As the sleaze scandal spreads, will the rising tide of corruption start lapping at Boris Johnson’s feet? Beer Garden Britain thinks COVID is done but as cases rise alarmingly in India and Brazil, will we need to think again? Alexei Navalny faces death in prison for opposing Putin. And will that revolting European Super League actually kill football? Naomi Smith is here to start your week. “ We need to stop calling this chumocracy, and start calling it corruption.” “ The football terraces could b...
Apr 19, 2021•27 min•Season 1Ep. 290
When there’s a “heated debate” about racism on Good Morning Britain, you’ll often see Kehinde Andrews , Professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City University, tussling with Toby Young and Nigel Farage and bringing uncomfortable arguments about white supremacy into Middle England’s living rooms. What does he get from it? He talks to Jude Rogers about the Sewell Report, his book The New Age Of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule The World and the value of being the “bad black guy who ...
Apr 17, 2021•27 min•Season 1Ep. 289
What kind of person crashes a £3.6bn business, shattering the life savings of 400,000 people? When Britain’s most famous fund manager Neil Woodford went down in flames in 2019 it was a personal humiliation for a “rock star investor” that the City thought was infallible. Owen Walker , the FT’s European Banking Correspondent and author of Built On A Lie : The Rise And Fall Of Neil Woodford And The Fate Of Middle England’s Money tells Andrew Harrison how Woodford’s arrogance lost his clients millio...
Apr 15, 2021•22 min•Season 1Ep. 288
The English public school is one of the country’s strangest and often most sinister institutions. James Scudamore , author of the moving and gripping novel of memory, friendship and abuse English Monsters , talks to Arthur Snell about his own experience with the mad and petty regime of the English boarding school. How did this culture spread the “profound damage” of men who’d seen true horror in war down to generations of pupils? And why do public schools produce an emotionally damaged elite? “T...
Apr 14, 2021•24 min•Season 1Ep. 287
The pubs are back! Can the Great British Public drink the county back to economic health? Plus, did the deeply strange Prince Philip memorial weekend give us any pointers to the future fate of the Monarchy? Should we give up hoping for ‘normal’ politics to come back? And why shouldn’t there be a black James Bond ? “AstraZeneca? I’d have taken a North Korean vaccine if they offered me.” – Justin Quirk “Brits treat the Royal Family as both superhuman and somehow subhuman too.” – Alex Andreou “If t...
Apr 13, 2021•53 min•Season 1Ep. 286
As England scratches at the doors of pubs and hairdressers like a starving cat, Yasmeen Serhan joins Andrew Harrison to set out the week’s news stories. Are we on for a retail superspreader event? Plus the Cameron-Greensill scandal gets worse, London decides to let Northern Ireland stew, Prince Philip is still dead… and Ramadan for dummies (i.e. Andrew). “ If you guys want this change to be permanent, you need to make sure your queues outside Primark are socially distanced.” “ Advice for non-Mus...
Apr 12, 2021•24 min•Season 1Ep. 285
When digital artist Dan Hett tragically lost his brother Martin in the 2017 Manchester bombings, he turned to the world of interactive fiction to help him understand what had happened – and ultimately he produced the game ‘Closed Hands’ , which examines the causes and effects of a terrorist attack in a fictional UK city. Dan talks to Arthur Snell about the fascinating world of interactive fiction novels, how he turned his painful experience into a piece of art, and the role it could play in tack...
Apr 09, 2021•25 min•Season 1Ep. 284
Content warning: Includes discussion of sexual violence and abuse. What is it like being an “activist prosecutor” in a legal system hampered by institutional prejudice and often indifference? Former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal tells The Observer ’s Nick Cohen about his memoir The Prosecutor: One Man’s Pursuit for Justice for the Voiceless and what it reveals about British justice. Why are marginalised young women so badly served by our justice system? How might COVID transform that system? And ...
Apr 08, 2021•24 min•Season 1Ep. 283
Good news, everyone! Institutional racism is over, at least according to the Government-sponsored Sewell Report into racial disparity in the UK. As the report falls to pieces in plain sight, special guest Matthew Ryder QC (former London Deputy Mayor for social integration) joins Ayesha Hazarika, Ahir Shah and Ros Taylor to discuss a textbook example of selecting your conclusion before looking for evidence. Plus: Populism’s endgame in Brazil, the joy of blue plaques, and is Britain less divided t...
Apr 07, 2021•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 282
Russia is massing troops on the Ukrainian border. Does Putin just want to hand Biden his first test, or is there more to it? Plus: the tangled mess that is vaccine passports. Why your foreign holiday is probably off this year. Keir Starmer under a cloud on his first anniversary as Labour leader. And what’s going on in Jordan? Arthur Snell sets out the week ahead. “ It ’ s a bad look for an opposition leader if you can ’ t win a by-election in the North of England.” Presented and produced by Andr...
Apr 06, 2021•25 min•Season 1Ep. 281
What is it like being one of the few black people at Eton and Oxford? And what do they actual teach our future rulers? Musa Okwonga is the author One of Them: An Eton College Memoir , and host of the Stadio football podcast. He talks to Alex Andreou about imperial pride in private schools, why Brexit led him to move to “the heart of Europe”, and whether Spurs will make it to the Champions League… “MPs would learn more about the world by getting off the train one stop earlier, not going on a gap ...
Apr 01, 2021•25 min•Season 1Ep. 280
When writer Erica Buist had the traumatic experience of finding her partner’s father dead in his home, it led her to ask why we respond to death with fear and sadness – and ultimately to travel from Mexico to Nepal and beyond to research the surprisingly uplifting book This Party's Dead : Grief, Joy And Spilled Rum At The World's Death Festivals . She talks to Arthur Snell about greeting the dead and dancing with corpses, feasts where dead bodies are “invited to the party”, the true meaning of V...
Mar 31, 2021•25 min•Season 1Ep. 279
What will the Sturgeon/Salmond stand-off mean for the SNP’s make-or-break bid for re-election and a second independence referendum? And can an independent Scotland pay its way? SNP Cabinet Secretary for Finance Kate Forbes is our special guest. Plus: What’s behind Johnson’s defence plans for fewer soldiers and more nukes? And Alan Turing is on the £50 note but will the Queen be on our banknotes for much longer? “If Scotland goes independent, England would lose an unruly neighbour, and gain a clo...
Mar 30, 2021•55 min•Season 1Ep. 278
Outdoor “mingling” is back but as the Government bets all on the vaccine, are they ignoring the danger of new COVID variants? And if/when it all goes wrong, will it somehow be Europe’s fault again? Plus the possible Labour reshuffle, the SNP vs the Alba Party and what Johnson’s affair with Jennifer Arcuri really means. Ian Dunt explains the week ahead. “ The only Government strategy is the vaccine, and praying that no variants blow it to smithereens” “ The only way the Government can countenance...
Mar 29, 2021•26 min•Season 1Ep. 277
With Brexit opening a Pandora’s Box of irrational nationalism in England, and Scotland and Northern Ireland heading to the exit door, the break-up of the United Kingdom is no longer a weird fantasy but a real possibility. Nick Cohen talks to the writer, broadcaster and card-carrying Scot Gavin Esler about his new book How Britain Ends , and the forces that could pull Britain apart. Can the Union be saved? Would an independent Scotland really be welcomed into the EU? And is Britain in danger of b...
Mar 28, 2021•26 min•Season 1Ep. 276
Are we ready to live alongside artificial minds? And why do we still harbour a Terminator-style fear of vengeful machines? Oxford University Professor of Computer Science Michael Wooldridge , author of The Road to Conscious Machines , says we are on the brink of a great transformation in artificial intelligence. He talks to Alex Andreou about deepmind superhuman gamer bots, debunking our fear of Frankenstein’s creation, and why automation means more than robot butlers. “We are with AI where nucl...
Mar 26, 2021•30 min•Season 1Ep. 275
Constitutions are the rulebooks of government, but how does each country get its own peculiar arrangements? Linda Colley , author of The Gun, The Ship, And The Pen: War, Constitutions And The Making Of The Modern World , tells Ros Taylor about the extraordinary circumstances – from Napoleon to Catherine the Great to America’s Founding Fathers – that produced the operating systems for states. Why was America’s sacred Constitution less of a high-minded document and more of “a grimly necessary plan...
Mar 25, 2021•22 min•Season 1Ep. 274
What makes someone give up a lucrative job in the City of London to risk their life fighting ISIS in Syria – with no prior military training? In one of our most astonishing interviews, Macer Gifford describes how he left the UK to spend three long tours fighting with the Kurdish YPG militia against the brutal terror group Islamic State. He tells Arthur Snell what it’s like to cross into a warzone, his book Fighting Evil: The Ordinary Man Who Went To War Against ISIS ( £2 on Kindle !) and the sho...
Mar 24, 2021•26 min•Season 1Ep. 273
Which flavour of police overreach do you like least: COVID regulations if you’re on the right, or the Police Bill if you’re centre-left? Special guest Emily Benn joins us to disentangle the worsening mess of civil rights under this government. And with Line Of Duty returning as British policing is in the spotlight as seldom before, do we need a conversation about “ Copaganda ” entertainment in the UK, as America had over George Floyd? Plus: what Joe Biden ’s New Deal really means. “The fact that...
Mar 23, 2021•59 min•Season 1Ep. 272
The EU:UK vaccine export row: who’s in the right and will a friendly phone call from Boris Johnson sort it all out like it always does? On the anniversary of Lockdown 1, will the pandemic regulations face a rocky renewal? And Christmas comes early for lucky Priti Patel as the Bristol rioters breathe life back into her illiberal Police Bill. Alex Andreou sets up the week ahead. “ The danger of the Bill is that if peaceful protest is outlawed, then you might as well riot.” “ Priti Patel must be ab...
Mar 22, 2021•21 min•Season 1Ep. 271
A bonus weekend edition… Finding inspiration in the midst of pandemic can be difficult, but how hard is it to write a book about a city you can’t visit because of lockdown? And how has the Church fared during this period of enforced isolation? Author and practising Christian Francis Spufford talks to Ros Taylor about his new novel Light Perpetual , the “incredibly natural” failure of imagination in the midst of this pandemic, and how COVID has left the Church “smaller and wobblier” than ever bef...
Mar 21, 2021•21 min•Season 1Ep. 270
The Grenfell tragedy exposed the worst of a housing crisis which affects some 8 million people and leaves one in seven people in unaffordable or unsuitable homes. How did we get into this mess and how do we get out of it? Why can’t we build enough houses in the right places? Alex Andreou talks to Catherine Ryder , Director of Policy and Research at the National Housing Federation, and Steve Cole of the country’s largest social landlord the Clarion Group, about beating a huge challenge that has d...
Mar 19, 2021•26 min•Season 1Ep. 269
For British intelligence, Soviet mole George Blake was possibly the most damaging traitor of the whole Cold War. Towards the end of Blake’s life the FT’s Simon Kuper met the ageing defector for “the most extraordinary interview of my life.” He tells Arthur Snell about his book The Happy Traitor , which sets out Blake’s astonishing journey from comically patriotic British citizen through his time of treachery in an unbelievably complacent British intelligence service to an escape from justice tha...
Mar 18, 2021•29 min•Season 1Ep. 268
Is Britain as divided over COVID as we were over Brexit? Do people really think that if you lost your job during the pandemic, it’s your fault? And if Brexity pundits are so anti-lockdown, why are Leave voters largely in favour of restrictions? Bobby Duffy (Director of the Policy Institute at King’s College ) and Paula Surridge (Deputy Director of the UK in a Changing Europe) have researched our changing attitudes with surprising results. They tell Ros Taylor about the deep impulses driving poli...
Mar 17, 2021•24 min•Season 1Ep. 267
The Metropolitan Police’s brutal intervention during Saturday’s vigil Sarah Everard leaves the country aghast. What really happened? What needs to change if British cities are to be safe for women? Special guest Alex Massie of The Times and The Spectator joins us to look at the “fantastically illiberal” Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, and give his personal crash course on Scottish politics for the inattentive English. “A lot of forces who are no friend of women are jumping on this iss...
Mar 16, 2021•54 min•Season 1Ep. 266
The Met’s outrageous clampdown on the Sarah Everard vigil on Clapham Common has put Priti Patel’s draconian Police, Crime, Sentencing And Courts Bill under a harsh spotlight. Could a bill that effectively outlaws public protest blow up in the Government’s face this week? Ros Taylor explains. “ Public protest has become illegal, and we didn ’ t seem to notice that.” “ A protest looks very different when it’s women doing it.” Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers Jacob Arc...
Mar 15, 2021•23 min•Season 1Ep. 265
“Peter explains better than anyone I know the new world of Putinesque, Trumpian propaganda.” In a weekend bonus, Nick Cohen of The Observer talks to Peter Pomerantsev , author of This Is Not Propaganda : Adventures in the War Against Reality , about how demagogues warp free speech into a weapon against democracy. Why is the modern information battle less of a New Cold War and more a New Thirty Years War? Do we even understand the devil’s bargain that tech giants are offering? We can have perfect...
Mar 14, 2021•25 min•Season 1Ep. 264
Few countries exercise such world-wide fascination while being as little understood outside their own borders as Japan. Christopher Harding , author of The Japanese: A History In 20 Lives , talks to Ros Taylor about the key figures who shaped Japan over the centuries, from princesses and samurai to pop culture visionaries. “ A British delegate who visited Japan in the 1990s said ‘ If this is a recession, then I want one’” “ Japan needs more babies, more immigrants, more robots.” “ People fall in...
Mar 12, 2021•26 min•Season 1Ep. 263
Yemen is suffering the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, a conflict that has killed some 100,000 people since 2015 and left 24m in peril. Now it’s dragging countries across the region into its vortex. How did we get here? Exactly how are Saudi Arabia and Iran involved? Will the election of Joe Biden make a difference? Arthur Snell talks to Laura Cretney , a PhD student at Durham University who works with charities in the region, to disentangle a nightmare confrontation between Houthi rebels, th...
Mar 11, 2021•18 min•Season 1Ep. 262
Amid the chaos of the Capitol Invasion of January 6, keen observers could spot the iconography of Valkism , a weird confected “religion” born out of video game culture that’s now empowering QAnon and far right politics. Former Government advisor and BBC and Reuters correspondent Amil Khan tells Arthur Snell about the crossover of video games, 4Chan, 8Chan and far right politics which produced Valkism and what it means for the fight against extremism. “Some of these people want to create an alter...
Mar 10, 2021•21 min•Season 1Ep. 261
