This week saw a series of crunch votes in the commons on the EU withdrawal bill and the role of parliament in the exit process. The government escaped defeat—just—but only by making dramatic last minute concessions. It promised Tory Remainers that parliament will indeed play a significant role. Antoinette Sandbach was one of the MPs to receive personal assurances from the prime minister and she explains what was said.But over recent days Brexiteers have insisted no such assurance can have been m...
Jun 14, 2018•26 min
When Michael McFaul became the United States' ambassador to Russia, he didn't realise what he was letting himself in for. As the architect of Barack Obama's "Reset," he thought he'd be welcomed. But instead Vladimir Putin's cronies orchestrated a campaign of harassment and spread lurid personal allegations. McFaul talks to Sameer Rahim about his new book, From Cold War to Hot Peace, which tells of how US-Russia relations broke down and why Putin's aggressive posture on Crimea and Syria seems to ...
Jun 06, 2018•22 min
This week it’s football. The World Cup is fast approaching and we are preparing for what is usually one of the greatest sporting spectacles on earth. But with a cloud of corruption hanging over the event, could we fall out of love with the World Cup altogether? Jonathan Liew of the Independent has written an essay on this subject for our June issue. Here he talks the question through with Prospect’s Deputy Editor Steve Bloomfield. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
May 30, 2018•22 min
Sameer Rahim talks to philosopher John Gray about what atheists get wrong about atheism. Dismissing the "God debate," which as a non-believer Gray has no interest in, instead he focuses on the variety of atheisms on offer in the modern world: from liberalism as a modern day secular religion to the atheism of silence of Spinoza. Gray, as usual, takes no prisoners. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 23, 2018•32 min
China is the new great global power. But while much has been said about China’s economic and military heft, what about the rise of Chinese ideas? As Beijing grows increasingly dominant we will have to decide how firmly we hold western values of academic freedom and human rights: they will increasingly be challenged.Tom Clark is joined by Isabel Hilton, who has written an essay on China for our new issue, Kerry Brown, who examines how Australia is dealing with China’s rise, and Rana Mitter who di...
May 17, 2018•42 min
The unipolar world of a dominant United States is falling away as other nations—most prominently China—come to the fore. Ian Bremmer, the American political scientist, speaks to Prospect Deputy Editor Steve Bloomfield about his new book Us and Them. The average citizen across the west is not a believer in "globalism," he says. Executive Editor Jay Elwes speaks to David Omand, former head of GCHQ about how the internet is shaping and shifting politics around the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast....
May 09, 2018•26 min
We’ve all read the local election headlines by now: disappointment for Labour, relief for the Conservatives. But what are the deeper trends at play? For this week’s edition of Headspace the Prospect team tunnels deeper into the results with help from psephology great David Butler and Jade Azim, head of Women in Political Data. We ask why Labour failed to deliver on expectations and what it all means for the shifting contours of the British political landscape. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priv...
May 04, 2018•29 min
Article 50 is ticking down and the politics is getting messier. A series of government defeats in the Lords are setting the stage for a dramatic scrap in the Commons. John Kerr, the man who wrote the exit clause, sits down with Victoria Hewson of the Institute of Economic Affairs, as well as Prospect’s Tom Clark and Alex Dean. They try to make sense of the unfolding drama in Westminster. Just how is this immense constitutional challenge going to play out? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy f...
Apr 25, 2018•34 min
The novelist Will Self talks to Prospect's Tom Clark and Sameer Rahim about his experiences with drugs, and how they’ve shaped his view of the world. He discusses his recent essay for Prospect which examines the new book by Michael Pollan and also offers some useful advice for those who’ve accidentally taken too much acid. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 19, 2018•33 min
If modern economic theory led to the Financial Crisis of 2008, some of its basic ideas need to change—but how? In this podcast, Howard Reed describes how the discipline went wrong, and how it must be reformed and Linda Yueh asks how the great economists of the nineteenth century might have reacted to modern times.And if we do develop a new economic outlook, who will be in No 10 to implement it? Jacob Rees-Mogg? Perhaps, says Sonia Purnell, who describes the Tory MP’s continuing allure for his pa...
Apr 11, 2018•40 min
Britain’s international relationships are in a highly sensitive moment, not only with adversaries such as Russia but with more traditionally friendly states such as the United States. And with Vladimir Putin playing the poison-handed joker on the world stage, how should Britain approach these crucial diplomatic challenges? What can Britain offer and what do we want?This podcast features interviews with Jane Kinninmont of Chatham House, an expert on Saudi Arabian politics and Luke Harding of the ...
Mar 28, 2018•33 min
Jay Elwes takes a deep dive into the aftermath of the attempted assassination in Salisbury of Sergei and Yulia Skripal. Why has this happened? Can we be certain Russia is behind it? What is Putin’s game?Featuring comment from Jonathan Eyal, one of Britain’s most experienced Russia experts, Pauline Neville-Jones, the former head of the UK Joint Intelligence Committee, and Anatol Lieven of Georgetown University, this edition goes deep into the world of espionage, disinformation and the strange log...
Mar 21, 2018•39 min
This week Tom Clark, editor of Prospect, sits down with Cathy Rentzenbrink, the writer, and Joanna Bourke, the social historian, to discuss our changing relationship with death.Medical science is now able to prolong human life in a way that was unthinkable even ten years ago. But is it in our interest to extend life in that way? Who benefits from putting people into this half-alive state? And how is digital technology affecting our ability to mourn?Also on the podcast Philip Ball, the science wr...
Mar 16, 2018•40 min
This week, Prospect’s Editor Tom Clark sits down with Shami Chakrabarti, the lawyer and Labour peer whose new book, "Of Women," takes a close look at the place of women in society and reveals in uncomfortable detail the gross unfairness that they still face. But then the Labour Party is not immune from sexism in its own ranks—and unlike the Conservative Party has never had a female leader. Chakrabarti thinks that record is set to change. Anne Perkins of the Guardian and Sameer Rahim, Prospect’s ...
Mar 07, 2018•29 min
Prospect Editor Tom Clark sits down with Steven Pinker, the Harvard scientist, to discuss his new book on the Enlightenment and how that period in the development of human thought continues to shape our world.The ideals of reason and tolerance are winning out, he says, and the result is immense material progress. Things are quite simply getting better all the time—contrary to popular belief.That’s the argument. But is the division of history into pre- and post-Enlightenment as clear-cut as his b...
Feb 27, 2018•36 min
Lionel Shriver, Afua Hirsch and Mary Beard talk freedom of speech, power and the new culture wars. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feb 21, 2018•48 min
Prospect today publishes an exclusive podcast interview with John Sawers, head of MI6 from 2009-2014. Sawers raises deep concerns over the security and intelligence consequences of Brexit. He says: “My concern on the intelligence and security front is over the exchange of data. Data is now central to the way in which security services in particular monitor threats. Track people who might pose a threat to UK security—and the rules on exchange of data are going to be set in the EU and we won’t be ...
Feb 14, 2018•33 min
The immense political, constitutional and legal challenge posed by Brexit becomes clearer by the day. With talks now stepping up a gear and turning to the future relationship, Prospect Editor Tom Clark and Deputy Digital Editor Alex Dean sat down with representatives from either side of the debate. Gisela Stuart, the Labour politician who chaired Vote Leave, clashed with Ian Dunt, Remainer and editor of politics.co.uk. Prospect’s Executive Editor Jay Elwes spoke to polling extraordinaire John Cu...
Feb 06, 2018•29 min
Prospect’s Editor, Tom Clark, spoke to the writer and academic Shahidha Bari about her recent essay on the problem of art made by terrible men. What should our attitude be to their work and does history give examples of how those views might change over time? Stephanie Boland, Digital Editor and Sameer Rahim, Arts and Books Editor were on hand to offer their insights, in the first in a new series of weekly podcasts from Prospect. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jan 31, 2018•26 min
Not so long ago the web was on the quirky edges of life, but today it is at its heart. John Naughton started out as an enthusiast, but today he joins Tom Clark to explain why it has fallen prey to corporate capture and bred a new surveillance capitalism. James Ball explains how social media has been used to brainwash voters. Meanwhile, Samira Shackle comes back from a trip to Mosul, the Iraqi city until recently under IS control, and explains how blameless citizens there are today paying the pri...
Jan 19, 2018•33 min
Not long ago, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton said there was no more point in arguing with globalisation than the weather: it was an unstoppable wind of change. No longer. It has spun into reverse. Dani Rodrik joins Tom Clark and explains why good economics always made hyper-globalisation a dubious proposition. Meanwhile, Keynes biographer Robert Skidelsky reappraises the record of one thoughtful globaliser: Gordon Brown. And feminist Lynne Segal takes on another sell from the economics profession: ...
Dec 12, 2017•37 min
Britain’s business leaders are increasingly jittery about a “cliff edge” Brexit. But is leaving Europe necessarily a threat for UK PLC, rather than an opportunity? Economists Adam Posen and Diane Coyle join Tom Clark and give the low-down, both on the scale of the coming shock as they see it, and the pre-existing frailty of the low-productivity British economy. Meanwhile, Andrew Dickson has taken a trip to Bilbao and asks whether culture is the key to restarting an economy. Hosted on Acast. See ...
Nov 14, 2017•32 min
Dutchman Joris Luyendijk imagined he was moving in with European cousins when he arrived in London; six years later he was cheering on Brexit. He tells Tom Clark how he learned to loathe England. At least Britain can laugh at itself—Sameer Rahim has been talking to our greatest living satirist, Armando Iannucci. All nations are defined by the stories they tell about themselves, and Daniella Peled reviews the work of the new Palestinian Museum in putting twists in the tale of a people without a l...
Oct 06, 2017•31 min
Prospect has a new podcast series starting this week, called How To Fix... - and we'd like to share it with our Headspace listeners. In the first episode, Steve Bloomfield was joined by Andrew Dilnot, Liz Kendall and Daniel Drepper to discuss social care—what's wrong with it, and how we could make it better.You can subscribe now to hear future episodes at: http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/howtofixShow notesHere’s Andrew Dilnot’s report on Funding of Care and Support. webarchive.nationalarchives...
Sep 19, 2017•28 min
Just how much difference — or not — do the quirks of an individual make to the tide of history? In this month’s episode we welcome historian-turned-Cabinet minister Andrew Adonis, who claims every election is won by the more talented leader. We hear from Wittgenstein's biographer, Ray Monk, who argues that one of the greatest philosophical minds of the lot—Gottlob Frege—lived in a husk of a man. Finally, the globe-trotting journalist, Wendell Steavenson, who followed a refugee family from Syria ...
Sep 13, 2017•35 min
This month Tom Clark and guests chew over three simmering—or potential—culture wars.Immigration is often said to divide the "metropolitan elite" from "the masses", but Steve Bloomfield says that Canada proves that, done the right way, immigration can be popular.Jessica Abrahams fills us in on what's good, what's bad and what's complacent in fourth-wave feminism.And the Sun's Emily Andrews fills us in on how insiders fear that the change of the guards at Buckingham Palace that will bring in Charl...
Aug 15, 2017•35 min
Alison Wolf, Paul Ormerod and Adam Tooze join Prospect Editor Tom Clark to discuss whether it’s a good thing that so many people go to university; why trust in experts has fallen so low; and how, 10 years on from the banking crisis, a new system of regulation has been quietly introduced under-the-radar. But how sustainable is it? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 14, 2017•35 min
The malconents have, once again, wrought revenge on the know-it-alls, landing Britain with a hung parliament instead of the predicted Conservative landslide. Steve Richards sees election 2017 as one more instance of the worldwide trend for outsiders causing an upset at the expense of an establishment which has lost all legitimacy since the economic crisis of a decade ago. Rachel Sylvester says the campaign performed an X-ray on Theresa May’s political soul, and revealed a brittle character that ...
Jun 20, 2017•32 min
Nick Cohen, Matthew Parris and Meg Russell (Constitution Unit) join Tom Clark and a live audience to discuss where Theresa May’s surprise ballot will leave the government, the opposition and a divided country. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 06, 2017•1 hr 14 min
In the ninth edition of Prospect's monthly podcast, Nick Cohen, Christine Ockrent and Geoffrey Wheatcroft join our editor, Tom Clark, to discuss the British and French elections, as well as the extraordinary resilience of the Tory party. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 12, 2017•27 min
