From our UK edition
21 min listen
On this week's episode, we'll hear from Freddy Gray on his time spent on the Poland–Ukraine border. (00:52)Next, Lionel Shriver on the return of actual badness. (06:28)And finally, Philip Patrick on the strange east Asian practice of hiring a ‘White Monkey’. (15:13)Produced and presented by Sam HolmesSubscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher.
From our UK edition
12 min listen
It's been just over a week since Vladimir Putin began his invasion of Ukraine and in that time we have seen some truly unprecedented events: A former comedian leading an extremely effective homeland resistance against one of the world's largest armies, an estimated million people fleeing over the borders and a more unified Western response than we have seen in decades. Kate Andrews talks with The Spectator's Editor Fraser Nelson and its Deputy Editor Freddy Gray to assess the shocking events we have seen this week.
From our UK edition
38 min listen
In this week’s episode: What’s the mood on the ground in Ukraine and Russia?For this week’s cover piece, Owen Matthews asks whether the invasion of Ukraine will mean the end of Putin’s regime. And in this week’s Spectator diary, Freddy Gray reports on pride and paranoia on the streets of Lviv. They join the podcast, to talk about Russia’s future and Ukraine’s present. (00:49)Also this week: Is Germany ready to tackle its dependence on Russian gas?In response to Russia’s invasion, Germany has abandoned its Nord Stream 2 pipeline, sent lethal weapons to Ukraine and, most strikingly of all, has committed to the Nato target of spending 2 per cent of GDP on defence - a €100 billion fund.
From our UK edition
Lviv, Ukraine On the Ukrainian side of the Polish border, near a place called Shehyni where the refugee crisis is brewing, an old black man approaches us. ‘Am I in Moldova?’ he asks gently in French, pointing to the fence. ‘No,’ I tell him. ‘That’s Poland.’ Moldova is 250 miles away. The man shrugs and returns to the endless queue of North African migrants. Several young men tell us that they have been there for four days waiting to cross. The Ukrainian guards hold baseball bats. British newspapers have reported ‘shocking racism’ at the border, and of course it is easier to get into Poland if you have a European or British passport and white skin. Yet we witness no ill-behaviour. It’s just a very cruel situation.
From our UK edition
It’s arguably not the right moment to focus on Joe Biden’s verbal slips, but it is a little unnerving when the leader of the free world says ‘Iranians’ — or possibly ‘Uranians’ — when he means to say ‘Ukrainians’. These are dangerous times and we need politicians to speak clearly. Still, Biden got in his point across in his State of the Union address. He announced that he was closing US air space to Russian aircraft. He led a standing ovation for the Ukrainian ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova. He said that Putin is ‘now more isolated from the world than he has ever been’.
From our UK edition
24 min listen
Freddy Gray talks to Jacob Heilbrunn, the editor of The National Interest, about Vladimir Putin's military action.
From our UK edition
‘I know Vladimir Putin very well,’ said Donald Trump yesterday, speaking of the Ukraine crisis, ‘he would have never done during the Trump administration what he is doing now.’ As with a lot of Trump utterances, that statement is at once arrogant, preposterous — and probably true. Maybe it is a coincidence — or Trump’s often-cited luck — that the last major crisis over Ukraine was back in 2014, after Viktor Yanukovych was ousted and Putin annexed Crimea. Or perhaps not. Putin, as a slightly comic alpha male authoritarian, saw in Trump something he recognised Back then Barack Obama led the free world and, busy as he was, he offloaded the knotty Ukraine problem on to his Vice President Joe Biden, which I wrote about here yesterday.
From our UK edition
‘He has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.’ So once said Robert Gates, the former US defence secretary, of the now president Joe Biden. We don’t yet know if Biden is wrong about the current Ukraine crisis. We may be about to find out. His speech on Tuesday was at least competent, if not entirely coherent. ‘Who in the Lord’s name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called ‘countries’ on territory that belongs to his neighbours?’ asked the president, in one of his now all-too-familiarly infirm attempts to sound firm.
From our UK edition
32 min listen
Freddy Gray talks to Dr Julie Norman, lecturer and co-director of the Centre on US politics at University College London, about the case for the defence of the Biden presidency so far.
From our UK edition
28 min listen
Freddy sits down with Lauren Southern a former YouTube personality and now a documentary filmmaker. Lauren has been described as one of the leaders of the Alt-Right movement. Which is a label Lauren herself thinks doesn't actually mean anything. On the podcast, Lauren and Freddy get into what direction the online right will go next, what feminism looks like in modern conservative circles, and how hypocrites can sometimes be right.
From our UK edition
In the long history of British democracy, politicians have from time to time been heckled and abused by rowdy loons on their way to the House of Commons. It was Keir Starmer’s turn yesterday, again, as a gaggle of hooligans shouted unpleasant remarks at him. When these things happen, it’s seldom an edifying spectacle. But it is probably a price worth paying for having a parliament in the middle of London which MPs travel to in open streets – rather than shuttling in and out of some hyper-secure and dystopian administrative bubble. What happened to Starmer yesterday is no worse than what anybody who has been with away fans to a football match in England will have experienced.
From our UK edition
12 min listen
Freddy Gray talks to Guy Clapperton, the tech journalist and host of the Near-Futurist podcast about the recent collapse in Facebook’s share price, and the social media giant's prospects long-term.
From our UK edition
President Joe Biden promised last week to nominate the first black woman to the Supreme Court. ‘Long overdue,’ he says. When it comes to elevating African-American females to high office, Biden has form. He chose Kamala Harris, remember, to be the first woman US Vice President of colour. But what if Biden elected to choose the same woman — namely, Vice President Kamala Harris — for the Supreme Court? Wouldn’t that be so unimaginative and tokenistic, as to be quite racist? Even a leader as error-prone as Biden wouldn’t do that, would he?
From our UK edition
24 min listen
On Spectator TV this week Freddy Gray interviews the Fox News host Tucker Carlson on what role the US should play in the Russia/Ukraine conflict. Here is the full unedited conversation. 'Western European nations — which I think we at this point can trust to have weapons — should defend themselves. I mean, that's the idea of the nation state!' - Tucker CarlsonWatch the full Spectator TV episode here: https://youtu.
From our UK edition
It was, in a way, a refreshing moment of mental alacrity from President Joe Biden. Asked if he thought inflation was a ‘political liability’, the Commander-in-Chief, the man who has apparently brought dignity back to the Oval Office, replied: ‘No. It’s a great asset. More inflation. What a stupid son of a bitch.’ In his sarcasm — we hope it was that; we can’t be 100 per cent — the President at least acknowledged that inflation was a genuine worry. His administration had spent months dismissing the issue as merely a ‘transient’ concern. All things are transient, I suppose. Take Joe Biden’s much-lauded decency; that quality which apparently most distinguished him from Donald Trump.
From our UK edition
34 min listen
Freddy Gray and Lionel Shriver discuss Joe Biden's first year at the helm of the United States, and whether he is capable of tackling the challenges poised by Vladimir Putin, rampant inflation and his own capacity for gaffes.
From our UK edition
22 min listen
Freddy Gray talks to Maureen Callahan of the New York Post about the runners and riders for the 2024 presidential election, including if her prediction of a Trump/Clinton rematch will come true.
From our UK edition
35 min listen
2022 has only just begun but a lot of minds in American politics are already looking towards the next presidential election in 2024. For the Republicans, the big question is will Donald Trump be their nominee and if he isn't who will fill that very large hole? Freddy Gray sits down with the editor of Modern Age, Daniel McCarthy.
From our UK edition
30 min listen
It's been one year since a large number of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building in Washington DC to try and prevent the certification of the 2020 presidential election. There are still many questions surrounding that infamous day and to look for some answers Freddy Gray talks with John Daniel Davidson, a senior editor at the Federalist.
From our UK edition
Donald Trump famously boasted that he could 'stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody’ and still not lose voters. That was back in 2016 and the following years proved his point. We are now in the winter of 2021, however, and the 45th president may at last have stumbled across a way to alienate his fan base — by endorsing vaccines. Covid is today the most hostile frontline in America’s all-consuming culture war. Resistance to the national vaccination drive has become the stickiest point. You are either pro-freedom or in bed with the Great Globo Pharma Conspiracy. Trump has adopted a more middle-ground position: encouraging people to take the vaccines while supporting the right of people to choose not to be jabbed.
