Q&A: Public transport hell and ‘creepy’ AI glasses

Summary

The Story — Q&A: Public Transport Hell and ‘Creepy’ AI Glasses

Podcast: The Story
Hosts: Manveen Rana, Luke Jones
Date: July 30, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this special Q&A edition, Manveen Rana and Luke Jones address listener questions on pressing political, social, and tech topics. The episode delves into the recent Cabinet reshuffles, persistent transport woes in Northern England, the emergence and concerns around Meta’s AI glasses, the escalation of conflict between Iran and the US, and speculation about Donald Trump’s presidential ambitions. The tone is sharp, conversational, and wry, characteristic of the hosts’ dynamic.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Cabinet Reshuffle—Wes Streeting as Defence Secretary

Timestamps: 02:51–06:13

• Listener Ruth Nugent asks why Wes Streeting, with a health background, was appointed Defence Secretary.
• Analysis of Streeting's Move:
  • Manveen and Luke discuss the tradition of ministers lacking direct experience in their departments. Success is often measured more by managerial skill than expertise.
  • Streeting's reputation is as a reformer who handles large, complex budgets (from his NHS stint).
  • While support for Ukraine and defence finance are key issues, both are largely controlled by the Prime Minister and Treasury, not the Defence Secretary.
• On Rachel Reeves: No concrete information she was offered Defence; any move from Treasury would have been a demotion.
• Notable Quote:
  • “...you have people who don't have any experience in a particular field all of a sudden thrust into it...maybe that's what you need.” — Manveen Rana (03:58)
  • “I have heard people inside the MOD say they sometimes prefer it if somebody comes in without any knowledge, because otherwise...they come in wanting to be the general they never were.” — Luke Jones (05:50)

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2. Northern England Transport Crisis

Timestamps: 06:13–10:29

• Listener Nina from Leeds expresses frustration over poor Northern transport links and asks what Andy Burnham might achieve.
• David Collins, Northern Editor at The Times, explains:
  • Chronic underinvestment and inconsistent government policies have led to patchy public transport.
  • Projects like Leeds Supertram were scrapped (2005) due to overruns; current tram plans are still stuck at proposal stage.
  • Comparative investment: From 2009–2023, £1,183 per capita in London vs. £486 per capita in the North—a £140bn disparity if matched.
  • London benefits from unified bodies like TfL and has maintained integrated fare/payment systems—advantages not seen in Northern cities.
• Notable Quote:
  • “If the investment had been equal, the north would have received 140 billion more in that decade.” — Manveen Rana (08:57)
  • “As somebody who has once used the Trans Pennine Express...the name is the only express bit about it.” — Luke Jones (07:04)

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3. Meta’s AI Glasses—Cool Tech or Creepy Surveillance?

Timestamps: 10:38–15:06

• Listener Laura Allison asks if Meta’s new AI glasses (promoted with Kylie Jenner) enhance safety or risk privacy infringement, particularly for women.
• Tech journalist Chris Stoeckle Walker details AI glasses:
  • Discreet camera and microphones enable recording and augmented reality overlays.
  • Major privacy risk: video can be recorded without knowledge, with only a minor LED indicator.
  • The use for surreptitious recording (including by pranksters or for social harassment) has been criticised, fueling unease among women.
  • Meta claims technical safeguards, but previous scandals (like Kenyan contractors viewing private user footage) erode trust.
• Social Pushback:
  • Activist group “Everyone Hates Elon” has posted satirical adverts: “glasses for people who don’t do consent.”
  • Ongoing protests over the marketing partnership with Kylie Jenner.
• Notable Quotes:
  • “Some people have dubbed them ‘pervert glasses’. There have been issues with people being filmed when they don't know they are by lots of...Instagram pranksters.” — Manveen Rana (13:27)
  • “We are constantly being surveilled...The problem is that we used to be able to see when that was happening...These days, you can be done surreptitiously.” — Chris Stoeckle Walker (12:30)

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4. Iran–US War Escalation

Timestamps: 18:10–21:43

• Listener question: Are US-Iran relations in a state of open war? Why did a ceasefire collapse?
• Analysis:
  • After a brief pause for diplomacy (initiated by Trump), hostilities resumed with Iranian missile strikes on US bases in Jordan.
  • Iran holds the initiative (“escalation dominance”), using proxies like the Houthis in Yemen, who have recently attacked Saudi oil infrastructure—chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb becoming “the Gulf of Grief” for Saudis.
  • For the first time, the US and Saudi Arabia responded with joint operations against Iranian proxies.
  • The conflict remains highly volatile, with accidental escalation a real risk.
• Notable Quote:
  • “This one is called the Bab Al Mandub, which...is actually the Gulf of Grief. And that's exactly what it's become for the Saudis.” — Luke Jones (20:44)

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5. Donald Trump: Third Term Speculation

Timestamps: 21:43–25:16

• Listener Simon asks how likely a third Trump term is—does Constitution allow it?
• Discussion:
  • Trump (now 80) has publically joked about a third term.
  • US Constitution (22nd Amendment) bars being "elected" for more than two terms, but legal scholars debate if loopholes exist (e.g., being appointed after a vacancy).
  • American politics now routinely defies precedent (“unprecedented is not necessarily an overused word at the moment”).
  • Age doesn’t seem a true barrier: many US officeholders (including federal judges) are active into their nineties and beyond.
  • All signs point to Trump being a wildcards for further election cycles, but new faces like J.D. Vance or Gavin Newsom could be next-generation contenders.
• Notable Quotes:
  • “He’s 80 at the moment and...would be 86 [after a third term]. Maybe that’s still spring chicken.” — Manveen Rana (23:47)
  • “That was Suzanne Sherry from Vanderbilt University...The strongest argument is that...nobody should serve as president for more than two terms. But the language is a little different.” — constitutional expert clip (23:11)

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6. Listener Mail: AfD in Germany & Democratic Alienation

Timestamps: 25:43–27:04

• Feedback from David, a German history teacher, on coverage of the AfD right-wing party: feels supporters are written off as extremists, fueling rather than quelling radicalisation.
• Hosts' Reflection:
  • The need to address root concerns, not just label voters.
  • Points to Oliver Moody’s analysis of democratic nihilism and the dangers of political disengagement.

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Memorable Moments

• Luke's quip about the Trans Pennine Express: “the name is the only express bit about it.” (07:04)
• Satirical activism: “Glasses for people who don't do consent,” featuring Epstein's mugshot (14:06)
• Playful banter on ageing US politicians and judges—“the oldest currently working federal judge is 102.” (23:47)
• The hosts’ ongoing seaside–studio dynamic: “I am by the seaside...looking out over the Deal coastline...There have been a lot of border control boats that we've seen going past here.” — Manveen Rana (02:19)
• “Maybe he'll be around for a third term. Might he fight it? Might he win it? 25 marks. Show you're working.” — Luke Jones (22:34)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• Cabinet/Devolution Q&A: 02:51–06:13
• Northern Transport Issues: 06:13–10:29
• Meta AI Glasses & Privacy: 10:38–15:06
• War in Iran Escalation: 18:10–21:43
• Trump/US Term Limits: 21:43–25:16
• German Far-Right/Listener Mail: 25:43–27:04

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Tone & Language

Conversational, incisive, and occasionally irreverent. Hosts are well-researched but maintain a fresh, accessible, and sometimes humorous approach to serious topics.

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For Further Information

For more context on any of the main stories, listeners are directed to previous episodes and Times coverage linked in the episode notes.

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Contact

Send your questions or comments to [e-mail]

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Summary prepared for listeners who want in-depth insights, key context, and standout moments, all in one engaging read.

Transcript

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[Luke Jones]

From the Times and the Sunday Times. This is the story with Luke Jones

[Manveen Rana]

and Manveen Rana together again for our regular Q and A. We're going to be talking about matters in Westminster and political matters beyond the enormous douchey over matters. I was going to say fashionable, but other even fashionable AI glasses and the latest twists and turns in Donald Trump's ongoing war in Iran.

[Luke Jones]

And Luke, you said together again. Normally this is the only time of the month we're allowed to be in a studio together, but I have to say, while I'm currently shivering in weapons grade air conditioning in the studio, you're somewhere a little bit nicer.

[Manveen Rana]

I am by the seaside beside the sea. I'm currently looking out over the Deal coastline. There is one lady on a towel reading a book and nothing else. I'm yet to see Chris Philp or a French warship drift past. There have been a lot of border control boats that we've seen going past here. That's been a great evening activity, looking on the sort of maritime map and seeing what are all those boats. But yeah, it's absolutely baking hot.

[Luke Jones]

Well, I'm hoping we'll get some seagull interaction before this is through.

[Manveen Rana]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

[Luke Jones]

The story today. Your questions answered, Luke, let's start with the man of the Moment. Andy Burnham, I know you're a very keen Westminster watcher and what a week to be watching. Not just Westminster, but Manchester. We've had a lot of questions on the theme of devolution and we had an episode about that on Wednesday. Do go back and have a listen. We've had a really interesting question from Ruth tonight. Nugent, who says, in all the discussions about Burnham's new rearranged Cabinet, I've heard very little about the appointment of Wes Streeting as Defence Secretary. It seems a very strange choice, firstly because he was well established in the Health Department, whether you liked what he was doing or not, unlike most of the others who were hopping from post to post. And secondly, as far as I'm aware, he has no experience or expertise in defence of. I heard there were rumours it was offered to Rachel Reeves, but she declined. So perhaps screeting was a last minute substitution. Can you shed any light on this enigma? And thanks for being a daily source of intrigue. We aim to please.

[Manveen Rana]

Yeah, well, this is one of the quirks of ministerial government, isn't it, that you have people who don't have any experience in a particular field all of a sudden thrust into it. You know, you might be questioning Lucy Powell's background in education or Yvette Cooper's background in health. I guess people around West Streeting would know. He's somebody who likes to reform, likes to try and wrangle a big spending department, as with the case in the nhs. And, you know, they would sort of trumpet successes there, even though there's some questions about exactly how they got the waiting lists down and whether that was a kind of statistical trick. You know, he would promote himself, I'm sure, as a Minister who gets things done, but. And you'd know more about this than me, Manveen. But the MOD at the moment, even though obviously you do need a strong Secretary of State at the helm of the department, in terms of the two big issues facing the MOD at the moment, supporting Ukraine, that basically just funnels through the Prime Minister, doesn't it? And then the money question, which is Wes Streeting's predecessor, John Healey, who's in the Treasury. So, of course there are lots of issues still facing the mod about where they're going to get some of the extra personnel that we know we need in the armed forces, how they're treated, what their housing is like, all of those big issues. I feel like the meat of the portfolio at the moment is elsewhere, but maybe it's ever been thus.

[Luke Jones]

Yeah, no, you're right very much in the Treasury.

[Manveen Rana]

Yeah. And on the Rachel Reeves point, I don't sort of think particularly. I mean, I haven't heard anything solid about what she was offered. We know at the time of the big reshuffle, she was offered a substantial job, is what her spokesperson was putting about. I don't know if it was defence

[Luke Jones]

or not, and we don't know if anyone ever expected her to accept it.

[Manveen Rana]

Quite. It would still be a kind of demotion. Would you want to do a switch room with John Healey? But that is just one of the issues with ministerial government, isn't it, that you feel like there are people there running these places who don't necessarily have a background in them. But maybe that's what you need.

[Luke Jones]

I mean, I have heard people inside the mod say they sometimes prefer it if somebody comes in without any knowledge, because otherwise, if they've had a history in the military, they come in wanting to be the general. They never were. You know, they didn't make it to general status and now they want to sort of assume command, which isn't really what you want the Minister to do. You want them to be looking at the strategy. So in a way it might be helpful.

[Manveen Rana]

Yeah. You don't want people with ideas.

[Luke Jones]

No ideas, preferably. We've got another question here. It's a question slash gripe. We take both from Nina, who's emailed in to say, I want to know why there aren't better transport links in the north of England and what Andy Burnham might do about it. I live in lovely Leeds, the largest European city without a mass transit system. I've lived all over the UK and abroad at points, but never have I been more astounded at how terrible the transport options are in this city and up north in general. Ps. Writing in is the most British thing I've ever done, but I bet there are loads of others who have similar transport gripes, which I'm sure is absolutely true. I mean, as somebody who has once used the Trans Pennine Express, and honestly, the name is the only express bit about it. Right off an entire day, if you're making plans.

[Manveen Rana]

That's the thing, isn't it, about. Yeah. It's one thing to complain about how you get up and down from the north to the south, but trying to traverse the north in any way is just an absolute nightma. So to help us answer this one, we had to ask David Collins, who is Northern editor for the Times and the Sunday Times. First of all, there's an issue about Spending.

[David Collins]

In short, it's the product of decades of underinvestment by the government. We've had a lot of different governments come in with a lot of different ideas and we've ended up with this kind of piecemeal approach rather than a long term one. We've seen that with HS2 there was a plan for Leeds Supertram in the early 2000s and this was an idea for a kind of 500 million pound light rail system that was actually approved by central government and then it was scrapped in 2005 because the cost projections were going up and it wasn't seen as cost effective. And then the current idea is to have a tram network costing about 2.5 billion and that is supposedly going to link Leeds to Bradford, which has been proposed. That's kind of still ongoing. I think a lot of leaders in Leeds at Bradford will be looking for that sort of investment from Andy Burnham.

[Manveen Rana]

There's an IPPR research paper out in 2025 which found that from 2009 to 2023 London received £1,183 per year per person in transport investment. Compare that 486 pound per person in the North. So if the investment had been equal, the north would have received 140 billion more in that decade.

[Luke Jones]

I mean that's an astonishing sum. That's a huge disparity.

[Manveen Rana]

But then also there's a kind of political and regulatory aspect to this. Yippee, I hear you say, to do with in fact our colleague Patrick McGuire who sort of always makes that point about the kind of. In terms of the legacy that Andy Burnham is trying to unpick at the moment. It's not just the deregulation of the Thatcher years that Andy Burnham has an issue with, but also the centralisation that happened, the scrapping of some of those kind of larger local governments in different parts of the country. And yet in London we had the benefit of not having bus travel deregulated as it was in lots of other parts of the country in the mid-80s with the transport Act. But also, you know, we've had TFL since just before the millennium, so. So actually there has been that big body, as tricky as it can be sometimes with money and mixed results with investment and how it handles things. There has at least been a superstructure there. Actually thinking about how some of these systems integrate. The fact that you can have contactless and Oyster was brought about, you know.

[Luke Jones]

Ah yeah, of course it's kind of

[Manveen Rana]

things which cities like Liverpool City region under Steve Rotherham now are only Just with powers they got in 2017, thinking, yeah, actually, well, we've now got the tools and the things we can do to actually join it up. So we can have contactless payment, you know, take a Londoner to some of the other cities, even in Europe, and you think, well, I can't just scan my debit card and get on the

[Luke Jones]

train or vaguely wave my phone around.

[Manveen Rana]

Yeah, exactly. I just graze my smartwatch against the turnstile.

[Luke Jones]

Leaving Westminster and Manchester behind for a bit, we received another question which is a little bit left field, but also fascinating. This is from Laura Allison and it's about Meta's AI glasses. There are ads for these all over London. Certainly I've seen them. And Meta has also decided to partner with Kylie Jenner, who is Kim Kardashian's half sister, if that means more to you, in order to promote them. My Meta glasses have my voice, so

[Podcast Advertiser]

when you talk to Meta, it's me talking to you.

[Luke Jones]

So I've been talking to myself. So Laura wrote about the marketing of the AI glasses. Will increased surveillance make women feel more protected or policed? We turned to Chris Stoeckle Walker, tech journalist extraordinaire, who writes for the Times, to ask firstly, what on earth these glasses are and secondly, why is there a privacy issue around them, particularly for women.

[Chris Stoeckle Walker]

Matters? I Eyeglasses are the latest development of a technology that we've seen for nearly 10 years or so now. We had Snapchat, Snapchat glasses, which did something similar, but looked a little bit unattractive. And really it's this combination of Meta with Ray Ban that has made them really quite cool in terms of how they look. The principle behind them is really simple. So there's a small camera that is attached to the frame of the glasses. You barely see it. It's almost like a pinprick. So the signal from that camera then goes into a visual display that you can often see. And basically it gives you microphones within the arms of the glasses as well, so that you can hear and see things as well. This is like a heads up display, like you would have in a video game. And it's often called augmented reality in the tech world as well. But the problem with that is that you can record video with these sorts of things without many people knowing. And that is really the concern. Entering into private spaces, capturing private moments. Now, Meta, for its part, says you can see when someone is recording that there's an indication an LED light appears just above the camera lens. Invariably someone will find a way around that. Although Actually, they claim that the thing will stop working if you cover it up. And truthfully, it highlights some of the issues that we have in our society, which is that we are constantly being surveilled, constantly monitored. Problem is that we used to be able to see when that was happening because people would hold up their phones to our faces. These days you can be done surreptitiously. And really, I think that's why so many people spooked, particularly women. And that's quite why there's been such a controversy with Kylie Jenner advertising them as well.

[Manveen Rana]

Have you seen. Have you seen them out and about? They're the kind of.

[Luke Jones]

I haven't seen them out and about. I've sort of. I've seen ads for them, but that's about it. I haven't seen them in. In the wild.

[Manveen Rana]

Some people have dubbed them pervert glasses. There have been issues with people being filmed when they don't know they are by lots of sort of Instagram pranksters, people just going up to people and asking them strange questions, or trying to pick up women and doing these kind of quote unquote funny videos when actually these people don't know they're being filmed. And it's a bit weird. And actually some people you do see getting quite angry, which you would if someone just came up to you and started saying some mad things. And then days later you saw that doing the rounds on Instagram because it turns out they were filming with their glasses.

[Luke Jones]

That is very weird. I mean, that it throws lots of questions about privacy up in the air. We've started to see a lot of protests, a real backlash to the ads with Kylie Jenner.

[Manveen Rana]

Yeah, the group Everyone Hates, Elon, a reference there, obviously, to Elon Musk, have started putting up some of these fake adverts. So one of them has. I think it's actually one of Jeffrey Epstein's mugshots. And yet he's wearing these Meta glasses and it's got a little sort of fake advertising slogan on it that says glasses for people who don't do consent. And with this, there was a report a few weeks ago about some contractors of Meta in Kenya actually being able to see recordings from inside people's houses. Some of them involve people who were naked, just sort of going about their daily business because that was the kind of data it was harvesting because they had, you know, allowed their glasses to send data back to Meta to help with AI training. So there's always that worry about. We're always told, well, it will be dealt with. Properly. I'm sure they would say if they were here that they do keep people's data safe, but it's yeah, why would you choose to bug yourself in that fashion? I'm not sure.

[Luke Jones]

And we should say that Meta says it's paused its work with a Kenyan company that was contracted to provide some data review and annotation services, and Meta also said that photos and videos are private to users. Humans review AI content to improve product performance, for which we get clear user consent. Coming up, we'll have more questions on the war in Iran and Donald Trump and whether he might even get a third term. He certainly seems to want one. We'll have more in just a moment.

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[Manveen Rana]

The [e-mail] is our email. We are going through some of your questions. Manveen we need to talk about what is happening in Iran. You have spent, I think the best part of 50 years reporting in the Middle East. It is all century.

[Luke Jones]

That's how it feels.

[Manveen Rana]

And yeah, it's very much getting, getting hot again. Are we currently in a state of open war as with regards the US and Iran? Why is this sort of pause in strikes seem to have completely fallen apart?

[Luke Jones]

Ah, that's such a good question. It has been on again, off again all month really. We did have a pause from the end of last week where Donald Trump said he wanted to make way for diplomacy, although the Iranians said they wouldn't be talking to him. But at least it sort of calmed the oil markets down. It all kicked off again on Tuesday. The Iranians shattered the peace by launching missiles into Jordan, you know, directed at American bases there. And we have seen casualties there recently. We've had a couple of American troops killed on the Iranian side. This new sort of set of attacks, it's basically a show of strength. It's a reminder to both America and the Gulf that at the moment they call all the shots. They have what in military terms they call escalation, dominance. So, you know, they kind of set the pace of this war and they're quite enjoying that, I think. And at the same time that triggered a response from the Americans and for the first time since the war began, in a joint operation with the Saudi, taking on some of the Iranian proxies in the area. We haven't talked about this for a while, but there's been a bit of a wildcard in the Iran war. Remember the Houthis? They are an Iranian backed militia in

[Manveen Rana]

Yemen, also fans of throwing rockets at

[Luke Jones]

passing ships, very keen on that. And yet since the Iran war began, you know, that's the first thing we expected to happen. And, and they went suspiciously quiet. It was sort of the dog that never barked. We didn't know what was going on. But they haven't taken part at all until about a week ago. And a week ago they started attacking Saudi oil infrastructure on land, some of their refineries, some of the pipelines, and they started causing trouble in the other choke point in all of this, which is the Bab El Mandup. So if you imagine a map of Saudi Arabia on the east, you've got the Strait of Hormuz, that's where their tankers were sort of going through. They're suddenly blocked, they can't get out. The Saudi Arabians have a pipeline that connects east to west. So they've been pumping oil across that pipeline right across the country and sending it out via the Red Sea. The problem for them is that just like the Strait of Hormuz at the end of the Red Sea, before it joins the Gulf of Aden, you have another choke point. This one is called the Bab Al Mandub, which the literal translation from Arabic, this is hilarious, is actually the Gulf of Grief. And that's exactly what it's become for the Saudis. Their tankers are being attacked, so they can't move them out of there. Their pipeline, their refineries are under attack from the Houthis and from some Iranian backed militias in Iraq too. And I think they decided that something had to be done. So they've said they don't want to join an escalation, they don't want to join the war, but they need to show that they won't accept this. A line has to be drawn. So the moment the Iranians acted and America responded, the Saudis jumped in too. But it feels like it's a really delicate moment because everybody could accidentally end up escalating into an even more serious war.

[Manveen Rana]

And anyone who might look at that and take comfort from the thought of, well, you know, the wind will be taken out of maybe that and other conflicts. In particular, when Donald Trump leaves office as US President, he's again teased the prospect of him, in a constitutional twist, running for a third term. Listen to this. This was him at the Take two after that shooting of the White House Correspondents Dinner.

[Luke Jones]

Well, it was a hell of an

[Chris Stoeckle Walker]

evening, I can tell you that won't soon be forgotten. And I think a lot was learned from that evening.

[Luke Jones]

Tremendous amount was learned about security and about other things, the dangers of what we all do. But just like my presidency, the second

[Chris Stoeckle Walker]

time is always better, always better.

[Luke Jones]

And the third time will be better yet.

[Manveen Rana]

Maybe he'll be around for a third term. Might he fight it? Might he win it? We had a question from Simon who said, how Likely is a third Trump term? 25 marks. Manveen Rana, show you're working.

[Luke Jones]

Well, luckily for me, we have actually done an episode on this in the past because it's not the first time he's talked about slash joked. Is he though? You know, mentioned the idea of a third term. So we did a whole episode on this and here's a little clip from the constitutional expert we found in America to discuss whether it's even possible.

[Podcast Advertiser]

The strongest argument is that the purpose and meaning of the 22nd Amendment is that nobody should serve as president for more than two terms. But the language is A little different. The language says no person shall be elected to the office of president. And so then the question is, well, there are other ways to become president besides being elected.

[Luke Jones]

That was Suzanne Sherry from Vanderbilt University. And we do have a whole episode explaining the legality of all of that. But Luke, what do you think?

[Manveen Rana]

Well, you'd think here one of the. Well, obviously there's so many workarounds as alluded to there, and impossibilities, but there may be possibilities as well. And as we've come to learn, unprecedented is not necessarily an overused word at the moment in US politics. But also you would just think, especially from a British perspective, that he would be too old, you know, even getting away from the 22nd Amendment. You know, he's 80 at the moment and at the end of a possible third term he would be 86. Now, obviously, in the US they do seem to increasingly like not just presidents, but senators, but actually even federal judges. The judge who dealt with the hearings to do with Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan president, who was obviously snaffled by the Americans, was 92. The oldest currently working federal judge is 102. So actually, yeah, 86. Maybe that's still spring chicken.

[Luke Jones]

How is that possible? I mean, I can't either they're doing something to stay alive and very alert for much, much longer than we are, or maybe they need to introduce a retirement age. Yes, but you're right, he would be very old also, you know, he is expecting a pretty rough time come the midterms.

[Manveen Rana]

Yeah. And maybe, of course, all of this is moot and it could end up with him gliding off into his retirement. And then you start looking at a race which is what? J.D. vance versus Gavin Newsom, J.D. vance versus Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. All of a sudden you're talking about people in their 40s.

[Luke Jones]

Yeah. If you can imagine, different generation. So many more questions we could take on that alone. So if you have them, do send them in to the [e-mail] if we didn't get round to yours this time. Thank you for writing in. Please keep sending your questions and we will try and get through as many as possible this time in in a month.

[Manveen Rana]

And thank you for your feedback as well on recent episodes. A few of you wrote in about our episode on Monday about the rise of Germany's radical right party, the AfD Alternative for Deutschland. One listener who's a history teacher in Germany called David emailed us to say that he knows AFD voters who believe that they are unfairly labeled extremists when they voice concerns about things like immigration or the rise Islamist attacks like the one at Berlin over the weekend, he

[Luke Jones]

carries on the German political establishment has spent years dismissing these voters as irredeemable rather than addressing the grievances driving them towards extremism. The predictable result? Many have simply shrugged and said, fine, call me a Nazi, I don't care. At least one party takes my concerns seriously. David says that if the German government doesn't take these issues seriously, more voters will flock to the AfD. Oliver Moody, who joined us in that episode, did talk about this when he talked about the sense of democratic nihilism that many Germans feel about their government. But David's point is a good one. And if you're interested, Oliver has written a new piece about the rise in Islamist terror attacks in Germany that addresses this directly. You can find a link to it in the episode Notes.

[Manveen Rana]

That is it from us. Thank you for listening. Remember to subscribe and you will never miss an episode and your questions and queries are always welcome. Thestoryatthetimes.com is how to reach us the

[Luke Jones]

producers today were Mikaela Arneson and Yasmin Chowdhury. The Executive producer was Taryn Siegel. Sound design is by Dave Creasy and theme composition is by Malicetto.

[Manveen Rana]

She's been Manvin Rana.

[Luke Jones]

He's been Luke Jones.

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