The Bunker – Your daily news Deep Dive

Desperate for a fresh pod over the holidays? We’re tiding you over the Christmas-New Year gap with some shows you might have missed from the wider Podmasters universe. Today, enjoy this edition of our geopolitics weekly This Is Not A Drill.

On this edition… Corruption, bribery and cronyism aren’t just criminal matters. International alliances of corrupt states and their enablers are undermining democracies and international law, creating a world without rules where everything and anyone can be bought. From Putin’s gangster state to COVID corruption and favouritism in the UK, the West’s response has been feeble.

How big is Kleptocracy's threat to global stability? Regular TINAD presenter Emma Beals explores an existential danger with anti-corruption writer Sarah Chayes – author of Everybody Knows: Corruption in America – and Guardian investigations correspondent and author of Cuckooland: Where the Rich Own the Truth Tom Burgis.

NB This edition recorded before Trump’s victory in the US election.

• Subscribe to This Is Not A Drill on your favourite app.

• When you buy books through our affiliate bookshop you’re helping fund our podcasts by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.

Written and presented by Emma Beals. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. Original theme music by Paul Hartnoll – https://www.orbitalofficial.com. Executive Producer Martin Bojtos. Group Editor Andrew Harrison. This Is Not A Drill is a Podmasters production

podmasters.co.uk

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

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

Completing our countdown of the events of 2024 that we can barely believe happened. From Rishi Sunak dooming his own election campaign by launching it in a downpour to Robert F Kennedy Jr’s shenanigans with a dead bear (blame the brainworms) to America deciding that its new folk hero is an actual murderer, we examine the moments that made 2024 incomprehensible. Miranda Sawyer and Jonn Elledge of Paper Cuts join Andrew Harrison to complete an ignominious countdown. (Part One available now)

• Support us on Patreon for early episodes and more.

• We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.

www.patreon.com/bunkercast

Presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison. Audio production by Tom Taylor. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. 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.

It’s that time of year when we look back over the last twelve months and ask… did that really happen? From Oasis giving the nation a brutal lesson in demand economics to the near-assassination of Donald Trump to the baffling rise of “Huak Tuah Girl”, 2024 has been a year of signs, wonders and bewilderment. In the first of a two-part Bunker special Miranda Sawyer and Jonn Elledge of Paper Cuts join Andrew Harrison to choose the first ten of the twenty most bizarre moments of the year – and work out what they mean.

Part Two is out on Monday 23 December, or sign up to Patreon to hear it right now – and support independent podcasting too.

• We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.

www.patreon.com/bunkercast

Presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison. Audio production by Tom Taylor. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. 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.

• Get 20% off annual Patreon support for The Bunker in our Black Friday sale. The perfect gift to ask for!

From enormous Tudor banquets to Fortnum & Mason’s luxury hampers, Christmas food has always been about showing off. But how did we leap from turducken and spiced pies to our roast potatoes and a turkey that barely fits in the oven? 

Join Alex von Tunzelmann and Thomas Ntinas, host of The Delicious Legacy podcast, as they unravel how centuries of festive indulgence, and a brief detour through Cromwell’s joyless Puritanism, shaped the Christmas dinner we know today.

• We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.  

www.patreon.com/bunkercast 

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

Instagram | Twitter

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

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

• Our Cyber Monday sale is just about still on! Get 20% off annual Patreon support for The Bunker. 

Yes, Die Hard IS a Christmas movie… but what about its politics? Is the Bruce Willis blockbuster a howl of anger from Reagan’s rustbelt, an attack on ’80s yuppie finance bros, an America First broadside against Japanese corporate raiders, or a diatribe against capitalism that Bernie Sanders would be proud of? And who’s the real villain? Conservative economist John Phelan joins wet liberal centrist Andrew Harrison to debate the politics that play out in Nakatomi Tower. Welcome to the podcast, pal!  

Read John’s excellent analysis Die Hard here.

• Support us on Patreon for early episodes and more.

• We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.   

Presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. 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.

• Get 20% off annual Patreon support for The Bunker in our Black Friday sale. The perfect gift to ask for!

Last week, a high-profile murder in broad daylight shocked the world, but it’s the reaction that has everyone talking. Why is the victim, United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, met with scorn while the accused, Luigi Mangione, is hailed as a cult hero across the internet? Join Alex von Tunzelmann and Jessica Glenza, health reporter for The Guardian US, as they delve into the complexities of US healthcare, uncovering the confusion and fury behind the headlines and memes.

• We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.  

www.patreon.com/bunkercast 

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

Instagram | Twitter

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

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

• Get 20% off annual Patreon support for The Bunker in our Black Friday sale. The perfect gift to ask for! 

The Chinese spy scandal lifts the lid on Prince Andrew’s murky world. What do the Chinese think the Prince can give him? Has the affair sealed Andrew’s fate as a Royal? And will we find out the identity of the mysterious “H6”? Plus: Why is Starmer cosying up to Italy’s far-right leader Giorgia Meloni? The US healthcare debate grows bitterer still after the arrest of Luigi Mangione. And are YOU ready for the Christmas Guinness Drought? Ros Taylor and Gavin Esler set out the major stories of the week ahead. 

• This episode is sponsored by Proton Pass, to find out more visit https://proton.me/pass/thebunker

• We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.

https://www.patreon.com/bunkercast

Written and presented by Ros Taylor. Audio production by Tom Taylor. Music: Kenny Dickinson. Art: Jim Parrett. Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. 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.

• Our Black Friday sale is still on! Get 20% off annual Patreon support for The Bunker.

Beige against the machine – Mocked by left and right in the 2010s, Centrist Dad had the last laugh. Now he bestrides our politics like gilet-clad colossus – he’s even Prime Minister. But what makes him tick? How is he adjusting to power? What is Centrist Mum like? Authors of The Centrist Dad Handbook, friend of the pod Jason Hazeley and pal Nico Tatarowicz, talk to Andrew Harrison about the man at the centre of it all. 

• Support us on Patreon for early episodes and more - www.patreon.com/bunkercast

• We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.  

Presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison. Audio production by Simon Williams and Robin Leeburn. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. 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.

• Get 20% off annual Patreon support for The Bunker in our Black Friday sale. The perfect gift to ask for!

It’s been a busy time in the USA – so you’d be forgiven for having missed the latest UFO hearings. To help you catch up, Jacob Jarvis spoke to Tom Phillips, co-author of Conspiracy: A History of B*llocks Theories, and How Not to Fall For Them, to discuss what was said and if any of it actually hinted at Alien life… 

www.patreon.com/bunkercast  

Written and presented by Jacob Jarvis. Audio production: Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

https://www.podmasters.co.uk/

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

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

• A special crossover with The Bunker’s geopolitics partner podcast This Is Not A Drill.

Assad’s stunning fall ends a tyrannical 53-year rule in Syria, leaving monstrous crimes against human rights exposed, rocking both Iran and Russia on their heels, and handing the country’s future back to its people. Where next for Syria? Will the rebel fighters coalesce into a working government and avoid the factionalism which would jeopardise the Syrian people’s hopes? And what does it mean for an international community which had turned its back on the Syrian war?

This Is Not A Drill regular Emma Beals explores an awe-inspiring week in the Middle East with Syria expert and open-source investigator Suhail al-Ghazi. 

• No longer on Twitter? Follow TINAD and Emma Beals on BlueSky. 

• Support This Is Not Drill on Patreon to continue by backing us on Patreon. You’ll get early, ad-free editions, merchandise and more. 

Written and presented by Emma Beals. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. Original theme music by Paul Hartnoll – https://www.orbitalofficial.com. Executive Producer Martin Bojtos. Group Editor Andrew Harrison. This Is Not A Drill is a Podmasters production

podmasters.co.uk

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

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