Best of the Spectator

Sam's guest on this week's Book Club podcast is Armando Iannucci – the satirist behind Alan Partridge, The Thick of It, Veep and The Death of Stalin. What many of his fans might not know is that he's also a devoted scholar of Milton – whose influence is to be found in his first published poem Pandemonium: Some Verses on the Current Predicament. Armando tells Sam what hurt him into verse, identifies the moment that led him to abandon an English Literature PhD for a career in comedy – and explains why there's as much sadness as savagery in his mock-epic description of the Covid epidemic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dee Rettali is an artisan baker. She founded Patisserie Organic in 1998, and afterwards the Fortitude Bakehouse in London. She is the author of Baking with Fortitude: sourdough cakes and bakes. On the podcast, she tells Lara and Liv about enjoying tinned fish, relying on the custom of cyclists in lockdown, and learning from 1970s French patisserie that baking was better without kitchen machinery. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over 25 million smart meters have been installed in homes across Britain. Does this mean that smart meters have been a success? In 2019, The Spectator hosted Smart Energy GB on a podcast to discuss their rollout and now we are back again to reflect on what we have learnt over the years and where there are still challenges.Have people’s understanding of smart meters changed? And are they really as efficient as they seem? Joining Kate Andrews to discuss where smart meters can fit into the net zero ambition is Fflur Lawton, head of public affairs at Smart Energy GB; Adam John, a reporter at Utility Week; and Jerome Mayhew, a Conservative MP who sits on the Environmental Audit Committee. This podcast is sponsored by Smart Energy GB. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fraser Nelson is joined by Spectator columnist Lionel Shriver; Gavin Schmidt, senior adviser at Nasa; Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation; Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of National Interest; Labour MP Stella Creasy; and Spectator journalists. We discuss whether Biden is on the decline, how the Tories found themselves in another sleaze scandal, and whether there's a problem with buy now, pay later schemes. Click here to watch the full episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode, we’ll hear from Lionel Shriver on how the Biden Administration’s border policies are a gift for Trump and the Republicans. (00:52)Then Kit Wilson on what we can expect from Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse. (09:53)Third, it's Peter Hanington talking about his love of haikus. (18:48)And finally, Robert Porter’s notes on the bagpipes. (24:32)Produced and presented by Sam HolmesSubscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher:www.spectator.co.uk/voucher  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freddy Gray talks to Amber Athey and Matt McDonald about the results of the race for the governorship of Virginia and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ruth Davidson is the former leader of the Scottish Conservatives and now sits in the House of Lords as the Baroness of Lundin Links. On the episode, she speaks to Katy about her happy upbringing as an active tomboy despite a near-death car accident at the age of five; her mother's reaction when she left the BBC to join the Scottish Tories ('she was appalled'); and gave a punchy defence of Theresa May ('I absolutely think the Party did her wrong'). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s episode: Has the Biden Presidency stalled or crashed?In our cover story this week, Freddy Gray assesses the state of the Biden presidency. With steadily lowering approval ratings, a disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, and this week’s failure of the Democrats to hold on to the Virginia Governorship, how much trouble is the US’s oldest inaugurated president in? Freddy talks to Lara along with Emily Tamkin, the US editor of the New Statesman and co-host of the World Review Podcast. (00:49)Also this week: Should we welcome or fear the Metaverse?Kit Wilson writes in The Spectator this week about Facebook’s new venture into the Metaverse, a concept that most of us probably hadn’t heard of until last week. To layout the roadmap for what our journey into this new digital reality might look like, Kit joins the podcast along with Tom Renner, a software engineer for NavVis.(12:55)   And finally: Is the idea of ‘buy now pay later’ financially precarious for young people?Gus Carter has been exploring the new Swedish-born app that is blowing up with the youth: Klarna. On its face, it seems to just be a modern replacement for a credit card with some gifts thrown in, but could this ‘buy now pay later’ model have some unexpected consequences for its users? Gus talks about his findings along with the author of the blog Young Money Iona Bain. (27:33)Hosted by Lara Prendergast Produced by Sam HolmesSubscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher:www.spectator.co.uk/voucher Listen to Lara’s food-based interview show, Table Talk:https://www.spectator.co.uk/tabletalk  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over the past months, under the weight of a global pandemic, scientists and medical professionals have had to rethink the way they do things. We found not one - but numerous - vaccines within the space of a year; new treatments have been discovered, some repurposed from existing drugs; and manufacturers and politicians alike have had to think creatively to plug the gaps of the pandemic.There must be lessons we can learn from this experience - things that big pharma and scientists can do better in the future, having this time round done so in emergency circumstances. That’s the topic of this special episode of The Spectator’s podcast, sponsored by the pharmaceutical company Novartis.I’m delighted to be joined by a panel of expert guests. Chinmay Bhatt, Managing Director in the UK for Novartis, who we pressed on the importance of data science in pharmaceuticals. Professor Paul Martin, a sociologist tasked with finding better ways to collaborate between the medical sector and other sectors, who enlightened us on the un-mined potential of repurposing existing drugs. And Dr Nicole Mather, the Life Sciences Lead at the technology company IBM, who has been crucial to the UK’s pandemic response and working with regulators. She nicely summed up - through the lens of regulation - the kind of corners that can be cut, without compromising on healthcare quality:'What Covid has been really helpful in, is helping us think about what's really essential. So a lot of the regulatory process has been pared back, or been able to run in parallel. So regulators are not doing away with any steps - just addressing them in a more thoughtful fashion'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s Book Club podcast, Sam's guest is Claire Tomalin. Claire’s new book, The Young H G Wells: Changing the World, tracks the extraordinary life and rocket-powered career of one of the most influential writers of the Edwardian age. She talks to Sam about how drapery’s loss was literature’s gain, why casting the goatish Wells as a #metoo villain isn’t quite right - and why we should all be reading Tono-Bungay.Subscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher:www.spectator.co.uk/voucher  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.