Best of the Spectator

Sam's guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the palaeobiologist Thomas Halliday, whose book Otherlands: A World In The Making takes us on an extraordinary journey through the whole history of life on earth. Thomas tells Sam why tyrannosaurus rex didn't eat diplodocus, why if you had to live in a swamp the carboniferous might be a good time to do it, and gives a jaw-dropping sense of what the night sky looked like when the earth was young.

Winston speaks with sceptical environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg, author of the book False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts The Poor, And Fails To Fix The Planet. They discuss climate change and climate change policy. Lomborg explains how net zero and the Paris agreement will do more harm than good and suggests some alternative sustainable development goals which would balance environmental protection with human prosperity.

Three years ago, as people across China welcomed the Year of the Rat, a new virus was taking hold in Wuhan. In London, the conversation at my family’s New Year dinner was dominated by the latest updates, how many masks and hand sanitisers we’d ordered. Mercifully, Covid didn’t come up at all as we welcomed the Year of the Rabbit this weekend, though my family in China are still recovering from their recent infections. The zero Covid phase of the pandemic is well and truly over.So what better time to reflect on the rollercoaster of the last three years? In exchange for controlling the virus, China’s borders were shut for most of that time, while the economy has tanked and a general of children had their schooling disrupted. Yet after some remarkable protests last November, the country has opened up at a breakneck pace.The government is now keen to move on, focusing now on this year’s economic recovery. But can a country of 1.4 billion people move on quite so quickly? The exceptional nature of the pandemic and the collective trauma of the last three years need to be processed, and yet I wouldn’t say that the Chinese Communist Party is usually good at allowing people to come to terms with historical suffering, especially when it’s the Party at fault…So on this episode we’ll be looking at the social legacy of the pandemic on China, and the collective memory of this exceptional time.Joining me are the Financial Times’s Yuan Yang, who was the paper’s deputy Beijing bureau chief during the first two years of the pandemic, and Guobin Yang, Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and author of The Wuhan Lockdown, a book looking at how the Wuhan people documented the world’s first brush with Covid-19.On the episode I also mentioned the Chinese Whispers episode on the civil backlash against facial recognition. Listen here.

This week: Richard Madeley reads his diary in the magazine, including recollections of his Sunday lunch with George Michael (00:58). Also, Daniel Johnson shares a touching tribute to his late father Paul Johnson (05:36) and Melinda Hughes asks why BBC Radio 3 is dumbing down (12:28). Produced and presented by Oscar Edmondson. 

Nimco Ali is an activist, government advisor, author and FGM survivor. Born in Somaliland, Nimco moved to the UK as a child fleeing civil war. On holiday in Djibouti aged 7, she was subjected to female genital mutilation, a traumatising moment in her life that led her to become one of the world’s leading anti-FGM activists today. She went on to set up Daughters of Eve, a survivor-led organisation that has helped transform approaches to ending FGM, as well as the Five Foundation, a global coalition for the same cause. Now, Nimco travels the world to lobby governments to ban FGM and recognise the practice as a human rights issue. She is the author of What We Are Told Not To Talk About - containing 42 stories from 152 interviews and in 2019 was awarded an OBE for her groundbreaking activism. Produced by Natasha Feroze.

On the podcast this week: In his cover piece for the magazine Iain Macwhirter writes in the aftermath of the government’s decision to block the Scottish Gender Recognition Reform Bill from gaining Royal Assent. He joins the podcast with Observer columnist Sonia Sodha to discuss the Union’s new battle line (01:03). Also this week: why are our prisons still in lockdown? Charlie Taylor, HM’s Chief Inspector of Prisons writes about some of his recent observations visiting institutions around the country. He says that control measures are failing both inmates and the taxpayer. He is joined by journalist David James Smith to examine this post-Covid inertia in UK prisons (16:48). And finally:In The Spectator this week opera singer and comedian Melinda Hughes says that BBC Radio 3 is failing classical music fans by copying the likes of Classic FM and Scala Radio. She is joined by Sir Nicholas Kenyon, former controller of Radio 3 and the Telegraph’s opera critic, to debate whether the station is dumbing down (27:01). Hosted by William Moore. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Ashley Ward, author of Sensational: A New Story of our Senses, which takes us on a cultural, historical and neurobiological tour of the sensorium. Along the way he tells me why Aristotle's notion of five senses is a convenient but cockeyed idea, why men are best letting their wives pick out the curtains, why we call ginger-haired people "redheads" and, oddly, how a pooping dog might do in a pinch as an aid to navigation. 

Luke Farrell is a restauranteur and founder of two of London's fieriest new openings, Plaza Khao Gaeng and Speedboat Bar. He has spent the last few years dividing his time between Thailand and his nursery in Dorset, where he grows a 'living library' of south-east Asian herbs and spices. On the podcast they discuss memories of Chinese cuisine, the thrill of Thai speedboat racing and why, despite his adventurous pallet, he can no longer eat raw oysters. 

Freddy Gray speaks to author and founder of the venture capitalist fund 1517 Michael Gibson, about his new book Paper Belt on Fire. On the podcast they discuss the parallels between universities and the 16th century Church and how investors are spearheading a revolt against these old institutions. 

On the show, journalist Petronella Wyatt and historian David Abulafia discuss Prince Harry’s new book, Spare, journalist Owen Matthews explains why Putin’s plan to freeze Europe failed, Spectator editor and academic Matthew Goodwin discuss whether a Keir Starmer government is something to be afraid of, political editor Katy Balls and Financial Times journalist Stephen Bush discuss Sunak's plan to save the Tories, and critic John Maier says Quentin Tarantino’s writing isn’t quite as good as his directing.00:00 – Welcome from John Connolly01:42 – Why fear Keir? With Fraser Nelson and Matthew Goodwin13:52 – Can the Tories stop the boats? With Katy Balls and Stephen Bush26:24 – What on earth his Prince Harry thinking? With Petronella Wyatt and David Abulafia41:24 – Why Putin's plan to freeze Europe failed, with Owen Matthews52:09 – Can Quentin Tarantino write? With John Maier