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
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
1352
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
1353
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
1354
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
1355
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
1356
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
1357
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
1358
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
1359
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
1360
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
1361
The future is unionised says FRANCES O’GRADY of...
There’s a nightmare economic downturn on the cards, but unions were deeply involved in the emergency bailout plans. Is organised Labour about to re-enter policymaking for the first time in over 40 years? What can unions do for women workers in an econo...
36 min
1362
THE MIGHTY THAW? How to wake up a frozen economy
What buttons can government push to wake up a comatose economy, and will they work this time? Will this formerly Conservative government need to go full Keynesian with a bonanza of giveaways to stimulate activity? Or if fear of persistent virus stops u...
33 min
1363
DAILY: Anand Menon and Ian Dunt on the COVID-Cu...
Where does this week of chaos leave the Government’s authority? Will it affect our staggering progress towards the cliff edge of a failed negotiation with the EU? Ian Dunt talks to ANAND MENON of UK In A Changing Europe about the Johnson government’s s...
21 min
1364
Mini-Daily: Troublesome tides for BRITISH FISH
Got a bonus one for you: Britain’s fishing industry has long been an emotional hot button for Brexiters and a seaborne sticking point for our trade negotiators. What exactly is going on in Britain’s coastal waters? And what would a No Deal Brexit mean ...
12 min
1365
Herd Impunity
Dom Under Siege, Day Five: Has the Prime Minister’s incomprehensibly immovable Rasputin done enough to save his skin? And is a 60-mile car trip really the best way to test your eyesight? Plus guest John Appleby of health think tank the Nuffield Trust j...
47 min
1366
PRICE GOUGING – Who’s cashing in on COVID?
Coronavirus has provided a golden opportunity for unscrupulous online and offline retailers to jack up their prices on essential goods. Who are the worst culprits for COVID price gouging? Who are the victims? And what should government be doing to stop...
22 min
1367
Emergency DomCast: Requiem for a MegaMind?
Should he stay or should he go now? Audio of our Emergency Dominic Cummings podcast, recorded on Zoom at 1pm today, Sunday 24 May with Dorian Lynskey, Ros Taylor, Alex Andreou and Andrew Harrison. You can just about get it listened to before the PM’s p...
48 min
1368
CSI: Coronavirus with DAVID ALLEN GREEN and Aye...
The Government’s emergency measures to keep public places empty are proving to be a rat’s nest. Even senior police officers and prosecutors don’t fully understand the law. Prosecutions are falling apart. And civil liberties groups are calling for a rev...
35 min
1369
There’s something RIGHT with human nature, says...
There’s only one problem with the widely-held belief that humans are fundamentally amoral and selfish, says Dutch historian RUTGER BREGMAN: it’s rubbish. His new book Humankind: A Hopeful History argues that the record shows humanity’s superpower is it...
27 min
1370
Pin the Blame on the Donkey Farmer
On this week’s full-length podcast: Keir Starmer, Donkey Farmer. Be a hero, or else: The Government frogmarches teachers to the frontline. Futurist Mark Stevenson joins us for some big ideas on how to change everything when the COVID mess starts to aba...
52 min
1371
Daily: HILARY BENN on the UK’s dash to No Deal
FROST/BARNIER: As Britain’s negotiators issue ultimatums out of thin air and the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier pronounces the talks “very disappointing”, is there anything to save Britain from the catastrophic No Deal we were promised would neve...
30 min
1372
Daily: The last picture show? COVID vs CINEMA
Hollywood bowled over: Coronavirus has thrown the entire movie industry into suspended animation. Are the studios strong enough to withstand this unprecedented shock? Will smaller movies become collateral damage in the shutdown? Will straight-to-stream...
26 min
1373
Daily: FABLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION with econom...
The Government’s emergency measures have saddled Britain with levels of debt unseen outside wartime – and a possible future of mass unemployment. How can we rebuild the economy for a post-COVID future? What’s the scale of the task? And which industries...
31 min
1374
DAILY: Into the Uncanny Valley with video games...
As we disappear deeper into virtual worlds both for work and relaxation, what are the political dimensions of the technologies we depend on to connect? Videogame scriptwriter Edward Stern, who has worked on Dirty Bomb, Gears Of War and other “shooty ba...
27 min
1375
“We shall fight them in the garden centres”
Are YOU staying alert? If not, WHY not? We look at the Government’s confusing (and possibly self-serving) re-do of its COVID advice. UCL Global Politics professor and presenter of the Power Corrupts podcast Brian Klaas explains why we’re asking the wro...
57 min