The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Glastonbury has been the hot zone for radical ideas since its hippy infancy. But the first Labour government in 15 years is not exactly the hitting the mark for the festival’s audience of utopians and out-of-the-box thinkers. Can Labour get back to its radical roots? The Guardian’s John Harris , who comperes the Left Field at Glastonbury, and campaigner Gracie Mae Bradley who’s guesting at the Lef...

Britain needs  be ready to fight a war in Europe or the Atlantic in as little as two years – and we look badly underprepared. That’s the message of Labour’s sobering new Strategic Defence Review . So where are we weak, how fast could we rearm and what will it cost? And do the British people have the disposition to fight the sort of war we thought was in the past? Peter Ricketts, UK National Securi...

Trump’s birthday parade bored the few people who bothered watching – and offended those who actually care about the military, unlike the president himself. As protests rage across the US – can Trump keep ignoring them? Plus, the situation in the Middle East becomes increasingly terrifying – how might tensions between Iran and Israel escalate? Gavin Esler joins Jacob Jarvis to discuss this and more...

Rome conjures up strong images and ideas for many of us – but what if everything we think we know about the era is totally wrong? Alex von Tunzelmann speaks with Edward J. Watts , author of The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome : The History of a Dangerous Idea and the upcoming The Romans: A 2,000-Year History, to discuss the falsehoods that need clearing up.  • We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to ht...

Legendarily hot, dry and hedonistic, the Summer of ’76 burnt itself into our cultural memory as a kind of Ultimate Summer. But the record temperatures, the soul and disco classics and the sense of youth breaking free took place against a backdrop of economic collapse, political failure and barely suppressed rage. These were the Dark 70s of the Southall Riots, the Ripper and the Black Panther, poli...

A special crossover edition from our partner podcast American Friction… The news has focused heavily on sensational images from LA, but what is the real feeling among protestors – and how did this all escalate? Ben Camacho is a journalist covering the situation – who was shot by two rubber bullets himself doing so. He joins Jacob Jarvis to give an on the ground perspective of what’s happening.  He...

As Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum ramps up high-tech crackdowns on the nation’s cartels, Trump’s chaotic second term is throwing a spanner in the works. Alex von Tunzelmann speaks to David Shirk , Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of San Diego , to find out whether the MAGA movement is helping Mexico’s fight against organised crime or making things...

From antiwar, Biden-backing Democrat to apologist for Assad and Putin and finally strident Trump loyalist, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard ’s political journey has been astonishing. Her taste for strongmen and conspiracy thought makes her perfect tool for Trump’s revenge on the intelligence community. The Guardian’s global affairs correspondent Andrew Roth explains why Gabbard’s ap...

Elon Musk and Trump’s epic fallout continues – who will win this war of words? And how will the squabbling pair try to hurt each other next? Plus, there’s chaos on the streets of LA – how far will Trump take this? And back at home, there’s the spending review – who will be the winners and losers? Alex von Tunzelmann joins Jacob Jarvis to discuss all that and more on Start Your Week.    We are spon...

Listen in to our sibling podcast American Friction as they pick apart the Trump-Musk breakup. Musk and Trump’s messy falling-out hit new heights this week. We recorded a whole episode, then it went nuts — so Ni kki McCann Ramiréz of Rolling Stone magazine and Jarv jumped on for a late night call and unpacked the madness. Listen in then we have a big old chat for the main show, with Chris too! Yay!...

A Chinese ‘super embassy’ could be built in the heart of London – and intelligence experts say it would open the door to cyber interference at the heart of Britain’s financial system. Today on The Bunker , Gavin Esler sits down with security expert Nigel Inkster , former director of operations and intelligence MI6 and senior advisor at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, to ask if B...

A special crossover edition from our partner podcast, This is Not a Drill. Ukraine’s daring drone attack Operation Spiderweb has stunned Russia with its stealth, precision planning and the damage it unleashed on warplanes based deep within Russian territory.     The Bunker regular Gavin Esler is joined from Kyiv by This Is Not A Drill co-host Oz Katerji, to discuss the impact of an operation plann...

From memes demanding we “eat the rich” to real-world insurrections, the language of revolution is everywhere. But what does it really mean to call for one today? Zing Tsjeng is joined by Dan Edelstein , professor of political science and history at Stanford University and author of The Revolution to Come , to explore our relationship with revolutionary thought, from Ancient Greece, to the French r...

Wes Streeting? Angela Rayner? Andy Burnham? Or someone you’ve never heard of? Starmer won’t be stepping down any time soon – but what happens when he does? Who’s most likely to win the leadership? Do they have the right combination of personality and vision to get Labour out of its rut? And will it be yet another bloke? Ava Santina of PoliticsJoe joins Andrew Harrison around the crystal ball to se...

The defence review is the big talking point of the moment – what’s new and how will Starmer frame it? Plus, Rafael Behr and Jacob Jarvis discuss other pressures on Labour, the state of conflicts across the globe and Trump’s latest conspiracy theory thinking.     We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to https://indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.       Listen to the latest podcast from Podmasters...

Donald Trump isn’t an emperor, yet – but who knows how he might change the US in the next few years. As he gets more dictatorial by the day, what lessons could we learn from Rome – and which Roman emperor is he most like? Peter Edwell is associate professor in ancient history at Macquarie University and joins Jacob Jarvis to discuss. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to https://indeed.com/bunker for...

Elon Musk seems to be limping off the political stage with a whimper. So was he ever the power behind the throne or just a useful idiot with a fat wallet and a massive platform for Trump to exploit? Today in The Bunker, Alex Von Tunzelmann is joined by Andrew Boujean , editor of The Washingtonian , to find out just how the richest man on earth m became the latest high profile figure to be chewed u...

Why did getting pillaged by Vikings ultimately help the economies of the Middle Ages? How did a flood of silver from conquered South America end up making Spain poorer? Was Genghis Khan the father of globalisation? And why was it a terrible idea to garland Luftwaffe fighter aces with medals and fame? In an absorbing new book Blood and Treasure: The Economics of Conflict from the Vikings to Ukraine...

There are reports of chaos in Downing Street – but just how bad are things really? Ros Taylor talks Jacob Jarvis through the latest from Number 10 and how Farage is upping the pressure on Starmer. Plus, we look at world news to look out for in the coming days.     We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to https://indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.       Listen to the latest podcast from Podmaste...

Forget the storybook version of British history. Churchill without Hitler would be a forgotten windbag with a record of failure. Elizabeth I and Francis Drake didn’t defeat the Spanish – bad luck and bad weather sank the Armada. And Boudicca would be remembered as a sadistic tyrant if not for the Romans. Creator of the multi-million-selling kids’ series Horrible Histories Terry Deary brings his ir...

Donald Trump is obsessed with sport – and increasingly, sports stars are obsessed with him. From his ties to wrestling through to his connection to the UFC, fight sports in particular have shaped the way he approaches politics. To discuss this journey, Jacob Jarvis is joined by Tom Kludt, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, who recently wrote a piece headlined A Guide to Donald Trump’s Jockocrac...

Whatever happened to the promise of social media? What started as a buzzing digital town square now feels like a ghost town overrun with fake news, A.I. slop and disinformation. LBC tech correspondent Will Guyatt joins Natasha Devon to ask: Is social media dying – and what could possibly take its place? • We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to https://indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.   www....

From ancient Mayan prophecies to the QAnon faithful awaiting the next biblical storm, humanity has never been able to resist a good apocalypse. Today in The Bunker , Gavin Esler is joined by Tom Phillips , author of A Brief History of the End of the F**king World , to talk about asteroid anxiety, finding community in chaos, and why dreaming about doomsday might just be the ultimate form of escapis...

Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, two of the world’s most powerful autocrats, are cosying up to each other in a bromance that could have seismic consequences. Today in The Bunker , Dr. Elizabeth Wishnick , expert on Sino-Russian relations and senior research scientist in the China and Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Division at CNA, joins Chris Jones to look at the motivations behind the pair’s partner...

Keir Starmer is hoping for positive news from an EU summit this week. What can we expect to see and what could block any sort of “deal”? Plus, we look at the latest from elections in Europe and news from the US, as Trump makes more horrible plans for the world.     We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to https://indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.       Listen to the latest podcast from Podmast...