Planet Normal: Live Special at the Battle of Ideas 2025
Planet Normal
Louisa Wells
4.7 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 22 October 2025
⏱️ 83 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode was recorded live at the Battle of Ideas Festival in London on 19th October 2025
In this very special episode of Planet Normal, the rocket beams in live from the Battle of Ideas Festival featuring not one, but two very special stowaways..
Labour Life Peer, Lord Maurice Glasman, founder of the Blue Labour movement, shares his thoughts on the state of the Labour Party and slams the progressive policies which he argues is destroying its traditional party roots.
Inspirational sailor and author Tracy Edwards CBE, famous for skippering the first all-female crew in the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989, explains what true leadership and resilience looks like in the face of overwhelming odds and institutional sexism. Plus Tracy gives some shocking revelations about the criticism she faced in standing up for women's rights when the story of her voyage was adapted by the arts industry.
And your co-pilots weigh in on the government’s nonsensical energy policy which is causing so many in the country pain through the soaring cost of living.
Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor
Read Allison ‘The Met’s U-turn on ‘hate crimes’ is welcome, but our police are still in thrall to Leftist forces’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10/21/noncrime-hate-incidents-metropolitan-police-left-wing/ |
Read more from Allison: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/a/ak-ao/allison-pearson/ |
Read Liam ‘China’s influence is vast. It has taken over ‘Russia’s backyard’’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/19/chinas-influence-is-vast-it-has-taken-over-russias-backyard/ |
Read Oliver Brown’s interview with Tracy Edwards:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sailing/2025/08/24/tracy-edwards-trans-activists-fights-back/ |
Read more from Liam: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/liam-halligan/ |
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Email: planetnormal@telegraph.co.uk |
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Telegraph. |
| 0:09.1 | Five, four, three, two, one. |
| 0:20.2 | We have lift-off |
| 0:25.1 | Welcome once again to Planet Normal |
| 0:27.3 | The Telegraph podcast with Alison Pearson |
| 0:29.3 | Hello |
| 0:29.8 | And me Liam Halligan |
| 0:31.3 | And welcome in particular |
| 0:32.3 | Because this is a special edition |
| 0:34.1 | of Planet Normal being recorded |
| 0:35.8 | on Sunday the 19th of October at the brilliant Battle of Ideas Festival in Central London. |
| 1:02.4 | Thank you for joining us here on our Sanctuary of Sweet Reason, |
| 1:04.7 | our flying refuge of reasoned views every week. |
| 1:07.6 | And this is our 275th episode. |
| 1:10.8 | Co-pilot Pearson and I chat about the news in our own way. Often as Planet Normal |
| 1:12.5 | regulars will know our conversations are |
| 1:14.3 | orthogonal to the orthodoxy. |
| 1:18.2 | But it's |
| 1:18.9 | our listeners and our guests |
| 1:20.5 | who make Planet Normal. We read out lots of |
| 1:22.6 | emails. We speak to well-informed, brilliant |
| 1:24.6 | people and we have two fabulous guests |
... |
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