1,292 episodes
The Bunker Podmasters
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- News
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4.6 • 875 Ratings
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Your daily Need To Know on news and politics. Every morning The Bunker cuts through the noise to make sense of what’s really going on, with smart explainers, interviews, fresh perspectives and under-reported stories to rescue you from everyday Punch and Judy news coverage. It’s the only way to start the day. From the producers of Oh God, What Now?
Our regulars include: Alex Andreou • Gavin Esler • Hannah Fearn • Andrew Harrison • Jacob Jarvis • Marie le Conte • Jude Rogers • Yasmeen Serhan • Ahir Shah • Siân Pattenden • Ros Taylor.
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The Bunker is a Podmasters production.
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Why Donald Trump is truly a cult leader
Trump’s followers are often described as cult-like. But how much does the former president actually act like a cult leader? Does he employ the same coercive control tactics utilised by infamous infamous figureheads of the past – like Jim Jones and Sun Myung Moon? The Cult of Trump author and leading mind control expert Steven Hassan tells Rafael Behr how perceiving Trump as a cult leader might let us better understand the current political climate.
• “People don’t care that Trump has ninety-one criminal charges against him, that he has over 40,000 documented lies. They refuse to believe he lost the election. Their minds have been hacked.” – Steven Hassan
• “There are a lot of different cults in the cult of trump.” – Steven Hassan
We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.
www.patreon.com/bunkercast
Written and presented by Rafael Behr. Producer: Eliza Davis Beard. Audio editor: Robin Leeburn. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson and artwork by James Parrett. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.
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Having a laugh? Why satire won't die – with impressionist Jan Ravens
Satire has been pronounced dead more times than disco. As the political world has lurched into chaos, satirists have struggled to match the absurdity of the figures they mock. But what happens if politics gets boring? Andrew Harrison is joined by Jan Ravens to find out how satire can survive beyond the next general election.
• “Liz Truss’s tragic flaw is that she hasn't grown up. She is still a little girl expecting approval.” – Jan Ravens
• “Satire can't bring down the government, but it can attach an idea to people that they can never shake off.” – Andrew Harrison
• “I'm very happy to do without my Liz Truss impression if it means we can do without her in any position of power whatsoever.” – Jan Ravens
We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.
Support us on Patreon.
Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Producer: Liam Tait. Audio editor: Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Artwork by Jim Parrett. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.
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How borders shaped world history – with Jonn Elledge
We live in a world of borders – and often take them for granted. But they’ve shaped the world in myriad ways over the centuries. Our politicians go to extreme lengths to secure them and in some cases build giant walls to protect them. So what can we learn from examining their history?
Andrew Harrison is joined by Jonn Elledge, author of A History of the World in 47 Borders: The Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps, as we talk about the weird and wonderful history of the lines on our maps.
• “Open borders aren’t inherently progressive, Genghis Khan was in favour of them!” – Jonn Elledge
• “When you look back through history, You have empires, you have cities but there aren’t many borders.” – Jonn Elledge
• “Borders in Europe only really started settling down in the 17th and 18th centuries.” – Jonn Elledge
We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.
Support us on Patreon.
Buy Jonn Elledge’s book A History of the World in 47 Borders: The Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund The Bunker by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.
Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Producer: Liam Tait. Audio editor: Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.
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A local election, for local people – Start Your Week with Ros Taylor and Jacob Jarvis
It’s the local elections this week – just how bad does it look for Rishi Sunak? As general election rumours swirl, he’s going to be crossing everything in the coming days… And there was the no confidence vote in Scotland lined up – but it’s been reported Humza Yousaf will quit before it happens. Plus, Trump’s trial continues – will he contain his rage as it rolls on? Then finally we turn to Gaza and look at the latest in terms of ceasefire talks. All that and more in Start Your Week, with Ros Taylor and Jacob Jarvis.
• “Sunak wants to give the impression that the Rwanda deportations will happen and that no legal issues will get in the way” – Ros Taylor
• “Calling an election for July might actually be advantageous for Sunak.” – Ros Taylor
We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.
Support us on Patreon.
Written and Presented by Jacob Jarvis with Ros Taylor. Audio production: Jade Bailey. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. ENDS
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From SBF to Elizabeth Holmes – Why do frauds thrive in Silicon Valley?
Silicon Valley presents itself as a haven for tech start-ups wanting to change the world for the better. But, beneath the facade, it has a serious fraud problem. Why do tricksters thrive among the geniuses? Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the FTX crypto exchange is the latest high-profile example – but he’s far from being the first tech start-up founder to wind up in jail. Erin Griffith is a reporter for the New York Times specialising in tech and finance – and joins Chris Jones in The Bunker to discuss this dark phenomenon.
• “When there’s a lot of free money going around, that’s going to attract a lot of people to exploit that.” – Erin Griffith
• “The venture capital investors who are backing these companies are sophisticated… but there’s also an element of FOMO because there are only so many startups that might be the next Facebook.” – Erin Griffith
• “I’m not sure anything is changing apart from some of these charges for fraud that are now being prosecuted in criminal court.” – Erin Griffith
We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit
Support us on Patreon.
Written, presented and produced by Chris Jones. Audio production: Jade Bailey. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.
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How did the Tories become the chaos party?
The Conservative Party was once a unified force, able to steadily maintain power. But today’s Tories are in constant turmoil. How did they become the party of chaos? Since Brexit there’s been a revolving door of leaders, the rise of tribalism within the party and a series of humiliating byelection losses. Alex Andreou is joined by professor of politics at Queen Mary University Tim Bale to try and understand this shift in conservative politics.
• “Everything that top Tories say needs to be considered as part of their future leadership contest.” – Tim Bale
• “Without Brexit, we wouldn't have seen the turmoil that we've seen over the last decade.” – Tim Bale
We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.
Support us on Patreon.
Written and presented by Alex Andreou. Producer: Liam Tait. Audio editor: Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.
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Customer Reviews
Best way to start the week …
Fascinating episode by Seth and team with Richard Bourke on Burke and just this week on the miners’ strike with Robert Gildea. Really like these types of episode in particular in a consistently very high quality podcast, which always starts the week well.
Something for everyone (with a liberal focus)
The bunker started off just before the pandemic really came into view, from the team that brought you Remainiacs. That became Oh God What Now and for some time the bunker consisted of panel episodes, but additionally also daily episodes on selected topics.
In its current format the episodes are almost entirely the daily specials, somewhat rivalling the Guardian’s ‘today in focus’, sometimes but not exclusively on subjects concerning the day’s news.
Some episodes won’t interest everyone but the variety and quality is consistent enough to give curious listeners something to enjoy, particularly as they will interview a specialist from academia on any particular subject, be it disinformation, or the science of sleep.
On Monday’s they drop ‘start the week’ which gives a snappy, useful 20 minute overview of recent and upcoming politics news.
I think it’s good that after listeners surveys they moved the bunker away from panel discussions, as that confused their branding, with OGWN being an almost identical offering.
Where it involves politics the editorial bias is centre-left, but the Bunker has become more semi-detached from its more overtly political sister pod.
Valuable
Great 30 min explainers. Listen to probably 80-90% of episodes. Look forward to Alex’s cheerfulness on start the week on a Monday.