The Bunker – Your daily news Deep Dive

Most extreme movements seem to have one thing in common: angry men. Do misogyny and radicalisation go hand-in-hand? Extreme Britain: Gender, Masculinity and Radicalisation author Dr Elizabeth Pearson discusses the mobilisation of masculinity with Marie Le Conte, drawing upon personal experiences with British extremist group leaders such as Anjem Choudary and Tommy Robinson. 

• “Men realise particular aspects of masculinity that get themselves esteem within their extremist groups.” - Dr Elizabeth Pearson 

• “The far right has traditionally not had women in publicly visible roles… the cultural norms of the radical right are not conducive to women’s participation.” – Dr Elizabeth Pearson

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Written and presented by Marie Le Conte. Producer: Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production: Jade Bailey. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Artwork by James Parrett. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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It’s Rishi Sunak’s nightmare week as he faces the COVID Inquiry and his own restive MPs over Rwanda. How will the testy PM deal with a real grilling? And it will only take 28 Tory rebels to sink the Rwanda legislation. How will he handle that? Plus, Farage paints coming last in I’m A Celebrity as a win, the cruelty of the family income rules on migration, and flawed leasehold legislation. Ros Taylor and Alex Andreou set out the week ahead. 

• “Eat Out To Help Out is the most glaring example of the Government not following the science when claiming it did… They didn’t even ASK the science.”

• “Sunak is good at prep but he gets tetchy and petulant when he’s questioned.”

• “Labour doesn’t want to fight an election in migration. The Tory press want to move the debate there, and Labour is not taking the bait.”

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Written and presented by Ros Taylor. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. Assistant producer: Eliza Davis Beard. Music: Kenny Dickinson. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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Donald Trump commands extreme support from evangelicals in America – despite seemingly lacking Christian values. How has this support developed and endured? Dr Seth Thévoz is joined by Tim Alberta, journalist and author of the book The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, to discuss. 

• “There is a caricature of the evangelical, flag waving Trump republican which isn’t always accurate.” – Tim Alberta
• “Evangelicals view Trump as the ultimate brawler. He can fight for them in ways that are not beholden to Christian virtues and heritage. It is a great irony.” – Tim Alberta

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Written and Presented by Seth Thévoz. Assistant Producer: Adam Wright. Audio Production: Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music: Kenny Dickinson. Artwork: James Parrett. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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Despite governments pushing to make people healthier, the junk food industry continues to thrive. How do the corporations in charge continue to thrive – and hold power the world over? Alex Andreou is joined in The Bunker by Eduardo J. Gómez, author of Junk Food Politics: How Beverage and Fast Food Industries Are Reshaping Emerging Economies, to find out. 

• “Junk food is an image of wealth which is very appealing to the upper-middle income class; having access to something that is popular in the global West is seen as a social status symbol.” - Eduardo J. Gómez 

• “These multinational corporations fear declining markets and sales in a lot of Western industrialised nations where more people are knowledgeable about how unhealthy these food products are.” – Eduardo J. Gómez 

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Written and presented by Alex Andreou. Producer: Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production: Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Artwork by James Parrett. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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Elon Musk’s calamitous time at Twitter, or X as he wants to call it, has wrecked the platform. But could he go as far as tanking the company entirely? Today in The Bunker, Chris Jones speaks with Ryan Broderick, tech journalist and writer of the Garbage Day substack, to find out if we could see the end of the site – and what impact its demise would have upon the Tesla chief’s other business ventures. 

• "On X, you can see family friendly adverts beside some of the most hateful content you can imagine.” – Ryan Broderick

• “Purely right wing social media platforms just don’t work." – Ryan Broderick

• “Elon Musk has never found a rake he didn’t want to step on." – Ryan Broderick

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Written and Presented by Chris Jones. Producer: Liam Tait. Art by James Parrett. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. Group Editor Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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Private schools have been responsible for educating a broad spread of political leaders. What’s going on in this weird world of elite education? To make sense of public schools and their staggering influence within the UK government and beyond, Andrew Harrison talks to Robert Verkaik, author of Posh Boys: How English Public Schools Ruin Britain, in The Bunker. 

• “It’s bizarre when you think that one school can be as influential in the running of the government as Eton has.” – Robert Verkaik 

• “These schools' sole purpose is to advance the life chances of children who are already incredibly privileged… which ultimately undermines our democracy.” – Robert Verkaik 

Buy Posh Boys: How English Public Schools Ruin Britain through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund The Bunker by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.

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Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Producer: Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production: Alex Rees. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Artwork by James Parrett. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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All eyes will be on Boris Johnson as he faces the Covid Inquiry this week. What bombshells? Plus – Keir Starmer has made headlines over the weekend for his praise of Margaret Thatcher? What’s the Labour leader up to? We have the latest on the Government’s failing Rwanda plan – can Rishi Sunak ever escape the doomed policy? Finally we have the latest on the Israel Hamas conflict, are Israel’s allies losing patience with Netanyahu? 

• “Nothing Johnson says this week will change the public perception of Boris Johnson.” – Ros Taylor 
• “Going to war with a neighbouring country may not be the smartest thing to do during a pandemic.” – Alex Andreou
• "Johnson does have a history of dismissing female-led inquiries.” – Ros Taylor

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Written and presented by Alex Andreou with Ros Taylor. Producer: Liam Tait. Audio editor: Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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We’ve all felt shame. But it’s more than an emotion – it’s also a political weapon. All manners of politicians, including recent figures like Trump and various Brexiteers, have utilised the feeling to pursue their ends. David Keen, the author of Shame: The Politics and Power of an Emotion, speaks to Alex Andreou to discuss the strength of shame and how it’s been used throughout history. 

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

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Donald Trump is never out of trouble. And it’s hard to keep up with his latest wrongdoing. Jacob Jarvis is joined by Andrew Rudalevige, Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government at Bowdoin College and a visiting professor at LSE, to go over the five key areas of drama you need to understand in the run up to 2024.

• “If Trump were convicted of all 90 of his current felonies, he'd’ be looking at something like 700 years in prison.”

• “Any private citizen not named Donald J. Trump would inevitably get convicted for espionage and obstruction of justice in the classified documents case”

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Written and presented by Jacob Jarvis. Producer: Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production: Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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Gun battles, mass graves, and explosions – that’s not a description of a battlefield, but of an illegal gold mine in South Africa. Gold mining propped up the nation’s economy for over a century, and still today countries like the UK trade millions for its gold. But a huge price crash in the late 90s put tens of thousands of miners out of a job. Since then, a literal criminal underworld has risen, operated by illegal miners named the Zama-Zamas, who risk their lives everyday in abandoned mine shafts that could collapse any minute.

Kimon de Greef is a journalist who has investigated all this for The New Yorker. He joins Dipo Faloyin in the Bunker to explain what drives the Zama-Zamas and where their gold goes.

• “Up until the end of apartheid, Gold was the bedrock of South Africa’s economy.” – Kimon de Greef.

• “It’s like something out of the most dystopian science fiction, down there, but it’s real.” – Kimon de Greef.

• “Gold really explains a lot of South Africa’s social history.” – Kimon de Greef.

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Presented by Dipo Faloyin. Written and Produced by: Chris Jones. Audio production: Alex Rees. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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