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Armando is joined by comedian Nish Kumar to talk about petulance in politics. With Flavio Bolsonaro flouncing off, Trump accolytes baulking at Obama's joke, and Elon Musk creating his own 'historically accurate' Odyssey, are we seeing political language and action become infected by greivance? Elsewhere, there are Sean Connery impressions, Nish rails against paperclips, we discover Armando's role...

Armando is joined by Sky News' political editor Beth Rigby to pore over the language surrounding the budget. Can you pre-trail a 'surprise announcement'? What does good growth mean? And do people care about PuFins? Elsewhere, we look at politicians telling jokes, vibes politicians, and hear what happened when Beth shouted at Angela Merkel. Got a strong message for Armando? Email us at strongmessag...

Armando is joined by comedian Chloe Petts to look at whether we're getting more stupid, and whether we get the politicians we deserve. To get into the weeds of that, they are also joined by BBC's Social Media Investigations Correspondent, Marianna Spring. With Trump telling an audience 'i could say the stupidest things and you'd clap', we look at how social media and AI are changing our interactio...

Armando is joined by sketchwriter for the Times, Tom Peck, to look at the language of the schism on the British right Following on from party conference season, we discuss the escalating war of words between Badenoch and Jenrick, as well as 'the worst speech of all time' from Andrew Griffith. We also look at the language of the Green Party's 'zionism is racism' motion, and the wider reaction to it...

Armando is joined by Stewart Lee to look at the newly rebranded 'Super Intelligence'. To get into the linguistic weeds, they are also joined by founding member of The Nerve, Carole Cadwalladr. The tech bros are coming up with new terminology all over the shop, so we take a whistle stop tour through phrases that grind our gears. Rogue agents, warfighters and bootloaders all come under scrutiny. Els...

Armando is joined by comedian Pierre Novellie this week, and they’re going to have an honest conversation about political capital. Looking at some of the phrases and language being used around Burnham’s decision to spend his political capital, we look at some of the announcements trailed in the speech, and whether the politics of ‘saying’ now trumps the politics of ‘doing’. Elsewhere, Armando and...

Stewart Lee returns to the show after a summer judging dog shows with Charlotte Church. He and Armando look at the Lib Dem conference, and why the 'word cloud' is not Ed Davey's friend. They also have some helpful and serious suggestions for how Ed can improve his messaging, which I'm sure he'll take on board. Elsewhere, we look at how Trump's media ban might play out, and if the Democrats in the...

Armando is back from a summer break to look at the use and abuse of political language. Joined by friend of the show, Natalie Haynes, they mournfully fell the Keir Starmer Metaphor tree, and find a suitable replacement for the Andy Burnham era. Elsewhere, they discuss the undercover operation on Reform, and the language of the fallout, 'perv glasses' and a corbyn-eqsue 'Strong Message Here' for th...

This week, Phil Wang steps in for Armando, and is joined by comedian Pierre Novellie to discuss 'doing politics differently'. Digging into the language of Burnham's speech, we examine what he means by 'place', and whether we will see an end to 'punch and judy politics'. Elsewhere, we look at Badenoch's attack mode, America's 250th celebrations and why politicians struggle to p-p-p-pick a favourite...

Armando is under the weather this week, so in true World Cup style, we have called up a super sub. Matt Forde steps in to host, and Ria Lina joins him to discuss the big news of the week. Is it a bit rich of the Labour Party to claim they don't want to 'exaggerate small differences'? How does Starmer sell his achievements, and is there anything we can learn about how Burnham uses language? In the...

Stewart Lee joins Armando to look at the detail, or lack thereof in the US and Iran deal. What is a memorandum of understanding? Does the language of UFC apply to this deal? And are Shoreditch hipsters running Iran's social media campaign? It's by-election day, and while broadcast rules prevent us from discussing the events in Makerfield, there's no rule to stop us discussing the broadcasting rule...

Hugo Rifkind joins Armando, fresh from interviewing a highland cow, to discuss the phrase 'fanning the flames'. Can a politician ever avoid politicising an issue? How is that different from weaponising? And does journalism have a role in fanning the flames, and prolonging political arguments? Elsewhere, Armando explains the power of the power nap, Pete Hegseth conflates D-Day with immigration, and...

Natalie Haynes joins Armando to look at the differing language used when discussing the benefits and risks of the AI revolution. Is it just 'a thing' which is beyond debate? What does non-zero actually mean? And we examine the language of Tony Blair's argument, by taking it to its logical conclusion. In the longer version, you will also hear the ramification of shouting at Harold Pinter, Peter Thi...

Fresh from a trip to America, Munya Chawawa joins Armando to discuss the political art of saying nothing. Munya recently looked at the parallels between Trump and Wrestling, and talks about how the language and theatre of WWE has inspired Trump's political style. They then turn to Andy Burnham's tightrope walk, and his desire to be clear and direct, whilst also avoiding the elephant in the room -...

How do you capture the atmosphere of the commons? Parliamentary sketch writer for The Times, Tom Peck, joins Armando to discuss his most detested political buzzwords. We look at why people get so bloodthirsty in politics when 'the herd moves', who 'an anonymous source' might be, and whether Keir Starmer can draw a pig. In other news, we look at the demise of PearTree Productions, Ed Davey's wetsui...

This week, we look at the language of embattled leaders, and some triumphant ones. Joined by Kiri Pritchard-McLean and Ayesha Hazarika, we pore over the speech of Starmer's life - the third such event we have covered on this programme. Is rhetoric the right tool in his father's hand-me-down toolbelt for him to deploy in times of crisis? He says he gets it, but do we believe him? We look at the par...

What is the Technological Republic? Armando, Stewart and founder of The Nerve, Carole Cadwalladr, discuss the language and posture of the manifesto released by Palantir's Alex Karp last year. We look at how Tech bros frame those who block their progress, their effusive language about their products, why they might reflect on linguistic parallels with George Orwell's works. Armando also describes W...

Ready Player One? Natalie Haynes joins Armando once again to talk about the rise of prediction markets, and how they might affect political language. We also look at the respective war memes from the US and Iran, and how they are taking their cues from video games. Elsewhere, we discuss the Arc de Trump, Armando's bag of filth, and whether a Sphinx might look good on the White House lawn. Got a st...

Tim Shipman steps out of a busy week in Westminster to talk Armando through the language of political crises. Whether "time will tell", or "the matter has been dealt with", we decode what these phrases you will hear from politicians this week really mean. Looking at recent examples, from Brexit to Partygate and beyond, what causes these crises, and how does the communication - and indeed the messe...

Politicians have their own podcasts, the Government has launched a YouTube channel. It seems our political class want to bypass traditional media to get their message out. Why is that? How does it affect political language? As he prepares to take his own steps into a new media landscape, Amol Rajan joins Armando to discuss this and more. We also hear about misleading news headlines, Trump's 'docto...

Hugo Rifkind joins Armando for a chat about the religious language in politics. After a quick detour round the far side of the moon, we find out Trump's favourite bible passage (sort of), why the Pope has rebuked Pete Hegseth, and if invoking a higher power can be used to dodge accountability. In the extended version, we also look at how parties in the UK trade in religious language, why how AI is...

This week, Armando is joined again by Stewart Lee to look at how political actors use language. Wes Streeting says there is a 'deep disillusionment in this country', and says there is a “growing sense of despair about whether anyone is capable of turning this country round". Why is that? And does politicians speaking in that way confound our misery? We look at Sarah Pochin's comments about black a...

Stewart Lee joins Armando at the Millennium Hall in Laugharne. Is AI too sycophantic? Should we worry about how military-grade AI is being sold in start-up jargon? Let's ask the best AI there is, Armando Iannucci. In another episode in front of an audience, Armando and Stewart treat us to a dramatic reading of a Chat GPT interaction. We also hear whether the Metaverse is an unwelcome template for...

Armando is joined by Stewart Lee at the Millennium Hall in Laugharne. Taking the audience's most loathed political soundbites, we discuss 'existential threats', 'let me be clear', and 'we're working very hard'. We also hear about Armando's train driver getting caught in an infinity loop, treating Nicky Wire with the greatest of respect, and whether feeling in your bones or gut indicates your polit...

Marina Hyde returns to join Armando for a positive look at some positive language. Pete Hegseth tells us not to worry about the Strait of Hormuz, Trump tells us the 'war' is 'already won' - is this inspired by The Power of Positive Thinking? Or by Noel Edmonds? Elsewhere we discuss guessing shoe sizes, tie-dye thinking, and whether we have the stomach for a culture war about badgers on bank notes....