The Trawl

The Trawl is positively giddy this week as the US midterms deliver a spectacular rebuke to Trump, Democrats take control of Congress and the political fallout begins. From Trump's extraordinary claims about the election to Pete Hegseth's increasingly precarious position, Jemma and Marina revel in the chaos while asking what accountability might actually look like. Plus, Russell Brand is se...

Russell Brand has been found guilty of rape and sexual assault. In this Drop-In, Jemma and Marina look at the verdict, the evidence heard in court and the difficult questions it raises about power, celebrity and the treatment of women who come forward. From the defence arguments about consent and delayed reporting, to the media figures who rushed to defend Brand, they examine why so many women sti...

Yes, the Budget was last week. Yes, Marina and Jemma are late. They’re always five steps behind at the Trawl, and proud of it, so put the kettle on, because there’s a lot of angry tea to get through... First up, a few bellends had a full-blown meltdown because a contestant on Celebrity Traitors had the audacity to pick a refugee charity. Then it’s onto Andy Burnham’s first Budget. He promised to e...

Put the kettle on, sack off the doom scrolling, and brace for some serious joy scrolling! America has been to the polls and oh...it's a tsunami of blue! Democrats have the Senate AND the House. Kansas hadn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate in nearly a hundred years, and Texas just picked a 37-year-old former school teacher over Elon Musk’s money. You can’t buy everything, Elon, you bell! Marina...

Nigel Farage has spent years telling us that the British people are behind him. So imagine his surprise when he turns up to unveil Reform's big economic rescue plan and discovers that some are indeed sitting behind him, only no one's sitting in front of him. Jemma and Marina revel in Farage addressing rows of empty chairs, blaming his staff for the distinctly underwhelming turnout and watc...

Elon Musk: once the poster boy for the future, now seemingly determined to make the present considerably worse. In this drop-in, Jemma and Marina dive into the world of the broligarchs, the extraordinary sums Musk is pouring into American politics and his increasingly personal obsession with Democrat James Talarico, who's taking on Ken Paxton in Texas. Meanwhile, Trump is busy discussing the p...

Good news, Trawlers! For once, there are some reasons to feel hopeful. From Brazil to Serbia, voters are delivering some serious blows to the political strongmen who've been clinging to power. Is democracy finally fighting back? But, don't get too comfortable. Steve Witkoff has been busy handing out compliments to Putin that absolutely nobody asked for, while in Ohio, Vivek Ramaswamy's...

The Trawl ladies 'drop-in' to chat about the relentless media pile-on against Meghan Markle, and the uncomfortable new questions surrounding her estrangement from her father. For years, certain commentators portrayed Meghan as a cold-hearted daughter. But with new information emerging, just how much did they actually know before deciding they knew everything? And Meghan isn't the only...

In this episode, Marina and Jemma take a peek over the garden fence at GB News, and wish they’d had a tetanus jab first. Jacob Rees-Mogg weighs in on Glasgow’s Egyptian mummies opposite a man dressed in Tesco’s finest bog roll. A presenter’s row with her own guest goes on for so long it becomes a loop, and Liz Truss gets a zero-star review from her own side for her new book. Then it gets serious.....

For parents in Britain, waving your children through the school gates is one of the most ordinary things in the world. In America, it can mean hoping they come home alive. In this special Drop-In, Jemma Forte and Marina Purkiss confront the devastating school shooting in Oregon, where three children and a teacher were killed. They discuss America's extraordinary relationship with guns, the pol...

Hello and welcome to The Trawl, where the internet continues to provide fresh evidence that the lunatics really might be running the asylum. This week, Trump's latest press secretary has barely had time to unpack her desk before she's shown the door. Five days in the job! That's less a career and more a free trial. Marina and Jemma look at the White House's revolving door, the incr...

Happy Friday, Trawlers. The richest man on earth has unveiled a flying car and even Hot Wheels are taking the piss. It was first promised in 2017 and is now due in 2028, which is roughly when Marina’s five-year-old will be driving. Then it gets dark. The No Kings protests drew huge crowds in America, and the main account was knocked offline by Meta. Jemma and Marina discuss the billionaire media e...

It’s the Drop-In, and something remarkable is happening: parts of the British right-wing press are waking up to the fact that Brexit was a disaster. Goldman Sachs has put numbers on it, the Telegraph has put a figure on it, and Carol Malone has not been consulted. Then the banks, the budget and why we think they should pay up, before a former Mumford and Son explains wealth creation to an actual t...

Get your popcorn out, Trawlers, and maybe a peg for your nose... ITV spent 12 months undercover inside Reform, and what they found makes the party’s vetting process look like a bloke in a pub asking whether you’ve deleted your tweets. Nigel cancelled a policy announcement and hid, the party’s response was to attack the journalists, and the BBC reported it with all the bite of a wet flannel. Reform...

Trump’s America is getting darker by the day, and in this episode Jemma and Marina are asking precisely how low things can go. From a painfully chaotic first outing for the new White House press secretary (actually hilariously bad) to plans to livestream a military execution, the Trump administration appears determined to turn political life into an increasingly grim spectacle. The Trawl ladies di...

Marina and Jemma drop in to discuss what happened when Shane Gillis insulted female gym goers on SNL US Join The Trawl's Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590931382660 Thank you for sharing and please do follow us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTrawlPodcast Patreon https://patreon.com/TheTrawlPodcast Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrawl Twitter https://twitter.com/...

Way to make Vladimir Putin happy. It's been quite the week. Andy Burnham has reignited the debate over Russian interference in Brexit. Marina and Jemma get into the murky world of online influence, bots and the extraordinary power of social media to shape what we think. Plus, Trump's reported Russian diesel deal has the Trawl ladies asking precisely whose interests he's serving. And ju...

The Trawl ladies are off to Tory conference and Kemi Badenoch has found a headline-grabbing pledge in scrapping inheritance tax on family homes. But who actually benefits, what might it cost, and what happens to everyone else? Jem has some thoughts, including a memorable encounter with a very wealthy former Dragons’ Den investor. Plus, the Conservatives’ plans for Reform defectors, a spectacularly...

It’s our first ever Trawl Drop In! A slightly less structured, more spontaneous outing in which Jemma and Marina tackle the stories that didn’t make the main pod. And blimey, there’s plenty to get stuck into. Has Zack Polanski’s party spectacularly misjudged its controversial conference motion on Zionism? Marina and Jemma get into the fallout, the leadership questions and what it all means for the...

The Trawl ladies are still looking for the bit where it gets better, and this week it's hiding behind a potential outbreak of pneumonic plague in Russia. Don't panic, Trawlers, Jemma and Marina have a plan, and it's mostly denial. Then there's Pete Hegseth's guide to who gets into the armed forces, which Marina reworks into some dating advice for Jemma's Hinge profile. And...

This week on The Trawl, there are… dare we say it… reasons to be cheerful. Andy Burnham is talking public ownership, electoral reform and a closer relationship with Europe, and suddenly the future doesn't seem quite so bleak. Marina and Jemma revisit the highlights from Labour conference, including plans to bring empty high-street buildings back to life, and ask: could hope actually be making...

Content warning: this episode discusses rape and sexual violence. Marina and Jemma open with some hope. Between Macklemore, Ed Sheeran's bad week, and the Andy Burnham effect, is the tide turning? Then they switch gears. In 2024, a Cornell student alleges she was drugged and then raped and sexually assaulted for seven hours at a fraternity house. A group chat of 57 people were made aware of it...

Two episodes in two days, because Marina couldn't sleep. Trawlers, this one's a tasting menu of the week's finest nonsense. The Trawl ladies start with GB News being crowned "most trusted news channel" by its own viewers (custard is the favourite custard among people who eat custard), then pay homage to a homegrown delusional wally who lasted 49 days and still gets the odd LB...

Jemma and Marina hit Labour conference with Andy Burnham's speech: social care, "Your First Home" and the triple lock. Both have opinions and neither can quite agree on how many pensioners will turn up with pitchforks. Plus Shabana Mahmood reads the room, and Jemma and Marina ask whether this is actual hope or just adrenaline and conference biscuits. Then to Reform, where a council h...

Columnist, bestselling author, Guardian journalist, broadcaster and one of the most prominent voices on the British left for well over a decade, Owen can always be relied on to say exactly what he thinks, no holds barred. He’s also someone who has never been particularly troubled by the idea of annoying people which, frankly, is one of the reasons Marina and Jemma like him. He’s fiercely critical...