The Bunker – Your daily news Deep Dive

The stories that will shape the week ahead: How will the atrocity at Bondi Beach reverberate in a world where antisemitic violence is rising? Plus: the shocking murder of Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife. Junior doctors decide whether to strike as Britain hits peak winter flu. Will Phase Two of the Gaza peace talks stay on the rails? And happy 250th birthday to Jane Austen. Alex von Tunzelmann and Andrew Harrison set out the week ahead. 

🎄Get 20% off a year’s support for The Bunker until Christmas – whether you’re a new backer, renewing or upgrading. 

Written and presented by Andrew Harrison with Alex von Tunzelmann Producer: Liam Tait. Audio production: Tom Taylor. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Artwork by James Parrett. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

www.podmasters.co.uk 

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wrapping up the stories of the week… Alex von Tunzelmann is joined by LBC host Natasha Devon to break down Keir Starmer’s latest approach to tackling the migration crisis. Across the pond, we take a look at Trump’s ongoing campaign against the EU and ask”why now”? Plus, Natasha shares her view on the proposed ban on social media for under-18s, we read your comments from the week, and finally we take a look at the stories that have gone under the radar.

🎄Get 20% off a year’s support for The Bunker until Christmas – whether you’re a new backer, renewing or upgrading. 

www.patreon.com/bunkercast 

Written and presented by Alex von Tunzelmann. Producer: Liam Tait. Audio production: Robin Leeburn Music by Kenny Dickinson. Artwork by James Parrett. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

www.podmasters.co.uk 

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Personality politics isn’t just a modern problem – it started centuries earlier with an aristocrat called Charles James Fox. You can trace the roots of modern political celebrity back to this 18th-century provocateur, whose charm, scandals and theatrics helped redefine what leadership looked like. Fox built a movement around himself rather than his policies, offering an early blueprint for the dangerous style of politics reshaping democracies today. Alex von Tunzelmann speaks with Dr Callum Smith of Aberystwyth University about Fox’s rise and how history helps us understand the dominance of modern figures like Trump and Farage.

🎄Get 20% off a year’s support for The Bunker until Christmas – whether you’re a new backer, renewing or upgrading. 

www.patreon.com/bunkercast 

Written and presented by Alex von Tunzelmann. Producer: Liam Tait. Audio production: Robin Leeburn Music by Kenny Dickinson. Artwork by James Parrett. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

www.podmasters.co.uk 

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nigel Farage continues to react furiously to growing allegations that he engaged in racist and antisemitic bullying when he was a pupil at Dulwich College in the late ’70s and early ’80s. But are his angry response and his attempts at diversion doing the real damage? And can you really judge an adult on what they may have done at school? Long-time Reform-watcher Michael Crick joins us to explore a crisis unlike anything Farage has faced before. His verdict? “Farage is as rattled as a baby’s pram.” 

🎄Get 20% off a year’s support for The Bunker until Christmas – whether you’re a new backer, renewing or upgrading. 

• Head to nakedwines.co.uk/thebunker to get a £30 voucher and 6 top-rated wines from our sponsor Naked Wines for £39.99, delivery included.

www.patreon.com/bunkercast 

Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Producer: Liam Tait. Audio production: Tom Taylor. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Artwork by James Parrett. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

www.podmasters.co.uk 

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Far fewer people are getting into relationships than they were in the past, with a major rise in the amount of single people across the world. Why are we seeing this so-called “relationship recession”? And how can it impact us all? Jonathan Rosenthal, international editor at The Economist, wrote about this for a magazine cover story recently and joins Zoë Grünewald to discuss.

• Head to ⁠https://www.nakedwines.co.uk/thebunker⁠ to get a £30 voucher and 6 top-rated wines from our sponsor Naked Wines for £39.99, delivery included. 

www.patreon.com/bunkercast   

Written and presented by Zoë Grünewald.  Audio production: Tom Taylor. Producer: Liam Tait. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.    

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Setting out the stories of the next seven days. An astonishing new US National Security Strategy says Trump plans to support far-right parties across Europe and makes the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory into official US policy. Having ruined America, does the President want to Trumpify the planet? Plus, the colossal scale of COVID waste and fraud, Reform’s record-breaking donor gift, Tommy Robinson’s Christmas carols… and Keir Starmer’s got a Substack. Ros Taylor and Andrew Harrison look the events that will shape the week. 

• Head to nakedwines.co.uk/thebunker to get a £30 voucher and 6 top-rated wines from our sponsor Naked Wines for £39.99, delivery included.

www.patreon.com/bunkercast 

Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Producer: Liam Tait. Audio production: Simon Williams. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Artwork by James Parrett. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison.

THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

www.podmasters.co.uk 

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wrapping up the stories of the week… Jacob Jarvis is joined by Rafael Behr to break down the stalled US–Russia peace talks, Putin’s strong-arming, and what Trump’s shaky negotiating team tells us about the state of American power. Back in Westminster, they dig into the fallout from the OBR’s budget leak and what it all means for Labour’s economic credibility. Plus: Trump’s latest embarrassing moment caught on camera, Raf’s heroes and villains, and the story that slipped under the radar this week.

• Head to nakedwines.co.uk/thebunker to get 6 top-rated wines from our sponsor Naked Wines for £39.99, delivery included.

www.patreon.com/bunkercast 

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

• Advertisers! Want to reach smart, engaged, influential people with money to spend? (Yes, they do exist). Some 3.5 MILLION people download and watch our podcasts every month – and they love our shows. Why not get YOUR brand in front of our influential listeners with podcast advertising? Contact [email protected] to find out more

Written and presented by Jacob Jarvis with Rafael Behr. Producer: Liam Tait. Audio editor: Simon Williams. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Design by James Parrett. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Office for Budget Responsibility is supposed to be the calm, quiet body that keeps watch over Britain’s public finances. But after it accidentally released its Budget analysis before Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her statement, its chair Richard Hughes resigned and the watchdog suddenly became the lead story. Today on The Bunker, Seth Thévoz is joined by economist and former Treasury adviser Giles Wilkes to ask: what exactly is the OBR, and why does this low-profile institution hold so much power over the UK economy?

• Head to nakedwines.co.uk/thebunker to get 6 top-rated wines from our sponsor Naked Wines for £39.99, delivery included.

www.patreon.com/bunkercast 

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

• Advertisers! Want to reach smart, engaged, influential people with money to spend? (Yes, they do exist). Some 3.5 MILLION people download and watch our podcasts every month – and they love our shows. Why not get YOUR brand in front of our influential listeners with podcast advertising? Contact [email protected] to find out more.

Written and presented by Seth Thévoz. Producer: Liam Tait. Audio producer: Robin Leeburn. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Design by James Parrett. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

He’s a nightmare made flesh for progressives and liberals: an anti-woke, hyper-libertarian tech billionaire who bankrolled JD Vance, supports Curtis Yarvin’s anti-democracy “Dark Enlightenment” movement, and seems to base his worldview on the worst parts of Lord Of The Rings. But lately Peter Thiel has been getting even weirder, warning of the rise of an actual Anti-Christ who wants to “end science”. What is going on? Thiel-watcher James Ball of The New World magazine joins Andrew Harrison to explain the odd philosophy of this superpowered misfit. 

• Now hear Thiel’s biographer Max Chafkin interviewed by Andrew on Apple and Spotify – or search “Bunker Supervillain Billionaire” on your favourite app. 

• Head to nakedwines.co.uk/thebunker to get a £30 voucher and 6 top-rated wines from our sponsor Naked Wines for £39.99, delivery included.

www.patreon.com/bunkercast 

Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Producer: Liam Tait. Audio production: Robin Warren. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Artwork by James Parrett. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

www.podmasters.co.uk 

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We usually think radicalisation is something that happens to young people. Teenagers doomscrolling in dark bedrooms, or twenty-somethings disappearing into algorithmic rabbit holes. But look around, and the picture feels very different. The loudest voices in the culture wars, the Facebook fire-starters, the men who seem permanently furious in comment sections and group chats. They’re in their 40s, 50s, even older, and they’re getting swept up in a digital storm they were never taught to navigate. Today on The Bunker, Zoë Grünewald is joined by Dr Sara Wilford, Associate Professor at De Montfort University, to explore why people in mid-life are becoming increasingly vulnerable to online radicalisation and what this shift means for the rest of us.

• Head to nakedwines.co.uk/thebunker to get 6 top-rated wines from our sponsor Naked Wines for £39.99, delivery included.

www.patreon.com/bunkercast 

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

Written and presented by Zoë Grünewald. Producer: Liam Tait. Audio editor: Robin Leeburn. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Design by James Parrett. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.