Best politics podcasts: from The Rest is Politics to Pod Save the UK

With a new Labour government in power, there is plenty of action going on in Westminster – and there are plenty of political podcasts you can tune into to hear the latest news and debate.

Democracy's Year of Peril

I'm a "sucker for a podcast with a gloomy, portentous title", said James Marriott in The Times. Last year, the chief economics commentator and "chief Jeremiah" of the Financial Times, Martin Wolf, made a terrific series called "The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism". It was "doom on a grand canvas": very much my bag. Now, he is back with another intellectually inspiring, yet extremely unnerving, podcast called "Democracy's Year of Peril", in which he interviews leading political thinkers about the future of Western liberal democracy.

Robert Kagan warns that the US is a "voluntary association of states" that may not hang together for ever. Fiona Hill explains why she thinks America is already in a state of "cold civil war". Anne Applebaum tell us that European diplomats are preparing for a world in which America is no longer a democracy. "Depressed yet? Yes? Good. And we're only just warming up."

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The News Agents

"The News Agents" has become "a daily fix" for many since its inception in 2022, said Patricia Nicol in The Times.

The "much-trumpeted" podcast from LBC's owners Global is co-hosted by Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall (all formerly of the BBC), said The Guardian. The title may be a "throwback to when we got our daily news by popping into a local shop once a day", said GQ, but this is what the ex-mainstream media professionals are offering: a "smart, daily dissection" of the big news stories.

The Daily

"The Daily", by The New York Times, is "well known for a reason", said Time Out. It does "exactly what it says on the tin – puts out great and insightful podcasts with a political eye across the globe" every weekday.

Hosts Michael Barbaro and Sabrina Tavernise describe this podcast as "exactly how the news should sound": short, 20-minute bursts. It's "perfect for your morning coffee" or commute.

The Rest is Politics

The "staggeringly popular political podcasting behemoth", so says The Irish Times' Fiona McCann, is yet another blockbuster produced by Gary Lineker's wildly successful Goalhanger Podcasts.

Fronted by former Blairite spin doctor Alastair Campbell and ex Conservative minister and "awkward nerd" Rory Stewart, its red-blue logo makes clear the divide between the two, said Samuel Rubinstein in The Spectator.

But although it’s definitely serious, it’s also "kind of a balm, and pretty chummy". Boris Johnson proves a "point of blanket agreement and agreeable disdain" – Stewart resigned from the cabinet on Johnson's election. But these two are "wildly well informed" and "personally invested in how these structures play out on issues from prison reform to public education." Listen in for "astoundingly articulate, generally polite and largely reasonable gentlemen".

Pod Save the UK

The twice-weekly "Pod Save America" has been combining political commentary with comedy since 2017, said Fiona Sturges in the FT. It describes itself as a "no-b******t conversation about politics hosted by former Obama aides Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer, and Tommy Vietor". It's chatty, clever, unashamedly partisan (a left-liberal answer to right-wing talk radio) and extremely funny.

Now there's a British version, "Pod Save the UK". Each week journalist Coco Khan and comedian Nish Kumar are joined by politicians and experts to "unpick the latest news, look for solutions and inspire action". Khan and Kumar have "chemistry and an unruly energy", and the ratio of serious to funny is "expertly judged", said Sturges.

The Power Test 

Aimed squarely at political junkies, "The Power Test" is a terrific podcast from Ayesha Hazarika, a former Labour special adviser, and Sam Freedman, a former Conservative (now left-leaning) adviser, said Rachel Cunliffe in The New Statesman.

The focus is on the path to a future Labour government and what the party should do if elected. Hazarika and Freedman both "delight in being self-confessed policy wonks" and make a fun pairing. "If you're a political obsessive too, you'll adore it."

Electoral Dysfunction 

The latest addition to the roster is Sky News's "Electoral Dysfunction", where each week political editor Beth Rigby, Labour MP Jess Phillips and the former leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson bring their "no-nonsense styles and decades of experience" to bear.

The podcast aims to "try and attract people that don't necessarily live and breathe politics", Rigby told Press Gazette.

The podcast takes a weekly look at political leaders and their policies, and promises to offer a "less formal" side of political journalism, said Rigby. "Honestly, it's quite rude as well."

The Daily T

Recorded straight from The Daily Telegraph's newsroom, this daily news and right-of-centre politics pod has The Telegraph's Director of Audio, Camilla Tominey, and the former Editorial Director of "BBC News", Kamal Ahmed at the helm.

"Camilla and I will have all this brilliant journalism at our fingertips," said Ahmed in The Telegraph prior to the launch in May of the podcast, which is filmed. Youtube Shorts and clips are an "incredibly important part of what we want this podcast to be", Ahmed told Press Gazette.

Tominey pointed out to The Telegraph that they fill a "gap in the market for something that hasn't been designed by a Left-wing committee." They have rather different political persuasions, though, which was part of the appeal for Tominey, who aims for what she describes as "agreeable disagreement". The pair secured the first in-depth campaign trail interview with Rishi Sunak, asking about both his proposals for national service and his appreciation of "Star Wars".

US politics podcasts

With just weeks to go until the US election, what should politics nerds be listening to? The short answer, said James Marriott in The Times, is "Hacks on Tap". Hosted by former Obama campaign director David Axelrod and Republican strategist Mike Murphy, it is "the best podcast about American politics by miles, and one of my favourite podcasts about anything". The mood is amiable, yet it avoids the "airless consensus" that suffocates many of its rivals.

For British listeners who don't want to get their American politics from sources that "assume intimate knowledge of demographic change in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania", "The Rest Is Politics US", with Anthony Scaramucci and Katty Kay, is good. It had a rocky start, but now provides an "entertaining and opinionated broad-brush overview of election news".

But still, I'd opt for the BBC's "Americast", presented by Justin Webb, Sarah Smith, Anthony Zurcher and Marianna Spring. This is a "much more knowledgeable and professional operation" – and thanks to BBC impartiality rules, the hosts are "compelled to find interesting things to say about Trump's appeal to almost half of America, rather than just ranting about him, Scaramucci-style".

The Week Unwrapped

Have you missed the biggest news of the week? Or at least the stories which will shape our lives in years to come, when the passing hype of the day's headlines have faded from memory. That's the premise of The Week's own award-winning podcast, "The Week Unwrapped", which seeks out under-reported stories with unexpected consequences, from the world-changing to the small but personally significant.

Listen to The Week Unwrapped on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts