21: Beirut Burns, Tory Tussles, and the latest Strictly Curse
As the Middle East edges towards a full-blown war, and Binyamin Netanyahu vows that Iran “will pay” for launching a missile strike on Israel, Sarah and Peter look at the troubled history of the area and ask what next for this corner of the world and could the violence spread further still?
The battle to lead dominates on both sounds of the Atlantic as vice presidents in waiting JD Vance and Tim Walz square off in the US. And closer to home, the final four Tory candidates address the faithful at party conference with at least one of the candidates asking if the Tory could just be ‘normal’, please.
Plus, Strictly Come Dancing has gone from the darling of Saturday night TV to the subject of an internal BBC inquiry among accusations of harassment and bullying. How did we go from a gentle foxtrot to this farrago?
To get in touch email Reaction@dailymail.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on WhatsApp - on 07796 657512 start your message with the word 'reaction'
Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens
Producer: Philip Wilding
Editor: Chelsey Moore
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Jamie East
A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular
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Om Podcasten
What's the Big Idea?
Finally, Sarah Vine (once memorably described as being ‘like and loathed in equal measure, divisive, but never indecisive’) and Peter Hitchens (a man whose writing a critic was called to compare to a Guardsman’s boot: ‘as highly polished and potentially lethal’) meet once a week to look at the world and mutter, alas…
Acclaimed columnist and journalist Sarah Vine and best-selling author and broadcaster Peter Hitchens discuss and dissect social, economic, and pop cultural flotsam and jetsam that have risen out of the dark waters of that week’s news.
Taking one big idea each episode and pulling it apart with élan, imagine Vine and Hitchens respective columns brought to life and then skewered, scoffed at, debated, and given the full weight of Vine and Hitchens impenetrable gaze. Though an accord might not always be reached, it’s the journey that matters.
Whether it’s the tech bros gone rogue – Meta tearing up its own rule book on fact checking, Musk attempting to influence governmental policy, or the knotty subject on society’s ever-increasing reliance on anti-depressants to treat what might just be the modern malaise and not depression at all. Or, evil, nature or nurture? Does evil actually exist or is it an idea that hangs over us, or do we just sometime embody it and the actions themselves are evil, not the individual?
All this and more are to be pored over, one towering topic each week discussed with humour, insight, and real understanding.
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To get in touch email alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on WhatsApp - on 07796 657512 start your message with the word 'alas'
Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens
Producer: Phillip Wilding
Editor: Chelsey Moore
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Jamie East
A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular