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The question of what is antisemitic and what is legitimate criticism of the state of Israel has long been a difficult question—but it has become even more fraught since 7th October 2023 and the continuing atrocities in Gaza. On 31st July 2025, Prospect brought two experts together to debate and discuss which kinds of speech and criticism are acceptable.

Jo Glanville is the editor of Looking for an Enemy: Eight Essays on Antisemitism, while Dave Rich is head of policy at the Community Security Trust, whose stated mission is to work for the physical protection of British Jews. They both join Prospect’s Alan Rusbridger and Alona Ferber to discuss what people misunderstand about anti-Jewish prejudice, and how it relates to Israel.

To read an edited excerpt of this interview, click here. 

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Ian McEwan's masterful new novel is a piece of speculative fiction that shows a radically altered UK on the other side of climate catastrophe and global warfare. But it centres on two academics reaching back into the past to uncover the secrets behind a poem performed only once and lost to history. We spoke with him about the novel's big themes, its human focus and how to bring past and future together in the present moment.

We all want to live the good life. But how many of us can claim to be truly content? Join philosopher and evolutionary biologist Massimo Pigliucci as he argues that pleasure, character, and a healthy dose of doubt, form the basis of the good life, and that purpose in life is crucial to realising our potential.

Massimo Pigliucci is a renowned philosopher and professor at the City College of New York. He is the author of several books, including, 'How to be a Stoic' and 'Beyond Stoicism'. A former co-host of the Rationally Speaking Podcast and a self-proclaimed sceptic, Pigliucci is a champion of Enlightenment notions of reason and rationality.

Don't hesitate to email us at [email protected] with your thoughts or questions on the episode!

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Having disposed of the surprising history of pop stars who posed for Playboy, discussing whether the universe really needs another album called "Play", come up with a couple of nominations for Best Album Title Of All Time, we hear about Alex's experiences seeing Oasis in the midst of 90,000 who have never been to Manchester and how he "used the force" to get some face time with Jack Black and Dave Grohl.

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Max Rashbrooke joins Emile Donovan to discuss a tool for political engagement and decision-making.

Leo Varadkar, Former Taoiseach joined Pat this morning to chat about his book 'Speaking My Mind'.

Texas’s extremely successful anti-littering campaign illustrates an important principle about habit change: Sometimes changing our habits requires us first to change our identity.

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Visit Gretchen's website to learn more about Gretchen's best-selling books, products from The Happiness Project Collection, and the Happier app.

Find the transcript for this episode on the episode details page in the Apple Podcasts app. 

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2025's instalment of John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme is forty-five minutes of the funniest things John thought of in the last year, performed by John and his regular cast of Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin and Carrie Quinlan, with composer Susannah Pearse at the piano and Sally Stares on the cello.

Please note that listening to these sketches about seahorses, time travel and sirens may cause side effects, unless you're listening to the placebo version of the show.

Written and performed by … John Finnemore

Original music … Susannah Pearse

Recording … Jerry Peal & Jon Calver

Production Manager … Katie Baum

Producer … Ed Morrish

John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme is a BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.

This month marks 50 years of Terry Gross as the host of Fresh Air. What began in 1975 as a local experiment at WHYY in Philadelphia has since grown into a national institution—one that not only transformed public radio, but laid the groundwork for the world of podcasting.To commemorate a half-century on the air, Terry Gross joins us for a rare appearance in the interview seat. At the top, we discuss her Brooklyn upbringing (11:39), early memories of writing (14:13), and her improbable road to public radio (30:51). Then, Terry walks us through the formative years of Fresh Air (34:50) and its seminal conversations with Kurt Vonnegut (41:34), John Updike (47:43), Monica Lewinsky (50:43), Joan Didion (1:02:08), and more.On the back-half, Gross reflects on forty-seven years of partnership with her late husband, jazz writer Francis Davis (1:04:37), their shared affinity for reading and music (1:07:10), the future of public media (1:20:29), and why she continues to have faith in (and love for) the long-form interview (1:32:48).

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Booker prize winning author, Ian McEwan, speaks to Take Four Books, about his new novel, What We Can Know, and explores its connections to three other literary works. What We Can Know is set almost a hundred years in the future in a Britain much of which is now underwater, and it follows the character of Tom Metcalfe, a scholar of the University of South Downs, who is looking back at the literature of the early twenty-first century.

For his his three influences Ian chose: a poem called Marston Meadows: A corona for Prue by John Fuller, first published in the Times Literary Supplement in 2021; The Immortal Dinner by Penelope Hughes-Hallett from 2000; and Footsteps by Richard Holmes from 1985.

The supporting contributor for this episode is the writer Denise Mina, and it's recorded during the Edinburgh International Books Festival.

Presenter: James Crawford

This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.