Oh God, What Now?

Weekend bonus episode… Britain still mired in Brexit, Europe divided, economic stagnation in the West and Donald Trump’s disastrous culture wars and actual wars. Are they all just a blip in human history or does the West’s decline mark the beginning of a new world order? What if that future belongs to rising powers of the East – China and India?

That’s the premise of Sir Vince Cable’s new book, Eclipsing the West: China, India and the Forging of a New World. The former Liberal Democrat leader talks to Rafael Behr about how China and India are increasingly shaping the world – and where (and if) Britain fits in.

• Buy Vince’s book Eclipsing the West: China, India and the forging of a new world from 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.

• Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.

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Written and presented by Rafael Behr. 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.

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Fast reaction with News Statesman’s associate political editor Rachel Cunliffe and Jacob Jarvis. Nigel Farage and Reform are facing another crisis after two – now former – senior officials were filmed in an undercover sting appearing to plot how to circumvent electoral law to bag a £500,000 foreign donation… Reform says it’s all a “hoax”, predictably… Can Reform weather the storm? Is Farage totally done for? And what might happen next?

• Find out if you’re owed on car finance at refundclub.co.uk/OGWN

• Refund Club is a trading style of Sandsford Law Limited, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA no. 8008114). Checking is free. A fee is payable only if your claim is successful. Eligibility: car finance taken out in the UK between 2007 and 2021. The average claim is around £829 per agreement; this is an average and not a guarantee of the amount you will receive. You can also claim yourself for free by contacting your lender or the Financial Ombudsman Service. refundclub.co.uk/OGWN

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Jacob Jarvis with Rachel Cunliffe. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

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Facebook owners Meta hit the headlines with an $18bn settlement in the US over accusations that its products had harmed kids. But was the bill really so onerous, or just the price of keeping Zuckerberg out of the witness box? Special guest Baroness Beeban Kidron OBE – activist, digital rights champion and former film director – talks us through the reality of the fight to protect kids online; whether Britain’s digital curfews for teens will work; and the dirty digital deals done behind doors to protect Big Tech.

Plus, Andy Burnham promised more problem solving than point-scoring in his Prime Minister's Questions debut… and it lasted about five minutes. How did the PM shape up – and was it the baptism of fire we expected?

And in the Extra Bit: Will your mind really “flood with ideas” if you stop listening to podcasts, as one Guardian writer suggests? Our panel weighs in.

• Buy Beeban’s book Users: How Big Tech Took Control and How to Fight Back from 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.

• Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.

ESCAPE ROUTES

• James saw the animated legal comedy Coyote vs Acme and read Jon Ronson’s latest, The Castle: Adventures in a World of Unravelling Men.

• Jason also watched Coyote vs Acme and read 31 Inventions that Built Our World by OGWN regular Jonn Elledge.

• Beeban watched Arsenal scrape a win against Aston Villa and is re-reading Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita.

• Andrew went to Krankenhaus Festival in Cumbria and saw Sea Power, Pictish Trail and Smote, and spotted Green MP Hannah Spencer. He’s also been bingeing the TV series Lanterns.

• Find out if you’re owed on car finance at refundclub.co.uk/OGWN

• Refund Club is a trading style of Sandsford Law Limited, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA no. 8008114). Checking is free. A fee is payable only if your claim is successful. Eligibility: car finance taken out in the UK between 2007 and 2021. The average claim is around £829 per agreement; this is an average and not a guarantee of the amount you will receive. You can also claim yourself for free by contacting your lender or the Financial Ombudsman Service. refundclub.co.uk/OGWN.

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison with James Ball, Jason Hazeley and Beeban Kidron. Produced by James Liddell. Audio production: Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

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Andy Burnham is feeling a sudden wave of the back-to-school blues. Not only did Keir Starmer tactlessly decide to quit Parliament just before his first Commons speech, but a long list of challenges is also piling up in the PM’s in-tray. So, what’s causing Burnham the biggest headaches? Is the Burnham bounce finally over? And what happens next?

Plus: Badenoch reshuffles her shadow cabinet, Iceland rejects the EU and Trump tries to rename yet more geographical features… and questions Britain’s claim to the Falklands.

• Listen as Gavin Esler explores the breakneck evolution of military technology in This Is Not A Drill’s brand new four-part mini-series

• Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.

• Find out if you’re owed on car finance at refundclub.co.uk/OGWN

• Refund Club is a trading style of Sandsford Law Limited, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA no. 8008114). Checking is free. A fee is payable only if your claim is successful. Eligibility: car finance taken out in the UK between 2007 and 2021. The average claim is around £829 per agreement; this is an average and not a guarantee of the amount you will receive. You can also claim yourself for free by contacting your lender or the Financial Ombudsman Service.

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Marie read Ursula K. Le Guin’s sci-fi novella Paradises Lost

• Hannah has been bingeing Season 5 of Couples Therapy, which has just landed on BBC iPlayer

• Ros went to the cinema twice, first to see Pedro Almodóvar’s Bitter Christmas and then De Gaulle: Résistance, a biopic on the great Gallic general

• Matt has been reading Running Through Sand: An Ageing Comedian’s Ill-Thought-Out Ultra in the Sahara by Paul Tonkinson

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Matt Green with Hannah Fearn, Ros Taylor and Marie Le Conte. Produced by James Liddell. Audio production: Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune: Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

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The first of our occasional weekend bonus episodes… Bewildered by the tangled stories of Putin’s war on Ukraine, Trump’s incomprehensible loyalty to the Russian tyrant, and Russia’s interference in British politics? The Guardian’s foreign correspondent Luke Harding ties all the threads together in his riveting new book Betrayed: Trump, Putin And The New Age Of Conquest – laying bare how thoroughly Putin played Trump and the enormity of what has happened to our old world of rules.

He talks to Andrew Harrison about the big picture that daily news misses, the return of Great Power politics, and whether Donald Trump really is a Russian asset.

• Buy Luke’s book Betrayal: Trump, Putin and The New Age of Conquest from 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.

• Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at ogwn@podmasters.co.uk.

• Photo: Trump greets Putin on the tarmac in Anchorage, Alaska on August 15 2025. (Photo by Kremlin Press Service / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Support us on Patreon - www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Written and presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison. 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. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

www.podmasters.co.uk
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices