Has our perception of what it is to be patriotic been skewed by the likes of angry protesters parading outside a refugee hotel in Essex? And can the idea of patriotism ever be reclaimed from furious far-right groups like Britain First? Plus, what’s the latest on the Brexit reset with the EU? Director of UK in a Changing Europe Anand Menon joins the panel to discuss. And in the Extra Bit for subscribers, we’re wondering if we’ll EVER be able to retire.

Escape Routes:

• Ros recommends Inter Alia at the National Theatre.

• Matt has been watching Yellowstone on Netflix. 

• Hannah recommends Lush by Rochelle Dowden-Lord. 

• Anand recommends Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan. 

Buy Lush or Caledonian Road through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund Oh God, What Now? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.

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Presented by Ros Taylor with Hannah Fearn, and Matt Green. Audio Production by Tom Taylor & Robin Leeburn. Music by Cornershop. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

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The government wants to lower the age of voting to 16. Does anyone really know why? Do most 16-year-olds even care about politics? And will it make even a shred of difference to election outcomes? Plus, Donald Trump’s Jeffrey Epstein meltdown continues. He’s now suing Rupert Murdoch over an article published by the Wall Street Journal last week linking him to the disgraced financier. How damaging is this for the US president? And finally, with more suspensions than the Humber Bridge, has the Labour Party become addicted to heavy-handedness?

Escape Routes:

• Andrew went to see all-female Slade tribute band Slady

• Seth recommends Doctor Who: Warriors’ Gate And Beyond by Stephen Gallagher

• Jonn went to see Nye at the National Theatre. 

• Marie recommends Model Behaviour by Jay McInerney.

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Andrew Harrison with Jonn Elledge, Marie Le Conte and Seth Thévoz. Audio Production by: Robin Leeburn. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

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Keir Starmer suspended 4 ‘persistent rebels’ on Wednesday. Clive Lewis was not on that list, despite his many disagreements with his party, but he is on our podcast this week. We sat down with the MP for Norwich South to discuss those suspensions, why Labour's not delivering on its promise for ‘change’, and why the UK should move back closer to Europe. Plus, campaign group More in Common’s latest study categorises the electorate into seven groups. Is it useful? And who are these types of studies really for? And in the Extra Bit for subscribers – is there an argument FOR air con? 

Escape routes:

• Clive Lewis recommends Andor on via Disney Plus

• Zoë recommends Dept Q on Netflix. 

• Matt watched England vs India in the cricket. The 4th test is available to watch on Sky Sports from July 23rd

• Dorian recommends Nye at the National Theatre.

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Dorian Lynskey with Zoë Grünewald and Matt Green. Audio Production by: Tom Taylor and Robin Leeburn. Video Production by: Chris Jones. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

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The Macron-Starmer love-in during the French President’s UK visit was guaranteed to enrage the Continuity Brexiters. But will their one-in-one-out migration plans actually deliver? Plus, is Britain’s justice system broken beyond repair? Jury-less trials are on the horizon but are they the fix that an impoverished, dysfunctional courts system needs? And Greater Manchester’s mayor Andy Burnham is back with a bold Ten Year Plan for the city. Ambitious or just aspirational? We explore what the rest of the UK could learn from his northern blueprint.

• Listen to The Bunker episode Watch The Spies – Can the CIA survive Trump?

• Get a month of The New World in print and digital for just £1 here.

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Rachel recommends the Mitfords drama Outrageous on the U channel. 

• Matt recommend the Philosophise This podcast and The Crisis Of Narration by Byung-Chul Han. 

• Seth had his mind blown by Bayeux Cathedral. 

• Alison saw Olivia Rodrigo live. 

NOT FOR PATREON

• Back us on Patreon for ad-free listening, bonus materials and more. 

Presented by Alison Phillips with Rachel Cunliffe, Seth Thévoz and special guest Matt Kelly. Audio production by Robin Leeburn and Simon Williams. Theme music by Cornershop. Produced by Chris Jones. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

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Donald Trump’s bill, we won’t be calling it beautiful, which takes from the poor and gives to the rich has passed into law. What’s in it and how easily did it get through Congress? Dr Colin Provost is an associate professor of public policy at University College London and joins the panel to get into it. Plus, Palestine Action has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK government. Has this gone too far and what does this say about our right to protest in the UK, if anything? And in the Extra Bit FOR EVERYONE this week, is Angela Rayner’s Employment Rights Bill an attack on banter? 

Sign up to our Patreon to get the Extra Bit exclusively for subscribers every week!

Escape Routes: 

• Colin recently read Careless People: A Story of Where I Used to Work 

• Zoe recently watched America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy’s Cheerleaders on Netflix 

• Ros watched Saltburn now it’s on iPlayer 

• Dorian has been watching Such Brave Girls

Follow us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/ohgodwhatnow.bsky.social 

Presented by Dorian Lynskey with Ros Taylor and Zoë Grünewald. Audio Production by: Tom Taylor. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

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Fragmentation special! It’s all kicking off on the right and the left. Are our panic-stricken political classes talking Britain into a Farage premiership just by making it sound inevitable? And could Zarah Sultana’s (possibly premature) launch of a new party of the anti-war left turn into a genuine threat to Labour? We’re calling it CorbTana. It’s going to catch on. Really. 

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Hannah recommends Couples Therapy on BBC iPlayer. 

• Jonn recommends the US version of Ghosts. 

• Raf saw War at the A Love Supreme festival. 

• Andrew saw Goat and Infinity Song at Glastonbury. 

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Andrew Harrison with Rafael Behr, Jonn Elledge, and Hannah Fearn. Audio Production by: Simon Williams. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

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What better way for Labour to celebrate a year in power than with a humiliating climbdown on welfare? Political historian Steven Fielding joins the panel to discuss rebellions, “Austerity PSD”, and how Starmer and Reeves can make Year Two better than Year One. Plus, after the anti-IDF rants by punk band Bob Vylan at Glastonbury, has the festival really become the antisemitic “hatefest” its critics claim? Unlike most of them, our own Andrew Harrison was actually there… And in the Extra Bit for Patreon supporters, is far-right ideologue Matthew Goodwin serious when he says he wants to be Reform UK’s Home Secretary, or just waffling to sell his Substack?

• Listen to Why? with Emma Kennedy: Could we make a real Jurassic Park? 

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Rachel has been bingeing on Wimbledon. 

• Jonn has been reading Trespasses by Louise Kennedy.

• Steven has been listening to the title track of Close To The Edge by Yes.

• Alison is very excited about the Women’s Euros. 

• Back us on Patreon for ad-free listening, bonus materials and more. 

Presented by Alison Phillips with Rachel Cunliffe and Jonn Elledge. Audio production by Robin Leeburn and Tom Taylor. Theme music by Cornershop. Produced by Chris Jones. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

www.podmasters.co.uk

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With Labour MPs rebelling over Keir Starmer’s planned cuts to welfare benefits – where does he stand now with his party and does even more trouble lie ahead? Plus, the UK’s new industrial strategy is hot off the press. What makes it so ambitious, and has it learned the lessons from Boris Johnson's failed levelling up plan? 

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Seth recommends Gilbert and Sullivan’s Princess Ida

• Hannah recommends Slags by Emma Jane Unsworth and the new Adam Curtis series, Shifty

• Zoe recommends Olivia Rodrigo at Glastonbury

• Ros recommends The Four Seasons on Netflix

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Ros Taylor with Zoë Grünewald, Seth Thévoz and Hannah Fearn. Audio Production by: Robin Leeburn. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

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Dog whistle think pieces seem to be back in fashion and right wingers are more frequently using rhetoric that sounds a bit like Enoch Powell. Powell was condemned for Rivers of Blood, why isn’t sounding like him so damaging for the modern right? Plus – AI and copyright. It’s put Labour at odds with Elton John, never a good place to be. Politico’s Joseph Bambridge joins the panel to talk through the furore. 

Read Joseph’s piece in Politico: https://www.politico.eu/article/ai-copyright-political-nightmare-labour-uk-models-tech/ 

ESCAPE ROUTES 

•  Rachel watched Virgin Island on Channel 4 

• Raf has been reading Barbara Kingsolver novels

• Joseph watched The Contestant 

• Dorian watched Black Ops 

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow 

Presented by Dorian Lynskey with Rafael Behr and Rachel Cunliffe. Producer: Chris Jones. Audio. Production by: Robin Leeburn. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. 

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Happy Dan Hannan Day! We “celebrate” nine years of Desperate Dan’s infamous Brexit prediction. Plus, War in and/or on Iran. Whatever happened to “America First”? Does Britain have any influence on Trump in this? And would Tony Blair have joined in America military action? And… this terrible, terrible heat. As the 1.5 degree limit looks increasingly fanciful, is living in a sweaty Britain the best we can hope for? 

Charlotte Nichols MP of Warrington North is our special guest.

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Zoe recommends Shock And War: Iraq 20 Years On on BBC Sounds and Sirens on Netflix. 

• Marie recommends Hacks on Amazon Prime.

• Charlotte recommends Everything Must Go by our own Dorian Lynskey and On The Calculation Of Volume by Solvej Balle.

• Ros recommends Lionessheart: The Life and Times of Joanna Plantagenet by Catherine Hanley. 

• Back us on Patreon for ad-free listening, bonus materials and more. 

Presented by Ros Taylor with Marie le Conte and Zoe Grünewald. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. Theme music by Cornershop. Produced by Chris Jones. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

www.podmasters.co.uk

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices