Had you told us, two years ago, that two men old enough to be anyone’s dads would be filling the O2 Arena with a live version of their podcast about politics, we would have thought you were crazier than Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget (lol, remember Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget?). But later this year that is exactly what is happening: in fact, Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell’s The Rest is Politics is going on a nationwide tour of not dissimilarly sized venues.
Now, no doubt partially because of the above, you cannot move for political podcasts. They’re everywhere: launching at a rate of about 2,000 a week, feeding off a never-ending Tory psychodrama more can’t-look-away compelling than anything Netflix could ever commission. Will they all survive when politics, come next year, is suddenly quite boring and everyday and Liz Truss isn’t releasing books to take the piss out of and it’s all people doing a reasonably competent job of a job that they also stay in for more than a couple of weeks? Unlikely. We are likely entering the end of this peculiar gold rush and so, with that in mind, let us enjoy these last few pre-election months… and then figure out which ones to keep following no matter what.
