The Critic Show
Episodes
Debunking Trans ideology
13 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of The Critic Podcast, Jo Bartosch is joined by Helen Joyce, the Britain editor of The Economist, to talk about her new book: Trans. B...
Is the English lit degree killing love for literature?
06 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this Critic podcast, the writer Alexander Larman tells The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, why he thinks studying English literature at ...
Stonewall's war on women
29 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this podcast, The Critic's publisher, Olivia Hartley, talks to journalist and feminist campaigner Julie Bindel about her July feature, "When is a...
How does a Lions Tour compare to playing in the Rugby World Cup?
28 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Introducing The Critic's new column, "This Sporting Life", Graham Stewart talks to the sports writer and Critic columnist, Boris Starling, about th...
How I brought down Theresa May
22 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On this week's Critic podcast, our Online editor David Scullion speaks to Christopher Howarth about the plot to remove Theresa May from office. In a r...
Has the National Trust forgotten its purpose?
16 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Why are the membership numbers of the national trust falling? Are they placing themselves in socio-political conversations where they don’t belong? ...
Maya Forstater: my fight against trans-activism
15 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of The Critic Podcast, Josephine Bartosch, journalist and regular contributor toThe Critic, speaks with Maya Forstater about her recen...
Is "Net Zero" achievable?
08 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
All major parties agree that the UK needs to cut carbon emissions but is the goal of "Net Zero" achievable or will it leave us, in the words of Steve...
Parliament will burn again
03 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Should heritage be preserved at all costs or can defunct and forgotten buildings make space for better use? On this week's Critic Podcast, our Online...
Man About Town
28 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As the literary would comes out of its Covid-induced hibernation, The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, discusses with the writer and journalis...
The cloak of woke
25 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Are progressive leaders more moral than their conservative rivals or are they just better at doing politics? In this podcast The Critic's Online edito...
Should the government ban "gay cure"?
14 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Matthew Roberts, the Minister of Trinity Church York and Jo Bartosch, a writer and reporter for Lesbian and Gay news, share their concerns with The Cr...
Napoleon Bonaparte: The man behind the myth
07 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week marked the bicentenary of the death of Napoleon Bonaparte on the remote South Atlantic island of St Helena. In this podcast, The Critic's p...
Psychological cures to social ills?
05 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From fighting gender inequality with power poses to defeating racism with unconscious bias tests, psychologists are not shy when it comes to the claim...
Modernising the Royal Family
23 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Where has "modernising the royal family" taken Britain's monarchy and where can it go next? If the age of chivalry is dead, what can the crown put in ...
68: Getting the barnacles off
20 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Chairman of the Northern Ireland Select Committee Simon Hoare and David Hoey, businessman and producer of the PoliticalOD podcast debate the merit...
67: Has China initiated a Cold War against Britain and the United States?
06 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Is Beijing's growing assertiveness towards its neighbours and especially with Britain and the United States a reflection of Chinese self-confidence an...
Gaming Holyrood
01 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Alex Salmond is encouraging Scottish nationalists to 'game' Holyrood's electoral system by voting for their SNP constituency candidate but on the reg...
Cancelling Kevin Myers
24 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Is Sinn Fein's current popularity on both sides of the Irish border the fruition of decades of its left-wing campaigning paying off, or a conscious br...
The cancelled charity boss who wants to be mayor
19 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Critic's David Scullion talks to Nick Buckley about the reasons why he is standing for Mayor of Manchester. Right now we’re offering 3 months f...
Born digital
16 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of The Critic's podcast, the theme is the dangers of our addiction to digital information, social media, and the algorithms that dire...
How the government has exploited our human response to danger
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this podcast, writer, photographer, and face of the March edition of The Critic, Laura Dodsworth talks about her cover piece, Faith Masks, which ...
The detransitioners
16 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There is no reliable data on the number of people who regret their decision to undergo transgender surgery. James Caspian, a trained psychotherapist w...
Are British universities unwittingly arming China?
11 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this Critic magazine podcast, Graham Stewart and David Scullion talk to Radomir Tylecote about his research into how academics at British univers...
The slab from the lab – is meat cultured from cells the future (or end) of farming?
22 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The entrepreneur Jim Mellon has a track record in investing in some of the technologies and innovations that shape our future. The one that is preoccu...
62: The Northern Ireland Protocol: teething problems or permanent damage?
18 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's Critic Podcast, David Scullion speaks to the DUP leader in Westminster about an aspect of the Brexit deal under so much attention recen...
Michael Ashcroft on the rise of Rishi Sunak: what is he thinking? What does he intend?
10 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Only a year ago, Rishi Sunak was a name known only to close followers of Westminster politics. Now the Chancellor of the Exchequer is the most importa...
The Gove Accords
08 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
After Michael Gove unexpectedly struck an agreement with EU Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič on Northern Ireland, the the UK agreed to rem...
Get stuck into mudlarking
03 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The River Thames has been the site of constant human activity for at least two millennia... is it any surprise that so much evidence of this history w...
59: Boris's lockdown rebels
01 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Critic's political team discuss whether the parliamentary arithmetic means Boris Johnson should be worried about the next vote to impose restricti...
58: John Longworth: My role in Brexit
24 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's podcast David Scullion talks to British businessman and longtime Brexit campaigner John Longworth about his role in achieving a vote to...
57: Feminists must reject left and right
17 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the latest issue of The Critic Magazine, Julie Bindel reveals how abused women are being let down by domestic violence perpetrator programmes, whil...
Trump v Biden: America's messy election
05 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
America is still counting the votes, but as things stand, Joe Biden is on course to be the next president of the United States. Donald Trump's chanc...
Click all about it!
04 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Critic's political sketch-writer, Rob Hutton, previously spent 16 years reporting on Westminster's comings and goings from the very different vant...
Can British manufacturing recover?
27 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this podcast, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to the author of The Elephant in the Room, the entrepreneur John Mills, chairm...
Is it too late for Trump?
23 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The second–and final–US presidential debate of the 2020 election campaign ended as many viewers and commentators say they hoped it would begin: wi...
Conflict in the Caucasus
20 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Azerbaijan has attacked Armenian-backed forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, Russia has guaranteed Armenia's territory whilst Turkey, a NATO member, is backing...
Excl: President of Armenia says that “excluding Turkey” is “key to peace” in the Caucasus
20 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
With Azerbaijan attacking Armenian-backed positions in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh, the president of Armenia, Armen Sarkissian, spoke to Kapil Komi...
51: Are conservatives losing?
20 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's podcast, David Scullion speaks to Ben Woodfinden, a political theorist at McGill University, Montreal about whether conservatives are f...
Harris vs Pence: What did we learn from the vice presidential debate?
08 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It has been an extraordinary few weeks in US presidential politics – not least with President Trump's illness. Meanwhile, it was the understudies ...
What's the point of a Tory Party Conference?
08 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As conference season went online this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the experience proved vastly different for those who usually attend the an...
Trump v Biden: what did we learn from the first presidential debate?
30 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Last night, Donald Trump and Joe Biden faced off in the first of three presidential debates. It was a bad-tempered affair, with a lot of squabbling a...
What’s new for the presidential debates?
29 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Tuesday night is debate night - the first of three US presidential debates between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. In this podcast, The Critic's politica...
47: Can George Galloway keep Scotland British?
21 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
With the opinion polls suggesting the SNP is heading for a clear majority in next May's Scottish parliamentary elections, fuelling their demands for a...
47: Why is Britain good at R&D but has so few major tech companies?
15 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Why is the UK a world leader in tech sector R&D, yet has not a single high growth software business listed on the FTSE 100? Does leaving the EU th...
46: China's Long March
15 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As Beijing has become more bellicose since the Coronavirus pandemic and British attitudes have hardened, how should Britain react? In a recent paper...
45: Fair Cop?
11 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's podcast, The Critic's Deputy Political Editor, David Scullion, spoke to Harry Miller, an ex-police officer who last year was visited ...
44: Frustrate their knavish tricks?
11 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
From fake news and propaganda to covert funding, bribery and everyday espionage, allegations of foreign interference in British politics and society i...
43: Is there a way back for Scottish Labour?
08 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When Richard Leonard became leader of the Scottish Labour Party in 2017, he inherited Scotland's third largest party. It still is. And with opinion po...
41: Could Harry and Meghan have learnt from Edward and Wallis?
05 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What might Meghan and Harry have learnt from Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson? In this podcast, The Critic’s political editor, Graham Stewart, talk...
42: What made eighteenth century Britain such an innovative society?
04 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
From consumerism and urban growth to becoming the first industrialising nation and permitting a level of free speech and press that would be envied el...
39: How Europe slowly came to terms with the Holocaust
28 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the twenty years after the end of the Second World War, the Holocaust was recalled as part of the horror of Hitler's Reich but in the popular comme...
40: Is this Covid's Second Wave?
25 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this podcast,The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to the investor and statistician, Alistair Haimes, about whether the data really ...
38: The Portuguese at home and overseas
21 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A country on the Atlantic coast of Europe that looks outwards and establishes a global empire stretching from the Americas to Africa and Asia - Portug...
37: The grandeur and instability of Spain
14 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Does Spain wrestle with its imperial legacies in a similar way to Britain? How important has monarchy been to Spanish unity and is the narrative of a...
38: Is Scotland's Hate Crime Bill so bad?
13 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Scottish Government is planning to criminalise the 'stirring up of hatred', a proposal which has been criticised by police officers, lawyers, the ...
37: Biden's VP pick: safe choice or wise move?
12 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The wait is over: Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden has chosen Kamala Harris as his running mate. It has been described as the safe ch...
36: Are the government's Covid-19 restrictions legal?
11 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What is the Dolan case and should the government be worried? -- To combat the spread of Covid-19, the British government has restricted personal, soci...
35: How united is Italy?
07 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Why did it take 1,400 years after the end of the Roman Empire for Italy to unite as one country? And how strong is Italian national unity now? In thi...
34: Trans activists and the Labour Party
04 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Where does the Labour Party stand on trans rights? Is fear of being branded "transphobic" now putting the party of Barbara Castle and Jennie Lee at od...
33: Does the Mediterranean have a common culture?
31 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Does the Mediterranean have a common culture that transcends its national, political and religious differences and did its modern tourist industry dev...
32: Will the summer recess really be a break?
28 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As Parliament heads into recess, politics isn't stopping. Graham Stewart and David Scullion discuss what we can expect in the coming weeks: from Brexi...
31: Still fit to print?
24 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In 1950, over 20 million newspapers were bought every weekday in Britain, equivalent to one-and-a-half newspapers for every household per day. By 2010...
30: What it's like to be cancelled
21 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As social and political movements, such as Black Lives Matter, continue to gain traction nationwide, cancel culture is becoming an increasingly worryi...
29: Britain’s new East of Suez defence policy
17 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For the first time in half a century, Britain is planning a major permanent Royal Navy deployment in the seas of Southeast and East Asia, led by the n...
28: Is it really game over for Huawei?
15 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How did Huawei destroy its western competitors to achieve such dominance? And does the government’s decision to phase Huawei out of the UK’s 5G ne...
27: The Grand Tour - what the British got up to abroad
10 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Much of Europe is now open again for British summer holiday-makers. But how different are the aims and experience of leisure travellers to Europe now ...
26: Why are most Scots now in favour of independence?
07 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Opinion polls show a majority of Scots saying they would vote 'yes' for Scottish independence in a second referendum - which may be granted if the SNP...
24: How has James Bond evolved?
03 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Half the world has seen a James Bond film, or so the estimates have it, making 007 one of the most globally recognisable British brands as well as the...
25: What did Roger Scruton and Christopher Hitchens have in common?
30 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What did the radical essayist and polemical journalist, Christopher Hitchens, and the conservative philosopher, Sir Roger Scruton, have in common? In...
22: Where do we stand with the twentieth century?
26 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As we grow further and further away from the twentieth century, has our perceptions on its course changed? And do we consider the themes and events th...
23: Politics Past and Present: with Dick Taverne
23 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the first of a new series of podcasts featuring those who shaped politics over the last fifty years, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart,...
21: Are we witnessing a new age of emancipation?
16 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The spirit of 1968 has returned. From protests, to boycotts and even riots, ‘direct action’ is back in vogue as protestors impatient with the pace...
20: When did the Cold War actually start?
12 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Cold War ended with the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. But when did it start? Shortly after the end of th...
19: Can the West live without China?
09 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Can the West live without China? Would decoupling from China inflict greater damage to the American and British economies than it would hurt China? Gr...
18: Is Boris Johnson the wrong man to be leading government?
02 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
He won a large majority in last December's election, but with his judgment and performance increasingly questioned, is Boris Johnson the wrong man to ...
17: What is the future of liberalism in Britain?
26 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Graham Stewart speaks to Nick Timothy, former Downing Street adviser and now Daily Telegraph columnist and author of Remaking One Natio...
16: Back to school... or is remote learning enough for now?
19 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Graham Stewart speaks to Katharine Birbalsingh, headmistress of Michaela Community School in Brent, on education and schooling during Coron...
15: What does 'decolonising the curriculum' mean?
12 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's Critic podcast, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Imperial Legacies: the British Empire around the world, argues that campaigns across ...
14: Is the lockdown causing more problems than it's solving?
05 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How much longer should the lockdown go on and is it now causing more problems than it is solving? To discuss the suppositions that got us into the loc...
12: Britain's armed forces to the rescue...
28 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's Critic podcast, our political editor, Graham Stewart asks Professor Jeremy Black why Britain's armed forces are better trusted to deliv...
12: Can parliament work by zoom and are Universities in crisis?
21 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As working from home becomes the new norm, Natascha Engel (former Labour MP for North East Derbyshire and Deputy Speaker for the House of Commons) dis...
Is the lockdown worth it?
15 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's podcast, Graham Stewart discusses with Kapil Komireddi and Toby Young about the origins of the Coronavirus crisis, whether we should be...
10: Controlling Crises
07 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Graham Stewart speaks to Emiritus Professor of History at Exeter University, Jeremy Black, about historical reactions to national crises, a...
8: Episode Nine: Where is God?
31 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Graham Stewart spoke to James Orr, lecturer in the philosophy of religion at Cambridge University, about the effects of Coronavirus on the ...
8: Episode Eight: Freshly Picked Preppers
23 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week Graham Stewart spoke to our US editor Oliver Wiseman who reports back from a Prepper camp in West Virginia, and the Director of the Euro...
Episode Seven: The many women of George Orwell
14 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week Graham Stewart spoke to author DJ Taylor about the many women pursued by the novelist George Orwell – and he caught up with TV Critic Ada...
6: Episode Six: Don't tell us the truth about the coronavirus
09 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week Richard Waghorne argues for keeping people in the dark when it comes to Coronavirus to improve morale, Sarah Ditum, our new Pop Critic ta...
5: Episode Five: David Starkey on the Janus Parliament
03 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Is Parliament’s role to be a check on government (as John Bercow believed) or a means of government (as Boris Johnson expects)? In this week’s Cri...
4: Episode Four: Steve Baker speaks to The Critic
25 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Steve Baker, the long-standing chairman of the European Research Group, has stepped down and given an exclusive interview with The Critic magazine. ...
3: Episode Three: Filthy Shades of Grey
24 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week Graham spoke to US Editor Oliver Wiseman about Mike Bloomberg’s unorthodox attempt to win the Democratic nomination and Joseph Connolly ex...
2: Episode Two: Whittingdale on the BBC
17 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
his week on The Critic podcast we spoke to John Whittingdale MP, 24 hours before he was made a Minister of State in the Department for Culture, Media...
1: Episode One: Black to Basics
11 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Today we launch a new weekly podcast where we’ll be speaking to MPs, peers, pundits and – (of course!) – our Critics. In the first episode we c...