The Bunker – Your daily news Deep Dive

How do languages die? Who’s behind the death of languages from Ghana’s Dagbani to regional Italian dialects? And does it matter if they decay? Almost half of our 7,000 languages are expected to go extinct by the next century and “linguicide”, the death of a language, is to blame. It can be intentional, such as the Turkish government’s repression of Kurds or less intentional, due to simple neglect. So can anything be done to save languages from dying? Journalist, author and broadcaster Sophia Smith Galer joins Emma Kennedy to discuss the impending linguistic extinction.  

 • Buy Sophia’s book How To Kill a Language: Power, Resistance and the Race to Save Our Words from 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. 

• Back us on Patreon – www.patreon.com/bunkercast 

Written and presented by Emma Kennedy. Producer: James Liddell. Audio production: Jade Bailey. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. 

www.podmasters.co.uk

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It’s Farage vs. Binface at this week’s Clacton by-election, what has this campaign taught us? Plus, Burnham is on tour and Trump finds himself in a new conundrum. Gavin Elser joins Jacob Jarvis to discuss the news to look out for this week.  

• Find out if you’re owed on car finance at refundclub.co.uk/bunker 

• Refund Club is a trading style of Sandsford Law Limited, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA no. 8008114). Checking is free. A fee is payable only if your claim is successful. Eligibility: car finance taken out in the UK between 2007 and 2021. The average claim is around £829 per agreement; this is an average and not a guarantee of the amount you will receive. You can also claim yourself for free by contacting your lender or the Financial Ombudsman Service. refundclub.co.uk/bunker 

Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/bunkercast     

Written and presented by Jacob Jarvis with Gavin Esler. Audio production: Jade Bailey. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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Looking back on the big stories of the past week… Kemi Badenoch faces fury after defending a former neo-Nazi’s decision to stand as a Tory councillor. What was she thinking? Burnham amends his early prisoner release plan. Is he really a “soft-touch” on crime? Plus: Farage and Lowe’s enemies-to-lovers character arc deepens, Cambridge professor Jason Arday steps down over plagiarism concerns and a SpaceX rocket crashes into the moon… Andrew Harrison and Jonn Elledge discuss the biggest, strangest and most under-reported stories of the week.  

• Read Rachel Cunliffe on the Joshua Bonehill-Paine affair.  

• Read Jason Okundaye’s excellent piece on the Jason Arday takedown.   

• Find out if you’re owed on car finance at refundclub.co.uk/bunker 

• Refund Club is a trading style of Sandsford Law Limited, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA no. 8008114). Checking is free. A fee is payable only if your claim is successful. Eligibility: car finance taken out in the UK between 2007 and 2021. The average claim is around £829 per agreement; this is an average and not a guarantee of the amount you will receive. You can also claim yourself for free by contacting your lender or the Financial Ombudsman Service. refundclub.co.uk/bunker    

• Back us on Patreon – www.patreon.com/bunkercast 

Written and presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison. Producer: James Liddell. Audio production: Jade Bailey. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. 

www.podmasters.co.uk

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

Sick of watching Shiv Roy or Tanya McQuoid strut around luxury properties? You’re not alone. For years, depictions of extreme wealth have dominated the airwaves with shows like Succession and The White Lotus having a huge cultural impact. But lately watching rich people has started to feel a bit… mundane. Enter Beef, The Bear, DTF St Louis and Margo’s Got Money Troubles and, with it, TV’s sudden interest in seeing ordinary people just getting by. But why? And why has it taken so long? The New Yorker’s television critic Inkoo Kang joins Dorian Lynskey to unpack the age of Broke TV. 

 • Read Inkoo’s New Yorker article here.

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

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Europe is secretly at war – and it has been for a long time. Across the continent, 34 disputed territories remain with places where the conflicts of empire still linger and rival nations continue to claim the same land. Some of these borderlands have become strategic prizes for leaders like Putin and Erdoğan, revealing how wars can drag on in perpetuity and how states can exist without recognition. But how much do these unresolved conflicts shape European politics today? Veteran foreign correspondent Hannah Lucinda Smith joins Jonn Elledge to reveal why these forgotten frontiers may be far more important than most of us realise.   

 • Buy Hannah’s book Hinterlands: Journeys Through Europe’s Unfinished Frontiers from 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. 

• Buy Jonn’s book A History of the World in 47 Borders and pre-order his upcoming 35 Inventions that Built Our World

• Back us on Patreon

Written and presented by Jonn Elledge. Producer: James Liddell. Audio production: Jade Bailey. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music: Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. 

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Donald Trump is making more money than any sitting US president in history – and his eldest son isn’t about to let Dad have all the fun… Through his investment firm 1789 Capital, Donald Trump Jr is cashing in by backing companies that often stand to benefit from government policy.  

So how is he turning political access into profit? What does it reveal about the financial ties between the White House and the president's inner circle? And is it blatant corruption or is he exploiting a system with few guardrails? The New York Times’ finance reporter Maureen Farrell joins Jacob Jarvis to unpack what’s going on.  

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Written and presented by Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. Producer: James Liddell. Audio production: Robin Leeburn. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. 

www.podmasters.co.uk

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

Andy Burnham is pushing his new devolution agenda and suggested it could mean we need a written constitution. How might that work? Plus, there’s a new mayor in Manchester, what did the by-election show us? Alex von Tunzelmann talks Jacob Jarvis through the news to look out for in the next few days.  

• Find out if you’re owed on car finance at refundclub.co.uk/bunker 

• Refund Club is a trading style of Sandsford Law Limited, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA no. 8008114). Checking is free. A fee is payable only if your claim is successful. Eligibility: car finance taken out in the UK between 2007 and 2021. The average claim is around £829 per agreement; this is an average and not a guarantee of the amount you will receive. You can also claim yourself for free by contacting your lender or the Financial Ombudsman Service. refundclub.co.uk/bunker 

Support us on Patreon. 

Written and presented by Jacob Jarvis with Alex von Tunzelmann. Audio production: Jade Bailey. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.    

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

Looking back on the big stories of the past week… The Burnham bounce is driving the right completely bonkers. How long can his momentum last – and can anyone knock the PM off his pedestal? Plus: Donald Trump held talks with Zelensky and Netanyahu after delivering an unhinged eulogy for the late Senator Lindsey Graham. What did we learn from these meetings? Rafael Behr joins Jacob Jarvis to discuss the biggest, strangest and most under-reported stories of the week.  

• Find out if you’re owed on car finance at refundclub.co.uk/bunker

• Refund Club is a trading style of Sandsford Law Limited, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA no. 8008114). Checking is free. A fee is payable only if your claim is successful. Eligibility: car finance taken out in the UK between 2007 and 2021. The average claim is around £829 per agreement; this is an average and not a guarantee of the amount you will receive. You can also claim yourself for free by contacting your lender or the Financial Ombudsman Service. refundclub.co.uk/bunker

Support us on Patreon.

Written and presented by Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. Producer: James Liddell. Audio production: Jade Bailey. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. 

www.podmasters.co.uk

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

Putin thought his war on Ukraine would restore Russia to greatness in just ten days. Instead, after four and a half years of futile slaughter and almost half a million Russian soldiers killed, the unthinkable seems to be coming true. Could Russia lose in Ukraine? Could Putin go down with it? And could defeat break up the Russian Federation – the “last empire” – itself? Russian native and professor in the Department of International Relations at the Central European University in Vienna Alexander Etkind joins Alex von Tunzelmann to discuss what happens next. 

 • Buy Professor Etkind’s book Russia Against Modernity from 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.

• Find out if you’re owed on car finance at refundclub.co.uk/bunker

• Refund Club is a trading style of Sandsford Law Limited, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA no. 8008114). Checking is free. A fee is payable only if your claim is successful. Eligibility: car finance taken out in the UK between 2007 and 2021. The average claim is around £829 per agreement; this is an average and not a guarantee of the amount you will receive. You can also claim yourself for free by contacting your lender or the Financial Ombudsman Service. refundclub.co.uk/bunker

• Back us on Patreon – www.patreon.com/bunkercast

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

www.podmasters.co.uk

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

A lab accident, a bio-attack, a global pandemic. Is this how it all ends? If you weren’t worried enough about nuclear war, the next doomsday weapon is a sinister invisible threat – and it’s a living thing. After her astonishing book Nuclear War: A Scenario reignited the global conversation about the reality of nuclear weapons, Annie Jacobson’s new book Biological War: A Scenario charts how a fast-moving pathogen could bring humanity swiftly to its knees.  

She spoke to US government officials, military advisers, virologists and trawled through a mountain of declassified material to build the scenario. Annie now joins Emma Kennedy to discuss the enormity of the threat.   

 • Buy Annie’s book Biological War: A Scenario from 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. 

• Annie speaks about her previous book Nuclear War: A Scenario on this vintage episode of The Bunker.  

• Back us on Patreon

Written and presented by Emma Kennedy. Producer: James Liddell. Audio production: Jade Bailey. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music: Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. 

www.podmasters.co.uk

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