Who are the men taking their looks to dangerous extremes?

Politicians broke away from tradition and discussed Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in Parliament this week - does this signal the end of deference? The number of people living in asylum hotels has dropped, but what’s behind this trend? Popular influencer Clavicular is the face of a growing community of looksmaxxers who are taking over the internet. What is looksmaxxing and why is it so popular? To battle out who can pitch the story that should lead the news, Giles Whittell is joined by The Observer’s Whitehall Editor Cat Neilan, and two newcomers; writer, journalist and host of Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday, Sir Trevor Phillips, and award-winning documentary maker and journalist, Benjamin Zand. Read ‘Clavicular didn’t invent ‘looksmaxxing’ – gay men have been at it for a long time’ on The Observer website HERE.**We want to hear what you think! Email us at: [email protected] Follow us on Social Media: @ObserverUK on X @theobserveruk on Instagram and [email protected]‬ on bluesky Host: Giles Whittell Producer: Casey Magloire and Amalie SortlandExecutive Producer: Casey MagloireTo find out more about The Observer:Subscribe to TheObserver+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free contentHead to our website observer.co.uk Download the Observer app – for a listening experience curated by our journalists Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Feb 27, 2026

What this episode covers

Politicians broke away from tradition and discussed Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in Parliament this week - does this signal the end of deference? The number of people living in asylum hotels has dropped, but what’s behind this trend? Popular influencer Clavicular is the face of a growing community of looksmaxxers who are taking over the internet. What is looksmaxxing and why is it so popular? To battle out who can pitch the story that should lead the news, Giles Whittell is joined by The Observer’s Whitehall Editor Cat Neilan, and two newcomers; writer, journalist and host of Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday, Sir Trevor Phillips, and award-winning documentary maker and journalist, Benjamin Zand. Read ‘Clavicular didn’t invent ‘looksmaxxing’ – gay men have been at it for a long time’ on The Observer website HERE.**We want to hear what you think! Email us at: [email protected] Follow us on Social Media: @ObserverUK on X @theobserveruk on Instagram and [email protected]‬ on bluesky Host: Giles Whittell Producer: Casey Magloire and Amalie SortlandExecutive Producer: Casey MagloireTo find out more about The Observer:Subscribe to TheObserver+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free contentHead to our website observer.co.uk Download the Observer app – for a listening experience curated by our journalists Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

PodParley-generated summary based on available episode metadata and transcript content.