Forever remembered as the smart and stylish First Lady to President John F Kennedy, whose shocking death in Dallas she witnessed first hand, Jackie Kennedy is an enduring icon of the 20th Century. But much about her turbulent life in the public gaze - before, during and after her marriage to Kennedy - has remained a closely guarded secret.

One of the world’s most successful biographers, J Randy Taraborrelli, has been working on a book about Jackie for thirty years, conducting hundreds of interviews with her friends, her family and her lovers. His best selling ‘Jackie, Public, Private, Secret' came out earlier this year. Reviewers have queued up to praise its blend of revelation and respect.

J Randy joins Andrew and Phil to share his insights, reveal his methods and deliver a masterclass in the art of the biography.

You can buy the book - along with thousand of others - at the Scandal Mongers own bookstore, with all profits shared between independent booksellers and podcasters.

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/jackie-public-private-secret-j-randy-taraborrelli/7441358?aid=12054&ean=9781250276216

Andrew Lownie.

twitter.com/andrewlownie

Phil Craig.

twitter.com/philmcraig

You can also get in touch with the show hosts via...

[email protected] (place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading please)

This show is part of the PodcastWorld.org network. For your own show please get in contact via the email address above.

Production by

Theo X

Kerem Isik

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It seems likely that the Presidential election of 2024 will be a re-run of 2020.

Donald Trump faces multiple court cases and could, potentially, run for the most powerful office in the world whilst being a convicted felon.

Joe Biden is facing his own growing scandal, with political and legal investigations into his son Hunter gathering pace amid attempts by the President's opponents to link him to Hunter’s numerous misbehaviours.

How did America end up with such a scandal-rich slate of candidates, and how will their respective troubles affect the upcoming election?

The Times Washington correspondent, Alistair Dawber, studies the ins and outs of American politics for a living whilst striving to keen an objective perspective on both parties. This week he joins Andrew and Phil to deliver his analysis and predictions for the turbulent months ahead.

Andrew Lownie.

twitter.com/andrewlownie

Phil Craig.

twitter.com/philmcraig

You can also get in touch with the show hosts via...

[email protected] (place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading please)

This show is part of the PodcastWorld.org network. For your own show please get in contact via the email address above.

Production by

Theo X

Kerem Isik

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the days before this episode was recorded Andrew discovered that he has been, and maybe still is, the subject of extensive official data collection, including private information that might one day be used against him. The spooks are probably listening into these podcasts too! He believes this government surveillance is directly connected to his long pursuit of the facts about Lord Mountbatten’s life, and perhaps also his current research into the financial side of Prince Andrew’s life and work.

Many newspapers have reported on what Phil calls #Lowniegate and several highly respected British journalists - like this week's guest Michael Crick - have called for an official inquiry into Andrew’s case.

In this special episode we discuss the many ways that the royal family and British officialdom try to obstruct - and maybe even attack - historians and writers as they dig for uncomfortable truths. Despite numerous Freedom of Information and Data Protections laws, is it harder than ever to get to the truth?

The conversation also includes something touched upon in last week’s episode on the Covid Lab Leak theory. Are reporters today themselves preventing important stories coming out because they become framed not in journalistic terms, but political ones. For example there’s more evidence emerging that leading media and social media groups downplayed the lab leak story because it came to be identified with Donald Trump. 

You can buy Michael’s many books at our online bookstore, including his recent biography of Nigel Farrage.

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/one-party-after-another-the-disruptive-life-of-nigel-farage-michael-crick/3378145?aid=12054&ean=9781471192296

Andrew Lownie.

twitter.com/andrewlownie

Phil Craig.

twitter.com/philmcraig

You can also get in touch with the show hosts via...

[email protected] (place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading please)

This show is part of the PodcastWorld.org network. For your own show please get in contact via the email address above.

Production by

Theo X

Kerem Isik

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Six girls and one boy, raised in aristocratic luxury in the years before World War Two, became the most famous - and most scandalous - family in Britain. Their lives were captured in a much loved book - The Pursuit of Love - by eldest sister Nancy Mitford, the subject of a recent glossy TV adaptation. 

They first became household names because of their beauty and self confidence, soon followed by a series of lurid stories about their wild lifestyles, marriages and affairs. But what really made them important was their politics.

As more and more nations embraced authoritarian governments and the rule of dictators, the Mitford sisters began to use their energy and fame on behalf of the most famous, and frightening, strong-men of them all. One became obsessed with Hitler and managed to make herself a member of his closest circle. Another renounced the privileges of her upbringing, admired Stalin and risked her life to embrace the communist cause. A third married and worked closely with Britain’s most high profile demagogue: Sir Oswald Mosely, a former socialist who had embraced fascism and anti-semitism and was spoken of as Britain's version of Hitler or Mussolini. 

Laura Thompson, who has previously been on the podcast discussing Lord Lucan, joins us to talk about her widely acclaimed book on the Mitfords and their time (and why they still fascinate us today). 

You can buy it - and thousands more - at the Scandal Mongers’ own bookshop, where all profits are shared between podcasters and independent bookstores. 

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/take-six-girls-the-lives-of-the-mitford-sisters-laura-thompson/1211074?aid=12054&ean=9781784970895

Andrew Lownie.

twitter.com/andrewlownie

Phil Craig.

twitter.com/philmcraig

You can also get in touch with the show hosts via...

[email protected] (place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading please)

This show is part of the PodcastWorld.org network. For your own show please get in contact via the email address above.

Production by

Theo X

Kerem Isik

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the early days of the pandemic a lot of attention was paid to the fact that the Chinese city of Wuhan, from which the virus emerged, contained a biological research laboratory that had been experimenting with coronaviruses.

But this was met by political and scientific reassurance that the virus was more likely the result of an evolutionary leap and had spread via a food market. Those who persisted with the laboratory hypothesis were criticised for being anti-Chinese or 'conspiracy theorists' and their views were largely excluded from mainstream media reporting and ‘flagged’ as outliers on social media sites.

The fact that President Trump, who had been pushing strange ‘cures’ for Covid, also entertained the lab-leak theory, made many of his opponents feel it was probably incorrect.

This week’s guest, journalist Matt Ridley wasn’t so sure, and he set about with a co-author, molecular biologist, Alina Chan, to investigate. Their 2021 book ‘Viral' laid out the case for and against the lab leak theory in great detail.

Meanwhile the administration of President Biden started to review the evidence, as a series of scientific and congressional inquiries put ‘lab escape’ back on the mainstream news agenda. Today more and more experts are entertaining it.

So what’s the real evidence - and could it be that political bias may have stopped us looking dispassionately at the cause of greatest public health emergency of the century?

You can buy Matt Ridley’s book - and thousands more - from the Scandal Mongers own online bookstore - part of a profit-sharing collaboration between podcasters and independent book stories.

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/viral-the-search-for-the-origin-of-covid-19-alina-chan/6158390?aid=12054&ean=9780008487492

Andrew Lownie.

twitter.com/andrewlownie

Phil Craig.

twitter.com/philmcraig

You can also get in touch with the shows hosts via...

[email protected]

(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading please)

This show is part of the PodcastWorld.org network. For your own show please get in contact via the email address above.

Production by

Theo X

Kerem Isik

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Duke and Duchess of York have been in the public eye for decades. Once widely admired for their freshness and sense of fun (and his record in the Falklands War) their lives became tangled in a series of scandals, both financial and sexual. Today he lives in a form of internal exile, banished from royal duties after settling a court case with Virginia Giuffrie, who alleged she was trafficked to have sex with him. Meanwhile ‘Fergie’, tho divorced from the Prince, remains one of his closest fiends.

Andrew is working on a new joint biography and in this episode he offers a sneak peek into some of the remarkable and controversial things he has been finding out.

From toe-sucking to influence peddling, dodgy arms deals to suspicious house sales... and, of course, Jeffrey Epstein...this is the essential primer on Britain’s most scandalous royal couple. 

Andrew Lownie.

twitter.com/andrewlownie

Phil Craig.

twitter.com/philmcraig

You can also get in touch with the show hosts via...

[email protected] (place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading please)

This show is part of the PodcastWorld.org network. For your own show please get in contact via the email address above.

Production by

Theo X

Kerem Isik

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Times royal correspondent returns to the podcast for a second interview. This time we’re highlighting the new work he has done for the latest edition of his widely acclaimed book COURTIERS, which first lifted the lid on simmering tensions behind palace walls and gave a voice to staff members who claimed to have been bullied and belittled by the Duchess of Sussex.

What’s the real divide that drives the current feud in the House of Windsor? Could it be a deep personality clash between Kate, now Princess of Wales, and Meghan?

'Recollections may vary', as the late Queen Elizabeth said of the Sussexes Oprah Winfrey interview!

You can now buy Valentine’s book in the Scandal Mongers own online book store, which shares profits between independent bookshops and other podcasters.

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/courtiers-valentine-low/6755938?aid=12054&ean=9781472290908

Andrew Lownie.

twitter.com/andrewlownie

Phil Craig.

twitter.com/philmcraig

You can also get in touch with the show hosts via...

[email protected] (place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading please)

This show is part of the PodcastWorld.org network. For your own show please get in contact via the email address above.

Production by

Theo X

Kerem Isik

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A once popular British Prime Minister brought down by scandals, after a career in politics with more than its fair share of controversy.

Is it too soon to write Boris Johnson off? What can we learn from his turbulent career? And what will his long term legacy be for British politics and the wider world?

Our guest Tom McTague is one of the most respected political writers in Britain and he has spent a lot of time closely observing Boris Johnson, while working for The Atlantic Monthly and as editor of UNHERD.COM

Andrew Lownie.

twitter.com/andrewlownie

Phil Craig.

twitter.com/philmcraig

You can also get in touch with the show hosts via...

[email protected] (place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading please)

This show is part of the PodcastWorld.org network. For your own show please get in contact via the email address above.

Production by

Theo X

Kerem Isik

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After winning the Victoria Cross and numerous other medals, Australian SAS veteran Ben Roberts Smith became a national hero. But then allegations started to circulate - of bullying within his unit and, more seriously, of prisoners mistreated and executed in Afghanistan. 

Chris Masters, one of Australia’s best known journalists, had been trusted by the military to write a book about the war in Afghanistan. He then became interested in the story of Ben Roberts Smith.

The result would be that Chris, along with a handful of other reporters, was taken to court for defamation in one of Australia’s longest and most bitter legal dramas. In June 2023 the Judge ruled in favour of Chris, tho an appeal maybe pending.

In this episode Chris tells the story from his perspective, and explains that applying the laws of warfare is difficult in extreme circumstances but that it essential that a honourable military system should always try to do it. 

You can buy Chris’ upcoming book on the case - and thousands of others - in our own online bookstore. All profits are shared between podcasters and independent booksellers. 

https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/scandalmongers

For more on Chris:

 https://halloffame.melbournepressclub.com/article/chris-masters

Andrew Lownie.

twitter.com/andrewlownie

Phil Craig.

twitter.com/philmcraig

You can also get in touch with the show hosts via...

[email protected] (place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading please)

This show is part of the PodcastWorld.org network. For your own show please get in contact via the email address above.

Production by

Theo X

Kerem Isik

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew and Phil discuss the remarkable - and remarkably shocking - story of the East India Company. How did a handful of men in a small office in London come to rule India, transforming the histories of both nations?

William Dalrymple, author of the much acclaimed book 'The Anarchy’ joins them to tell a hair raising story of plunder, conquest, scandal and death.

You can buy’s The Anarchy - and thousands of other books - in our new Scandal Mongers online bookstore. All profits shared between independent booksellers and podcasters like us.

https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/scandalmongers

Williiam Dalrymple.

@DalrympleWill

Andrew Lownie.

twitter.com/andrewlownie

Phil Craig.

twitter.com/philmcraig

You can also get in touch with the show hosts via...

[email protected] (place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading please)

This show is part of the PodcastWorld.org network. For your own show please get in contact via the email address above.

Production by

Theo X

Kerem Isik

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.