The Edition: Weimar Britain, the war on science & are you a competitive reader?
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 19 September 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
First: a warning from history
Politics moving increasingly from the corridors of power into the streets, economic insecurity exacerbating tensions and the centre of politics failing to hold; these are just some of the echoes from Weimar Germany that the Spectator’s editor Michael Gove sees when looking at present-day Britain. But, he says, ‘there are grounds for hope’ – what are they? Michael joined the podcast to discuss.
Next: why did science succumb to the ‘culture wars’?
Biologist and peer Matt Ridley bemoans the ‘cultification of science’, arguing that ‘left-wing ideological nonsense’ ended up permeating through all scientific disciplines. Thinking ‘neutral facts’ were safe, Matt admits he – and colleagues – may have been naïve as one by one different battlefields emerged. Matt joined the podcast to discuss. Has science thrown off the shackles of the ‘culture wars’?
And finally: how many books have you read?
Emily Hill delves into the world of competitive reading this week – the rise of people publicising the books they’ve read, particularly through social media. Emily calls this ‘conspicuous’ and notes it appears to be a trend amongst mainly female influencers. But is this solely performative or – in a world of diminishing attention spans – could the trend be promoting the act of reading? Emily joined the podcast alongside BookTok blogger Lucas Oakeley.
Plus: Mark Mason provides his notes on guided walks. Mark will also be hosting a guided walk for the Spectator, for tickets go to www.spectator.co.uk/events
Hosted by William Moore and Lara Prendergast.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm George Osborne and I'm Ed Balls. We've been at the heart of British politics for some decades. |
| 0:06.6 | And I guess we do know how it really works. Yeah, and that's why we started this podcast political currency to give you the inside story to tell you how things actually happen. |
| 0:16.0 | And there's no spin and no waffle in our podcast. |
| 0:18.7 | Look, I'm not totally sure that is quite right on the waffle, |
| 0:21.8 | but definitely straight talking analysis from two people who've been in the room |
| 0:25.8 | when the big calls are made. |
| 0:27.3 | Yeah, we often disagree, but we always say what we think. |
| 0:30.6 | So if you are serious about politics, this is the podcast for you. |
| 0:34.0 | New episodes are out every Monday and Thursday. |
| 0:36.3 | Search political currency wherever you get your podcasts and of course on YouTube. |
| 0:50.6 | Hello and welcome to the edition podcast from The Spectator, where each week we shed a little light on the thought process behind putting the world's oldest weekly magazine to bed. |
| 1:01.5 | I'm William Moore, the Spectator's features editor. |
| 1:03.9 | And I'm Laura Prendergast, the Spectator's executive editor. |
| 1:07.3 | On this week's podcast, we look at what lessons Britain can take from Weimar, Germany, |
| 1:12.3 | why did science succumb to the culture wars, and how competitive a reader are you? |
| 1:33.6 | First up, what echoes are there of the Weimar Republic in present-day Britain? |
| 1:39.8 | Politics moving increasingly into the streets, economic insecurity exacerbating tensions, |
| 1:42.6 | and the centre of politics failing to hold. |
| 1:45.5 | These are just some of the parallels that our editor, |
| 1:51.8 | Michael Gove, draws between Weimar, Germany and modern Britain. But he says there are grounds for hope. |
| 1:57.8 | Michael joined the podcast to discuss his argument, and I started by asking him to take listeners through his comparison. Yes, it was really brought home to me this weekend because when I saw the march that was |
| 2:05.0 | led by Tommy Robinson and Katie Hopkins and others and the plethora of flags being woven |
... |
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