The Prospect Podcast

This week Cal Flyn speaks to Stephanie Boland about Britain’s other languages. Flyn wrote about learning Scottish Gaelic in our July 2018 issue. But what is the place of Gaelic in Scotland—and are dying languages really worth saving?Flyn certainly thinks so, and argues that all of us should be taking lessons. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rock music is on the way down, music magazines aren’t what they used to be—but there are still an awful lot of sharp pens around. That’s the opinion of DJ Taylor who expands on his piece in Prospect’s July issue and talks to Sameer Rahim about the rock memoir. It’s a curious genre and we might think of it as unsophisticated, but actually it is at the centre of a new golden age of rock writing. Before that, Alex Dean and Tom Clark do a five minute political round-up on Brexit, Heathrow and the question of whether British politics will be lifted if England delivers in the World Cup. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, as last, there’s one big story: Brexit and the Conservative Party. Theresa May just about managed to see off Remainer rebellion in the Commons. But is it a hollow victory? Tom Clark asks whether after 300 years, Brexit could be the row that finally sinks the Tories. 

It’s not just in Britain that the traditionally dominant centre-right is on its knees; Andrew Gamble argues in our new issue that it’s a much broader trend and explains why here. Hephzibah Anderson discusses the fall of another great institution: the British high street. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week saw a series of crunch votes in the commons on the EU withdrawal bill and the role of parliament in the exit process. The government escaped defeat—just—but only by making dramatic last minute concessions. It promised Tory Remainers that parliament will indeed play a significant role. Antoinette Sandbach was one of the MPs to receive personal assurances from the prime minister and she explains what was said.But over recent days Brexiteers have insisted no such assurance can have been made. It has put the stark split in the Tory Party on display for all to see: can the PM appease both the Remainers and the Brexiteers on this and other issues? Sandbach is joined by Prospect’s Jay Elwes and Alex Dean. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Michael McFaul became the United States' ambassador to Russia, he didn't realise what he was letting himself in for. As the architect of Barack Obama's "Reset," he thought he'd be welcomed. But instead Vladimir Putin's cronies orchestrated a campaign of harassment and spread lurid personal allegations. McFaul talks to Sameer Rahim about his new book, From Cold War to Hot Peace, which tells of how US-Russia relations broke down and why Putin's aggressive posture on Crimea and Syria seems to be outfoxing the west. And why on Russia Donald Trump is at loggerheards with his own administration. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week it’s football. The World Cup is fast approaching and we are preparing for what is usually one of the greatest sporting spectacles on earth. But with a cloud of corruption hanging over the event, could we fall out of love with the World Cup altogether? 

Jonathan Liew of the Independent has written an essay on this subject for our June issue. Here he talks the question through with Prospect’s Deputy Editor Steve Bloomfield. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sameer Rahim talks to philosopher John Gray about what atheists get wrong about atheism. Dismissing the "God debate," which as a non-believer Gray has no interest in, instead he focuses on the variety of atheisms on offer in the modern world: from liberalism as a modern day secular religion to the atheism of silence of Spinoza. Gray, as usual, takes no prisoners. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.