The Spectator Podcast

With Robert Jenrick, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, and Fraser Nelson.Presented by Katy Balls.

It’s obvious that we need to take action to slow down climate change, but given such a daunting task – it’s only saving the entire world... – where does one even start? The Climate Change Committee might have some of the answers. It reckons Britain can get to net zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. So what needs to be done? In the Spectator’s latest policy podcast, Fraser Nelson gets to the bottom of these questions with Chris Stark, chief exec at the CCC, Laura Sandys, former Tory MP and Co-chair of the IPPR Environment and Justice Commission, and Jo Coleman, Energy Transitions Manager at Shell.Sponsored by Shell.

What is the unfinished business that Theresa May leaves for the next prime minister (00:30)? Plus, why everyone is fascist or Nazi these days (10:55)? And last, who was Alma Mahler, the woman who entranced some of the most creative men in 20th century Europe (23:45)?With Alex Morton, Hugh Pym, Julia Hartley-Brewer, Jonathan Lis, and Cate Haste.Presented by Isabel Hardman.Produced by Cindy Yu and Siva Thangarajah.

The starting gun has been fired on the Tory leadership contest. With a live audience in London, Fraser Nelson interviews one of the frontrunners: Michael Gove.What is his plan to deliver Brexit? Can he defeat Jeremy Corbyn – and Nigel Farage? And will he bring the party behind him?

In this week’s books podcast we're talking about why the Father of English Poetry, Geoffrey Chaucer, at least half belongs in a French, Latin and Italian tradition. Marion Turner’s magnificently scholarly Chaucer: A European Life sets the great writer in his own times — one of a hinge between feudal and early modern ideas about selfhood, authorship and originality; and one in which our man travelled widely and with profit across the Europe of his day, learning from poets from France and Hainaut, from Dante and Boccaccio, and even possibly from the painter Giotto. Plus, she tells how the man we often think of as a merry, roly-poly little character on the road to Canterbury first enters the record as an adolescent fashion-plate in something that looked suspiciously like a miniskirt…Presented by Sam Leith.Spectator Books is a series of literary interviews and discussions on the latest releases in the world of publishing, from poetry through to physics. Presented by Sam Leith, The Spectator's Literary Editor. Hea

With Sarah Elliott, the Chair of Republicans Overseas.Presented by Freddy Gray.Americano is a series of in-depth discussions on American politics with the best pundits stateside. Presented by Freddy Gray, editor of Spectator USA. Click here to listen to previous episodes.

Jo Thompson is a prize-winning garden designer, whose upcoming book 'Rhubarb Rhubarb' is a correspondence between a hopeless gardener and a hopeful cook, taking a look at both gardening and cooking. Jo tells Livvy about the fresh buffalo mozzarella in her family home in Italy, her father's Italian restaurant, and the one dish she can make with her eyes closed.Presented by Olivia Potts.Table Talk is a series of podcasts where Lara Prendergast and Olivia Potts talk to celebrity guests about their life story, through the food and drink that has come to define it. Listen to past episodes here.

Rory Stewart speaks to James Kirkup, Spectator contributor and Director of the Social Market Foundation, about why he's a conservative, the way to solve Brexit, and his greatest political hero, Native American chief Plenty Coups.Coffee House Shots is a series of podcasts on British politics from the Spectator's political team and special guests. Brought to you daily (and now even on Saturdays), click here to find more episodes that are not released on Spectator Radio.

Claire Fox, left libertarian thinker, director and founder of the Academy of Ideas, and panellist on the Moral Maze, was this week elected as an MEP for the Brexit Party. In this episode of Women With Balls, she talks to Katy Balls about her disagreements with Nigel Farage, the prejudice she has received in green rooms, on the streets, and on social media, and the decadent perks of her new job.Presented by Katy Balls.Women With Balls is a podcast series where Katy Balls speak to women at the top of their respective games. To hear past episodes, visit spectator.co.uk/balls.

This week, as the Tory leadership contest kicks off, who has the best shot at getting to the final two (00:40)? And with Carrie Symonds, Boris’s new partner, neatening him up, we also ask - what is the role of the politician’s wife (16:45)? And last, cats. Are they ruthless killers posing an existential threat to wild birds (25:25)?With James Forsyth, Rob Wilson, Nevena Bridgen, Paula Milne, Mary Wakefield, and James Ball.Presented by Isabel Hardman.Produced by Cindy Yu and Siva Thangarajah.

In this week’s books podcast Sam is joined by the physicist Jim Al-Khalili (host of Radio Four’s The Life Scientific) to talk about his first novel, a science-fiction thriller called Sunfall. In it, Jim uses real science to conjure up a plausible but fantastical near-future crisis in which the earth’s magnetic field falters and dies. What would that mean? (Nothing good, is the answer.) He helps us sort our neutralinos from our neutrinos, tells us about the real existential threats we face, and explains why he’s drawn to so-called “hard sf”.Spectator Books is a series of literary interviews and discussions on the latest releases in the world of publishing, from poetry through to physics. Presented by Sam Leith, The Spectator's Literary Editor. Hear past episodes of Spectator Books here.

With Katy Balls and Fraser Nelson.Presented by Cindy Yu.Coffee House Shots is a series of podcasts on British politics from the Spectator's political team and special guests. Brought to you daily, click here to find more episodes that are not released on Spectator Radio.

With James Forsyth and Katy Balls.Presented by Fraser Nelson.Coffee House Shots is a series of podcasts on British politics from the Spectator's political team and special guests. Brought to you daily, click here to find more episodes that are not released on Spectator Radio.

This week, as the country goes to the polls for European elections, we ask: has Brexit devoured the far left (00:40)? We also speak to an unlikely Boris supporter – Matthew Parris – on the merits of a Boris leadership for Remainers (14:15). And last, do you own books to read, or to show off (28:55)?With Nick Cohen, Sienna Rodgers, Matthew Parris, James Forsyth, Virginia Blackburn and Stig Abell.Presented by Katy Balls.Produced by Cindy Yu and Siva Thangarajah. 

In this week’s Spectator Books, Sam's guest is Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, Oxford, who’s talking about her new book This Is Shakespeare. What is it that makes Shakespeare special — and is it defensible that, as even in university curricula, we talk about Shakespeare apart from and above the whole of the rest of literature? How did he think about genre? Why is Act Four always a bit boring? Is the Tempest an autumnal masterpiece or the thin work of a writer of dwindling powers? And how filthy is A Midsummer Night’s Dream?Presented by Sam Leith.Spectator Books is a series of literary interviews and discussions on the latest releases in the world of publishing, from poetry through to physics. Presented by Sam Leith, The Spectator's Literary Editor. Hear past episodes of Spectator Books here.

Actress Cressida Bonas talks to Lara and Livvy about growing up on shepherd's pie and pop-tarts, her trypophobia, and the best curry she's ever had.Table Talk is a series of podcasts where Lara Prendergast and Olivia Potts talk to celebrity guests about their life story, through the food and drink that has come to define it. Listen to past episodes here.

With James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson.Presented by Katy Balls.Coffee House Shots is a series of podcasts on British politics from the Spectator's political team and special guests. Brought to you daily, click here to find more episodes that are not released on Spectator Radio.

Iona Craig is an award-winning war correspondent who has been reporting from Yemen since 2010. On the podcast, Iona tells Katy about her near-death experiences, dealing with survivor's guilt, and why being a woman makes her job possible.Women With Balls is a podcast series where Katy Balls speak to women at the top of their respective games. To hear past episodes, visit spectator.co.uk/balls.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man? Is Boris the man to save the Tories from Nigel Farage? We talk to his former right hand man about his chances (00:45). We also discuss the latest frontier of political correctness – can fantasy fiction be racist (14:15)? And last, why are people today so squeamish about meat (28:05)?With Katy Balls, James Forsyth, Will Walden, Karen Yossman, Sam Leith, James Whetlor, and Olivia Potts.Presented by Lara Prendergast.Produced by Cindy Yu.

In this week's books podcast, Sam is joined by Ursula Buchan - the author of a hugely involving new life of her late grandfather John Buchan. The book is called Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps (you can read Allan Massie's enthusiastic Spectator review of it here), and it does as the title promises. Buchan (or "JB" to his family) is known, if he's known now at all, as the author of the pre-war thriller The Thirty-Nine Steps, later filmed by Hitchcock. Yet here was a man of staggering range and energy - diplomat, historian, politician, propagandist, poet, barrister, publisher, and (most important of all) one-time assistant editor of The Spectator. He was a proud Scot who lived most of his life out of Scotland, and whose travels took him from Boer South Africa to the Governor-General's mansion in Canada. Here's John Buchan in the round - and a granddaughter talking about how and why she sought to make his memory her own.    Presented by Sam Leith.Spectator Books is a series of literary interviews and discussions on