Lara Prendergast is executive editor of The Spectator. She hosts two Spectator podcasts, The Edition and Table Talk, and edits The Spectator’s food and drink coverage.
21 min listen
Ingrid Newkirk is a British-American activist, who founded People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in 1980. She speaks to Lara about her earliest memories of food, the joys of a Greggs vegan sausage roll, and defends PETA’s controversial tactics.
35 min listen
This week: For her cover piece, The Spectator’s political editor Katy Balls writes that Boris Johnson could be attempting to spearhead an insurgency against the prime minister. She joins the podcast alongside historian and author Sir Anthony Seldon, to discuss whether – in light of the Privileges Committee’s findings – Boris is going to seriously up the
31 min listen
This week: Prince Harry has taken the stand to give evidence in the Mirror Group phone hacking trial which The Spectator’s deputy editor Freddy Gray talks about in his cover piece for the magazine. He is joined by Patrick Jephson, former private secretary to Princess Diana, to discuss whether Harry’s ‘suicide mission’ against the press is ill-advised.
23 min listen
Eddie is an American author, chef, restauranteur, presenter and former attorney. He has recently brought his famous Taiwanese bao buns over the UK, and they are now available at Neighbourhood in Islington and Shelter Hall in Brighton. On the podcast he tells Liv and Lara about his early memories of cooking with his mother, how
39 min listen
On this week’s episode: Price caps are back in the news as the government is reportedly considering implementing one on basic food items. What happened to the Rishi Sunak who admired Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Lawson? In her cover article this week, our economics editor Kate Andrews argues that the prime minister and his party
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
28 min listen
Sarah Woods is an author and cook, who left her corporate job behind to pursue her real passion after reaching the final of BBC1’s Best Home Cook 2020. Her first cookbook, Desi Kitchen, has recently been released. On the podcast she tells Liv and Lara about her upbringing in a Punjabi household and how she was
45 min listen
This week: Spectator editor Fraser Nelson writes in this week’s cover story about how Brexit has led to Britain having more, not less, immigration – Rishi Sunak’s government is masking dysfunction in the welfare system by bringing in people to fill vacant jobs. To make his case, Fraser joins us alongside our economics editor Kate Andrews.
47 min listen
This week: Having been found guilty of sexual assault, is Donald Trump still in the running for the White House? In his cover piece, Niall Ferguson says he could still defy gravity. He joins the podcast alongside Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of The National Interest. (01:00) Also this week: Journalist Andrew Watts interviews the Reverend Canon
An election looms and political parties are already talking ‘voter demographics’. Every few years, the wonks of Westminster pick a social stereotype and decide it represents a crucial group of swing voters. We’ve had Mondeo Man, Waitrose Woman and Pebbledash Person. Who will it be in 2024? It could be Deano, a snooty term used
35 min listen
Niki Segnit is the author of the hit cooking books The Flavour Thesaurus and Lateral Cooking. Her new book The Flavour Thesaurus more flavours: Plant-led pairings, recipes and ideas for cooks, is out this Thursday 11th May. On the podcast she speaks to Lara and Liv about weird and wonderful flavour combinations, her childhood fascination with Oxo cubes and
38 min listen
This week: In his cover piece for the magazine, Daily Mail writer, author of Queen of Our Times and co-presenter of the Tea at the Palace podcast, Robert Hardman looks ahead to the reign of King Charles III. He joins the podcast alongside historian David Starkey, who is interviewed in the arts pages of The Spectator by Lynn Barber (01:10) Also this
37 min listen
On this week’s episode: In her cover piece for The Spectator, journalist Louise Perry questions whether it is moral to separate a newborn child from their surrogate. She is joined by Sarah Jones, head of SurrogacyUK and five time surrogate mother, to debate the ethics of surrogacy (01:07). Also this week: In the books section of
40 min listen
On the podcast this week: In his cover piece for The Spectator, Adrian Wooldridge argues that meritocracy is under attack. He says that the traditional societal pyramid – with the upper class at the top and the lower class at the base – has been inverted by a new culture which prizes virtue over meritocracy. He
I was tired when I went to see Milk at the Wellcome Collection, having been up for much of the night feeding my baby. In European and Christian imagery, one sign said, ‘a lactating woman often represents fertility, charity and abundance’, but I was not feeling full of the milk of human kindness. Nor was
33 min listen
Jonathan Ray is The Spectator’s drinks editor and formerly wine critic for the Telegraph. He has also written several books on the subject of wine and how to buy it. On the podcast Lara, Liv and Johnny share a glass of wine and discuss his earliest memories of food, his go-to hangover cure and his desert island meal.
The Easter lily, or Lilium longiflorum, grows from a bulb buried underground to bear white, trumpeting flowers which face outwards and smell divine. One doesn’t need to be an expert in semiotics to see why it came to be associated with the resurrection. In Christian tradition, lilies were said to have grown in the garden
36 min listen
On the podcast: In his cover piece for the magazine, journalist Jonathan Miller argues that President Macron is pitting himself against the people by refusing to back down from his plans to raise the age of retirement. He is joined by regular Coffee House contributor Gavin Mortimer, to ask whether this could be Macron’s last
23 min listen
Fadi Kattan is a Palestinian chef and hotelier who has recently brought a menu inspired by all the different regions of his home country to his new restaurant Akub, in Notting Hill. On the podcast he talks about inheriting his love of food from his grandmothers, what it was like opening a restaurant on the occupied
33 min listen
This week: In her cover piece for The Spectator, Harriet Sergeant asks what’s happened pupil absence which has increased since the pandemic. She is joined by The Spectator’s data editor Michael Simmons to account for the staggering number of children who were failed by the government’s Covid response (01:08). Also this week: Owen Matthews, The Spectator’s Russia correspondent, looks at
