The Spectator Podcast

In this week's books podcast Sam is joined by Josh Cohen, author of the Not Working: Why We Have To Stop. Josh is a literary critic and a working psychoanalyst, and his book is a thoughtful and subtle discussion of the way in which work dominates not only our lives and identities but our leisure time too -- and a speculation about some of the ways we might set about changing that. His references range from Max Weber and Freud to Orson Welles, Andy Warhol, Emily Dickinson and David Foster Wallace. Is it all the fault of "late capitalism"? Has the digital age made quiet contemplation impossible? And why, Sam queried, does his eccentric list of great idlers include some of the most insanely productive people in history?Presented by Sam Leith.

This is a picture of my sister Carmel and I having tea a few days after our mother’s funeral. She looks cheerful, doesn’t she? That’s because she was: although we both missed our mother intensely, and always will, we had done most of our grieving before she died, as we watched her tortured by Parkinson’s disease and severe dementia.Carmel looks well, too. And she thought she was. Ovarian cancer plays that trick on women. The first symptoms tend to be annoying rather than alarming. A few weeks after this photograph was taken, I was reassuring her that Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a common response to bereavement – which it is. But that’s not what was wrong with her. On November 1, I was sitting next to her in the consulting room at Guy’s Hospital when the specialist confirmed that she had advanced ovarian cancer.Carmel is my guest on today’s Holy Smoke podcast. Please listen to it. I guarantee that you’ll be surprised by what she has to say. And you will understand why I’m so proud of my sister.Presented by Dam

Sarah Baxter is Deputy Editor of the Sunday Times. Katy talks to Sarah about what it was like to be a woman in the lobby before 'Blair's Babes', the best way to tackle sexism (she says, ignore it and go 'full speed ahead'), and whether Jeremy Corbyn is quite the Labour leader she hopes for.Presented by Katy Balls.

Have vegans and vegetarians won the moral argument in the war on meat (1:00)? Plus, are Anglicans hoping to reconcile with Catholics (11:25)? And last, why is Michael Gove crusading against the wood-burning stove (25:40)?With Jenny McCartney, Dominika Piasecka, Peter Hitchens, Damian Thompson, James Delingpole and Fraser Nelson.Presented by Lara Prendergast.

In this week’s books podcast, Sam's guest is Robert Alter - who has just published the fruits of decades of labour in the form of his complete new translation of the Hebrew Bible into English. Acclaimed for his Bible translations by Seamus Heaney, John Updike and Peter Ackroyd, Prof Alter explains how Biblical Hebrew really works, what can and cannot be preserved in translation - and why, as he sees it, nearly every modern translation of the Bible gets it catastrophically wrong.

With Katy Balls and James Forsyth.Presented by Isabel Hardman.

With Zack Christenson. Presented by Freddy Gray.

With Katy Balls and James Forsyth.Presented by Cindy Yu.

It’s another crazy week in Westminster, and the question on everyone’s minds – what happens next? We talk to Paul Mason, Henry Newman, and Katy Balls (00:50). Plus, should councils turf out the social housing tenants whose circumstances improve (23:45)?With Paul Mason, Henry Newman, Katy Balls, Mark Piggott, and Luke Doonan.Presented by Isabel Hardman.Produced by Cindy Yu and Alastair Thomas.

In this week's episode, Sam talks to investigative journalist Kajsa Norman about her book 'Sweden's Dark Soul'. In it, she turns her gaze on the oppressive forces at the heart of Sweden’s ‘model democracy’. The story begins with the cover-up of mass sexual assaults at a Stockholm music festival. The reason? The perpetrators were unaccompanied refugee minors.Presented by Sam Leith.

With Katy Balls and James Forsyth.Presented by Cindy Yu.

With Katy Balls and James Forsyth.Presented by Isabel Hardman.

With Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of the National Interest.Presented by Freddy Gray.

With James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson.Presented by Lara Prendergast.

Lorries backing up in Kent, a Mars bar shortage, and no more Rome city breaks – these are just some of the things that we have been warned about when it comes to a no deal Brexit. But what will really happen (00:45)? Plus, is China a greater force to be reckoned with than Russia (22:35)? And last, what is it with Brits and obsessing over aristocratic sex scandals (33:15)?With Lord Peter Lilley, Ian Dunt, Kerry Brown, Tom Tugendhat MP, Cosmo Landesman, and Sophia Money-Coutts.Presented by Lara Prendergast.

In this week’s book’s podcast Sam's guest is Jonathan Ames, a writer who has produced everything from memoir (Adventures of a Mildly Perverted Young Writer) to TV writing (Bored To Death), graphic novels (The Alcoholic), pitch-black noir (You Were Never Really Here), Wodehouse homage (Wake Up, Sir!) and now, in The Extra Man, a comic novel riffing on Henry James. We talk about why he calls so many of his characters “Jonathan Ames”, how he goes about his work, and whether — as a man who has become synonymous with “overshare” — he can ever quite retreat into the background.Presented by Sam Leith.

With James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson.Presented by Lara Prendergast.

In this fascinating podcast, Dominic Green talks to author and foreign policy analyst Robert Kaplan. They look back at ‘The Coming Anarchy’ after a quarter of a century, and trace the ambitions and disasters of the last three decades of American empire, from the early Nineties to the War on Terror and the retreat of the Obama and Trump years. If you listen carefully, you can hear the clink of coffee cups on saucer. If you listen even more carefully, you’ll hear a reminder of Kipling’s ‘Recessional’, with its warning that all empires must dissolve: ‘Lest we forget.’ Listen and learn.

As we move into 2019, two big elections could shake up the rest of the year. In May, the European elections could see an unprecedented populist surge. What would that mean for the European Union (00:50)? And back home, a potential general election, and Corbyn’s chances at government have never looked better (11:15). We discuss both of these. And last, is it ever okay to call a woman ‘a girl’ (24:35)?With Fredrik Erixon, Charles Grant, Katy Balls, Conor Pope, Mark Mason and Julie Bindel.Presented by Lara Prendergast.Produced by Cindy Yu and Alastair Thomas.