Australia's military capacity to check Chinese influence is being boosted by a new Anglo-American submarine contract and the establishment of the AUKUS defence pact. But how have Australia's interests been defended until now in the south-west Pacific and what difference will AUKUS make? In this week's Black's History Week podcast, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the past and present of Australia's role in the western alliance. Don’t forget to sub...
Sep 29, 2021•45 min
Is there anything a 21st century military strategist can usefully learn from the tactics of Hannibal or the age of pike, sword and musket? In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black offers The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, a crash course in the history of war. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode. -- Image: A painting depicting The British Army overpowering the Colonialist position during the B...
Sep 22, 2021•43 min
Concluding the Black's History Week series on the deployments of the British armed forces between Waterloo and the fall of Kabul, in this podcast Professor Jeremy Black talks The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the themes, breaks, and continuities that have shaped the British military over the last two hundred years. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode. -- Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (pre...
Sep 15, 2021•48 min
In this edition of Black's History Week, the author of Military Strategy: A Global History, Professor Jeremy Black, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the strategic options for American defence policy in the aftermath of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode. -- Image: US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III holds a press briefing about the US military drawdown in Afgh...
Sep 08, 2021•46 min
Continuing the series of Black's History Week podcasts on British military deployments, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the future role of Britain's armed forces and whether the departure from Kabul marks the end of foreign nation-building operations. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode. -- Image: UK military personnel board a A400M aircraft departing from Kabul on August 28...
Sep 01, 2021•49 min
By his own admission, Vivek Ramaswamy is a traitor to his class. A self-made man who founded a successful bio-tech firm in his 20s, Ramaswamy’s story has the telltale signs of membership of America’s corporate elite. But in his new book, Woke, Inc, he takes aim at fellow business leaders for what he calls “the defining scam of our time”. According to Ramaswamy, big business’s enthusiastic embrace of woke identity politics isn’t just hypocritical but undemocratic. He argues that it’s dividing his...
Aug 31, 2021•24 min
A campaign is underway to elect members to the General Synod of the Church of England under a “Save the Parish” banner. The campaign leader Marcus Walker, the Rector of St Bartholomew’s, described it as “the last chance to save the system that has defined Christianity in this country for 1000 years”. Campaigners say the Church of England hierarchy already squeezes parish churches and is planning to use vital funds to open new churches in places like cafes and cinemas rather than prioritising the...
Aug 23, 2021•32 min
The dramatic events in Afghanistan in recent days mark many things. The end of America’s longest war, the end of the post-9/11 era and the return of the Taliban. They also constitute the first and perhaps defining foreign policy crisis for US President Joe Biden. To try to make sense of the US side of the momentous Afghanistan story, the Critic’s US Editor, Oliver Wiseman spoke to Jacob Heilbrunn, Editor of The National Interest, a foreign policy journal, and Luke Thompson, a Republican strategi...
Aug 20, 2021•30 min
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the performance of British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode. -- Image: A British Army soldier from the 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment secures the helicopter landing strip (HLS) during operation Southern Beast on August...
Aug 18, 2021•54 min
With the abrupt end of the Cold War, how successfully did Britain's armed forces adapt to new challenges - from the sands of Kuwait to the disintegration of Yugoslavia - in the 1990s? The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, talks to Professor Jeremy Black, author of War in the Modern World. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode. -- Image: The Gulf War 1990 - 1991, Two British soldiers in NBC [Nuclear Biological and Chemic...
Aug 17, 2021•45 min
Continuing the Black's History Week podcasts on British military strategy and deployments, in this episode, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the role Britain's nuclear deterrent and conventional forces played in facing the Warsaw Pact from Brezhnev to Gorbachev.
Aug 12, 2021•46 min
Continuing the series on British military deployments over the last two hundred years, in this episode of Black's History Week Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how the British Task Force liberated the Falkland Islands from Argentinian occupation in 1982.
Aug 06, 2021•46 min
Continuing Black History Week's series on the British armed forces, in this podcast, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the British army's thirty year deployment in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode. -- Image: Troops of the 3rd Battalion, Light Infantry of the British Army in Belfast, circa 196...
Jul 28, 2021•51 min
In this episode, The Critic's publisher, Olivia Hartley, speaks to Dr Jon Pike, co-convener of the newly established Open University Gender Critical Research Network and a philosopher of sport and ethics, about setting up the UK’s new network for gender-critical academics and the inclusion of transwomen in women’s sport. Jon tells Olivia that, far from being a gender-critical activist group, the network "isn't a political campaign; it's a research network with a focus on sexed bodies".
Jul 23, 2021•35 min
Continuing our series on Britain's armed forces over the last two hundred years, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency: a global history, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how Britain's armed forces handled nationalist protests and uprisings from the Mediterranean and Middle East to Africa and Southeast Asia during the 1950s and 60s. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode. ...
Jul 22, 2021•45 min
Continuing the series on Britain's armed forces, in this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how British defence priorities adapted from the end of the Second World War to the first years of the Cold War. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode. -- Image: Departure Of British Roops For Singapore In London ...
Jul 15, 2021•49 min
In this episode of The Critic Podcast, Jo Bartosch is joined by Helen Joyce, the Britain editor of The Economist, to talk about her new book: Trans. Bartosch and Joyce discuss the ideology of the Trans movement, the influences behind this new book and how the direction the Trans movement is taking is damaging to young homosexuals. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode. -- Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech....
Jul 13, 2021•40 min
In this third Black's History Week podcast on the role of the British armed forces in the Second World War, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the British contribution to the Allied victory. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode. -- Image: Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
Jul 08, 2021•46 min
In this Critic podcast, the writer Alexander Larman tells The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, why he thinks studying English literature at university is becoming such a deadening experience. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode. -- Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Image: A general view of the Duk...
Jul 06, 2021•28 min
Continuing our series on the performance of the British armed forces in the Second World War, Professor Jeremy Black discusses with The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, morale, naval firepower, the RAF's bombing offensive and the campaigns in Greece, Italy and Normandy. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode. -- Image: 14th February 1940: A crew member of HMS Exeter, which bore the brunt of a battle with the German batt...
Jul 01, 2021•50 min
In this podcast, The Critic's publisher, Olivia Hartley, talks to journalist and feminist campaigner Julie Bindel about her July feature, "When is a rape not a rape?", which covers LGBT charity Stonewall and its campaign to change the UK’s sex-by-deception clause. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Jun 29, 2021•25 min
Introducing The Critic's new column, "This Sporting Life", Graham Stewart talks to the sports writer and Critic columnist, Boris Starling, about the enduring appeal of a British Lions tour — and the players who regard it to be more memorable than winning the Rugby World Cup. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Jun 28, 2021•22 min
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how Britain's armed forces adapted to the challenges of fighting the Second World War. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode. -- Image: Gloster Meteor. British jet fighter which first flew in 1943. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images) Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestr...
Jun 24, 2021•53 min
On this week's Critic podcast, our Online editor David Scullion speaks to Christopher Howarth about the plot to remove Theresa May from office. In a real-life political thriller, the senior parliamentary researcher spills the beans for the first time about how his visit to a dying man in hospital secured a vital piece of information which led to the Prime Minister's downfall. Christopher's article is in the July issue of The Critic which will be available in shops from Thursday. -- Music: “Moder...
Jun 22, 2021•31 min
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Avoiding Armageddon: From the Great War to the Fall of France 1918-40, talks to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about the state and preparedness of Britain's armed forces in the lead-up to the Second World War. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode. -- Image: Recruits at an Army school for advanced tank training are instructed on how to ...
Jun 16, 2021•48 min
Why are the membership numbers of the national trust falling? Are they placing themselves in socio-political conversations where they don’t belong? What is the purpose of the Trust in modern society? In this episode, Editorial Assistant at The Critic, Anna Price, speaks to Constance Watson, Assistant Editor of the Catholic Herald and author of the piece: Burned by political expedience in the June issue of The Critic about how the National Trust’s priorities are potentially in the wrong place. --...
Jun 16, 2021•18 min
In this episode of The Critic Podcast, Josephine Bartosch, journalist and regular contributor toThe Critic, speaks with Maya Forstater about her recent victory at the Employment Appeals Tribunal. Forstater had lost her job after posting tweets on gender recognition, following which she lost her original case at a tribunal in 2019. However, last week a High Court judge ruled that her "gender-critical" beliefs fell under the Equalities Act. -- Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech....
Jun 15, 2021•41 min
In this edition of Black's History Week, what sort of war was Britain's armed forces equipped to fight in 1914 and how successfully did they adapt to the reality of the first world war? Professor Jeremy Black, whose books include The World at War 1914-1945 and The Great War and the Making of the Modern World, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode. -- Image: First World War ...
Jun 10, 2021•50 min
All major parties agree that the UK needs to cut carbon emissions but is the goal of "Net Zero" achievable or will it leave us, in the words of Steve Baker MP, "quivering under duvets in the dark on windless winter nights"? On this podcast the former Brexit rebel explains his scepticism with The Critic's Online Editor David Scullion. -- Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Jun 08, 2021•40 min
Should heritage be preserved at all costs or can defunct and forgotten buildings make space for better use? On this week's Critic Podcast, our Online editor David Scullion discusses with Brice Stratford about the restoration of parliament and the heel-dragging by MPs over what should be done. Stratford argues that there are parallels between today and the conditions in 1834 just before the palace was destroyed by fire. Stratford has written about the issue here, and also about the closure of the...
Jun 03, 2021•29 min
