The Trawl
by Jemma Forte & Marina Purkiss
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: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=615909
Episodes
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Trump's Wrong Hire, Musk's Deleted Tweets and the US Asks Twitter Where the Nukes Are
The 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 secretary and appears to have rung the wrong Dana White. Elon Musk deletes his “vote red” posts, little rats JD Vance and...
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Hegseth's Sweating, Brand's Going Down & Trump's Melting Down
The 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 Trump's extraordinary claims about the election to Pete Hegseth's increasingly precarious position, Jemma and Marina revel in...
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The Trawl Drop-In: They've Thrown The Booky Wooky at Russell Brand
Russell 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 raises about power, celebrity and the treatment of women who come forward. From the defence arguments about consent and...
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4p Off Gherkins (and Tommy Robinson’s Bad Week)
Yes, 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 angry tea to get through... First up, a few bellends had a full-blown meltdown because a contestant on Celebrity Traitors…
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America says NAH! Is This What Winning Feels Like…? 🇺🇸
Put 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 Senate AND the House. Kansas hadn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate in nearly a hundred years, and Texas just picked a...
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The Trawl Drop-In: Farage's Tumbleweed Conference. Empty Chairs & Sweaty Palms 😂
Nigel 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 that some are indeed sitting behind him, only no one's sitting in front of him. Jemma and Marina revel in Farage...
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The Trawl Drop-In: Musk, Money, Megalomania & Midterms
Elon 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 broligarchs, the extraordinary sums Musk is pouring into American politics and his increasingly personal obsession with...
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Democracy Wakes Up & Trump Burps 👀: Some Good News For Once!
Good 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 clinging to power. Is democracy finally fighting back? But, don't get too comfortable. Steve Witkoff has been busy handing...
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The Trawl Drop-In: Meghan Markle Pile Ons & Trump Backpedalling - Hypocrisy Much?
The 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 years, certain commentators portrayed Meghan as a cold-hearted daughter. But with new information emerging, just how...
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GB News Meltdown, Jackdaw and Good News for Dads
In 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 opposite a man dressed in Tesco’s finest bog roll. A presenter’s row with her own guest goes on for so long it becomes a...
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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 Marina Purkiss confront the devastating school shooting in Oregon, where three...
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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 desk before she's shown the door. Five days in the job! That's less a career and...
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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 will be driving. Then it gets dark. The No Kings protests drew huge crowds in...
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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 on it, and Carol Malone has not been consulted. Then the banks, the budget and…
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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 deleted your tweets. Nigel cancelled a policy announcement and hid, the party’s...
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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 hilariously bad) to plans to livestream a military execution, the Trump...
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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 and please do follow us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTrawlPodcast Patreon...
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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 extraordinary power of social media to shape what we think. Plus, Trump's reported...
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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 everyone else? Jem has some thoughts, including a memorable encounter with a very...
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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 Polanski’s party spectacularly misjudged its controversial conference motion on...
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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 mostly denial. Then there's Pete Hegseth's guide to who gets into the armed…
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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 bleak. Marina and Jemma revisit the highlights from Labour conference…
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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 gears. In 2024, a Cornell student alleges she was drugged and then raped and…
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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 viewers (custard is the favourite custard among people who eat custard), then pay...
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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. Plus Shabana Mahmood reads the room, and Jemma and Marina ask whether this is...
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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 barred. He’s also someone who has never been particularly troubled by the idea of...
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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 spectacle of a global superstar discovering the politics of Palestine in real...
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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 that’s nice. Marina and Jemma discuss Trump’s increasingly bonkers attempts to...
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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 suddenly (suspiciously) calling for a "slowdown," to Nobel laureate Geoffrey…
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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 get stuck into Sydney Sweeney’s gambling ad and ask whether “my body, my choice”...
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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 something and slapped a trade ban on Israeli settlement goods and US Ambassador to...
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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 too scared to tell him he's wrong. Rinse, repeat, somehow getting worse. Then…
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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 the House of Lords if it gets in his way, a woman protester gets her hair pulled...
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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 Jukes, on tape discussing how to secretly fund Reform's own polling through a...
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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 Falklands, Trump's CIA director is making mysterious trips to Moscow, and democracy...
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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 work-experience scheme, political donations and a rather fetching supermarket fleece....
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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 food safety crisis. Jemma and Marina have a lot to talk about what with food...
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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 cultural divides with warmth, compassion and a whole lot of rhinestones. Then it’s...
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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 shouting about everything. Marina and Jemma look at Reform's recent setbacks…
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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 (left to perish on the decoy plane while Trump and a "very very very close aide"...
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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 his life. The Trawl ladies examine the 188 articles published about him in just...
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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 that have them seriously worried, and the extraordinary rise of Abdul El-Sayed…
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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 are springing up demanding vast amounts of energy and water. But don't worry,...
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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 machines, to sewage, HS2, billionaire donations and why Parliament should relocate to...
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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 a dangerous game. Marina and Jemma pick apart another extraordinary week of...
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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, ask whether his Manchester-first approach will win over the rest of Britain, and...
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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 testosterone gets even weirder. Marina and Jemma look at the growing normalisation of...
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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 every trophy presentation about himself, laugh at the half time shenanigans and...
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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 Jemma unpack the match and discuss why a rare moment of warmth between Keir Starmer...
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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 Nigel Farage's response was caught on camera in 3...2...1.... They also look…
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About this show
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: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=615909
Hosted by
Jemma Forte & Marina Purkiss
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