Best of the Spectator

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.

Freddy Gray is joined by Joe Weisenthal, co-host of the Odd Lots podcast at Bloomberg. On the podcast, Joe talks about the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, and the moral hazard of state intervention. How gloomy should people be? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week: Cindy Yu discusses Britain’s invisible East Asians (00:51), Leah McLaren discloses the truth about single motherhood (06:02), and Hannah Tomes reads her notes on dining alone (12:08). Produced and presented by Oscar Edmondson.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ash Regan is the MSP for East Edinburgh who has served as minister for community safety. Since Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation, she has put herself forward to be the next First Minister for Scotland. Born in Biggar, Ash moved to England as a child and grew up in Devon. She surprised her family during the referendum for Scottish Independence, deciding she would vote to leave. Ash began her foray into politics as a campaigner before running for elected office. She was little known outside of the Holyrood bubble until she quit as community safety minister over plans to allow people to self-identify their gender.On the podcast, Ash talks about life before politics; the challenges of the campaign trail; her plans for an independent Scotland, and why she voted against the Gender Recognition Act.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.