Home to the Spectator's best podcasts on everything from politics to religion, literature to food and drink, and more. A new podcast every day from writers wort...
It's happened. Reform are now ahead of Labour, according to a voting intention poll by YouGov. Reform leads the landmark poll with 25 points, with Labour languishing all the way down in second place on 24 points. Meanwhile, the Conservatives place third on 21 per cent, the Liberal Democrats are on 14 per cent and the Greens on 9 per cent. While there have been a handful of polls to date putting Reform in the lead, they have so far been regarded as outliers. It's a slim lead, but does it point to a long term shift in UK politics – or can it be dismissed as a blip? Does this make a Tory-Reform pact more likely?
Oscar Edmondson speaks to Katy Balls and James Heale.
Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
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12:52
Americano: are Trump's tariffs really that bad?
The Spectator's economics editor Kate Andrews and Social Democratic Party leader William Clouston join Freddy Gray to try and make sense of Donald Trump's decision to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. He has since threatened the European Union, and has warned the UK. Is this a negotiation tactic or something more? What political philosophy underpins the decision? And what will the impact be?
Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Megan McElroy.
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33:39
Table Talk: Jeremy Chan
Jeremy Chan is the head chef and owner of Ikoyi, a West African-inspired restaurant that celebrates British seasonality. He is also the author of a cookbook of the same name.
On the podcast, he tells Liv and Lara about growing up with a number of different food influences – from Hong Kong to Canada – and why his two-Michelin-starred restaurant should never be pigeonholed.
Photo credit: Danny J Peace
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19:26
Holy Smoke: are Syrian Christians who speak the language of Jesus about to disappear after 2,000 years?
There has been a Christian community in Syria since the first century AD. But it is shrinking fast and faces terrifying new threats as the country’s government, following the overthrow of President Assad, forges alliances with hardline Muslims including foreign jihadists – Uighurs from China, Uzbeks from Central Asia, Chechens from Russia, Afghans and Pakistanis.
Mgr Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Anglican Bishop of Rochester who is now a Catholic priest of the Ordinariate, has written a heartbreaking piece for The Spectator about the Christians of Maaloula in southwest Syria. It’s one of the last remaining communities to speak Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ. ‘Were this community to be destroyed, something precious and irreplaceable would be lost’, he writes.
Yet that is exactly what may happen. When the then-Bishop Nazir-Ali visited the town in 2016, he discovered that the predecessors of the jihadis who recently toppled Bashar al-Assad ‘had systematically destroyed and desecrated the town’s churches and monasteries. Orthodox nuns were kidnapped and held to ransom … young men had been singled out and executed when they refused to convert to the extremists’ version of Islam.’
Will it happen again? Ahmad al-Sharaa, head of the new Syrian transitional administration, has told Church leaders they have nothing to fear. But can he be trusted? As Mgr Nazir-Ali tells Damian Thompson in this episode of Holy Smoke, it is time for the West to act.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
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25:21
Spectator Out Loud: Loyd Grossman, Tanya Gold, Harry Halem, Angus Colwell, Philippe Sands and Michael Simmons
On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Loyd Grossman pleads to save Britain's cathedrals, as he reads his diary for the week (1:31); Unity Mitford is a classic case of aristocratic anti-Semitism says Tanya Gold (7:47); looking ahead to another Strategic Defence Review, Harry Halem warns that Britain is far from prepared for the era of AI warfare (12:42); 'the worst echo chamber is your own mind': Angus Colwell interviews philosopher Agnes Callard (24:24); reviewing Prosecuting the Powerful: War Crimes and the Battle for Justice, by Steve Crawshaw, Philippe Sands argues that while the international criminal justice system was prejudiced from the start the idea was right (31:01); and, Michael Simmons contradicts the Pope and declares that gossip is good for you (41:21).
Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.
Home to the Spectator's best podcasts on everything from politics to religion, literature to food and drink, and more. A new podcast every day from writers worth listening to.
** Americano and Chinese Whispers are nominated in the Political Podcast Awards 2025. Vote for it to win the People's Choice category here (https://politicalpodcastawards.co.uk/the-peoples-choice-award/) **
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