The best politics podcasts

Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart on tour with The Rest is Politics.

Former Blairite spin doctor Alastair Campbell and ex-Conservative minister and 'awkward nerd' Rory Stewart

(Image credit: Alamy / Ernesto Rogata)

last updated 3 April 2025

With Rachel Reeves squeezing the welfare budget and Donald Trump's tariffs looming across the pond, there's an enormous amount of news to keep up with. Here are some of the top politics podcasts to listen to in 2025, offering the very best interviews, analysis and debate to help make sense of it all.

These Times

Helen Thompson (co-host of the "Talking Politics" podcast) has teamed up with UnHerd political editor Tom McTague for this informative podcast that delves into the history that has shaped today's politics. This is "proper wide-angle stuff" placing the latest events within long-term trends that go back centuries, said Josiah Gogarty in GQ. The hosts "both know their current affairs onions" but they also bring in knowledgeable guests to help listeners gain a better understanding of our "chaotic modern world".

Politico's "thought-provoking" weekly podcast takes listeners into the House of Commons to discover "what life is really like" for the people inside, said Vicky Jessop in London's The Standard. Delving into questions "you might not have even thought to ask before", like what happens behind closed doors during mysterious COBRA meetings when a crisis hits the UK, this is one for "true political nerds". A "proper gem".

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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.

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".

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".

Hosted by former Obama campaign director David Axelrod and Republican strategist Mike Murphy, "Hacks on Tap" is "the best podcast about American politics by miles, and one of my favourite podcasts about anything", said James Marriott in The Times. Listeners are invited to pull up a chair and "settle down to listen to these twinkly and avuncular old-timers thrash things out together". The mood is amiable yet it avoids the "airless consensus" that suffocates many of its rivals.

This twice-weekly US politics podcast delves into the latest insights and analysis coming straight from the White House. Hosted by BBC's North America editor, Sarah Smith, BBC Radio 4 presenter, Justin Webb, the BBC's social media investigations correspondent, Marianna Spring, and BBC North America correspondent, Anthony Zurcher, "Americast" is a "one-stop shop for everything you could ever dream, wish or hope to know about American politics", said Naomi May in Elle. The real draw is the Q&A sessions where members of the public get the chance to put their questions to the knowledgeable hosts.

I've been following the new Trump administration with a sense of "mounting alarm", said James Marriott in The Times. It's not just the "impending collapse of American democracy, the mooted invasion of Greenland and the dawn of a dystopian techno-oligarchy". It's also the realisation that all those newly released Capitol rioters are sure to start their own podcasts. In the meantime, a sane, calm and well-informed guide to the chaos is "Trump 100", hosted by Sky News' Martha Kelner, Mark Stone and James Matthews. With a 15-minute daily episode for each of the president's first 100 days, the series is "newsy" and focused; and, unusually, our hosts are "not yakking away at each other from their dining tables. They have actually gone to the places where the news is happening. Revolutionary. I hope it catches on."