UnHerd with Freddie Sayers

UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers sits down with Mary Harrington to discuss the Russell Brand investigation and accusations.Read the Post here

UnHerd's Florence Read sits down with Gad Saad to talk about why the Western world is so depressed.How can we be happy? This question has preoccupied thinkers from Aristotle to the present day, in various disciplines encompassing philosophy, science and religion. In his latest book, The Saad Truth about Happiness, the Canadian evolutionary behavioural scientist Dr. Gad Saad takes on the subject through a scientific and practical lens. He spoke to UnHerd’s Florence Read about how happiness correlates with our politics, our religious beliefs, and the importance we place on play. 

Freddie Sayers sits down with Wolfgang Münchau , former co-editor of FT Deutschland, and founder and co-director of the Eurointelligence blog, to talk about Germany, the new sick man of Europe.

At the end of every week, Tony Blair receives his “box” to review over the weekend. It is no longer the tatty, old red briefcase of a Prime Minister, but a virtual one accessible from his laptop wherever he is in the world. Yet, the process remains much the same as when he was in Downing Street. Those who work for him must submit their papers before the box is closed for the weekend. Blair will then review the documents and add comments before meeting his team the following week. Only those really close to the former PM can email him papers directly.

UnHerd's Freddie Sayers meets Countess Alexandra Tolstoy.

US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are ready to do a deal, according to the historian, military strategist and advisor to the US government Edward Luttwak. The comments were made in a discussion this week with UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers, during which Luttwak argued that “a shift in the overall situation” has resulted in both leaders being more willing to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war.The author, who has worked inside and outside of the Pentagon and the US Department of State for decades, believes that channels between the CIA and the Kremlin are sufficiently open for peace talks to develop. Following the aborted Wagner Group uprising at the end of last month, CIA chief William Burns spoke directly to Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service, to reassure him there was no CIA involvement in the rebellion. For Luttwak, this implies “a certain overall attitude and willingness to communicate”, while Naryshkin’s very presence in the Kremlin is further evidence that the war could be coming to an end. 

Joining UnHerd to talk about why so few voices in public life and the media have spoken out against the shipment of cluster bombs, and about the recession of anti-war sentiment more widely, is the academic and writer Ashok Swain. A professor of peace and conflict research at Uppsala University in Sweden, he is one of the world’s leading experts on conflict resolution. His nation of residence is now set to join Nato, and he sat down with Freddie Sayers to unpick how Sweden’s proposed membership goes against its history of neutrality. 

At its peak, the Roman Empire was perhaps the greatest civilisation in history. But like so many cultures before and after it, it declined and finally ended.

The pharmaceutical company Pfizer financed groups lobbying for Covid-19 vaccine mandates, the investigative reporter Lee Fang has claimed. Speaking to UnHerd’s Florence Read, Fang discussed a recent report he wrote in which he uncovered the Chicago Urban League’s acceptance of a special $100,000 donation from Pfizer that was not publicly disclosed. Fang suggested that such a lack of disclosure could have a particularly negative impact on African Americans, who have historically been victims of medical malpractice in the US.