Oh God, What Now?

Oh God, What Now?

Making sense of our political hell every Tuesday and Friday! Oh God, What Now? is the no-bulls**t politics podcast, making the unbearable bearable with top quality guests and analysis, plus poor quality jokes. Regulars include: Guardian writer Rafael Behr • Rachel Cunliffe of the New Statesman • New Statesman columnist Jonn Elledge • Writer and host of This Is Not A Drill Gavin Esler • Social affairs journalist Hannah Fearn • Comedian Matt Green • The Lead's Westminster Editor Zoë Grünewald • Group Editor Andrew Harrison • Podmasters Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis • Journalist Marie Le Conte • Former Mirror editor Alison Phillips • Writer and commentator Ros Taylor Sign up and get ad-free shows earlier than anyone else: patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow. Oh God, What Now? is a Podmasters production

Episodes

Cruel Britannia – Labour loses it on migration

November 20, 2025 • 62 mins
Labour’s controversial asylum plans have sparked a backlash and it’s not clear they’ll even work. So, why have they gone down this route? What options might be better? Plus, AI – the bubble is going to burst, but has it already broken our brains? Then in the extra bit for supporters – what would we want to bring back from 100 years ago? Escape Routes  • Matt is watching Death by Lightning  • Zoe is watching Stranger Things • Ja...
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Deface The Nation – Is Trump starting to lose? – with Molly Jong-Fast

November 17, 2025 • 55 mins
Is Trump finally falling apart? His approval ratings are catastrophic, the Republicans took a hammering in the November elections, his gross-out distraction tactics no longer work… and as more Epstein emails are released, the scandal is lapping ever-higher around his cankles. Molly Jong-Fast of The Atlantic, Vanity Fair and the unmissable Fast Politics podcast joins Andrew Harrison and Rafael Behr to discuss the teetering tyrant an...
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Make Auntie Great Again – Will Trump destroy the BBC?

November 13, 2025 • 70 mins
Trump and the right wing press are gleefully hounding the BBC over a clumsy speech edit – will they succeed in taking down the broadcaster? Plus, manifesto promises – there’s a huge fuss over Labour potentially breaking them, but is that anything new? And in the extra bit for supporters – reasons to be a Luddite! The panel rallies against smart technology.  • Rachel suggests Fergus Butler-Gallie’s book Touching Cloth  • Jonn re...
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Budget ’25 – Why Rachel Reeves should hold her nerve

November 10, 2025 • 55 mins
Tax rises! Cuts to everything! Here comes the pain! Seldom has a Budget been heralded with such dire warnings… if you believe the Toryform Press. But according to Giles Wilkes – Institute for Government fellow and former adviser to Vince Cable and Theresa May – Britain isn’t in such a disastrous state after all. In a weirdly optimistic conversation he joins Andrew Harrison and Jonn Elledge to look at the real story of Britain’s fin...
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Mamdani – First we take Manhattan

November 6, 2025 • 67 mins
Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York mayoralty race electrifies the global Left, rocks the Democratic establishment and leaves Trump titanically unamused. What does it all mean? Plus: Do we need to save the Conservative Party? Former Digital Minister and Tory MP for Boston and Skegness Matt Warman helps us examine the drastic measures needed to keep Reform out. And in the aftermath of the Huntingdon knife attacks we look at the...
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Starmer’s dilemma – Electoral reform or Farage in No.10?

November 3, 2025 • 66 mins
After decades of waving away electoral reform, Labour and the Tories suddenly have a reason to question First Past The Post – the nightmare prospect of a Reform government. Has proportional representation’s time finally come? How might it happen? And what system would work for Britain? Proud elections wonk David Klemperer of the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Bath joins Rachel Cunliffe and Andrew Harrison for th...
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System Failure – Why does British politics feel broken?

October 31, 2025 • 60 mins
British politics feels stalled and the only people benefiting are Farage and the quick-fix demagogues of Reform UK. Why is the debate about our national future frozen and what can we do about it? Special guest Ben Ansell – author of Why Politics Fails – joins us to talk it over. Plus, a But Your Emails special where we answer as many of your questions as is humanly possible. And in the Extra Bit for Patreon people only… where did t...
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Scary Migrants, Super Creeps – Can Britain break out of migration madness?

October 28, 2025 • 61 mins
A neurotic obsession with illegal migration is driving British politics rightwards, trapping the parties in an arms race of escalating harshness towards migrants. Now Tory far-righter Katie Lam wants to cancel legal migrants’ right to stay, evoking the racist “repatriation” talk of the 1970s National Front. Can Britain get out of the migration doom spiral?  Former head of the Migration Advisory Committee Prof Alan Manning joins us...
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Jumping out of the Overton window – Is brainrot taking over politics?

October 23, 2025 • 60 mins
Reform UK just pulled off the sequel to the Jackie Weaver Handforth Parish Council Zoom meeting, and it’s excellent. The leaked Zoom meeting from Reform’s flagship Kent County Council shows things aren’t perhaps going as well for Nigel Farage’s party/business as he may have hoped. Is Reform having a bit of a wobble? Plus, is social media brainrot ruining British politics? And in the Extra Bit for subscribers, things are going from ...
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Don’t mention the pension! – Can we avoid a two-tier society?

October 20, 2025 • 57 mins
The papers still dangle the dream of a sun-dappled retirement. Yet millions have nowhere near the savings they’ll need, while a fortunate few are amassing family wealth that could change Britain forever. Meanwhile the generational wealth gap is forcing younger people to forget about starting families. Is the old “work hard and you’ll make it” model broken? And do we need a wealth tax to fix it? Will Snell of the Fairness Foundation...
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Starmer’s China Syndrome – plus Green MP Siân Berry on the new power balance on the Left

October 16, 2025 • 63 mins
After the collapse of the China spying case, do we have to accept that Britain is way past being able to spar with Beijing? Especially when we depend so much on their students? Green MP Siân Berry talks about the party’s future under new eco-populist leader Zach Polanski, how to square green infrastructure with their support’s suspicion of development, and whether the Greens would enter a coalition with Labour to keep Farage out. A...
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Card Declined – Inside the Digital I.D. Wars

October 13, 2025 • 64 mins
Labour want to bring in digital I.D. and many people do NOT like it. Are they right? Are they wrong? And what is the “Lethal Trifecta” that makes the plan so risky? Hannah Fearn is very opposed to digital I.D. on civil liberties grounds. Jonn Elledge thinks it’s not that big a deal. Special guest Alex Hern – The Economist’s correspondent on A.I. – has the inside tech perspective. And Matt Green tries to keep order. Intrusion into p...
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Is the Conservative Party dying? – Plus: What the Manchester terror attack means

October 9, 2025 • 61 mins
The Tory Party looks fatally damaged. Who hijacked the corpse at their conference in Manchester – Reform or Robert Jenrick? Josh Glancy of The Sunday Times was there and he explains whether there’s any life in the old party yet. Plus, the horrific killings at a Manchester synagogue left many British Jews saying they feel unsafe in their own country. We look at the complex and emotive issues of fighting antisemitism while preserving...
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Who would win a war in Europe?

October 6, 2025 • 62 mins
Nobody wants to imagine a large-scale war in Europe. But after Putin invaded Ukraine and Trump tore up Europe’s security guarantee, it’s horribly plausible. Is Russia as powerful as Putin wants us to think? Is there more to military power than tanks and guns? Why do strategists keep making the wrong predictions? And what does Pete Hegseth’s unhinged locker-rom pep talk/incitement to the US military to commit war crimes mean for any...
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Starmer vs. Farage – Keir finally picks his enemy

October 2, 2025 • 56 mins
Keir Starmer’s conference speech is getting heaps of praise after he finally went hard against Farage. But has he done enough to show he’s in control, or is the Labour messaging still all over the place? Plus, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, isn’t going away. He says he wants the UK to rejoin the EU, but do they want us? And does Labour even want him!? And in the Extra Bit for Patreon backers, the panel takes a look ...
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Build, baby, build – Is Labour losing the Regeneration Game?

September 30, 2025 • 63 mins
Labour has staked its future on building hundreds of thousand of homes and fixing up crumbling communities. But does “regeneration” actually work? Housing expert and author of Big Capital: Who Is London For?   Anna Minton joins OGWN regular and development wonk Hannah Fearn to look at the nightmare of trying to build houses in a system designed to inhibit it. Includes regeneration horror stories from Baltimore to Canary Wharf to Li...
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Enoch, Enoch, Who’s There? – Reform’s deranged repatriation plans

September 25, 2025 • 63 mins
The ghost of Enoch Powell punches the air as Farage announces jaw-dropping plans for mass deportations and tearing up Indefinite Leave to Remain, claiming it will save Britain over £230bn (it won’t). Is Reform succumbing to the gravitational pull of the far-far-far right or just showing its true, cruel face? And does Labour’s feeble response that “this plan won’t work” just accept the premise of a hateful piece of self-harm? Plus, ...
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So wrong, it’s right wing – Could Project 2025 happen in Britain?

September 22, 2025 • 62 mins
Project 2025 gave Trump a roadmap for his authoritarian presidency. As the UK turns to the right, Reform UK is on the rise and fears over a Farage general election victory loom, we ask whether such a project could be undertaken here? Peter Geoghegan of the Democracy for Sale blog joins Alison and Jonn to discuss.    Escape Routes: • Jonn is watching The Paper  • Peter is awaiting Slow Horses and is reading When the Clock Broke ...
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Inside the new ‘Battle for Britain’

September 18, 2025 • 61 mins
British politics is increasingly divided – but where are voters really going as they shift between parties? And how should Labour recalibrate their tactics? The Economist’s Matthew Holehouse joins us to discuss the new ‘Battle for Britain’. Plus, the panel discusses the reaction to Charlie Kirk’s death worldwide and how it might change politics. And in the extra bit for subscribers – political pets! Because we all need something fu...
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Starmer drama – Who's in control of the Labour Party?

September 15, 2025 • 64 mins
Starmer is Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party – but does he feel totally in charge of things? Plus, the race to be Deputy Leader of the Labour Party is down to the final two. Who’s the most likely to take the role? And Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham is being increasingly tipped to swoop back to Westminster. Could he be the answer Labour has been searching for, realistically? Join Ros Taylor, Jonn Elledge, and R...
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