Show 376. Bethany Dawson
Matt Forde's Political Party
The Political Party
4.7 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 3 November 2025
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Well this is about way more than politics...
Bethany is one of the stars of the Politico Playbook morning email. It's the must-read morning briefing which mixes top-level political analysis with plenty of juicy gossip.
We talk about gossip, why it's important and how to get it... but we also talk about health and the importance of patients really pushing for themselves.
Bethany has had a number of health issues, including chronic pain in her teenage years. Told that she was making it up, she's had to be relentless to get the proper diagnosis and treatment.
Prepare to be inspired!
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https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/london-playbook/
THE POLITICAL PARTY LIVE
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https://nimaxtheatres.com/shows/the-political-party-with-matt-forde/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the political party. |
| 0:14.0 | Today's guest is Bethany Dawson from the London Playbook Politico Newsletter, |
| 0:18.5 | which if you haven't subscribed to, it's a fantastic morning briefing |
| 0:22.2 | email, which lands first thing. We talk about it in here. She says it's long. I guess it is, |
| 0:28.1 | but I always managed to sort of breeze through it pretty quickly because it's so well written. |
| 0:32.1 | It's always funny. It's always pertinent. It feels neutral. And there's that great mix of policy stuff, a bit of gossip, |
| 0:40.4 | and we talk about that, the power of gossip, the importance of it, |
| 0:43.5 | and how Bethany gets her goss and how she, some great tips on how to effectively cultivate um people that information which makes it sound |
| 0:56.8 | way more Machiavellian than it is um but we also talk about health and um bethany's been through |
| 1:02.5 | it a lot with her health recently and um i follow her on twitter and she she's posted about |
| 1:07.8 | very honestly and openly about some of the surgery she's had. |
| 1:11.0 | And we talk about that in here. |
| 1:11.9 | And I think obviously it's something that I'm very passionate about |
| 1:16.5 | and something that I've really had to learn in the last couple of years, which is, |
| 1:20.2 | and it shouldn't be like this. |
| 1:22.0 | But if there is something wrong with you, push and push and push. |
| 1:25.2 | Firstly, go to a GP. |
| 1:29.1 | But if you're not getting the answers, if you're not getting the treatment, sadly, this is the way it works these days. You really have to push on |
| 1:35.5 | your own behalf. And if you don't think you're getting the right answer, you have to keep pushing. |
| 1:39.8 | And that is something that I've really learned. So there is one big lesson to today's podcast, and Bethany talked about this so well, and some of the incredible things that she's been through and remains just, I mean, she says she's not positive. She feels like a positive person to me, but anyway, I don't want to just lay out everything we talk about. The political party returns to the stage in a few weeks. Monday the 8th of December, my guest is Nick Clegg. |
| 2:02.8 | I can announce some other guests as well. |
| 2:04.6 | On Monday the 26th of January, I have a very special guest who I cannot announce. |
... |
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