Is America winning the hydro-carbon war?
22 min listen
Freddy Gray talks to Seb Kennedy, founding editor of Energy Flux, about the US increasing its exports of liquefied natural gas to Europe to help relieve soaring costs.
Freddy Gray
Freddy Gray is deputy editor of The Spectator
Friday
Thursday
Has gambling become the great British addiction?
When I was 14 my father took me to a bookmaker’s and encouraged me to place a bet. He wanted to show me the futility of gambling, I think. Big mistake. I picked a horse called Maroof at 66/1 in the Queen Elizabeth II stakes at Ascot. My father put on 50p each way. Maroof
Friday
Why was the Hunter Biden laptop story covered up?
It’s now a familiar pattern – a sensational news story is dismissed by serious journalists as bogus right-wing agitprop. You’d have to be a swivel-eyed conspiracy theorist to believe that. You don’t want to be one of those. Then, a year or so later, the same important media organs, the same authorities who made you
Wednesday
Should the West offer Putin an ‘Offramp’?
39 min listen
Freddy talks to Anatoly Karlin, author of the Powerful Takes Substack. Speaking from Moscow, Anatoly discloses the extent of support for anti-war protests in Russia and the role of the US in inciting nationalism in Ukraine.
Wednesday
The kleptocratic connections between the US and Ukraine
30 min listen
Freddy sits down with Casey Michel, author of the book American Kleptocracy. On the podcast Casey talks about the curious and rather shady financial ties between Ukraine and America.
Saturday
The myopic focus on racism at the Polish-Ukrainian border
There are already a hell of a lot of foreign correspondents and human-rights workers at the Ukrainian-Polish border – an immigration problem all by themselves, perhaps. Quite a few of these reporters seem to be desperately seeking ‘racism’ stories, since that is increasingly the only news which the English-speaking media seems able to process. The
Freddy Gray, Lionel Shriver and Philip Patrick
21 min listen
On this week’s episode, we’ll hear from Freddy Gray on his time spent on the Poland–Ukraine border. (00:52) Next, Lionel Shriver on the return of actual badness. (06:28) And finally, Philip Patrick on the strange east Asian practice of hiring a ‘White Monkey’. (15:13) Produced and presented by Sam Holmes Subscribe to The Spectator today
Friday
Russia’s invasion: one week on
12 min listen
It’s been just over a week since Vladimir Putin began his invasion of Ukraine and in that time we have seen some truly unprecedented events: A former comedian leading an extremely effective homeland resistance against one of the world’s largest armies, an estimated million people fleeing over the borders and a more unified Western response
Thursday
Putin’s rage
38 min listen
In this week’s episode: What’s the mood on the ground in Ukraine and Russia? For this week’s cover piece, Owen Matthews asks whether the invasion of Ukraine will mean the end of Putin’s regime. And in this week’s Spectator diary, Freddy Gray reports on pride and paranoia on the streets of Lviv. They join the
In Lviv, the mood is inspiring – and fanatical
Lviv, Ukraine On the Ukrainian side of the Polish border, near a place called Shehyni where the refugee crisis is brewing, an old black man approaches us. ‘Am I in Moldova?’ he asks gently in French, pointing to the fence. ‘No,’ I tell him. ‘That’s Poland.’ Moldova is 250 miles away. The man shrugs and
Wednesday
Joe Biden’s gung-ho State of the Union speech
It’s arguably not the right moment to focus on Joe Biden’s verbal slips, but it is a little unnerving when the leader of the free world says ‘Iranians’ — or possibly ‘Uranians’ — when he means to say ‘Ukrainians’. These are dangerous times and we need politicians to speak clearly. Still, Biden got in his
Friday
How should Biden respond to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine?
24 min listen
Freddy Gray talks to Jacob Heilbrunn, the editor of The National Interest, about Vladimir Putin’s military action.
Wednesday
Would Trump have prevented the crisis in Ukraine?
‘I know Vladimir Putin very well,’ said Donald Trump yesterday, speaking of the Ukraine crisis, ‘he would have never done during the Trump administration what he is doing now.’ As with a lot of Trump utterances, that statement is at once arrogant, preposterous — and probably true. Maybe it is a coincidence — or Trump’s
Why the silence over Biden’s links with Ukraine?
‘He has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.’ So once said Robert Gates, the former US defence secretary, of the now president Joe Biden. We don’t yet know if Biden is wrong about the current Ukraine crisis. We may be about to find out.
Saturday
Is Joe Biden all that bad?
32 min listen
Freddy Gray talks to Dr Julie Norman, lecturer and co-director of the Centre on US politics at University College London, about the case for the defence of the Biden presidency so far.
Friday
Is it possible to be a conservative on social media?
28 min listen
Freddy sits down with Lauren Southern a former YouTube personality and now a documentary filmmaker. Lauren has been described as one of the leaders of the Alt-Right movement. Which is a label Lauren herself thinks doesn’t actually mean anything. On the podcast, Lauren and Freddy get into what direction the online right will go next,
Tuesday
The Starmer mob moral panic
In the long history of British democracy, politicians have from time to time been heckled and abused by rowdy loons on their way to the House of Commons. It was Keir Starmer’s turn yesterday, again, as a gaggle of hooligans shouted unpleasant remarks at him. When these things happen, it’s seldom an edifying spectacle. But
Friday
Is Facebook in a ‘death spiral’?
12 min listen
Freddy Gray talks to Guy Clapperton, the tech journalist and host of the Near-Futurist podcast about the recent collapse in Facebook’s share price, and the social media giant’s prospects long-term.
Monday
Are Kamala Harris's days as Veep numbered?
President Joe Biden promised last week to nominate the first black woman to the Supreme Court. ‘Long overdue,’ he says. When it comes to elevating African-American females to high office, Biden has form. He chose Kamala Harris, remember, to be the first woman US Vice President of colour. But what if Biden elected to choose
Thursday
Tucker Carlson: Why should America go to war over Ukraine?
24 min listen
On Spectator TV this week Freddy Gray interviews the Fox News host Tucker Carlson on what role the US should play in the Russia/Ukraine conflict. Here is the full unedited conversation. ‘Western European nations — which I think we at this point can trust to have weapons — should defend themselves. I mean, that’s the
