The Trawl
by Jemma Forte & Marina Purkiss
Latest episode
Trump's Wrong Hire, Musk's Deleted Tweets and the US Asks Twitter…
Trump's Wrong Hire, Musk's Deleted Tweets and the US Asks Twitter…
About this podcast
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.
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
The newest 50 of 473 episodes
- Trump's Wrong Hire, Musk's Deleted Tweets and the US Asks Twitter Where the Nukes Are · 41 min · Episode 425The Americans have voted, the Republicans have lost, and Republican bells are stress-clenching so hard they could to crack walnuts... This week: Trump tries to hire a press…
- Hegseth's Sweating, Brand's Going Down & Trump's Melting Down · 38 min · Episode 424The Trawl is positively giddy this week as the US midterms deliver a spectacular rebuke to Trump, Democrats take control of Congress and the political fallout begins. From…
- The Trawl Drop-In: They've Thrown The Booky Wooky at Russell Brand · 28 minRussell Brand has been found guilty of rape and sexual assault. In this Drop-In, Jemma and Marina look at the verdict, the evidence heard in court and the difficult questions it…
- 4p Off Gherkins (and Tommy Robinson’s Bad Week) · 40 min · Episode 423Yes, the Budget was last week. Yes, Marina and Jemma are late. They’re always five steps behind at the Trawl, and proud of it, so put the kettle on, because there’s a lot of…
- America says NAH! Is This What Winning Feels Like…? 🇺🇸 · 47 min · Episode 422Put the kettle on, sack off the doom scrolling, and brace for some serious joy scrolling! America has been to the polls and oh...it's a tsunami of blue! Democrats have the…
- The Trawl Drop-In: Farage's Tumbleweed Conference. Empty Chairs & Sweaty Palms 😂 · 21 minNigel Farage has spent years telling us that the British people are behind him. So imagine his surprise when he turns up to unveil Reform's big economic rescue plan and discovers…
- The Trawl Drop-In: Musk, Money, Megalomania & Midterms · 22 minElon Musk: once the poster boy for the future, now seemingly determined to make the present considerably worse. In this drop-in, Jemma and Marina dive into the world of the…
- Democracy Wakes Up & Trump Burps 👀: Some Good News For Once! · 39 min · Episode 421Good news, Trawlers! For once, there are some reasons to feel hopeful. From Brazil to Serbia, voters are delivering some serious blows to the political strongmen who've been…
- The Trawl Drop-In: Meghan Markle Pile Ons & Trump Backpedalling - Hypocrisy Much? · 20 minThe Trawl ladies 'drop-in' to chat about the relentless media pile-on against Meghan Markle, and the uncomfortable new questions surrounding her estrangement from her father. For…
- GB News Meltdown, Jackdaw and Good News for Dads · 38 min · Episode 420In this episode, Marina and Jemma take a peek over the garden fence at GB News, and wish they’d had a tetanus jab first. Jacob Rees-Mogg weighs in on Glasgow’s Egyptian mummies…
- The Trawl Drop-In: A School Day In America: Guns & A Nation That Won’t Change · 18 minFor 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…
- Make America Sane Again & Zacharia's 5 Day Fiasco · 44 min · Episode 419Hello 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…
- Hot Wheels for Billionaires, Hell for Ukraine · 45 min · Episode 418Happy 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…
- Trawl Drop-In: The Right Wakes Up to Brexit, the Banks Wake Up to a Bill · 29 minIt’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…
- The French Are Revolting (And So Is Reform) · 44 min · Episode 417Get 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…
- A Press Secretary, a Firing Squad and a Tiger · 36 min · Episode 416Trump’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…
- The Trawl Drop-In: “Whore” Gymwear Backlash · 19 minMarina and Jemma drop in to discuss what happened when Shane Gillis insulted female gym goers on SNL US Join The Trawl's Facebook Group…
- From Russia With Bots, Trump's Diesel & Reform's Whitewash · 46 min · Episode 415Way 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…
- The Trawl Drop-In: Kemi's Tax Breaks For The Wealthy · 13 minThe 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…
- Trump, Hegseth & the Apocalypse: It's All Gone Bonkers · 43 min · Episode 414The 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…
- A Hopeful Trawl: Burnham Highs & Braverman Lows · 43 min · Episode 413This 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…
- Cornell: Since When Is an Essay Justice? · 38 min · Episode 412Content 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…
- Hunger Games At The White House & Very British Insults · 40 min · Episode 411Two 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…
- Is This... Hope? Labour Conference, Ireland's Stand-Off & Reform's Balls-Up · 48 min · Episode 410Jemma 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…
- The Trawl Meets Owen Jones · 54 minColumnist, 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…
- How Much Is Integrity Worth? Sheeran's Backlash, Tom Watson's About-Turn & The Budget Headache · 38 min · Episode 409Ed 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…
- America's Losing It: Trump Silenced the Press. The Press Silenced Trump & Europe Stocks Up On Beans · 46 min · Episode 408It’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…
- The AI Apocalypse (Brought to You by the People Selling It) · 47 min · Episode 407Buckle 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…
- Trump’s Cheques, Sydney’s Boobs & The FBI · 42 min · Episode 406Sydney 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…
- Ed Sheeran's Lonely Apolitical Era & Reform's Crypto Bros · 46 min · Episode 405Ed 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…
- Is THIS Patriotism? Boy Burkas, Foreign Cash and RNLI Beef · 48 min · Episode 404This 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…
- Reform's Rabid Conference & Trump's Fireman Fantasy · 52 min · Episode 403Trump 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…
- SIZZLING SCANDAL 🔥 Reform's Big Fat Foreign Money Scandal (And Farage's Best Excuses Yet) · 39 min · Episode 402Jemma 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…
- Trumps AI Slop, Falklands Threats & Midterm Meltdowns · 37 min · Episode 401Trump 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…
- The Sainsbury’s Fleece, Reform Brain Farts & The £450k Birkin · 43 min · Episode 400It’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…
- Carney Plays Chess & Reform's Marriage Policy Falls Apart · 40 min · Episode 399Builders 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…
- Dolly Parton's Legacy & Trump's 'Human Printer' Natalie Harp · 45 min · Episode 398Marina 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…
- Harry & Meghan, Rain, Ukraine & The GB Press Outrage Machine · 45 min · Episode 397This 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…
- Trump Opens A Bank, Reform Comes For Your PIP · 41 min · Episode 396Right, 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…
- Jason Arday : When The Press Becomes A Mob · 51 min · Episode 395In 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…
- Trump's Getting Rattled: The Abdul El-Sayed Effect 🔥 · 45 min · Episode 394In 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…
- Reform Beef & Climate Grief : Data Centres Anyone? · 45 min · Episode 393The 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…
- The Trawl Meets Count Binface! · 42 minCount 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…
- Trump's Press Dinner Disaster : Fascists, Billionaires, BS · 47 min · Episode 392Andrew 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…
- Burnham's Picky Bits, Body Shaming and CPAC Weirdness · 41 min · Episode 391Andy 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…
- Tate Arrested in Capri Pants, Trump's Meltdown & MAGA's Masculinity Crisis · 35 min · Episode 390The 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…
- Burnham Bags No.10 as Spain Lift the Cup · 43 min · Episode 389The 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)…
- England Out, Burnham Speaks on Gaza & Starmer's Final PMQs · 42 min · Episode 388England'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…
- Ann Widdecombe, Binface and Farage's Five Million · 47 min · Episode 387Jemma 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…
- The Trawl Meets Anthony Scaramucci · 54 minFrom 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…
