Best of the Spectator

In this week's Book Club podcast, I'm joined by the theoretical physicist and writer Carlo Rovelli to discuss his new book 85 Seconds to Midnight: A Physicist's Argument Against Rearmament, where in imitation of Einstein and Bertrand Russell, he uses his platform as a public intellectual to speak against the logic of nuclear escalation. He tells me what the Nazis got right and the US got wrong in the later years of the Second World War, why physicists have a bad conscience about the bomb – and why the threat to civilisation has never been greater.
Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
Edited by Ed Parker.

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This week: Starmer’s exit, Burnham’s rise – and the court of King Andy.
As Keir Starmer resigns after less than two years in office, Michael and Madeline ask what really brought his premiership to an end. Was Starmer simply overtaken by events, or did his downfall reveal something deeper: a disdain for politics, a mishandling of Southport and the grooming gangs scandal, and a growing gulf between Labour’s governing class and the country?
They also discuss Andy Burnham’s march on Westminster. Is he the charismatic, communitarian figure Labour needs to take on Reform – or a political people-pleaser surrounded by the wrong people?
Plus: what does the Conservatives’ victory in Aberdeen South tell us about net zero, Reform and whether the Tories really are doomed to become Nigel Farage’s roadkill?
Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

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Freddy Gray is joined by Nate Soares, president of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, to discuss the risks posed to humanity by AI. Warning that sufficiently intelligent AI may stop following human instructions entirely, Soares tells Freddy what, if anything, could keep AI from spiralling out of control.

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Illegal tobacco is estimated to cost the UK around £2 billion a year in lost tax revenue, while undercutting legitimate retailers and providing a lucrative market for organised crime.
Sarah Connor, UK director of communications at JTI, Rohan Pike, an international illicit trade expert and former police officer, and Andrew Boff, Conservative chair of the London Assembly, join The Spectator’s economics editor Michael Simmons to discuss how illegal tobacco is affecting Britain’s high streets. They examine whether rising tobacco duties and new regulations are pushing consumers towards the black market; what Britain can learn from Australia, where the legal tobacco market has been ‘given up’ to criminals; and whether stronger enforcement, higher fines and better support for trading standards can protect honest shopkeepers.
This podcast is sponsored by JTI, with editorial control retained by The Spectator.

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On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Freddy Gray asks whether the Iran deal will destroy J.D. Vance; Matt Ridley argues that Britain must finally embrace gene editing; Peter Parker explains the problem with ‘queer art'; and finally, Lloyd Evans says the NHS treats everyone fairly – with contempt.

Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

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