Episódios

  • Losing faith: will Labour’s VAT policy hit religious schools hardest?

    Losing faith: will Labour’s VAT policy hit religious schools hardest?
    Sep 6 2024
    In this week’s copy of The Spectator, Dan Hitchens argues that a lesser reported aspect of Labour’s decision to impose VAT on private schools is who it could hit hardest: faith schools. Hundreds of independent religious schools charge modest, means-tested fees. Could a hike in costs make these schools unviable? And, with uncertainty about how ideological a decision this is, does the government even care? Dan joins Damian on the podcast to discuss.
    Raisel Freedman from the Partnerships for Jewish Schools also joins later, to discuss how the measure could threaten Jewish independent schools, when they provide a haven for students from a climate of rising antisemitism.

    Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
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    25 minutos
  • From the archives: An atheist goes on a Christian pilgrimage. Why?

    From the archives: An atheist goes on a Christian pilgrimage. Why?
    Aug 29 2024
    Writer Guy Stagg threw in his job to undertake a pilgrimage to Jerusalem via Rome - choosing a hazardous medieval route across the Alps. It nearly killed him: at one stage, trying to cross a broken bridge in Switzerland, he ended up partially submerged in the water, held up only by his rucksack.

    On this episode of Holy Smoke, from the archives, Guy explains why his journey was a pilgrimage, not just travels. And Damian Thompson talks to Harry Mount, editor of The Oldie, about why he’s irresistibly drawn to church buildings while remaining an unbeliever - albeit an agnostic rather than an atheist.
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    23 minutos
  • A Habsburg Archduke explains how not to be nasty on Twitter

    A Habsburg Archduke explains how not to be nasty on Twitter
    Jul 19 2024
    In this week's Holy Smoke episode Damian Thompson welcomes back Eduard Habsburg, Hungary's Ambassador to the Holy See and also, to give him his family title, Archduke Eduard of Austria. Last year he published The Habsburg Way: 7 Rules for Turbulent Times, which offered advice on how to live a good life based on the panoramic history of his dynasty.

    One reason it was such a success is that Eduard has a cult following on X, formerly Twitter, made up of people who initially followed him because he's a Habsburg but stayed to absorb his spiritual wisdom and good cheer. In this episode, with Damian speaking as someone who frequently gets drawn into (or starts) catfights on that platform (his words!), he asks if Eduard has any advice for struggling social media sociopaths. And he does.

    Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
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    24 minutos
  • Walsingham and the musical grief of the Reformation

    Walsingham and the musical grief of the Reformation
    Jul 1 2024
    The other day I received a press release about an intriguing album of keyboard music by 16th- and early 17th-century composers, three Englishman and a Dutchman, played on the modern piano by Mishka Rushdie Momen, one of this country’s most gifted and intellectually curious young concert pianists. It’s called Reformation, and before I’d heard a note of the music – which is performed with thrilling exuberance and subtlety – I knew I wanted to interview Ms Rushdie Momen.

    That’s because Hyperion had included with the press release a strikingly perceptive essay by the pianist putting this ostensibly secular keyboard music in the context of what she rightly calls the ‘vandalism’ of the English Reformation, shockingly illustrated by the demolition of the great shrine of Walsingham. At the same time, she recognises the unnerving pressures facing both Catholic and Protestant composers in an era of bewildering and violent cultural upheaval – but also one in which we can glimpse elements of toleration and compromise.

    Here’s my Holy Smoke interview with Mishka Rushdie Momen, which begins with a track from her album: a little galliard called La Volta, danced at Elizabeth I’s court even though the Queen knew that its composer, William Byrd, had remained faithful to the Catholic Church.
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    21 minutos
  • Calm fire: the consolation of listening to Bruckner

    Calm fire: the consolation of listening to Bruckner
    May 23 2024
    Here's an episode of Holy Smoke to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Anton Bruckner later this year. This embarrassingly eccentric genius was, perhaps, the most devoutly Catholic of all the major composers – but you don't have to be religious to appreciate the unique consolation offered by his gigantic symphonies. On the other hand, it's hard to appreciate the unique flavour of Bruckner without taking into account the influence of the liturgy on his sublime slow movements and what the (atheist) composer and Bruckner scholar Robert Simpson called the 'calm fire' of his blazing finales. If you make it through to the end of this episode, you'll hear exactly what he meant.

    Produced by Patrick Gibbons
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    30 minutos
  • The problem with cringe-making funerals

    The problem with cringe-making funerals
    Apr 24 2024
    When did supposedly religious funerals turn into ‘celebrations of life’ that are more about entertaining the congregation than mourning the dead person – who, these days, hasn’t died but ‘passed’?

    In this episode of Holy Smoke I’m joined by one of my favourite American priests, Fr Joe Krupp, a self-described ‘redneck’ from Michigan who reaches millions with his powerful ministry and wisecracking podcasts. He puts his finger on what’s gone wrong. Wait for the horror story at the end. He had me laughing so much that I could hardly get my questions out. Don’t miss this one!
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    21 minutos
  • How the Church of England patronises African Christians

    How the Church of England patronises African Christians
    Mar 15 2024
    In this episode of Holy Smoke, I'm joined by The Spectator's features editor William Moore, who asks in this week's issue of the magazine whether the Church of England is 'apologising for Christianity'. A report by the Oversight Group, set up by the Church Commissioners to make reparations for African slavery, not only wants to see unimaginable sums transferred to 'community groups' – its chair, the Bishop of Croydon, thinks a billion pounds would be appropriate – it also deplores the efforts of Christian missionaries to eradicate traditional religious practices. But, as Will's article points out, those traditional practices included – at their most extreme – idol-worship, twin infanticide and cannibalism. Are these part of the religious heritage that the C of E patronisingly wants African Christians to rediscover? Did missionaries and early converts to the faith who gave their lives for the faith die in vain?
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    17 minutos
  • How much did Pope Francis know about Fr Marko Rupnik?

    How much did Pope Francis know about Fr Marko Rupnik?
    Feb 26 2024
    At a press conference in Rome last week, an ex-nun claiming to have suffered ritual sex abuse at the hands of Fr Marko Rupnik turned the heat on Pope Francis. How much did he know about the stomach-turning charges levelled at the Slovenian mosaic artist, who was a Jesuit until he was thrown out of the order? And, more important, when did he know? Why is Rupnik still a priest? The Pope's allies in the media are desperate for this story to go away. But, as this episode of Holy Smoke argues, the scandal is growing and threatens to engulf Francis himself.
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    16 minutos