The Bunker
Your daily need to know on news and politics. Every weekday 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: Gavin Esler • Ros Taylor.• Hannah Fearn • Andrew Harrison • Jacob Jarvis • Emma Kennedy • Rafael Behr • Seth Thévoz.
• Sign up to support the podcast and get episodes ad-free and early: patreon.com/bunkercast
• Apple users: Get all of our core shows ad-free and early with the Podmasters Originals super-subscription.
The Bunker is a Podmasters production.
1076
Daily: “Give technology a soul” – How to build ...
With new technology, if you’re not part of the steamroller, you become part of the road. What are the big topics in tech that we should be talking about – for our own prosperity and survival? King’s College Professor Mischa Dohler tells Alex Andreou ho...
28 min
1077
Daily: TRANSYLVANIAN FAMILIES – Why Romania rules
It’s astonishingly beautiful, fiercely independent, full of mystery and a crossroads of jaw-dropping historical events – so why do we still think of Romania as a backwater? Paul Kenyon, author of Children of the Night: The Strange and Epic Story of Mod...
27 min
1078
Daily: THE MODI POLITIC – India’s deadly descen...
India’s brutal second wave of COVID is now receding, leaving behind intensified poverty, economic carnage, a staggering estimated 400-700m infections and a death rate of approximately 2%. But things were already going catastrophically wrong in the worl...
27 min
1079
I Don’t Want Your “Freedom”
As Boris Johnson and Sajid Javid roll the dice with the health of millions, healthcare commentator Roy Lilley takes us on a deep dive into what’s in store for the NHS. Plus, the Cuban uprising and the Labour Left, the Pegasus spyware scandal, and do un...
58 min
1080
The Freedom Gamble: Start Your Week with Naomi ...
As Johnson opens “Freedom Day” with a classic one-rule-for-us flip-flop (hey, he was in a pilot scheme!) what does England’s first week without restrictions mean for ordinary people who aren’t in the Cabinet? Plus the NI protocol reaches crunch point, ...
28 min
1081
Daily: ANOTHER KIND OF HUMAN – Why Neanderthals...
“Neanderthal” is a common term of abuse but should we stop feeling so superior towards our close evolutionary relatives? Did they think like us, even at the abstract level? Rebecca Wragg Sykes, author of the “insanely fascinating” Kindred: Neanderthal ...
24 min
1082
Daily: BRIT-TECH – The real levelling up?
The pandemic has stress-tested Britain’s tech sector for flaws and strengths. Does it have the capacity to overcome the damage caused by Brexit? Alex Andreou talks to Professor Richard A. L. Jones, Manchester University expert in Materials Physics and ...
24 min
1083
Daily: YOU’RE LISTENING TO THE STREETS – Inside...
The video series Anywhere But Westminster by John Harris and John Domokos is one of the Guardian’s most acclaimed strands and now a winner of the Orwell Prize. What makes it work? The Two Johns tell Dorian Lynskey about why we need more reportage and f...
28 min
1084
England: Every Loser Wins
Has the heroic, nearly-there performance of Gareth Southgate’s England team shown that politics and sport do mix – if the politics is about young players stand up for what’s right? Boris Johnson sets his sights on unlocking regardless of rising COVID f...
52 min
1085
England: Pride and Penalties – Euro 2020 in review
After all that, penalties again. England’s Euros end in defeat in the Final but how has this tournament changed the relationship between the team and the nation – and football itself? BBC and Premier League football journalist Lynsey Hooper of The Offs...
32 min
1086
Daily: FROM CATWALK TO TIGHTROPE Fashion after ...
What has lockdown done to Britain’s £26bn fashion business? What will the post-pandemic High Street look like? Will we all wear posh pyjamas for the rest of our lives? And what on earth is “phygital” fashion – a mix of physical and digital shopping? Gu...
22 min
1087
Daily: CYBER-STING – The FBI’s fake app that to...
In Operation Trojan Shield an FBI-led alliance of national security services used ANOM, a fake EncroChat-style communication network, to capture 800 criminals in possibly the biggest undercover cyber-sting ever. They netted over 32 tons of drugs and mo...
26 min
1088
Daily: DOUBLE OUR WOODLAND or we’re in trouble
The row over trees cut down for HS2 is trivial next to a far bigger crisis of deforestation that’s damaging Britain’s agriculture, destabilising our environment and making us vulnerable to extreme weather, says Phil Sturgeon, trustee of climate charity...
23 min
1089
Mission: Kim Possible – with guest John Rentoul
Did the Batley and Spen result rescue Labour from a death spiral? The Independent’s political commentator John Rentoul joins us to ask whether Starmer really has pulled off a great escape. Meanwhile, as Sajid Javid loudly announces the end of COVID res...
54 min
1090
JAVID’S BIG GAMBLE: Start Your Week with Alex A...
Sajid Javid wants to “trust common sense” and tear up COVID restrictions just as we’re reaching the highest infections since January. Are Jo and Josephine Public being lined up as Third Wave fall-guys? Plus the school isolations mess, and why parasitic...
26 min
1091
Daily: SAVING A PLANET ON FIRE – Climate change...
As the heatwave in the Pacific North West puts climate change into even sharper focus, it’s easy to feel powerless before the enormity of global warming. But should we? Do ordinary people have the tools to fix this? Climate campaigner Dr Alice Bell is ...
25 min
1092
Daily: DISCO RETURNO – Why Britain needs nightc...
No one looks back and remembers the nights they got plenty of sleep. But beyond a mere boogie, nightclubs play a vital role in shaping our collective and individual identity. Alex Andreou assembles an all-star spinning a-roundtable to chew on how COVID...
30 min
1093
Daily: HEADLINE NEWS – The power of FONTS
Words shape the world – but typefaces shape the words. In a world where fonts subtly engineer how we think, should we be more conscious of the lore of the letter? Andrew Harrison talks to giant of typography Gail Anderson – graphic designer, former Rol...
25 min
1094
We Consider The Matt Closed
Pity about Matt Hancock. He was a real hands-on Minister. But the story isn’t the hapless ex-Health Secretary’s office affair, it’s the serious implications of leaked CCTV, off-books emails to “collaborators” and Boris Johnson’s self-serving role in th...
61 min
1095
TRYST AND TRACE: Start Your Week with Ros Taylor
As we clear away the bunting and empty bottles after Hancock Humiliation Weekend, how will the story — of leaked CCTV, secret email addresses and backhanders — develop? What sort of Health Sec will Sajid Javid be, and will he give Dido Harding the NHS ...
25 min
1096
Daily: PUPPET MASTERS, LOST GOLDEN AGES – The m...
Your opponents are lower than vermin. Politics is a righteous battle of absolute good against absolute evil. A secret cabal controls everything. And only a return to a past Eden can solve our problems. Why do these simplistic myths grip the Left so str...
21 min
1097
Daily: ED MILIBAND – “Big forces not bacon sand...
Former Labour leader Ed Miliband has reinvented himself since 2015 as a podcaster with his hit series Reasons To Be Cheerful, and re-entered frontbencher politics as Shadow Business Secretary. But he has big ideas. He talks to Dorian Lynskey about his ...
29 min
1098
Daily: SECRET WAR – Freedom of Information unde...
Press freedom is under attack from Priti Patel’s draconian plans to tighten the Official Secrets Act, which would criminalise the “onward disclosure” of leaked material, putting journalists at increased risk of imprisonment. Meanwhile the Government ro...
30 min
1099
Biden’s Russian Roulette
Joe Biden’s frosty first summit with Putin was designed to put the Russian leader on notice that the days of manipulating America are over. But are they? Special guest Luke Harding – former Guardian Moscow Correspondent and author of Shadow State: Murd...
62 min
1100
VAXX AND SPEND: Start Your Week with Naomi Smith
As the fallout from the Lib Dems’ victory in Chesham and Amersham continues to descend, is Boris Johnson about to get mugged by the newly liberal shires – or old school nimby Toryism? Is the Sunak-Johnson confrontation over the PM’s free spend...
27 min