This episode is a special edition from our sister podcast American Friction. What's in it you ask? Well, Elon Musk is packing his bags, he’s ready to go and he’d hate to wake you up to say good bye. But, is he really leaving politics, or is he still crawling like a little worm in Trump’s ear? (or brain, RFK Jr., let us know) We discuss the Tesla smart guy but maybe kinda dumb guy’s departure from frontline politics with Fast Politics host Molly Jong-Fast. Aaaand we wrap up stories you might have...
May 30, 2025•25 min•Season 2Ep. 449
Reform UK gets a lot of coverage but not enough scrutiny. Say Nigel Farage did become Prime Minister (God forbid), what would a Reform UK-led UK look like? Is their manifesto (… sorry, ‘contract’) full to the brim of wishful thinking? Plus, with changes inbound on the two-child benefit cap and winter fuel payments is Labour sorting its act out? Or does this make Starmer look weak? Paul Nowak is the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress and joins the podcast to give his thoughts. And in ...
May 29, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Season 2Ep. 448
Rebellious MPs, a nightmare spending review, the endless Two Child Benefit Cap row, dire polling… is Labour in for a summer of discontent? We ask whether the Government can bend with the wind to succeed, what policies will change, and whether Starmer/Reeves is a double act with two straight men? Plus: Have researchers found a new way to deal with digital disinformation? And in a special bonus, Jonn and Andrew discuss why the best political drama of the decade so far is the Star Wars spin-off And...
May 28, 2025•1 hr 16 min•Season 2Ep. 447
The Tory press and pundits reacted as rationally as you’d expect to the new UK-EU deal, accusing Starmer of sneaking back into the EU, betraying the British taxpayer, and all their favourite themes. But exactly what are they saying and how much of it is legit? Plus, with the potential abolition of the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport, we ask why governments can’t see the positives of culture? And in the Extra Bit for subscribers, it’s 20 years since The Thick of It hit our screens. Polit...
May 23, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Season 2Ep. 446
The fish and the fury… As dead-end Brexiters rage against the “betrayal” of the Great British Haddock, we look at what REALLY matters in Starmer’s EU reset. Plus, polling giant YouGov’s Patrick English joins us to bust some opinion poll myths and explain the Reform Surge. And is Generation X really the most hard done-by of the postwar era? We don our Blur t-shirts and crack a Smirnoff Ice to discuss the 90s generation taking financial responsibility for their kids and their parents. • Join us fo...
May 20, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Season 2Ep. 445
After possibly the most aggressive speech on immigration ever made by a British Prime Minister, we attempt the adult conversation on the topic that politicians won’t have. Why can’t Britain accept the benefits of immigration? Who’s going to bail out the care system when it collapses? And what the hell is Labour playing at anyway? Plus: Politicians think artificial intelligence will fix everything. Have they bought the snake oil? And in the Extra Bit for Patreon people, should we fight to save th...
May 16, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 444
Keir Starmer’s statement on immigration may well have repelled many Labour voters towards the Lib Dems and the Greens. How wrong has the Prime Minister got this strategy to defeat Reform? And are his party’s plans even workable? Plus, the UK has signed trade deals with the US and India – what’s in them, how important are they, and are we getting too close to Trump? Trade expert Dmitry Grozoubinski spoke to Andrew Harrison for The Bunker and we’ve included a brief excerpt in this section. • Want ...
May 13, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 443
As Labour panic and freak out over Runcorn and the Locals, is Starmer drawing the wrong conclusions from the votes? Is “Reform are right, don’t vote for them” the best they can do? Or should they pick more fights with the Right? Plus, what if this newfangled populism isn’t so new after all? We talk to Quinn Slobodian, author of Hayek’s Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right, about why the shape-shifting Right are so hard to lay a glove on. And in the Extra Bit: Does VE Day hit diff...
May 09, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Season 2Ep. 442
Nigel Farage is going to be Prime Minister! Reform are going to eat the Tory Party alive! A plague of bats will devour Kate Middleton! As the locals and Runcorn/Helsby fallout settles we look at Starmer’s panic over Reform, ask whether Badenoch can survive, and stare into the dark heart of Farage Derangement Syndrome. Plus: Was the 2015 General Election – ten years ago this week if you’re planning a party! – the true moment when Britain went inexorably down the pan? ESCAPE ROUTES • Seth says ren...
May 07, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Season 2Ep. 441
We’re on a highway to Helsby… As Reform take Runcorn, rack up council seats and take Staffordshire and Lincolnshire county councils, Rafael Behr joins Andrew Harrison to explain what it all means. Is it really Farage’s night? Who’s more damaged, Badenoch or Starmer? Is this definitive proof that Labour can’t beat the enemy by becoming the enemy? And… Andrea Jenkyns. Sheeeeesh. • Back us on Patreon for ad-free listening, bonus materials and more. Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Audio pr...
May 02, 2025•36 min•Season 2Ep. 440
The first 100 days of Donald Trump’s second presidential term have been overwhelming. He’s signed a record 142 executive orders and cultivated historic unpopularity. What have we learned so far and CAN IT GET ANY WORSE? Host of the Home Front podcast Reed Galen joins us from across the pond. Plus, the media has spent so much time deliberating young men’s hard turn to the right of politics, but what about the women turning left and to the Greens? And in the Extra Bit for subscribers: the Lib Dems...
May 02, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Season 2Ep. 439
Try a bite-sized sample of our brand new podcast Crime Scene. Every week ex-Met Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe and former Mirror editor Alison Phillips lift the lid on how criminal investigations really work. In our debut episode: The horrific shooting of an innocent nine-year-old girl in Dalston in 2024 laid bare bitter rivalries between London’s armed gangs. Are police they fighting a losing battle against guns in the Capital? Want to know more? Hear the full episode here and subscribe...
May 01, 2025•13 min•Season 3Ep. 72
The local elections AND the Runcorn and Helsby by-election stampede towards zero hour. Will Labour do as badly, and Reform as well, as predicted? And what will it all mean? Plus, we’re joined by the hosts of our new companion podcast CRIME SCENE. Ex-Met Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe and former editor of the Mirror Alison Phillips tell us how they’ll bring the truth about true crime from the guns of London to the Southport Riots… and delve into the complex truth about the knife crime epi...
Apr 29, 2025•55 min•Season 2Ep. 438
We all know the Conservatives got just about everything they could wrong when they were in government. But can we pinpoint where it all started to go wrong? And has the party learned its lessons? Tim Bale is a professor of politics at Queen Mary University London and his newly updated book: The Conservatives After Brexit: Turmoil and Transformation is best placed to answer those questions. Plus, is pronatalism having a moment under Donald Trump 2.0? And in the Extra Bit for subscribers, followin...
Apr 25, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Season 2Ep. 437
“Nice liberal democracy you got there, shame if something wuz to happen to it…” Trump behaves like a mob boss, complete with extortion and protection scams against universities, businesses and governments. But is he a real Godfather or just cosplaying as one? John Dickie, Professor of Italian Studies at UCL and expert on the Mafia, joins us to dismantle La MAGA Nostra. Plus – the IMF think we should work well into our seventies. Do we need longer working lives, or better ones? • Don’t miss our l...
Apr 23, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Season 2Ep. 436
Crossover edition with hit pod The Two Matts. What the hell is ‘Hard Labour’? Is it Blue Labour in disguise, Old Labour on steroids, or Starmerism’s inevitable final form? The New European’s Matt Kelly and Matt D’Ancona join Zöe Grünewald and Dorian Lynskey to look at Labour’s identity crisis. Plus: Fortress Europe vs Trump 2.0, The Beatles vs Andrew Tate in the battle for young men’s minds in the Extra Bit… and we invent “base-punching”. • Dorian’s Introduction to Father John Misty playlist. • ...
Apr 17, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Season 2Ep. 435
Trump 2.0 is a different animal compared to his first term. His administration has already made massive cuts to the federal government and conducted a war on woke – all with terrifying ferocity. Is Trump ruling America by fear? Special guest and host of the Fast Politics podcast, Molly Jong-Fast, joins the panel. Plus, is there a future in British Steel? As Labour nationalises a key strategic industry we wonder just how worried we should be about China. We’re on YouTube!: https://www.youtube.com...
Apr 15, 2025•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 434
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has made a name for himself performing crazy stunts to win the hearts of voters. But maybe, just maybe, it’s working? Could the Lib Dems become the second biggest political party in the UK and what kind of people are they attracting to their cause? Enjoy Part Two of this week’s specially-split epic-length edition… We’re on YouTube!: https://www.youtube.com/@ohgodwhatnow www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Dorian Lynskey with Hannah Fearn, Matt Green, and Ma...
Apr 11, 2025•33 min•Season 2Ep. 433
Donald Trump’s tariff masterplan is working! Well that’s just utter bulls**t, isn’t it? Trump’s decision to reverse global tariffs for 90 days caught everyone by surprise, even us! Dorian, Hannah, Matt and Marie recorded the whole pod before the announcement, but don’t fear, Andrew Harrison and The Guardian’s Rafael Behr were on-hand to add some reaction to the tariff u-turn. And don’t miss the panel on Trump’s obsession with big MAN jobs. • Tariff craziness meant we got a longer-than-usual edit...
Apr 10, 2025•57 min•Season 2Ep. 432
Donald Trump’s tariffs are tanking stock markets and bankrupting penguins. How is Britain coping with Trump’s assault on free trade… and is there anything we can do to protect ourselves from protectionism? Plus, the most crucial voters are aged between 35 and 59 – and they’re also the most economically worried. Professor Jane Green is the Director of the Nuffield Politics Research Centre and co-author of a new report detailing why this group of people is so politically important. She joins the p...
Apr 08, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Season 2Ep. 431
Trump is upending the world once again. We go on a whistlestop tour of tariffs, woke and the far-right in our latest show. First up, trade policy expert Dmitry Grozoubinski joins Andrew Harrison to explain why chaos is inevitable, following the new tariffs. Then into the main bulk of the episode, dinner time’s over for the tofu-eating wokerati… apparently. Some say the dawn of the post-woke world is upon us, but is it really? And what does that even mean? Also, what’s the state of hate in the UK...
Apr 04, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Season 2Ep. 430
Rachel Reeves’s spring not-a-budget has gone down like a cup of cold sick and many Labour supporters are asking what they’re backing the party for. Is Labour on the verge of losing popular confidence – and could it win it back? Plus, as Trump gets weirder and weirder we look at two movies that explain the trashy allure of American fascism: Paul Verhoeven’s hyperviolent sci-fi satires Robocop and Starship Troopers. Would you like to know more…? • Listen to The Bunker: Northern uproar – How Canada...
Apr 01, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 429
Rachel Reeves’ Spring not-a-budget Statement is out and it’s hard to take. What’s in it, what’s not, and are we all going to be rich now (hard no)? Plus, the return of Donald Trump has been hard to ignore – but should we wean ourselves off American politics, in favour of sorting out our own problems closer to home? And in the Extra Bit for Patreon backers: Everyone on the panel speaks a second language. How important are they and is Duolingo the right way to go? We’re on YouTube!: https://www.yo...
Mar 28, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 428
Kemi Badenoch was supposed to reboot and re-energise the Tories. Now she’s tanking in the polls and flailing in the Commons. If she can’t beat Farage, will her leadership make it to the end of the summer? Plus, America’s slide from functioning democracy to autocracy summons up dark memories of when the same thing happened to the Ancient Roman republic. Classics lovers Rachel Cunliffe and Jonn Elledge join Zöe Grünewald and Andrew Harrison to ask whether the Fall of Roman democracy is a warning o...
Mar 25, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Season 2Ep. 427
It’s been five years since Boris Johnson announced the UK’s first Covid-19 lockdown. How much did that strange time in our recent history change the world we live in today? What lessons have we learned? And what hasn’t gone back to how it was before Covid-19 took hold of our lives? Christina Pagel is a professor of operational research at University College London and a member of Independent SAGE and joins the panel for an important two-part discussion. We’re on YouTube!: https://www.youtube.com...
Mar 21, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Season 2Ep. 426
Trump’s election win delighted Farage, the Telegraph, GB News and the Tory Right – but since then the President’s behaviour has horrified British voters. Has the British Right bet on the wrong horse? And will it pay a price for backing a man who seems intent in punishing Europe? Plus, if you like TV but haven’t seen Adolescence yet – do. The harrowing knife crime drama starring Stephen Graham takes in the ‘Manosphere’, social media and what that toxic mix can do to our young people. What does it...
Mar 18, 2025•57 min•Season 2Ep. 425
With defence spending rising and welfare cuts causing unease, is it finally time for Labour to bite the bullet and raise taxes? Plus, DOGE has been tearing the US government apart at breakneck speed. But are Elon Musk and his band of merry nerds doing it legally and what could the consequences be to everyday Americans? Dr. Casey Burgat, author of We Hold These “Truths”: How to Spot the Myths that are Holding America Back and host of the Mastering the Room podcast. joins the panel to get into it....
Mar 14, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Season 2Ep. 424
Has Keir Starmer finally found a crisis he can excel in? Will his supposedly boring manner and measured approach steer Britain and Europe through the Trump-Ukraine horror show? And will he eventually have to stop pretending he’s best friends forever with Trump? Plus, UK universities are going through a bit of a crisis. Are they still the pathway to bring young people out of poverty that they were? We find out from Exeter University’s Lee Elliot Major, the first UK professor on social mobility. •...
Mar 11, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 423
As Trump freezes aid for Ukraine and Vance appears to call the UK or France a “random country that hasn't fought a war in 30 or 40 years" – have we reached the end of the post-war world? And will the second coming of Trump result in the death of NATO? Peter Apps is the author of Deterring Armageddon: A Biography of NATO and joins the panel. Plus, what parts of the media are covering the Trump administration particularly poorly, and how difficult has reporting on it all been? And in the Extra Bit...
Mar 07, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Season 2Ep. 422
After the callous and cowardly attack on Zelensky in the White House, will support from European leaders be enough to compensate for Trump’s contempt for Ukraine? And does Starmer have a new job as official Trump Whisperer? Plus, back home, can Labour get the growth it needs without finally delivering for the North? Matt Kelly, editor-in-chief of The New European, co-host of podcast The Two Matts and real-life northerner joins us to thrash it out We’re on YouTube!: https://www.youtube.com/@ohgod...
Mar 04, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Season 2Ep. 421
