- 56 minutes 45 secondsFarage’s riot act — How the right is exploiting Henry Nowak’s murder
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 [email protected].
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.
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.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
5 June 2026, 3:00 am - 59 minutes 41 secondsWho votes Reform and why? – with Sir John Curtice
• 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 [email protected].
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.
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.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
2 June 2026, 3:00 am - 56 minutes 26 secondsBlair: “Modern Life is Rubbish”
• 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 [email protected].
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
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.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
29 May 2026, 3:00 am - 51 minutesThe Count of Dodgy Crypto
• 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 [email protected].
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.
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.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
27 May 2026, 3:00 am - 1 hour 8 minutesThe Brexit Bus is coming (and Andy Burnham’s jumping)
• 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 [email protected].
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.
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.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
22 May 2026, 3:00 am - 57 minutes 3 secondsSlash’n’Burnham – Makerfield is already getting nasty
• 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 [email protected].
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
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.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
19 May 2026, 3:00 am - 1 hour 4 minutesWhere the Streets has no shame
• 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 [email protected].
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
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.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
14 May 2026, 12:15 pm - 1 hour 53 secondsGet Starmer
• 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 [email protected].
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.
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.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
11 May 2026, 10:51 pm - 28 minutes 52 secondsEmergency Localscast! – What Labour’s walloping REALLY means – with Steve Richards
• 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 [email protected].
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.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
8 May 2026, 12:02 pm - 58 minutes 29 secondsZack’s Appeal – Are the Greens a one-man band?
• 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 [email protected].
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.
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.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
7 May 2026, 9:00 pm - 1 hour 10 minutesLifestyles of the rich and heinous
• 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 [email protected].
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
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.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
6 May 2026, 3:00 am - More Episodes? Get the App