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Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud.

Each week we choose some of our favourite pieces from the magazine

and ask their writers to read them out loud.

I'm Patrick Gibbons and on the podcast this week.

Philosopher and cultural theorist Slavoie Zhejjek takes us through his diary,

including his Britney Spears theory of action.

Angus Colwell reports from the front line of the pro-Palestinian student protests that are

broken out across universities in the UK, including in Cambridge, Oxford and UCL.

Svetlana Mornets provides an update on what's going on in Georgia, where tensions between

pro-EU and pro-Russian factions are heading to a

crunch point. Cindy Yu analyzes President Xi's visit to Europe and asks whether the Chinese

leader can keep his few European allies on side, and Philip Henscher proposes banning fun runs as a

potential vote winner. Up first, Slavo-Jizek. Every week, I check the weather in Longhi, Bien, the main settlement in Swalbard.

It's about as close as you can get to a gulag with a human face.

A heap of wooden houses where around 2,000 people live.

It has a couple of stores and restaurants and even a very small university. Outside the Twin Streets, there is much open space in which

to walk. You don't have to go far before being greeted with warning signs.

Don't walk beyond this line without a gun, danger of polar beers. At the door to all

...