Oh God, What Now?

Remember Trump’s first term when we talked about “kakistocracy”: rule by the worst of the worst? They’re back and they’re worse than ever – not just Trump and his entourage but his corrupt Mini-Mes around the world. Why is our time so cursed with venal, cruel, nihilistic and apparently mentally damaged leaders? Where do these personalities come from? Are Trump and his entourage true psychopaths in the psychological sense? Ian Hughes, author of Disordered Minds : How Dangerous Personalities Are Destroying Democracy, joins Zoë Grünewald and Jonn Elledge to discuss our age of “malignant normality”, Hitler, Mao, and the psychopathology of cruel rule. As one African proverb says: “The child who does not feel love will burn down the village to feel its warmth.”

• Buy Disordered Minds through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund the podcast by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Jonn recommends Star Trek: Starfleet Academy  streaming on Paramount+. 

• Ian Hughes has been rewatching Carl Sagan’s classic space documentary Cosmos on YouTube. 

• Zoë recommends Industry on the BBC iPlayer. 

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Zöe Grünewald with Jonn Elledge. Audio and video production by Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

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Keir Starmer’s now former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney has gone, so what does this mean for the Prime Minister’s project and government? Zoë Grünewald is joined by Rafael Behr to discuss the fall out and where we go from here in a special bonus emergencycast. 

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow 

Presented by Zoë Grünewald with Rafael Behr. Audio Production by Simon Williams. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. 

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“I’m Mandy – buy me.” Peter Mandelson’s career finally collapses in a scandal more poisonous than Profumo, more serious than Partygate, and more shameful than Suez. How did Mandelson get away with his shifty behaviour for so long? Will Starmer’s errors of judgment taint his government irrevocably? And how come it’s on British figures like Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor who are suffering the consequences of their associations with Epstein? 

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Raf recommends the app DJay Pro for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android.

• Ros went to see the National Theatre production of Terence Rattigan’s Man And Boy. 

• Jonn is watching A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms, the Game of Thrones spin-off, on Sky Atlantic. 

• Andrew recommends the Marvel series Wonder Man on Disney+. 

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Andrew Harrison with Jonn Elledge, Ros Taylor and Rafael Behr. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn and Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

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A forty-year slow-motion disaster in higher education is reaching its climax – and Labour is left holding the bag. If young people decide a degree isn’t worth the massive debt, where does that leave British cities that depend on free-spending undergraduate populations – and universities that are hooked on no-longer-welcome foreign students? Can academia expect much sympathy from graduate generations whose aspirations are held back by crushing loan repayments? And can Labour do anything about it? 

In a fascinating conversation Oxford Brookes history professor and education commentator Glen O’Hara walks Ros Taylor and Hannah Fearn through the unfolding mess. Abstract: “The only way to wake up Westminster and Whitehall is to have a crisis.”  

• Buy Glen O’Hara’s book New Labour, New Britain through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund the podcast by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. 

ESCAPE ROUTES 

• Hannah recommends Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. 

• Glen recommends Kingdom Come by JG Ballard.  

• Ros has been watching David Baddiel’s Cat Man on C4.  

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Presented by Ros Taylor with Hannah Fearn. Audio Production by Chris Jones and Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. 

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Starmer slaps down Andy Burnham’s bid to stand in the Gorton and Denton by-election: bad move for Labour, bad timing from Burnham, or another distraction we don’t need? Plus, who’s bringing the best self to the overladen Reform bandwagon: twice-sacked Home Sec and Creature Comforts creation Suella Braverman, or race-baiting former academic Matt Goodwin? Special guest, media analysts Ayala Panievsky, takes us through the populist assault on the right to know, and her book The New Censorship: How the War on the Media is Taking Us Down. And in the Extra Bit: Who’s feeling the “middle class spending crisis?”

•  Buy The New Censorship by Ayala Panievsky through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund the podcast by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.

ESCAPE ROUTES

•  HANNAH has been reading Eurotrash by Christian Kracht

•  MATT recommends the Tourette’s movie I Swear

•  AYALA PANIEVSKY has been going to Iranian and Persian raves in Hackney like this one

•  ANDREW has rediscovered the (mostly) pre-Trump nostalgia of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix.  

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Andrew Harrison with Hannah Fearn and Matt Green. Audio Production by: Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

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“Things are more dangerous now than during the Cold War.” The world is breaking up into mutually suspicious power blocs, Trump is trying to destroy NATO and Putin has learned that aggression pays off. Is a major war coming or can we prevent it? In an enthralling conversation, defence commentator Peter Apps – author of The Next World War – explains the forces and self-deceptions that are driving the world towards conflict, the key danger points, and what Britain can do to avert disaster.

• Buy The Next World War 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.

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Peter has been reading Kingmaker, Sonia Purnell’s biography of Pamela Churchill Harriman

• Alex recommends Booker Prize winner Flesh by David Szalay. 

• Seth was delighted to find Mask Or Face: Reflections in an Actor's Mirror by Michael Redgrave in a charity shop. 

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Seth Thévoz and Alex von Tunzelmann. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

www.podmasters.co.uk 

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• Get the latest reaction on Trump’s climbdown from Weekly Wrap-Up on The Bunker with Raf Behr and Andrew Harrison. 

“If you’re not at the table,” said Canada’s Mark Carney, “You’re on the menu.” Trump’s demented speech in Davos leaves the world agog. Beyond the President’s tantrums and on-off attempts to extort Greenland, are Britain and the EU ready to live in a world where America is a predatory enemy? Are European leaders just sucking his abuse up – or are their subtle pushbacks working? We look at the shocking end of 80 years of Atlanticism and wonder what comes next for a Brexit-weakened Britain. Oh, and Jason admits that years ago he did a “please have my Nobel Peace Prize” too. No better than Trump, this guy. 

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Zöe recommends the Jean-Marc Vallée movie Wild with Reese Witherspoon. 

• Jason has been reading Things Are Never So Bad That They Can’t Get Worse: Inside the Collapse of Venezuela by William Neuman

• Jonn has been reading Precipice by Robert Harris.  

• Ros recommends Michael Crick’s biography of Farage, One Party After Another.  

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Ros Taylor with Jason Hazeley, Zöe Grünewald and Jonn Elledge. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

https://www.podmasters.co.uk 

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“You can’t fire me, I quit!” The world of politics is stunned – stunned! – as rightward-lurching public transport vigilante Robert Jenrick joins Reform* mere hours after Badenoch canned him for treachery. Will the world’s most self-seeking man work well with the world’s other most self-seeking man, Nigel Farage? Hmm, what do you think? Plus: Truly, Attlee, Deeply! How is Starmer doing compared to his illustrious predecessors as Labour leader? Izzy Conn of the history podcast Leading Labour helps us work out where Sir Keir fits in the Labour league ladder. 

( * Yes, we missed Andrew Rosindell. What do you want? Time travel??) 

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Zöe recommends ‘Hamnet’ at the movies – out now. 

• Izzy recommends the songwriting podcast And The Writer Is. 

• Andrew recommends you see Belgian rave-rock band Soulwax live if you get the chance. 

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Andrew Harrison with Zöe Grünewald. Audio and video production by Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

https://www.podmasters.co.uk 

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This edition recorded before Jenrick got sacked from the Conservatives and then joined Reform. Hey, it’s just like 2018… Two-month chancellor and frisky tax guy Nadim Zahawi hops aboard Nigel Farage’s overladen jamwagon. We once wondered if the Conservatives were turning into Reform – but are Reform turning into the Tories? Plus: How is the murky world of party donations developing in our new, post-two-party system? And how will crypto make it worse? Also: Britain’s dismal options on Greenland. This week’s U-turns. And is Donald Trump’s awareness of his own mortality the reason he’s making us all aware of ours?

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Ros went to see Hamnet and quite liked it, anachronisms aside. But she really liked the new series of Industry on the BBC. 

• Rachel recommends The Night Manager Season 2 on BBC iPlayer.

• Peter recommends political thriller Hostage on Netflix and Eoin McNamee’s book The Bureau .

• Matt recommends What Have I Done?, Ben Elton’s autobiography. 

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Matt Green with Rachel Cunliffe and Ros Taylor. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn and Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

www.podmasters.co.uk 

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Hands up who’s had enough hot-off-the-headlines politics for 2026 already? No problem! In a change of pace we go politics-adjacent and welcome Jason Williamson – voice of Nottingham’s satirical noise-beat mob orators Sleaford Mods – to talk class politics, the power of a good rant, the real reasons for the flags-and-roundabouts mania of 2025… and why one member of the extended OGWN family gets a surprising mention on Sleaford Mods’ new album The Demise Of Planet X .

• The Demise Of Planet X is released on Friday 16 Jan. 

• See Jason Williamson in Geoff Barrow’s movie Game – new screenings updated here.

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Jason Williamson recommends The Walker Brothers’ 1975 classic album No Regrets.

• Jason Hazeley recommends Enshittification by Cory Doctorow, Into The Woods at the Bridge Theatre, London, and Suspect streaming from C4.

• Andrew Harrison recommends Edge Of Darkness on iPlayer.

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Andrew Harrison with Jason Hazeley. Produced by Chris Jones. Audio and video Production by Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

www.podmasters.co.uk 

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