250 | What Just Happened at the New York Times?

In an extra episode, we're back with last week's guest Jonathan Shainin, Head of Opinion at the Guardian, so he can talk us through the big blow-up at the NYT.  What has it taught us about about the new battlegrounds in newspaper opinion?  Where does power now lie in newspaper offices?  And where does Jonathan draw the line between what can and can't be published?  In our next episode, voices on the ground in the US.

249 | Matt Forde

David talks to comedian and host of the Political Party podcast Matt Forde about his lockdown experiences and about his life with the Labour party: before, during and after the Corbyn years.  Plus we discuss the ways in which political allegiances are (and aren't) like supporting a football team.

248 | Facts vs Opinions

David and Helen talk with Jonathan Shainin, Head of Opinion at the Guardian newspaper, about the challenges of political journalism in a deeply polarised age.  Is it possible to hold the line between news and comment?  Are the arguments about Covid a rerun of Brexit?  What can scientists and historians add to political analysis?  Plus we discuss how American journalism has changed the way it talks about race and
violence and what that means for the current moment.

247 | Dan Snow on Covid History (and Cummings)

David and Helen talk to the historian Dan Snow about the parallels for the current crisis.  Is it like past pandemics or is it more like a war?  What has it exposed about the weak spots in our societies?  And what have we learned about the role of political leadership?  Plus we explore the value of Churchill comparisons on the 80th anniversary of his great WWII speeches and we dip our toes into the Cummings affair.

246 | Bread, Cement, Cactus

David talks to the writer Annie Zaidi, winner of the Nine Dots Prize, about her remarkable memoir of life in India and the search for identity.  It's s story of conflict, migration, belonging and the idea of home.  We also discuss what home means for Indians now the country is under lockdown and Annie tells us how life is in Mumbai.

245 | Europe Blows Up

How does a judgement of the German constitutional court threaten to explode the European project?  David talk to Helen Thompson, Adam Tooze and Shahin Vallee about what the court's decision might mean for
the Euro, for the response to the pandemic, for Franco-German relations and for the future of central banks.  Can the great European fudge continue?  And what happens if it can't?

Plus a bonus chat with Ed Miliband and Geoff Lloyd from the ‘Reasons to be Cheerful Podcast’ https://www.cheerfulpodcast.com/