The Bunker – News without the nonsense – Details, episodes & analysis

We used to think that machines would only take over manual work. Now A.I. looks capable of anything. Will work become a luxury for a select few? Are there some jobs that can never be automated? Alex Andreou talks to Allison Pugh – author of The Last Human Job – about tech’s growing power and why our humanity depends on the connections that work fosters.   Buy The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund The Bunker by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.   We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.   www.patreon.com/bunkercast   Written and presented by Alex Andreou. Produced by Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production by Tom Taylor. Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor Andrew Harrison. Art by James Parrett. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production   www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With its paranoid fantasies of Donald Trump at war with a secret, Satanic US government, the QAnon conspiracy wrought terrible damage on American politics. But spreading the word of Q exacts damage on believers too. Journalist Jesselyn Cook explored the broken lives and shattered relationships of Q believers for her new book The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family. She tells Andrew Harrison what makes someone fall into the mirror world of QAnon – and whether they can be rescued.   We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.   Buy The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund The Bunker by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.   www.patreon.com/bunkercast   Written and presented by Podmasters Group Editor Andrew Harrison. Produced by Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production by Tom Taylor. Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. Art by James Parrett. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production   www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A trove of Project 2025 videos have been leaked, giving unique insight into what Trump appointees might want to do if he wins the election. In this teaser for American Friction, Jacob Jarvis discusses leaked Project 2025 training videos, with ProPublica reporter Andy Kroll, one of the journalists who obtained and analysed them. Go here for the full episode.     Want to know more about the race for the White House? On American Friction, The Bunker’s very own Jacob Jarvis and Chris Jones are joined by Rolling Stone’s Nikki McCann Ramirez, to discuss the latest developments in American politics. Listen here.      We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.      Support us on Patreon. Written and presented by Jacob Jarvis. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor Andrew Harrison. Art by James Parrett. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production      www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We know what happened the last time Donald Trump lost – and Joe Biden wants to make sure he’s prepared for more shenanigans this time out. If Trump doesn’t win “he is willing to cheat and steal it,'' writes today’s guest Adam Rawnsley, reporter for Rolling Stone magazine. He joins Jacob Jarvis in The Bunker to discuss how President Biden is preparing for an electoral tussle with the GOP. • “The one message we keep seeing from the polls is that no one is excited for this race.” – Adam Rawnsley • “We have a uniquely dim system … the electoral college.” – Adam Rawnsley We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit www.patreon.com/bunkercast  Written and presented by Jacob Jarvis. Producer: Chris Jones. Audio production: Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Modi’s India to Bolsonaro’s Brazil and Erdogan’s Turkey, the far right is on the rise around the world. Are we really on the brink of resurgent fascism? And if so, how do we fight it? Political journalist Paul Mason tells Dorian Lynskey about his radical blueprint for defeating the extreme right, outlined in his new book How to Stop Fascism. Why is trust in democracy collapsing around the world, and can what progressives do to win it back? “People like Trump and Bolsonaro don’t want to play the globalisation game and they don’t want to play the democracy game either” “We’re not dealing with a tribute band to Nazism. We’re dealing with a new form of Nazism” “Fascism is always violent. It’s now become obsessed with ethnicity rather than nation” “One in five people serving jail for terrorism in the UK are from the far-right. Soon that could be one in two” “Very little is taught about how the Nazis came to power. That is something we need to get our head around” Presented by Dorian Lynskey. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cameron and Osborne’s “Golden Era” of cosying up to China turned out to be a golden error, as Beijing dug deep into British life, politics, and technology. Investigative journalist Sam Dunning tells Arthur Snell how the Conservatives’ strings-free get-rich-quick strategy turned into a trap for British business and academia. While the Tories trumpet free speech on campus, students who want talk about the Uyghurs are being silenced at Jesus College Cambridge. Is it too late to curb China’s disturbing influence at the highest levels of British life? “For Osborne, the Golden Era was seen a problem-free get-rich-quick-scheme for Britain after the economic crash.”  “How can a Chinese student in the UK contest what’s happening in Hong Kong when Chinese ambassadors are attending university events?” “Huawei is creating surveillance in China that’s beyond Orwellian. Jesus College just received money from them to publish a paper on global governance.” “Even if Johnson did have a roadmap for our relations with China, he’d probably steer off and crash into a tree.” Presented by Arthur Snell. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now that the pandemic may be abating, the Government decides that the best people to pay the bill are… those pesky, hard-up young people. Climate change and student activist Phoebe Hanson joins us to explain what it’s like to be mis-sold the student experience by universities that act like businesses but won’t treat you like a customer. Plus, how the planned changes to the Official Secrets Act will treat journalists like spies. And the truth behind those supply chain nightmares.  “It's hard to feel like part of your university when it is constantly working against you… ” – Phoebe Hanson “My lectures now are like glorified podcasts” – Phoebe Hanson “There’s a big difference between what young people think and what older people THINK they think.” – Phoebe Hanson https://www.patreon.com/bunkercast Presented by Andrew Harrison with Arthur Snell and Ahir Shah. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic . Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. Produced by Andrew Harrison. The Bunker is a Podmasters Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Will bribes for Deliveroo and Uber be enough to persuade recalcitrant youth to get their jabs? Are we nearing herd immunity on COVID? Is Tony Blair to blame for food shortages because his university drive produced a generation of egghead boffins who can’t drive an HGV? And with thousands of kids catastrophically behind on their schooling, the Government has the solution: bring back Latin. Ros Taylor nobis narrat de septem praemisit.  “A Deliveroo voucher isn't going to turn a hardcore anti-vaxxer.”  “You should see Gavin Williamson's ratings. They are off the scale bad.” “The Government's Latin announcement is a bauble for fans of The History Boys.” Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What if you discovered that your Dad was living a double life, and really worked in the CIA? Does managing The Police prepare you for advising the Pentagon? From his chateau in France, maverick music manager Miles Copeland chats to Dorian Lynskey about his memoirs Two Steps Forward, One Step Back, moving from the Middle East and London, and how his record label IRS launched the careers of The Go-Gos, The Bangles, and R.E.M. “I already knew my Dad was in the CIA when I was fourteen years old.” “If you don't LIKE the music, how can you really sell it?” “When I heard Roxanne, I knew it was a song that would change our lives.” “Most bands think once they've made it, then they’ve made it. But what goes up must come down.” “There are many Iraqi women who preferred life under Saddam Hussein.” Presented by Dorian Lynskey. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The wrongful conviction of hundreds of subpostmasters for false accounting was so shocking that even Boris Johnson as called it one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in our history. Why did Post Office management cover up the truth about its flawed software, even after innocent people went to prison? As the Government sets aside £233m in interim compensation, criminal law expert Dr Hannah Quirk untangles a Kafkaesque nightmare that led innocent people to be ruined, jailed, shamed and pushed to suicide. Could anything stop something like this from happening again? https://www.patreon.com/bunkercast “Many innocent people pleaded guilty in the hope of avoiding prison.” “The Post Office knew there were flaws in its system. They hid that evidence from people they knew were wrongfully convicted.” “You can imagine the terror people felt of being imprisoned for crimes they did not commit.” “Somehow it didn’t occur to anyone that hundreds of corrupt subpostmasters were coming to light where previously there were none.” Presented by Alex Andreou. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices