Patrick McGuinness reads his diary from our 6 June issue about his family’s hometown of Bouillon in Belgium. He reflects on the linguistic and national barriers he crossed to return there each year; on the changes wrought on the town by the end of the industrial era; and on the ways that history and global politics can shape a locality beyond recognition.
It’s the final day of the Republican National Convention. Andrew O’Hagan and Deborah Friedell dissect Trump’s marathon acceptance speech and ask what a second term could look like.
At day three of the Republic National Convention, Andrew O’Hagan and Deborah Friedell discuss what a second Trump presidency would mean for American foreign policy. They compare notes on J.D. Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy, and reflect on his keynote speech.
Andrew O'Hagan and Deborah Friedell return to the Republican National Convention. They explore second day's theme, Make America Safe Again, and discuss how this convention compares to the last one Andrew attended, the RNC in 2004.
Andrew O'Hagan and Deborah Friedell report on day one of the Republican National Convention. They react to Trump's choice of vice president and reflect on the key note speech by Sean O'Brien, the first time the head of the Teamsters' Union has ever addressed the RNC.
The worst thing you can say to anyone who works in hospitality, Mendez writes, is ‘Maybe you’ll meet someone!’ But a chance encounter while waiting tables lead to their new niche. In this episode, Mendez reads their recent piece about the art of audiobook narration and how they became the voice of Pelé.
John Lanchester, Tom Crewe and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite join James Butler to dissect Keir Starmer's victory and the historic collapse of the Conservative Party.
The day before the election, James Butler is joined by William Davies to talk about something everyone seems to agree on: the very poor state of the UK’s public finances.
Tom Stevenson and Iona Craig join James to discuss the challenges facing the next foreign secretary, from Gaza to the pressures of a possible Trump presidency.
For forty years, Thomas James Wise made a fortune forging copies of books that had never existed, sometimes even convincing their authors they were the real deal. Despite a damning exposé by amateur detectives in the 1930s, Wise never confessed or faced legal repercussions, and his fakes have become collectors’ pieces in their own right. Gill Partington joins Tom to explain Wise’s success and final undoing, and to discuss the value of forgeries, hoaxes and reproductions as art.
For the second episode of our series on the UK election, James Butler is joined by Sam Freedman to talk about the enormous challenges facing the next government.
In the first in a series of episodes on the UK general election, James Butler is joined by Ann Pettifor and Adrienne Buller to discuss climate policy and its apparent absence from the campaign so far.
From the ghetto's creation in 1516 until its dissolution at the end of the 18th century, Jews in Venice were confined to a district enclosed by canals, patrolled by guards and locked at night. Yet its residents were essential players in Venetian life, and in practice the ghetto saw far more traffic through its gates than its founders intended. Erin Maglaque joins Tom to discuss what life in the ghetto was like, and why an open-air prison could be considered relatively tolerant by the standards of early modern Europe.
The D-Day planners said that everything would hang on the weather. But who would make the forecast? Stephen Dillane reads Lawrence Hogben’s diary piece on forecasting D-Day by committee, and why they very almost chose the wrong day.
J.G. Ballard’s life and work contains many incongruities, outraging the Daily Mail and being offered a CBE (which he rejected), and variously appealing to both Spielberg and Cronenberg. Edmund Gordon joins Tom to explore Ballard’s strange combination of ‘whisky and soda’ conservatism and the avant-garde.