The Bunker – News without the nonsense
News without the nonsense, every weekday morning. In episodes that fit your commute*, The Bunker cuts through the noise to make sense of what’s really going on in news, current affairs, politics, economics and culture. We bring you smart explainers, interviews, fresh perspectives and under-reported stories to as a refreshing alternative to repetitive 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 • Alex von Tunzelmann • Andrew Harrison • Zing Tsjeng • Jacob Jarvis • Emma Kennedy • Rafael Behr • Seth Thévoz.
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(* Even if it’s just from the kitchen to the front room. )
The Bunker is a Podmasters production.
1301
We Shall Fight Them From The Beaches – plus jih...
What sort of psychological shock with the fall of Afghanistan cause to the British establishment’s self-image? Will the country again became an incubator of terrorism?
62 min
1302
Goodbye, Special Relationship… Start Your Week ...
Recriminations worsen over the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the UK’s indolent response to the refugee crisis. Can Dominic Raab survive as Foreign Secretary – and what does the debacle mean for Joe Biden’s presidency?
25 min
1303
Daily: THE GREAT BRITISH MUSLIM – Sarfraz Manzo...
Journalist, filmmaker and author Sarfraz Manzoor grew up in two worlds, a son of working-class Pakistani immigrants who told him he’d never be accepted by the white English – yet he immersed himself in Western pop culture and built a life in it.
31 min
1304
Special: Despatch from Kabul
What is the situation really like on the ground in Afghanistan, after the Taliban’s astonishingly swift takeover? Our panelist Arthur Snell talks to one of his contacts, presently in hiding in Kabul. We have chosen not identify them for their own safet...
14 min
1305
Daily: How REAGANISM still ruins America – with...
World War II seemed to mark the end of American conservatism, and a new liberal age. Then Reagan came along – and we’re still living with the consequences.
25 min
1306
New World Disorder: After Afghanistan
The fall of Kabul to the Taliban has placed thousands of people in mortal danger and traumatised the entire Western security establishment. How did we get it so wrong, and what happens next?
54 min
1307
Daily: The Afghanistan Debacle with Arthur Snell
The Afghan Government’s sudden collapse and the return of Taliban rule have both shocked the international community. What happens next?
26 min
1308
Daily – ARMANDO IANNUCCI: “At least Malcolm Tuc...
Will it take a satirist to fix Britain’s busted politics? Armando Iannucci – writer of The Thick Of It, The Day Today and Veep – is looking for emergency fixes in the new podcast series Westminster Reimagined.
33 min
1309
Daily: TURKEY AND GREECE – Bad Blood and Lots O...
Aegean neighbours Greece and Turkey have been rivals for centuries – and both countries are prone to forgetting the “unfortunate episodes” in their relations with the other. Can they ever get past their infamous regional enmity?
28 min
1310
Daily: LOST IN THE SUPERMARKET – Britain’s frag...
For many of us, the warm light of the fridge was one of the few consolations of lockdown. But now we’re living in a harsh new reality of intermittently empty supermarket shelves and farms that are struggling to adapt to Brexit, COVID, and climate chang...
27 min
1311
Bored of Boris? – The Tory Party starts to lose...
As pandemic politics start to ebb away, Johnson’s ratings are down among the Tory faithful and his MPs are growing restive. Is this a time to pick a fight with Rishi Sunak?
48 min
1312
THIS WORLD’S ON FIRE – Start Your Week with Ale...
This week’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report could signal our last chance to stop the global climate running out of control. Will the world take it? Plus: vaccine passports continue to go round in circles.
27 min
1313
Daily: THE WEIRDEST OLYMPICS EVER with FT Sport...
Recorded at 11pm on Saturday night and already our GB medals toll is out of date; At the end of the most controversial Olympics in almost a century, Financial Times Sports Editor MURAD AHMED calls us from Tokyo to lift the curtain on what it a...
29 min
1314
Daily: PAUL MASON on how to stop fascism
From Modi’s India to Bolsonaro’s Brazil and Erdogan’s Turkey, the far right is on the rise around the world. Are we really on the brink of resurgent fascism? And if so, how do we fight it?
30 min
1315
Daily: CATCH A DRAGON BY ITS TAIL – China’s mon...
Cameron and Osborne’s “Golden Era” of cosying up to China turned out to be a golden error, as Beijing dug deep into British life, politics, and technology.
26 min
1316
UNIVERSITY CHALLENGED – Should youth pay the bi...
Now that the pandemic may be abating, the Government decides that the best people to pay the bill are… those pesky, hard-up young people. Climate change and student activist Phoebe Hanson joins us to explain what it’s like to be mis-sold the s...
53 min
1317
Cattus mortuus est – START YOUR WEEK with Ros T...
Will bribes for Deliveroo and Uber be enough to persuade recalcitrant youth to get their jabs? Are we nearing herd immunity on COVID?
26 min
1318
Daily: “The Police couldn’t get arrested!” – MI...
What if you discovered that your Dad was living a double life, and really worked in the CIA? Does managing The Police prepare you for advising the Pentagon? From his chateau in France, maverick music manager Miles Copeland chats to Dorian Lynskey about...
23 min
1319
Daily: A STAGGERING INJUSTICE – Inside the Post...
The wrongful conviction of hundreds of subpostmasters for false accounting was so shocking that even Boris Johnson as called it one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in our history. Why did Post Office management cover up the truth about its flawe...
25 min
1320
Daily: The Hammer and the Dance – Overnight COV...
COVID is a paradise of hindsight – a world of self-appointed experts who tell us what should have happened – and sometimes rewriting what did happen to suit themselves. But what about those people who could see what was going to happen? On ...
24 min
1321
THANGAM STYLE: A Debbonaire special guest
It’s time for Parliament’s end of term report card. Does anyone at all get an A, or should everyone be forced to repeat the year in disgrace? Special guest Thangam Debbonaire MP, Shadow Leader of the Commons, joins us to explain the meaning of...
56 min
1322
Pinged people can’t pull pints: START YOUR WEEK...
New COVID infections are trending downwards. Has Johnson’s Freedom Day gamble paid off, or are we just in a moment of calm before a new wave breaks? Plus pingdemic panic, vaccine passports, the Government gives up on students (again), Lord Frost tries ...
26 min
1323
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
1324
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
1325
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