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.
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The Bunker is a Podmasters production.
1351
Carry On COVID with stand-up comic CARL DONNELLY
Recorded before the Government’s announcement on support for the arts… Last Friday Naomi Smith talked to stand-up comedian and host of the Two Vegan Idiots podcast CARL DONNELLY about the battered state of comedy and the arts under the COVID onslaught....
22 min
1352
Arias of concern: Can OPERA come back from Corona?
Extended culture upgrade special! Like all live music, opera has been floored by COVID-19. Can an art form that thrives on crowds and projecting your voice (and your breath) survive this game-changing crisis? Will opera houses face bankruptcy? How is t...
45 min
1353
Dine Another Day? JAY RAYNER on restaurants’ CO...
GRAVE RESERVATIONS: Britain’s restaurants will unlock this weekend in a life or death moment for an industry that employs almost a million people. Will diners embrace their freedom or will FOGO keep them away? How has the COVID lockdown changed our rel...
28 min
1354
Leadership lessons from Keir and Klopp
Was Keir Starmer right to defenestrate Rebecca Long-Bailey and will this reset the DAYS SINCE LABOUR BUST-UP clock to zero? Special guest Philip Seargeant, author of The Art of Political Storytelling, explains how narrative crowded out truth i...
45 min
1355
Censors Working Overtime: How NO PLATFORM becam...
Is there a real free speech crisis in universities or is it just another confected Culture War squabble? With people like Amber Rudd banned from speaking simply for having been in government, is No Platform overreaching itself? And how did a bunch of d...
20 min
1356
Communication Breakdown: The MEDIA vs Coronavir...
Is the pandemic an extinction event for news media, or a strange opportunity? Is trust in journalism really collapsing in the age of populism? And is the BBC still top of Dominic Cummings’ To Destroy list? Don of media analysts RAYMOND SNODDY –&nbs...
31 min
1357
The COVID cost of the Hostile Immigration Envir...
Immigration is the topic most guaranteed to drive good sense out of the room. Will opinions be changed by COVID’s sobering reminder of the irreplaceable work that immigrants do? Has Black Lives Matter shown us the progress we’ve made – or the progress ...
31 min
1358
Daily: Why can’t we go SWIMMING yet?
If shops and pubs can reopen, why can’t pools? Swimming saves the NHS and social care some £357m a year, yet the Government’s mishandling of community sport is a microcosm of its muddled approach across Coronavirus. How badly will this affect young swi...
15 min
1359
Mask Hysteria! plus We’re Only Quarantining Nigel
Are you wearing your facemask? If not, WHY NOT? Plus: Has Britain’s shambolic response to COVID exposed something worse than bad leadership: a deep-seated rot in the British state itself? What’s going to happen when mass unemployment hits the sharp-elb...
52 min
1360
Gigs might fly: LIVE MUSIC’s last chance?
Hundreds of thousands of people should be heading to Glastonbury right now. Instead the live music industry is hanging on by its fingernails, hundreds of venues are threatened with closure, and the Government hasn’t included music in its ‘Cultural Rene...
27 min
1361
Daily: HONG KONG rages against the machine
As China tries to impose its authority on Hong Kong, can the former British colony retain some semblance of independence? What’s behind the creeping authoritarianism of Beijing’s Fugitive Offenders Bill? And are Britain’s moves on British National Over...
18 min
1362
Daily: INDIA’s twilight of democracy
In India, Narendra Modi’s populist BJP government has stripped back rights further than in almost any advanced democracy. The country’s COVID response has caused nightmarish problems for the world’s most populous country. And now we’ve seen a bizarre h...
27 min
1363
“We don’t need another racism inquiry. We need ...
What will it take to translate the unprecedented debate on racism and bias into action? Battersea Labour MP and Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities MARSHA DE CORDOVA talks to Naomi Smith about a moment that could change Britain. ...
29 min
1364
Spike Island
As Britain zealously unlocks its shops and zoos (but not its schools), are we knocking over the norms that we’ll need to deal with a second wave of COVID? What are we going to do after the pandemic when AI and automation take all the jobs? Guest Daniel...
47 min
1365
Liberté, Egalité, Acrimonie: FRANCE’s Coronavir...
Emmanuel Macron continues to suffer from France’s traditional disdain for its leader. How has the pandemic affected France’s notorious febrile politics? Why is France so unhappy with Macron? Will Black Lives Matter finally force change on the notorious...
21 min
1366
Injury time: FOOTBALL’s risky return with Phill...
The country’s hunger for football has become desperate during lockdown – but will we even recognise the game when it returns this week? What have ten weeks of isolation done to the minds and bodies of top players? And will the game’s elite finally acce...
30 min
1367
Daily: The coming COVID reckoning with Dr Sarah...
The British Government’s COVID response has been assessed as literally the joint-worst in the world. How did we get here? DR SARAH WOLLASTON, former Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee and ex-Conservative, TIG and Liberal Democrat MP f...
26 min
1368
Daily: The truth about SYRIA with Oz Katerji
The nine-year civil war in Syria is among the most atrocious yet misunderstood and neglected conflicts in human history, with many westerners flatly ignorant of what happened and why. Writer, film-maker and Middle East expert OZ KATERJI explains how de...
24 min
1369
A Rolling Ball of Chaos with special guest AMY ...
From Washington to Whitehall to Bristol harbour, Black Lives Matter protests are dramatically reshaping politics across the world before our eyes. Former Obama homeland security advisor and US senate counsel AMY POPE joins us to discuss what this tumul...
52 min
1370
Daily: ILL MANNERS with comic Sindhu Vee
What’s it like to actually have COVID-19? Stand-up comedian SINDHU VEE tells Ian Dunt about the experience of being laid out by the virus – how to be an “Indian Mum Bad Cop” in trying circumstances – and what she learned along the way.&nbs...
20 min
1371
DEBORAH MEADEN: Escape from Downturn Abbey
Which businesses could dig Britain out of the COVID recession? What will industry need to do to adapt to a new, socially-distanced reality? What are all those people involved in hospitality, services and entertainment going to do for a living?...
29 min
1372
The Fire This Time: Inside America’s week of chaos
The death of George Floyd has triggered an outpouring of protest in the US and a surge of unprecedented violence from police. Could these astonishing events really change the direction of politics and race in America? Journalism teacher and ex-Washingt...
21 min
1373
Matthew Parris: “Boris Johnson is afraid of Par...
We love Parris in the springtime. Times columnist, much-admired old school Tory and now Conservative exile MATTHEW PARRIS talks to Ros Taylor about the extraordinary place the Government has got itself into. What’s left of old-fashioned Toryism? Have w...
19 min
1374
We Shall Fight Ourselves On The Beaches – Speci...
Comedian Mark Watson is this week’s special guest as Britain sacrifices public health for sunbathing and access to flatpack furniture. Are we mentally ready to get back out and be normal? Will FOMO be replaced by FOGO – Fear Of Going Out? What is the m...
49 min
1375
Don’t cry for me Academia, with Glen O’Hara
When term starts in autumn, universities won’t look like what we’re used to. What will “bubble learning” look like? What sort of hole will the pandemic knock in University finances? Will there be a socially-distanced bar and/or Animal Rights Soc disco?...
29 min