The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Your pop culture update: “Quentin Tarantino meets Agatha Christie” in Brad Pitt action comedy Bullet Train. Icon of the 80s Clare Grogan joins us for the first Altered Images album in 39 years, Mascara Streakz. And movie monster the Predator goes up against Native Americans in hyperkinetic prequel Prey, out now on Disney+. DJ and journalist Anthony Teasdale completes the panel. Hear all the music on our rolling playlists.Spotify: https://bit.ly/CultBunkTidal: https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/77075591-255c-47eb-9062-815c4dd469efComplete our listener survey for a chance to win a Bunker t-shirt: https://bit.ly/3zFSySB “Turns out that the 80s revival has lasted longer than the 80s themselves…” – Clare Grogan “Bullet Train’s great fun… but the problem is, it’s got a never-ending ending.” – Anthony Teasdale “I kept an emergency copy of Hong Kong Garden in my handbag… What do you mean you haven’t heard it? Play it now!” - Clare Grogan Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison and Siân Pattenden. Audio production by Alex Rees. Theme music: ‘Bunker Theme (Juntos Mix)’ by Kenny Dickinson. Co-produced by Jelena Sofronijevic. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. The Culture Bunker is a Podmasters production.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Listen back to an archive Bunker from Jan 2022. London’s restaurants are now closing at nearly the double the normal rate as rising VAT, rent, and energy costs add to the weight of COVID, post-Brexit labour issues and supply chain shortages. Corey Mintz, author of The Next Supper, and Eater London’s Adam Coghlan joined Jelena Sofronijevic to chew on why haute cuisine is cooling off, whether takeaway food is really so democratic…and if COVID has called time on the all-you-can-eat buffet. Complete our listener survey for a chance to win a Bunker t-shirt: https://bit.ly/3zFSySB  “Restaurants were told to diversify and prepare themselves for the rise of takeaways. But they didn't until the pandemic.” - Corey Mintz “The major delivery companies in the UK are neither economically nor environmentally sustainable.” - Corey Mintz “Today I discovered, ordered, and ate the food from a new restaurant within 30 minutes. Once you've tasted that, you can't go back.” - Adam Coghlan “If you hired an architect to build a restaurant today, they'd ask you where you'd like the Instagram wall.” - Corey Mintz “The £6k given to restaurants which closed over Christmas was mere chicken feed.” - Adam Coghlan https://www.patreon.com/bunkercastPresented and produced by Jelena Sofronijevic. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With strike action in Britain set to intensify over the coming months, what is the state of our trade unions? Can they really force the Government’s hand over the cost of living crisis? Jane Holgate, Employment Relations professor at the University of Leeds, joins Alex Andreou to unpack what unions want, who supports them, and the challenges they face.Complete our listener survey for a chance to win a Bunker t-shirt: https://bit.ly/3zFSySB “Trade unionism is all about the imbalance of power in the employment relationship.” “The Government is involved whether it likes it or not.” “Google searches for trade union membership have increased dramatically.” “Thatcher came to power with the purpose of curbing union power, voted in by millions from the working class.” “Given the huge profits companies are making, what workers are asking for isn’t unreasonable.” “If Labour wants to be the party of the working class then it must reflect their interests.” “If you annoy workers enough then you’ll see productivity fall.” https://www.patreon.com/bunkercastPresented by Alex Andreou. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Producers: Jacob Archbold, Jelena Sofronijevic and Alex Rees. Assistant Producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Jade Bailey. The Bunker is a Podmasters Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Thatcher famously proclaimed that inflation is the parent of unemployment. But as shop prices soar, energy bills rocket, and interest rates rise, we’ve all become more aware of the everyday impacts of inflation. So how unique is the crisis we face now? Director of the LSE and former vice-president of the World Bank Baroness Minouche Shafik joins Ros Taylor to unpack inflation.Complete our listener survey for a chance to win a Bunker t-shirt: https://bit.ly/3zFSySB “COVID has caused upward inflation because of how it has affected global supply chains.”  “The Bank of England can only control the demand, not supply, side of the economy.” “To get inflation under control, you have to have a period of restraint.” “Inflation is a regressive tax on the population that hurts the poor most.” “There's more room to grow in encouraging women in work.”  “Rich countries spend 10% of their income on food. Poorer countries spend as much as 75%.”  “The last time we had an economic crisis, we saw mass unrest.”  “The term recession is used very loosely. But regardless, we have a difficult year ahead.”  https://www.patreon.com/bunkercastWritten and presented by Ros Taylor. Producers: Jacob Archbold, Jelena Sofronijevic and Alex Rees. Assistant Producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production: Robin Leeburn. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Lionesses’ victory in the Euros inspires a generation of girls. Can it transform football… and society? Meanwhile Sunak flails to out-loon Truss. With popular culture pulling in one direction and a regressive Tory gerontocracy pulling in another, is there any space for a unifying national story any more? Historian Alex von Tunzelmann – author of Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Changed History – is our special guest.Complete our listener survey for a chance to win a Bunker t-shirt: https://bit.ly/3zFSySB “The Labour Party loves nothing more than hating the Labour Party… A fight between left and right has to happen every new moon.” – Marie le Conte “No wonder Truss and Sunak are promising anything and everything. They are dealing with a membership of Home Counties mad bastards with an average age of ‘ghost’.” – Ahir Shah “If you want to sort the two halves of Britain easily, just ask the question ‘Would you bring back hanging?’” – Alex von Tunzelmann “Anyone who spends 24 hours in France while not being white will know that no, France is not better at decolonising than Britain…” – Marie le Conte https://www.patreon.com/bunkercastWritten and presented by Ros Taylor with Marie le Conte and Ahir Shah. Producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic . Assistant producer Kasia Tomasiewicz. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. Lead producer: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. The Bunker is a Podmasters production.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reset the Years of Hurt Clock… England’s women bring football home at last. Have the Lionesses changed football forever? Meanwhile Rishi Sunak goes down in the most craven manner possible, Johnson aims to pack the Lords with cronies, and everything’s on fire. But never mind! The football! The football! Gavin Esler puts aside his Scottishness for a moment to revel in the pure joy of an historic victory with Andrew Harrison. Complete our listener survey for a chance to win a Bunker t-shirt: https://bit.ly/3zFSySB “As someone who is male, Scottish, and a bit jaded about football, the final restored my faith in the Beautiful Game.”  "Maybe male spectators will learn that booing the other teams’ national anthem isn’t a good look." “The scandal is that we allowed Boris Johnson to happen… he is taking advantage of a system full of weaknesses.” “There’s no such thing as Conservative values any more. They’re just what you say to make headlines.” “The lasting legacy of the Johnson years is that you can say anything because no one believes that you mean it.” Presented by Andrew Harrison. Producers Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Assistant producer Kasia Tomasiewicz. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. Group Editor Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On episode 666 of The Bunker, we’re talking all things Satan. Where does our idea of the Devil come from? And why are we so obsessed with him? Jelena Sofronijevic talks to Erin Cülff of the Myth Monsters podcast and Dr. Michael David Barbezat, a research fellow at Australia Catholic University, to explore Satan in pop culture, from the snake in the Garden of Eden, via Dante’s Inferno and heavy metal, to a modern gay icon. “Villains are always easy to work with in storytelling.” – Michael David Barbezat “You see the Devil as an anti-hero in a lot of the stories we tell.” – Michael David Barbezat “I think everyone likes a bad boy.” – Erin Culff “Some of the business we see with devils and demons is also reinvention.” - Michael David Barbezat “The Devil has been drafted to serve many functions of social control." - Michael David Barbezat "Angels are hes, Demons are shes." - Michael David Barbezat https://www.patreon.com/bunkercastWritten and presented by Jelena Sofronijevic. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Assistant Producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Your pop culture fix: Will Renaissance be a rebirth for Beyoncé? Amazon’s small-town sci-fi mystery Paper Girls, adapted from the cult comic – can it out-strange Stranger Things? And superior newsroom drama in The Newsreader, on BBC2 and iPlayer now. Telegraph TV critic Michael Hogan is our special guest.Hear all the music on our rolling playlists.Spotify: https://bit.ly/CultBunkTidal: https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/77075591-255c-47eb-9062-815c4dd469ef “Beyonce records get freighted with sociopolitical weight, yet she's shrugged that off for a fantastic pop record.” - Michael Hogan “Paper Girls has out-strangered Stranger Things.” - Sian Pattenden “The Newsreader isn’t empty nostalgia. This is, Who remembers when work was like this, and it was awful?” - Andrew Harrison Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison and Siân Pattenden. Audio production by Alex Rees. Theme music: ‘Bunker Theme (Juntos Mix)’ by Kenny Dickinson. Co-produced by Jelena Sofronijevic. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. The Culture Bunker is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Listen back to an edition from our archives with The Bunker Gold. This week, after Tory leadership hopefuls Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss went head-to-head in fiery TV debates, we’ve chosen an episode from December 2021, Harsh Reality – How TV Shaped Modern Britain. We treat TV as the most disposable art form – but for decades it has shaped our world more than we know. From Big Brother to Shameless to Little Britain and Benefit Street, television chose the winners and losers of consumer capitalism, made it OK to sneer at the underclass, and then allowed that underclass a token comeback or two. Author Phil Harrison explores television’s innate cruelty, class dynamics and political subtext in The Age Of Static: How TV Explains Modern Britain. Has TV made our politics worse? And should it just give up on live political interviews altogether?  “A show called Britain’s Hardest Worker pitted benefit claimants against one another. You wouldn’t have written that in a dystopian fantasy.” “Maybe the BBC needs to be in that permanent state of conflict or it’s not doing its job of challenging what we think.” “When Mentorn took over Question Time they promised ‘adrenaline-fuelled Thursday nights’. Is that the purpose of a serious news show?” “Nadine Dorries as a kamikaze Culture Secretary scares the hell out of me.”  Written and presented by Justin Quirk. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Producers: Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

English football might be doing well on the pitch, but are we seeing the return of hooliganism off it? Since lockdown eased, there’s been a spate of incidents we thought had been left in the 1980s, so what’s going wrong in football at the moment? Professor Geoff Pearson of the University of Manchester joins Justin Quirk to discuss football’s crowd trouble problem, and what can be done about it. “These are fans who’ve been in lockdown, hitting it a bit harder now they can go to football again.” “The disorder seen at the Euros final was a perfect storm.” “Ultimately, good policing is one of the main pillars behind managing football crowds successfully.” “For the first time the Government is looking at the whole legislative framework around football. It would be nice to see an overhaul.” https://www.patreon.com/bunkercastPresented by Justin Quirk. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Producers: Jacob Archbold, Jelena Sofronijevic and Alex Rees. Assistant Producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. The Bunker is a Podmasters Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices