Oh God, What Now?

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 [email protected].  • 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

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 [email protected].  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

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 [email protected].  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

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 [email protected].  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

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 [email protected].  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

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 [email protected].  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

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 [email protected].  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

“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 [email protected]. 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