Sam Leith

What’s so funny about Elon Musk?

3 October 2022 5:00 pm

At the end of last week, at an AI event in California, Elon Musk unveiled his latest project: a humanoid…

What does it mean when Giorgia Meloni quotes G.K. Chesterton?

1 October 2022 9:00 am

Is it fascist or anti-fascist to quote G.K. Chesterton, or neither?

In praise of the speeding crackdown

26 September 2022 6:05 pm

We all needed a laugh, what with the pound tanking and inflation running away, my old pal Kwasi delivering a…

The midlife crisis spread: why are the affluent so depressed?

19 September 2022 3:00 pm

‘You are here’, as those signs in windswept carparks unhelpfully point out. Yup. No mistaking it, you will tend to…

Charles III will reign in an age where feeling trumps duty

17 September 2022 9:00 am

Charles III will reign in an age where feeling trumps duty

I’ve become a war addict

12 September 2022 5:00 pm

It is an almost unquestioned orthodoxy that war is hell, and that every needless death in a needless war diminishes…

Is Liz Truss a Tory Jeremy Corbyn?

5 September 2022 6:49 pm

Many years ago, when the earth was young and leaving the European Union was a position espoused only by those…

We still love our failing NHS

29 August 2022 8:00 pm

A new poll about the NHS, the Sunday Times tells us, has discovered ‘a decline in support’ for the National…

Sanna Marin and the rise of fake controversy

22 August 2022 7:10 pm

With an honourable exception for the Beastie Boys, I can’t stand the use of ‘party’ as a verb. It immediately…

Salman Rushdie and the incitement of violence

15 August 2022 3:28 pm

When I met Salman Rushdie in New York a couple of years ago, he told me that the days in…

Our long, vulnerable childhoods may be the key to our success

13 August 2022 9:00 am

Could our long journey to adulthood actually be the key to our success, wonders Sam Leith

Does the Met have a racism problem?

8 August 2022 5:00 pm

Back in the winter of 2012, a postal worker named Zac Sharif-Ali was taking a lunchtime stroll with his dog…

Should Apple snoop on your iPhone?

1 August 2022 8:32 pm

Should Apple use software to scan the photo library of every individual iPhone in search of images of child abuse?…

Is technology killing nostalgia?

30 July 2022 9:00 am

Making memories is different in the digital age

The curse of ‘deadmin’

25 July 2022 9:03 pm

George Monbiot has gone to war. Some readers may know this fellow by his nickname ‘Moonbat’ – he’s a Guardian…

The latest Tory leadership debate was a grim spectacle

18 July 2022 3:00 pm

The eyes had it, in last night’s leadership debate. Penny Mordaunt and Rishi Sunak took turns directing to the camera…

The fatuous idea that politicians must be ‘in touch’

11 July 2022 5:25 pm

I was in Hyde Park on Friday watching an open-air Pixies show with very great delight when somewhere between ‘Vamos’…

Nick Bostrom: How can we be certain a machine isn’t conscious?

9 July 2022 9:00 am

Philosopher Nick Bostrom on the AI threat

The past stinks

4 July 2022 5:20 pm

‘Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could,’ says Jeff Goldblum’s character in Jurassic Park, ‘they didn’t stop to…

Abortion should not be just another culture-war ding dong

27 June 2022 4:17 pm

The overturning of Roe v. Wade is an American story, and a global one. What the hell – it’s asked…

How Meghan Markle can shake off the bullying allegations

20 June 2022 8:29 pm

She must be fit to be tied, the Duchess of Sussex. I know I would be. It was reported yesterday…

Are we ignoring AI’s ‘lived experience’?

13 June 2022 5:10 pm

Number Five, as the old film’s catchphrase went, is alive. A whistleblower at Google called Blake Lemoine has gone public…

Imperial measures are culture war bait

30 May 2022 6:40 pm

The idea of reintroducing imperial measures in honour of the Queen’s Jubilee has one quality that will have commended it to No. 10’s…

Should a trans woman inherit a peerage over their older sister?

23 May 2022 5:40 pm

It’s House of Lords reform, Jim, but not as we know it. Matilda Simon has applied to contest the next…

In praise of smartphones

16 May 2022 6:00 pm

The online PE teacher Joe Wicks has announced, in a fit of self-reproach coinciding with the launch of his new…