The Exchange | Long-form interviews from the New Statesman

Alexei Sayle has never much cared for a conventional view of the world. Born in 1950s Liverpool to committed communist parents, he was named after Maxim Gorky - real name Alexei Maximovich Peshkov. Dyed-in-the-wool Marxism, in other words, was baked in from birth, and he’s Jewish on his mother's side. His first two memoirs, Stalin Ate My Homework and Thatcher Stole My Trousers , told the story of that red upbringing. Now Sayle is back with volume three: How I've Tried to Change the World, exploring a lifetime of protests, marches, and what decades on the picket line have taught him about being a Marxist today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2011, Luke Harding was ordered to leave Russia - the first Western journalist to be exiled since the fall of the Soviet Union. As the Guardian's senior correspondent, he continued to watch Russia from afar, covering WikiLeaks, Edward Snowden, and the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. But in recent years he crept back closer to Moscow, reporting from the front lines of the war in Ukraine. His new book, Betrayal, follows the many contours of this conflict and what they tell us about the new age of global power: What kind of control does Russia have over Donald Trump? How did North Korean soldiers end up in Ukraine? Why did a Reform leader undertake work for the Russian state for 40k? Luke Harding joins Oli Dugmore in this episode of The Exchange, a podcast from the New Statesman. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most people would say that Britain is, by and large, a liberal country. Individuals have the freedom to express their individual beliefs, others are expected to accept this difference in opinion with a certain level of tolerance. Our government is decided by free and fair elections, we have a high level of personal freedom and protected rights. But Adrian Wooldridge, author and Bloomberg columnist, thinks we're getting it completely wrong in how we think about liberalism. Wooldridge joined Oli Dugmore to ask whether Britain is a liberal country shortly before discontent from both the left and right ousted Keir Starmer from office. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For ten years Gianni Infantino has run FIFA more or less unchallenged - cosying up to Putin, the Saudis, and above all Trump, and turning the World Cup into the most commercially aggressive tournament the sport has ever seen. Then a few weeks ago, it emerged he'd been secretly negotiating to sell a fifth of FIFA's business to outside investors for $20 billion. The plan collapsed within days, under a revolt from football associations around the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For decades, hell, even centuries, there’s only been one show in town for the British right - the Conservative Party. But now, as the British electoral system complains and convulses and shudders and shrieks, a right-wing party has been at the top of the polls; it’s just not the Tories. Broadcaster, author and political commentator Iain Dale joins Oli Dugmore to discuss Reform, Restore, and the potential revitalisation of the Conservative Party. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Keir Starmer is no longer prime minister, Andy Burnham is. What just happened? Why did it happen? And what now? Oli Dugmore is joined by the New Statesman's editor-in-chief Tom McTague for a Starmer retrospective. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gary Stevenson, economic campaigner and YouTuber, is using this change in government to lobby for a wealth tax. Without one, he predicts, "society will collapse". He joins Oli Dugmore on this episode of The Exchange. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over 1000 of Epstein's victims of sexual abuse and trafficking have now been identified; some have chosen to come forward publicly, and among them there was one voice which was the loudest. Virginia Roberts Giuffre. In 2021, she decided she wanted to tell her own story, in its entirety. Joining forces with the ghostwriter Amy Wallace, she began working on Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice But in 2025, before publication, Giuffre was found dead in her home in Australia. She’d let it be known that should anything happen to her, she wanted her story to be told. Amy Wallace joins Oli Dugmore to continue telling that story. -- Statement from Sky Roberts as printed in Nobody's Girl: “Just to straighten this out, I never abused my daughter and didn’t know that Forrest —- did that either. If I had known about that, I would have been very angry and taken care of the situation. I gave my daughter every single thing she ever wanted and never ever touched her sexually, I never even knew what was going on with Epstein until I read about it online and getting calls from news agencies. There is so much they are getting wrong, even her middle name, it is Virginia Lee Roberts and not Virginia Louise. I am a moral person and believe that men who take advantage of young children should be prosecuted and then castrated. It really pisses me off that someone would write that I would ever abuse my children. As a father, I only tried to give my children a good life.” Statement from Giuffre vs Prince Andrew court case, 2022: "Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre's character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks. It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over the years. Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others. He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Some had dubbed Starmer as "the Trump whisperer", so how has this change in leader come across in the US? Do they even care? Mehdi Hasan, founder of Zeteo, joins us on The Exchange to discuss the view from across the pond and how Britain became a punching bag for the American right. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Then social media came along. This is one of the reasons social psychologist Jonathan Haidt believes whole heartedly in the social media ban for under 16s, which has been rolled out in Australia, and will be brought into effect in the UK early next year. But is the ban really working in Australia? Is banning a solution? And is there a way to let young people benefit from the opportunities of the internet safely? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Yesterday morning Keir Starmer resigned as prime minister. Today is the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum. Britain will soon welcome its seventh prime minister in a decade. Are the two events connected? Or is country's instability rooted further back in history? Editor-in-chief Tom McTague joins Oli Dugmore. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Children's laureate, screenwriter, author of Millions , architect of the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony, and father of seven, Frank Cottrell-Boyce joins Oli Dugmore to discuss what childhood means in Britain today. Over two years visiting schools, prisons and asylum hotels, he found a country that has quietly stopped looking after its youngest citizens. He talks about the NEETs crisis, furniture poverty, what summer holidays now mean to children who dread them, and why the most radical thing you can do for a child is sit on a sofa and read to them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mariana Mazzucato is one of the most influential economists of modern times. An avowed progressive, her ideas impact the lives of millions of people, from the United States to sub-Saharan Africa. She was directly consulted in the creation of Biden’s CHIPS Act, which is worth $280 billion. The World Bank’s Mission 300, is straight out of her book Mission Economy. Oli Dugmore sits down with her to discuss the hope for progressive change in our political and economic systems. The Common Good Economy: A New Compass by Mariana Mazzucato is out now (Allen Lane). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are AI companies the new empires? Journalist Karen Hao says the parallels are striking. This disruptive sector requires vast amounts of land, minerals and water – not to mention data and content from individuals. Hao interviews subjects ranging from those close to Open AI CEO Sam Altman to workers in the Global South who’ve been traumatised by their jobs in AI content moderation. She joins Oli Dugmore on The Exchange. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guy Standing is a British labour economist best known for coining the term "precariat" to describe the growing global class of people living with unstable employment, mounting debt, and chronic insecurity. Standing’s latest book, Human Capital , explores how the education system has been corrupted and privatised. He joins Oli Dugmore to discuss this, as well as how his concept of the “precariat” differs from Marx’s “proletariat”, and how a bold, progressive politics must flourish to combat the rise of authoritarianism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Charleston Festival is running until May 25. Find out more here . Ten years on from the referendum that redirected the course of British politics, the New Statesman's editor Tom McTague is joined by Caroline Lucas, Anand Menon and Marina Wheeler to consider how we should think about our relationship with Europe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eric Schlosser is one of America’s foremost investigative journalists, writing about everything from the prison system to nuclear weapons, exploring the hidden systems underpinning modern life. 25 years ago, he set out to investigate the economic model behind one of America’s most recognisable industries: a system built on low-paid workers, dangerous conditions and the exploitation of migrant labour. He joins Oli Dugmore to discuss America’s complicated relationship with McDonald's, the rise of fast food as both a cultural symbol and an economic system, and how Britain seeks to replicate this. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rather than a relic of the past, Mary Beard sees the classical world as a powerful tool for understanding the present. It's an idea she has explored in over twenty books on ancient history and numerous documentaries on the BBC and elsewhere, all of which have made her Britain’s best known classicist. She joins culture editor Tanjil Rashid in the studio. - Mary Beard's new book Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old is available now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2011, Ben Lerner stormed onto the scene with his debut novel, Leaving the Atocha Station, a winning blend of low comedy and high art. He has since firmly established himself as one of America’s most acclaimed novelists and is a leading voice in so-called autofiction. Now he returns with his fourth novel, and it may be his most profound yet. In Transcription , Lerner turns his mind to the nature of art, and of ageing. It’s a novel about generations, of growing children, and dying forebears, and the way the secrets and gifts of life and art move from one era to the next. It’s also a novel about technology, and our increasing reliance on it, the way it shapes our speech, our thoughts, our memories and even our conceptions of ourselves. In this episode, Tanjil Rashid sits down with Ben Lerner to talk about how we record our conversations, why novels may matter even more in the age of AI, and - in his words - the bankruptcy of political speech. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anthony Seldon, historian, educator and one of Britain's leading political biographers, has been for a long walk. His new book, The Path of Light, recounts his extraordinary 1300 kilometre passage to Auschwitz. Tracing stories of courage, resistance and moral clarity across a continent once consumed by darkness - it's a journey that speaks not only to the past, but powerfully to the world we're living in today. Anthony joins Tom McTague to discuss his journey, as well as his biographer's perspective on Britain's recent Prime Ministers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.