The News Meeting - LIVE from Hay Festival

Invited experts

Giles Whittell

Deputy Editor-in-Chief

Claudia Williams

Senior Editor

Vanessa Thorpe

Arts and media correspondent

Chloe Dalton

What do you think should lead the news, and why? Watch this live recording of The News Meeting podcast, as special guests go head-to-head with Observer journalists, battling to pitch the top story of the day. Come along, have your say and share the stories you think we should be talking about. Giles Whittell will be sitting in the editor’s chair. Vying the for the lead story against Observer journalists Vanessa Thorpe and Claudia Williams, we have author and foreign policy advisor Chloe Dalton. Chloe Dalton is a writer, political adviser and foreign policy specialist. She spent over a decade working in the UK Parliament and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Her first book, Raising Hare, was selected as Hay Festival Book of the Year 2024. Vanessa has covered arts and media for the Observer, in profiles, interviews, comment and news, for two decades - even appearing as a work of art on the Fourth Plinth. After training with Westminster Press she worked for the London Evening Standard and The Independent on Sunday. Awards and nominations include being shortlisted for her arts and entertainment reporting at the 2023 British Journalism Awards. She contributes to cultural magazines and radio shows. Book on the Hay Festival website to join us, or look out for the episode wherever you listen to your podcasts.