The Bunker – News without the nonsense

• It’s Podmasters’ 10th birthday! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon backing. Cryptocurrency has come a long way since it was a fringe enthusiasm for get-rich-quick bros and anti-state libertarian fantasists. Now “stablecoins” like Tether are on the verge of becoming a parallel banking system in the US, except much less regulated. And the moneymaking opportunities that crypto affords are corrupting American politics to a staggering degree. Why is stablecoin more potent than regular crypto? Is the Trump Administration’s crypto boosterism essentially an enrichment scheme for the Trump family? WTF is going on with “Trumpcoin” and “Melaniacoin”? How deeply are Nigel Farage and Reform UK committed to bringing all this to Britain? And what happens if a mega stablecoin falls over? The FT’s Katie Martin takes Rafael Behr on an enthralling nightmare tour of “the biggest conflict of interest in history.” www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Rafael Behr. Producer: Andrew Harrison. Audio production by Chris Jones. 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

• It’s Podmasters’ 10th birthday! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon backing. Setting up the events of the next seven days… Another day, another assassination attempt. Will the attack on Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner overshadow King Charles’s visit to the US? Will the gun attack change anything apart from making conspiracy nutters crazier? And what were journos doing at an event to celebrate a man who hates them and says they’re enemies of the people? Plus: It’s Groundhog Day all over again as Labour agonises over Starmer’s leadership. Morgan McSweeney to be seen in public at last. And it’s Forest vs Villa in a Europa League semi-final that’s straight from 1979! Ros Taylor and Andrew Harrison read the runes for the week ahead. • Don’t miss the Oh God, What Now? vs Origin Story Patreons’ Podclash this Thursday 30 April. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Audio production by 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

• It’s Podmasters’ 10th birthday! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon backing. Our original podcast is back for one week only! Bigmouth AKA The Culture Bunker, the pop culture chatpod that birthed The Bunker, Oh God, What Now? and more, returns for our tenth birthday. On the agenda: Kneecap’s new album ‘Fenian’, Apple TV’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles, hot new tunes from the panel… and all the stuff we missed when we were off air, including Project Hail Mary and The Lowdown. With regulars Andrew Harrison and Siân Pattenden plus returning guests, The Guardian’s Jude Rogers (who was on the very first Bigmouth on 24 April 2016) and writer and music tech guru Michael Moran… who reveals an astonishing secret. • Hear the tunes we talk about today on the Bigmouth rolling playlist… still going! • Hear Boots On The Ground by Massive Attack & Tom Waits, which isn’t on streaming. • And neither are The Shashashanimals. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Andrew Harrison and Siân Pattenden. 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

• It’s Podmasters’ 10th birthday! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon backing for The Bunker. Starmer has had another tumultuous week amid the Peter Mandelson and Olly Robbins drama. Is there a route back and who’s really benefiting from the fallout? Plus: The Onion buys Alex Jones’s InfoWars, Donald Trump’s administration shows fresh signs of strain as the Iran ceasefire is extended, and how worried should we be about Anthropic’s new model Mythos? Jacob Jarvis is joined by Jonn Elledge to unpack the biggest stories from the past week. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Jacob Jarvis with Jonn Elledge. Producer: Kathleen Johnston. Production Assistant: Jake Preston. 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 Written and presented by: Jacob Jarvis with Jonn Elledge. Producer: Kathleen Johnston. Production Assistant: Jake Preston. 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

• It’s Podmasters’ 10th birthday! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon backing. Péter Magyar’s stunning victory over Hungary’s arch-populist Viktor Orbán put progressives around the world into raptures. Was this the beginning of the end for the European far-right? But behind the energy and charisma, Magyar is a complex figure – driven, ruthless, a traditional conservative and graduate of Orbán’s Fidesz movement, and maybe not exactly the centre-left’s dream date. Euronews EU Correspondent Sandor Zsiros takes Andrew Harrison on a tour of the formative years and astonishing scandals that put Péter Magyar on course to Make Hungary Sane Again. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Audio production: Robin Leeburn and Chris Jones. 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

• It’s Podmasters’ 10th birthday! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon backing. The news is no longer what people in power want to hide – it’s what algorithms say will keep you clicking. And it’s become a breeding ground for misinformation. As powerful, politically-connected people tighten their grip on what we read and hear, how do you know what to trust? Eliot Higgins of the investigative journalist group Bellingcat tells Rafael Behr how the news environment is evolving, and why open-source intelligence – freely-available information that’s hiding in plain sight – can break us out of the world of managed news. • Back us on Patreon – www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Rafael Behr. Audio production: Robin Leeburn. 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

The far-right “Unite The Kingdom” march in London in September 2025 was an unprecedented display of populist, xenophobic anger. It shocked the country – but it didn’t surprise Liam Byrne, the Labour MP and former minister who dissects the Age of Rage in his book, Why Populists Are Winning – And How To Beat Them. He talks to Zoe Grünewald about how mainstream politics took away ordinary people’s certainties and left them prey to unscrupulous, well-funded demagogues – and what we need to do to turn back the populist tide. NB This episode was recorded before the defeat of Viktor Orbán in Hungary. • Buy Why Populists Are Winning through 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. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Zoë Grünewald. 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

The Mandelson scandal is back and all eyes are on Starmer as he looks to once again justify the baffling and increasingly disastrous appointment. Gavin Esler joins Jacob Jarvis to discuss what could happen and what it all means, plus the latest from Trump’s war in Iran, political change in Hungary and more. Listen to This is Not a Drill: https://linktr.ee/drillpod Back us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Jacob Jarvis with Gavin Esler. Audio production: Simon Williams. 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

Labour and Reform battle over women’s votes – but what are either of the parties actually talking about? Plus: Tucker Carlson launches a publishing house with Russell Brand on board, Donald Trump starts a feud with the Pope, and US–Iran conflict rumbles on. Jacob Jarvis is joined by Alex von Tunzelmann to unpack the biggest stories from the past week. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by: Jacob Jarvis with Alex von Tunzelmann. Producer: Kathleen Johnston. Production Assistant: Jake Preston. 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

The stunning defeat of Viktor Orbán and his “illiberal democracy” project in Hungary appears to be a humiliating blow to Trump, Vance, Putin, Farage, and populists across the world. (Who will host their get-togethers now?) But is it really the beginning of the end for far-right authoritarianism, or something more complex? Jason Pack – host of the Disorder podcast and Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute – talks to Andrew Harrison about why Orbán fell, where the “neopopulist” go next, and what fans of democracy should learn from Peter Magyar’s victory. • Support us on Patreon to join the Oh God, What Now vs Origin Story Podclash on Thursday 30 April. FURTHER READING FROM JASON • Listen to the Disorder podcast with Jason Pack • Ordering the Disorder Substack: The Heart of Europe beats Stronger than ever • How Orban led to Trump. • Hungary’s Lessons for Trump’s Opponents: Viktor Orbán’s critics had to put their ideological differences aside. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Audio production by Tom Taylor and 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

Who is Gavin Newsom and what does he want? Does the California Governor have the right stuff to put the Democrats back in power and wrest America back from its ruinous MAGA direction? Or is he a bit too slick and slippery to fulfil the hopes of beleaguered progressives? The Independent’s Washington Correspondent Eric Garcia talks to Dorian Lynskey about “Newsomania”, the Governor’s merciless social media game and chequered history, and the contradictions of a man who grew up poor yet who numbered the Gettys among his family friends. “He’s one of the most politically acrobatic figures I’ve ever seen… and it makes people ask, does this guy have any real beliefs?” www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Dorian Lynskey. Producer: Andrew Harrison. 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

When Trump appointed the crankish Robert F Kennedy Jr to head America’s Department of Health and Human Services, he brought paranoid, anti-science “do your own research” thinking to the centre of US health policy. Kennedy has since promoted extreme anti-vaxxers, cut cancer and vaccine research, and spread dangerous lies about autism and vaccination. Now measles is surging in the US and trust in public health institutions is collapsing. Will RFK’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda usher in a new age of mass disease? Dr Gigi Gronvall, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, talks to Emma Kennedy about the dangers of Kennedy’s misinformation agenda – and how America can rebuild its public health capabilities. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Emma Kennedy. 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

Setting out the news stories of the week ahead… Today, good news for once as far-right poster boy Viktor Orbán takes a crushing defeat in Hungary. Plus, Starmer takes UK closer to EU using the tools the Brexiters forged, and they do NOT like it. Trump is bored of Iran and looking for something else to wreck. And the Southport murders and COVID vaccine inquiries both report. Ros Taylor and Andrew Harrison get you up to speed on the next seven days. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. 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

Donald Trump’s ceasefire deal in Iran has left everyone confused. Does anyone know what’s actually happening? Plus: Kanye West being banned from the UK, Viktor Orbán faces election defeat and a £4 million donation to Reform from a crypto billionaire. Jacob Jarvis is joined by Zoë Grunewald to round up the biggest stories from the past week. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by: Jacob Jarvis with Zoë Grunewald. Producer: Kathleen Johnston. Production Assistant: Jake Preston. 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

A culture of fear, blame, obedience and corner-cutting sets in chain a devastating course of events. Millions are displaced, many die and the effects last for decades. Sounds familiar? On 26 April 1986, reactor no.‍4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat in modern Ukraine exploded, spreading radioactive contaminants across the Soviet Union and Europe. The disaster would eventually cost $700bn and hasten the fall of the USSR. Adam Higginbotham is the author of the definitive work on the accident, Midnight in Chernobyl. He tells Andrew Harrison how the culture that led to Chernobyl wasn’t confined to Soviet Russia – and how Putin’s war on Ukraine risks stirring up Chernobyl’s radioactive poisons all over again • Buy Midnight in Chernobyl and/or Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space through 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. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison. Audio production: Tom Taylor & Dom Delargy. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Artwork by James Parrett. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The toxic stew of grievance, misogyny and self-pity known as the Manosphere isn’t just warping young men’s minds and legitimising contempt for women. It’s become big business for influencers like Andrew Tate, HSTikkyTokky and others. If disaffected young men pay enough into their “Universities” they can ascend to ever-higher levels with names like “the War Room”. There they learn that women and woke are to blame for all their problems, and they can learn how to master both… if they keep paying enough. Debbie Ging, Professor of Digital Media and Gender at Dublin City University, talks to Zoë Grünewald about the economics of the Manosphere and how the quest for fast cars and compliant women can become a ruinously expensive pursuit. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written by Zoë Grünewald and Sophie Clark and presented by Zoe Grünewald. 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

Trump is making increasingly intense threats against Iran and coming off as more and more unhinged. Alex von Tunzelmann joins Jacob Jarvis to discuss how out of the ordinary all of this is, why it’s not being stopped and how it could unfold. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Jacob Jarvis with Alex von Tunzelmann. Audio production: Robin Leeburn. 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

Donald Trump declares the war will be over soon and rambles violently in the process. Again. But should we take this seriously or is this just another wild claim? Plus: ‘bimbofication’, yes we’re not sure either, Keir Starmer calls for closer EU ties and Artemis 2 launches. Jacob Jarvis is joined by Zoë Grunewald to discuss another busy week. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by: Jacob Jarvis with Zoë Grunewald. Producer: Liam Tait and Kathleen Johnston. Production Assistant: Jake Preston. 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

The creation of Artificial General Intelligence could be the greatest gamble mankind has ever undertaken. And one of its unlikely prime movers is a working class north Londoner and chess prodigy, the son of immigrant parents, who founded the groundbreaking company DeepMind to create machine superintelligence – a goal which if achieved could transform or destroy our world. Unlike the Altmans and the Musks, Demis Hassabis has the decency to fear what he is creating. The story of this 21st Century Oppenheimer is told in The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind and the Quest for Superintelligence. Author Sebastian Mallaby talks to Emma Kennedy about Hassabis’s journey and where it could take us. • Buy The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind and the Quest for Superintelligence through 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. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Emma Kennedy. Produced by Sophie Clark. 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

The Golden Apple… From the boxy, upstart Apple II computer to the world-changing iPod and iPhone and beyond, Apple Inc. has shaped both the digital world and our own reality since it was founded on 1 April, 1976. Steve Jobs and creators like Jony Ive brought sleek consumer design to the masses, saved the music business, and created the app industry – but Apple has also grown into a corporate behemoth which kowtows to Trump. On Apple’s 50th birthday, tech journalist Craig Grannell talks to Alex von Tunzelmann about how it became the world’s most valuable brand… the disasters that happened along the way… and whether Apple can survive the age of A.I. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Alex von Tunzelmann. Produced by Sophie Clark. Audio production by 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