The Prospect Interview

Prospect contributing editor Isabel Hilton is joined by Margot Wallström, a former Swedish foreign affairs minister and head of the High-Level Working Group on the Environmental Consequences of the War in Ukraine. They discuss the environmental damage Russia’s war has caused in Chernobyl and across the country. Also on the podcast, climate scientist Gavin Schmidt discusses the worrying news that climate models can’t explain 2023’s historic temperature high.

Author and journalist Phil Tinline joins Ellen Halliday on the podcast to discuss the threat Trump poses to US democracy and the cross-partisan movement of lawyers, activists and politicians fighting to safeguard it. 

For our cover story this month, author, broadcaster and theologian Andrew Graystone explores media tycoon Paul Marshall’s God-driven mission to reshape Britain. He joins deputy editor Ellen Halliday to discuss Marshall’s life, faith and media empire—and why it matters for Britain. Read Andrew Graystone's cover story here.

This month, OCD sufferer Sarah Collins faces her phobia of sleeping alone, while Gen Z-er Alice Garnett reflects on a search for a new job. Former England cricket captain Mike Brearley celebrates the many apprenticeships he's completed both in sport and in life.

Rumours abound about the so-called “billionaire” city planned by a former banker and his backers in Solano County California. Is California Forever, as the project is known, a money-making scheme for those disillusioned with San Francisco’s rocketing prices and accumulating problems? Or is it just America’s answer to Milton Keynes? Author and broadcaster Deyan Sudjic joins the podcast to discuss the California Forever and what it illustrates about how capitalism grapples with the crisis in affordable housing. Read Deyan's piece here.

Handing cash to rough sleepers has always been a controversial act, but is it actually the solution to our homelessness crisis? It’s an idea that award-winning journalist and author Samira Shackle explored in a feature for the most recent issue of Prospect. Shackle joins Ellen Halliday and Jonathan Tan, chief executive of non-profit Greater Change, on the podcast to discuss cash transfers, universal basic income and other measures that could ease Britain's growing homelessness problem. Read Samira Shackle’s feature here. 

In this special episode of the podcast, 91-year-old actor Sheila Hancock and 24-year-old writer Alice Garnett discuss the age-old question: are things really harder for the young?Gen Z Alice and nonagenarian Sheila are joined by Prospect’s boomer editor Alan Rusbridger and millennial Sarah Collins to discuss everything from housing to climate change to mental health—and whether there’s anything one generation can learn from the other.This conversation with two of Prospect’s Lives columnists is also available to read in the latest issue.

Kim Darroch, who was the UK ambassador to the US from 2016-2019, joins Ellen Halliday to discuss how likely a second Trump presidency is and how the UK and Europe should prepare for it. In a wide-ranging conversation that covers Trump's domestic agenda and foreign policy regarding Nato, China, Ukraine and Gaza, Darroch argues that there are steps the UK can take to help Trump-proof our geo-politics. 

Leading European historian Timothy Garton Ash joins Ellen Halliday to discuss the death of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, the challenges facing the Ukrainian armed forces and the west’s unpreparedness in dealing with Putin.