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PODCAST

Best of the Spectator

Home to the Spectator"s best podcasts on everything from politics to religion, literature to food and drink, and more. A new podcast every day from writers worth listening to. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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All Episodes

30:11

Americano: will anyone miss the Boomers?

Best of the Spectator ·

2025/12/08

Christopher Caldwell joins Freddy Gray to discuss why the 'Boomer generation' – those born between 1946 and 1964 – became one of the most hated generations in recent history. Chris argues that the Boomers uniquely benefited from the resources of other generations, and were able to enjoy the benefits of leftist politics alongside the political and economic freedoms associated with the right; the apex of their power perhaps being the Clinton/Bush era. To what extent are the Boomers responsible for the

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14:12

Spectator Out Loud: what's the greatest artwork of...

Best of the Spectator ·

2025/12/07

For this week's Spectator Out Loud, we include a compilation of submissions by our writers for their greatest artwork of the 21st century so far. Following our arts editor Igor Toronyi-Lalic, you can hear from: Graeme Thomson, Lloyd Evans, Slavoj Zizek, Damian Thompson, Richard Bratby, Liz Anderson, Deborah Ross, Calvin Po, Tanjil Rashid, James Walton, Rupert Christiansen and Christopher Howse.Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more

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23:42

Coffee House Shots: who really runs No.10?

Best of the Spectator ·

2025/12/06

This weekend’s Coffee House Shots digs into the growing debate over whether Keir Starmer should tack left on the economy as voters peel away to the Greens and Lib Dems – and why some in Labour think its migration stance is now more popular with their own voters than ever. Are Labour tacking left?But beyond policy, a deeper question looms: is Westminster’s obsession with ‘super-advisers’ drowning out the government’s message? Tom Baldwin argues that leaks, briefing wars and the hunt for the next

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22:26

The Edition: Benefits Britain, mental health & what’s...

Best of the Spectator ·

2025/12/05

‘Labour is now the party of welfare, not work’argues Michael Simmons in theSpectator’s cover article this week. The question ‘why should I bother with work?’ is becoming harder to answer, following last week’s Budget which could come to define this Labour government. A smaller and smaller cohort of people are being asked to shoulder the burden – what do our Spectator contributors think of this?For this week’sEdition, host Lara Prendergast is joined by opinion editor Rupert Hawksley, arts editor Igor

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43:29

The Book Club: A Brief History of the Aphorism

Best of the Spectator ·

2025/12/04

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is James Geary, talking about the new edition of his classic The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism. He tells me about what separates an aphorism from a proverb, a maxim or a quip; about the long history of the form and his own lifelong infatuation with it; and about whether – given our dwindling attention span and appetite for zingers on social media – we can expect to be living through a new golden age of aphorism.Hosted on Acast. See

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20:42

Quite right!: should Rachel Reeves go?

Best of the Spectator ·

2025/12/03

This week: Rachel Reeves reels as Labour’s Budget unravels – and a far-left Life of Brian sequel plays out in Liverpool.After a bruising seven days for the Chancellor, Michael and Maddie ask whether Reeves’s position is now beyond repair. Did Keir Starmer’s bizarre nursery press conference steady the ship – or simply confirm that the government is panicking? And is the resignation of the OBR chair a shield for Reeves – or a damning contrast with her refusal to budge?Then: the inaugural conference of

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29:46

Americano: why is the US obsessed with British...

Best of the Spectator ·

2025/12/02

Why are Americans so interested in Britain's decline? While visiting London, Tucker Carlson has said that the country has ‘shrunken’ and its culture ‘destroyed’, particularly because of mass immigration. Freddy Gray is joined by Tim Stanley and Ed West to discuss whether Britain has become ‘ground zero in the decline of western civilisation’ and if the US has always viewed the UK this way.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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28:51

Nicotine pouches: solution or smokescreen?

Best of the Spectator ·

2025/12/01

There has been a renewed focus on tobacco and nicotine products across Europe. Just as countries seek to speed up the process to a smoke-free future, through measures like generational smoking bans and increased regulations on packaging and advertising, there has been a sharp increase in young people using alternative nicotine products like vapes and pouches.Philip Morris International (PMI) expects to see two-thirds of its revenue come from smoke-free products by 2030 – including its product, Zyn

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19:21

Holy Smoke: Trump highlights the persecution of...

Best of the Spectator ·

2025/11/30

Fr Benedict Kiely, founder of nasarean.org, and Freddy Gray join Damian Thompson to discuss the persecution of Christians which has reached new and terrifying levels. Since this podcast was recorded last Friday, we have had the further news that over 300 children and staff were abducted from a Christian school – while around 50 of the children have since managed to escape, the rest remain missing and a local Bishop has criticised the Nigeria government for its failure to act.Over 185,000 Christians

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33:54

Coffee House Shots: Budget booze from Disraeli to Reeves

Best of the Spectator ·

2025/11/29

Throughout the years, the only person permitted to drink inside the House of Commons is the Chancellor, so what has been the tipple of choice for each resident of Number 11 dating back to Benjamin Disraeli? Following Rachel Reeves Budget this week, Michael Simmons and James Heale drink their way through the ages, discuss the historical context of each Budget, and question whether Rachel Reeves has the toughest job of them all.This episode was originally recorded for Michael Simmons's new podcast

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35:37

The Edition: defending marriage, broken Budgets & the...

Best of the Spectator ·

2025/11/28

'Marriage is the real rebellion’argues Madeline Grant in theSpectator’s cover article this week. The Office for National Statistics predicts that by 2050 only 30 per cent of adults will be married. This amounts to a ‘relationship recession’ where singleness is ‘more in vogue now than it has been since the dissolution of the monastries’. With a rising division between the sexes, and many resorting to alternative relationships like polyamory, how can we defend marriage?For this week’sEdition, host

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29:39

The Book Club: The Decadence

Best of the Spectator ·

2025/11/27

On this week’s Book Club podcast I’m joined by debut author Leon Craig to talk about her novel The Decadence – a story of millennial debauchery in a haunted house which uses a knowing patchwork of literary influences from Boccaccio and Shirley Jackson to Martin Amis and Mark Z. Danielewski to make an old form fresh. She discusses how and why it took her so long to write, how she first acquired a taste for the gothic, and why she thinks the horror novel, that seeming relic of the 1970s, is making

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22:05

Quite right!: the 'wickedness' of Labour's gender war

Best of the Spectator ·

2025/11/26

This week: After leaked EHRC guidance threw Labour’s position on biological sex into disarray, Michael and Maddie ask whether Bridget Phillipson is deliberately delaying clarity on the law – and why Wes Streeting appears to be retreating from his once ‘gender-critical’ stance. Is Labour quietly preparing to water down long-awaited guidance? And has the return of puberty-blocker trials pushed the culture war back to square one?Then: Shabana Mahmood unveils her first major moves as Home Secretary. But

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33:08

Spectator Out Loud: William Atkinson, Andreas Roth,...

Best of the Spectator ·

2025/11/25

On this week’sSpectator Out Loud: William Atkinson reveals his teenagebrush with a micropenis; Andreas Roth bemoans the dumbing down of German education; Philip Womack wonders how the hyphen turned political; Mary Wakefield questions the latest AI horror story – digitising dead relatives; and, Muriel Zagha celebrates Powell & Pressburger’s I Know Where I’m Going!Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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36:12

Quite right!: Is it time to abolish the Treasury? – Q&A

Best of the Spectator ·

2025/11/24

To submit your urgent questions to Michael and Maddie, go to: spectator.co.uk/quiterightThis week on Quite right! Q&A: Is the Treasury still fit for purpose – or has ‘Treasury brain’ taken over Whitehall? Michael and Maddie dig into the culture and power of Britain’s most influential department, from the Oxbridge-heavy ‘Treasury boys’ to a ‘visionless’ Chancellor.Then: after Michael’s suggestion that Piers Morgan should be the next director-general of the BBC – why, in his view, could cnly a

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26:25

Holy Smoke: is the Anglican Communion dead?

Best of the Spectator ·

2025/11/23

In the space of a month, the Church of England acquired its first female Archbishop of Canterbury, a majority of the world’s Anglicans have left the Anglican Communion in protest at the mother Church’s willingness to bless same-sex relationships – and the House of Bishops has suddenly backed away from introducing stand-alone gay blessings. The situation is chaotic. Theologian Andrew Graystone talks to Damian Thompson about the almost insoluble problems that will face Archbishop Mullally after she is

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21:09

Coffee House Shots: why Britain needs more Yimbys

Best of the Spectator ·

2025/11/22

Chris Curtis and Maxwell Marlow may have different political ideologies, but they agree on one key diagnosis: Britain is broken. Their solution can be found on baseball caps and bucket hats across social media and SW1: ‘Build Baby Build’. Less than a week before the Budget, Chris – MP for Milton Keynes and chair of the Labour Growth Group – and Maxwell – policy fellow of the Yimby Initiative, alongside his day job at the Adam Smith Institute – join our economics editor Michael Simmons to talk about

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35:03

The Edition: Labour's toxic budget, Zelensky in...

Best of the Spectator ·

2025/11/21

It’s time to scrap the budget, argues political editor Tim Shipman this week. An annual fiscal event only allows the Chancellor to tinker round the edges, faced with a backdrop of global uncertainty. Endless potential tax rises have been trailed, from taxes on mansions, pensions, savings, gambling, and business partnerships, and nothing appears designed to fix Britain’s structural problems. Does our economics editor Michael Simmons agree?Host Lara Prendergast is joined by co-host – and the

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36:11

Book Club: Ben Myers on Kinski

Best of the Spectator ·

2025/11/20

Ben Myers joins Sam Leith to discuss his book Jesus Christ Kinski, which he describes as a ‘novel about a film about a performance about Jesus’. Klaus Kinski was one of Germany’s biggest actors of the 20thCentury – but he was also one of the most controversial, and Ben questions if he was one of the worst people to have ever lived. In this novel, Kinski returns for a one-man performance about Jesus Christ, and it nearly becomes his last as the audience turn on him and violence is threatened.Ben

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17:56

Quite right!: Labour’s migration crackdown & why the...

Best of the Spectator ·

2025/11/19

Listeners on the Best of Spectator playlist can enjoy a section of the latest episode of Quite right! but for the full thing please seek out the Quite right! channel. Just search ‘Quite right!’ wherever you are listening now.This week: a Commons showdown over asylum – and a cold shower for Net Zero orthodoxy.After Shabana Mahmood’s debuts Labour’s new asylum proposals, Michael and Maddie ask whether her barnstorming performance signals a new star in Starmer’s government – or whether the Home

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