How did the richest people on the planet make their billions? From Selena Gomez to Jeff Bezos, and now we find out about five dead billionaires. Meet pioneers who helped build the United States of America: the world’s first billionaire John D Rockefeller, motor magnate Henry Ford, the aviator and filmmaker Howard Hughes, Walmart founder Sam Walton, and Hetty Green - once dubbed “The Witch of Wall Street”. These iconic billionaires may be long dead, but their fingerprints are all over modern ...
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Zing Tsjeng Podcasts
News without the nonsense, every weekday morning. In episodes that fit your commute*, The Bunker cuts through the noise to make sense of what’s really going on in news, current affairs, politics, economics and culture. We bring you smart explainers, interviews, fresh perspectives and under-reported stories to as a refreshing alternative to repetitive Punch and Judy news coverage. It’s the only way to start the day. From the producers of Oh God, What Now? Our regulars include: Gavin Esler • R ...
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Zing Tsjeng can apply for a British passport. But she’s already got one from Singapore, and she can’t have both. It's got her thinking, what does it mean to be British? She's off on a trip around the UK to find out.
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Biographical series in which guests choose someone who has inspired their lives.
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Intimate stories. Immersively told. Each week, you’ll hear a different writer read a story that they’ve never told before, paired with a bespoke soundscape. Whether it’s something strange, something surprising, something secret, something shameful or just something they haven’t gotten round to putting into words... In this brand new storytelling podcast from Brock Media. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Inside Hitler’s inner circle – How his underlings served the Nazi tyrant
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34:23At the core of the most infamous regime in history is a paradox: a leader who somehow exercised total control while being personally lazy and issuing only vague instructions to his ministers. In Hitler’s People: The Faces of the Third Reich the renowned historian Richard J Evans investigates Hitler’s central clique from Göring, Goebbels and Himmler…
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Bob Villain – What does Robert Jenrick want?
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35:44He’s climbing up a lamp-post near you to hang flags. He’s smearing every immigrant in terms that would have got you kicked out of the Tories even five years ago. And he thinks he can lead the Conservatives. What turned Robert Jenrick from a non-threatening Cameroonist Tory into a trouble-stirring Cosplay Farage? Does he really believe in anything? …
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Empire of Lies – How Putin rules Russians with conspiracy propaganda
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31:15Inside today’s Russia, conspiracy theories like this aren’t just fringe curiosities, they’re mainstream. From TV talk shows to Putin himself, wild stories about stolen lands, shadowy Western plots, and circling enemies aren’t dismissed; they’re used to fuel Russia’s war in Ukraine and position the country as a morally just state. Today in The Bunke…
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The dead billionaires: What do you think?
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10:49
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10:49What did you think of John D Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, Sam Walton and Hetty Green? These five titans of American industry include an oil tycoon, a motor magnate, an eccentric aviator, the founder of Walmart, and an unsung pioneer of value investment known as the ‘Witch of Wall Street’. They helped shape business in the United States, …
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Flags, Boats and Hotels… Again – Start Your Week with Ros Taylor
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32:40The dog days of summer continue to be dominated by flags, boats and hotels. Will the migrant protests and freelance flag-raising burn out or will the Mail’s dream of chaos in Britain come true? Plus as Trump’s Ukraine “solution” stumbles on he floats the idea of more military occupations of American cities; the French government teeters; and the Gr…
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From Bad to Norse – How the Vikings would have dealt with a tyrant like Trump
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34:10Some say Donald Trump’s ancestry ties him to Norse kings and even Rurik, founder of Russia’s first dynasty. In recent weeks, Russian state media have pushed the idea that Trump’s “Viking blood” explains his ruthless streak. But would the real Vikings have raised a flagon in his honour, or run him out of the fjord? Today on The Bunker, Chris Jones i…
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Chads, Cucks and the Black Pill – Decoding the far right
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33:12The modern far right often play the underdogs, shaking fists at mysterious elites said to control our thoughts and culture. But much of their lexicon has already slipped into the mainstream. Phrases born on message boards now appear in newspapers, on TV, even in everyday chat. On today’s Bunker, Dorian Lynskey talks to journalist Matt McManus, assi…
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Trump and Ukraine talks: What comes next? – This Is Not a Drill crossover edition
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36:26In a special crossover edition from our partner podcast, This is Not a Drill, Oz Katerji is joined by Keir Giles, author and Russia expert at Chatham House, to discuss the fallout from Trump’s meetings with Putin, Zelenskyy and a host of European leaders. After a frantic week of international diplomacy, what is the prospect of an end to Russia’s wa…
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Arguing with a Reform voter? – Paul Mason has the ideas you need
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37:29“Britain’s heading for civil war.” “Immigration’s out of control.” “We’re stuck with two-tier woke policing.” How do you argue back when relatives, friends or colleagues start parroting Reform’s inflammatory half-truths? And when they’re encouraged by a compliant media and radicalised pundits? Campaigning journalist Paul Mason wrote How To Stop Fas…
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Trump meeting: United states and America – Start Your Week with Alex von Tunzelmann and Jacob Jarvis
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32:30After Trump’s meeting with Putin, world leaders are scrambling to the White House for damage control. Zelenskyy will be joined by an A-list cast of European figureheads – what will they be pushing for? Alex von Tunzelmann and Jacob Jarvis discuss all this and more as they tee up the week ahead. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker fo…
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How South Park is saving free speech in America
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26:13The new season of South Park is causing a stir with its sharp attacks on the Trump administration. Long seen as a bastion of free speech, the cartoon has built its reputation on skewering everyone, but is its trademark cynicism shifting towards a more targeted political stance? Today on The Bunker, Jacob Jarvis speaks with media critic Ciara Molone…
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The world’s eyes will be on Vladimir Putin as he meets with Donald Trump in Alaska. With Ukraine’s future on the table, could this be the Russian leader’s moment to get exactly what he wants? Today in The Bunker, Chris Jones is joined by Dr Ian Garner, author of Z Generation: Into the Heart of Russia’s Fascist Youth, to unpack what’s really at stak…
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Old Man Shouts at Cloud – Could Trump turn off Europe’s internet?
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30:36Daily life depends US-based cloud computing. What happens if Trump decides to use it as a weapon against his enemies, as he does with tariffs? Just three American firms – Google, Amazon, and Microsoft – control around two-thirds of Europe’s cloud infrastructure including the UK’s Home Office, HMRC, Department for Work and Pensions, and MoD. Could T…
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King of Cruelty – How Trump wins by humiliating his enemies
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28:49Politics has always been brutal but in the Trump era, it’s turned downright ugly. From Ted Cruz to Elon Musk, Donald Trump doesn’t just defeat opponents; he aims to degrade them. Public insults, jeers, the whip of a hostile crowd and, most of all, humiliation. Why does this gut-level tactic work so well for the leader of the free world? Today in Th…
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The summit of all fears – Start Your Week with Rafael Behr and Jacob Jarvis
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42:44Trump and Putin are due to meet in Alaska in a bilateral meeting despite a global push to ensure Zelenskyy is brought to the table. Will anything come of this, or is this just going to be a meeting of two super-egos? Rafael Behr joins Jacob Jarvis to discuss this and other news to look out for this week in Start Your Week. We are sponsored by Indee…
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Were the Luddites right? – Why A.I. is making it seem that way
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34:36Rage against the machines? For 200 years “Luddite” was a term of abuse for deluded people who tried to hold back progress. But with A.I. threatening everything from mass unemployment to business tyranny to actual human extinction, maybe it’s time to accept that the 19th century worker’s rebellion under fictional leader Ned Ludd had a pretty good po…
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Will Farage's crime fear campaign decide the next election?
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37:38Nigel Farage claims Britain is on the edge of ‘societal collapse’ with crime so bad that people are scared to leave their own house. But is there any truth behind his claims or is it just another alarmist soundbite? Today in The Bunker, Jacob Jarvis talks to Zoë Grünewald, Westminster editor at The Lead, about whether Farage’s rhetoric matches real…
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From Caesar to JFK – How assassinations have shaped the world
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31:02From the assassination that sparked the First World War to the covert drone strikes of today, targeted killing has been used to shape history and shift the balance of power for generations. Today in The Bunker, Seth Thévoz is joined by Simon Ball, professor of international history and politics at the University of Leeds and author of Death to Orde…
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Grindset influencers and CEO cosplay – Is business bullshit harming the real economy?
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31:05Were you up at 4am, crushing laps on the Assault Bike, triple-dosing beef tallow coffee, journaling your goals, and grinding through a high-performance podcast? No? Then what’s wrong with you? Welcome to the grindset—the cult-like mindset glorifying relentless work, self-optimisation, and so-called success. Fuelled by figures like Stephen Bartlett,…
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Play your I.D. cards right — Start Your Week with Gavin Esler and Ros Taylor
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21:49A plan for new identity cards is reportedly in the offing, what is the government thinking and why? Plus, we look at the latest from online safety laws to Trump’s chaos in the United States, with Ros Taylor and Gavin Esler. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Advertisers! Want to…
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Hetty Green was America’s richest woman, but was renowned as the nation’s biggest miser. But she built her investment fortune in an era before women could even vote. Journalist Zing Tsjeng and BBC business editor Simon Jack tell the forgotten story of a woman guided by Quakerism who loaned money to New York City when it was in financial peril. She …
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Talk ’90s To Me teaser – How Oasis blew up with Miranda Sawyer and Ted Kessler
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22:27Talk ’90s To Me is the new podcast from the makers of The Bunker which dives into all the key characters and topics that made the 1990s great. The first episode covers Oasis and how they brought chaos, electricity and working-class swagger to a music scene dominated by po-faced grunge and indie bands in the early 1990s. How did the Gallaghers go fr…
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Revenge – Inside the addiction that drives everything from Trump to The Lion King
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33:35From Trump to Putin to Israel/Gaza, a primal need for revenge saturates politics. But is vengeance an addiction like any other? Author and former lawyer James Kimmel Jr should know. Grievance and pain once drove him to such rage that he almost committed murder. He tells Andrew Harrison how his book The Science of Revenge explains why we take pleasu…
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QAnon vs. The GOP – Can Trump's party survive?
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31:00Donald Trump promised to expose Jeffrey Epstein’s secrets but now he’s backing away, and the conspiracy crowd that once adored him is asking some serious questions. Can Trump survive the fallout from the QAnon movement he helped ignite? And even if he does, what will it mean for the future of his party, beyond his time as president Today in The Bun…
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Time to tax the mega-rich? – How a wealth tax might work
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32:09As Britain’s finances worsen, pressure is building for Labour to bring in a wealth tax on the super-rich – not least because Rachel Reeves has ruled out pretty much every other tax. How would it work? How much would it raise? Who would pay? And would those poor billionaires really flee Britain if it happened? Stephen Kinsella of Patriotic Millionai…
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Trump vs. Murdoch – Let the worst man win!
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26:06Donald Trump is suing the Wall Street Journal and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, for $10 billion over a story linking him to Jeffrey Epstein. So what’s really behind Trump’s latest high profile spat with a former friend? Today in The Bunker, Gavin Esler is joined by William Cohan, journalist at The New York Times, to find out what this billionaire fall…
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