What is America doing in Ukraine? Part II
68 min listen
Freddy Gray speaks to two American academics, Benjamin Schwarz and Christopher Layne, to discuss America’s role in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Freddy Gray
Freddy Gray is deputy editor of The Spectator
Monday
Thursday
Ukraine’s next move
39 min listen
This week: In his cover piece, journalist Mark Galeotti asks whether Putin can be outsmarted by Zelensky’s counter-offensive. He is joined by The Spectator’s own Svitlana Morenets to discuss Ukraine’s next move. (01:08) Also this week: Journalist David Goodhart writes a moving tribute to his friend Jeremy Clarke, The Spectator’s much-missed Low Life columnist who sadly passed away earlier
DeSantis’s presidential ambitions are crashing to earth
People imagine that the real world is similar to the dark side of the TV show Succession. For some reason we enjoy thinking that media barons and tech tycoons pull the strings of global power, creating the election-deciding narratives which the bovine public then swallows whole. But the truth, as Elon Musk and Ron DeSantis
Wednesday
Can Trump’s opponents prove him wrong on Ukraine?
Boris Johnson, Britain’s most sought-after Churchill impersonator, visited Texas on Monday to urge a group of rich right-wing Americans to never, never, never give in to Vladimir Putin. ‘I just urge you all to stick with it,’ Agent Bojo told a private lunch of conservative politicians and donors in Dallas. ‘You are backing the right
It’s a long way to the presidency for Ron DeSantis
Joe Biden became America’s president in 2021 because the alternative was four more years of Donald Trump. If Ronald Dion DeSantis, who has announced his candidacy on Twitter today, wins the Republican party nomination next year, it will also be because the alternative is you-know-who. Trump fatigue is a real phenomenon: even many Trump supporters
Wednesday
What is America’s Grand Strategy?
42 min listen
Freddy Gray speaks to Michael Anton, professor at Hillsdale College and former member of the National Security Council under George W Bush and Donald Trump. On the podcast Freddy and Michael discuss his speech at the National Conservatism conference about Winston Churchill’s Grand Strategy in an American context.
Friday
What do Donald Trump’s children want?
39 min listen
Freddy Gray is joined by filmmaker, Alex Holder who had access to Trump’s inner circle when making the documentary Unprecedented. On the podcast, they discuss Trump’s supporter base, his relationship with his children and why Ivanka is the favourite.
Thursday
Archive: who on earth is George Santos…
21 min listen
Following the arrest of George Santos on criminal charges, we’ve revisited a podcast with Shawm McCreesh, a features writer at New York Magazine who spent time with Republican Congressman, George Santos.
Wednesday
Does anyone think the sex abuse verdict will stop Donald Trump?
Can a man who has been found ‘civilly liable’ for sexual abuse in court be elected president of the United States? In a normal world, such a verdict might reasonably be expected to torpedo any candidate’s ambitions. But American politics today is the opposite of normal. A Manhattan jury yesterday ordered Donald Trump to pay
Monday
Vote Joe Biden, get Kamala Harris?
Since Joe Biden confirmed that he will run for re-election, the odds of Kamala Harris becoming the first female president of the United States have shrunk – and significantly so. For Harris to take over from Biden, several things would have to happen. Biden would have to keep her as his vice-president for the 2024 campaign. Let’s assume,
Friday
What’s happening to digital media?
30 min listen
Freddy Gray speaks to journalist Ben Smith, whose new book Traffic is an origins story for digital media. On the podcast they discuss how a new genre of journalism was birthed from a desire to cause trouble online, whether woke culture spawned from digital media and if we are nearing the end for the social internet.
Saturday
Is Joe Biden a good Catholic?
33 min listen
Freddy Gray speaks to Ed Condon who is the editor of The Pillar. On the podcast they talk about Biden’s Catholicism; how it plays out in his politics and whether it will be a big part of his presidential campaign.
Wednesday
Is Donald Trump America’s Marine Le Pen?
‘Democracy,’ said H.L. Mencken, ‘is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.’ As we approach 2024, America seems to be proving his point. On Tuesday, a highly unpopular octogenarian President announced that he would be running for re-election next year. Most of Joe Biden’s supporters don’t want him to run and a vast
Monday
Why did Rupert Murdoch fire his most successful host?
Ever since it began in 2016, Tucker Carlson Tonight has been easily the most interesting news show on American television. It was never, as Carlson’s many detractors claim, Trumpist propaganda. On the contrary, Carlson was a rare bright spot of originality in a boringly partisan media landscape. And now he’s gone: fired directly by
Can Joe Biden win again?
In America last week, a 92-year-old media titan agreed to pay out a $787 million (£632 million) settlement with Dominion Voting Systems on behalf of his network Fox News. This morning, the 80-year-old Democratic president has announced that he is running for re-election next year, even though polls suggest 70 per cent of Americans don’t
Friday
Why did Murdoch take so long to settle?
22 min listen
Freddy Gray speaks to Michael Wolff, author of books on Trump and Rupert Murdoch. On the podcast, they talk about the Dominion vs Fox trial settlement. Why did Fox let this case go on for so long?
Tuesday
The Murdoch empire’s darkest secret
One way or another, we’re almost all ‘content creators’ these days, humble social-media serfs toiling away in the Silicon Valley vineyards of the ‘likes’. That’s why dinosaur billionaire media owners – the old kings of content – have taken on mythic qualities even as their empires collapse. It’s why everybody loves the TV show Succession.
Friday
Is progressivism winning in America?
36 min listen
Galen Druke, host of the FiveThirtyEight podcast, joins Freddy Gray on this episode to talk about what to take away from Chicago’s election this week, how well the Biden team is handling the progressive wing of the Democratic party, and whether the Democrats would prefer to face up against Ron or Don as the Republican
Alan Dershowitz: Will Donald Trump get a fair trial?
24 min listen
Donald Trump was in court where he pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying records. To discuss, Freddy Gray is joined by Alan Dershowitz, the American lawyer, and Charles Lipson, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Chicago.
Tuesday
Get ready for the Passion of The Donald
It won’t have escaped Donald Trump’s notice that his arrest has come during Holy Week, when our Lord and Saviour was sentenced by a cruel mob and crucified only to rise again. Trump — aka ‘the Tangerine Jesus’ — has long understood the religious power of politics in America. That’s why ‘I am your retribution’
