That intensive initiation into the world of podcasting was worth it. By May this year, The News Agents had surpassed 30 million downloads and is consistently one of the top three most listened-to podcasts in the country. Indeed barely a day goes by in the Stylist office where I don’t quote something I heard on the podcast the night before (probably passing it off as my own thought in the process).

Maitlis has been one of the most high-profile news reporters in the country for years. In 2020, she was named network reporter of the year at the RTS awards, after her history-making Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein (Scoop, a Netflix film starring Gillian Anderson as Maitlis that focuses on the car-crash interview is currently in production).

The trio launched the podcast after Maitlis and Sopel left the BBC in early 2022, and last summer she delivered the powerful MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh TV festival about the rise of populism and the problems with impartiality

Emily Maitlis: “Now I’m not as scared to call something out”