Farage Crawls Out, Riots Break Out & Bartlett's Three Glasses of Wine

Farage Crawls Out, Riots Break Out & Bartlett's Three Glasses of Wine

From The Trawl by Jemma Forte & Marina Purkiss

June 3, 2026 · 51 min · Episode 372

About this episode

Marina and Jemma discuss optimisation culture, the murder of Henry Nowak, and political opportunism, while also sharing lighter moments.

Marina and Jemma kick things off with a spirited takedown of "optimisation culture" - sparked by a viral clip of  Diary of a CEO 's Stephen Bartlett dramatically declaring that three glasses of wine ruined his life (his Whoop watch told him so). Marina and Jemma are not having it. Yes, sleep matters, yes, balance is key - but why are we KPI-ing ourselves into misery? As Marina puts it: you don't need to arrive in your coffin in pristine condition FFS.  Then things get darker. Marina and Jemma turn to the heartbreaking and senseless murder of Henry Nowak in Southampton and the utterly vile opportunism that followed - Nigel Farage crawling out from under his rock (after missing 77 consecutive parliamentary votes, by the way) to tell people to feel "cold rage," while Elon Musk and Tommy Robinson piled on. The family asked for unity. These people chose riots.  There's also the ongoing Reform chaos, including a truly painful interview with would-be MP Robert Kenyon, whose main defence for not understanding maternity policy is essentially "it doesn't affect me." Checks out. They close on some much-needed lightness: a Springsteen lyric that will ruin a song for you…

People in this episode

Hosts: Jemma Forte, Marina Purkiss

Topics covered

  • optimisation culture
  • murder of Henry Nowak
  • political opportunism
  • Reform chaos
  • misogyny in debate
  • humanity in journalism

Keywords

  • optimisation culture
  • Henry Nowak
  • Nigel Farage
  • Reform chaos
  • Josh Rushing

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