sector employees do not do any pension saving, and a third of people expect to retire with only a state pension. To shine a light on some of the pension inequalities, Katy Balls is joined by Wendy Chamberlain, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Work and Pensions, Jackie Leiper, CEO of Embark Group and MD of Pensions at Scottish Widows, both part of Lloyds Banking Group, and Lauren Wilkinson, from the Pensions Policy Institute, and co-author of the Underpensioned report. This podcast is kindly sponsored by Lloyds Banking Group. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the podcast this week: is Rishi ready for a Red Wall rebellion? Lee Anderson’s defection to Reform is an indication of the final collapse of the Tories’ 2019 electoral coalition and the new split in the right, writes Katy Balls in her cover story. For the first time in many years the Tories are polling below 25 per cent. Reform is at 15 per cent. The hope in Reform now is that Anderson attracts so much publicity from the right and the left that he will bring the party name recognition and electoral cut-through. Leader of Reform UK Richard Tice joins Katy on the podcast to discuss. (02:23)Then: Will and Lara take us through some of their favourite pieces from the magazine, including Lloyd Evans’ Life column and Sean Thomas’ description of taking ayahuasca at Pablo Escobar’s cocaine and occasional execution palace. Next: is the Church of England about to apologise for Christianity? Our own William Moore writes this week about the C of E’s latest apology, which – if given – he says is tantamount to apologising for Christianity itself. This comes after the Oversight Group suggested the C of E gives £1 billion in reparations to atone for its historic links to the slave trade and instances of ‘deliberate actions to destroy diverse African religious belief systems.’ The Reverend Dr Jamie Franklin, host of the Irreverend podcast, joins Will to discuss. (21:19) And finally: 'Operation Kenova: Northern Ireland Stakeknife Legacy Investigation’ was precipitated by claims that the British Army had an agent at the heart of the IRA. ‘Stakeknife’ was head of the IRA’s Internal Security Unit and was responsible for questioning, torturing and executing people the IRA suspected of being British agents. He was a British agent, passing on information to his controllers in the British Army. Now the Boutcher report has found that Stakeknife might have instigated more deaths than lives he saved during his time embedded in the terrorist organisation. Alasdair Palmer writes about it for our magazine and argues that infiltrators such as Stakeknife must have licence to do whatever necessary when fighting terrorism. Alasdair joins the podcast alongside Douglas Murray, The Spectator’s associate editor and author of the award-winning Bloody Sunday: Truth, lies and the Saville Inquiry. (34:21)Hosted by Lara Prendergast and William Moore. Produced by Oscar Edmondson. We are always looking to improve the podcast, please send any feedback to: podcast@spectator.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freddy Gray speaks to author Robert Bryce whose recent docuseries Power Politics & The Grid explores the growing vulnerabilities of America's electric grid. On the podcast they talk about Trump vs Biden energy policy; why Europe needs America's energy and what environmentalism could look like in 2024.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's Book Club podcast sees me speaking to the critic and novelist Lauren Oyler about her first collection of essays, No Judgment: On Being Critical. Lauren and I talked about the freedoms and affordances of the essay form; about how making and criticising art has been changed – and hasn't – by the advent of the digital age; why it's weird we all still treat the internet as if it's a new thing; and about why David Foster Wallace can still be a role-model even after his cancellation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.