The Edition: Easter special
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.3 • 826 Ratings
🗓️ 28 March 2024
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Up first: The case of Frank Hester points to something deep going on in our culture, writes Douglas Murray in the magazine this week. ‘We have never had to deal with anything like this before. Any mistake can rear up in front of you again – whether five years later (as with Hester) or decades on.’ American lawyer and author of Cancel Culture: the latest attack on free speech, Alan Dershowitz, joins the podcast to discuss whether forgiveness has been forgotten. (02:11)
Then: Will and Lara take us through some of their favourite pieces from the magazine, including Svitlana Morenets’ article on Ukraine’s fertility crisis and Sophie Winkleman’s notebook.
Next: Justin Brierley writes for The Spectator about the return of religiosity. He argues that after a period of decline, the secular tide is turning with young people returning to Christianity. However he expresses some concern that the flag bearers for this new Christianity – the likes of Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson – might not be the most sincere. Justin joins the podcast alongside Tom Holland, co-host of The Rest is History podcast and author of Dominion: how the Christian revolution remade the world. (13:39)
And finally: looking for love at the British museum. Harry Mount was dispatched to the British museum this week to investigate its new function as a pick up spot. The museum ran a marketing campaign promoting a new exhibition as an opportunity for single women to find single men. The post read: ‘Girlies, if you’re single and looking for a man, this is your sign to go to the British Museum’s new exhibition, Life in the Roman Army, and walk around looking confused. You’re welcome x.’ It added: ‘Come for the Romans, stay for some romance.’ Harry joins the podcast alongside fellow classicist Daisy Dunn. (23:51)
Stay tuned for a short snippet of Rory Sutherland’s proposed new podcast where he interviews leading thinking about trivial topics! (31:27)
Hosted by Lara Prendergast and William Moore.
Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Spectator magazine combines incisive political analysis with books and arts reviews of unrivaled authority. |
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| 0:12.3 | Plus, we'll give you a 20-pound Amazon gift voucher, absolutely free. |
| 0:15.9 | Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher. |
| 0:34.4 | Hello and welcome to the edition podcast from The Spectator, where each week we shared a little light on the thought process behind putting the world's oldest weekly magazine to bed. |
| 0:38.9 | I'm Laura Prendergast, the Spectator's Executive Editor. And I'm William Moore, |
| 0:44.1 | the Spectator's Features Editor. This week, we'll be talking about how forgiveness was forgotten, |
| 0:49.5 | asking if the secular tide is turning, and we'll be looking for romance at the British Museum. So, well, we're actually talking a little earlier than we normally would because the magazine went to press yesterday, I suppose, because of... |
| 1:01.2 | Good Friday. |
| 1:02.0 | Yeah. |
| 1:02.3 | Bank holiday. |
| 1:03.2 | And our cover line is, well, it's the Easter special. |
| 1:06.0 | We've got Douglas Murray writing in defence of forgiveness. |
| 1:10.0 | Let's talk a little bit about the cover. So we've got a |
| 1:12.1 | dove. You've got a beautiful dove drawn by Morton Morland, flying over the cross with an olive |
| 1:18.3 | branch in its mouth. And Douglas has written an extremely good piece about the lack of forgiveness |
| 1:23.7 | in the modern world, particularly the online nature of the whole thing. |
| 1:28.5 | You know, the online modern world is very, very unforgiving. And he points out in his piece |
| 1:32.7 | that there is no greater mechanism for society than forgiveness, because otherwise, you know, |
| 1:37.1 | there's no undo button on human action. So if we lose the value of forgiveness, then, you know, |
| 1:43.0 | we truly are, we truly are lost as a society. |
| 1:46.2 | It's actually just reminded me, Will, that when I first started here at the spectative, |
... |
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