If you’re a regular podcast listener, you might have noticed a slight rebranding – we’ve rolled out a fresh look across our podcasts, plus, what was known as The Spectator Podcast is now The Edition. But fear not: underneath the fresh lick of paint, they’re the same podcasts that you know and love.
So can anyone get Trump out of the Oval Office? It’s not that he’s such a brilliant president – he’s not – but that the 17 candidates vying for the Democratic nomination are all united by what Freddy Gray calls ‘a mesmerising mediocrity’. So is Freddy right? Lara Prendergast talks to him on the podcast, as well as Karine Jean-Pierre, former deputy campaign manager for Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign. It’s safe to say that Karine doesn’t quite agree – she argues that what some see as lacklustre performance from some Democratic candidates are simply down to a lack of name recognition in a field with giants like Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. Nothing that more campaigning can’t change! Tune in to decide for yourself.
Plus, what do you do when the political party that you’ve voted for and identified with all your life suddenly doesn’t want you anymore? In this week’s issue, we hear from two political orphans – Tanya Gold, a left wing British Jew who cannot bring herself to vote for Corbyn; and Matthew Parris, a former Tory MP who has left the Conservative party. On the podcast, they discuss each other’s decision, and talk about the sadness of political homelessness. In this unconventional election, they are probably not alone.
And last, this month is the 200th anniversary of George Eliot’s birth. In a new biography of the author, Kathy O’Shaughnessy writes about her unconventional life and work – from openly living with a man married to another woman, to her radical, and sometimes dark, fictional heroines. On the podcast, Kathy tells Lara about the lasting relevance of George Eliot’s work.
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