The Prospect Podcast

China is the new great global power. But while much has been said about China’s economic and military heft, what about the rise of Chinese ideas? As Beijing grows increasingly dominant we will have to decide how firmly we hold western values of academic freedom and human rights: they will increasingly be challenged.Tom Clark is joined by Isabel Hilton, who has written an essay on China for our new issue, Kerry Brown, who examines how Australia is dealing with China’s rise, and Rana Mitter who discusses great thinkers of China’s past. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The unipolar world of a dominant United States is falling away as other nations—most prominently China—come to the fore. Ian Bremmer, the American political scientist, speaks to Prospect Deputy Editor Steve Bloomfield about his new book Us and Them. The average citizen across the west is not a believer in "globalism," he says. Executive Editor Jay Elwes speaks to David Omand, former head of GCHQ about how the internet is shaping and shifting politics around the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’ve all read the local election headlines by now: disappointment for Labour, relief for the Conservatives. But what are the deeper trends at play? For this week’s edition of Headspace the Prospect team tunnels deeper into the results with help from psephology great David Butler and Jade Azim, head of Women in Political Data. We ask why Labour failed to deliver on expectations and what it all means for the shifting contours of the British political landscape. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Article 50 is ticking down and the politics is getting messier. A series of government defeats in the Lords are setting the stage for a dramatic scrap in the Commons. John Kerr, the man who wrote the exit clause, sits down with Victoria Hewson of the Institute of Economic Affairs, as well as Prospect’s Tom Clark and Alex Dean. They try to make sense of the unfolding drama in Westminster. Just how is this immense constitutional challenge going to play out? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The novelist Will Self talks to Prospect's Tom Clark and Sameer Rahim about his experiences with drugs, and how they’ve shaped his view of the world. He discusses his recent essay for Prospect which examines the new book by Michael Pollan and also offers some useful advice for those who’ve accidentally taken too much acid. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If modern economic theory led to the Financial Crisis of 2008, some of its basic ideas need to change—but how? In this podcast, Howard Reed describes how the discipline went wrong, and how it must be reformed and Linda Yueh asks how the great economists of the nineteenth century might have reacted to modern times.And if we do develop a new economic outlook, who will be in No 10 to implement it? Jacob Rees-Mogg? Perhaps, says Sonia Purnell, who describes the Tory MP’s continuing allure for his party—even if others elsewhere find him less appetising. And Patience Wheatcroft, the Conservative peer, discusses the Parliamentary fight over Brexit. Will it happen? Chaired by the Editor of Prospect, Tom Clark. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Britain’s international relationships are in a highly sensitive moment, not only with adversaries such as Russia but with more traditionally friendly states such as the United States. And with Vladimir Putin playing the poison-handed joker on the world stage, how should Britain approach these crucial diplomatic challenges? What can Britain offer and what do we want?This podcast features interviews with Jane Kinninmont of Chatham House, an expert on Saudi Arabian politics and Luke Harding of the Guardian, who has spent years delving into the relationship between Trump and the Kremlin. Who are Britain’s friends now and who are our opponents? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jay Elwes takes a deep dive into the aftermath of the attempted assassination in Salisbury of Sergei and Yulia Skripal. Why has this happened? Can we be certain Russia is behind it? What is Putin’s game?Featuring comment from Jonathan Eyal, one of Britain’s most experienced Russia experts, Pauline Neville-Jones, the former head of the UK Joint Intelligence Committee, and Anatol Lieven of Georgetown University, this edition goes deep into the world of espionage, disinformation and the strange logic of the man behind it all—Vladimir Putin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Tom Clark, editor of Prospect, sits down with Cathy Rentzenbrink, the writer, and Joanna Bourke, the social historian, to discuss our changing relationship with death.Medical science is now able to prolong human life in a way that was unthinkable even ten years ago. But is it in our interest to extend life in that way? Who benefits from putting people into this half-alive state? And how is digital technology affecting our ability to mourn?Also on the podcast Philip Ball, the science writer, describes how scientists in London are growing a second version of his brain. And if we can do that, can we live on after death in the Petri dish? And what does that mean for the question of “the self”? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Prospect’s Editor Tom Clark sits down with Shami Chakrabarti, the lawyer and Labour peer whose new book, "Of Women," takes a close look at the place of women in society and reveals in uncomfortable detail the gross unfairness that they still face. But then the Labour Party is not immune from sexism in its own ranks—and unlike the Conservative Party has never had a female leader. Chakrabarti thinks that record is set to change. Anne Perkins of the Guardian and Sameer Rahim, Prospect’s Arts and Books editor, join in the debate. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.