The Bunker – News without the nonsense

When opposition figurehead and recovered Novichok target Alexei Navalny flew back to Russia to lead democracy protests, he took an enormous personal risk, of which instant imprisonment was only a part. Could Navalny’s mix of street demos and slick social media mockery really destabilise Putin’s regime? Luke Harding, author of Shadow State : Murder, Mayhem and Russia's Remaking of the West, explains the background to Navalny’s gamble… and the meaning of the casino, nightclub and “aqua-discotheque” in ‘Putin’s Palace’.  “Navalny shone a light on corruption – not just by Putin, but his friends.”  “Navalny’s return to Russia was one of the bravest things I’ve ever seen.”  “Putin is a dictator. It’s a tired old show that Russians are tired of watching.”  “Navalny’s popularity is clearly growing. If you can get people to protest in minus fifty, you must be cutting through.”   Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jelena Sofronijevic  and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. The Bunker is a Podmasters Production See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The American writer George Saunders won the 2017 Booker Prize with Lincoln In The Bardo and is an award-winning author of short stories. His new book A Swim In A Pond In The Rain explains how short stories work with the aid of Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Dorian Lynskey is a fan. George Saunders talks to Dorian about his “shovel in the fictive graveyard”, being a working class writer in a middle class world, the value of “looming catastrophe” in life and art… and why reading fiction is the best training for spotting lies in loved ones, colleagues and politicians.  “I had the idea that literature was a beautiful gilded mansion and I had to leave all my real shit at the door. And it’s not true.” “Our basic storytelling gland has to do with curiosity” “My job as a writer is to get to a place where the world doesn’t surprise me.” “A story isn’t a monolithic whole that comes from the writer’s moral qualities. It’s a magic trick made out of fragments of language.” “When you’ve got an administration that rejects enlightenment values they’re not susceptible to satire. And I found that with Trump.” Presented by Dorian Lynskey. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jelena Sofronijevic  and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. The Bunker is a Podmasters Production See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Even after the horror of the Grenfell Fire, millions of people are still living in homes with cheap, inflammable cladding – and the effort to fix it has stalled. Steve Cole, head of corporate strategy at the housing association Clarion, and Inside Housing’s award-winning editor Peter Apps tell Naomi Smith about a scandal that’s been inexcusably neglected, how austerity paved the way for this tragedy, and how to force the Government to take action before another disaster.  “There are up to 4.6m flats affected by dangerous cladding and that’s 11m people. That’s equivalent to the entire population of London.” – Peter Apps “British homes are like US cars. They’re only energy efficient because they run on cheap fuel.” – Steve Cole “Why should the taxpayer pay to fix a problem of the construction industry?” – Peter Apps “Regulation isn’t worth much of it’s not enforced… Austerity took a lot of expertise and enforcement out of local government.” – Steve Cole Presented by Naomi Smith. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofrenijevic. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. The Bunker is a Podmasters Production. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can Keir Starmer re-energise Labour by connecting it to the symbols its old voters admire? And why are progressives so neurotic about patriotism? Plus, with Russia and China distributing Sputnik and Sinovac around the world, are COVID vaccines a surprisingly hard tool of soft power? And why is supposedly ‘Global’ Britain giving up on learning foreign languages? Ahir Shah, Yasmeen Serhan and Arthur Snell join Andrew Harrison for this week’s panel edition. “To a lot of us the Union Jack only means two things: the World Cup, or fear.” – Ahir Shah “Rich countries need to understand that they may have all the vaccines, but it doesn’t mean they’re more immune.” – Yasmeen Serhan “What the outside world doesn’t realise is, Putin’s popularity in the polls is dropping fast.” – Arthur Snell Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Logo and branding by Mark Taylor. Music: Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. The Bunker is a Podmasters production See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What to watch out for in the next seven days: Trumpeachment II and the Republicans’ Faustian bargain with their own fantasists, worsening import-export crisis in Britain’s Brexit-battered ports, Labour exposes the Government’s crony contracts and more. Alex Andreou marks your card for the week ahead.  “The in and out valves to this country are jammed.” “Haulage is not a curve, it’s a tipping point. At some point, it will become unprofitable for these businesses to trade in the UK.” “Covid-19 is no longer an emergency, it’s a fact of life.” Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Logo and branding by Mark Taylor. Music: Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. The Bunker is a Podmasters production See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are the rules that make powerful people powerful changing? Can they still bank on the old myth of the superhuman CEO or political leader? Business journalist from the Telegraph, Evening Standard and beyond James Ashton has just published The Nine Types Of Leader: How The Leaders Of Tomorrow Can Learn From The Leaders Of Today. He talks to Alex Andreou about how leadership is changing.   “The pendulum has swung from alpha dominated populists to diplomats – from Trump to Biden.” “I hate these words like passion and authenticity – but a leader has to be believable.” “There are still plenty of arrogant thin-skinned leaders around, who need to be surrounded by people who just say the right thing” Presented by Alex Andreou. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If democracy is so great why does it keep producing such terrible results? Nick Cohen of The Observer talks to Georgetown University political philosopher Jason Brennan, author of Against Democracy, about what it means when sweeping democratic mandates arise from underinformed voters. Do people really vote on the basis of policy or simply to be part of the gang? Should you have to pass a test before you can vote? Would Jason criticise our system in front of a Belorussian protestor? And what can Iron Maiden teach us about what’s wrong with democracy? “A key problem is, the average voter basically knows nothing about politics…” “For most people, the act of voting is a little like kicking your dog because you’ve had a bad day at work.” “The average citizen in a democracy is much more authoritarian than the societies they live in. What’s checking them is the elites.”  “Why is it so good to live in liberal democracies? Is it because they’re democracies – or because they’re liberal?” “Voters aren’t stupid. It’s more a question of, Is it even worth my while for me to know this stuff?”  Presented by Nick Cohen. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofrenijevic. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Technology will displace 47% of all jobs, said Dr Carl Benedikt Frey in a study he co-wrote called The Future Of Employment – a paper so influential that it’s at the centre of jobs policy for governments across the world. But what will replace those jobs? Will anything replace them?In his new book The Technology Trap Dr Frey describes how the same job destruction and extremes of poverty and great wealth that took place in the Industrial Revolution are happening all over again thanks to artificial intelligence and Big Data. So how will we work in the future? Should we celebrate the end of boring, repetitive jobs? And how can we plan for jobs of tomorrow when we can’t even conceptualise them? “The scale of jobs that are replaceable by technology – but that’s only a part of the question” “Machines perform poorly in creative or social tasks. That’s where most new jobs will be created.” Presented by Alex Andreou. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Britain’s vaccination programme is undoubtedly working. Do we have to grit out teeth and admit our political opponents have done at least one thing right? Healthcare commentator Roy Lilley tells us the mood among NHS workers. Plus: small business goes under the political bus, the murky world of doses for data, will we ever travel for fun again – and what the hell is happening in Italy? Ros Taylor and Ayesha Hazarika join Andrew Harrison for the weekly Bunker panel show.  “The NHS is on the ragged edge. It’s hanging on by its fingernails” – Roy Lilley “The vaccine rollout will be a powerful argument in favour of paying more tax for the NHS” - Ros Taylor “Labour was always associated with red tape. Now the Conservatives are strangling business with it” - Ayesha Hazarika Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vaccination steps up, Trump’s legal shenanigans, Paul Dacre to OFCOM, Myanmar, Navalny and the fallout from the EU’s terrible decision on vaccine exports. Yasmeen Serhan of The Atlantic tells Andrew Harrison what to watch out for in the coming week. “Myanmar will reveal whether the US is going to be the country that stands up for democracy again.”  “The emerging COVID variants are a warning that we aren’t safe until we’re all safe.”   “Trump authorised the Capitol insurrection. There was merch, for God’s sake.”  Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices