The Trawl – Details, episodes &amp; analysis

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If you’ve even mildly enjoyed The Trawl, you’ll love the unfiltered, no-holds-barred extras from Jemma & Marina over on Patreon, including:

• Exclusive episodes of The Trawl Goss – where Jemma and Marina spill backstage gossip, dive into their personal lives, and often forget the mic is on

• Early access to The Trawl Meets…

• Glorious ad-free episodes

Plus, there’s a bell-free community of over 3,300 legends sparking brilliant chat.

And it’s your way to support the pod which the ladies pour their hearts, souls (and occasional anxiety) into. All for your listening pleasure and reassurance that through this geopolitical s**tstorm… you’re not alone.

Come join the fun:

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheTrawlPodcast?utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator

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The Trawl Drop-In: Meghan Markle Pile Ons & Trump Backpedalling - Hypocrisy Much?

Thursday, October 29, 2026 • Duration 19:44

The Trawl ladies 'drop-in' to chat about the relentless media pile-on against Meghan Markle, and the uncomfortable new questions surrounding her estrangement from her father. For years, certain commentators portrayed Meghan as a cold-hearted daughter. But with new information emerging, just how much did they actually know before deciding they knew everything?

And Meghan isn't the only one prompting a rethink. As prominent Trump supporters Julie Burchill and Richard Littlejohn begin to change their tune, Marina and Jemma are keeping the receipts. Because it's one thing to admit you were wrong. It's quite another to have spent years telling everyone else they were idiots for disagreeing with you.

It's a royal-flavoured Drop-In with a much bigger question at its heart: who gets the benefit of the doubt, and who gets thrown to the wolves?

Join The Trawl's Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590931382660

Thank you for sharing and please do follow us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTrawlPodcast

Patreon

Youtube

Twitter

If you’ve even mildly enjoyed The Trawl, you’ll love the unfiltered, no-holds-barred extras from Jemma & Marina over on Patreon, including:

• Exclusive episodes of The Trawl Goss – where Jemma and Marina spill backstage gossip, dive into their personal lives, and often forget the mic is on

GB News Meltdown, Jackdaw and Good News for Dads

Episode 420

Wednesday, October 28, 2026 • Duration 38:25

In this episode, Marina and Jemma take a peek over the garden fence at GB News, and wish they’d had a tetanus jab first. Jacob Rees-Mogg weighs in on Glasgow’s Egyptian mummies opposite a man dressed in Tesco’s finest bog roll. A presenter’s row with her own guest goes on for so long it becomes a loop, and Liz Truss gets a zero-star review from her own side for her new book.

Then it gets serious... Labour has green-lit a North Sea gas field, and Marina and Jemma’s first reaction was not what you’d call measured. Is it Burnham's first big cock-up, or is there more to it? They go through the case against it, the case for it from a very unexpected green industrialist, and why Rosebank would be a whole different story.

Plus good news for self-employed dads, talk of Marina looking very cosy with the Prime Minister (goss to follow), a Martin Lewis underrated, and a pudding from author Fredrik Backman that Jemma has been dying to wedge in for weeks.

Join The Trawl's Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590931382660

Thank you for sharing and please do follow us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTrawlPodcast

Patreon

Youtube

Twitter

If you’ve even mildly enjoyed The Trawl, you’ll love the unfiltered, no-holds-barred extras from Jemma & Marina over on Patreon, including:

• Exclusive episodes of The Trawl Goss – where Jemma and Marina spill backstage gossip, dive into their personal lives, and often forget the mic is on

The Trawl Drop-In: A School Day In America: Guns & A Nation That Won’t Change

Monday, October 26, 2026 • Duration 18:10

For parents in Britain, waving your children through the school gates is one of the most ordinary things in the world. In America, it can mean hoping they come home alive.

In this special Drop-In, Jemma Forte and Marina Purkiss confront the devastating school shooting in Oregon, where three children and a teacher were killed. They discuss America's extraordinary relationship with guns, the politics that keep children vulnerable, and the chilling celebration of a tragedy being stopped by a “good guy with a gun”.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is back peddling the absurd claim that children go to school as Timmy and come home as Tammy, supposedly having undergone gender reassignment surgery. Because apparently the greatest threat to American children isn't the gun violence that continues to devastate families, but the idea that they might be transgender.

From the gun lobby's determination to resist meaningful change to the online cruelty directed at a murdered five-year-old, this is a furious, heartbreaking look at a country that seems unable to protect its children.

It's a difficult listen, but an important one. And a reminder that some things we take for granted in Britain are privileges we should never stop fighting to protect.

Join The Trawl's Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590931382660

Thank you for sharing and please do follow us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTrawlPodcast

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Make America Sane Again & Zacharia's 5 Day Fiasco

Episode 419

Friday, October 23, 2026 • Duration 43:43

Hello and welcome to The Trawl, where the internet continues to provide fresh evidence that the lunatics really might be running the asylum.

This week, Trump's latest press secretary has barely had time to unpack her desk before she's shown the door. Five days in the job! That's less a career and more a free trial. Marina and Jemma look at the White House's revolving door, the increasingly extraordinary spectacle of Trump's public appearances, and the MAGA loyalists who seem capable of explaining away absolutely anything.

Meanwhile, Trump's still obsessing with his ballroom renovations give, while his attacks on Abdul El-Sayed serve up a reminder of the ugly rhetoric being normalised at the very top of American politics. Thankfully, El-Sayed has a response that is pure mic-drop material.

Plus, the Trawl gals investigate the contents of the universal junk drawer, share some essential middle-class escapism, and attempt to retain our own sanity while trawling through the week's online carnage.

The world may be losing the plot, but at least we're all in it together. Enjoy Trawlers!

Join The Trawl's Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590931382660

Thank you for sharing and please do follow us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTrawlPodcast

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Hot Wheels for Billionaires, Hell for Ukraine

Episode 418

Thursday, October 22, 2026 • Duration 44:39

Happy Friday, Trawlers. The richest man on earth has unveiled a flying car and even Hot Wheels are taking the piss. It was first promised in 2017 and is now due in 2028, which is roughly when Marina’s five-year-old will be driving.

Then it gets dark. The No Kings protests drew huge crowds in America, and the main account was knocked offline by Meta. Jemma and Marina discuss the billionaire media empire, and a documentary about Musk that TikTok has blocked adverts for.

Then the main event: Starlink, Ukraine and the question of who gave the order to slow it down. Kash Patel tweeting “Russia with love” and a JD Vance clip the ladies could barely stomach. When you’ve got a foreign policy that looks like it was written in the Kremlin, Jemma and Marina can't help but ask: who’s been holding the pen?

Join The Trawl's Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590931382660

Thank you for sharing and please do follow us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTrawlPodcast

Patreon

Youtube

Twitter

If you’ve even mildly enjoyed The Trawl, you’ll love the unfiltered, no-holds-barred extras from Jemma & Marina over on Patreon, including:

• Exclusive episodes of The Trawl Goss – where Jemma and Marina spill backstage gossip, dive into their personal lives, and often forget the mic is on

Trawl Drop-In: The Right Wakes Up to Brexit, the Banks Wake Up to a Bill

Wednesday, October 21, 2026 • Duration 29:02

It’s the Drop-In, and something remarkable is happening: parts of the British right-wing press are waking up to the fact that Brexit was a disaster. Goldman Sachs has put numbers on it, the Telegraph has put a figure on it, and Carol Malone has not been consulted. Then the banks, the budget and why we think they should pay up, before a former Mumford and Son explains wealth creation to an actual tax expert on Newsnight.

Join The Trawl's Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590931382660

Thank you for sharing and please do follow us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTrawlPodcast

Patreon

Youtube

Twitter

If you’ve even mildly enjoyed The Trawl, you’ll love the unfiltered, no-holds-barred extras from Jemma & Marina over on Patreon, including:

• Exclusive episodes of The Trawl Goss – where Jemma and Marina spill backstage gossip, dive into their personal lives, and often forget the mic is on

• Early access to The Trawl Meets…

• Glorious ad-free episodes

Plus, there’s a bell-free community of over 3,300 legends sparking brilliant chat.

The French Are Revolting (And So Is Reform)

Episode 417

Tuesday, October 20, 2026 • Duration 44:17

Get your popcorn out, Trawlers, and maybe a peg for your nose... ITV spent 12 months undercover inside Reform, and what they found makes the party’s vetting process look like a bloke in a pub asking whether you’ve deleted your tweets. Nigel cancelled a policy announcement and hid, the party’s response was to attack the journalists, and the BBC reported it with all the bite of a wet flannel. Reform’s defence is “bad apples”. By our count it’s less an apple and more an entire orchard, and every tree has worms. Meanwhile their own MPs are on the radio defending the indefensible, and a woman in Leicestershire is wondering where her vote went.

Before all that, the French are revolting. Gen Z is on the streets across Europe and beyond over housing, schools and the cost of living, a rioter has been spotted with a baguette, and one bell is blaming Andy Burnham for Paris.

Plus the underrated tweets, a car metaphor that goes much too far, and a new Goss episode on Patreon of when Marina met with "boil of a man" Brian Coleman on Jeremy Vine - you can join the fun over on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/c/TheTrawlPodcast

Join The Trawl's Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590931382660

Thank you for sharing and please do follow us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTrawlPodcast

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A Press Secretary, a Firing Squad and a Tiger

Episode 416

Thursday, October 15, 2026 • Duration 36:22

Trump’s America is getting darker by the day, and in this episode Jemma and Marina are asking precisely how low things can go. From a painfully chaotic first outing for the new White House press secretary (actually hilariously bad) to plans to livestream a military execution, the Trump administration appears determined to turn political life into an increasingly grim spectacle. The Trawl ladies discuss the disturbing normalisation of violence, Trump’s decision to share footage of a fatal tiger attack, and why empathy and basic human decency seem to be in increasingly short supply.

Plus, Anthony Scaramucci reflects on the Trump era, they examine the bizarre world of billionaire beauty standards, and the Underrateds deliver everything from a brilliant takedown of a particularly rubbish attempt to explain socialism to some truly toe-curling social media mishaps. Because when the world feels like it’s going to hell in a handcart, sometimes all you can do is laugh. Welcome to The Trawl.

Join The Trawl's Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590931382660

Thank you for sharing and please do follow us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTrawlPodcast

Patreon

Youtube

Twitter

If you’ve even mildly enjoyed The Trawl, you’ll love the unfiltered, no-holds-barred extras from Jemma & Marina over on Patreon, including:

• Exclusive episodes of The Trawl Goss – where Jemma and Marina spill backstage gossip, dive into their personal lives, and often forget the mic is on

The Trawl Drop-In: “Whore” Gymwear Backlash

Wednesday, October 14, 2026 • Duration 19:02

Marina and Jemma drop in to discuss what happened when Shane Gillis insulted female gym goers on SNL US

Join The Trawl's Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590931382660

Thank you for sharing and please do follow us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTrawlPodcast

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