Peter Hitchens is so anti-drugs, and so engaged with his moral compass he won't even consider taking the fictional recreationals, while Sarah Vine has been on antidepressants for over a decade and swears by her 'fat jab’. This, while Peter dreams of a Dutch like utopia where cars are rarely seen and children are safe to walk to school. Shall the twain ever meet? Occasionally. Join them for a conversation that begins by asking is society, sleepwalking into a delirium of self-medication and can end just about anywhere... On our reading list this week: The Road To Wigan Pier – George Orwell Brave New World – Aldous Huxley Cracked: Why Psychiatry is Doing More Harm Than Good - James Davies To get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’. Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens Producer: Philip Wilding Editor: Chelsey Moore Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini Executive Producer: Jamie East   A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When viewed from above the North Pole, the Earth rotates from left to right and now some of its inhabitants appear to be headed the same way. From Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy through Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom Party in the Netherlands to Germany’s AfD party and the ever-encroaching Chega (Enough) party in Portugal, the boots on the ground appear to be facing one way, so are we looking at a new world order that’s suddenly leaning towards the right?  Plus, is war finally over for Ukraine? What is NATO really for? What is the true meaning of power and how do we grab it? And did we finally answer all the questions Sarah Vine’s mum asked of us? On our reading list this week:  ·      Frontline Ukraine: Crisis in the Borderlands – Richard Sakwa ·      How the West Brought War to Ukraine: Understanding How U.S. and NATO Policies Led to Crisis, War, and the Risk of Nuclear Catastrophe – Benjamin Abelow ·      A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle – Julian Jackson To get in touch, email: alas@dailymail.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’.   Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens Producer: Philip Wilding Editor: Chelsey Moore Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini Executive Producer: Jamie East   A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's the Big Idea? Finally, Sarah Vine (once memorably described as being ‘like and loathed in equal measure, divisive, but never indecisive’) and Peter Hitchens (a man whose writing a critic was called to compare to a Guardsman’s boot: ‘as highly polished and potentially lethal’) meet once a week to look at the world and mutter, alas…   Acclaimed columnist and journalist Sarah Vine and best-selling author and broadcaster Peter Hitchens discuss and dissect social, economic, and pop cultural flotsam and jetsam that have risen out of the dark waters of that week’s news.   Taking one big idea each episode and pulling it apart with élan, imagine Vine and Hitchens respective columns brought to life and then skewered, scoffed at, debated, and given the full weight of Vine and Hitchens impenetrable gaze. Though an accord might not always be reached, it’s the journey that matters.   Whether it’s the tech bros gone rogue – Meta tearing up its own rule book on fact checking, Musk attempting to influence governmental policy, or the knotty subject on society’s ever-increasing reliance on anti-depressants to treat what might just be the modern malaise and not depression at all. Or, evil, nature or nurture? Does evil actually exist or is it an idea that hangs over us, or do we just sometime embody it and the actions themselves are evil, not the individual?   All this and more are to be pored over, one towering topic each week discussed with humour, insight, and real understanding. To get in touch email alas@dailymail.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on WhatsApp - on 07796 657512 start your message with the word 'alas' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices