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Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud, where each week we choose some of our favourite

pieces from the magazine and ask their writers to read them aloud. I'm Patrick Gibbons

and on this week's podcast, Sean Thomas reflects on the era of ladsmaggs with what he sees

as a joyful eroticism lost today to the world of only fans.

John Power reveals those unfairly gaming the social housing system.

Reviewing ripeness by Sarah Moss,

Susie Measures says that the ripeness Moss talks about is more than just old age.

It represents every woman's fertile body.

Olivia Potts explains the importance of the British picnic staple, the sausage roll.

And finally, arguing for behavioural change through tax, Rory Sutherland speaks in defence of the Trump playbook.

Up first, Sean Thomas.

Do you remember the lads mags?

I do, because I worked on them for years. FHM, Maxin, all those

gloriously disreputable titles. I helped dream up the captions, the gags, the gonzo

reportage, the thwar-heavy covers. I also remember how they were reviled, condemned by broadsheets, feminists, academics,

accused of objectifying girls, toxicifying masculinity, and encouraging men to enjoy cold

lager, bare breasts, and football gossip. Yet, here's the thing. When I contrast the world of Lads-Mags with today's bleak digital landscape,

of AI-smut and only-fan subscriptions, of performers' mechanically coupling with a thousand men

cheered on by Instabots, the old magazines, even if sometimes crude or clumsy, seem almost noble.

...