Podcasters Elis James and John Robins: ‘Male ego is the most dangerous force on the planet’

There was much to celebrate for Elis James and John Robins in 2025. Not only did this year mark 20 years of friendship and collaboration for the duo, but they also won in the comedy category at the British Podcast Awards 2025.

“I began doing stand-up in 2005 and met John Robins during my second or third gig, and we have been friends ever since,” James tells us.

“We did a tour this autumn which ended at the London Palladium, having also done the Hammersmith Apollo the week before. I never, ever thought I’d get to do venues like that. To end the tour at the Palladium was an extraordinary experience, and because of shows like Sunday Night at the London Palladium, it’s a theatre that’s been part of my consciousness for as long as I can remember.

“It was the venue that launched Beatlemania, Bruce Forsyth’s ashes are kept under the stage, and yet I got a standing ovation for being able to find a common link with four random Welsh people in the audience within 60 seconds!”

James marked their anniversary by gathering tributes to his podcast partner on the show: “I’ve been doing stand-up for twenty years (crikey) and Elis wrote ‘This Is Your Stand-Up Life’ which he read out on the show with guests calling in from my past,” recalls Robins. “It was great fun and surprisingly touching.”

What was your standout moment of 2025? 

JR: Playing the London Palladium with Elis was a real bucket list moment. I took some time to go beneath the stage where Bruce Forsyth’s ashes are kept and thought how nice it must be to hear gasps and laughter and applause night after night.

EJ: I took my kids to watch Wales play at the Women’s Euros in Switzerland. When I first started taking an interest in the Welsh women’s football team they would get crowds of around 1,500 and the away followings were usually in the single figures, so to have 4,000 Welsh fans travelling to watch the first game against the Netherlands felt very special indeed. The fan walk to the stadium with all of the Dutch supporters was one of the most most positive, uplifting examples of national pride I have ever been involved with.

Is your job at risk from AI?

JR: Not in terms of stand-up or podcasts. If anything I think the rise of AI slop will make people more drawn towards genuine connection and human-authored art. However I have already kissed my voiceover career goodbye. Some companies are already using majority AI voices for their TV and radio ads.

What would your browsing history say about you this year?

JR: Got interested in what VPNs are around July FOR NO SPECIFIC REASON

EJ: ‘Wow! This guy becomes intensely interested in something for a short period of time and then never thinks about it again!’

Are you more or less hopeful than at the start of 2025?

JR: For humans? Less. Male ego is the most dangerous force on the planet and it will do for us all eventually. But the world will breathe again one day, of that I am sure. It just might have to be long after we’re all gone.

What’s the oddest family Christmas tradition you keep?

EJ: Not really a tradition, more an indicator of how lazy I can be, but I just put the Christmas tree in the loft last year without removing any of the decorations, meaning it has been Christmas all year round in our attic.

What have been your cultural highlights of 2025 – book, film, podcast, TV, live event?

JR: Cameron Winter. Discovering his (2024) album Heavy Metal was a slow-burn revelation. It’s one of the best albums I’ve ever heard. His band Geese released Getting Killed in 2025 and it blew me away. He’s 23. The same age Van Morrison was when he recorded Astral Weeks. I can’t get my head around how good he is.

EJ: My cultural highlight was seeing Oasis at Wembley. Teenage me would be extremely sniffy about a man in his 40s talking about a reunion tour being the cultural moment of the year, but I have never experienced an atmosphere quite like it. There is something extremely special about 90,000 people knowing every syllable to every song for two hours, and then for the really significant songs, somehow finding another gear from somewhere. It was two hours of uncomplicated, utter euphoria, and I floated home. I saw them quite a few times in the 1990s and 2000s but this was the best they’ve ever been. They just do something to people that is impossible to quantify.

What one thing are you looking forward to in 2026?

JR: I wrote a book about my relationship with alcohol called Thirst: Twelve Drinks That Changed My Life. It’s about what alcohol does for us, and to us. It’s about why I stopped drinking and, I guess, what alcohol means. You can pre-order it now by the way!

What’s your big idea to make 2026 better than 2025?

JR: Move to the Alps. 

EJ: I would tell pubs that serve triple-cooked chips to just cook the chips properly, once.

What’s your Big Issue for 2026?

EJ: I spent quite a lot of time in Europe this year, and reliable, clean, public transport that runs to time feels like a dispatch from another galaxy. I don’t want to drive, but I resent that sometimes I have to.

JR: I’ve been quite serious so allow me to be a bit flippant, but I never imagined the future would contain so many fucking wires. I am drowning in charging cables and plugs and adapters. Surely we can just charge everything wirelessly sometime soon?!

The Elis James and John Robins podcast is released on Tuesdays and Fridays on BBC Sounds.

Thirst: Twelve Drinks That Changed My Life by John Robins is out on 7 May 2026 (Penguin, £20).You can preorder it from the Big Issue shop on bookshop.org, which helps to support Big Issue and independent bookshops.

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