The Book Club: Mesopotamia and the Making of History
My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the Assyriologist Selena Wisnom, author of The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History. Selena tells me about the vast and strange...
26 Feb 202544min
Holy Smoke: Conclave - what really happens when a Pope dies?
The film Conclave has picked up a host of awards across all the major ceremonies so far, including at the Screen Actors Guild, the Golden Globes, and winning Best Picture at the BAFTAs. Adapted from t...
25 Feb 202553min
Table Talk: Emma Fox, CEO of Berry Bros & Rudd
Emma Fox is the chief exec of Berry Bros & Rudd, the world's oldest fine wine and spirit merchant. A retail veteran, Emma's broad experience has been shaped by a career spanning over 30 years. On the ...
25 Feb 202528min
Chinese Whispers: What China's planned mega-dam means for Asia
Just before the end of 2024, Chinese state media Xinhua slipped out an announcement – the long discussed mega-dam in Medog County, Tibet, has been greenlit. When built, it will generate three times mo...
24 Feb 202528min
Americano: was 'free trade' really working?
Oren Cass, founder and chief economist of think-tank American Compass, sits down with Freddy Gray at the ARC conference in London. They react to the announcement by President Trump over the weekend of...
24 Feb 202528min
Spectator Out Loud: Hugh Schofield, Igor Toronyi-Lalic & Michael Simmons, Lisa Haseldine, Alice Loxton and Aidan Hartley
On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Hugh Schofield asks why there is no campaign to free the novelist Boualem Sansal (1:26); The Spectator’s arts editor, Igor Toronyi-Lalic, reacts to the magazine’s ca...
23 Feb 202536min
Coffee House Shots: How the Whips' office really works
Simon Hart joins James Heale to talk about his new book Ungovernable: The Political Diaries of a Chief Whip. Having stepped down at the 2024 election, Simon has become the first former Chief Whip to p...
22 Feb 202534min
Holy Smoke: Holy War and Antichrist, the rise of extremist rhetoric inside the Russian Orthodox Church
The subject of Ukraine shattered the unity of Eastern Orthodoxy long before Russia’s full-scale invasion began. In 2018 the Ukrainian Orthodox Church declared independence from Moscow with the approva...
21 Feb 202535min
