Sam Leith’s guest this week is Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia and author of The Seven Rules of Trust. They discuss why trust is such an important value for public debate, and how it can address polarisation in society. Jimmy addresses the challenge Elon Musk has posed to Wikipedia after the entrepreneur branded the site as ‘woke’, despite the pair having a personal relationship. Sam also asks whether the internet is getting worse – and if it can be fixed.
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33:54
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33:54
Quite right!: BBC bias & Bridget ‘Philistine’s’ war on education
Listeners on the Best of Spectator playlist can enjoy a section of the latest episode of Quite right! but for the full thing please seek out the Quite right! channel. Just search ‘Quite right!’ wherever you are listening now.This week: a crisis at the BBC – and a crisis of standards in our schools.Following the shock resignations of Tim Davie and Deborah Turness, Michael and Maddie ask whether the corporation has finally been undone by its own bias, and discuss how it can correct the leftward lurch in its editorial line.Then: Labour’s new education reforms come under the microscope. As Ofsted scraps single-word judgements in favour of ‘report cards’, could this ‘definitive backward step’ result in a ‘dumbing down’ that will rob the next generation of rigour and ambition? And will ‘Bridget Philistine’s’ war on education undo the positive legacy of the Conservatives on education?And finally, in Hollywood, actress Sydney Sweeney refuses to apologise for comments made in an interview last week – she now finds herself a heroine of the anti-woke age. Are we finally past peak woke?Produced by Oscar Edmondson.To submit your urgent questions to Michael and Maddie, go to: spectator.co.uk/quiteright
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22:28
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22:28
Reality Check: Britain's stats have become dangerously unreliable
Britain is facing a quiet crisis — its data is breaking down, and the government’s numbers are increasingly unreliable.In this episode of Reality Check, economics editor Michael Simmons asks what happens when the state can’t count properly. How can the Bank of England set interest rates or the Treasury balance the books when the data they rely on is wrong? And why are so many “official” statistics now being stripped of their trusted status?
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12:08
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12:08
Quite right!: Boris, Cameron or May? – Q&A
To submit your urgent questions to Michael and Maddie, go to: spectator.co.uk/quiterightThis week on the first ever Quite right! Q&A: What’s your most left-wing belief? Michael & Maddie confess their guilty liberal secrets on the Elgin Marbles, prison reform and private equity – or ‘the unacceptable face of capitalism’.Also this week: who would you trust to save your life on a desert island – Boris Johnson, Theresa May or David Cameron? And finally, a literary turn: from John Donne to Thomas Hardy, Michael and Maddie share their favourite poems, and make the case for learning verse by heart.Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
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35:32
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35:32
Holy Smoke: have the culture wars gone spiritual?
Why are Silicon Valley billionaires obsessing over Heaven & Hell, and what does it tell us about American society today? Spectator World's Arts Editor Luke Lyman joins Damian Thompson on this episode of Holy Smoke to talk about how a fascination with the Book of Revelation, the Antichrist and a techno-utopia – or techno-apocalypse – has gripped the 'tech bros'.Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
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Home to the Spectator's best podcasts on everything from politics to religion, literature to food and drink, and more. A new podcast every day from writers worth listening to.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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