The Trawl cover art

The Trawl

The Trawl

By: Jemma Forte & Marina Purkiss
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Broadcaster, Jemma Forte, and political commentator, Marina Purkiss, scroll through Twitter so you don’t have to. Contact the podcast: thetrawl@global.com For advertising opportunities on this podcast email: dax@global.comMarina Purkiss & Jemma Forte Political Science Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Trump Takes Chelsea's Limelight, Superman Takes a Stand, and the Epstein Drama Continues
    Jul 18 2025

    This week on The Trawl, Marina and Jemma dive into the truly gobsmacking and head-scratching events of the week - so you don’t have to. We start with Trump elbowing his way into Chelsea’s Club World Cup glory, and then it’s onto the swirling chaos of the Epstein files, with GOP evasions, metadata shenanigans, and conspiracy theories so spicy they could be served with fries.

    Marina breaks her “no implausible movies” rule for the new Superman flick that’s got geopolitical undertones and triggered right-wing meltdowns, while Trump distracts with poetic vendettas against Rosie O’Donnell and sanctions on a UN human rights expert. Plus a sprinkling of some dark comedy, a few celebrity cameos, and the surreal spectacle of American political theatre - and voilà, another episode of The Trawl that’s part therapy, part firecracker.

    Thank you for sharing and do tweet us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTrawlPodcast


    Patreon

    https://patreon.com/TheTrawlPodcast


    Youtube

    https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrawl


    Twitter

    https://twitter.com/TheTrawlPodcast


    BlueSky

    https://bsky.app/profile/thetrawl.bsky.social


    Created and Produced by Jemma Forte & Marina Purkiss

    Edited by Max Carrey

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    42 mins
  • Butterflies, Bombs and Right-Wing Bloopers
    Jul 16 2025

    Jemma and Marina are determined to ensure that The Trawl contains as many 'glimmers' as possible so begin the episode with some positive news about butterflies. Also featured is a heart warming story about raving school kids and the Trawl ladies share what each of them have been doing to mitigate how bleak the news is currently.

    They do go on to discuss why Rory and Alastair acknowledging that a genocide is occurring on their podcast, feels like a 'moment.' There then follows a heartfelt discussion about how they may or may not vote come the next election, and Marina poses a question which gives them both pause for thought. There are, as ever, some brilliant clips including a particularly powerful one of Jewish US actor, Mandy Patinkin.


    Then, did you know it's forty years since Live Aid? A certain someone has tweeted something so bizarre about it, it gives rise to lots of Trawl gold. Still, perhaps it's not quite as terrible as Tommy Robinson not knowing that migrants can be white, or Farage posing on the white cliffs of somewhere like a page 7 fella.


    Under rated clips and posts follow and pudding is a poem which Jemma and Marina adore and find very moving. It's by the brilliant Roger McGough.


    Thank you for sharing and do tweet us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTrawlPodcast


    Patreon

    https://patreon.com/TheTrawlPodcast


    Youtube

    https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrawl


    Twitter

    https://twitter.com/TheTrawlPodcast


    BlueSky

    https://bsky.app/profile/thetrawl.bsky.social


    Created and Produced by Jemma Forte & Marina Purkiss

    Edited by Max Carrey

    Show More Show Less
    39 mins
  • Rachel Weeps as Texas Floods and America Burns
    Jul 11 2025

    Hold onto your hats Trawlers. Not the cheeriest episode ever recorded but the Trawl ladies do try to provide lightness where possible so begin by reflecting on some of the good things Labour have achieved in their first year, including more free school meals, nationalising steel and rail and recruiting 6, 700 more mental health workers. And yet, does any of it make up for their complicity in the ongoing genocide? The Trawl ladies certainly think not.

    Marina and Jemma discuss Rachel Reeve's crying in Parliament and the subsequent market fallout and enjoy Jonathan Pie's take as a clip.


    And then they drag on their waders as it's off to the swampy place that is US politics. Talk turns to Alligator Alcatrez and the amount of money Trump plans to spend on ICE. The figure will blow your minds and point to a very sinister truth. One which Stacy Abrams articulates beautifully.


    Of course the Trawl ladies talk about the tragic Texas floods and why Musk and Trump's cuts were partially responsible, along with devastating climate change of course.


    There's a smorgasbord of clips as ever and powerful tweets and threads and Instagram's and all the rest of it.


    Pudding is truly vintage - a historic vid of a silent movie star who, when it came to fascism in the 40's could no longer stay silent.


    Thank you for sharing and do tweet us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTrawlPodcast


    Patreon

    https://patreon.com/TheTrawlPodcast


    Youtube

    https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrawl


    Twitter

    https://twitter.com/TheTrawlPodcast


    BlueSky

    https://bsky.app/profile/thetrawl.bsky.social


    Created and Produced by Jemma Forte & Marina Purkiss

    Edited by Max Carrey

    Show More Show Less
    51 mins

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