Oh God, What Now?

Nigel Farage’s family has even urged him to “pack it in” and “walk away” amid recent scandals. Can he and his party survive the latest scrutiny? The beleaguered Reform leader tried to appear unruffled at his party conference after a bombshell Channel 4 documentary raised fresh questions about foreign donations. What will come next? Plus: masked anti-migrant protestors took to the streets of Dover and Portsmouth over the weekend trying to take the law into their own hands. Is the rule of the mob on the rise? ESCAPE ROUTES • Rachel was reminded of Frank Turner’s ability to transcend divides after her husband watched him perform live at the Moseley Folk & Arts Festival • Raf finally went to the West End to watch the satirical World War 2 musical Operation Mincemeat • Jonn has been bingeing the brand-new third season of the BBC’s smash-hit Vigil • Seth went to the UK’s “biggest sauna” – the Royal Albert Hall – to watch BBC Proms • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  • Find out if you’re owed on car finance at refundclub.co.uk/OGWN • 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/OGWN www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Seth Thévoz with Jonn Elledge, Rachel Cunliffe and Rafael Behr. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Weekend bonus episode… Britain still mired in Brexit, Europe divided, economic stagnation in the West and Donald Trump’s disastrous culture wars and actual wars. Are they all just a blip in human history or does the West’s decline mark the beginning of a new world order? What if that future belongs to rising powers of the East – China and India? That’s the premise of Sir Vince Cable’s new book, Eclipsing the West: China, India and the Forging of a New World. The former Liberal Democrat leader talks to Rafael Behr about how China and India are increasingly shaping the world – and where (and if) Britain fits in.  • Buy Vince’s book Eclipsing the West: China, India and the forging of a new world 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. • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Written and presented by Rafael Behr. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fast reaction with News Statesman’s associate political editor Rachel Cunliffe and Jacob Jarvis. Nigel Farage and Reform are facing another crisis after two – now former – senior officials were filmed in an undercover sting appearing to plot how to circumvent electoral law to bag a £500,000 foreign donation… Reform says it’s all a “hoax”, predictably… Can Reform weather the storm? Is Farage totally done for? And what might happen next? • Find out if you’re owed on car finance at refundclub.co.uk/OGWN • 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/OGWN www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Jacob Jarvis with Rachel Cunliffe. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook owners Meta hit the headlines with an $18bn settlement in the US over accusations that its products had harmed kids. But was the bill really so onerous, or just the price of keeping Zuckerberg out of the witness box? Special guest Baroness Beeban Kidron OBE – activist, digital rights champion and former film director – talks us through the reality of the fight to protect kids online; whether Britain’s digital curfews for teens will work; and the dirty digital deals done behind doors to protect Big Tech. Plus, Andy Burnham promised more problem solving than point-scoring in his Prime Minister's Questions debut… and it lasted about five minutes. How did the PM shape up – and was it the baptism of fire we expected? And in the Extra Bit: Will your mind really “flood with ideas” if you stop listening to podcasts, as one Guardian writer suggests? Our panel weighs in.  • Buy Beeban’s book Users: How Big Tech Took Control and How to Fight Back 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. • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • James saw the animated legal comedy Coyote vs Acme and read Jon Ronson’s latest, The Castle: Adventures in a World of Unravelling Men. • Jason also watched Coyote vs Acme and read 31 Inventions that Built Our World by OGWN regular Jonn Elledge. • Beeban watched Arsenal scrape a win against Aston Villa and is re-reading Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. • Andrew went to Krankenhaus Festival in Cumbria and saw Sea Power, Pictish Trail and Smote, and spotted Green MP Hannah Spencer. He’s also been bingeing the TV series Lanterns. • Find out if you’re owed on car finance at refundclub.co.uk/OGWN • 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/OGWN. www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison with James Ball, Jason Hazeley and Beeban Kidron. Produced by James Liddell. Audio production: Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andy Burnham is feeling a sudden wave of the back-to-school blues. Not only did Keir Starmer tactlessly decide to quit Parliament just before his first Commons speech, but a long list of challenges is also piling up in the PM’s in-tray. So, what’s causing Burnham the biggest headaches? Is the Burnham bounce finally over? And what happens next? Plus: Badenoch reshuffles her shadow cabinet, Iceland rejects the EU and Trump tries to rename yet more geographical features… and questions Britain’s claim to the Falklands. •  Listen as Gavin Esler explores the breakneck evolution of military technology in This Is Not A Drill’s brand new four-part mini-series • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  • Find out if you’re owed on car finance at refundclub.co.uk/OGWN • 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. ESCAPE ROUTES • Marie read Ursula K. Le Guin’s sci-fi novella Paradises Lost • Hannah has been bingeing Season 5 of Couples Therapy, which has just landed on BBC iPlayer • Ros went to the cinema twice, first to see Pedro Almodóvar’s Bitter Christmas and then De Gaulle: Résistance, a biopic on the great Gallic general • Matt has been reading Running Through Sand: An Ageing Comedian’s Ill-Thought-Out Ultra in the Sahara by Paul Tonkinson www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Matt Green with Hannah Fearn, Ros Taylor and Marie Le Conte. Produced by James Liddell. Audio production: Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune: Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The first of our occasional weekend bonus episodes… Bewildered by the tangled stories of Putin’s war on Ukraine, Trump’s incomprehensible loyalty to the Russian tyrant, and Russia’s interference in British politics? The Guardian’s foreign correspondent Luke Harding ties all the threads together in his riveting new book Betrayed: Trump, Putin And The New Age Of Conquest – laying bare how thoroughly Putin played Trump and the enormity of what has happened to our old world of rules.   He talks to Andrew Harrison about the big picture that daily news misses, the return of Great Power politics, and whether Donald Trump really is a Russian asset.   • Buy Luke’s book Betrayal: Trump, Putin and The New Age of Conquest 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.  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.   • Photo: Trump greets Putin on the tarmac in Anchorage, Alaska on August 15 2025. (Photo by Kremlin Press Service / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)  Support us on Patreon - www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow  Written and presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.  www.podmasters.co.uk   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good news for newsrooms: Harry and Meghan are back in Britain and editors are beside themselves. We might say we don’t care about “Reverse Megxit” but why does the clickrate say otherwise? Plus: Giftgate was only two years ago, but MPs are still accepting freebies. They’ve taken almost £400,000 of hospitality this year alone – including tickets to Harry Styles and the F1. But is that necessarily so bad? Are freebies a serious conflict of interest or do we just want politicians to live in a hair shirt? And in the Extra Bit: people are queuing to take photos at beauty spots – are we all just compliant sheep who need to get over our strangling cultural traditions? • Get up to £350 off the Eight Sleep Pod 5 here with the code OGWN • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Marie went to watch Tony, the biopic about the late rockstar chef-turned-broadcaster Anthony Bourdain • Seth watched 60’s crime thriller Cash on Demand – like a “noirish bank heist version” of Dickens ’ A Christmas Carol • Rachel hasn’t been able to put down Jon Ronson’s new book The Castle: Adventures in a World of Unravelling Men • Ros has begun watching supernatural French drama Sea Shadows (or Rivages in French) www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Ros Taylor with Marie Le Conte, Rachel Cunliffe and Seth Thévoz. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is communism having a mini revival? Marxist critiques and socialist ideas are becoming the in thing with Gen Z, while Donald Trump is harking back to the Red Scare of his youth to attack the Democrats. Is it anything more than a resurrected bogeyman for the right? Man of the left, veteran journalist and friend of the pod Paul Mason joins the panel to discuss Reds: A Global History of Communism, his sweeping new history of the movement. Plus: Andy Burnham heads to Ukraine with missile plans in hand, Reform’s bullshit policy of the week and much, much more.   • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  • Buy Paul’s book Reds: A Global History of Communism 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. ESCAPE ROUTES • Zoë has started watching award-winning medical drama The Pitt • Jonn has been watching the BBC murder mystery Ludwig • Paul went to watch Adrian Lester star as the titular character in Cyrano de Bergerac at the Noël Coward Theatre in London’s West End • Andrew has been bingeing the late ’70s British fantasy TV hit Sapphire and Steel www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison with Zoë Grünewald, Jonn Elledge and Paul Mason. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The climate crisis got horribly real this summer – but is it really true that ordinary people can’t do anything about it? The National Emergency Briefing is a growing movement around a stunning documentary film that makes clear the reality of the crisis and what we CAN do about it. Green economist Angela Francis joins us to explain where the fight for a liveable climate is heading; how to beat the  Reform angle that it’s just too expensive so we might as well not bother; and bring surprisingly good news about tech, investment and the coming battery.  Plus, house prices are falling (in some places), ULEZ is working, and Donald Trump decides North Korea is his favourite Korea. Well, it can’t all be good news. • Find a screening of the National Emergency Briefing here and if there isn’t one near you, you can request one.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Hannah went to see Jimmy Eat World and Rise Against at Crystal Palace Bowl.  • Jason has been enjoying the podcast Kevin Eldon’s Speakers   • Angela has been reading How To Lose A Country by Ece Temelkuran and finally watching Call My Agent on Netflix.  • Matt watched Spider-Man: Brand New Day.  Buy books 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. Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Matt Green with Hannah Fearn and Jason Hazeley. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The shocking death of former Cambridge University professor Jason Arday raises serious questions about the press investigation of his career and the claims he made about his life. Some blame the right-wing press for his death, others the university. Some blame the litany of racist and abusive messages Arday received online. Where should responsibility lie? Plus, Andy Burnham is clearly more comfortable navigating today’s online world than Keir Starmer. But does he fully grasp the forces he’s up against? Are Russia, China and malign actors closer to home “flooding the zone” with disinformation to drown out the truth? Former senior UK government adviser-turned disinformation analyst Amil Khan joins the panel to dissect the information war that Burnham faces. • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • James has been playing the strategy video game Civilisation VII • Marie is in the middle of Pereira Maintains by Italian writer and academic Antonio Tabucchi.  • Amil has been reading Beer in the Snooker Club by Egyptian writer Waguih Ghali.  • Seth watched David Lean’s 1970 epic Ryan’s Daughter When you buy books through our affiliate bookshop you 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/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Seth Thévoz with James Ball, Marie Le Conte and Amil Khan. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fast analysis of the Clacton by-election with Steve Richards and Andrew Harrison. Two and half cheers for plucky underdog Nigel Farage who defeated the “establishment” candidate Count Binface in a by-election of his own making. And in the end, he didn’t even bother to show up to claim his victory… Now the stunt is over, the parliamentary standards watchdog is back investigating Farage’s £5m “gift” from a crypto billionaire. So was this entire exercise completely futile? Could Farage’s own gambit come back to bite him? And with his – and Reform’s – polling slipping, has the tide finally turned? • Buy tickets for Steve’s 14-day Rock & Roll Politics run at the Edinburgh Fringe • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison with Steve Richards. Produced by James Liddell. Audio production: Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Barring a bin-shaped asteroid strike on the Essex Coast, Nigel Farage will win the Clacton by-election – but his problems won’t be over. What will Reform’s slippery leader face in the months to come? And can, should, would his party strike a deal with either Restore or the Conservatives? Plus our special guest, journalist Rachel Wearmouth, has the date of the next General Election, for real! And we answer a wealth of YOUR questions in a But Your Emails special.  • Get up to £350 off the Eight Sleep Pod 5 here with the code OGWN.  • Don’t miss the Clacton By-Election Emergencycast on Friday 14 August.  • Order the unofficial Count Binface comic here • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Rachel has been watching the Disney+ crime thriller Furious   • Seth has been re-watching classic psychedelic ’60s spy show The Prisoner.  • Jason played Steve Reich’s Music For 18 Musicians with Paraorchestra and Charles Hazlewood and you can hear it on BBC Sounds   • Andrew has been listening to the Richard Norris remixes collection Re-Make: Re-Model www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow  Presented by Andrew Harrison with Seth Thévoz and Jason Hazeley. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No drinking pints standing up in London’s nightlife hotspot? No new reservoirs until 2040? Welcome to Veto Britain – where infrastructure, housing and even a round at the bar are all subject to the mercy of endless local objection. So how did we become a country that seems incapable of building, changing or enjoying itself anymore? Plus, racist disorder erupts in Norfolk, scrutiny of Andy Burnham’s early prisoner release plan intensifies and the PM’s crackdown on “subscription traps” gives cancel culture a whole new meaning.  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Jonn finally watched Stephen Fry and Mark Carwardine’s documentary Last Chance to See, based on Carwardine and Douglas Adams’ book and radio series of the same name • Rachel has been reading Virgil’s epic The Aeneid – “the Roman response to Homer,” she says. • Raf saw a production of Molière’s Tartuffe while in France which is coming to the Marylebone Theatre next month.  • Zoë zoomed through Jem Calder’s I Want You to Be Happy Image: Cartoon depicting Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 2nd Baronet of Brayton (1829-1906), an English temperance campaigner and radical, anti-imperialist Liberal Party politician. Dated 19th Century. No idea who the bloke on the right is. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Zoë Grünewald, with Rachel Cunliffe, Jonn Elledge and Rafael Behr. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production: Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The earth is burning, Britain is parched brown and rain is a distant memory. Yet the Tories are purging the last of their Net Zero advocates, the Greens seem to have lost interest in green policies, and Burnham’s Labour are teetering on the edge of reopening oil and gas in the North Sea. Saving the planet is just so expensive! What will it take to get British politicians to take the climate emergency seriously?   Plus, will the real Kemi Badenoch please sit down? The current and quite possibly final leader of the Conservative Party stood by convicted neo-Nazi Joshua Bonehill-Paine as a local council candidate (he withdraws right in the middle of this recording). So how come the commentariat is convinced of the “Keminaissance”?  ESCAPE ROUTES: • Zoë has been reading Slags by Emma Jane Unsworth.  • Seth has been to Bayreuth for the Festival (hurry, it’s still on). • Ros got a preview copy of Deep Into The Sixties: Britain 1965–66 by David Kynaston • Rachel has been reading Pagans by James Alistair Henry. Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  • Find out if you’re owed on car finance at refundclub.co.uk/OGWN  • 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/OGWN   www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Ros Taylor with Zoë Grünewald, Rachel Cunliffe and Seth Thévoz. Audio Production by Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fifteen days in… Is Burnham’s government actually shaping up to be quite good? Impossible to say for certain, but the PM’s policy blitz seems to be landing pretty well, buoyed by Labour’s Greater Manchester mayoral win. Is the Age of Andy working out as well as it seems – and can the momentum last? Plus, following the astonishing scenes of migrants breaking into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta over the weekend, how is Europe’s far-right weaponising it? And Gianni Infantino face open revolt from his own top brass and football associations worldwide after trying to sell off the World Cup. Can he cling on?  • Read Martyn Ziegler’s brilliant expose of Gianni Infantino’s machinations before and during the World Cup.  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Raf went to watch Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds supported by Flaming Lips and English Teacher at Brighton’s Preston Park.  • Marie decided to rewatch Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves   • James has been rewatching noughties legal political drama The Good Wife • Andrew saw downtempo duo The Thievery Corporation live at Camden’s Roundhouse. www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison with James Ball, Marie Le Conte and Rafael Behr. Producer: James Liddell. Audio production: Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune: Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andy Burnham is promising to spend “whatever political capital” he has to fix the crumbling social care system after decades of political failure. As the right-wing press dusts off its “Death Tax” headlines, can he actually do it? Plus… He leads Restore Britain, an openly extreme right party committed to driving non-white people out of the country, and he’s becoming a persistent headache for his former boss Nigel Farage. But who exactly is Rupert Lowe? The panel sizes up the man behind the common-sense cosplay. And in the Extra Bit: the new Euro banknote designs are live, but what would Britain have put forward if we’d ever signed up for the single currency? • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Andrew watched the Japanese Edo-punk collective Seppuku Pistols live at North London’s New River Studios  • Seth hasn’t been able to put down David Crichton’s The Avengers: Death in Downing Street   • Jason watched Slice of Life: The American Dream In Former Pizza Huts, which, he says, was “f***ing brilliant”  • Zoë went to watch The Odyssey and particularly enjoyed “evil and excellent” Robert Pattinson • Find out if you’re owed on car finance at refundclub.co.uk/OGWN   • 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/OGWN www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Zoë Grünewald, with Andrew Harrison, Seth Thévoz and Jason Hazeley. Producer: James Liddell. Audio Production: Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune: Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He’s a communist! He wants to drag us back to the 70s! He’s going to tax you to death! He’s weak! He’s a tyrant! He’s gone to war with the South! His jackets are too expensive! Burnham has only been PM for a week and the right-wing press are already losing their minds. Is Burnham Derangement Syndrome stalking what’s left of Fleet Street? Plus: Is letting artificial intelligence do your thinking for you leading people into “cognitive surrender”? We talk about a new survey that unveils the dire consequences of outsourcing your brain to Claude and ChatGPT.  • Hear prison reformer Steve Gallant talking to Zoë Grünewald on The Bunker ESCAPE ROUTES • Marie is enjoying sci-fi show Silo on Apple TV+. • Jonn has been reading Hinterlands: Journeys through Europe’s Unfinished Frontiers by Hannah Lucinda Smith. Buy it 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. • Raf has been watching Ride Or Die with Hannah Waddingham on Amazon Prime. • Matt went to see The Divine Comedy at the Royal Festival Hall and Daniel Kitson’s new show Thrum.  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Matt Green with Marie le Conte, John Elledge and Rafael Behr. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Burnham arrives promising a “cost of living” government but can he make it happen? And does his mix of ideas and promises add up? TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak returns to the pod to talk about Burnham’s first steps, go to bat for unions in an age of A.I. tumult, make the case for reindustrialisation, and wind up Andrew about Jeff Bezos possibly buying Liverpool FC (Paul’s an Evertonian. So is Andy Burnham. It’s a conspiracy). And in the Extra Bit: What are the little luxuries that our panel and guests spend a bit too much on?  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Hannah has been reading Women’s Prize for Fiction winner The Correspondent by Virginia Evans.  • James recommends the original anime version of Avatar: The Last Airbender. • Paul recommends science fiction epic Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruochhio • Andrew is enjoying domestic robot comedy Ann Droid with Diane Morgan and Sue Johnston on the BBC.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Hannah Fearn and James Ball. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As ever, politics waited until we finished recording before dropping the big stuff… But worry not! Steve Richards of the Rock & Roll Politics podcast steps up to analyse the surprises, genius moves, curveballs and missing pieces in Andy Burnham’s first cabinet with Andrew Harrison. Should Ed Miliband have been chancellor instead of John Healey? Is this really a purge of Starmerites and a “Night of the Long Eyelashes” as The Mail claims? Are Burnham’s cost-of-living measures actually costed? And does it all fit together? • Catch even more of Steve’s analysis on Rock & Roll Politics • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Steve Richards. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brand new PM Andy Burnham is not hanging about. On day one he set about purging Starmer loyalists from the Cabinet and setting out his policy agenda, including fresh cost-of-living measures. Is this the fresh start Labour needs? Listen up for live in-pod sackings! Plus: Are we facing the end of reading? Scrolling through WhatsApp messages, Netflix subtitles and Instagram captions mean we're arguably reading more words than ever – yet book reading has nosedived in recent years. Has the “post-literate” society already arrived? • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Marie went to watch Christopher Nolan’s latest epic, The Odyssey • Rachel also delved into Greek mythology and has been bingeing Netflix’s Kaos • Jonn is watching spy thriller The Agency on Paramount+ • Seth has been reading Hostel, House and Chambers: Accommodating the Victorian and Edwardian Working Woman www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Seth Thévoz, with Rachel Cunliffe, Jonn Elledge and Marie Le Cont. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At long last it’s the Rover’s Return… What are the burning issues that will be taking up Andy Burnham’s time when he takes over No.10 next week? OGWN listeners bombard us with questions and we do our best to answer them. What can Burnham do that Starmer couldn’t? Does he need to do more than move stuff to the North? And why did Labour give Starmer a carriage clock, of all things?  Plus, Climate of Fear: Kemi Badenoch chooses the hottest moments of our Hell Summer (a period which is actually killing people) to purge Tory MPs who back Net Zero. WTF is she playing at? We look at this terrifying moment and whether the summer’s frightening scenes can push back the tide of climate change denialism.  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Jason bought George Martin: The Scores – the collected musical works of that chap who did The Beatles.  • Seth has been watching old episodes of Frasier – specifically S2 E18, The Club, with the 1896 vintage bottle of port.  • Ava went to see a series of Scorsese re-runs at the cinema.  • Ros has been re-reading Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. Buy 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/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Ros Taylor with Jason Hazeley, Seth Thévoz and special guest Ava Santina. Audio Production by: Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Counter-terrorism police take over the investigation into the killing of Ann Widdecombe, a crime that has shocked people across the political spectrum. Beyond legitimate questions around political violence, are Reform trying to amp up the fear for political gain? What should people in the public eye say – and what shouldn’t they?  Plus… Andy Burnham will finally become Britain’s prime minister this week – the seventh in a decade. Lucky him… he inherits an entire Sue Gray-style s**t list of policy issues. So what might actually be on it? And is there anything Burnham can do to stop his in-tray wrecking his life? • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Jonn went to the MC Escher exhibition at Somerset House – and couldn't resist a shoutout to the Doctor Who serial, Castrovalva.  • Hannah has been reading These Precious Days by the novelist Ann Patchett • Raf has watched L’Amour Ouf – Beating Hearts in English – while on holiday in France  • Zoe has been listening to Cameron Winter, the front-man of indie-rock band Geese  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Zoë Grünewald with Jonn Elledge, Hannah Fearn and Rafael Behr. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nigel Farage wanted a “people vs. the establishment” by-election but it quickly turned into “man vs. bin”. Every major rival has refused to run against him in Clacton, leaving the Reform leader’s only real opponent as the man with a trash can on his head, Count Binface. Is this one humiliation too many for the frog-faced fraud? Plus, Farage may be the front-man but the loudest and most extreme voice behind him is Zia Yusuf. How did the one-time left-winger become Reform’s self-styled “Shadow Home Secretary”? Expert on the far-right Daniel Trilling explains all. And in the Extra Bit: If you threw a sickie last Monday to watch England beat Mexico, you’re not alone. We look at the culture of the sick day around the world. • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Ros has been letting off some steam reading Christian Wolmar’s Fastrack: The Extraordinary Global History of The Race for High Speed Rail • Rachel went to watch Pride at the National Theatre, as Stephen Beresford’s hit moves from screen to stage • Daniel has been reading Keza MacDonald’s Super Nintendo: How One Japanese Company Helped the World Have Fun • Andrew went to see Robyn at the O2 and What the World Needs Now: The Songs of Burt Bacharach with Rumer, Ed Harcourt and Dionne Warwick  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison with Rachel Cunliffe, Ros Taylor and Daniel Trilling. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction by James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Quick-fire reaction to Nigel Farage’s resignation with Jacob Jarvis, Andrew Harrison and Jonn Elledge… For his latest trick, the Reform leader has quit as an MP after weeks of scrutiny over his finances finally caught up with him. In a whingeing speech, teed up hours in advance, Farage triggered a by-election in Clacton and says he’s determined to win it back. Is this a genuine appeal to voters or just a stunt to take the heat off the sleaze inquiry? Above all, what might happen next? • Back us on Patreon – www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Jacob Jarvis, with Andrew Harrison and Jonn Elledge. Producer: James Liddell. Audio production: Robin Leeburn. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Oh God What Now? is a Podmasters Production. www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After weeks of defending the £5m “gift” that won’t go away, Farage finds himself at the centre of another uncomfortable money story: undeclared finance from a convicted criminal with the unimprovable nickname “Posh George”. And Reform is faltering in the polls. Is Farage becoming a liability to the party that supposedly revolves around him?  Plus: The astonishing story of how Trump strong-armed FIFA into suspending the Folarin Balogun red card, thus poisoning the whole World Cup. And as Burnham prepares to inherit a financial nightmare, should he bite the bullet and repeal the pensioners’ Triple Lock? ESCAPE ROUTES • Marie went to see the Olivia Wilde comedy The Invite at the cinema.  • Matt has been reading Murder: The Biography by Kate Morgan. • Jonn recommends the Russell T Davies drama Tip Toe, streaming on Channel 4. • Seth has been reading Swiss Watching by Diccon Bewes.    • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Seth Thévoz with Jonn Elledge, Marie le Conte and Matt Green. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now that the Age of Andy is starting to take shape, will our panel stick their necks out and say they can support the King Half In The North? Is there enough going on here to re-energise Labour voters who were burnt out by the last lacklustre regime? Are Shabana Mahmood and Starmer himself trying to box in the new PM on immigration and defence? And is Burnham really going to be as Left as some think?  Plus: In a truly selfless sacrifice, our Seth Thévoz and James Ball go to the Telegraph’s “Big Debate” on “How to make Brexit a success” (!). What wonders and horrors did they witness? And in a special American semiquincentennial Extra Bit, what was the first time our panel visited the USA? And the last?  ESCAPE ROUTES • James has been mainlining three World Cup games a day.  • Seth has been stalking Sepp Blatter and Gianni Infantino across social media. • Hannah went to see Lily Allen at the O2.  • Zoë has been indulging in the Serpentine Lido in London’s Hyde Park.  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Zoë Grünewald with Seth Thévoz, Hannah Fearn and James Ball. Audio production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Will spreading power throughout the UK be Burnham’s secret weapon? Will “No.10 North” be located at Salford Lads’ Club? And will Britain’s PM in waiting really get ten years at the helm? Plus: from Manchesterism to Trumpism… America turns 250 this week and the vibe feels a bit off. Trump’s flop of a state fair has already been branded “embarrassing” and “sad” with tentfuls of melted ice cream and a cancelled Vanilla Ice. We welcome special guest David Plotz of the Slate Political Gabfest to pick apart Trump’s lacklustre semiquincentennial celebrations… and whether Trump really is losing. • Does the US needs a total reboot once Trump has gone? Find out on Fables of The Reconstruction: How to Fix the USA, a three-part miniseries from The Bunker. • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk. • Special offer! Get 20% off any vehicle history check at carVertical.com/OhGodWhatNow. ESCAPE ROUTES • Jonn has been hooked on Apple TV’s much-hyped comedy-horror Widow’s Bay. • Ros watched England’s cricketers stumble to a series defeat against New Zealand • David has been gripped by the “soccer” as the World Cup knockouts get underway back home in the US • Andrew might be six years late to season one of space race counterfactual For All Mankind on Apple TV+, but he’s making up for lost time. www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Jonn Elledge and Ros Taylor. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What a difference a week makes… Andy Burnham is now number one in a field of one, and planning to move a chunk of No.10 to Manchester. How is Labour adjusting itself to the Age of Andy? Is there more to Burnhamism than just vibes? What about Burnhanomics? And do the people really want a General Election or can they just not face one?   Plus: Forgetting all the inexplicable rabid anger about “worst PM ever!!”, was Keir Starmer actually a good Prime Minister or not? We run the rule over his record. And in the Extra Bit for Patreon people, we’ve got three comics on the pod. Was Starmer good or bad for the jokes biz?   • This show is sponsored by CarVertical.com - Get 20% off any vehicle history check at ⁠⁠carVertical.com/OhGodWhatNow • Get tickets for Ahir Shah’s next show Golden.   ESCAPE ROUTES  • Hannah has been listening to the gorgeous dreamscapes of Skying by The Horrors.   • Jason went to see the Marilyn Monroe exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.  • Matt and his nephew are collecting the M&S Panini football sticker album .   • Ahir has been appreciating The Thong Song by Sisqo on many, many levels.   • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ⁠ www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow    Presented by Matt Green with Hannah Fearn, Jason Hazeley and Ahir Shah. Audio Production by: Jade Bailey. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.  www.podmasters.co.uk   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“We voted Brexit and all we got was this lousy podcast…” Ten years since the vote that sent Britain round the bend, could we finally break out of the trap of 2016? We’re joined by the Obi Wan Kenobi of Brexit bloggers Chris Grey to look into the enormity of Pandora’s Referendum. In a world so violently changed from 2016, is there hope for Britain to get back into the EU? Despite populism, are the stars aligning for the UK and the EU? And should anyone serious about reuniting Britain and the EU be talking about joining, not rejoining? As Raf says: “With a bit of political courage we could be in a very different debate.”  • Want more on Brexit? Hear friend of the pod Anand Menon on The Reality of Rejoin on the latest Bunker – Apple and Spotify. • Read Chris Grey’s blog Brexit and Brexitism. • Pre-order Jonn’s new book 31 Inventions That Made Our World.  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Jonn has been watching the Russell T. Davies drama Tip Toe.   • Raf has been reading Fred Vargas’s The Chalk Circle Man (in French, of course).  • Ros has been reading The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendahl and enjoying The Archers podcast.  • Chris Grey has been watching vintage spy drama Mr Palfrey of Westminster on the Classic British Telly YouTube channel.  When you buy books through our affiliate bookshop you help fund the podcast by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. • This show is sponsored by CarVertical.com - Get 20% off any vehicle history check at ⁠⁠carVertical.com/OhGodWhatNow⁠⁠ www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Ros Taylor with Jonn Elledge and Rafael Behr. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As we sadly file away that ‘Keep Keir And Carry On’ headline in the bottom drawer… Keir Starmer steps down and our panel look at what the Starmer era really means. Are we now in a world where petty politics will always trump service to country? Why was this decent, vaguely boring man so loathed in the country? Does this public bloodletting help or hinder Labour’s existential battle against Reform? And why can’t Britain hang on to its Prime Ministers? We’re joined by Chris Grey, the don of Brexit bloggers to discuss it all.  This is a special two-part split edition, enabling us to get you the Farewell to Keir Starmer portion of the pod as fast as possible. Be here tomorrow as our panel “celebrate” ten years of the Brexit Referendum that pitched Britain into a psychodrama it still can’t escape.  • Read Chris Grey’s blog Brexit and Brexitism • Pre-order Jonn’s new book 31 Inventions That Made Our World 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. • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  • Special offer! Get 20% off any vehicle history check at carVertical.com/OhGodWhatNow.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Ros Taylor with Jonn Elledge and Rafael Behr. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our fast reaction to Burnham’s victory in Makefield with the don of political commentators Steve Richards of Rock & Roll Politics talking to Andrew Harrison… Andy Burnham is heading back to Westminster after his landslide victory and despite dire warnings of a Reform surge, it wasn’t even close. After an early-morning celebratory pint, is he now on a fast track for the keys to No. 10? Should Keir Starmer fight or throw in the towel? Is Burnham’s coronation now inevitable? How big a blow was it all for Farage, Reform and the even-further-right Restore? Above all, what happens next? • Hear Steve on Rock & Roll Politics.  • Special offer! Get 20% off any vehicle history check at carVertical.com/OhGodWhatNow. • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Steve Richards. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Surprise, surprise! The arson attacks on properties linked to Keir Starmer turn out to have been instigated by a Russian “diplomat” with a background in information warfare. Who’d have thought it? Has Vladimir Putin’s shadow war finally crossed the line? Plus: Wes Streeting wants to scrap the ban on new fossil fuel production. The Greens are looking less green. The Lib Dems appear indifferent. And don’t get us started on Reform’s Richard Tice… So, is Ed Miliband the last true defender of net zero left standing? Special guest Sam Bright of Desmog talks us through the battle over clean energy. And in the Extra Bit, our panellists reveal their moments of meaningless happiness as an antidote to the doom and gloom.  • Special offer! Get 20% off any vehicle history check at carVertical.com/OhGodWhatNow. • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk. • Read Sam’s Substack and latest DeSmog articles ESCAPE ROUTES • Rachel has been listening to Steven Mangan and his sister Anita on the BBC’s Siblings Unpicked podcast • James has been playing a remake of the retro video game Final Fantasy VII   • Sam has been dipping into England vs. New Zealand in the second test (between investigations)  • Matt has been binging Shrinking, the Apple TV’s hit from the makers of Ted Lasso on Apple TV+.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Matt Green with Rachel Cunliffe, James Ball and Sam Bright. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Labour surprises everyone with a ban on Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X for the under-16. Critics say the “Australia Plus” regime is riddled with contradictions. Will it work, is it fair or is it just Starmer trying to look tough ahead of the Makerfield by-election? Andrew Harrison puts Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson on the spot and then our panel dig into the detail. Plus, the defence row and the resignations of John Healey and ex-Armed Forces Minister Al Carns continue to rock Labour. Could they derail Andy Burnham’s plans to get back into Westminster?  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Hannah went to the Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends exhibition at the Young V&A  • Marie just finished Joseph Roth’s classic The Radetzky March   • Jonn has been reading the first in Patt Barker’s acclaimed Regeneration trilogy   • Seth took a pit stop at the iconic Literary and Philosophical Society during a trip to Newcastle www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Seth Thévoz with Marie le Conte, Hannah Fearn and Jonn Elledge. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What’s more revolting? The racist pogrom against innocent families in Belfast? Or the way the far-right is again using a violent attack to claim that every immigrant – legal or illegal – is a threat to the country? Our panel looks at how indulging the “legitimate concerns” mindset leads to kids being burned out of their homes. Plus we answer your questions in our new monthly-ish But Your Emails special. And in the Extra Bit for Patreon people: do progressive protestors need to up their banner game? • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Jason has been reading A.I. by Belgian comedian Lieven Schiere  • Seth saw Churchill’s Urinal starring friend of the pod Rosie Holt at the King’s Head Theatre, Islington. You’ve missed it, but it’s on in Edinburgh in August.    • Zöe enjoyed Look What You Made Me Do by John Lanchester. • Andrew has been listening to Inferno by Boards Of Canada www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Zöe Grünewald, Seth Thévoz and Jason Hazeley. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The BBC gets in early with its “ten years since the Brexit Referendum” jamboree with a “star”-studded retro-documentary, Brexit: A Very British Civil War from legendary film-maker Norma Percy. Our panel bravely retraumatise themselves by watching it. What do we learn that’s new? Who comes out of it worst: Cameron, Corbyn, Johnson, Seumas Milne, Gove, Osbourne or Cummings? Could anything have averted this catastrophe? And have any of these egotists and hobby-horsers learned a damn thing in the past decade?  Plus, in related matters… Why do we believe what we believe? Why are conservatives more disgusted by disgusting things than liberals? And why (good news!) do liberals have more interesting sex? Author Turi Munthe joins us to discuss the psychology behind our deepest impulses.  • Buy Turi Munthe’s book Why We Think What We Think 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. • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Rachel enjoyed A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering on audiobook – but you can read it on paper too.  • Rafael has been listening to Paris 1919 by John Cale.  • Turi Munthe recommends Other People’s Children by Ben Faccini.  • Matt recommends crime comedy Deep Cover starring Nick Mohammed, Orlando Bloom and Bryce Dallas Howard, on Amazon Prime.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Matt Greene with Rachel Cunliffe and Rafael Behr. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Farage and the far-right have been quick to seize on Henry Nowak’s horrific murder, ignoring pleas from the victim’s family for the killing not to be politicised. Instead the Reform leader decried “two-tier” policing and called for “pure, cold rage”. What does it all mean? Are we in for another summer of racially-triggered rioting? Plus: what would an Andy Burnham government actually look like? Can Manchesterism succeed where Starmerism stumbled? And in the Extra Bit… mantropreneurship irritant Steven Bartlett claims that two glasses of wine “ruined” his life for three days. Our panel examine the toxic cult of peak performance.  • Buy tickets for Ahir’s Golden tour • Because of developments in the news we’ve postponed the promised BUT YOUR EMAILS special by one week. But you can still send your questions to ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Ros has been watching the BBC’s hit drama Two Weeks in August • Seth rewatched Lawrence of Arabia at Soho’s iconic Prince Charles Cinema • Ahir has been binging darkly-comical superhero series The Boys, which led him to the comic • Zoe has been reading Caro Claire Burke’s new novel Yesteryear about a time-travelling tradwife.   When you buy books through our affiliate bookshop, you 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/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Zoë Grünewald with Seth Thévoz, Ros Taylor and Ahir Shah. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• One last chance to get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon backing – our tenth birthday offer ends Wednesday morning. If you’ve been telling yourself that Reform are only surging because people are unhappy with what the Government hasn’t delivered, the don of political research Sir John Curtice has bad news for you. New British Social Attitudes research shows it’s deeper than that: angry Reform voters are energised by divisive culture issues and won’t be easily persuaded back to either Labour or the Tories. Would Burnham or Streeting (or anyone) be able to overcome their new identity politics? Plus: Does the latest tranche of Mandelson messages and emails shine any more light on the whole ambassadorial mess? • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Sir John has been watching Dear England, the BBC’s new drama on England football manager Gareth Southgate • Marie went to watch “charming thriller” Tuner at the movies.  • Raf really hated Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu but hey, it’s still a distraction.  • Andrew has been reading Adrian Tchaikovsky’s sci-fi epic Children of Strife. Buy it 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/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison with Marie Le Conte and Rafael Behr. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• Podmasters is 10 years old! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon backing. What else does a beleaguered PM like Keir Starmer need but… unsolicited advice from Tony Blair? In a new essay published by his think tank, the former PM calls on Labour to cosy up to Donald Trump and axe Ed Miliband’s net zero agenda or risk relegation from the “Premier League of nations”. Is Blair offering a genuine diagnosis or is he just dusting off the 1990s playbook? Plus, jobs tsar Alan Milburn’s bombshell report on youth unemployment warns that young people are being “rewired” by their smartphones and trapped in a doom loop that’s keeping them out of work. Can they escape it? And Reform's candidate for the Makerfield by-election Robert Kenyon is facing a firestorm for a string of resurfaced sexist social media posts. In the age of the political lout, why do the rules always seem different for the right? And in the Extra Bit: our panel reveals how they find their Zen in the age of doom-scrolling.  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Hannah went to see Francois Ozon’s new movie adaptation of Camus' existentialist classic The Stranger.  • Ros also visited the cinema to see Project Hail Mary  • Jonn watched the first episode of the BBC’s Two Weeks in August • Seth has been reading Being Liberal: The Liberal Disposition in Contemporary British Politics by Cambridge professor David Howarth www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Seth Thévoz with Jonn Elledge, Ros Taylor and Hannah Fearn. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Jade Bailey. Art direction by James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• Podmasters is 10 years old! Last chance to get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon support.  Nigel Farage’s latest defence of his “gift” from a crypto magnate: you wouldn’t know about it if I hadn’t been hacked by pesky Russians! (Although erm I forgot to tell the National Cyber Security Centre). Has he finally pushed his luck too far? Plus, the right-wing press and Reform are busting their guts to paint Andy Burnham as a carpetbagging, conviction-free shapeshifter who’s simultaneously a far-left zealot. Will any of it stick? And why are Rupert Lowe’s ultra-right Restore UK much, much worse than just an amusing problem for Reform? • We pinched the title of this edition from someone called AshWarp – but if you know the real originator, get in touch.  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Jason recommends visiting Crossness Pumping Station on the Thames and also the Great Western Railway Museum in Swindon. • Rachel is watching Rivals on Disney+.  • James Ball is rewatching How To Get Away With Murder on Channel 4.  • Matt recommends Thirst: 12 Drinks That Changed My Life by John Robins. Buy it 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/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Matt Green with James Ball, Rachel Cunliffe and Jason Hazeley. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• Podmasters is 10 years old! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon backing. And OGWN is nine years old! Today: A Labour candidate up against a local plumber in a North-Western by-election? It’s beginning to feel a lot like Groundhog Day. If Andy Burnham beats Reform’s Robert Kenyon in Makerfield his path to Number 10 gets a lot clearer. But has Burnham just walked into a Reform bear trap? Plus: Brexit is back, right on cue. Wes Streeting lobs a grenade into the Burnham campaign by raising the Europe question. Could this leadership battle finally break Britain out of its Brexit loop of denial? And in the Extra Bit for Patreons, we do that Find Your Politics thing to discover whether we’re secret Leninists or Freemen of the Land without realising it. (And why no talk of the Greens, you ask? We did a big will-they-won’t-they bit and then they announced a candidate so we had to drop it. More next time).  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Marie is getting set to host her Outsiders Art Club, a social club putting emerging artists in the spotlight • Matt has been bingeing Imperfect Women on Apple TV.  • Raf went to see Zambian singer and rapper Sampa the Great at the Brighton Festival  • Andrew has been listening to Tomora, the new duo comprising Chemical Brother Tom Rowlands and Norwegian singer Aurora.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Rafael Behr, Marie Le Conte and Matt Green. Producer: James Liddell. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• Podmasters is 10 years old! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon backing. Makerfield residents, wire up your letterboxes – the leaflets are coming… A month until Andy Burnham’s by-election, Reform is knocking. Can the King of the North hold them off – whoever their candidate may be? Has he done enough for his message to land? Plus: Is it time up for Ed Davey as leader of the Liberal Democrats? Several Essex councillors seem to think so. Comedian Rosie Holt weighs in on whether political satire has changed for the better or worse. And Matt Brittin officially started as the BBC’s Director General this week – is it possible to steady the ship?  • Get your tickets for Churchill’s Urinal with Rosie Holt at the King’s Head Theatre, Islington. • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Jonn watched Ncuti Gatwa throw jabs at Doctor Who in Saturday Night Live UK • Jason has been reading The Design of Childhood, by Pulitzer Prize-winner Alexandra Lange • Rosie is rewatching a duo of British comedy classics: Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace and Toast of London • Ros has been seeking escapism in Danish television and has binged Seaside Hotel www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Ros Taylor with Jonn Elledge and Jason Hazeley. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• Podmasters is 10 years old! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon backing. Broadcasting from the middle of the Labour chaos vortex, we look how things stand after the Streeting-Starmer confrontation at No.10 – was it a 17-minute staring contest? – and whether the Health Secretary has the support within Labour to win… if he stands. And who is Wes Streeting anyway? What does he actually stand for? Our panel share their experiences of “the man you can’t libel, because he has no vices.” Plus: Zack Polanski houseboat council tax evasion imbroglio! And in the Extra Bit: There’s a new Beatles museum in London… not Liverpool. So where else deserves a museum in a slightly unexpected location?  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Seth enjoyed the English Touring Opera’s production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers   • Marie has been binge-watching Rivals on Disney+ • Hannah went to the West End to watch David Hare’s Teeth’n’Smiles  • Zoë has been watching Half-Man, Richard Gadd’s follow-up to Baby Reindeer www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Zoë Grünewald with Hannah Fearn, Marie Le Conte and Seth Thévoz. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• Podmasters is 10 years old! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon support – that’s 20% in total.  Amid the rubble of last week’s elections, Keir Starmer announces he’s suddenly getting real and ready to win back voters. But is it all too little, too late – and after months of drift, will anyone believe him anyway? Plus, were the Reform and Green surges really as unstoppable as an overwrought media want us to believe? Friend of the pod and psephology don Rob Ford of Manchester University joins us to dig deep on the elections… and whether Labour gets what really happened.   NB Andrew apologies for his hoarse voice. He’ll be back to normal next time.  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Raf recommends By The Sea,  Abdulzarak Gurnah’s Nobel Prize-winning novel of escape and migration. • Rob Ford recommends The Emperor by Ryszard Kapuczinski, concerning the downfall of Haile Selassie.  • Ros recommends the TV drama Believe Me about John Worboys, streaming on ITV.  • Andrew recommends 30 Rock with Tina Fey, now finally on Netflix.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Ros Taylor and Rafael Behr. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• Podmasters is 10 years old! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon support – that’s 20% in total.  Fast analysis with don of political commentators Steve Richards of Rock & Roll Politics talking to Andrew Harrison. Labour’s performance in the English Locals was terrible… but was it really as bad as Starmer feared? Does Farage’s bluster about “truly historic” results for Reform stand up to the data? Are the Greens becoming the party of “student England”? And the big one: Can Starmer hang on?  • See Steve’s Rock & Roll Politics show live in London at King’s Place, Monday 11 May – last few tickets available! • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• Podmasters is 10 years old! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon backing. The Greens are on fire and Zack Polanski’s travails don’t seem to be hurting them much. How did they get here? Is Polanski-mania just Corbyn-mania without all the Labour baggage? And can you be a vehicle for popular rage and a credible party of government at the same time? Plus, is everything just online betting now? Or is it the new insider trading? With platforms like Polymarket enabling insiders to clean up on everything from the timing of bombings in Iran to the removal of Maduro, we talk to the Guardian’s Aisha Down about how betting is warping – and corrupting – politics.  Plus: Should we ban 6am pints in the airport? Why has the right-wing press upped its sneering against Angela Rayner? And in the Extra Bit, the panel reveal their hidden talents. • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Jonn recommends Blue Lights on BBC iPlayer ⁠ • Marie went to see Spanish pop sensation Rosalía in London and her album Lux is Marie’s favourite of the year. • Aisha has been brushing up on commodities trading and is reading The World For Sale by Jack Farchy and Javier Blas • Seth has been watching Liberace camp-fest Sincerely Yours from 1955. Listen to Hit That Perfect Beat – The London Records Story on your favourite platforms.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Seth Thévoz withJonn Elledge and Marie Le Conte. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• Podmasters is 10 years old! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon backing. Filler-faced, gilded mansions and utterly unhinged. Today’s mega-rich don't even pretend to be normal anymore. So what happened to the understated billionaire and is there any going back?  Plus, are voters getting more fickle? Zoe picks the brain of the Economist's political data journalist Owen Winter on whether political promiscuity is the new normal. And Zack Polanski’s approval ratings plunged after a sharing post about the Golders Green attack – should politicians be anywhere near social media anyway? Finally… the Green Party’s Hannah Spencer has sparked a rift with fellow MPs after deriding parliament’s apparent booze problem. Are our lawmakers really propping up the bar?  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Zoë braved the psychological horror thriller Speak No Evil, available on NOW.  • Jason has been devouring Natalie Whittle’s ode to the nation’s favourite snack, Crunch: The History of Crisps • Matt has delved into David Grann’s catalogue, including The Devil and Sherlock Holmes www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Matt Green with Zoë Grünewald and Jason Hazeley. Producer: James Liddell. Audio production: Robin Leeburn. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Simon Williams & Tom Taylor. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• Podmasters is 10 years old! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon backing. Applauded by Congress, lauded by Trump and working his way through a spring-herbed ravioli on a golden plate? It was a tough gig for Charles. The King may have charmed the President but will his visit rescue US/UK relations from the geopolitical toilet?  Plus, Starmer evades a Commons investigation into the Mandelson affair but is it really all over bar the shouting for the PM? Why a social media ban for under-16s might be based on dodgy science. And in the Extra Bit: If they can get away with a Michael Jackson movie in 2026, which political figures ought to get their own biopic?  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Rachel has been bingeing Guy Ritchie’s Young Sherlock on Amazon Prime.   • Jonn recommends Radio 4’s How To Invent A Country on BBC Sounds.  • James recommends the relaxing game Nodes – play it here. • Andrew recommends Daredevil: Born Again on Disney+, inevitably  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Rachel Cunliffe, Jonn Elledge and James Ball. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• Podmasters is 10 years old! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon support – that’s 20% in total.  Another week, another assassination attempt… Will the latest attack on Trump change anything apart from making the crazy people crazier? And will he get his ballroom out of it? Plus, Reform announce plans to make the teaching of history more patriotic. On the curriculum: more Winston Churchill and Battle of Britain, less slave trade, even less Ireland and no Britain being anything other than brilliant. Are you kids ready for the Old Man In A Pub version of Our Island Story? • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Gavin went to see music inspired by the Bridget Riley: Learning To See exhibition at Turner Contemporary… but you’ve missed it. Sorry.  • Matt is the latest panelist to recommend medical drama The Pitt on HBO Max.  • Raf recommends drum’n’bass artist Nia Archives’ new single Danger • Ros recommends French-language murder mystery Une Unique Lueur by Fred Vargas. Not out in English yet though.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Ros Taylor with Matt Green, Gavin Esler and Rafael Behr. Audio Production by Tom Taylor and Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• Podmasters is 10 years old! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon support – that’s 20% in total.  As the dust settles from the umpteenth Mandelsequel, where does Labour go from here? Is Starmer permanently damaged? And who would step into No.10: Angela Rayner, Andy Burnham, Al Carns, or someone else entirely from the political alphabet? And while opening ChatGPT has become as routine as morning coffee, millions are probably using it all wrong. So says special guest Jamie Bartlett, algorithm whisperer and author of How to Talk to AI, who explains how to master the art of prompts.  • Order How to Talk to AI 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.  • Hear America Against The World from This Is Not A Drill on your favourite podcast app. • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk  ESCAPE ROUTES • Marie recommends The Princess of 77nd Street by Elaine Kraf. • Hannah recommends Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico.  • Jamie recommends Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton and The Parakeeting Of London by Nick Hunt. • Seth has been enjoying Michael Gove pimping free gin for The Spectator.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Seth Thévoz with Hannah Fearn and Marie Le Conte. Audio Production by: Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• Podmasters is 10 years old! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon support – that’s 20% in total.  Oh Mandy… the scandal that won’t die is back (again). Can Keir Starmer style this one out or is his credibility finally shot? Plus, imagine if you wrote a hoax government report about how a secretive shadow government controls America and then everyone believed it. Even though you admitted it was false. And believed it so completely that they ended up destroying democracy. Nightmare, right? Author Phil Tinline talks us through the scarcely believable true tale he sets out in Ghosts of Iron Mountain – a story that takes in Lee Harvey Oswald, the Oklahoma Bombings, neo-Nazis, hippies, Oliver Stone and The X Files – and how it’s still warping our world today.  • Order Ghosts of Iron Mountain 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. • Hear America Against The World from This Is Not A Drill on your favourite podcast app. • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Rachel recommends The Critic with Ian McKellen on Netflix • Raf has just discovered Fast As You Can by Fiona Apple from the album ‘When The Pawn Hits Etc Etc Yadda Yadda’. • Phil has been listening to drum, bass and related stuff from Ivy Lab • Andrew went to see the Murdoch vs Brenda Dean play In The Print at the New King’s Head in Islington, London – it’s on til 3 May. www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Rachel Cunliffe and Rafael Behr Audio Production by:Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• Join our OGWN vs Origin Story Tenth Birthday Podclash on Zoom on Thur 30 April.  What happens if Reform actually wins? We dive into a darkly plausible near-future where Nigel Farage becomes PM and everything goes… about as well as you’d expect. It’s all gamed out in a new fact-based “non-fiction thriller”, What If Reform Wins? by our special guest, Times reporter Peter Chappell – from how Reform would tackle an ICE-style crackdown to the end of Net Zero and the return of Dominic Cummings. This could be the future, so how do we stop it? Plus: Is the UK ready for a politics that does God? The IMF warns Britain could take the biggest hit from the Iran War’s economic shock. Should we get behind Samantha Niblett MP’s Summer of Sex? And in the Extra Bit… after the smooth dancefloor moves of victorious Hungarian MP Zsolt Hegedűs “broke the internet” we ask – should politicians be less embarrassed about dancing? • Pre-order What If Reform Wins: A Scenario  by Peter Chappell – it’s out 30 April.  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk ESCAPE ROUTES • Marie read and loved The Door by Magda Szabó. • Jonn recommends No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood. • Peter went ceilidh dancing at Cecil Sharp House in Camden, north London.  • Matt is watching Steve Carrel’s new series Rooster on HBO Max, Now and Sky.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow • When you buy books 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. Presented by Matt Green with Marie Le Conte and Jonn Elledge. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good news for a change! Revolting far-right tinpot tyrant Viktor Orbán gets his marching orders in Hungary. Our panel talk about how it’s bad news for Putin, Trump and MattGPT and wonder where the JD Vance Reverse Midas Touch should be applied next. Elsewhere in the pod: Trump comes for the Pope. Why are his Christo-Nationalists getting Catholicism wrong? Is politics being taken over by egomaniacs? A(nother) heated debate about the pros and cons of space. And check out our new theme tune, good eh? Today’s special guest is Ava Santini of Politics Joe. • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Zoë watched Jaws for the very first time and loved it.   • Jason recommends Beatles deep-dive documentary Evolver ’62 • Ava is diving into Season 3 of Euphoria on HBO.  • Andrew went to see Obscure, the Pet Shop Boys’ rarities shows, where they played these songs. www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Zoë Grünewald and Jason Hazeley. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump threatens the literal obliteration of an entire civilisation, then announces a ceasefire. So war crimes work, right? Er, not when you create the “Tehran Tollbooth” in the Strait and transform your enemy into potentially the Middle East’s richest, best-armed hostile power with a $90bn war and reconstruction chest. We examine possibly the biggest self-own in geopolitical history.  Plus: Labour squares up to the Greens in the local, Scottish and Welsh elections. How do they fight Polanski without coming across like bullying establishment incumbents? We look at the Kanye West fiasco. And in the Extra Bit for Patreon backers, what was that strange feeling we got from the Artemis moonshot? Was it… hope? This week’s special guest is James Ball, political editor of The New World.  • Save our classic theme tune Demon Is A Monster by Cornershop for posterity.  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Jonn recommends HBO Max medical drama The Pitt starring Noah Wylie.  • Ros recommends Danish life-juggling comedy drama Rita on Netflix.  • James recommends video game Greedfall: The Dying World plus old series of Taskmaster on C4 (for sleeping to). • Seth recommends the rediscovered episodes of Doctor Who: The Daleks’ Master Plan. www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Seth Thévoz with Ros Taylor and Jonn Elledge. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop (thank you for everything!). Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After nearly two years in the job, Keir Starmer isn’t just disliked or unpopular – he’s actually hated in much of the country. But why? How did this unprepossessing and fairly boring man become such a figure of loathing? Has hating politicians no matter who they are become the default position in British politics? Plus: Liz Truss (remember her?) is going to launch her own CPAC and save Britain, again. What is going through that, ahem, unusual mind? And should we maybe scoff less at the idea of a populist revolt and fear it more? This week’s special guest is comedian, musician and Radio 4 veteran Mitch Benn.  • Catch Mitch Benn’s show The Lehrer Effect across the country this month.  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk   ESCAPE ROUTES • Ros has got right back into The Archers on BBC Sounds.  • Mitch thinks you should watch the James Blunt movie One Brit Wonder, not just because he’s in it.  • Seth recommends The Usual Channels: Inside the Mysterious World of Political Whips by Sebastian Whale.  • Zoë recommends academic romance drama Vladimir on Netflix.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Zoë Grünewald with Ros Taylor and Seth Thévoz. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Capitalism: Where did it come from and what does it want? Is it falling to pieces or just reinventing itself to remain immortal, as it always has done? Is it about to enter a dark new digital era where it doesn’t even need people? What do we get wrong about it? Can we fix it? What even IS it? Sven Beckert is the author of the epic exploration of money-making, Capitalism: A Global History. He joins Andrew Harrison and Jonn Elledge for the unexpected, untold story of how profit made power.   • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.   ESCAPE ROUTES  • Sven Beckert recommends the Neapolitan Quartet novels by Elena Ferrante. Start with My Brilliant Friend. • Jonn Elledge has been revisiting This Life on the BBC iPlayer. Don’t miss the This Life episode  of our partnerpod Talk ’90s to me.  • Andrew Harrison loved the film DJ Ahmet – if you’re only going to see one Macedonian sheep-herding rave movie this year, this is the one.    When you buy books through our affiliate bookshop you help the podcast by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow  Presented by Andrew Harrison and John Elledge. Audio Production by Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.  www.podmasters.co.uk   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump promised America lower prices, cheaper gas, no more foreign wars and worldwide respect. Instead his Iran rampage has dynamited the world economy, skyrocketed oil prices, and bogged the US down in a worsening military quagmire – and no-one is coming to help. As MAGA squabbles over the future, has Trumpism been torpedo’d by the only person who could destroy it: Donald Trump? Plus, an economic tsunami is arriving from the Strait of Hormuz just when Rachel Reeves doesn’t need it. Is Britain ready for Cost of Living Crisis II? And who will pay the political price? And in the Extra Bit: America discovers the Baked Potato. What could possibly go wrong?  “The madman theory of foreign policy only works if you’re not actually a madman.”  ESCAPE ROUTES • Hannah recommends the Ill-Advised podcast with Bill Nighy • Matt saw Baz Lurhmann’s Romeo + Juliet for the first time in 30 years and loved it.  • Zoë recommends the new series of Married At First Sight Australia. • Seth has been reading The Man Who Sold Honours by Stephen Bates www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Zoë Grünewald with Hannah Fearn, Matt Green and Seth Thévoz.  Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is Farage faltering? Reform’s poll lead is slowly sliding, so much so that last week Farage administered a Trumpian punishment beating to pollsters YouGov in classic “shoot the messenger” style. Is Britain starting to see through Nigel’s chicanery – or is it all wishful thinking on our part? And how are Labour and the Tories dealing with not one but two insurgent parties: the Greens as well as Reform?  Seth Thévoz and Rachel Cunliffe are joined by crossover guest Steve Richards of the Rock & Roll Politics podcast to read this week’s political tea leaves.  • Last chance to sign up to our Live Zoom for Patreon people this Thursday 26 March.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Rachel loved Summerfolk, “Maxim Gorky's razor-sharp portrait of privilege and denial”, at the National Theatre  • Steve saw Sirat, the astonishing road movie about travellers’ raves and existential loss.  • Seth recommends Hoax: The Inside Story of the Howard Hughes-Clifford Irving Affair. www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Seth Thévoz and Rachel Cunliffe. Audio Production by: Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ed Davey wants Britain to have its own nuclear weapons – smart move against the Greens or the end of the old anti-nuke Lib Dems? Why is the damning story about Richard Tice’s tax avoidance not damaging the Reform deputy leader when it would sink any other politician? Does Louis Theroux’s documentary Inside The Manosphere tell us anything new about young men’s descent into hatred as recreation and business model? And in the Extra Bit: The usual suspects lose their mind over the ONS adding hummus and alcohol-free beer to the inflation basket. Can we have one day without a freakout over woke? Just one?  • Join our live Zoom for Patreon backers on Thursday 26 March at 7pm.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Marie recommends the classic movie Kind Hearts and Coronets • John recommends Death by Lightning on Netflix.  • Jason recommends It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time: The Worst TV Shows in History and Other Things I Wrote by Bruce Vilanch • Andrew recommends The Vorrh by B. Catling.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Marie le Conte, Jonn Elledge and Jason Hazeley. Audio Production by Chris Jones and Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Mandelson Files are beginning to dribble out and they don’t look good for Keir Starmer. Will this be the final albatross round the PM’s neck? Zoë Grünewald and Rafael Behr talk over the unfurling consequences of the second-worst files in the world. Plus, liberalism has taken a battering this past decade, but don’t worry! Centrism can still save the world. Bloomberg columnist Adrian Wooldridge’s new book Centrists of the World Unite! is a battle cry to get liberalism back into the game. What went wrong? What does liberalism even mean in the 21st Century? Does anything unite left liberals, neoliberals and managerial liberals and why do they keep screwing up? And in the battle between liberalism and tech power, who wins?  Buy Centrists of the World Unite! through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund Oh God, What Now? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too ESCAPE ROUTES • Adrian recommends Southland on Netflix. • Zoë recommends anything by the Danish painter Anna Ancher but if you can get to the Dulwich Picture Gallery it’s definitely worth a visit.  • Raf has been reading Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Zoë Grünewald with Rafael Behr. Audio and Video Production by Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

British voters are overwhelmingly against Trump’s war in Iran but the pundits and politicians of the Tory-Reform universe seem to want more, harder and faster. Why is the British right hooked on tough-guy politics? And will Farage’s fawning over Trump prove to be Reform’s Achilles heel? Plus, first pickings from the Mandelson files, Rachel Cunliffe on why Labour’s justice reforms (and the controversial moves on jury trials) might be one radical reform the Government doesn’t duck… and in the Extra Bit, the Nepo Babies of world politics.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Rachel recommends Small Prophets on BBC iPlayer • Jason recommends Daniel Farson’s Guide To Britain Vol.1 on Blu-Ray.  • Ros recommends Louis Theroux: Inside The Manosphere on Netflix.  • Andrew recommends David Byrne’s Who Is The Sky? tour  Help keep independent podcasting alive and kicking by supporting us at www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Rachel Cunliffe, Ros Taylor and Jason Hazeley. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Government’s migration and asylum plans have had that unique Keir Starmer way of annoying everyone. Including many of their own MPs, such as Walthamstow’s Stella Creasy. She says her party is now asking people to live in “limbo” and that the new policy change is not “socially just”. She joins the panel to explain why. And in the second half, monsters are everywhere (including politics). But what is a monster? Why do humans keep inventing them — and what does that say about us? Dr Surekha Davies’ new book Humans: A Monstrous History, explores all of that, and she joins the panel to give her take.  ESCAPE ROUTES:  • Jonn has been reading the work of Iain M. Banks: https://iainbanks.co.uk/  • Zoë went to the Tate Modern to see the Nigerian Modernism exhibition  • Surekha recommends a visit to the Samurai exhibition at the British Museum  • Stella was DJing at the weekend to raise money for two charities WHICH YOU CAN STILL DONATE TO! They are Eat or Heat and Furnishing Futures Buy Humans: A Monstrous History through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund Oh God, What Now? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow  Presented by Zoë Grunewald with Jonn Elledge. Audio Production by: Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.  www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the upside, a tyrannical theocrat and much of his entourage are dead. On the downside, so are thousands of innocent children and adults. As Trump’s open-ended and ill-defined Iran adventure unfolds, is it game over for the tattered remnants of the so-called Special Relationship between Britain and the US? Are there any good choices left for Starmer? And is Britain’s rah-rah right-wing press fantasising that British people support this war? Plus: after the Greens’ win in Manchester is Gorton & Denton Derangement Syndrome driving the legacy parties over the edge? And in a special extended Extra Bit: Dubai Schadenfreude, or: Won’t anyone think of the influencers?  ESCAPE ROUTES • Jonn recommends The Lady on ITV.  • Marie recommends Stefan Zweig’s Burning Secret • Raf recommends Departure(s) by Julian Barnes.  • Matt recommends Murder Most Foul by Guy Jenkins  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Matt Green with Jonn Elledge, Marie le Conte and Rafael Behr. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This edition recorded before the US attacks on Iran. The dust is still settling from Gorton and Denton. Are the Greens playing with fire with their voter targeting? If Keir Starmer’s leadership is back in question, how long has he got? Are Reform going full Trump with their whining about “cheating”? And can anyone think of anything at all to say about the Tories? Plus: Is there any appetite for an ICE-style immigration Gestapo like Zia Yusuf wants for his “Deportation Command”? After our EmergencyPod, Ros Taylor, Andrew Harrison and Steve Richards of the Rock & Roll Politics podcast reconvene to take a longer view.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Ros recommends Nonesuch by Francis Spufford.  • Steve has been watching Brazilian movie The Secret Agent, reading one chapter of War And Peace a day with the help of this Substack, and masochistically enjoying the torment of Tottenham Hotspur FC.  • Andrew recommends superior sci-fi action movie Predator: Badlands on Disney+.  • Hear more of Steve Richards on Gorton and Denton on the Rock & Roll Politics podcast  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Ros Taylor and Steve Richards. Audio Production by: Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A special crossover edition from our geopolitics podcast This Is Not A Drill – Trump’s stunning surprise attack on Iran could be the most consequential world event since 9/11. Will the President’s goal of smooth regime change work when it failed every other time, or trigger a regional conflagration? Iran’s hated Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is dead but the Islamic Republic is showing no sign of collapsing. And now Hezbollah has attacked other Arab states as well as British and US military targets. How will the war play out? How resilient is the Islamic Republic? Does Israel want regime change or regime destruction? Does Iran have any potential leaders that the US could tolerate? And has anyone planned for running a country of 90 million people which is now in chaos? Live from Beirut our guest Paul Salem, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, speaks to Gavin Esler.  • Advertisers! Want to reach smart, engaged, influential people? 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 ads@podmasters.co.uk to find out more. Written and presented by Gavin Esler. Produced by Robin Leeburn. Original theme music by Paul Hartnoll – https://www.orbitalofficial.com. Executive Producer Martin Bojtos. Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor Andrew Harrison. This Is Not A Drill is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Greens take Gorton and Denton and Labour take a pounding. What does it all mean? Is there more going on than all the hot takes suggest? Is the Starmer Doomsday Clock ticking again? And will we ever get enough of Matt Goodwin’s sour defeat face? Ros Taylor and Steve Richards of the Rock & Roll Politics podcast join Andrew Harrison for a fast reaction by-election minicast.  Join us next Tuesday (Monday for Patreons!) for a broader look at how the major parties will handle the result, and more too. • Hear more of Steve Richards on Gorton and Denton on the Rock & Roll Politics podcast www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Ros Taylor and Steve Richards. Audio Production by: Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who gave the tip-off that resulted in Peter Mandelson’s sensational arrest? And will this mess ever stop unraveling? Plus, an Australian-style social media ban for under-16s is gathering pace. Can it work and is it such a good idea to protect teens from the online world only to throw them in the deep end once they turn 18? Also: Meeting Alastair Campbell at the Lido. Marie’s extraordinary experience of interviewing Gisèle Pelicot. And in the Extra Bit, the joy (or not) of making kids do terrible Saturday jobs. You won’t believe what Seth had to do.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Marie recommends I’m No Angel with Mae West.  • Zöe recommends Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind [[ ]]  • Matt has been reading Life Is Rosi by Jess Robinson • Seth has been enjoying the John Major edition of Gyles Brandreth’s podcast Rosebud Major  Keep independent podcasting alive and kicking by backing OGWN at www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Seth Thévoz with Zöe Grünewald, Marie le Conte and Matt Green. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on Epstein-related allegations of misconduct in public office stuns the world. He has not been charged with any offence – but is the former Prince’s past damaging the Monarchy irreparably? And when will the victims of Epstein and his circle get justice? Plus, as the vindictive Gorton & Denton by-election enters its last few days we talk to Jack Walton of local news site Manchester Mill about the vibe on the ground… and whether it’s worse for Labour if the Greens or Matt Goodwin of Reform win.  • Manchester Mill is part of the Mill Media group creating good old-fashioned local journalism for British cities including Liverpool, Sheffield, Glasgow and Bristol.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Rachel has been watching the Winter Olympics as a chaser to Heated Rivalry on Sky.  • Jack has been reading Laughter in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov • Andrew recommends escaping modern politics by diving into ’90s politics and C4’s The Tony Blair Story. Keep Oh God, What Now? in fine health by backing us on Patreon. Presented by Andrew Harrison with Rachel Cunliffe. Audio and Video Production by Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Could Reform really carry out a Trump-style, Project 2025-inspired shock-and-awe assault on Britain’s institutions and politics if they get into government? America’s much-vaunted system of checks and balances turned out to be made of tissue paper. Is Britain’s hand-me-down constitution any more robust? We look at the firewalls in our politics with special guest James Ball of The New World paper. Plus, what did we make of Channel 4’s epic Tony Blair documentary? Did it let Tonty off too lightly? And in the Extra Bit for Patreon people: Barack Obama thinks aliens are real. Why do UFOs hold such a weird grip on the political imagination?  ESCAPE ROUTES • Jonn recommends Hijack with Idris Elba on Apple TV+  • Jason recommends Ghost Signs: Poverty and the Pandemic by Stu Hennigan. You can hear our vintage 2023 Bunker with Stu Hennigan on Apple, Spotify and everywhere else.  • James loved White House murder comedy The Residence on Netflix.  • Seth recommends the Panorama documentary Our Man in Moscow. www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Seth Thévoz with Jonn Elledge and Jason Hazeley. Audio Production by Simon Williams and Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Produced by Chris Jones. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“There is no British security without Europe,” Keir Starmer told the Munich Security Conference this weekend. Nobody wants a wider war in Europe, but we might get one anyway – and Britain’s military isn’t ready for it yet. So how can we change our armed forces and our wider society to ensure that Putin won’t want to risk a conflict with Britain and our allies? Ed Arnold of the Royal United Services Institute joins Ros Taylor and Raf Behr to talk about how Russia uses hybrid “grey zone” attacks on democracies which stop just short of open warfare… the sobering truth about NATO Article 5… and why we have to budget for the next threat but one, because “What comes after Putin may be worse.”  ESCAPE ROUTES • Raf rewatched Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. • Ed has been enjoying England in the Six Nations rugby. • Ros recommends the comedy drama about stand-up comedy, Is This Thing On? , out now in cinemas.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Ros Taylor and Rafael Behr. Audio and video production by Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Produced by Chris Jones. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

First thing on Monday it looked like Keir Starmer was organic sourdough toast. By teatime he’d riled up Labour MPs and looked – somehow – safe for now. Can the PM weather the brutal months ahead? Is it still a case of “when not if” he goes? Plus, we look at how far the toxic misogyny of the Epstein horrorshow spreads. Special guest Morgan Jones takes us back to the anti-Brexit campaign for a second referendum in 2016-19 and we look for lessons for a possible Rejoin campaign. And in the Extra Bit for Patreon people: Does Lord Of The Flies still resonate in its new psychedelic BBC incarnation? • Buy Morgan’s book No Second Chances: The Inside Story of the Campaign for a Second EU Referendum 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. ESCAPE ROUTES • Hannah has been enjoying eyeliner pop-rock reprobate Yungblud.  • Rachel loved the musical Ballad Lines at the Southwark Theatre. • Morgan has gone old WWII movies mad with Went The Day Well? and In Which We Serve. • Comic book guy Andrew recommends mind-bending time-crash series Assorted Crisis Events  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Rachel Cunliffe and Hannah Fearn. Produced by Chris Jones. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Remember Trump’s first term when we talked about “kakistocracy”: rule by the worst of the worst? They’re back and they’re worse than ever – not just Trump and his entourage but his corrupt Mini-Mes around the world. Why is our time so cursed with venal, cruel, nihilistic and apparently mentally damaged leaders? Where do these personalities come from? Are Trump and his entourage true psychopaths in the psychological sense? Ian Hughes, author of Disordered Minds : How Dangerous Personalities Are Destroying Democracy, joins Zoë Grünewald and Jonn Elledge to discuss our age of “malignant normality”, Hitler, Mao, and the psychopathology of cruel rule. As one African proverb says: “The child who does not feel love will burn down the village to feel its warmth.” • Buy Disordered Minds 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. ESCAPE ROUTES • Jonn recommends Star Trek: Starfleet Academy  streaming on Paramount+.  • Ian Hughes has been rewatching Carl Sagan’s classic space documentary Cosmos on YouTube.  • Zoë recommends Industry on the BBC iPlayer.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Zöe Grünewald with Jonn Elledge. Audio and video production by Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Keir Starmer’s now former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney has gone, so what does this mean for the Prime Minister’s project and government? Zoë Grünewald is joined by Rafael Behr to discuss the fall out and where we go from here in a special bonus emergencycast.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow    Presented by Zoë Grünewald with Rafael Behr. Audio Production by Simon Williams. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.  www.podmasters.co.uk   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“I’m Mandy – buy me.” Peter Mandelson’s career finally collapses in a scandal more poisonous than Profumo, more serious than Partygate, and more shameful than Suez. How did Mandelson get away with his shifty behaviour for so long? Will Starmer’s errors of judgment taint his government irrevocably? And how come it’s on British figures like Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor who are suffering the consequences of their associations with Epstein?  ESCAPE ROUTES • Raf recommends the app DJay Pro for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android. • Ros went to see the National Theatre production of Terence Rattigan’s Man And Boy.  • Jonn is watching A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms, the Game of Thrones spin-off, on Sky Atlantic.  • Andrew recommends the Marvel series Wonder Man on Disney+.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Jonn Elledge, Ros Taylor and Rafael Behr. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn and Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A forty-year slow-motion disaster in higher education is reaching its climax – and Labour is left holding the bag. If young people decide a degree isn’t worth the massive debt, where does that leave British cities that depend on free-spending undergraduate populations – and universities that are hooked on no-longer-welcome foreign students? Can academia expect much sympathy from graduate generations whose aspirations are held back by crushing loan repayments? And can Labour do anything about it?  In a fascinating conversation Oxford Brookes history professor and education commentator Glen O’Hara walks Ros Taylor and Hannah Fearn through the unfolding mess. Abstract: “The only way to wake up Westminster and Whitehall is to have a crisis.”   • Buy Glen O’Hara’s book New Labour, New Britain 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.  ESCAPE ROUTES  • Hannah recommends Intermezzo by Sally Rooney.  • Glen recommends Kingdom Come by JG Ballard.   • Ros has been watching David Baddiel’s Cat Man on C4.   Support us on Patreon. 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 ads@podmasters.co.uk to find out more Presented by Ros Taylor with Hannah Fearn. Audio Production by Chris Jones and Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.  www.podmasters.co.uk   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Starmer slaps down Andy Burnham’s bid to stand in the Gorton and Denton by-election: bad move for Labour, bad timing from Burnham, or another distraction we don’t need? Plus, who’s bringing the best self to the overladen Reform bandwagon: twice-sacked Home Sec and Creature Comforts creation Suella Braverman, or race-baiting former academic Matt Goodwin? Special guest, media analysts Ayala Panievsky, takes us through the populist assault on the right to know, and her book The New Censorship: How the War on the Media is Taking Us Down. And in the Extra Bit: Who’s feeling the “middle class spending crisis?” •  Buy The New Censorship by Ayala Panievsky 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. ESCAPE ROUTES •  HANNAH has been reading Eurotrash by Christian Kracht •  MATT recommends the Tourette’s movie I Swear •  AYALA PANIEVSKY has been going to Iranian and Persian raves in Hackney like this one •  ANDREW has rediscovered the (mostly) pre-Trump nostalgia of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix.   www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Hannah Fearn and Matt Green. Audio Production by: Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“Things are more dangerous now than during the Cold War.” The world is breaking up into mutually suspicious power blocs, Trump is trying to destroy NATO and Putin has learned that aggression pays off. Is a major war coming or can we prevent it? In an enthralling conversation, defence commentator Peter Apps – author of The Next World War – explains the forces and self-deceptions that are driving the world towards conflict, the key danger points, and what Britain can do to avert disaster. • Buy The Next World War through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund Oh God, What Now? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. ESCAPE ROUTES • Peter has been reading Kingmaker, Sonia Purnell’s biography of Pamela Churchill Harriman • Alex recommends Booker Prize winner Flesh by David Szalay.  • Seth was delighted to find Mask Or Face: Reflections in an Actor's Mirror by Michael Redgrave in a charity shop.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Seth Thévoz and Alex von Tunzelmann. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• Get the latest reaction on Trump’s climbdown from Weekly Wrap-Up on The Bunker with Raf Behr and Andrew Harrison.  “If you’re not at the table,” said Canada’s Mark Carney, “You’re on the menu.” Trump’s demented speech in Davos leaves the world agog. Beyond the President’s tantrums and on-off attempts to extort Greenland, are Britain and the EU ready to live in a world where America is a predatory enemy? Are European leaders just sucking his abuse up – or are their subtle pushbacks working? We look at the shocking end of 80 years of Atlanticism and wonder what comes next for a Brexit-weakened Britain. Oh, and Jason admits that years ago he did a “please have my Nobel Peace Prize” too. No better than Trump, this guy.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Zöe recommends the Jean-Marc Vallée movie Wild with Reese Witherspoon.  • Jason has been reading Things Are Never So Bad That They Can’t Get Worse: Inside the Collapse of Venezuela by William Neuman • Jonn has been reading Precipice by Robert Harris.   • Ros recommends Michael Crick’s biography of Farage, One Party After Another.   www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Ros Taylor with Jason Hazeley, Zöe Grünewald and Jonn Elledge. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. https://www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“You can’t fire me, I quit!” The world of politics is stunned – stunned! – as rightward-lurching public transport vigilante Robert Jenrick joins Reform* mere hours after Badenoch canned him for treachery. Will the world’s most self-seeking man work well with the world’s other most self-seeking man, Nigel Farage? Hmm, what do you think? Plus: Truly, Attlee, Deeply! How is Starmer doing compared to his illustrious predecessors as Labour leader? Izzy Conn of the history podcast Leading Labour helps us work out where Sir Keir fits in the Labour league ladder.  ( * Yes, we missed Andrew Rosindell. What do you want? Time travel??)  ESCAPE ROUTES • Zöe recommends ‘Hamnet’ at the movies – out now.  • Izzy recommends the songwriting podcast And The Writer Is.  • Andrew recommends you see Belgian rave-rock band Soulwax live if you get the chance.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Zöe Grünewald. Audio and video production by Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. https://www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This edition recorded before Jenrick got sacked from the Conservatives and then joined Reform. Hey, it’s just like 2018… Two-month chancellor and frisky tax guy Nadim Zahawi hops aboard Nigel Farage’s overladen jamwagon. We once wondered if the Conservatives were turning into Reform – but are Reform turning into the Tories? Plus: How is the murky world of party donations developing in our new, post-two-party system? And how will crypto make it worse? Also: Britain’s dismal options on Greenland. This week’s U-turns. And is Donald Trump’s awareness of his own mortality the reason he’s making us all aware of ours? ESCAPE ROUTES • Ros went to see Hamnet and quite liked it, anachronisms aside. But she really liked the new series of Industry on the BBC.  • Rachel recommends The Night Manager Season 2 on BBC iPlayer. • Peter recommends political thriller Hostage on Netflix and Eoin McNamee’s book The Bureau . • Matt recommends What Have I Done?, Ben Elton’s autobiography.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Matt Green with Rachel Cunliffe and Ros Taylor. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn and Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hands up who’s had enough hot-off-the-headlines politics for 2026 already? No problem! In a change of pace we go politics-adjacent and welcome Jason Williamson – voice of Nottingham’s satirical noise-beat mob orators Sleaford Mods – to talk class politics, the power of a good rant, the real reasons for the flags-and-roundabouts mania of 2025… and why one member of the extended OGWN family gets a surprising mention on Sleaford Mods’ new album The Demise Of Planet X . • The Demise Of Planet X is released on Friday 16 Jan.  • See Jason Williamson in Geoff Barrow’s movie Game – new screenings updated here. ESCAPE ROUTES • Jason Williamson recommends The Walker Brothers’ 1975 classic album No Regrets. • Jason Hazeley recommends Enshittification by Cory Doctorow, Into The Woods at the Bridge Theatre, London, and Suspect streaming from C4. • Andrew Harrison recommends Edge Of Darkness on iPlayer. www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Jason Hazeley. Produced by Chris Jones. Audio and video Production by Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What does Trump’s attack on Venezuela mean for the world – and what happens if he’s serious about Greenland? Plus, back home in the UK, politics is incredibly fractured. Reform UK leads many polls, Labour’s favourability is drowning, and the Green Party is neck and neck with the Lib Dems. But can the tide be turned in time to prevent Nigel Farage becoming PM? And in the Extra Bit for subscribers, as we start a new year, our panel describes the things they’re looking to do to push them out of their comfort zones. ESCAPE ROUTES • Marie: All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West • Seth is reading a series of memoirs by disgraced politicians. • Jonn: King & Conqueror on BBC iPlayer • Raf: A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders If you buy through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund Oh God, What Now? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. https://www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Seth Thévoz with Rafael Behr, Jonn Elledge, and Marie Le Conte.  Audio Production by: Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. https://www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump’s actions in Venezuela revealed how far he’s prepared to push his power – and how happy he is to act like Vladimir Putin. How will America’s invasion embolden Russia? And what does it mean for Europe and its safety? Andrew Harrison speaks with Mark Galeotti, Russia expert and host of the In Moscow’s Shadows podcast, to discuss how Trump’s aggression compares to Putin’s and what that means for the world.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison. Produced by Chris Jones. Audio Production by: Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who and what will receive our FIFA Peace Prize-style gongs for the year? Elon Musk for his brief, mayfly political life of casual mass murder? Trump and Vance for their disgusting Oval Office attack on Zelenskyy? Liz Truss, madwoman for hire? Oasis? Prince Andrew? Stephen f**king Miller? All these and more feature in our heated debate about the defining moments, heroes, villains, blessed distractions and underreported stories of a year we’re already drinking to forget. Cheers! Get our exclusive NordVPN deal at ⁠nordvpn.com/ohgodwhatnow⁠. It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money back guarantee!  ESCAPE ROUTES AND BOOKS OF THE YEAR • Ros recommends Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York by Andrew Lownie – and likes to watch Danger Mouse: The Snowman Cometh at Christmas.  • Jonn recommends Ghosts of Iron Mountain by Phil Tinline plus Scrooged, Home Alone and Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol.  • Andrew recommends The Power Fantasy by Keiron Gillen and Caspare Wijngaard and the 1951 Alastair Sim movie of A Christmas Carol.  • Seth recommends The Radical Print and The Black Cat (1935).  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Seth Thévoz with Jonn Elledge, Ros Taylor and Andrew Harrison. Produced by Chris Jones. Audio Production by: Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Thank God that’s nearly over… It’s been a grim old year in politics, so in the penultimate OGWN of 2025 our panel pores over the entrails of the year to seek reasons for optimism in 2026. Plus in a But Your Emails Special we answer as many of your questions as we can squeeze in. And if that’s not enough, we suggest Christmas presents for major politicians that might make them better at their jobs… or at least inspire them to give up politics and get out of our hair. • Be here on Monday 22 Dec for the final edition of the year – the Oh God, What Now? Politics Awards of 2025.  🎄FINAL DAY! Get 20% off a year’s support for Oh God, What Now? until Fri Dec 19 – whether you’re a new backer, renewing or upgrading.  Get our exclusive NordVPN deal at nordvpn.com/ohgodwhatnow. It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money back guarantee!  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Seth Thévoz with Jonn Elledge, Ros Taylor and Andrew Harrison. Produced by Chris Jones. Audio Production by: Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As 2025 spirals around the plughole of posterity, The Guardian’s parliamentary speechwriter John Crace joins us to look at the year inside the Westminster Village. Did Farage successfully cross over from consequence-free rabble-rouser to horribly plausible Prime Minister? Will the growing racism allegations halt his ambitions? Is there more going on in Starmer’s government than meets the eye? And what did we learn from the launch of Your Party, the fall of Angela Rayner and the Tories’ gap year? 📚 John Crace’s The Bonfire of the Insanities is available to buy now. 📧 Next week’s edition features a But Your Emails 2025 special. Send your questions to info@remainiacs.com – should old email addresses be forgot? 🎄 Get 20% off a year’s support for Oh God, What Now? until Christmas – whether you’re a new backer, renewing or upgrading. ESCAPE ROUTES • John recommends Blue Lights on BBC iPlayer. • Rachel hates Christmas pop but she likes White Wine In The Sun by Tim Minchin and Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End) by The Darkness. • Andrew recommends the science fiction novel Blood Music by Greg Bear. Buy any book through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund Oh God, What Now? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. • Get our exclusive NordVPN deal at nordvpn.com/ohgodwhatnow. It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money back guarantee! www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Rachel Cunliffe. Produced by Chris Jones. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction by James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

America’s new National Security Strategy is a hellish concoction of far-right obsessions, paranoid conspiracy thought, imperial fantasy, and outright aggression. European leaders are horrified but what are they going to do about it? Plus: Glasgow South MP Gordon McKee explains the UK’s debt to GDP ratio using towers of custard creams and bourbons. But can you make politics too simple? And in the Extra Bit for Patreons, we talk about Netflix’s real goal in trying to buy Warners: to kill off cinema.  🎄Get 20% off a year’s support for Oh God, What Now? until Christmas – whether you’re a new backer, renewing or upgrading.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Jonn recommends Pluribus on Apple TV+.  • Hannah recommends Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisy.  • Jason recommends the BBC documentary I Am Martin Parr • Matt went to see Edgar Wright’s The Running Man at the cinema but doesn’t recommend it much.  • When you buy books through our affiliate bookshop, you help fund Oh God, What Now? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. • Get our exclusive NordVPN deal at nordvpn.com/ohgodwhatnow. It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money back guarantee!  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Matt Green with Hannah Fearn, Jonn Elledge and Jason Hazeley. Produced by Chris Jones. Audio Production by: Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. https://www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Social media’s sewer pipe of white nationalism, conspiracy thought and violent far-right incitement is seeping into mainstream politics. But where is all this extremism coming from? Who’s creating it? Is anyone on political social media not a bot? And what are we going to do about it? Special guest Olivia Brown from the University of Bath explains how a tiny number of far-right accounts weaponise tragedies like Southport and use AI and engagement tricks to fake grassroots, us-vs-them banter. The goal: to warp Britain’s perception of what’s normal. 📳 Hear Paul Merton on Experience is Everything – Brought to you by Saga.  🎄Get 20% off a year’s support for Oh God, What Now? until Christmas – whether you’re a new backer, renewing or upgrading.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Olivia recommends The Guardian Football Weekly podcast.  • Jonn recommends Don’t Burn Anyone at the Stake Today by Naomi Alderman.  • Zoë recommends Sandwich by Catherine Newman. When you buy books through our affiliate bookshop, you help fund OGWN by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.  • Head to nakedwines.co.uk/ohgodwhatnow to get a £30 voucher and 6 top-rated wines from our sponsor Naked Wines for £39.99, delivery included. • Get our exclusive NordVPN deal at nordvpn.com/ohgodwhatnow. It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money back guarantee!  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Zoë Grünewald with Jonn Elledge. Produced by Chris Jones. Audio and Video Production by: Chris Jones Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What went wrong with “Your Party”? As absolutely nobody could have predicted, the new Left vehicle’s first conference collapses amid factional squabbles. Zarah Sultana gets to rule over the ruins but will all that new energy on the left now head over to Zack Polanski’s Greens? Plus: After a budget that pleased nobody, is Labour really taking young people seriously? And in the Extra Bit for Patreon people, will the War on London ever end? 🎄⁠Get 20% off a year’s support for Oh God, What Now?⁠ until Christmas – whether you’re a new backer, renewing or upgrading.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Ros recommends Trespasses on Channel 4 catch-up. • Raf just caught up with 2001: A Space Odyssey . • Marie recommends the movies Pillion and Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, both in cinemas now.  • Andrew finally, finally watched Under The Skin with Scarlett Johansson. • Head to nakedwines.co.uk/ohgodwhatnow to get a £30 voucher and 6 top-rated wines from our sponsor Naked Wines for £39.99, delivery included. • Get our exclusive NordVPN deal at nordvpn.com/ohgodwhatnow. It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money back guarantee!  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Marie le Conte, Rafael Behr and Ros Taylor. Produced by Chris Jones. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Britain is in trouble. Stagnating wages, collapsing public services and a feeble economy are turning politics angry and rancorous. Keir Starmer says Labour’s economic plan will take “years” to deliver – but does the party really have a long-term plan? And what would one look like? Our guest John Springford, associate fellow at the Centre for European Reform, has put one together at getting-out-of-the-hole.uk – and he’s here to talk about it. Why is our productivity so bad? Why are we getting work, energy, manufacturing and cities wrong? Why do we keep basing our strategy on things we’re not good at? And can we fix any of it without reversing Brexit? Listen in to find out.  🎄Get 20% off a year’s support for Oh God, What Now? until Christmas – whether you’re a new backer, renewing or upgrading.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Rachel recommends the new Wicked movie, Wicked: For Good. • John recommends human-extinction themed episodes of the podcasts If Books Could Kill and Past Present Future. • Seth recommends a visit to the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library to buy their themed Christmas ornaments.  • Head to nakedwines.co.uk/ohgodwhatnow to get a £30 voucher and 6 top-rated wines from our sponsor Naked Wines for £39.99, delivery included. • Get our exclusive NordVPN deal at nordvpn.com/ohgodwhatnow. It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money back guarantee!  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Seth Thévoz with Rachel Cunliffe. Audio and Video production: Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Behind all the predictable shrieking about “tax raids”, what really happened in Rachel Reeves’s much-trailed misery Budget? And what’s behind Labour’s fear of making bolder moves? Plus, Private Eye’s Daily Mailograph gag comes true – it looks like the Mail is going to buy the Telegraph. Our special guest, Radio 4 Now Show veteran and musical satirist Mitch Benn, helps us explore what it will do to diversity of the press (rhetorical question) and will Lord Rothermere get a free bottle of water with his purchase? And in the Extra Bit – Who should we ban from pubs: solo drinkers or kids?  • Get 20% off a year’s Patreon backing for OGWN until Christmas – new members, renewals, upgrades, all are welcome.  • Get your tickets for Mitch’s one-man performance of A Christmas Carol.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Hannah went to see EEVAH on tour.  • Mitch went to see the RSC production of My Neighbour Totoro at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London. And it’s not sold out, there are loads of tickets available.  • Ros recommends the Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe drama Prisoner 951 on BBC iPlayer.  • Jonn is rewatching the Scandi-noir classic The Bridge.  • Head to nakedwines.co.uk/ohgodwhatnow to get a £30 voucher and 6 top-rated wines from our sponsor Naked Wines for £39.99, delivery included. • Get our exclusive NordVPN deal at nordvpn.com/ohgodwhatnow. It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money back guarantee!  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Ros Taylor with Hannah Fearn and Jonn Elledge. Produced by Chris Jones. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction by James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s the word of the moment. “Enshittification” is the reason Google is all ads and no useful results, Amazon serves you crappy overpriced products, your phone spies on you and you can’t find your friends on social media – but you WILL be persecuted by bots, brands and Nazis all day long. So how are we going to fix it? Leading tech critic Cory Doctorow joins Andrew Harrison and Rafael Behr to talk about whether digital platform rot is inevitable, his book Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It …  and the many, many ways to conjugate the verb “to enshittify”.  NB Trust us, this is NOT an edition you want to listen to at 1.5x speed.  • Buy Enshittification through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund Oh God, What Now? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. ESCAPE ROUTES • Cory recommends the podcast No Gods No Mayors. • Raf went to see the touring production of Fiddler on the Roof which you can still just about catch in Sunderland and Birmingham. • Andrew recommends child abduction drama All Her Fault on Now TV plus colossal CD box sets from Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Propaganda. • Head to nakedwines.co.uk/ohgodwhatnow to get a £30 voucher and 6 top-rated wines from our sponsor Naked Wines for £39.99, delivery included. • Get our exclusive NordVPN deal at nordvpn.com/ohgodwhatnow. It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money back guarantee!  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Rafael Behr. Audio and Video Production by: Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Labour’s controversial asylum plans have sparked a backlash and it’s not clear they’ll even work. So, why have they gone down this route? What options might be better? Plus, AI – the bubble is going to burst, but has it already broken our brains? Then in the extra bit for supporters – what would we want to bring back from 100 years ago? Escape Routes  • Matt is watching Death by Lightning  • Zoe is watching Stranger Things • Jason is reading Penda's Fen: Scene by Scene by Ian Greaves • Head to ⁠nakedwines.co.uk/ohgodwhatnow⁠ to get a £30 voucher and 6 top-rated wines from our sponsor Naked Wines for £39.99, delivery included.  ⁠www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow⁠   Presented by Ros Taylor with Matt Green, Zoë Grünewald and Jason Hazeley.  Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.   ⁠www.podmasters.co.uk⁠    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is Trump finally falling apart? His approval ratings are catastrophic, the Republicans took a hammering in the November elections, his gross-out distraction tactics no longer work… and as more Epstein emails are released, the scandal is lapping ever-higher around his cankles. Molly Jong-Fast of The Atlantic, Vanity Fair and the unmissable Fast Politics podcast joins Andrew Harrison and Rafael Behr to discuss the teetering tyrant and the damage he will leave.  • This episode recorded before Trump decided he wanted the Epstein Files released after all.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Raf has been reading Moby-Dick (because why not?) and listening to funk and soul covers by Scary Pockets.  • Molly recommends When All The Men Wore Hats by Susan Cheever. • Andrew is going crazy for Pluribis on Apple TV+.  When you buy books through our affiliate bookshop you help fund OGWN by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. • Head to nakedwines.co.uk/ohgodwhatnow to get a £30 voucher and 6 top-rated wines from our sponsor Naked Wines for £39.99, delivery included.https://nakedwines.co.uk/ohgodwhatnow www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Rafael Behr. Audio and Video Production by Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump and the right wing press are gleefully hounding the BBC over a clumsy speech edit – will they succeed in taking down the broadcaster? Plus, manifesto promises – there’s a huge fuss over Labour potentially breaking them, but is that anything new? And in the extra bit for supporters – reasons to be a Luddite! The panel rallies against smart technology.  • Rachel suggests Fergus Butler-Gallie’s book Touching Cloth  • Jonn recommends Fergus Craig’s upcoming book I'm Not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home  • Marie is reading New Boy by William Sutcliffe  When you buy books through our affiliate bookshop you help fund OGWN by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.  • Head to ⁠nakedwines.co.uk/ohgodwhatnow⁠ to get a £30 voucher and 6 top-rated wines from our sponsor Naked Wines for £39.99, delivery included. • If you want to find out more about Energise Africa and register as an investor, visit ⁠energiseafrica.com/ogwn⁠. ⁠www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow⁠  Presented by Seth Thevoz with Marie Le Conte, Rachel Cunliffe and Jonn Elledge.  Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.  ⁠www.podmasters.co.uk⁠   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tax rises! Cuts to everything! Here comes the pain! Seldom has a Budget been heralded with such dire warnings… if you believe the Toryform Press. But according to Giles Wilkes – Institute for Government fellow and former adviser to Vince Cable and Theresa May – Britain isn’t in such a disastrous state after all. In a weirdly optimistic conversation he joins Andrew Harrison and Jonn Elledge to look at the real story of Britain’s finances; why Brexit is an even bigger drag anchor than the Treasury will admit; and why the embattled Chancellor needs to stick to her course.   ESCAPE ROUTES  • Jonn has been watching The Celebrity Traitors, yes that again, do our panel ever watch anything else?  • Giles recommends Wellington: The Iron Duke by Richard Holmes.  • Andrew recommends the old school BBC adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with Alec Guinness.   When you buy books through our affiliate bookshop you help fund OGWN by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.  • Head to nakedwines.co.uk/ohgodwhatnow to get a £30 voucher and 6 top-rated wines from our sponsor Naked Wines for £39.99, delivery included. www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow  Presented by Andrew Harrison with Jonn Elledge Audio and Video Production by Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.  www.podmasters.co.uk   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York mayoralty race electrifies the global Left, rocks the Democratic establishment and leaves Trump titanically unamused. What does it all mean? Plus: Do we need to save the Conservative Party? Former Digital Minister and Tory MP for Boston and Skegness Matt Warman helps us examine the drastic measures needed to keep Reform out. And in the aftermath of the Huntingdon knife attacks we look at the usual suspects’ rush to make it all about immigration.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Jason recommends the 1985 series Edge Of Darkness  on BBC iPlayer. • Seth recommends wandering around Dublin because why not?  • Ros recommends Rory Stewart’s new book Middleland.  • Matt Warman recommends Andrew Ross Sorkin’s 1929: The Inside Story of The Greatest Crash in Wall Street History. Buy any book 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. • If you want to find out more about Energise Africa and register as an investor, visit energiseafrica.com/ogwn. www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Ros Taylor with Seth Thévoz and Jason Hazeley. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After decades of waving away electoral reform, Labour and the Tories suddenly have a reason to question First Past The Post – the nightmare prospect of a Reform government. Has proportional representation’s time finally come? How might it happen? And what system would work for Britain? Proud elections wonk David Klemperer of the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Bath joins Rachel Cunliffe and Andrew Harrison for the world’s first Single Transferable Podcast.  • Could a MAGA-style movement happen in Britain? Prof Roger Griffin talks it through with Andrew on The Bunker. ESCAPE ROUTES • Rachel recommends K-Pop Demon Hunters on Netflix.  • David recommends West End Girl by Lily Allen.  • Andrew recommends the 30th anniversary reissue of Different Class by Pulp.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison and Rachel Cunliffe. Audio and video production by Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

British politics feels stalled and the only people benefiting are Farage and the quick-fix demagogues of Reform UK. Why is the debate about our national future frozen and what can we do about it? Special guest Ben Ansell – author of Why Politics Fails – joins us to talk it over. Plus, a But Your Emails special where we answer as many of your questions as is humanly possible. And in the Extra Bit for Patreon people only… where did the obsession with Hallowe’en come from?   ESCAPE ROUTES • Jonn recommends Alan Johnson’s memoir This Boy • Ben has been reading the Robert Harris Cicero trilogy. Book One is Imperium • Ros has been reading The Endless Country by Sami Kent • Hannah has been watching The Diplomat on Netflix and listening to Lily Allen's new album • Buy books through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund Oh God What Now? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. If you want to find out more about Energise Africa and register as an investor, visit energiseafrica.com/ogwn . www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Ros Taylor with Hannah Fearn and Jonn Elledge. Audio Production by: Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A neurotic obsession with illegal migration is driving British politics rightwards, trapping the parties in an arms race of escalating harshness towards migrants. Now Tory far-righter Katie Lam wants to cancel legal migrants’ right to stay, evoking the racist “repatriation” talk of the 1970s National Front. Can Britain get out of the migration doom spiral?  Former head of the Migration Advisory Committee Prof Alan Manning joins us to talk about the “infernal cycle” of migration policy … whether Labour really are just trying to outbid the Tories and Reform… his new book Why Immigration Policy Is Hard And How To Make It Better … and why a good goal would be to Make Migration Boring Again.   • Buy Why Immigration Policy Is Hard And How To Make It Better 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.  ESCAPE ROUTES  • Ros and Alan are both watching Celebrity Traitors on the iPlayer, as it seems is everyone.  • Apart from Andrew, who is listening to the soothing German techno on Kompakt Total 25 • 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 ads@podmasters.co.uk to find out more  • If you want to find out more about Energise Africa and register as an investor, visit energiseafrica.com/ogwn www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow  Presented by Andrew Harrison with Ros Taylor. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme music by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.  www.podmasters.co.uk   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices