Oh God, What Now?

• 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 ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  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.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow 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. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• 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 ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow 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. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• 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 ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  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.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow 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. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• 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 ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  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 www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow 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. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• Podmasters is 10 years old! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon backing. Applauded by Congress, lauded by Trump and working his way through a spring-herbed ravioli on a golden plate? It was a tough gig for Charles. The King may have charmed the President but will his visit rescue US/UK relations from the geopolitical toilet?  Plus, Starmer evades a Commons investigation into the Mandelson affair but is it really all over bar the shouting for the PM? Why a social media ban for under-16s might be based on dodgy science. And in the Extra Bit: If they can get away with a Michael Jackson movie in 2026, which political figures ought to get their own biopic?  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Rachel has been bingeing Guy Ritchie’s Young Sherlock on Amazon Prime.   • Jonn recommends Radio 4’s How To Invent A Country on BBC Sounds.  • James recommends the relaxing game Nodes – play it here. • Andrew recommends Daredevil: Born Again on Disney+, inevitably  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Rachel Cunliffe, Jonn Elledge and James Ball. 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

• Podmasters is 10 years old! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon support – that’s 20% in total.  Another week, another assassination attempt… Will the latest attack on Trump change anything apart from making the crazy people crazier? And will he get his ballroom out of it? Plus, Reform announce plans to make the teaching of history more patriotic. On the curriculum: more Winston Churchill and Battle of Britain, less slave trade, even less Ireland and no Britain being anything other than brilliant. Are you kids ready for the Old Man In A Pub version of Our Island Story? • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Gavin went to see music inspired by the Bridget Riley: Learning To See exhibition at Turner Contemporary… but you’ve missed it. Sorry.  • Matt is the latest panelist to recommend medical drama The Pitt on HBO Max.  • Raf recommends drum’n’bass artist Nia Archives’ new single Danger • Ros recommends French-language murder mystery Une Unique Lueur by Fred Vargas. Not out in English yet though.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Ros Taylor with Matt Green, Gavin Esler and Rafael Behr. Audio Production by Tom Taylor and Chris Jones. 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

• Podmasters is 10 years old! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon support – that’s 20% in total.  As the dust settles from the umpteenth Mandelsequel, where does Labour go from here? Is Starmer permanently damaged? And who would step into No.10: Angela Rayner, Andy Burnham, Al Carns, or someone else entirely from the political alphabet? And while opening ChatGPT has become as routine as morning coffee, millions are probably using it all wrong. So says special guest Jamie Bartlett, algorithm whisperer and author of How to Talk to AI, who explains how to master the art of prompts.  • Order How to Talk to AI 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.  • Hear America Against The World from This Is Not A Drill on your favourite podcast app. • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk  ESCAPE ROUTES • Marie recommends The Princess of 77nd Street by Elaine Kraf. • Hannah recommends Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico.  • Jamie recommends Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton and The Parakeeting Of London by Nick Hunt. • Seth has been enjoying Michael Gove pimping free gin for The Spectator.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Seth Thévoz with Hannah Fearn and Marie Le Conte. 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

• Podmasters is 10 years old! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon support – that’s 20% in total.  Oh Mandy… the scandal that won’t die is back (again). Can Keir Starmer style this one out or is his credibility finally shot? Plus, imagine if you wrote a hoax government report about how a secretive shadow government controls America and then everyone believed it. Even though you admitted it was false. And believed it so completely that they ended up destroying democracy. Nightmare, right? Author Phil Tinline talks us through the scarcely believable true tale he sets out in Ghosts of Iron Mountain – a story that takes in Lee Harvey Oswald, the Oklahoma Bombings, neo-Nazis, hippies, Oliver Stone and The X Files – and how it’s still warping our world today.  • Order Ghosts of Iron Mountain 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. • Hear America Against The World from This Is Not A Drill on your favourite podcast app. • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Rachel recommends The Critic with Ian McKellen on Netflix • Raf has just discovered Fast As You Can by Fiona Apple from the album ‘When The Pawn Hits Etc Etc Yadda Yadda’. • Phil has been listening to drum, bass and related stuff from Ivy Lab • Andrew went to see the Murdoch vs Brenda Dean play In The Print at the New King’s Head in Islington, London – it’s on til 3 May. www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Rachel Cunliffe 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

• Join our OGWN vs Origin Story Tenth Birthday Podclash on Zoom on Thur 30 April.  What happens if Reform actually wins? We dive into a darkly plausible near-future where Nigel Farage becomes PM and everything goes… about as well as you’d expect. It’s all gamed out in a new fact-based “non-fiction thriller”, What If Reform Wins? by our special guest, Times reporter Peter Chappell – from how Reform would tackle an ICE-style crackdown to the end of Net Zero and the return of Dominic Cummings. This could be the future, so how do we stop it? Plus: Is the UK ready for a politics that does God? The IMF warns Britain could take the biggest hit from the Iran War’s economic shock. Should we get behind Samantha Niblett MP’s Summer of Sex? And in the Extra Bit… after the smooth dancefloor moves of victorious Hungarian MP Zsolt Hegedűs “broke the internet” we ask – should politicians be less embarrassed about dancing? • Pre-order What If Reform Wins: A Scenario  by Peter Chappell – it’s out 30 April.  • Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk ESCAPE ROUTES • Marie read and loved The Door by Magda Szabó. • Jonn recommends No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood. • Peter went ceilidh dancing at Cecil Sharp House in Camden, north London.  • Matt is watching Steve Carrel’s new series Rooster on HBO Max, Now and Sky.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow • When you 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. Presented by Matt Green with Marie Le Conte and Jonn Elledge. 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

Ava Santina, politics editor at Politics Show UK, provides sharp analysis of Hungary’s shock change. She unpacks Orbán’s illiberal machinery, how voters turned against him, and what the result means for EU policy, Ukraine and the broader European right. Short, punchy takes on propaganda, funding networks and the ripple effects across populist politics.