The Bunker – News without the nonsense

As Boris Johnson returns to work, will we see a chastened lockdown hawk or will he revert to his laissez-faire instincts? With trust in journalists plummeting, who decided that it’s the media’s job to ask “helpful questions” of government? Plus Conservative MP Robert Largan joins us to discuss whether infrastructure is the silver bullet to fix the Corona-hit economy. “We are watching unprecedented...

Put that sourdough starter away… Lockdown is the perfect opportunity to enrich the soul by discovering the mystery and magic of gardening . Superstar ethnobotanist JAMES WONG tells Alex Andreou how to start growing at home, and the hacks that can make it work for you. Why is being around stuff that’s growing so good for our mental wellbeing? What’s the gateway drug to horticulture? And which of th...

Bleach! 5G! Bats! Why would anyone march with a banner that reads “Sacrifice the Weak”? Is the political reaction to COVID really being influenced by conspiracy theory? And can a democracy function when many voters simply reject facts in favour of comforting delusion? Political psychologist STEPHAN LEWANDOWSKY talks to debut presenter Justin Quirk about the irrational energies driving the Corona c...

The airline and travel industries are suffering the most serious crisis in their history: worse than 9/11, the 2008 financial slump and the Icelandic volcano combined. Can air travel survive COVID? And given its carbon footprint, do we even want it to? Aviation writer JOHN WALTON tells Andrew Harrison how airlines will have to change, why the industry can’t operate on a financial knife edge any lo...

Britain’s tax system was already a mess before the COVID-19 emergency sent the public finances into a crisis of wartime proportions. Is this a moment to radically re-engineer government revenue ? Are we taxing the right things, activities… or people? Will those who got off lightly in 2008 have to pony up rather more this time around? And in the post-Corona world, does even a Tory government have a...

While the rest of Europe locked down, Sweden took a different and much looser path on dealing with COVID. Is their controversial approach working? Is Sweden right to measure itself against a longer-term tally of suffering caused by the virus’s economic consequences, and not just the immediate death toll? Andrew Brown , author of Fishing in Utopia: Sweden and the Future that Disappeared talks to Ro...

After the Sunday Times exposé of Johnson’s indolent initial response to the COVID crisis, is the Government’s infantile “rebuttal” an attempt to rewrite the facts of what happened? Hard Lockdown vs Soft Open: economics writer Frances Coppola joins us to scope out the far future of post-plague Coronanomics. Gove-building and Hancock-smashing. And it’s high times for conspiracy theorists. What are w...

After years of rubbishing expertise, politicians are now turning to science in humble desperation. Buzzfeed and Telegraph science writer TOM CHIVERS , author of The AI Does Not Hate You , talks to Ian Dunt about the uneasy alliance between science and politics… why immunity passports are probably a non-starter… and why we should have a sliver of sympathy for Matt Hancock and even Boris Johnson.  “...

We’ve all heard about the “wet markets” in Wuhan. How connected are COVID-19 and dangers of future pandemics to the world meat trade? JULIET GELLATLEY of vegan charity Viva! explains how indiscriminate mixing of species and neglect of hygiene in meat markets creates the perfect breeding ground for another viral emergency. Is giving up meat – or eating less of it – no longer a matter of personal ch...

Music makes life worth living for some of us, and live shows are the only way many artists make a living. As Corona puts the music industry in an induced coma, TOM GRAY of Gomez talks to Dorian Lynskey about the monumental challenges that music faces. Will we see the return of concerts in 2020? Will we even want to get together in large numbers? If streaming your favourite band all night is not th...

How did China really perform in the biggest global health disaster in 100 years? Chatham House China and diplomacy expert DR YU JIE gives Alex Andreou the inside story on the PRC’s response to Corona. What was behind the infamous silencing of warnings about the virus from local doctors? Will the Crisis threaten the Party’s rule? What it’s like to live with China’s stringent, ultra-personal monitor...

The Labour antisemitism leak: what does it mean and is anyone going to jail for a data breach? Plus, how long can lockdown continue? Why herd immunity isn’t a scare phrase but in fact the only way we’ll beat COVID. The magical, corporeally-fixated incantations of the Johnson fan-press. And how Corona is changing technology. Who’ll win out if the emergency forces the battle of the streaming titans...

Who knew that poetry would join videoconferencing and sourdough-making as one of the key ways we got through the COVID lockdown? SARAH CROWN , Director of Literature at the Arts Council and senior reviewer for the Guardian and the TLS, talks to Ros Taylor about why poetry’s stillness and conciseness is perfect for pressured times. Plus, how to find the right poetry for your lockdown experience. An...

It’s the end of the world as we know it and… some people are quite into that, it seems. Why are so many people so keen on the end of everything? What do doomsday preppers, alt.right catastrophists and billionaire plutocrat antidemocrats like Peter Thiel have in common? And is the communal response to COVID proving their worst ambitions wrong? We talk to Mark O’Connell – author of new book Notes Fr...

The COVID lockdown has provided scammers, fraudsters and cybercriminals with a golden opportunity to find new ways to steal. Now ALEXIS CONRAN , presenter on The Real Hustle and talkRadio , tells Naomi Smith about the new scams they’re using, and how to defeat them. What are the telltale signs of a con? What are the worst counterfeit products out there? How can you spot fake Coronanews? Plus why t...

COVID-19 has put the NHS under the spotlight as never before but how many of us really understand the true state of this national treasure? ROY LILLEY is one of the most influential voices in the world of public health. Today he explains the catastrophic errors on the road to Corona, what the outpouring of love and respect for NHS workers means for its future, how the NHS compares to other health...

Newly-promoted Shadow Justice Secretary DAVID LAMMY joins us in an unprecedented week in British politics. Has Boris Johnson’s hospitalisation finally brought home the seriousness of COVID-19 to the hosts of secret barbecues and birthday parties? Does new Labour leader Keir Starmer’s cabinet re-do amount to socialist distancing? What needs sorting in the criminal justice system? And why all Bunker...

WFH? WTF! As the world adjusts to flexible working, will we ever go back to offices, meetings and “presenteeism”? GABY HINSLIFF , Guardian writer and author of Half a Wife: The Working Family's Guide to Getting a Life Back , talks to Ros Taylor about COVID’s seismic changes to working life. Will the crisis change our attitude to screentime for children? Will it be a wrench to go back to “normal”?...

Domestic Goddess NIGELLA LAWSON comes to the nation’s aid in a Lockdown Kitchen conversation with our own Alex Andreou. What’s her emergency back-of-the-cupboard recipe for when the chips are down (and there aren’t any chips)? Is isolation reminding us to value our food culture a little more? Plus top kitchen tips – yes, it turns out you can freeze cheese – and a titanic clash of potato-peel crisp...

What’s so seductive about the end of everything? What happens when you’re writing a novel about an apocalyptic future, and then an apocalyptic future arrives? NAOMI ALDERMAN , author of bravura sci-fi gender reversal novel The Power and now showrunner for its upcoming TV adaptation , talks to Dorian Lynskey about the appeal of Armageddon fiction in the midst of an actual global disaster. Plus, a g...

Exiled Tory moderniser LORD ANDREW COOPER talks to Naomi Smith about the grave consequences of ignoring Brexit because of COVID-19, why the crisis government is neither “socialist” nor “conservative” but populist nationalist, and why Johnson’s stubborn refusal to extend Transition would devastate an economy already enfeebled by the Coronavirus.  “Brexit turned the party from a mainstream project i...

As the Corona Age sets in, will it change our politics and economy more fundamentally than your average here-today-gone-tomorrow World Existential Crisis? What does the outpouring of national gratitude towards the NHS mean for its future? And will the Government’s fumbling of the EU ventilator bulk-buy develop into a full-blown scandal? Plus special guest Darren Jones , MP for Bristol North West,...

He advises on the BBC’s Horrible Histories and now he’s podcasting to keep kids from going stir-crazy on lockdown. Historian GREG JENNER tells Ian Dunt what the Plague in 17th Century Florence can tell us about public emergencies, why past crises are no guide to what could happen in this one, and his new book Dead Famous: An Unexpected History Of Celebrity From Bronze Age To Silver Screen . It see...

Guardian columnist ELLIE MAE O’HAGAN talks to Dorian Lynskey about how the Corona wrecking ball will reshape society, the big changes coming in the Labour Party, and her upcoming book The New Normal . What does Labour need to jettison from the Corbyn era and what should it keep? What will people want from politics after the end of the Crisis? Plus, why baking sourdough is the new “writing your Kin...

“Corona has shown us that weakness anywhere is weakness everywhere.” Labour leadership candidate LISA NANDY tells Naomi Smith how the crisis has utterly transformed politics in Britain. Do we need a National COBRA drawing on talent from outside party politics? Plus this former opponent of a second EU referendum says refusal to extend transition will devastate British companies. And how did last ni...