Foreign correspondent and world affairs editor John Simpson has risked life and limb reporting for the BBC for over 52 years. The Tiananmen Square massacre, Iraq, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Bosnia – you name it he was there. He’s been punched by a UK Prime Minister, bombed by US ‘friendly fire’, watched Saddam Hussein’s execution and whilst experimenting with some hallucinogenic offerings in the deepest Amazon was once hugged by a six foot goldfish wearing sunglasses. On season 1 of John Simpson's World John and producer Lisa Francesca Nand talk about the biggest issues facing the world right now with warmth, humour and a just little bit of bad language.
Not afraid of an opinion, John Simpson, on this completely independent podcast, can (and indeed does) say and do whatever he likes. Join John and select guests for lively conversation and much more on the unmissable John Simpson's World.
Produced by Lisa Francesca Nand
Edited by Alex George
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On his way through the Amazon, seven days from even the tiniest village, John ends up getting shipwrecked, circled by a hungry jaguar, harpooning monkeys for dinner, dicing with piranhas, sipping hallucinogenic drugs from a cauldron and encountering a six foot goldfish wearing a hat and sunglasses (this was, unsurprisingly, as a direct result of imbibing what was in the cauldron). John’s stories of the Amazon are legendary and he’s managed to persuade the BBC, who are apparently reluctant to let him die on their watch, to let him return to the Amazon very soon. Yikes.
On this episode we cover:
What John was doing in the Amazon in the first place
In 1992 being very close to getting some kind of international agreements to stop global warming
Because of the US that ceased to exist
Travelling through the farthest reaches of the westernmost amazon
7 days traveling down the Envira river
Harpooning a monkey for dinner
Eating monkeys, snakes and caimans
What monkey tastes like
Hard to eat something like looks like a roasted baby (!)
Being ‘burned to buggery’
A sinking boat
Things that bite and chew and electrocute
Shipwrecked in the middle of nowhere
Being circled by a hungry jaguar
Being 7 days travel from the nearest tiny settlement
Being the first white man seen by the tribe
Swapping mirrors and beads with the Ashaninka
John necking hallucinogenic drugs from a cauldron
A taste ‘worse than bat urine’
Making friends with a six foot goldfish in a hat
Is John really returning to the Amazon to bring back the really good drugs…?
Going back - is everyone going to be in Manchester United shirts
The forest is now under real threat
Struggling to get the BBC to agree to his return
The BBC worrying he’ll ‘hand in his lunch pail’ (aka die) on the way
The BBC being worried that if John dies the Daily Mail will have a field day
Growing a beard especially for the trip
The problem of seaweed in Mexico and parts of the Caribbean
John will still be going on a small boa, up the same river and facing the same dangers
John being up for absolutely anything
Is there anything John wouldn’t do…?
(note he wouldn’t kill anyone but he does have a story about how he once came close to it in Afghanistan)
5. What Will Happen to the EU (when Britain leaves)?
Season 1 · Episode 5
Monday, September 30, 2019 • Duration 26:26
Assuming Britain makes the leap… what's next for the UK and for Europe? Will the US help us out? Will the Chinese take an interest? And WTF is happening in France…? With over 53 years as a foreign reporter (including many spent as ‘the BBC Common Market Correspondent’) John Simpson has an idea or two about what we might be facing. On this unmissable episode John and producer Lisa Francesca Nand debate the reasons behind the vote to leave and delve into the possibilities that might befall both the EU and Britain if/when we leave our biggest neighbouring trading block.
On this episode we cover
Does John mind being called veteran
Veteran is better than ‘venerable’
The three Vs of getting old
The UK being in a bit of a civil war state since the referendum
Like Cromwell fighting Charles I
John being the ‘BBC Common Market Correspondent’ in the 70s
General de Gaulle blocking Britain from joining
Being involved from the start would have been a better fit
Lisa having enjoyed being part of Europe
John hating the idea of Visas in Europe
Being a Brit first, a European second
Focusing on advantages and disadvantages of leaving
But this means we have ignored the rest of Europe
John’s experience as a correspondent in Brussels
How we always stood on the edges of the EU
The UK hankering after a lost world position
We saw in the referendum how much support there was leaving
4. What’s Really Happening in Russia?
Season 1 · Episode 4
Tuesday, September 24, 2019 • Duration 24:25
Once again John nail’s it with his experienced view on what is happening in the world, this time in Russia. Is Russia the superpower they want us to believe they are? Why did the US play such a foolish game after the collapse of communism? Do we need to be worried about Putin and indeed his increasingly cosy relationship with China? What IS it with those semi-naked horse photos? Should Boris Johnson pose semi-naked on a horse? And crucially, could John Simpson have Vladimir Putin in a fight?
On this episode we cover:
How we were conditioned for so many decades to think of Russia as a great superpower
And an alternative system to ours
The system collapsed without real industrial growth
We now have a much smaller version
Still the biggest country in the world
But it’s lost a lot of the rich and productive parts
A president who seemed at first to want to join with western countries
The US played a very foolish game after the collapse of communism
Instead of reaching out the hand of friendship they played the winner
Putin realised the Russian people like to think they’re as strong as before
The entire economy is only the size of Australia’s
It doesn’t spend all that much more on armed forces than Britain does
It’s a big, lumbering deeply inefficient society with pretentions to grandeur
Very clever diplomatic footwork to give misleading impressions
Vladimir Putin is ‘renting out the place to China’
Turning Russia into China’s small time bodyguard figure
China has the economy, Russian has the armed forces
3. What’s Really Happening in the US?
Season 1 · Episode 3
Monday, September 16, 2019 • Duration 30:59
If you’ve found yourself wondering WTF is going on in the USA – which we’re pretty sure the whole world has – this episode is for you. With over 53 years of political reporting behind him John gives us his unique take on American politics from the 60s until today and the explains the reasons behind the success of Trump. Along with producer Lisa Francesca Nand, John talks about presidents past and present, news reporting, perceived BBC bias, Brexit, immigrants, guns, the electoral college system, Facebook fiddling and above all why we should sod Make America Great Again and instead Make America Cool Again. You heard it here first.
On this episode we cover:
One man giving some people a voice
The weird US constitution and electoral college system
A strange vengeance about the Trump administration
John being covering US politics since the Kennedy days
The US was run by a section of society – more open than British society then
People who thought differently were silenced
Covering the 1964 election with President Johnson and Barry Goldwater
The Republican party allowing Goldwater to go forward because they knew they couldn’t win
Ronald Regan allowing the rich to get richer with fewer taxes
The divisions between rich and poor being far higher now than the 1980s
A side effect of this being a bitterness in American society
It is THIS that has lead to Trump’s success
Trump’s ‘ineffable’ tweets from his lonely bedroom
A multi millionaire how has screwed plenty of little people over the decades pretending he’s standing up to the little man
2. 18 Months to Save the Human Race?
Season 1 · Episode 2
Wednesday, August 7, 2019 • Duration 20:28
Have we reached a crisis point in the race to save the planet from doom? And do we only have, as Prince Charles said, 18 months to save the human race? Whilst we’ve all been busy talking about Brexit, Trump and China have we let it get too late to do something about the disastrous decline of the planet? On this episode John Simpson and his producer Lisa Francesca Nand talk big government initiatives, debauched heatwaves and question whether we really do have 18 months to save us all from disaster.
On this episode we cover:
Prince Charles saying we have 18 months to save the human race
Wondering if we actually have less than that
John’s crazy trip through Peru
Being too busy talking about Brexit, Trump and China that we have taken our eyes off the ball
We are facing absolute disaster
Being worried for his 13 year old son and a future of ‘horrible decline and despair’
Pressure needing to be put on our political leaders
Calls by the Green Party for greater initiatives
Big government initiatives needed
John Simpson being mistaken for David Attenborough (pisses John off) has David Attenborough had plastic surgery…? (no we don’t really think so…)
But does have bow-legs
The gathering of commonwealth leaders in the next 18 months
Trump being pathetic when it comes to climate change
‘Short-termism killing us’ in democracies
Being too late for ordinary methods
We need to demonstrate in the streets
1. Why Are We Here...? Introducing John Simpson's World Podcast
Season 1 · Episode 1
Wednesday, August 7, 2019 • Duration 20:03
Why is John Simpson is doing a podcast? Why he is not doing it with the BBC? On this episode John (and producer Lisa Francesca Nand) introduce the podcast, what topics we're going to cover in Season 1, some of the amazing guests we have lined up for Season 2, namedrop everyone John's met from Castro to Saddam Hussein and have the pleasure of hearing John say naughty words he can't usually get away with (don't listen with small children in ear shot). Welcome to John Simpson's World! You're going to love it.
On this episode we cover:
Why is John Simpson is doing a podcast? Why he is not doing it with the BBC?
The relief of being able to say what he really thinks
The guests we have lined up for season 2
What he feels about George Galloway
Not wanting to tell Fidel Castro to shut up
John Simpson doesn’t say ‘f*ck’ on the BBC (aha but he does on this podcast…)
The incredible historical figures he has met – Saddam, Gaddafi and more
The weird quirks of working for the BBC
Is it irresponsible to send a man in his 70s into a war zone
Whether John would ever get on the front page of the Daily Mail #compoface
The Americans dropping bombs on him
Going to the Pentagon to threaten to sue them
What to expect from this season:
18 months to save the planet
What’s really happening in America
What’s really happening in Russia
What happens with Europe after Britain goes out the EU
John being ambivalent about leaving
But caring about our standards of living falling
Very few people researched trade agreements, laws and their benefits
‘The metropolitan elite’
People that come to London are not all posh
John being an ex-Cambridge elite
How John thinks everything Lisa says is true (yay!)
We have a representative democracy
In 2016 we allowed people to take the decisions for themselves
People were lied to
The divisions of our society
The result being as a result of austerity and government cuts
Will life get better for the people who felt marginalised?
The people that in favour agree life is going to be rougher
What’s next for France?
The French being the mirror image opposite of us
14.33 – 14.48 edit stop for water break!
The French revolution sanctifying violence
French protests being entirely different to British
France is not collapsing
Workers rights in France being very strong
John missing Paris but Paris being stuck in the 50s in many ways
Will the EU weaken after we leave?
John thinking it was a mistake pushing for an ever closer union
