The Bunker – Your daily news Deep Dive

As the heatwave in the Pacific North West puts climate change into even sharper focus, it’s easy to feel powerless before the enormity of global warming. But should we? Do ordinary people have the tools to fix this? Climate campaigner Dr Alice Bell is the author of Our Biggest Experiment: A History of the Climate Crisis. She talks to Justin Quirk about the hidden story of climate science, how we’ve been ignoring climate warnings since the 1850s… and why you need to know about heat pumps, electric ships and electric planes. 

• “We’ve been left an almighty climate mess by our ancestors. But it doesn’t mean it’s a disaster and there’s nothing we can do.”
• “Renewable energy has outperformed even the most optimistic predictions – and that’s heartening.”
• “Frightening people doesn’t work. We have to think hard about when we use fear and when we use hope.”
• “All the big discoveries about climate science were already known in the 1970s. That’s when we knew we should be worried.” 

Presented by Justin Quirk. 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

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No one looks back and remembers the nights they got plenty of sleep. But beyond a mere boogie, nightclubs play a vital role in shaping our collective and individual identity. Alex Andreou assembles an all-star spinning a-roundtable to chew on how COVID closures have impacted nighttime industries, why the pandemic has deprived us from more than a good party, and how culture goes beyond theatres and museums…

Mairi Mackenzie is a cultural historian and consultant curator for the V&A Dundee exhibition Night Fever: Designing Club Culture. Bay Sisouphanh is Head of Event Sales at London’s Village Underground. Mark Wood is one half of the London Readers Wifes who DJ at Vauxhall institution Duckie. 

• “You find your tribe at nightclubs.” – Mark Wood 
• “People will always find an outlet for that need for pleasure.” – Mairi Mackenzie
• “Forget about children going back to school. When can we send the gays back to nightclubs?” – Mark Wood 
• “There's a lack of perception around the value of nightclubs to the gaiety and the mental health of the nation.” – Mark Wood 

Presented and 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

https://www.vam.ac.uk/dundee/exhibitions/night-fever-designing-club-culture 

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Words shape the world – but typefaces shape the words. In a world where fonts subtly engineer how we think, should we be more conscious of the lore of the letter? Andrew Harrison talks to giant of typography Gail Anderson – graphic designer, former Rolling Stone art director and co-author of Type Speaks: A Lexicon Of Expressive, Emotional, And Symbolic Typefaces – about the politics and hidden powers of fonts, how digital media is making designers of us all, and her merciless war on widows, orphans and rivers. (It’s not as cruel as it sounds). 

• “Type has been democratised, even if people don't make the best choices with it.”
• “Look at the Hillary and Obama campaigns – they just had classier fonts than Trump.”

Presented and 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

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Pity about Matt Hancock. He was a real hands-on Minister. But the story isn’t the hapless ex-Health Secretary’s office affair, it’s the serious implications of leaked CCTV, off-books emails to “collaborators” and Boris Johnson’s self-serving role in this mess. Plus: How do we future-proof the economy? Lib Dem treasury spokesperson Christine Jardine is our special guest.

• “You can't be a Health Secretary in a pandemic if everyone's making knob jokes about you.” – Marie le Conte

• “You cannot level on up on the cheap.” – Miatta Fahnbulleh

• “This government keeps coming up with sticking plasters, not long-term solutions to get away from low wages and fossil fuels.” – Christine Jardine

https://www.patreon.com/bunkercast

Presented by Andrew Harrison with Miatta Fahnbulleh and Marie le Concte. 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

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As we clear away the bunting and empty bottles after Hancock Humiliation Weekend, how will the story — of leaked CCTV, secret email addresses and backhanders — develop? What sort of Health Sec will Sajid Javid be, and will he give Dido Harding the NHS job? And the small matter of England vs Germany. Ros Taylor joins Andrew Harrison to set out the week ahead. 

• “Boris Johnson doesn’t have to pretend to have moral standards. He doesn’t have them, and lots of voters like him for that.”

• “Hancock said he was resigning to focus on his family life, after leaving his wife and kids in the middle of the night.”

• “Whoever wins Batley and Spen, nobody is going to be happy with the result.”

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

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Your opponents are lower than vermin. Politics is a righteous battle of absolute good against absolute evil. A secret cabal controls everything. And only a return to a past Eden can solve our problems. Why do these simplistic myths grip the Left so strongly, and can Labour ever free itself from them? Nick Cohen talks to Chris Clarke, author of The Dark Knight And The Puppet Master, about these fantasies of hidden power and betrayal are not just a Corbynist trait, how they lead Labour zealots to look for traitors not converts, and what the paranoid style on the Left shares with the populist far Right. 

• “The Dark Knight myth stops you understanding other people. The Puppet Master myth stops you understanding power. And the Golden Age myth stops you understanding change.”
• “Both right- and left-wing populists depend on these myths of golden ages and puppet masters.”
• “The idea of a glorious socialist past of banners and brass bands that was usurped by evil men in shiny suits is just not true.” 
• “When you talk about never kissing a Tory, you’re writing off huge swathes of the voters you need.”

Presented by Nick Cohen. 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

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Former Labour leader Ed Miliband has reinvented himself since 2015 as a podcaster with his hit series Reasons To Be Cheerful, and re-entered frontbencher politics as Shadow Business Secretary. But he has big ideas. He talks to Dorian Lynskey about his new book Go Big: How To Fix Our World, why the real issues that shape the future are bigger than Westminster, plus the “Preston Revolution”, the future roads that Labour should take… and his encyclopaedic knowledge of (wait for it) Dallas. 

• “COVID showed that our institutions and the way our country is run is so at odds with who we are as a people.”
• “As Labour leader you’re constantly thinking, is what I say going to blow up into a story? I think I was too cautious.” 
• “Brexit was a big idea. You can say it wasn’t the RIGHT idea. But people responded to it. People do want big change.” 

Presented by Dorian Lynskey. 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

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Press freedom is under attack from Priti Patel’s draconian plans to tighten the Official Secrets Act, which would criminalise the “onward disclosure” of leaked material, putting journalists at increased risk of imprisonment. Meanwhile the Government routinely stonewalls Freedom of Information requests – making it harder to hold them to account. 

How did our rights to freedom of information become so eroded, with government able to skirt the law by simply blacklisting journalists? Former BBC journalist and FOI expert Martin Rosenbaum tells Alex Andreou about the need for strong FOI rights, the infamous ‘Clearing House’ where FoI requests go to die – and the dangers of “outsourcing” scrutiny of government to hard-up pressure groups.

• “Blair introduced the FOI Act and later said he was a complete idiot for doing so.”
• “There's no enthusiasm for Freedom of Information in central government at all.” 
• “There's no law saying you have to appear on the Today Programme. But there is a law that you have to respond to an FOI request.”

Presented by Alex Andreou. 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

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Joe Biden’s frosty first summit with Putin was designed to put the Russian leader on notice that the days of manipulating America are over. But are they? Special guest Luke Harding – former Guardian Moscow Correspondent and author of Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem and Russia’s Remaking of the West – tells us what Bad Vlad really wants and if Biden can stop him getting it. Plus as we get deeper into the Euros, how will the results shape politics in England, Scotland and Wales? And why we should ensure that everyone lives no more than 15 minutes away from the things they need. 

Luke Harding from today’s podcast: 

• “Whatever Biden says, Putin will do what he’s always done: meddling, hacking, and sometimes murdering his enemies.” 

• “We’ve been in a new cold war since 2008… Russia has effectively chewed up a chunk of Eastern Europe.” 

• “Putin is now this venerated figure with the Republican base, simply because he was Trump’s buddy.” 

https://www.patreon.com/bunkercast

Presented by Andrew Harrison with Yasmeen Serhan and Arthur Snell. Assistant producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic

. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. Produced by Andrew Harrison. The Bunker is a Podmasters Production

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As the fallout from the Lib Dems’ victory in Chesham and Amersham continues to descend, is Boris Johnson about to get mugged by the newly liberal shires – or old school nimby Toryism? Is the Sunak-Johnson confrontation over the PM’s free spending finally on? Plus more Classic Dom internet fan exclusives, the DUP in a mess, and how will England and Scotland’s final Euro group games shape politics? Naomi Smith joins Andrew Harrison to set out the week ahead. 

• “The test for Sunak will be when he has to stop spending.”

• “At every door I knocked in Chesham, they mentioned HS2…”

• “The Lib Dems are good at winning by-elections, but not necessarily holding them” 

Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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