The Rest Is Politics | |
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Presentation | |
Hosted by | Alastair Campbell Rory Stewart |
Genre | Talk |
Format |
|
Language | English |
Length | 30–50 minutes |
Publication | |
Original release | 2 March 2022 |
The Rest Is Politics is a British podcast and television series hosted by Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart. [1] [2] It launched in March 2022, [3] and has since become one of the leading political podcasts in the United Kingdom. [2] The podcast is produced by Goalhanger Podcasts. [3] [4] Campbell and Stewart generally discuss contemporary news and politics, with a strong focus on international developments, such as foreign elections and humanitarian catastrophes. An American edition was launched in April 2024 with Anthony Scaramucci and Katty Kay hosting. [5]
Both Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart are former political figures, and both left their respective parties because of their opposition to more extreme elements in them. Their podcast is aimed at "disagreeing agreeably", seeking a more temperate and informed political debate. [6]
Campbell is a journalist, political strategist, and mental health activist, known for his work as communications chief for Tony Blair. A former member of the Labour Party, Campbell was expelled after having voted for the Liberal Democrats in the 2019 European Parliament elections in the United Kingdom. [7] Stewart is an academic, author, former diplomat and politician. [8] As a member of the Conservative Party, he served as international development secretary and prisons minister under Theresa May. He represented Penrith and The Border in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom for around nine years. In 2019, after Boris Johnson was elected leader of the Conservatives, Stewart resigned from the cabinet. He was part of the 2019 suspension of rebel Conservative MPs for having rebelled against Johnson's approach to Brexit. He later also resigned his party membership. [9]
Goalhanger Podcasts is owned by former England footballer Gary Lineker, and also produces the podcasts The Rest Is History , hosted by Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland, [10] Battleground hosted by Saul David and Patrick Bishop, We Have Ways Of Making You Talk hosted by Al Murray and James Holland, The Rest Is Money, hosted by Robert Peston and Steph McGovern, [11] The Rest is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, and The Rest is Entertainment, hosted by Richard Osman and Marina Hyde. [12]
The podcast ordinarily releases two episodes every week: a "main" episode and a "question time" episode. The main episodes last around 30 to 50 minutes, and involve Campbell and Stewart discussing contemporary events and news stories, mostly from the United Kingdom. During the question time episodes, they answer questions from listeners. The questions are not limited to topics formerly discussed on the podcast, and include news stories not discussed on the main episodes as well as the hosts' political careers. The theme music that starts and ends each episode is "A Diabolical Caper", written by composer Luke Richards. On some occasions, the podcast releases "emergency" episodes, reacting to major news events, such as the resignations of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid, [13] which sparked the July 2022 United Kingdom government crisis, and the October 2022 United Kingdom government crisis, which resulted in the dismissal of Kwasi Kwarteng. [14]
Ahead of the 2024 United Kingdom general election, The Rest Is Politics was announced in Channel 4's coverage line-up, presenting alongside Emily Maitlis. [15]
No. | Guest(s) | Running time | Original air date | Link | |
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1 | N/A | 46:00 | May 29, 2024 | Episode | |
In the first episode, Alastair and Rory dissect the results of their exclusive poll, which shows Labour's lead is narrowing, and discuss Rishi Sunak's national service policy. |
The podcast hosts special guests, interviewing active and retired politicians on their careers and current events. In January 2023, Goalhanger began a new podcast series, Leading , for Campbell and Stewart to interview their special guests and to invite non-political figures as guests. Since Leading released, The Rest Is Politics did not invite any special guests, with the exception of Israeli public intellectual Yuval Noah Harari and Palestinian ambassador Husam Zomlot during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war. The following public figures have been interviewed on the podcasts' special episodes:
Gary Winston Lineker is an English sports broadcaster and former professional footballer. Lineker is the only player to have been the top goalscorer in England with three clubs: Leicester City, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur. He also played for Barcelona in Spain, and won 80 caps for England. His media career began with the BBC, where he has presented the flagship football programme Match of the Day since the late 1990s, the longest tenure of any MOTD presenter. Lineker is also the BBC's lead presenter for live football matches, including coverage of international tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup. He has also worked for Al Jazeera Sports, Eredivisie Live, NBC Sports Network, and BT Sport's coverage of the UEFA Champions League.
Alastair John Campbell is a British journalist, author, strategist, broadcaster, and activist, who is known for his political roles during Tony Blair's leadership of the Labour Party. Campbell worked as Blair's spokesman and campaign director in opposition (1994–1997), then as Downing Street Press Secretary, and as the Prime Minister's Official Spokesperson (1997–2000). He then became Downing Street's director of communications and spokesman for the Labour Party (2000–2003). He returned as campaign director for the 2005 general election in Blair's third win.
Alastair James Stewart OBE is an English former journalist and newscaster.
Roderick James Nugent Stewart, known as Rory Stewart, is a British academic, broadcaster, and former diplomat and politician. He is the Brady-Johnson Professor of the Practice of Grand Strategy at Yale University's Jackson School of Global Affairs. He hosts The Rest Is Politics podcast with Alastair Campbell. He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Penrith and The Border from 2010 to 2019, and between 2015 and 2019 he served as a minister in four departments of the British Government. He then became a Cabinet minister as Secretary of State for International Development from May to July 2019.
Emily Maitlis is a British journalist and former newsreader for the BBC. She was the lead anchor of the BBC Two news and current affairs programme Newsnight until the end of 2021, and is currently a presenter of the daily podcast The News Agents on LBC Radio.
Mark Mardell is a British journalist, formerly the presenter of The World This Weekend on BBC Radio 4. He had previously served as BBC News's Europe editor, and provided coverage for each United Kingdom general election between 1992 and 2005, before he became North America editor.
Richard Thomas Osman is an English author, television presenter, producer, novelist, and comedian. He is the creator and former co-presenter of the BBC One television quiz show Pointless. He has presented the BBC Two quiz shows Two Tribes and Richard Osman's House of Games, and been a team captain on the comedy panel shows Insert Name Here and The Fake News Show. He has made appearances on British panel shows including Would I Lie To You? and QI.
Akwasi Addo Alfred Kwarteng is a British politician who served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 6 September to 14 October 2022 under Liz Truss and the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from 2021 to 2022 under Boris Johnson. A member of the Conservative Party, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Spelthorne from 2010 to 2024.
Acast is a Swedish-founded company that provides hosting, monetization and growth support for podcasts, and podcast advertising solutions for brands and media agencies. Launching in 2014, it developed a dynamic insertion technology which can target advertising within podcasts based on location, time, and personal data. The company champions an independent and open ecosystem for podcasting, where podcasts hosted with Acast are available on all podcast listening apps. Acast was founded by Karl Rosander and Måns Ulvestam in 2013; together with Johan Billgren as co-founder. Acast hosts over 88,000 podcasts, with over 430 million listens every month. The company operates worldwide with a physical presence in 15 countries, and has its headquarters in Stockholm.
Pierre Novellie is a South African-born comedian.
The Worst Idea of All Time is a podcast hosted by New Zealand comedians Tim Batt and Guy Montgomery where they watch and review the same film every week for a year. In each season, the film chosen is one neither of the hosts have seen before and is generally considered to be a bad film.
Oh God, What Now? formerly known as Remainiacs, is a British hour-long twice-weekly political podcast about Brexit, speaking from the pro-Remain point of view. It was started on 26 May 2017 as Remainiacs after the European Union membership referendum as "a no-holds-barred podcast for everyone who won't shut up about Brexit". In October 2020, Remainiacs was renamed "Oh God, What Now?", due to the nature of Brexit making the unlikelihood of re-joining and changing nature of the British government.
We Didn't Start the Fire is a modern history podcast that ran from January 2021 to June 2023. It is hosted by Katie Puckrik and Tom Fordyce and produced by Crowd Network.
The News Agents is a British daily podcast produced by Persephonica for Global Media & Entertainment. It is presented by Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel, and Lewis Goodall. It launched on 30 August 2022, with episodes released every weekday afternoon.
The Rest Is History is a history podcast hosted by historian and author Dominic Sandbrook and popular historian Tom Holland.
Leading is a British podcast launched in January 2023. Hosted by Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart, it is a sister podcast of their weekly politics podcast The Rest is Politics. The podcast is produced by Goalhanger Podcasts.
Political Currency is a British podcast hosted by George Osborne and Ed Balls. It launched on 14 September 2023 and is produced by Persephonica.
The Rest Is Entertainment is a British podcast hosted by producer and author Richard Osman and journalist and writer Marina Hyde.
Empire is a British podcast launched on 15 August 2022. It is hosted by Anita Anand and William Dalrymple. The series is produced by Goalhanger Podcasts.