Best of the Spectator

Sam Leith's guest this week is Francis Spufford, whose fabulous new novel Nonesuch is a fantasy adventure set during the Blitz containing magical Nazis, nerdy TV techs and honest-to-goodness angels. H...

26 Feb 30min

This week, Michael is joined by Munira Mirza. Raised in Oldham and educated at Oxford, Munira worked at Policy Exchange before serving as Deputy Mayor of London under Boris Johnson and later as Direct...

25 Feb 25min

On the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Dr Yuri Stoyanov – of SOAS university in London – joins Damian Thompson to reflect on the religious dimensions of the war once aga...

24 Feb 32min

Two titans of broadcasting – LBC’s Iain Dale and Sky's Jon Craig – join deputy political editor James Heale for a whistle-stop tour of British by-elections. From Oxford City in 1938 to Chesterfield in...

23 Feb 16min

There is an area of public spending nearly double what Britain spends on defence, more than policing borders or our streets. It's servicing the costs of what Britain has borrowed in the past. The grow...

22 Feb 21min

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is the philosophy professor Hanna Pickard, whose new book is What Would You Do Alone In A Cage With Nothing But Cocaine? A Philosophy of Addiction. She tells ...

21 Feb 46min

Britain is defenceless, declares the Spectator's cover piece this week. From the size of the armed forces to protection against cyber warfare, the government is not spending fast enough to meet the UK...

20 Feb 37min

General Sir Nick Carter, former chief of the defence staff, joins Tim Shipman to discuss Britain's military preparedness – or rather, lack thereof. While a friendlier US presence at the Munich Securit...

19 Feb 34min