Audio Long Reads, from the New Statesman

How did one detective take on an international network of romance fraudsters? This episode was written Stuart McGurk and read by Will Dunn. The commissioning editor was Melissa Denes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

They no longer have a stranglehold on Oxbridge and would lose tax breaks under Labour. So what is elite education really selling?At the Labour Party conference in Liverpool in October, the Independent Schools Council hosted a forlorn drinks reception: not one of the more than 40 MPs showed up. ‘We are not the enemy,' one private school headmaster complained to a sympathetic Daily Mail. But if Labour does win the next general election, it has committed to removing tax breaks on business rates and 20% VAT on private school fees – raising £1.6bn to be invested in state schools. On top of this, Starmer's cabinet (as it stands) would be the most state-educated in history – with only 13% having attended private school (against Rishi Sunak's 63%). Can elite education survive – and cling on to its charitable status?In this week's audio long read – the last in this series – the New Statesman's features editor Melissa Denes attends three school open days to understand how these winds of change might affect them. She also follows the money, calculating that – allowing for tax breaks - the average taxpayer subsidises an Eton schoolboy at a far higher rate than a state school one. As the gaps in spending between the two sectors grow, and society strives to become more fair, will an expensive education evolve into a luxury service rather than a charitable concern?Written and read by Melissa Denes.This article originally appeared in the 10-16 November edition of the New Statesman; you can read the text version here.If you enjoyed listening to this article, you might also enjoy The decline of the British university by Adrian Pabst. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On 2 November 2023, Rishi Sunak closed his global AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park by interviewing the richest man on Earth, Elon Musk. The mood was deferential (the PM towards the tech billionaire). Was Sunak eyeing up a post-politics job in San Francisco, some wondered, or calculating that Musk's Twitter might be an effective campaigning tool come 2024? In this week's audio long read, the New Statesman contributing writer Quinn Slobodian examines the origins of Sunak's “fanboy-ish enthusiasm” for the billionaire tech disruptors. These lie in the publication of a 1997 business book, he writes: The Sovereign Individual: How to Survive and Thrive During the Collapse of the Welfare State, by the American venture capitalist James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg, father of Jacob. The book has become cult reading among tech leaders, and influential on the alt-right: its world view of a libertarian internet and the rise of economic freeports and tax havens chimed with a wealthy elite who saw a chance to get much, much richer. In Sunak, Slobodian argues, we see the arrival of the sovereign individual in Downing Street: “a ‘two-fer', as they say in America: both its first Silicon Valley prime minister and its first hedge fund prime minister”. Written by Quinn Slobodian and read by Will Lloyd. This article originally appeared in the 2 November 2022 issue of the New Statesman; you can read the text version here. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also enjoy Sam Bankman-Fried and the effective altruism delusion by Sophie McBain. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What might be the long term impact of the Israel-Hamas war on global alliances? In this week's audio long read, the New Statesman's contributing writer John Gray reflects on three weeks of bloodshed, beginning with the massacres of 7 October, and their wider consequences. An escalating conflict will empower Iran and Russia, he writes, as well as strengthen swing states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The United States might abandon Ukraine, or dilute its commitment to defending Taiwan from China. And with a presidential election on the horizon, does the White House have the stamina for a protracted foreign war? Already support for both Israel and Palestine has become sorely contested across the West, as Keir Starmer faces pressure from Muslim (and non-Muslim) MPs in the UK, while Emmanuel Macron has banned pro-Palestinian protest. Egypt and Lebanon have said they will not accept Palestinian refugees. For Gray, the events of 7 October mark the point at which the post-Cold War order finally ­fractured. “We have entered a world of imperial rivalries like that before 1914, which ended in Europe's suicide in the trenches,” he writes. If America rose to become the global superpower after the second world war, that influence is now coming to an end.Written by John Gray and read by Melissa Denes.This article originally appeared in the 27 October-2 November edition of the New Statesman; you can read the text version here. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also enjoy listening to The Dawn of the Saudi Century, by Quinn Slobodian. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In May this year, an American woman sought the help of a chatbot on an eating disorders website. The bot, named Tessa and running on an evolving, generative AI, advised her to start counting calories. Perhaps she should get some calipers, it suggested, to measure her body fat. When it emerged that Tessa had given similarly dangerous advice to others, the bot was taken down. As countries around the world face a mental health crisis, exacerbated by the pandemic and a lack of human therapists, a new tech goldrush has begun. Can the latest self-help chatbots help meet a desperate need, delivering “microtherapy” sessions on demand? Do they have a place in disaster zones - or do people in crisis deserve human attention and support? In this week's audio long read, freelance reporter and author of Sex Robots and Vegan Meat Jenny Kleeman talks to the people behind the latest incarnations of AI therapy in the UK and the US, as well as the technology's critics. Written by Jenny Kleeman and read by Zoe Grunewald. This article originally appeared in the 13-19 October edition of the New Statesman. You can read the text version here. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also enjoy The psychiatrists who don't believe in mental illness by Sophie McBain Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What are the roots of today's maternity crisis? Recent research by the Care Quality Commission has found a “concerning decline” in England, with over half of maternity wards rated substandard. Donna Ockenden's review of Shrewsbury and Telford maternity trust found that, between 2001 and 2019, 201 babies and nine mothers had died avoidable deaths. In this week's audio long read, the editor of the New Statesman's Spotlight magazine Alona Ferber traces the origins of this decline – from the advent of woman-centred care in the 1980s to today's more frayed and divided landscape. Are austerity and political indifference the key factors, and does an ideological split over ‘natural' and ‘medical' birth play a part? “Thirty years ago,” Ferber writes, “when power moved from the institution to the individual, that shift was radical, progressive and revolutionary. It was about women's rights and politics, as much as it was about health. But today the system is so stretched that the nexus of power is nowhere. It is not with clinical staff, nor with families. Instead, we muddle through.” Drawing on interviews with practitioners and her own birth experiences, she pieces together the elements of an ongoing crisis. Written and read by Alona Ferber. This article was originally published on 30 September 2023 and you can read the text version here. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like Sophie McBain on The ADHD decade: what's behind the boom in adult diagnoses Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For today's Audio Long Read we're bringing you one from our archives, which is suddenly extremely prescient. This week GB News is in the spotlight once again, this time for broadcasting misogynist comments made by Laurence Fox about a female journalist, Ava Evans. The channel has suspended Fox, along with host Dan Wootton, and has apologised for broadcasting the comments. But this is the latest in a long line of incidents in which GB News has pushed the boundaries of what is acceptable in broadcast journalism. In 2022 we published Stuart McGurk's investigation into the origins of the right-wing news channel, speaking to insiders working in the founding team including senior journalists, editorial and production staff, and the chief executive himself. Stuart's article, which is both alarming and hilarious, sheds light on the tumultuous origins of GB News and provides context for its current battle to be taken seriously.This article was originally published online on the New Statesman in April 2022; you can read the text version here. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you might also like Cancel culture comes to GB News, by Clive Martin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the time of writing, the crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried is due to stand trial on 3 October 2023. He stands accused of fraud and money-laundering on an epic scale through his currency exchange FTX. Did he gamble with other people's money in a bid to do the maximum good? In this week's long read, the New Statesman's associate editor Sophie McBain examines the relationship between Bankman-Fried and the Oxford-based effective altruism (EA) movement. The billionaire was a close associate and supporter of William MacAskill, the Scottish moral philosopher who many consider EA's leader. It was MacAskill who had persuaded him – and many other young graduates – to earn more, in order to give more. But how much money was enough – and what should they spend it on? Was EA just “a dumb game we woke Westerners play”, as Bankman-Fried told one journalist? In conversations with EA members past and present, McBain hears how the movement was altered by its enormous wealth. As the trial of its biggest sponsor approaches, will effective altruism survive – or be swallowed by its more cynical Silicon Valley devotees? Written and read by Sophie McBain. This article originally appeared in the 22-28 September 2023 edition of the New Statesman; you can read the text version here. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you might also like Big Tech and the quest for eternal youth, by Jenny Kleeman. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fifty years after Salvador Allende was ousted, might his greatest legacy be his battle with the emerging tech giants?On 1 August 1973, a seemingly mundane diplomatic summit took place in Lima, Peru. But there was nothing mundane about its revolutionary agenda. The attendees – diplomats from Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru – aspired to create a more just technological world order, one that might have prevented the future dominance of Silicon Valley. As the Chilean foreign minister lamented even then: “500 multinational corporations control 90 per cent of the world's productive technology”. Could a new international institution - a tech equivalent of the IMF - ensure that developing countries had access to all the benefits of technological progress? Six weeks later, Salvador Allende's government was toppled, paving the way for General Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship of Chile. In this week's audio long read, the author and podcaster Evgeny Morozov considers Allende's legacy. Often viewed as a tragic but hapless figure, his government in fact oversaw a number of radical and utopian initiatives - many of them to do with technology. Might Chile under Allende have evolved into the South Korea or Taiwan of South America?Read by Catharine Hughes and written by Evgeny Morozov, who hosts The Santiago Boys: the Tech World that Might Have Been podcast series. This article was originally published on newstateman.com on 9 September 2023; you can read the text version here. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you might also enjoy Would climate change have been worse without capitalism?Download the New Statesman app:iOS: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/new-statesman-magazine/id610498525Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.progressivemediagroup.newstatesman&hl=en_GB&gl=USSubscribe to the New Statesman from £1 per week:https://newstatesman.com/podcastofferSign up to our weekly Saturday Read emailhttps://saturdayread.substack.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After the extreme heat of summer 2024, which saw children stretchered out of their exams, Britain's prime minister calls a press conference in Westminster Hall. He has one eye on life after office (skiing in Aspen, a big gig in Silicon Valley), but before he leaves, he wants to unveil something truly ground-breaking: a large language model that has been trained by the best minds to solve the climate crisis. In this satirical work of speculative fiction, the New Statesman's business editor Will Dunn explores the government's love affair with Big Tech, fast-forwarding to the dying days of a Conservative government. Climate protestors have been cleared from the roads - but the tarmac is melting and people want answers. Could an advanced AI called Tom provide the prime minister's moonshot moment?Written and read by Will Dunn. You can read the text version at newstatesman.com If you enjoyed this episode, you might also enjoy Edward Docx reading Boris Johnson: the death of a clown. Download the New Statesman app:iOS: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/new-statesman-magazine/id610498525Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.progressivemediagroup.newstatesman&hl=en_GB&gl=USSubscribe to the New Statesman from £1 per week:https://newstatesman.com/podcastofferSign up to our weekly Saturday Read emailhttps://saturdayread.substack.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the summer of 1924, a highly regarded painter falls – or is he pushed? – into the canal while celebrating his exhibition at the Venice Biennale. Two young women are heard running away into the night.In this dazzling new coming-of-age story first published in the New Statesman's summer issue, the award-winning novelist Jonathan Coe explores the relationship between artist and muse, female friendship and male cruelty.Written by Jonathan Coe and read by Tom Gatti.If you enjoyed this episode, you may also enjoy Then Later, His Ghost: a short story by Sarah Hall. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For those who leave the ultra-conservative Christian sect, separation comes at great personal cost. The New Statesman's assistant editor Pippa Bailey had always been curious about the Plymouth Brethren, ever since discovering that her maternal grandparents had left the group in the 1960s. What might her life have been like if they stayed? Who were the cousins separated by a doctrine of isolation from non-Brethren ‘worldlies'? In this week's deeply reported and moving magazine cover story, Pippa tells the story of the breakaway group, from its origins in 1820s Ireland to its modern-day incarnation as a global church and effective lobbyist. She speaks to former members, many of whom mourn the loss of family and friends to an organisation they consider repressive. It's a fascinating journey, even if, as Pippa writes, her grandmother has no interest in resurfacing the past: “After all, she says, it's all part of the Lord's plan, and He does not test us more than we can bear.” This article originally appeared in the 25-31 August issue of the New Statesman; you can read the text version here. Written and read by Pippa Bailey. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also enjoy How to build a language: inside the Oxford English Dictionary, by Pippa Bailey, or our reported feature by Stuart McGurk, A year inside GB news. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if the rush to war in 1914 had been averted? What if the Berlin Crisis of 1961 had led to nuclear war? What if the liberal revolution of 1848 had been successful? A new exhibition in Berlin considers a series of momentous what-ifs, an intriguing addition to the canon of counterfactual history. In this week's long read, the New Statesman's contributing writer Jeremy Cliffe assesses the value of such rival realities, as explored in fiction and, increasingly, on social media platforms and alt-fic online communities. In contemporary British politics, the tumult of the past decade has inspired a new cottage industry of counterfactual histories. Often derided as pure speculation, Cliffe makes the case for their usefulness and, from his home in Berlin, reflects on the city's many ghosts. “History is about facts,” he writes. “But those facts include intentions, imagined futures and visions that shape actual events even when – much more often than not – they never come to pass.”Written by Jeremy Cliffe and read by Chris Stone.This article originally appeared in the 28 July-17 August summer issue of the New Statesman. You can read the text version here.If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you might also enjoy Thomas Mann, German identity and the romantic allure of Russia, by Jeremy Cliffe.Download the New Statesman app:iOS: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/new-statesman-magazine/id610498525Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.progressivemediagroup.newstatesman&hl=en_GB&gl=USSubscribe to the New Statesman from £1 per week:https://newstatesman.com/podcastofferSign up to our weekly Saturday Read emailhttps://saturdayread.substack.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The novelist Ali Smith first came across the work of Simone de Beauvoir in an Inverness bookshop, aged 18 or 19, and was instantly compelled by her “tough, troubling” prose. In this week's long read, Smith reflects on De Beauvoir's 1964 memoir A Very Easy Death, a slight, visceral book about her estranged mother's death. What happens when an existentialist, bound ethically to a thinking life, confronts the end of life and thought? Why does a writer who prides herself on uncompromising truth tell her mother she is not dying of cancer, when she is?Smith blends the personal and the political in an essay that grapples with De Beauvoir's power to disturb and provoke, sixty years on. Written by Ali Smith and read by Anna Leszkiewicz. This article originally appeared in the 28 July-17 August 2023 New Statesman summer issue. You can read the text version here.If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you might also enjoy Karl Ove Knausgaard: a personal manifesto on the art of fiction.Download the New Statesman app:iOS: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/new-statesman-magazine/id610498525Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.progressivemediagroup.newstatesman&hl=en_GB&gl=USSubscribe to the New Statesman from £1 per week:https://newstatesman.com/podcastofferSign up to our weekly Saturday Read emailhttps://saturdayread.substack.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There is one question the environmental journalist and author George Monbiot is asked more than any other: how do you cope? When your job is to report on the climate crisis, where do you find hope? Monbiot's answer is a very personal one: he goes sea kayaking – alone, often far off the coast, with (if he's lucky) a pod of dolphins or a flock of shearwaters for company.In this evocative essay from the New Statesman's summer 2023 issue, Monbiot explores the sea off the island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, his former home in Cardigan Bay, and his new home in South Devon – a coastline “featuring cliffs and rocky coves, clefts and chasms, reefs and skerries, sandy and shingle beaches and several estuaries”. He relives the dangers and joys of battling the waves in a very small boat, most recently with an underwater camera fixed to the hull. There is no permanent escape from ecological distress, he writes, from the warming seas and the waste pumped into them, “but for hours at a time, I lose myself”.Written by George Monbiot and read by Chris Stone.This article originally appeared in the 28 July-17 August 2023 New Statesman summer issue. You can read the text version here.https://www.newstatesman.com/environment/2023/07/escpaing-climate-sea-kayaking-george-monbiotIf you enjoyed listening to this episode, you might also enjoy Rebecca Solnit on hope, despair and climate action.https://www.newstatesman.com/podcasts/audio-long-reads/2022/10/rebecca-solnit-on-hope-despair-and-climate-actionDownload the New Statesman app:iOS: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/new-statesman-magazine/id610498525Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.progressivemediagroup.newstatesman&hl=en_GB&gl=USSubscribe to the New Statesman from £1 per week:https://newstatesman.com/podcastofferSign up to our weekly Saturday Read emailhttps://saturdayread.substack.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Conservative Private Members Committee, informally known as the 1922 Committee (or the '22), is the Tory confessional, its trade union and backbenchers' common room. If that makes it sound chaotic (and it sometimes is) it is also the assassination bureau that felled Margaret Thatcher, and, more recently, three prime ministers in four years: Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. Will it come for Rishi Sunak before the next election?In this week's richly detailed and highly entertaining long read, magazine writer Tanya Gold reports on the secretive committee's inner workings, hearing from decision-makers past and present about what happens when a leader loses the party's confidence. “The '22 can be turgid for months, even years,” she writes. “But people talk about Committee Room 14 during a leadership crisis as they might about seeing Bruce Springsteen, or a riot.” And over the next 18 months, they could be busy.Written by Tanya Gold and read by Rachel Cunliffe. This article originally appeared in the 21-27 July 2023 edition of the New Statesman, and you can read the text version here. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also enjoy The making of Prince William by Tanya Gold.Download the New Statesman app:iOS: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/new-statesman-magazine/id610498525Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.progressivemediagroup.newstatesman&hl=en_GB&gl=USSubscribe to the New Statesman from £1 per week:https://newstatesman.com/podcastofferSign up to our weekly Saturday Read emailhttps://saturdayread.substack.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Saudi cinemas reopened in 2018, for the first time in 35 years, they screened the Marvel movie Black Panther. Many saw parallels between the kingdom and the fictional world of Wakanda, as crown prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled ambitious plans for modernisation and an economy that would diversify away from oil, investing in futuristic projects such as Neom, a half-trillion-dollar city.Saudi Arabia has since sought to position itself as a global investment powerhouse, focusing on tourism, sports sponsorships, financial services, green hydrogen production, and the electric vehicle industry. Long dependant on oil, can the kingdom transform itself into a major global force in a post-carbon future?In this week's long read and magazine cover story, New Statesman contributing writer Quinn Slobodian explores the consequences of Saudi dominance on international politics, the climate crisis and our technological future. Written by Quinn Slobodian and read by Chris Stone.Download the app:iOS: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/new-statesman-magazine/id610498525Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.progressivemediagroup.newstatesman&hl=en_GB&gl=USSubscribe to the New Statesman from £1 per week:https://newstatesman.com/podcastofferSign up to our weekly Saturday Read emailhttps://saturdayread.substack.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since 2018, prime minister Pedro Sánchez has led a surprisingly durable and impactful Spanish government, implementing progressive policies such as improved rights for abortion, transgender people and migrants. His coalition government has repositioned Spain as a European “pivot” state, a bridge between north and south, east and west. Its economy is predicted to grow faster than that of Germany, France and Italy.But will any of this be enough to keep Sanchez in power after the 23 July general election? He faces significant challenges from the conservative People's Party, as well as new alliances on the left – an increasingly fragmented political environment that mirrors trends seen across Europe, as identity politics, the climate crisis, and demographic shifts reshape many once stable two-party systems. In this wide-ranging essay, New Statesman contributing writer Jeremy Cliffe reflects on what Spain and its election tells us about the future of Europe. By 2030, he writes, “politics in many states will be defined by the normalised collapse of the cordon sanitaire between mainstream conservatism and the far right. It will be a landscape in which the left can only win by forging broad and canny coalitions.” If Silvio Berlusconi's divisive authoritarianism presaged our present moment, Sanchez and his battles could point the way to our European future. Written by Jeremy Cliffe and read by Chris Stone. This article originally appeared in the 14-20 July issue of the New Statesman. You can read the text version here.If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you may also like A brief history of “woke”: how one word fuelled the culture wars.Subscribers can listen ad-free via the New Statesman app. Download it now:iOS: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/new-statesman-magazine/id610498525Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.progressivemediagroup.newstatesman&hl=en_GB&gl=USSubscribe to the New Statesman from £1 per week with our special podcast offer: https://newstatesman.com/podcastofferSign up to receive The Saturday Read - our weekly email highlighting the best writing from the New Statesman and around the web: https://saturdayread.substack.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In recent decades, studies have shown a significant decline in sperm quality and count. The average sperm count has fallen by 62% since the 1970s, impacting male fertility – a factor that is often overlooked in the broader conversation about parenthood and the declining birth rate in developed countries. In this engrossing long read, New Statesman associate editor Sophie McBain talks to men who have faced fertility issues and the people exploring the contested science behind them. Are environmental toxins a key factor, or exposure to prescription medicines in the womb? Does a historic focus on female fertility mean our understanding of male infertility is relatively new? And why, given the potentially catastrophic consequences of a global baby bust, is there not more political will to engage with the science?Written and read by Sophie McBain.This article originally appeared in the 26 May-1 June issue of the New Statesman. You can read the text version here.If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you might also Sophie's other article: How did parenthood become an unaffordable luxury? Listen here: https://pod.fo/e/183b9b Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On June 23 the New Statesman's contributing writer Bruno Macaes visited Ukraine's head of military intelligence Kyrylo Budanov in Kyiv. They discussed the progress of the war, Russian propaganda (Budanov had been declared dead or dying), the 2022 Nord Stream attack and Russian plans for an attack on Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Just three hours later, Yevgeny Prigozhin announced that his private military, the Wagner Group, would march on Russian army headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, as a punishment for its poor leadership. Shortly after midnight on 24 June, Prigozhin's mutiny entered Russia and began marching on Moscow. By the end of the day, he had called it off.Why did Prigozhin do it – and why did he stop? Was Putin's authority terminally damaged? In this on-the-ground dispatch, Macaes looks at the roots of the mutiny, as well as what it reveals about the weaknesses of the Russian state: “It should,” he writes, “be regarded as a laboratory test for understanding Putin and his regime, and inform Western actions for what remains of the war in Ukraine.” Written by Bruno Macaes and read by Will Lloyd. This article originally appeared in the 30 June-6 July issue of the New Statesman. You can read the text version here. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you might also like What drives Emmanuel Macron? By Jeremy Cliffe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On 31 March this year, the British scientist Geoffrey Hinton resigned from Google, where he had directed AI research for a decade. Artificial intelligence, he argued, had reached the point where it could rapidly surpass human intelligence, and potentially take control: it was now an existential risk. One of the three ‘godfathers of AI', Hinton won the Turing Award, the Nobel of computing, in 2018. Now the three scientists who share the award are divided: Yoshua Bengio shares Hinton's fears and is calling for caution, while Yann LeCun believes AI will bring positive change.In this New Statesman cover story, Harry Lambert visits Hinton at his home in London for a fascinating extended profile of the man at the heart of today's debate about AI. He talks to Hinton's critics, who might disagree on the pace of change but agree that further research and oversight are needed. Are we looking at an existential threat, humanity's salvation, or both? This article originally appeared in the 24 June issue of the New Statesman. You can read the text version here. Written and read by Harry Lambert. If you enjoyed listening to this, you might like Margaret Atwood: why I don't write utopias. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recent years have seen a proliferation of health charities in the UK, raising awareness and funds - but also contributing to impossible demands on the NHS. Is too much self-diagnosis creating unnecessary anxiety, and even leading to harmful interventions? How sick are we really? In this week's long read, the New Statesman's medical editor Dr Phil Whitaker examines the unintended consequences of the boom in awareness campaigns, drawing on several personal stories. What have been the impacts of post-pandemic NHS initiatives such as “Help Us Help You”, or the nationwide prompt to see a GP simply if something doesn't “feel right”? Whitaker looks at the economic forces at work: the pharmaceutical companies who benefit and the rise of the preventative health industry, with its high-street blood tests and liquid biopsies. We ignore these shifts at our peril, he argues: if the NHS is to survive we need to understand our health, and our health services, better. This article originally appeared in the 16 June edition of the New Statesman. You can read the text version here. Phil Whitaker's new book, “What is a Doctor?”, will be published by Canongate in July. Written by Phil Whitaker and read by Adrian Bradley. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you might also enjoy A brief history of woke: how one little word fuelled the culture wars. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The UK is now one of the most expensive places in the developed world to have a baby. Our childcare costs are the highest, with a full-time nursery place for a two-year-old costing £15,000 a year (and much more in London). A recent survey found that six in ten women who have an abortion cited childcare costs as one of their reasons, while one in four parents were cutting back on essentials such as food and clothing to make ends meet. “It is hard to fully account for the loss and disappointment, the sense of stuckness, among many people in their twenties and thirties,” writes New Statesman associate editor (and mother of three) Sophie McBain in this week's richly reported and often personal audio long read. She looks at the costs to the UK economy (one think tank put this at £27bn a year), as well as what the current crisis says about our relationship with work and care. Can this government – or a future Labour one – reimagine parenthood entirely? What would that look like? This article originally appeared in the 22 March 2023 issue of the magazine, and you can read the full text here. Written and read by Sophie McBain. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you might like The psychiatrists who don't believe in mental illness. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a bid to curb inflation, the Bank of England has raised interest rates 12 consecutive times – but the cost of goods continues to rise. The poorer have been hit hardest, as the price of household staples such as bread and milk rockets. Meanwhile some of the world's biggest corporations have been “rebuilding their margins”: Starbucks increased its operating margin to 19.1 per cent last quarter (with takeaway coffee up 11 per cent); McDonalds, Tesco and other supermarket chains are also making higher profits on higher pricesWhat is driving today's current cycle of greedflation? Usually ,when a company's costs rise, its profit margins fall. In this week's long read, the New Statesman's business editor Will Dunn examines the economic forces at play, explores proposed solutions, and explains how ‘greedflation' worsens inequality. Written and read by Will Dunn. This article originally appeared in the 2-8 June edition of the New Statesman. You can read the text version here. If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy listening to The great housing con by Will Dunn. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 2023 saw two significant gatherings of the Tory right: the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO) in Bournemouth, and the National Conservative Conference in London. The latter was organised by the US-based think tank the Edmund Burke Foundation, and drew heavily on its ideas about family, faith and the failures of globalism and liberal individualism. The former was emphatically not a ‘Bring Back Boris' convention (the ex-prime minister did not attend), though it numbered several of his political cheerleaders and delegates nostalgic for the boosterism of the Johnson years. In this week's long read, the New Statesman's commissioning editor and writer Will Lloyd attends both conferences, and explores the origins of their discontent. Is he witnessing “the final crack-up of British conservatism, or the birth of a new, harder-edged ideological programme that will dominate the party for years to come”? Will American populism shape the next generation of Tories? Through conversations with ministers, delegates, journalists and assorted hangers-on, Lloyd pieces together a darkly entertaining portrait of the Conservative right. Written and read by Will Lloyd. This article originally appeared in the 26 May-2 June edition of the New Statesman. You can read the text version here. If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy listening to The strange death of moderate conservatism by Jeremy Cliffe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In May 2023, the UN reported that 600 people had been killed in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince in the previous month alone – victims of gang violence and the near total collapse of law and order. In April the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, warned that insecurity in the country had “reached levels comparable to countries in armed conflict” and called for the deployment of an international force. In this powerful reported piece, freelance writer and former Haiti resident Pooja Bhatia talks to contacts on the ground, as well as historians and US State Department officials. She traces the origins of the current crisis through successive governments – from Papa and Baby Doc to Jovenel Moise - and through waves of US intervention. Between 2004 and 2017, UN peacekeeping forces brought cholera and 10,000 deaths to the country. Today cholera is back, with 40,000 suspected cases since October 2022. Against a backdrop of escalating violence and political corruption, many Haitians have come to see escape to the US (under Joe Biden's “humanitarian parole programme”) or foreign intervention as the only way forward. But will any nation step up?This article was originally published in the 12-18 May issue of the New Statesman magazine. You can read the text version here. Written by Pooja Bhatia and read by the New Statesman's global affairs editor Katie Stallard. If you liked listening to this episode, you might also enjoy A journey through Ukraine at war. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Liverpool has a rich musical history, from the Beatles to Echo and the Bunnymen, and beat six other British cities to become the 2023 host of Eurovision. Can the annual jamboree of geopolitics and high camp help the city overcome recent scandals? In this entertaining long read, the New Statesman's culture writer Kate Mossman visits the city and meets contestants from Moldova, Beatles tour guides and Brian Nash of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, who believes that successive councils have “done more damage to this town than the Luftwaffe”. Where does Liverpool's “casual musicality” come from? Will Sonia perform at the opening ceremony? All is revealed as the city prepares for the party it hopes will revive its cultural fortunes. This article was originally published in the 12-18 May 2023 issue of the New Statesman. You can read the text version here. Written by Kate Mossman and read by Anna Leszkiewicz. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also enjoy listening to I was Joni Mitchell's “Carey”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since 1993, the king has been visiting a village in deepest Romania – once a year, alone. He owns two houses there, and is revered by the locals, for whom he has installed a sewage system and worked to protect their traditional way of life. What draws him there? In this fascinating and deeply reported long read, New Statesman commissioning editor Will Lloyd traces the roots of the king's obsession – from his often lonely childhood, through an unhappy marriage and a forceful rejection of modernity. Is there a darker side to his enthusiasm for green policy initiatives – a more troubling engagement with the past? The answer lies in Transylvania. Written and read by Will Lloyd. This article was originally published in the New Statesman 5-11 May 2023 issue. You can read the text version here. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like listening to What is left of Princess Diana? or The making of Prince William. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The freelance journalist Tim de Lisle is a lifelong newspaper addict, and still buys two papers a day, three at weekends. In this elegy to their demise, he tracks his own love affair with them, from a schoolboy in search of the football results, to sports reporter, music critic and media studies lecturer. Is the future of news entirely digital, or could some form of print survive – as vinyl and cinema have survived streaming? In this rich, personal piece, De Lisle talks to industry-watchers and travels to Scotland to meet two of the UK's most successful local newspaper editors. With print, one feels “released from the clammy embrace of the algorithm”, he writes. “You get past the cacophony of politics to read about real life, from families to food. It's better for your mental health, your general knowledge, your membership of the human race.” But can anyone afford to fund it – and is its audience a dying breed? The singer Katy Perry, for one, hopes not. She recently tweeted: “One of my favorite [sic] sounds ever is the sound of a crisp new newspaper being read over breakfast for an hour or so… The popping out of it, the folding, the scribbling on the crossword… I hope it never goes out of fashion in our digital world. It is too romantic.”Written by Tim de Lisle and read by Rachel Cunliffe.This article was originally published on the Newstatesman.com on 15 April 2023, and in the 21-27 April print edition. You can read the text version here. If you enjoyed this episode, you may also enjoy listening to the battle for the soul of English cricket.Subscribers can get an ad free version of the NS Podcast on the New Statesman appPodcast listeners can subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. Just visit newstatesman.com/podcastoffer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the postwar world, Stalin and the Soviet Union wielded greater power over Mao Zedong's new communist China. Today, following China's rise as an economic superpower and Putin's invasion of Ukraine, it is Beijing that has the upper hand – and on whom Russia's future depends. When Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow for a three-day visit in March 2023, he was greeted with elaborate ceremony and deference. With Russia cut off from the West, China now supplies 40 per cent of its imports, a proportion that will only grow. The leaders are united, too, in their fight against the US for global dominance – but there are tensions and limits within that alliance.In this magazine cover story, the New Statesman's global affairs editor Katie Stallard looks at the parallels with the Sino-Soviet alliance of the 1950s, and the two countries' shared and sometimes violent history, from the first official Russian expedition to Beijing in 1618 to today's alignment. She hears from others on why their explicitly anti-US world-view has an appeal in the Global South, particularly in Africa. Will the relationship survive China's growing economic and diplomatic supremacy? And how dangerous is it for the rest of the world? Written and read by Katie Stallard. This article was originally published on newstatesman.com on 19 April 2023. You can read the text version here. If you enjoyed this episode, you may also enjoy The strange death of moderate conservatism.Subscribers can get an ad free version of the NS Podcast on the New Statesman appPodcast listeners can subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. Just visit newstatesman.com/podcastoffer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As a philosophy student in the 1980s, the New Statesman's editor-in-chief Jason Cowley learned more from Bryan Magee than from any seminar or lecture. Magee's 1987 BBC television series The Great Philosophers, described by one critic as “two boffins on a sofa”, examined some of life's most recondite questions in an accessible way. Magee was also a prolific author (of philosophy, poetry and fiction), a Labour and then an SDP politician. But when Cowley later met Magee, sent to interview him by the Times in 1997, he was struck by something the philosopher said as he left: “I get the impression that you feel I am lonely and unfulfilled.” Was he? Eleven years later, now editor of the New Statesman, Cowley visited Magee in a nursing hospital in Oxford, shortly after publication of the 87-year-old's book Ultimate Questions. The issues that had made Magee restless in his sixties still loomed large: “What the hell is it all about?” he asked, and compared himself unfavourably to Bertrand Russell and Karl Popper, men he had known (“they were a whole class above me in intelligence”). In this rich and beautifully observed profile, Cowley explores these themes, as well as the formative years of one of Britain's most interesting thinkers. Written and read by Jason Cowley. This article originally appeared in the 08 April 2018 issue of the New Statesman. You can read the text version here.Subscribers can get an ad free version of the NS Podcast on the New Statesman appIf you enjoyed listening to this, you might enjoy Grayson Perry on the rise and fall of the Default Man Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

According to the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, the face of British Christianity is changing rapidly. London is now home to the greatest concentration of African churches outside Africa – many of them in bingo halls and warehouses, schools and community centres, where they also serve as social and charitable hubs. Outside the capital, the prospects of a religious revival are relatively bleak: weekly Church of England attendance is below 2 per cent of England's population, and 20 Anglican churches are closed for worship every year. Is secularisation “almost entirely a white British phenomenon”, as the Birkbeck political scientist Eric Kaufmann puts it?In this week's long read Tomiwa Owolade, a New Statesman contributing writer, explores this divide and looks at the migrant roots of London's Christian revival. He finds that, largely because of its religious population, the capital has become the most socially conservative city in the country, with a higher percentage of Londoners disapproving of sex outside marriage and homosexuality.“This is awkward for conservative thinkers,” Owolade writes, “who complain about the decline of Christianity, and about large-scale immigration to Britain. Without immigration, the decline of Christianity would be even more profound. But it is also tricky for progressives: many of these immigrant communities espouse values on gender and sexuality that are far from liberal.”Will the African Christian revival be dampened by a wider secular culture – or will it expand?Written and read by Tomiwa Owolade.This article originally appeared in the 31 March-13 April New Statesman spring special. You can read the text version here.If you enjoyed this episode, you might like the battle for the soul of English cricket Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In January 2023, a leaked memo from the US air force general Mike Minihan revealed that he expected to be at war with China over Taiwan by 2025. Russia's invasion of Ukraine had raised the stakes, as had Beijing's consistent refusal to rule out military action. But is a full-scale invasion the real threat, or is the territory's struggle for independence already well under way? On a recent trip to Taiwan, the New Statesman's China and global affairs editor Katie Stallard visits Kinmen, site of the last major confrontation between Mao Zedong's People's Liberation Army and the Kuomintang forces of Chiang Kai-shek in 1949. There are relics of past conflicts everywhere, from the wall of loudspeakers that broadcasts propaganda at the Chinese coast, to the tunnels and air raid shelters that protected the Taiwanese from bombing in the 1950s. Now they face more subtle threats – “grey-zone tactics” such as the severing of internet cables from Taiwan to the Matsu islands, and “cognitive warfare”, or a sophisticated disinformation campaign, alongside the alienation of Taiwan's traditional diplomatic allies (down from 22 to 13 formal partners, as countries such as Honduras switch allegiance to Beijing). In Taipei, Stallard hears how a more conventional military offensive might unfold, and the ways in which anti-US propaganda has gained traction – particularly in the wake of its exit from Afghanistan. Can Taiwan hold its ground? Written and read by Katie Stallard. This article originally appeared in the 31 March – 13 April spring issue of the New Statesman. You can read the text version here. If you enjoyed this episode, you might like to listen to What Trump's 2024 bid means for the US, Russia and China. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After a series of bad bets on the post-pandemic economy, California-based Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) lost 60% of its value on the evening of 8 March 2023, and $42bn in withdrawals the following day. Its collapse triggered panic across the US, and in Europe, where Switzerland's second-largest lender Credit Suisse (already dubbed ‘Debit Suisse') was already looking shaky; its subsequent bail-out was the first the world's big banks had received since the 2008 crash.In this week's magazine cover story, the New Statesman's business editor Will Dunn explores the unique factors which led to the current crisis, and looks at what has changed since 2008. With inflation at record highs, the economic shocks of a Russian war, and the ever-accelerating pace of tech, there has never been more fertile ground for panic, he writes. Did SVB's billionaire depositors deserve their bailout, and what are the moral hazards of underwriting bad behaviour? Will such tremors curb the current move towards deregulation in the UK markets? Written and read by Will Dunn.This article originally appeared in the 24 March 2023 print edition of New Statesman magazine. You can read the text version here. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you might also enjoy listening to The great housing con: why the coming crash will rewrite the economy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It started as an accident of geography: after one RAF runway closed, the bodies of British soldiers killed in action were repatriated from Iraq and Afghanistan to RAF Lyneham and then through the Wiltshire market town of Wootton Bassett, on their way to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. From April 2007 until August 2011 the town became the site of unofficial national mourning: relatives, tourists, foreign media, politicians and dignitaries came to pay their respects as the funeral corteges made their way down the high street. In 2010 the town became a site of political conflict: Anjem Choudary's Islam4UK threatened to protest the murders of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan, and was met by a pre-emptive rally of Tommy Robinson's far-right English Defence League. In this rich and deeply reported long read, the New Statesman's editor, Jason Cowley, revisits the aftermath of the 2003 Iraq invasion. He tells the story of one fallen soldier – a relative – and of the town at the centre of England's response to wars that were increasingly unpopular. He talks to Tony Blair, who justifies the invasion as an opportunity for Britain to redefine its role in the world; and to the former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt, who describes it as a “disaster... because Blair used his presentational skills to persuade people of something that turned out not to be true, namely the existence of weapons of mass destruction”. Twenty years on, the consequences are still being felt, in the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 – and in the small market town of Wootton Bassett. Written by Jason Cowley and read by Hugh Smiley. This article originally appeared in the 17 March edition of the New Statesman, and is an edited extract from the new edition of Jason Cowley's Who Are We Now? Stories of Modern England, published in paperback on 31 March (Picador). You can read the text version here. If you enjoyed this episode, you might enjoy listening to “Nothing prepares you”: a journey through Ukraine at warSubscribers can get an ad free version of the NS Podcast on the New Statesman appPodcast listeners can subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. Just visit newstatesman.com/podcastoffer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Once the envy of the world, British universities are being hollowed out by a managerial class, argues Adrian Pabst, a New Statesman contributing writer and professor of politics at the University of Kent. Instead of intellectual excellence and civic responsibility, the emphasis is increasingly on “churning out graduates who will serve the interests of City firms and the non-governmental organisation industry”.Where did the rot set in, and can it be cured? Pabst traces the university's decline from the advent of the student loan and a 1990s proliferation of “Mickey Mouse” degrees, via New Labour and the Cameron-Clegg coalition's embrace of marketisation and bureaucracy. As degrees have become more expensive, the work that goes into them has become more mediocre – with tutors and students assessed against arbitrary metrics. The universities' "corporate capture... is a profound cultural loss," he writes.In this excoriating essay, originally published as the New Statesman's 10 March 2023 cover story, Pabst diagnoses the causes, examines the costs ­– and proposes solutions to the current crisis. You can read the text version here.Written by Adrian Pabst and read by Emma Haslett.If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like The great housing con: why the coming crash will rewrite the UK economy.Subscribers can get an ad free version of the NS Podcast on the New Statesman appPodcast listeners can subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. Just visit newstatesman.com/podcastoffer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Much ink has been spilled in recent years on the woes of centre-left parties across the West – some of it prematurely, as Joe Biden, Olaf Scholz, Spain's Pedro Sánchez, Australia's Anthony Albanese and perhaps soon Keir Starmer in Britain can attest. The bigger and quite possibly more lasting story of political decline, however, is on the centre-right. A decade ago, moderate conservative figures like David Cameron and Angela Merkel were pre-eminent. Today the tendencies those leaders represented have largely been sidelined, the parties in question having moved to the right, been ecclipsed by more hardline forces, or both. In this long read Jeremy Cliffe, the New Statesman's writer at large, charts that international pattern, from Trumpism in the US to the rise of the hard-right in European countries such as France, Italy, Spain and Sweden. He also explores the deeper structural forces behind those shifts and how the electoral and sociological foundations that long sustained moderate conservatism – and made it the dominant Western political tendency for much of the past seven decades – are breaking up. What, he asks, does the future hold for right-of-centre politics? Written and read by Jeremy CliffeThis article was originally published as the New Statesman's 15 February 2023 magazine cover story. You can read the text version here.If you enjoyed this episode, you might also enjoy: Era of the rogue superpower: what Trump's bid means for the US, Russia and China.Subscribers can get an ad free version of the NS Podcast on the New Statesman appPodcast listeners can subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. Just visit newstatesman.com/podcastoffer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The New Statesman's Scotland editor Chris Deerin has been reporting on the SNP since 1996, when as a young political correspondent he sparred with its then leader Alex Salmond. The party was then an outlier, with only three Scottish MPs to Labour's 49. Just over ten years later, in 2007, Salmond became first minister and appointed a shy, ambitious protégé as his deputy: Nicola Sturgeon. In this definitive account, Deerin traces Sturgeon's political journey – to the top of her party, through the 2014 independence referendum, a bitter fallout with Salmond, and ultimately her resignation. Was her commitment to new gender recognition legislation, and to a second independence referendum, a miscalculation? How will she be remembered in Edinburgh, Westminster and beyond? Written and read by Chris Deerin. This article was originally published as the New Statesman's 24 February 2023 magazine cover story. You can read the text version here. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also enjoy: World Prince: what drives Emmanuel Macron's global ambitionsSubscribers can get an ad free version of the NS Podcast on the New Statesman app Podcast listeners can subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. Just visit newstatesman.com/podcastoffer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When her mother died Johanna Thomas-Corr, the literary editor of the Sunday Times, fretted that she was misremembering her somehow. “I kept reaching for my own figures of speech, only for them to writhe out of my hands,” she writes. “Writing about her was easy: she was so distinctive. But writing about my relationship with her – this was a slippery business.” In this essay, struggling to find a language for her loss, Thomas-Corr turns to literature for answers. She draws on a rich tradition of writing about grief – from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Notes on Grief (2021), Ian McEwan's novel Lessons (2022), to Deborah Levy's The Cost of Living (2018). Through their pages, she explores our inevitable entanglements with our mothers and grief in all its phases – the anticipatory, the humorous and the weird. “I have come to like images of myself, simply because they remind me of her,” she writes. “I used to be so self-conscious... but I rather like the fact I now look a bit like my mother did. I find I am not fighting it.” Written by Johanna Thomas-Corr and read by Emma Haslett. This article was originally published in the 25 Jan 2023 issue of the New Statesman; you can read the text version here. If you enjoyed this episode of the audio long read, you might enjoy listening to How does a music writer grieve? With playlists, of course.Podcast listeners can subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. Just visit newstatesman.com/podcastoffer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every year since 2009 new records have been set for UK house prices, and every year people have asked how long the market can continue to defy gravity. But this year is different. Mortgage rates have risen steeply, while the cost of living accelerates; the past four months have seen the longest sustained drop in property prices since 2008. And it's a global issue, as central bankers make borrowing more expensive in an attempt to curb inflation.Is this a necessary correction or the dawn of a calamitous crash – one that will drive an unaffordable rental market, negative equity and a dearth of social housing? In this definitive account of the property crash, the New Statesman's business editor, Will Dunn, explores Britain's doomed love affair with bricks and mortar – from the boomer “house-blockers” at the top of the chain to the Gen Zers with little prospect of buying their own home. “It is a mass exercise in self-deception,” he writes, “a substitute for economic growth. It was a substitute people accepted: the expensive house that sucked up a lifetime's wages became the savings account, the pension, the inheritance. That wealth is now beginning to dissolve.”This article was originally published as the magazine's cover story on 3 February 2023; you can read the text version here.Written and read by Will Dunn.If you enjoyed this episode of the audio long read, you might enjoy listening to What drives Liz Truss? The people and ideas behind her economics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In late January 2023 the New Statesman's Bruno Macaes travelled to the front lines in Ukraine. In the Donbas, in the east, he found scenes of total devastation – levelled villages and burned forests, the remaining residents “walking the streets like ghosts”. At the front the Russian army is sending wave after wave of troops in the hope of making the Ukrainians despair, making them believe that the war will only be won when they have killed every one of them. In this vivid and sometimes surreal dispatch, Macaes talks to the soldiers and medics for whom this has become everyday life. How long is the gap between the warning siren and a shell, he asks? Two minutes, they joke: first the shell and then the siren. From the Donbas he travels to Kyiv, where he meets President Volodomyr Zelensky's adviser Mikhail Podolyak, still living with the president in a bunker beneath the palace. Can Ukraine really win the war? Yes, says Podolyak: “You vastly overestimate the collective intelligence of the Russian Federation. They will not be able to notice the moment when they objectively have begun to lose. They will miss it.” Nearly a year after the invasion, this is a fascinating account of a country under attack, told through its leaders and those living in the deepest fog of war. This article originally appeared in the New Statesman magazine on 3 February. You can read the text version here. Written by Bruno Macaes and read by Katie Stallard. If you enjoyed this episode, try The Belarusian ultras who took on Alexander LukashenkoPodcast listeners can subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. Just visit newstatesman.com/podcastoffer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In November 2022 Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, told parliament that the south coast of England faced “an invasion” of small boats. “If Labour were in charge,” she said, “they would be allowing all the Albanian criminals to come to this country.” Since then, others have suggested that the nearly 200 unaccompanied children found to have gone missing in the UK were Albanians “willingly joining” organised gangs. In this moving and often funny personal piece, Lea Ypi reflects on life as an Albanian in the UK and the everyday cruelties of the country's immigration system – from having to share romantic letters to her husband with officials, to the fact her brother has never been allowed to visit. But it was when her mother was denied a visa soon after she gave birth that the cruelties hit home hardest. “The UK's immigration system does not find criminals,” she writes, “it creates them. It projects criminal intent well before any criminal act has occurred.” Lea Ypi is professor of political theory at the LSE. Her book “Free: Coming of Age at the End of History” (Allen Lane) won this year's Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize. This article was originally published in the magazine on 7 December; you can read the text version here. Read by Rachel Cunliffe. If you enjoyed listening to this you might enjoy Operation warm welcome: the hotel that became home to 100 refugees Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In south-west England, where Phil Whitaker practises as a GP, his colleagues have ­frequently resorted to driving critically ill patients to hospital – because there are no ambulances, or because the queue for emergency care is typically eight hours long. In January 2023 the Royal College of Emergency Medicine estimated that 500 patients were dying weekly because of delays and, along with other NHS bodies, it has called on the government to take emergency action. After a sleepless night in a hospital corridor (there is no bed for his 85-year-old mother), Whitaker contemplates what that action should be. A third of the hospital's acute beds are occupied by patients who are medically fit, but who can't be discharged because of a lack of social care. This is half the problem. The other half is that there are too many patients who shouldn't be here. Listening to their stories with a GP's ear, Whitaker estimates that only two of a dozen cases in the corridor require hospital treatment. In this personal essay, the New Statesman's medical editor diagnoses the long-term decline of the NHS, and suggests his own prescription for radical change: starting with more GPs and a rapid expansion of social care. Can we treat the present crisis with the urgency we did the Covid pandemic? And can we do it without spending more money? Read by Tom Gatti. This article was originally published in the New Statesman on 20 January 2023. You can read the text version here. If you enjoyed listening to this article, you might enjoy What does a doctor do? by Phil Whitaker.Podcast listeners can subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. Just visit newstatesman.com/podcastoffer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Twitter and Facebook stumble through Elon Musk's takeover and Mark Zuckerberg's insistence on the metaverse, questions abound about the future of social media. What sort of news and discussion should it host and encourage? What should be its attitude to participation, networking, user rights and free speech? What should be its business model? What societal role should it seek to play? What, ultimately, is it for? In this essay for the New Statesman's special Christmas issue of 2022, Jeremy Cliffe imagines the improved, restored social network of the future by drawing on the heritage of the coffeehouse, “the original social network”. It was here, as the German theorist Jürgen Habermas has argued, that the concept of the public sphere arose: a space for news and discussion dominated neither by the state nor the market. Cliffe explores the history and literature of the coffeehouse tradition to find lessons for the troubled social media platforms of today – and those who would seek to challenge them. Written and read by Jeremy Cliffe. This article appears in the 07 Dec 2022 issue of the New Statesman, Christmas Special. You can read text version here.If you enjoyed this episode, listen to Are ‘Substackademics' the new public intellectuals?Podcast listeners can subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. Just visit newstatesman.com/podcastoffer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a second archive edition of the audio long read, we bring you two classic magazine articles. In the first, the then editor of the New Statesman, Kingsley Martin, visits Leon Trotsky in Mexico in 1937, where the Russian communist revolutionary was the guest of the artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo (here referred to only as “Rivera's wife”, though she was also Trotsky's lover, or about to be). Martin wanted to ask the exile about the show trials then being held in Moscow, in which Stalin extracted confessions of sedition from Trotskyists. Why, he asked, had his supporters not been bolder and stood their ground? He came away from the encounter, beside a “bright blue patio where the bougainvillea blazes in the sunshine”, with more questions than he brought. In the second article, the ground-breaking novelist Angela Carter writes about her experiences on a London maternity ward in 1983, shortly after becoming a mother for the first time at the age of 42. As in her fiction, she captures a strange mix of emotions and characters – the insulting doctor, the bossy nurse, the struggling NHS hospital, the bliss of breastfeeding her son, “who is doomed to love us, because we are his parents”, she writes. “The same goes for us. That is life. That's the hell of it.” Read by Adrian Bradley and Melissa Denes. You can read text versions of Martin's article here, and of Carter's here. For more about Carter's life and work, read A Card From Angela Carter by Susannah Clapp (her friend and literary executor) and The Invention of Angela Carter: A Biography by Edmund Gordon. If you enjoyed this episode, listen to From the New Statesman archive: when HG Wells met Josef Stalin.Podcast listeners can subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. Just visit newstatesman.com/podcastoffer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

HG Wells's interview with Stalin in 1934, and the debate that followed, was one of the most striking episodes in the history of the New Statesman. Wells – the novelist and socialist famous for science fiction such as The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds – used the interview to try to coax Stalin into a more conciliatory position, challenging (too gently for some) his views on international relations, the rhetoric of class war and freedom of expression for writers.The interview took place in Moscow at a time when many British socialists and fellow travellers were journeying to the Soviet Union seeking inspiration in the communist project. Wells was on the lookout for signs that his socialist world state was coming into being, and the interview with Stalin was conceived as a foil to his meeting with Roosevelt the previous year. The intention was to make a comparison between Roosevelt's New Deal and the Soviet Five Year Plan, and to harness the progressive potential of both. Wells thought they were similar projects and hoped that they might somehow meet in the middle. As he put it to Stalin, “Is there not a relation in ideas, a kinship of ideas and needs, between Washington and Moscow?” But Stalin's insistence on the antagonism between the two worlds more accurately prefigured the Cold War to come.The interview, which was criticised from both sides as either too indulgent or too critical of Stalin, showed the dying ideals of Edwardian liberalism chastened by an encounter with modern totalitarianism. It provoked strong reactions in the letters pages of the New Statesman from George Bernard Shaw and John Maynard Keynes (the co-founder and the then chairman of the magazine), resulting in a clash between three intellectual giants that revealed a great deal about the tensions within the left in the 1930s. Kingsley Martin, the editor of the New Statesman, thought the interview and the letters interesting enough to be republished as a pamphlet. Today, it remains a fascinating reminder of the role the literary intelligentsia played in political debate during what WH Auden called, perhaps unfairly, a “low dishonest decade”.Read by Adrian Bradley, Chris Stone and May Robson.Read the text version here. It was first published in the New Statesman in 1934 and re-published on the website on 18 April 2014.If you enjoyed this listen to Stalin and Putin: a tale of two dictatorsPodcast listeners can subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. Just visit newstatesman.com/podcastoffer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It is 23 December, some time in the future, and a storm rages outside the house. Inside there are supplies and an expectant mother sleeps. Is it safe to venture out and fetch her gift? In this post-apocalyptic story the novelist and short story writer Sarah Hall (The Electric Michaelangelo, Burntcoat) imagines a mysterious landscape ravaged by weather: is it still Christmas, when the world seems to have stopped? Warning: contains scenes that younger listeners may find disturbing.Read by Emma Haslett. You can read the text version here. This article was published in the New Statesman in 2014.If you enjoyed this listen to Margaret Atwood: why I don't write utopiasPodcast listeners can subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. Just visit newstatesman.com/podcastoffer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why do we read? In this essay, the Norwegian author explores meaning and purpose in the novel, from the work of Claire Keegan to Dostoevsky and DH Lawrence. The form's power lies in its openness, he writes, its capacity to defy the absolutes of politics, philosophy or science: “It pulls any abstract conception about life… into the human sphere, where it no longer stands alone but collides with myriad impressions, thoughts, emotions and actions.” Knausgaard considers how best to achieve this – through the emotional realism of Lawrence, or the more experiential modernism of Joyce and Woolf? For the latter two, “it was about getting near to the moment – and in the moment there is no story, only actions and thoughts”. It is also about eschewing big themes or strongly-held opinions, and instead “striving towards an actionless state of being”. Persuasively argued, and rooted in close readings – particularly of Keegan's Small Things Like These – this is an edited version of the 2022 New Statesman/Goldsmiths Prize Lecture, delivered at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on 22 October. It was first published in the New Statesman magazine on 28 October; you can read the text version here. Written by Karl Ove Knausgaard and read by Tom Gatti.If you enjoyed this listen to How to grow old in AmericaPodcast listeners can subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. Just visit newstatesman.com/podcastoffer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaking in the House of Commons on 18 October, the Home Secretary Suella Braverman denounced the opposition to her proposed Public Order Bill as “the Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati”. The next day, she posted her resignation letter on Twitter. It had been a busy 24 hours in the war on woke. On TalkTV, Piers Morgan had bemoaned the rise of the “ultra-woke”. In New York, Elon Musk was finalising the paperwork for his takeover of Twitter, after his ex-wife Talulah Riley urged him to “fight wokeism” on the platform. Donald Trump Jr launched another platform for “non-woke” businesses – and in the Commons, Keir Starmer (who had been advised to avoid woke issues) faced a Conservative front-bench who had stoked them relentlessly. How did we get here? How did this headline-friendly, hashtag-neat, four-letter word that still officially means “alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice” come to mean so many things that it now means almost nothing at all? In this deeply researched, illuminating and often funny article, the freelance writer Stuart McGurk takes us from the word's origins in the 1960s (the US novelist William Melvin Kelley's 1962 essay “If You're Woke You Dig it”) through protest movements, corporate co-option, backlash, to its present day use as one-size-fits-all insult. He reveals how the word became a powerful weapon in a war, and was co-opted by the right: a way to win a debate by not having one. Though, some would argue, that's what the woke were doing all along. Written by Stuart McGurk and read by Chris Stone. This article was published in the New Statesman magazine and online on 7 December 2022. You can read the text version here. You might also enjoy listening to A year inside GB News.Podcast listeners can subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. Just visit newstatesman.com/podcastoffer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If Europe today has a dominant leader, it is Emmanuel Macron. He has big, deeply thought-through ideas about his country's role in Europe and the world, and grand ambitions for enhancing it. Following his re-election as French president in April, he is now secure in office until 2027. And having lost his legislative majority at elections in June, he is turning to the world stage with all the more vigour. Now, then is a good time to ask: what is the Macron Doctrine? In his cover essay for the magazine, Jeremy Cliffe explains that the doctrine has two main pillars: a traditional vision of France as an independent global “balancing power” and a more novel emphasis on “European sovereignty”. The pursuit of these two goals, combined with Macron's distinctly self-confident and hyperactive personal style, defines the president's foreign policy record to date, its achievements and missteps, and his foreign-policy ambitions for his second term. But, Cliffe argues, he will only succeed in realising his ambitions if he applies the lessons from the past five years. Written and read by Jeremy Cliffe. This article originally appeared in the New Statesman's 3 December 2022 issue. You can read the text version here. You may also enjoy listening to Travelling through Macron's France, from the Channel to the Mediterranean. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Roy Jenkins, while serving as president of the European Commission, used to spend his mornings writing. The heads of state who visited him were often keener to speak about his biographies of Asquith or Gladstone than about new legislation. This integration of politics, scholarship and the media was once a feature of British intellectual life, from AJP Taylor to CP Snow, but today the space to think and work has become ever more constrained. It is difficult to imagine Ursula von der Leyen, the current president of the European Commission, blocking out chunks of her diary for an unfinished novel. As our universities and political institutions bow to the pressures of specialisation and professionalisation, where do today's public intellectuals reside? The answer, often, is on Substack – a platform that allows its authors to monetise content and easily engage with its users. But it is a cut-throat world, and one that requires continual self-promotion. Reliant on crowdfunding, and on relatively closed conversations with like-minded individuals, how healthy is it really for intellectual life? In this essay, originally published on newstatesman.com on 20 October 2022, the Cambridge history professor Chris Bickerton examines the decline of the public intellectual. You can read the original text here.Read by Adrian Bradley. If you liked listening to this you might also enjoy How does a music writer grieve? With playlists, of coursePodcast listeners can get a subscription to the New Statesman for just £1 per week, for 12 weeks. Visit www.newstatesman.com/podcastoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.