Iain Dale is standing for the general election! All our worlds are colliding at once. Audio and politics have long been happy bedfellows, but an LBC presenter bidding farewell to radio after 14 years to stand as an MP still feels like a moment. He talks about it on the For The Many podcast.
Mind you, this isn't Dale's first tilt at politics. In 2005 he stood as the Conservative candidate for North Norfolk, ultimately losing to the Liberal Democrat incumbent, Norman Lamb.
He has yet to announce which party he will be running for, or if he is going to be independent, but given the number of Tories who have announced they don't intend to run this time round, Dale may get his pick of Tory constituencies.
And politics and audio also continue to collide in the land of podcasts. Here is what's been going on since last we spoke:
The Daily T: Someone had to get to Rishi first during this election campaign and it was… The Telegraph! Who would have seen that coming? In his first proper sit-down interview since calling the election the PM explains how he likes his tea and what music he’s playing in his car as hits the campaign trail. Try to deal with that tough line of questioning, Prime Minister. But it isn't all softball. Hosts Camilla Tominey and Kamal Ahmed also ask the PM whether he is "too wet" as a conservative, what he makes of all the Tory MPs jumping ship, and how his faith informs his view on immigration. Ok, that's more like it.
Election Watch - The New Statesman Podcast: The New Statesman's elder statesman Andrew Marr is in the house for this one. He discusses with associate editor Hannah Barnes and political correspondent Freddie Hayward all the developments from the past few days: National Service, Triple Lock Plus, "Sleepy Keir", and the Conservative party falling ever so slightly to pieces. What fun.
The News Agents: There are more than two parties in this election, despite the efforts of Labour and the Conservatives to make it a direct head-to-head between Sunak and Starmer. So let's all have a look at what Lib Dem leader Ed Davey is up to. Ah, I see, he has fallen into a sewage-stricken lake while paddleboarding. Today, the News Agents discuss this and all the other ways this campaign is off to such a bizarro start.
Election Newscast: Traditionally, Labour voters have regarded Labour as financially irresponsible and the Tories as a safe economic pair of hands. But is that true this time round? In today's BBC Election Newscast, host Adam Fleming discusses Labour and the Tories' respective spending pledges. Plus, Nigel Farage may not be running to be an MP but he is still likely to have an impact on this election, like he has done in plenty of previous ones. Chris Mason covers off the key points from his speech from Dover (it had to be Dover, didn't it?).
The Prospect Podcast: What do pollsters do when there isn't an election on? Hibernate, I assume. Now, having emerged from their chrysalises or whatever, they are back among us, prognosticating the future like a Punxatawny groundhog. In Wednesday’s Prospect pod, host Ellen Halliday catches up with the "legendary" pollster Peter Kellner to discuss Labour's "no mistakes" tactics. No mistakes. Let's see how that plays out for them over the next five weeks.
Today in Focus: Sunak, of all people, had reason to be most prepared for this election, given he was the only person in the country who could decide when it took place. So why is his campaign already looking so chaotic? That is the subject of The Guardian's Today in Focus, er, today with Peter Walker in the ho(s)t seat.
Sky News Daily: Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has been pledging not to announce any new tax hikes and that Labour policies would be fully funded and costed. That's great, but how she intends to pay for Labour's plans still remains unclear. At times like this, don't you sometimes wish Sky News Daily host Sophy Ridge would speak to the broadcaster's deputy political editor Sam Coates to make sense of it all? Oh hell yes, that is exactly what they have just done today, magic.
The Rest is Politics: Imagining they would be able to tour ahead of the general election, Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell have been selling tickets to a nationwide live show, which had been billed as an Election Tour. Well, Rishi obviously doesn't care about the biggest podcast in Britain, so now it is going to be a POST-election tour. But, they are still going ahead with the tour, as they explain in today's show, and Rory has called it – he says rather than hearing election stuff, "you'll get to hear about the first Labour government in 14 years". That is how confident he is about how things are going to go down on 4 July.
When It Hits the Fan: Who better to hear from at a time like this than crisis managers and spin doctors? ex-Sun editor David Yelland and former PR for both the late queen and Gordon Brown Simon Lewis look at how the parties launched their campaigns, their use of campaign videos and slogans, and how and when the press decide to take sides. PR is where elections are won and lost, people, so pay attention.
These Times: Who are these swing voters we hear so much about? Everyone I know seems to vote more or less one way for their whole life. Today the UnHerd team looks into why there have been such massive swings in UK opinion between general elections lately. Interesting stuff.
Coffee Moaning: Amid all the obvious objections, there could be a case to be made for national service. Today, the Coffee Moaning team, TV Presenter Nadia Sawalha and her film director husband Mark Adderley look into whether Rishi Sunak's scheme could actually work. They also ask whether dad bods are now OUT? Their capitalisation, not mine.
Off Air... with Jane and Fi: This one made me both laugh and slightly wither inside: "Today Fi and Jane discuss the Genny-Lex"... Ok, I'm finishing here.
And now for something (not) completely different
The Political Party with Matt Forde: Bold, bold, bold. Impressionist and television writer Matt Forde is aiming to interview a candidate from all 650 constituencies before the election. He is going daily from 3 June to get through it all, but even then by my calculations he is going to have to interview about 20 people a day. Considering this is a chap who just recently had part of his spine removed to treat cancer this is a quite amazing feat. As he says himself: "I love interviewing politicians, so when the election was called, I thought I’d try and interview them all. After beating cancer, I need a new gruelling task. If politics is the art of the possible, then The Political Party is the art of the impossible”. Let's all get behind Forde and subscribe to this prodigious effort. Sign up here.
Have we missed something? A show or a story? Drop me a note - arion@podcastrex.com - so we can add it to our list.
