The Trawl

Why does Trump obsess over comedians? Why do authoritarian regimes always come for artists first? And why is laughing at fascists one of the oldest forms of resistance we’ve got? In this special edition of The Trawl, Marina and Jemma trace the dangerous present moment back through history from Charlie Chaplin and Marlene Dietrich to Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel and the journalists refusing to blink....

Marina and Jemma are trying very hard not to lose the actual plot while the world insists on setting it on fire. Trump U-turns on tariffs. He insults British troops. ICE kill an innocent man in the street and continue abducting children in broad daylight. Suella Braverman defects to Reform (yes, really). Andy Burnham makes his move. And democracy continues to wobble like a shopping trolley with on...

Trump wants Greenland and he's going to stamp his feet until he gets it. Jemma and Marina look back over a week which has included a lot of tariff threats, 'no comment' on military force, and a President who expects the rest of the world to just… nod along while he makes demands. Marina Purkiss and Jemma Forte wade through a truly unhinged news cycle: from Trump’s Greenland obsession and the fallo...

In this episode, Marina Purkiss and Jemma Forte are rifling through the internet’s sock drawer - separating facts from absolute tat, pairing up what still makes sense, and binning the stray underpants. Talking of stray underpants, Robert Jenrick and Andrew Rosindell are the latest Tories to defect to Reform.  Before that however, the ladies start with the social media trend that is dragging u...

In this Trawl the world lurches from crisis to farce and back again at breakneck speed. Trump is turning Greenland into his latest imperial fixation, NATO's scrambling to respond, while here in the UK we're quietly realising the ole 'special relationship' may be less special than advertised. Meanwhile, the BBC is perfecting its long-standing talent for underreacting to events that could fracture g...

This Trawl starts with some  actual  good news before Marina and Jemma get it into the latest dyed in the wool Tory to join Reform.  Nadhim Zahawi has defected declaring “nothing works”, despite having personally had several goes at running the place. Reform continue to collect disgraced millionaires like badly laminated Pokémon cards, and the Trawl ladies are armed with some very a...

History's repeating itself …loudly. In this  Trawl , Marina and Jemma struggle to keep things light as America spirals deeper into terrifyingly authoritarian territory. They discuss the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent, the disturbing footage that followed, and the speed with which Trump’s administration moved to justify, sanitise and defend her death. From the tripling of ICE’s budget t...

Trump tries to slap his name on the Kennedy Center and the internet responds with satire, cancelled shows and an all-time zinger of a legal reply:  “Confusion is a legal requirement, not a feeling.” Beautiful work 🫡 Then the mood shifts, hard. Marina and Jemma confront the unbearable disconnect of cosy Christmases in the West while Gaza freezes and floods. From Netanyahu’s Mar-a-Lago sleepov...

The Christmas break is barely a memory, Venezuela is threatening to become “the Greenland situation”, and Trump has kicked off January by delivering one of the most jaw-droppingly stupid geopolitical statements we’ve ever heard. Before Jemma and Marina get swept up in the next global meltdown, this episode rakes back over everything you might’ve missed while eating leftovers and avoiding your rela...

Marina and Jemma return from Christmas only to find that Trump has kicked off 2026 by bombing Venezuela and kidnapping its president - and the so‑called “rules‑based international order” immediately folded like a cheap camping chair, with Western leaders bravely choosing silence, caution, and the safety of not upsetting the big orange man. In this episode, they wade through the geopolitical sludge...

Clips of writer, podcaster and Instagram legend, Cody Dahler, have featured so many times on The Trawl, regular listeners will be completely familiar with his dulcet tones. What they may not know however is that Cody used to be a civil servant, working alongside and putting up with the Tory government and a comedy writer on shows such as Dead Ringers. Marina and Jemma find out how he's grown his h...

No clips. No editing. No guests. In this unedited end-of-year special, Marina Purkiss and Jemma Forte sit down and reflect on everything The Trawl has covered over 2025. They remember the stories that shocked them, the moments that made them laugh, and the news cycles that left them genuinely lost for words. They also indulge in a bit of nostalgia, recalling how they met and how the podcast began....

It’s Boxing Day on  The Trawl , which means Marina and Jemma are fuelled by cheese, chaos and the most baffling headlines Britain has to offer. Join them as they sift through the festive madness: reality‑TV absurdity, BBC lawsuits, and the government’s latest attempt to turn violence against women into a culture‑war chew toy. They dig into Jess Phillips’ new proposals, the backlash from the u...

It’s Christmas Eve at The Trawl HQ and the cheese is flowing, the Scrooged button is armed, and Marina and Jemma are doing their level best not to spiral. Instead, they unwrap some  unexpected festive joy  as a trio of bell-ends Tommy Robinson, Jake Paul and Andrew Tate, discover the true meaning of consequences via the noble art of boxing. (Spoiler: pink gloves, broken jaws, and interne...

Regular Trawl listeners will know that every Trawl episode ends with a clip ‘pudding’ a treat at the end of every show. Marina and Jemma select clips they find funny, poignant, stirring or entertaining for one reason or another and in this very festive edition of Trawl Meets the Trawl ladies welcome some of your very favourite puddings - Anthony Richardson from The Exploding Heads, Larry and Paul...

Love, Hypocrisy and a Rob Reiner Tribute  It’s the Friday episode and Marina Purkiss and Jemma Forte are running on festive fumes so prepare for rage, tears, laughs and a post Rob Reiner tribute snotty nose. It's a rollercoaster of an episode. The Trawl ladies start with the small lies we tell children (Father Christmas logistics remain shaky) before moving swiftly to Trump’s grotesque respon...

Marina and Jemma are back with a Christmas-adjacent scroll through the internet so you don’t have to. With the festive season fast approaching, they bring you  thrift tips  courtesy of Donald Trump (yes, really), as he explains why American children might have to settle for 'two dolls instead of thirty' all in the name of tariffs. Marie Antoinette, but make it MAGA. The Trawl ladies also...

This Trawl kicks off with a little bit of Cilla Black, just like the old days. Then Jemma and Marina take a festive detour to check in on how Rossid Woods is coping with the season (spoiler: not brilliantly), and enjoy a very relatable warning about over-committing to plans. Then… unable to put it off any longer, they dive into the political storm of the week. Reform UK has received a record-...

Jemma and Marina wade into a feed overflowing with colds, chaos and Christmas-level delusion and glide into today’s central theme: the most powerful man in the world being treated like an overgrown baby. From FIFA inventing a brand-new prize seemingly just to flatter the White House resident, to clips of Trump lashing out at journalists, the infantilisation of global politics is truly in full swin...

Trawlers - what a week! In this truly wild instalment which is the first of THREE episodes this week. Marina and Jemma dive into the geopolitical chaos unfolding as Elon Musk throws a tantrum over an EU fine, Donald Trump unveils a National Security Strategy that is strangely pleasing to Moscow, and Europe realises the US have become the enemy. We also check in on Melania Trump’s festive storytell...

Christmas is coming, and so is the unhinged consumerism. Jemma and Marina kick off with Quality Street meltdowns, £9 hot chocolates and the most pointless gifts known to humankind, before swan-diving into the  real  seasonal horror: politics. Meanwhile, across the pond, Trump’s week has been a carnival of chaos. From Oval Office rants and sexist jabs at reporters, to killing-without-tria...

It’s been a week of karaoke meltdowns, pleather-skirt floor-crawling and  a  rusty saw nightmare… and yet Marina and Jemma are more determined than ever to get behind the mic to discuss the latest batshittery from the world of news and politics. They dive into the spectacular chaos of Your Party, and ponder the  finally-we’re-saying-it-out-loud  national acceptance that Brexit...

Marina and Jemma meet actress, Loose Woman and all round legend Nadia Sawalha. The Trawl ladies couldn’t wait to chat to Nadia and to find out what it’s been like using her huge Instagram platform to speak out about Gaza and to advocate for the Palestinians. They talk about juggling life as a Loose Woman whilst having a political voice, the consequences of speaking out and what her guilty pleasure...

In this  Trawl , Jemma and Marina dive into the political earthquake shaking Reform UK after former Welsh leader Nathan Gill was jailed for taking bribes linked to pro-Russian interests. With the party insisting there’s no need for an internal investigation, social media has been left... unconvinced. We pick through the online reaction, the disbelief, and the dark humour as Westminster scramb...

Brace yourselves, trawlers... Marina and Jemma are back and flailing through another chaotic week online. In this episode they dive into  everything : Musk’s unhinged Grok responses, the bot-farm MAGA fiasco, and a Musk appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast that is so painfully sad it should come with a health warning. Then it’s onto the budget: the leak, the playground antics from Kemi Ba...