Best of the Spectator

On the podcast:In his cover piece for the magazine, journalist Jonathan Miller argues that President Macron is pitting himself against the people by refusing to back down from his plans to raise the age of retirement. He is joined by regular Coffee House contributor Gavin Mortimer, to ask whether this could be Macron's last adventure (01:06).Also this week:In the magazine, travel journalist Sean Thomas says that – in comparison to other cities he has visited – American cities are uniquely struggling to bounce back from the impacts of the covid pandemic. He is joined by Karol Markowicz, columnist at the New York Post and contributing editor at Spectator World, to discuss the decline and fall of urban America (16:29).And finally:Mary Wakefield writes in the magazine about her fear of the advances in artificial intelligence and in particular voice cloning technology. This sort of tech is being increasingly used by fraudsters. James Ball, columnist at the New European, joins the podcast alongside Jay Hacks, an AI practitioner. Would they be fooled by a voice scam? (26:38). Presented by William Moore and Lara Prendergast. Produced by Oscar Edmondson. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's Book Club podcast my guests are the former government food tsar Henry Dimbleby and his wife and co-author Jemima Lewis, to talk about their new book Ravenous: How To Get Ourselves and Our Planet Into Shape. They tell me about the perils and pleasures of working with your spouse, why exercise doesn't make you lose weight, what we don't understand about nutrition, when the state needs to take a hand in consumer choice -- and why sending Liz Truss a picture of a sheep's mutilated backside might not have been the best idea. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Winston speaks with Dutch legal philosopher, writer and political activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek. Three and a half years of farmer demonstrations against technocratic environmentalist policy has culminated in election victory for the farmers of one of the world's great farming nations. What happened? How did it happen? Eva explains the different worldviews in contention, gives her perspective on net zero and argues the Dutch case for 'Nexit'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Britain’s high energy prices, insecure supply, and climate change commitments mean people’s relationship with energy will need to change. How could consumers change their attitude to energy consumption so that they use less? Will doing so give them a worse standard of living?On this podcast, Kate Andrews, The Spectator’s economics editor, is joined by Dan Brooke, the CEO of Smart Energy GB, a not-for-profit campaign to help Britons understand the benefits of smart meters.This podcast is sponsored by Smart Energy GB. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cindy Yu, the Spectator's assistant editor speaks to Katy Balls about Boris's future – is the show over for the political influencer? Also on Spectator TV, Harriet Sergeant reveals the stories of children who never returned to school after lockdown; Gideon Rachman looks at China's shifting foreign policy; Danny Shaw on the rotten culture inside the Metropolitan Police and Sasha Hinkley believes there may be life on exoplanets. 00:00 Welcome from Cindy Yu02:00 Is the Boris show over? With Katy Balls11:01 What happened to lockdown's missing children? With Harriet Sergeant and Miriam Cates MP25:17 Is the Met Police beyond repair? With Danny Shaw36:18 Why did Xi visit Putin? With Gideon Rachman47:18 What is an exoplanet? With Sasha Hinckley Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week: Ian Williams asks how China will cope with the rise of AI chatbots (00:56), Kara Kennedy recounts her upbringing in the Welsh ‘murder capital’ of Pontypridd (08:11), and Oscar Edmondson makes the case for the BBC World Service (13:38). Presented by Natasha Feroze.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freddy Gray speaks to the Republican strategist and advisor Roger Stone about the Trump's possible arrest; his views on Ron De Santis and the end of honest journalism.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week: In her cover piece for The Spectator, Harriet Sergeant asks what's happened to the 140,000 pupils who have been 'severely absent' from school since the pandemic. She is joined by The Spectator's data editor Michael Simmons to account for the staggering number of children who were failed by the government's Covid response (01:08). Also this week: Owen Matthews, The Spectator's Russia correspondent, looks at the opposition candidate who could usurp President Erdogan in Turkey. He joins the podcast alongside Turkish journalist Ece Temelkuran to discuss whether it really could be the end of Erdogan's two decade long hold over Turkish politics (14:48). And finally: Kara Kennedy, staff writer at Spectator World, writes this week about her upbringing in the Welsh 'murder capital' Pontypridd, and her own near miss with a recently convicted killer. She is joined by Welsh crime writer and psychologist Emma Kavanagh, to examine Wales's murderous reputation (24:36).  Hosted by Lara Prendergast and William Moore.  Produced by Oscar Edmondson. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the writer Victoria Smith, whose new book Hags: The Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women explains why one of the oldest forms of misogyny is seeing a vicious resurgence in our own age. She says some of the worst of it now comes from young women. She tells me why she thinks feminists of each new generation seem destined to forget or reject the lessons learned by the previous one, and why female bodies – and the life experiences which go with them – are something that can't be wished away by postmodern theory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Xi Jinping visits Vladimir Putin in Russia this week, this episode of Chinese Whispers is returning to one of the missions of this podcast series – to look at things as the Chinese see them. My guest today is Zhou Bo, a retired Senior Colonel of the People’s Liberation Army whose military service started in 1979. He is now a senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University. He’s an eloquent and informed advocate of Beijing’s perspective.On the podcast, we discuss why China hasn’t criticised Russia more, despite its purported support for sovereignty, to what extent it really means its peace plan, and whether China is about to invade Taiwan.We recorded most of this podcast two weeks ago, so when Xi’s visit to Moscow was announced last week, Bo kindly agreed to rejoin the podcast and give his take on the visit too.Chances are, you won’t agree with most of the things Bo says, and as you’ll hear, I didn’t on some issues either. Even so, Beijing will continue to play a crucial role in the war, and so it remains important for the West to understand how the Chinese see things. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.