Holy Smoke

By The Spectator

The most important and controversial topics in world religion, thoroughly dissected by a range of high profile guests. Presented by Damian Thompson.

Hosted on Acast. See

... more

4.6

121121 ratings

Download on the App Store

Download on the App Store

Get it on Google Play

FAQs about Holy Smoke:

How many episodes does Holy Smoke have?

The podcast currently has 202 episodes available.

Holy Smoke episodes:

January 24, 2025 Could Trump 2.0. herald a new era of religious liberty in America?
Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, director of the US-based Conscience Project and a friend of Holy Smoke, joins Damian to talk about what the incoming second Trump administration could mean for religious freedoms in America. Andrea argues that the Biden administration waged an unprecedented assault on such freedoms during his term. What could happen over the next four years on issues like gender, abortion, adoption and religious discrimination? And what are the nuances between federal and state laws? (2:06)

Also on the podcast, Damian speaks to The Spectator’s Will Moore, Lara Prendergast and Freddy Gray about the nomination of Cardinal Robert McElroy to be the new Archbishop of Washington. Far from being a routine appointment, Damian reveals in this week’s magazine that this is clearly a retaliation against the new Trump administration for the nomination of an arch MAGA loyalist, and uncompromising Catholic, as the new ambassador to the Holy See. Cardinal McElroy is an outspoken liberal. What does this tell us about both the Papacy and the President? And how much sway does the Catholic hierarchy really have in Trump’s America? (21:55)

Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts.

Contact us: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
36min
January 17, 2025 Did Muslim leaders help conceal the grooming gangs scandal? A fierce exchange of views
Welcome to one of the most heated exchanges of views in the history of the Holy Smoke podcast. In this episode, Damian Thompson talks to the distinguished Islamic scholar Dr Musharraf Hussain about the controversy surrounding the Muslim background of some of the accused in the crimes of Britain's 'grooming gangs'.

Damian draws an analogy between the Catholic hierarchy's cover-up of sex abuse by priests, and what he claims was the role of certain local Muslim community leaders in restricting debate about, and investigation of, abuse committed by men from Pakistani families. To say that there was no common ground between Dr Thompson and Dr Hussain would be putting it mildly, alas...

Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts.

Contact us: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
29min
December 31, 2024 How abuse scandals shattered the Church of England but were hidden by the Vatican
In this end-of-year episode of Holy Smoke, Damian Thompson discusses the abuse scandals that have forced the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, to resign his post, his predecessor Lord Carey to resign his ministry as a priest, and now threaten the survival of the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cotterill.

These developments are an unprecedented disaster for the Church of England – but how many Roman Catholics realise that Pope Francis would also be facing demands for his resignation if the details of various horrifying scandals were not being allegedly concealed by the Vatican and its media allies?
Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts.

Contact us: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
14min
December 24, 2024 Why was C.S. Lewis such a killjoy at Christmas? A discussion with Alister McGrath
Which 20th-century Scrooge had the following to say about the celebration of Christmas?

‘It gives on the whole much more pain than pleasure… Anyone can force you to give him a present by sending you a quite unprovoked present of his own. It's almost blackmail… Can it really be my duty to buy and receive masses of junk every winter just to help the shopkeepers?’

Step forward C.S. Lewis, beloved Christian apologist and children’s author, whose splenetic denunciation of ‘the whole dreary business’ of Christmas and mean-spirited comments about carol singers are hard to reconcile with his reputation for benevolence.

To make sense of the author’s views, Damian Thompson is joined by the renowned theologian and C.S. Lewis expert Prof Alister McGrath for a Christmas episode of Holy Smoke. They talk about the influence Lewis had on McGrath’s own conversion, the significance of the nativity and the question of whether the Gospel accounts of Jesus’s birth are apocryphal.

Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts.

Contact us: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
27min
December 13, 2024 Is the end of Christendom nigh? with A.N. Wilson
Thousands of Brits will be attending Christmas and carol services throughout December. Yet festive attendance masks the reality that church congregations just aren’t holding up. The most optimistic of estimates suggest that regular church attendance has almost halved in the UK since 2009. This is just one of the factors that has led the historian and writer A.N. Wilson, in the Christmas edition of The Spectator this week, to declare that the end of Christendom is nigh.

On this episode of Holy Smoke, A.N. Wilson joins Damian Thompson to discuss his thesis. Like Platonism, is Christianity doomed to become extinct in practice? When was the last time England was truly, and fervently, religious? And are innovations such as female priests a symptom – or a cause – of the Church’s decline?

You can read more from A.N. Wilson on his Substack.

Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts.

Contact us: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
26min
December 06, 2024 Defender of the Faith: how have the King’s religious beliefs changed?
As we approach the end of a uniquely painful year for the Royal Family, the King's trusted biographer, Robert Hardman, joins Damian Thompson to discuss the Monarch’s faith. As Robert recently revealed in his updated biography of Charles III, the cancer-stricken King has been drawing solace from a Christian faith that has become increasingly explicit over the years. He still thinks of himself as the ‘defender of faith’, but now also unapologetically uses his ancient title of ‘Defender of the Faith’, meaning Christianity. Specifically, he is more attracted than ever to the traditions of the Orthodox Church into which his father was baptised.

But, as Robert has revealed, the current Prince of Wales is emphatically not religious (unlike his wife, who is reported to be exploring her own spirituality in the wake of her own diagnosis). What will this mean when William eventually inherits the position of Supreme Governor of the Church of England?

Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts.

Contact us: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
31min
November 27, 2024 Should assisted dying be legalised?
MPs are set to vote on the legalisation of assisted dying this week, the first such vote in almost a decade. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was tabled by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater and follows a campaign by broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen and others.

The biggest change since the last vote in 2015 is the make-up of parliament, with many more Labour MPs, as well as newer MPs whose stances are unknown. Consequently, it is far from certain that the bill – which would mark one of the biggest changes to social legislation for a generation – will pass. What are the arguments for and against? And how could the religious beliefs of MPs inform their votes?

Damian Thompson is joined by Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, director of the Maidenhead Synagogue and a supporter of legalisation, and Martin Vickers MP, a Conservative MP and opponent of assisted dying, to understand the dynamics of the debate. But first, Isabel Hardman joins the programme to talk through the parliamentary arithmetic – is Parliament any more or less religious than in 2015?

Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts.

Contact us: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
50min
November 12, 2024 Welby resigns: crisis at the Church of England
After mounting pressure, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has resigned. His resignation comes days after a damning report into the child abuser John Smyth who was associated with the Church of England. Welby was apparently made aware of the allegations in 2013, yet Smyth died in 2018 before facing any justice. Since the report was published, Welby and the Church have faced questions about the failure to act and the lack of urgency. The Spectator’s editor Michael Gove joins Damian Thompson to discuss what Damian calls ‘not just a shocking moment in the history of the Church of England, but in the history of English Christianity’.

Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Natasha Feroze.
Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts.

Contact us: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
19min
November 08, 2024 Did Christianity create secular humanism?
Since the election of an overwhelmingly secular Labour government, people who describe themselves as humanists have a spring in their step: for example, there's a prospect that humanist weddings will be legally recognised in England and Wales (they already are in Scotland).

But what exactly is a humanist? Definitions vary and there's a heated debate about to what extent the ethical but firmly atheist beliefs of the rather loosely organised modern humanist movement are descended from Christianity. In this episode of Holy Smoke we'll hear from Andrew Copson, CEO of Humanists UK since 2010 & President of Humanists International, and the theologian and Spectator contributor Theo Hobson, author of God created Humanism: the Christian Basis of Secular Values. Damian Thompson spoke to them earlier and, as you'll hear, it was a lively encounter.

Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts.

Contact us: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
34min
October 25, 2024 Sale of the century: why is the Kirk selling off hundreds of churches so cheaply?
In this week’s Spectator, William Finlater reveals that some of the Church of Scotland’s most precious architectural heritage is being flogged off quickly, cheaply and discreetly. Most western denominations are being forced to close churches, but the fire sale of hundreds of Scottish churches is unprecedented in British history. In this episode of Holy Smoke, Damian talks to William about the Kirk’s apparently panicky reaction to losing half its members since 2000, and asks new Spectator editor Michael Gove – once a Church of Scotland Sunday School teacher – why his former denomination is staring into the abyss.

Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Patrick Gibbons.
Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts.

Contact us: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
28min

FAQs about Holy Smoke:

How many episodes does Holy Smoke have?

The podcast currently has 202 episodes available.

More shows like Holy Smoke

Best of the Spectator by The Spectator

Best of the Spectator

183 Listeners

The spiked podcast by The spiked podcast

The spiked podcast

216 Listeners

First Things Podcast by First Things

First Things Podcast

724 Listeners

Coffee House Shots by The Spectator

Coffee House Shots

182 Listeners

Americano by The Spectator

Americano

257 Listeners

The Book Club by The Spectator

The Book Club

9 Listeners

The Edition by The Spectator

The Edition

50 Listeners

Last Orders - a spiked podcast by Last Orders - a spiked podcast

Last Orders - a spiked podcast

58 Listeners

New Culture Forum by New Culture Forum

New Culture Forum

89 Listeners

Planet Normal by The Telegraph

Planet Normal

182 Listeners

UnHerd with Freddie Sayers by UnHerd

UnHerd with Freddie Sayers

210 Listeners

The Pillar Podcast by The Pillar Podcast

The Pillar Podcast

648 Listeners

Table Talk by The Spectator

Table Talk

9 Listeners

The Book Club by The Spectator

The Book Club

9 Listeners

The Current Thing by Nick Dixon

The Current Thing

27 Listeners

The Sceptic by The Daily Sceptic

The Sceptic

4 Listeners

Quite right! by The Spectator

Quite right!

38 Listeners