Leading (podcast)

Leading is a British podcast launched in January 2023. Hosted by Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart, it is a sister podcast of their weekly politics podcast The Rest is Politics. The podcast is produced by Goalhanger Podcasts.

Background
Both Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart have been active in British politics. Campbell is a journalist and political strategist, who served as the communications chief for Tony Blair. A former member of the Labour Party, Campbell was expelled after he voted for the Liberal Democrats in the 2019 European elections.

Stewart is a former diplomat, author and politician. He served as Conservative international development secretary and prisons minister under Theresa May, and was a member of parliament for around nine years. In 2019, having rebelled against Boris Johnson's approach to Brexit, he was expelled from the parliamentary party. He later resigned his party membership as well.

Campbell and Stewart's podcast The Rest is Politics, launched in March 2022, is aimed at providing a temperate and informed political debate in the United Kingdom. As part of the podcast, the hosts would interview former and active political figures. These interviews were released irregularly, as opposed to the main podcast, which releases two episodes on Wednesday and Thursday of each week.

In January 2023, Goalhanger Podcasts launched Leading as a spin off, allowing Campbell and Stewart to interview on a regular basis as well as to interview non-political figures.

Episodes
The podcast usually releases a new episode every Monday. Former UK deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine was the podcast's first guest. Some episodes are recorded with only Campbell as the interviewer. In such episodes, Stewart sometimes discusses the interview at the end with Campbell, without the relevant guest being present.