The Prospect Podcast

From May's speech to McDonnell's economics, this week Prospect brings you a round-up of the Labour and Conservative party conferences—including an audio postcard from the Tory event in Birmingham.What are the parties and their activists thinking? And what's it actually like to be at a party conference?Stephanie Boland, Steve Bloomfield, Sameer Rahim and Tom Clark get to grips with the state of the parties—while Jay Elwes and Alex Dean take you on tour to Birmingham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kwame Anthony Appiah’s new book The Lies That Bind confronts the question of how social identities are formed. They are incredibly important to people: we are prepared to kill and die for them. But is identity actually a mirage? 
Plus: Sameer Rahim on literary prizes and Alex Dean on why there’s no such thing as a Canada Brexit Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week it’s Stephen Collins, the illustrator who’s been doing the Prospect cartoon these many years. Subject-wise he’s covered a huge range, but one returned to more often than not recently is Donald Trump. Here, we ask Collins how you find humour in an era that’s often beyond satire. Plus: Sameer Rahim on new books about Trump and Alex Dean on Labour’s Brexit stance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Stephanie Boland speaks to historian of ideas Lyndsey Stonebridge about refugees and their status. How should history inform our thinking about the current refugee crisis? What rights should displaced people have? 

Stonebridge focuses on the literary side of those questions. Her new book is Placeless People and you can read her Prospect contributions here. Before we get to that, Alex Dean on the Lib Dems and Sameer Rahim on Spike Lee’s new film BlacKkKlansman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Ivan Hewett asks what happens when music meets philosophy and explains what lovers of classical music get wrong about the chart hits. These are newly relevant questions thanks to the publication of Roger Scruton’s book on the western musical tradition. You can read Hewett’s review of Scruton’s book on our website. Plus: politics with Alex Dean and culture with Sameer Rahim Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week it’s economic historian Adam Tooze, whose new book Crashed tells the story of the financial crisis. It is prompting the world to rethink the near total breakdown in international finance that happened just 10 years ago. We bring you highlights from Tooze’s recent event in Prospect towers. 

Plus: Alex Dean on ministerial churn and Sameer Rahim on impeachment Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we speak to Donald Macintyre, the author and journalist who was Jerusalem correspondent for the Independent. Macintyre has written an essay for our September issue on the gradual death of the two-state solution. Twenty-five years since the Oslo Accords were signed, it is no longer achievable. Time to look at a radical alternative? 

Plus: Alex Dean on the minimum wage and Sameer Rahim on Israel and Palestine in the world of music. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week it’s Eric Lonergan, the financier, economist and philosopher of money. Listeners will remember last year’s Bitcoin boom and bust but what next for cryptocurrencies? One day your coins may be able to decide how they are spent. Would that make the world a better place? Plus: Sameer Rahim on VS Naipaul and Alex Dean on the WTO. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freya Johnston wrote a widely-discussed essay for our July issue on British politeness. Is there something rude about enforced civility? More worrying, is it all an act to hide far more barbaric instincts that lurk beneath the surface? She discusses these questions with Sameer Rahim.Plus: in politics and culture, Alex Dean and Stephanie Boland look north of the border. The topics are Brexit and the devolution settlement, and the future of the Edinburgh Fringe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week the Prospect team is joined by esteemed writer Sarah Churchwell. Churchwell’s new book Behold, America charts the origins of Donald Trump’s America First approach, which goes back much further than you’d think. She also asks: have we lost sight of the fact that equality was part of the American dream?Before we get to that, the Prospect staff discuss what’s new in politics and culture. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.