Podcasts · News · Government
The Trawl
Jemma Forte & Marina Purkiss
300 episodes · Explicit
The Trawl is the podcast that dives headfirst into the political chaos, media spin, and social media absurdity of the week - so you don’t have to.
More about the show
Hosted by broadcasters and political commentators, Jemma Forte and Marina Purkiss, it’s part therapy, part takedown, and always unfiltered.
Each episode, Jemma and Marina trawl through the week’s most viral tweets, jaw-dropping headlines, and rage-inducing soundbites - offering sharp analysis, dark humour, and the occasional expletive. From Westminster to world affairs, they call out hypocrisy, amplify truth, and remind you that you’re not losing your mind - just living through it.
If you’ve ever shouted at the news or laughed through the tears, The Trawl is your people.
Find the trawl on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetrawlpod/ and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590931382660
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes page 1 of 6
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The Trawl Drop-In: A School Day In America: Guns & A Nation That Won’t Change
For parents in Britain, waving your children through the school gates is one of the most ordinary things in the world. In America, it can mean hoping they come home alive. In this special Drop-In, Jemma Forte and…
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Make America Sane Again & Zacharia's 5 Day Fiasco
Hello and welcome to The Trawl, where the internet continues to provide fresh evidence that the lunatics really might be running the asylum. This week, Trump's latest press secretary has barely had time to unpack her…
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Hot Wheels for Billionaires, Hell for Ukraine
Happy Friday, Trawlers. The richest man on earth has unveiled a flying car and even Hot Wheels are taking the piss. It was first promised in 2017 and is now due in 2028, which is roughly when Marina’s five-year-old…
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Trawl Drop-In: The Right Wakes Up to Brexit, the Banks Wake Up to a Bill
It’s the Drop-In, and something remarkable is happening: parts of the British right-wing press are waking up to the fact that Brexit was a disaster. Goldman Sachs has put numbers on it, the Telegraph has put a figure…
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The French Are Revolting (And So Is Reform)
Get your popcorn out, Trawlers, and maybe a peg for your nose... ITV spent 12 months undercover inside Reform, and what they found makes the party’s vetting process look like a bloke in a pub asking whether you’ve…
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A Press Secretary, a Firing Squad and a Tiger
Trump’s America is getting darker by the day, and in this episode Jemma and Marina are asking precisely how low things can go. From a painfully chaotic first outing for the new White House press secretary (actually…
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The Trawl Drop-In: “Whore” Gymwear Backlash
Marina and Jemma drop in to discuss what happened when Shane Gillis insulted female gym goers on SNL US Join The Trawl's Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590931382660 Thank you for sharing…
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From Russia With Bots, Trump's Diesel & Reform's Whitewash
Way to make Vladimir Putin happy. It's been quite the week. Andy Burnham has reignited the debate over Russian interference in Brexit. Marina and Jemma get into the murky world of online influence, bots and the…
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The Trawl Drop-In: Kemi's Tax Breaks For The Wealthy
The Trawl ladies are off to Tory conference and Kemi Badenoch has found a headline-grabbing pledge in scrapping inheritance tax on family homes. But who actually benefits, what might it cost, and what happens to…
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The Trawl Drop-In: Polanski Under Pressure: The Greens and Zionism
It’s our first ever Trawl Drop In! A slightly less structured, more spontaneous outing in which Jemma and Marina tackle the stories that didn’t make the main pod. And blimey, there’s plenty to get stuck into. Has Zack…
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Trump, Hegseth & the Apocalypse: It's All Gone Bonkers
The Trawl ladies are still looking for the bit where it gets better, and this week it's hiding behind a potential outbreak of pneumonic plague in Russia. Don't panic, Trawlers, Jemma and Marina have a plan, and it's…
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A Hopeful Trawl: Burnham Highs & Braverman Lows
This week on The Trawl, there are… dare we say it… reasons to be cheerful. Andy Burnham is talking public ownership, electoral reform and a closer relationship with Europe, and suddenly the future doesn't seem quite so…
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Cornell: Since When Is an Essay Justice?
Content warning: this episode discusses rape and sexual violence. Marina and Jemma open with some hope. Between Macklemore, Ed Sheeran's bad week, and the Andy Burnham effect, is the tide turning? Then they switch…
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Hunger Games At The White House & Very British Insults
Two episodes in two days, because Marina couldn't sleep. Trawlers, this one's a tasting menu of the week's finest nonsense. The Trawl ladies start with GB News being crowned "most trusted news channel" by its own…
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Is This... Hope? Labour Conference, Ireland's Stand-Off & Reform's Balls-Up
Jemma and Marina hit Labour conference with Andy Burnham's speech: social care, "Your First Home" and the triple lock. Both have opinions and neither can quite agree on how many pensioners will turn up with pitchforks.…
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The Trawl Meets Owen Jones
Columnist, bestselling author, Guardian journalist, broadcaster and one of the most prominent voices on the British left for well over a decade, Owen can always be relied on to say exactly what he thinks, no holds…
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How Much Is Integrity Worth? Sheeran's Backlash, Tom Watson's About-Turn & The Budget Headache
Ed Sheeran is crying on stage after the backlash over Macklemore being dropped from his tour, while Macklemore remains remarkably clear that this isn’t about him, or Ed. Marina and Jemma get into the row, the strange…
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America's Losing It: Trump Silenced the Press. The Press Silenced Trump & Europe Stocks Up On Beans
It’s another beautifully normal week on Planet Trawl. Europe is quietly preparing for war, we’re being told to stock up on tins and Trump is threatening to annihilate Iran while simultaneously floating a peace deal. So…
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The AI Apocalypse (Brought to You by the People Selling It)
Buckle up, Trawlers - the Trawl girls are finally doing the AI special they've been promising for two years but haven't got round to. Until now because the news has forced their hands. From Sam Altman and Elon Musk…
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Trump’s Cheques, Sydney’s Boobs & The FBI
Sydney Sweeney has bosoms, Trump has a $5,000 promise, and somehow the FBI is having a conversation about bestiality. So yes, it’s been another perfectly normal week on Planet Earth. In this Trawl, Marina and Jemma…
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Ed Sheeran's Lonely Apolitical Era & Reform's Crypto Bros
Ed Sheeran dropped Macklemore for saying Free Palestine, and now the support acts have since been dropping Ed Sheeran. Turns out "apolitical" is a position, and it's not a popular one. Andy Burnham finally did…
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Is THIS Patriotism? Boy Burkas, Foreign Cash and RNLI Beef
This week, Marina and Jem start in America — where Trump calls 18 dead soldiers "small potatoes," posts AI-generated videos of himself beating world leaders with a hockey stick, and explains trade to a room of adults…
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Reform's Rabid Conference & Trump's Fireman Fantasy
Trump reinvents 9/11 with himself as the hero, fireman-carried, fist in the air, saving the day from... four miles away. Meanwhile, it's all happening at the Reform conference, Farage lays out exactly how he'd neuter…
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SIZZLING SCANDAL 🔥 Reform's Big Fat Foreign Money Scandal (And Farage's Best Excuses Yet)
Jemma and Marina wade through the wreckage of Reform UK's worst week yet. A year-long undercover sting by investigative outfit Verbatim catches Nigel Farage's closest aides, head of policy James Orr and confidante Dan…
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Trumps AI Slop, Falklands Threats & Midterm Meltdowns
Trump is renaming lakes, posting increasingly deranged AI images and apparently gearing up to declare the midterms rigged before they've even happened. Meanwhile, the US is reportedly threatening Britain over the…
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The Sainsbury’s Fleece, Reform Brain Farts & The £450k Birkin
It’s been a busy week in politics. Andy Burnham is back, delivering a barnstorming speech attacking the legacy of Thatcherism and Brexit… before promptly getting himself into a spot of bother over a Sainsbury’s…
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Carney Plays Chess & Reform's Marriage Policy Falls Apart
Builders openly bragging about dodging tax at a trade show, Trump quietly admitting his own tariffs backfired by striking a deal to import cheaper beef right after telling ranchers he had their backs and an American…
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Dolly Parton's Legacy & Trump's 'Human Printer' Natalie Harp
Marina and Jemma start by paying tribute to the utterly irreplaceable Dolly Parton, celebrating her extraordinary talent, generosity and legacy and remembering how she managed to reach people across political and…
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Harry & Meghan, Rain, Ukraine & The GB Press Outrage Machine
This week on the Trawl, the rain finally arrives and apparently that's the cue for the water companies to start dumping sewage, for the right-wing press to blame Muslims for our water shortages, and everyone to start…
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Trump Opens A Bank, Reform Comes For Your PIP
Right, buckle up, trawlers... Trump's crypto company has been rubber-stamped as an actual bank (by his own government no less!) and Marina and Jemma wave a cheery bye Felicia to his press secretary Caroline Levitt…
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Jason Arday : When The Press Becomes A Mob
In this powerful episode of The Trawl, Jemma Forte and Marina Purkiss unpack the tragic death of Jason Arday. Arday was Cambridge’s first black professor, who endured an extraordinary media storm in the final weeks of…
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Trump's Getting Rattled: The Abdul El-Sayed Effect 🔥
In this episode, things go from bad to worse before finally getting a little bit hopeful. Marina Purkiss and Jemma Forte dive into Trump’s latest chaos, the increasingly bizarre state of US politics, vaccine decisions…
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Reform Beef & Climate Grief : Data Centres Anyone?
The Trawl is back from holiday, and unfortunately the world hasn't sorted itself out while Jemma and Marina have been away. This week: Britain is hot, dry and heading for a seriously dodgy harvest, while data centres…
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The Trawl Meets Count Binface!
Count Binface lands on The Trawl just in time to take on Nigel Farage in Clacton and proves, once again, that British politics is now virtually indistinguishable from science fiction. From 99 Flakes and grabber…
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Trump's Press Dinner Disaster : Fascists, Billionaires, BS
Andrew Tate is back behind bars and somehow tweeting like he's starring in a wartime epic, while Donald Trump spends an hour at the White House Correspondents' Dinner reminding everyone why normalising him remains such…
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Burnham's Picky Bits, Body Shaming and CPAC Weirdness
Andy Burnham's honeymoon period is in full swing as the latest polls show Labour nudging ahead of Reform, but is the 'Burnham bounce' here to stay? Marina and Jemma weigh up the new Prime Minister's energetic start,…
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Tate Arrested in Capri Pants, Trump's Meltdown & MAGA's Masculinity Crisis
The Tate brothers are arrested in the US as Britain seeks their extradition, Donald Trump delivers yet another fact-free election rant that major US networks refuse to air live, and MAGA's latest obsession with…
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Burnham Bags No.10 as Spain Lift the Cup
The football may be over, but the political drama's only just getting started. Jemma and Marina celebrate Spain's World Cup victory (for reasons that go well beyond football), marvel at Donald Trump's knack for making…
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England Out, Burnham Speaks on Gaza & Starmer's Final PMQs
England's World Cup dream is over, Burnham's is just beginning. Yes, England are out of the tournament but not before Argentina gave them one final dose of argy-bargy and an ill-judged Falklands banner. Marina and…
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Ann Widdecombe, Binface and Farage's Five Million
Jemma and Marina try to make sense of another week that somehow outdid even their most chaotic bingo card. They discuss the shocking murder of Ann Widdecombe, why some reactions online were seriously misjudged, and how…
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The Trawl Meets Anthony Scaramucci
From the White House to Wall Street, podcast studios to political pile-ons, Anthony Scaramucci has lived several public lives and he's got the stories to prove it. In this candid conversation with The Trawl, "The…
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Trump vs the Beautiful Game
Marina and Jemma have found the one thing Trump hasn't ruined yet...oh wait, no, he's got to football too. This week the pair unpick his reverse Midas touch: one US player gets a red card, Trump gets on the blower to…
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Farage Hits the Panic Button... as Football Brings the Joy ⭐
Farage detonates the internet with a surprise by-election announcement just as questions over undeclared gifts and crypto cash refuse to go away. Marina and Jemma dissect the latest twist, wonder whether it's political…
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Perv Glasses & An Empty Fairground: The Great American Flop
In this Trawl, Jemma and Marina dig into Andy Burnham's big speech, ask whether he really could be Britain's next Prime Minister, and examine why parts of the left, right and media all have something to argue about.…
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Heatwaves, Hot Air Takes & Farage's £5 Million Problem
Last week, politics wasn't the only thing making Jemma and Marina hot under the collar - the weather was and they were melting. Literally. Britain has sweltered through record-breaking temperatures, so the Trawl…
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Trump's Worst Week: Defeated by Iran, Italy & Algae - Then Humiliated at Versailles
Trump's having quite the week... He's been defeated by algae (sabotage, obviously), couldn't do up a medal ribbon, got blanked by every world leader at the G7, and then signed what experts are calling a catastrophic…
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You're Barred Katie Hopkins: The Pub That Got It Right and the Politicians Who Didn't
A pub in Bethnal Green looked up, clocked who'd walked in, and collectively decided: not here, love. Katie Hopkins was shown the door. She did not go gracefully. Marina and Jemma are delighted - but one pub doing the…
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Keir We Go Again : Starmer Exits, Footy and Farage
Nigel Farage gets caught recycling an old England supporter photo, proving once again that authenticity isn't really his game. The Trawl ladies revel in a glorious montage of his Question Time appearances, hear James…
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Makerfield Said No - Burnham, Bell Ends & Boarding School
For one glorious moment, Makerfield became the centre of the political universe, and what a moment it was. Jemma and Marina rewind the clock to relive Andy Burnham's emphatic by-election win, celebrate Robert Kenyon's…
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Kids' Social Media Ban & Starmer's Defence Revolt
Starmer's government is facing another defence row after senior figures quit over military spending, reigniting questions about Britain's preparedness, Russia's growing threat and whether billions more should be poured…
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