Baby doomers: why are couples putting the planet ahead of parenthood?

In this week’s episode: Why are a growing number of people putting the planet before parenthood? Madeleine Kearns writes about this phenomenon in this week’s issue and thinks that some of these fears might be unfounded. Tom Woodman author of Future is one of these people that Madeleine’s piece talks about. Tom has very real worries about bringing a child into the world. It’s not only the least green thing he could do but also that the standard of living for that child could be severely limited due to a climate catastrophe. (00:47)

Also this week: Has Boris Johnson brought Conservatism full circle? That’s the argument Tim Stanley makes in this week’s Spectator. He joins Lara on the podcast along with one of the MPs mentioned in the piece, Steve Baker. (12:50)

And finally: What is the state of the Booker Prize shortlist? The Booker Prize shortlist has been released and it’s fair to say one of our critics Philip Hensher is not too impressed with the batch. But how are these books selected? What are the criteria? Can a Booker Prize winner be funny? To answer all those questions, Philip joins Lara along with The Spectator’s Books Editor and former Booker judge, Sam Leith. (20:51)

Hosted by Lara Prendergast

Produced by Sam Holmes