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.
1451
Special: The SPANISH FLU and You – with Nick Co...
What can the Spanish Flu of 1918 tell us about coping with Coronavirus – and maybe the next pandemic too? Nick Cohen of The Observer talks to Laura Spinney, author of Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu Of 1918 And How It Changed The World, about the lessons f...
23 min
1452
Daily: Northern Powerhouse – MAXÏMO PARK’s Paul...
How does a band make widescreen, forward-thinking communal rock music when they’re suddenly locked down miles away from one another? And when your keyboard player has moved to Australia? Paul Smith of Newcastle postpunk adventurers Maxïmo Park tells Do...
23 min
1453
Daily: “This is battlefield medicine” – Frontli...
How does it feel to work in the thick of the pandemic and spend time with patients you know will die? Rachel Clarke is a doctor in Oxfordshire who works in palliative care and her new book is Breathtaking: Inside The NHS In A Time Of Pandemic. She talk...
23 min
1454
Daily: “A death sentence for live music” – FISH...
The Government’s shoddy EU Deal means the live music business will have to cope with mountains of red tape it thought was in the past. Singer FISH, ex- of prog rock legends Marillion and now a successful solo touring artist, set out the details of this...
20 min
1455
Shadows Of The Empire with guest Sathnam Sanghe...
Is the UK’s vaccination effort finally an actual British success story… for the NHS, not the Government? Exactly how are the vaccines different and how do they work? Special guest Sathnam Sanghera joins us to talk about his new book Empireland...
55 min
1456
Start Your Week: LOCKDOWN SHOWDOWN with Naomi S...
As Britain approaches the horrific landmark of 100,000 COVID deaths, will lockdown hawks force the Government to reopen the economy too soon – again? Plus the worsening mess in customs, import and export. Best for Britain launches a campaign to get COV...
26 min
1457
Special: England’s divided soul – Nick Cohen ta...
What does Englishness even mean in a land so splintered by class, geography, language and even post-colonial neuroses that it barely understands itself? And how far back would you draw the North-South divide? To 1066? Or maybe to the Jurassic period? J...
30 min
1458
Daily: CAPTAIN AMERICA – Biden vs the Four Hors...
America’s new President faces four overlapping crises – the COVID pandemic, the teetering economy, festering racial inequality and looming climate change. Does Joe Biden have the political resources to turn them around? And what about the fifth crisis,...
25 min
1459
Daily: Will the real GEORGE ORWELL please stand...
Few writers’ words and ideas are abused daily on the Internet as much as George Orwell’s – and now most of his work is out of copyright. On the anniversary of Eric Blair’s death, we present a champion Orwell-off. Dorian Lynskey, author of The Ministry ...
29 min
1460
Daily: Donald Trump – The Final Word with Mary ...
On the last day of Donald Trump’s warped presidency, his niece Mary Trump – psychologist and author of Too Much And Never Enough: How My Family Created The World’s Most Dangerous Man – reflects on the making of a man who impressed his...
31 min
1461
Republic Enemy: Trumpeachment And Beyond
As the Trump Presidency finally, finally ends, will the Republican Party be forced to choose between American democracy and the madness of the Trump-enraged base? Can Biden convince the world that America’s holiday from reason is over? Plus COVID spike...
56 min
1462
Start Your Week: TRUMP SEASON FINALE with Alex ...
As America prepares to inaugurate Joe Biden as President, can his predecessor squeeze any more crookedness into his remaining days in power? And will the feared violence in American state capitols materialise? Plus as lockdown reacts its first mandator...
25 min
1463
Bonus: JOHN CURTICE on politics after the pandemic
In a special extra edition we ask, what will our politics be like after COVID (eventually) lifts? Will we find, like in 1945, that suddenly everything has changed? John Curtice, politics professor at Strathclyde University and senior fellow at think ta...
25 min
1464
Daily: The ARAB SPRING ten years on
“Rarely have people sacrificed so much for so little.” The great uprisings across the Arab world in 2010-12 began in hope and ended in bitter disappointment, with hardline rule strengthened in many Arab countries. On the tenth anniversary of the event ...
34 min
1465
Daily: ¡Populista! The deadly allure of Latin A...
Before right wing populists set about ruining the world, it was Latin America’s left wing populists – the likes of Chávez, Ortega and Castro – who rattled the West and threw their own countries into tumult. Why is the strongman’s hold on his c...
28 min
1466
Daily: The “BLACK WAVE” that engulfed the Middl...
From the Iranian Revolution to the invasion of Afghanistan, events in 1979 turned the tides on decades of liberalisation across the Middle East. Kim Ghattas, journalist and author of Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unrav...
34 min
1467
AMERICAN PSYCHO: Trump tries to burn it all down
Can the Democrats win the race to impeach Donald Trump before he wreaks irreparable damage on American democracy? Will Trump’s expulsion from social media neuter him or drive his base even crazier? And did that rioter REALLY taser himself to death, in ...
57 min
1468
Start Your Week: CANCELLING THE TRUMP SHOW with...
Can Democrats impeach Trump fast enough to prevent more damage to American democracy – or would that enrage his base further? And what will his ejection from social media mean? Plus, Government failures to plan on COVID and freight exposed, an...
22 min
1469
Daily: Why post-COVID abortion rights must stay
It took a global pandemic to revolutionise Britain’s outdated abortion provision but the changes need to be made permanent. Quality-controlled termination “pills by post” have been made available during the pandemic– but under current law, GPs...
20 min
1470
Emergency: The Siege of Washington DC
In scarcely believable scenes, a mob goaded by Donald Trump invades America’s Capitol building, trashing Congress offices, shooting into the debating chamber and forcing senators and staff to flee. Four people die. What does this unprecedented assault ...
21 min
1471
Daily: Hitler’s long shadow
Why does Hitler still cast a shadow on our politics? How do you re-examine the Nazis’ record without inadvertently fuelling Holocaust denial? Historian Prof. Frank McDonough, author of new book The Hitler Years: Disaster 1940-1945, explains why we stil...
31 min
1472
Daily: What’s in it for me? Why SELF-INTEREST i...
Why has self-interest become such a dirty word (or words) in politics? Why do we always assume the worst motives in our opponents? And if voters keep on disappointing progressives by voting against their supposed economic interests, do we need to revis...
18 min
1473
On Her Majesty’s Sidelined Service Sector – wit...
Britain’s £80bn trade sector was left out of Johnson’s vaunted Brexit deal. Why, and what does that mean? With Lockdown III (or is it IV, V or VI?) about to be launched, has No.10 definitively lost control of the Pandemic? And what should we keep an ey...
52 min
1474
Start Your Year: What’s coming in 2021 with Art...
Joe Biden’s in-tray is packed but will the 46th President’s energies be consumed by repairing the damage of Trumpism instead of his own agenda? What lies in store in flashpoints around the world from Taiwan to Turkey to the Western Sahara? And will the...
20 min
1475
Halfway Between The Sex Shop And The Crematoriu...
From Barnard Castle to bleach injections to ward off COVID, from Matt Hancock trying to cry on TV to “will you just shut up, man?” it’s been a year of ignominy and idiocy – as well as twelve months of pain, failure and tragedy. But what were t...
57 min