The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Could you watch GB News for a whole month? Gavin Esler did, in the name of research. What he experienced was a nightmare mix of confected anger, wild conspiracy and resentment designed to make its viewers feel like victims. GB News might be a joke but its growing social media presence is spreading and detoxifying the hard right views of some very powerful people. Gavin tells Andrew Harrison why we need to start taking Britain’s most absurd TV channel much more seriously.• “I am a recovering GB News watcher. I have to say, it was an ordeal - it was awful.” - Gavin Esler• “Some of the appeal is that ‘we give voice to people who aren’t heard’… But it is an attempt to normalise things that are fundamentally linked to the far right.” - Gavin Esler• “GB News plays into our social divisions, it plays into culture wars, it plays into people who wish to create problems and not solve them. - Gavin EslerRead Gavin’s highly entertaining story GB Spews – What I learned watching Britain’s most ghastly television news channel in Prospect magazine. www.patreon.com/bunkercast   We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.Written and presented by Podmasters Group Editor Andrew Harrison. Producer: Eliza Davis Beard. Audio editor: Simon Williams. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson and artwork by James Parrett. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. Instagram | Twitter   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As the Israel/Gaza war reaches stalemate, are hopes of a ceasefire just wishful thinking? Are “peace talks” in Ukraine just a euphemism for giving Putin what he wants? Plus Thames Water circles the plughole, the William Wragg WhatsApp fallout, and a total eclipse of everyone’s sanity. Ros Taylor sets out the week ahead with Andrew Harrison.  • “I think we’re seeing a slow creep towards giving up some Ukrainian territory to Russia” • “The more Putin can pick-off Ukrainian support, particularly in Eastern Europe, the less likely Ukraine will be able to fight” • “The William Wragg honeytrap scandal could just be someone being mischievous, but it could well be something much more serious” Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bunkercast We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Assistant producer: Eliza Davis Beard. Music: Kenny Dickinson. Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Even if you aren’t on Tiktok, you’ll know one of its billion plus monthly users. But how many of them know how their data is being collected, by whom, and why? The US is now proposing to ban the Chinese-owned social media platform over its links to the Chinese Communist Party. Chris Jones asks leading tech journalist Will Guyatt whether this is all just a form of political warfare against China – or if we really should worry about TikTok.   • “The idea that TikTok is in whole owned by the Chinese Communist Party isn’t true. It’s a complex system of ownership spread across the world, including the U.S. and the Cayman Islands.”  • “There are rabid inconsistencies. Joe Biden is saying he’ll support the act to ban TikTok, and using it as a part of his campaign.”  • “Is this about fears over information gathering or is this purely geopolitical? Or a bigger feeling that we shouldn’t do anything to benefit China?”   Support us on Patreon:www.patreon.com/bunkercast     Written and presented by Chris Jones. Producer: Eliza Davis Beard. Audio editor: Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson and artwork by James Parrett. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. Instagram | Twitter   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Britain’s Miners’ Strike conjures up strong emotions to this day – despite 40 years having passed since the confrontation. But what are the common misconceptions of this period of history? And how are its effects still being felt today? Andrew Harrison asks Robert Gildea, emeritus professor of modern history at the University of Oxford, about the enduring legacy of the Miners’ Strike.     • “The slogan was ‘close a pit, kill a community’ – and there was indeed devastation across mining communities in the decade after the strikes.” – Robert Gildea  • "There was a kind of ‘alternative welfare state’ that was set up largely by the miners’ wives who sustained striking miners and their families. Women came into their own.” – Robert Gildea    Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/bunkercast    Listen to the latest episode of Jam Tomorrow on the coal industry:  https://listen.podmasters.uk/JT2404coal  Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Producer: Eliza Davis Beard. Audio editor: Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson and artwork by James Parrett. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Britain’s police forces seem constantly embroiled in scandal. Where does this stem from and where is most of the corruption? Former police officer and undercover drugs operative Neil Woods, author of Good Cop, Bad War, talks to Alex Andreou about the extent of police corruption in Britain and the pressing need for drug reform to reduce the problem.  • “If the public understood the extent of corruption caused by drug policy, we would have a referendum... Drug laws in this country are not ethically sound.” – Neil Woods • “Because criminals control the over £10 billion a year drug market, which is completely unregulated, the vastness of that wealth is what gives organised crime its power to corrupt.” – Neil Woods  www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Alex Andreou. Producer: Eliza Davis Beard. Audio editor: Simon Williams. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson and artwork by James Parrett. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Tories face electoral obliteration, according to the polls – can Sunak do anything about it? We reflect on the latest damning survey and the current fallouts swirling around the PM. Plus we discuss conflict in the Middle East, and the latest strikes on Gaza and Syria. And finally we look at the latest from the war in Ukraine, then the election results in Turkey. Alex Andreou joins Jacob Jarvis to discuss the week ahead.   • “This is a really high-stakes local election – if the Tories do as poorly as some of the polls predict, it might be time-up for Rishi Sunak” – Alex Andreou  • “Most Tory voters are now either sanguine about a Labour government, or actively want one.” – Alex Andreou  • “Putin’s words often have the opposite effect to what they intended.” – Alex Andreou  Support us on Patreon:www.patreon.com/bunkercast   Written and Presented by Jacob Jarvis. Audio production: Jade Bailey. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Collapsing birthrates have inspired dramas from The Handmaid’s Tale to Children of Men, but it isn’t just science fiction any more. We might not realise it, but we’re living through an epidemic of infertility – and it’s getting worse. How did we get here? What does it mean when humans have fewer babies? And how do we turn it around?   Jude Rogers finds out from world-leading environmental and reproductive epidemiologist Dr Shanna Swan, author of the cheerily-entitled Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development and Imperilling the Future of the Human Race.  • “This is too fast to be merely evolution... This is a worldwide challenge, if not a catastrophe.” – Dr Shanna Swan • “Chemicals that affect hormones are influencing the decline in birth rates. We’re the guinea pigs… People need to exert pressure on governments to bring in legislation to stop that.” – Dr Shanna Swan  Support us on Patreon:www.patreon.com/bunkercast     Written and presented by Jude Rogers. Producer: Eliza Davis Beard. Audio editor: Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson and artwork by James Parrett. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.Instagram | Twitter   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Putin’s threats have made nuclear conflict plausible for the first time since the Cold War – but few really understand the enormity of what it would mean. New book Nuclear War: A Scenario describes such a war step-by-step, from a surprise first strike from North Korea to the destruction of Washington D.C, miles-wide firestorms, the immolation of hundreds of millions of people, and the final extinction of civilisation – all within two hours and 40 minutes. Pulitzer-nominated author Annie Jacobsen conducted dozens of new interview with military and civilian experts. She talks Andrew Harrison through her timeline of a realistic Apocalypse. • “What unfolds is a series of missteps with extraordinary consequences.” – Annie Jacobson• “This is without doubt the most terrifying book I’ve ever read.” – Andrew Harrison• “We have a launch on warning policy. If we believe a ballistic missile is going to hit the U.S., the President will launch a nuclear weapon immediately. But they are woefully unprepared and uneducated about it.” – Annie JacobsonBuy Nuclear War: A Scenario through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund The Bunker by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.www.patreon.com/bunkercast  Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Producer: Eliza Davis Beard. Audio editor: Simon Williams. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson and artwork by James Parrett. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.Instagram | Twitter  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Moon is packed with precious resources – silicon for microchips, manganese for batteries, and titanium for missiles. As private companies, Japan, China, Russia, India and others rush to claim our lunar neighbour, will they look after humanity’s interests or their own? And what happens when these big, belligerent actors collide? A.C. Grayling, writer, broadcaster and philosophy professor, has just published Who Owns the Moon? In Defence of Humanity’s Common Interests in Space. He talks to Alex Andreou about exploration, exploitation and trouble on the next frontier.Buy Who Owns the Moon? through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund The Bunker by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.• “Nobody owns the Moon, which means everybody does. And if we all own it, we should all have a say in it. But in reality, very few people are having a say in it.” – A.C. Grayling• “The U.N. treaty, in declaring the Moon a no-man’s land, has provided us with nothing that would restrain any activity there. The treaty is not fit for purpose. We need a better one.” – A.C. Grayling• “Right now is the last time in history that you’d want to try and get everyone to sign an international treaty for the moon.” – A.C. Graylingwww.patreon.com/bunkercast  Written and presented by Alex Andreou. Producer: Eliza Davis Beard. Audio editor: Simon Williams. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson and artwork by James Parrett. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.Instagram | Twitter  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We think our media is mostly truthful, honest and fearless, but investigative journalism is increasingly stymied by legal threats and the infamous SLAPP (“Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation”) from the powerful. In Cuckooland: Where The Rich Own The Truth, Guardian investigations correspondent Tom Burgis follows a trail of money and influence from Uzbekistan, Nepal and Putin’s Russia to the heart of the Conservative Party – and an extraordinary encounter with Tory donor Mohamed Amersi. If money, power and limitless legal resources mean the rich can redefine the truth, as Burgis claims, what can we do about it?Buy Cuckooland through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund The Bunker by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.• “People think journalists can report things honestly, but what you don’t see is that … a lot of journalists self-censor, choose not to write about people who are litigious.” - Tom Burgis• “This is the reality of journalism these days. We’re always carrying a lawyer around in our heads. - Tom Burgis• “The story of our time, from Putin to Trump and all points in between, is how these kleptocrats seize and maintain power through corruption.” - Tom Burgiswww.patreon.com/bunkercast  Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Producer: Eliza Davis Beard and Chris Jones. Audio editor: Simon Williams. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.Instagram | Twitter   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices