The week’s most unsettling headline dropped out of Utah: far-right agitator Charlie Kirk has been shot dead at a university event, a shocking act of political violence in an already overheated United States.

On Social Meltdown, Graeme and Dylan sift through what’s confirmed, what’s conspiracy, and why this matters far beyond one man’s fate.

Kirk built his brand by pushing anti-LGBTQ talking points, anti women's rights, spreading election lies, and culture-war outrage—and now his killing risks turning him into a martyr for the very movement he helped radicalise.

Answering messages from listeners, we talk about the shooter’s reported motives, the rumours of a mysterious plane that “went dark,” and what this says about a society where toxic rhetoric and collapsing trust make violent flashpoints feel inevitable.

A brutally honest look at how democracies crack when hate becomes a business model.

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🔥 Topics this episode:

• UK emergency "alert" - a blatant nuclear zap drill vs. China’s nuclear parade - the same week
• Zack Polanski: Green Party’s new eco-populist leader
• Trump renames the Pentagon “Department of War”
• Listener reactions: fear, laughter, and mass-text panic
• What would you do with the real 3-minute warning?

This week on Social Meltdown, Graeme Smith and Dylan Evans dive head-first into the week’s chaos — from the UK’s bizarre “zap drill” phone alert to China rolling out nuclear weapons alongside Russia, Iran, and North Korea. While one side tests push notifications, the other shows off nukes — so what does that say about the world we’re living in?

We also take on the Green Party’s new leader, Zack Polanski — an openly gay former actor and hypnotist who calls himself an “eco-populist.” Can he really take on Farage and make socialism and the environment interesting again? Did he really offer to hypnotise your boobs bigger during a stint as a psychotherapist? Does it matter given the situation we're in?

Meanwhile in the US, Trump is rebranding the Department of Defense into the Department of War — with talk of using it for immigration raids and using his military on "rebel" cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington DC.

Plus: we pull the best listener letters of the week — from awkward zap alert train rides to parents dealing with terrified kids, and whether the government should be allowed to mass-text us about food shortages and energy crises. And we close with the big one: if the real 3-minute warning ever came, what would you do?

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Pot Noodles have gone all woke and cardboard, an emboldened far right is waving flags everywhere, and Elon Musk is sharing AI porn. It's another totally normal week on planet what the f*ck.

Meanwhile the polar bears are livid as the ice caps melt and Russia gets ready to open Club Med: Siberia.

Dylan Evans and Graeme Smith are here to laugh at the collapse — from student debt to supermarket raids — with your letters on which alien you’d sleep with and where in LIDL you would hide if society collapsed somewhat faster than we have been anticipating.

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Leading UK TikTok creator Dylan Evans and award-winning LGBTQ+ podcaster and broadcaster Graeme Smith are two long-time mates from Liverpool who dive headfirst into their news feeds – then try to make sense of what they find. Whilst the planet is unravelling.

With a show very loosely based on how the world is unravelling and using the respected but depressing subreddit R/Collapse as its guide through the unravelling of civilisation, we aim to make the depressing demise of us all accessible but ultimately pretty funny at times. Because what else can we do?

From AI coming to eat us all, to Trump’s latest meltdown, to the slow death of humanity via social media bed-rotting – it’s all fair game.

Sometimes it's dark. Sometimes it's wholesome.

Episodes weekly,

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The slow collapse of civilisation continues being a bit funny at times.

It’s official: July 2025 was one of the hottest months in all recorded history. But don’t worry — we’ll deal with that existential horror later. First up, let’s talk about the other thing currently on fire: half the planet. France, Spain, Canada… basically, if it has summer, it has wildfires.

From there, we take a sharp left turn into the Collapse Community inbox, where one listener shares how the fascist takeover of the USA is giving them full-time anxiety. ICE raids, birthright citizenship under attack, homelessness being criminalised — it’s not “business as usual” anymore, and pretending otherwise feels impossible. Is it time to flee to the woods, or are we still clinging to hope that good will prevail?

Then, as the world overheats and governments slide into dystopia… good news! There are aliens. Four kinds of them, according to a US astrophysicist who briefed Congress: Grays, Nordics, Insectoids, and Reptilians. Was Men in Blackbasically a documentary? And which species do you secretly want to get probed by?

Also this week: ChatGPT 5 is here and everyone hates it (but you can now pay extra to go back to 4.0 if you miss being politely patronised), plus your listener DM's about spending nuclear zap drills in Lidl.

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Graeme’s got an oddly nostalgic bought of COVID that has brought him to his knees and made him sound even more nasal, and somehow it all spirals into ket flashbacks from the noughties in a carpark in Leeds. We cover the unsettling topic of whether robots are already better friends than people, what we're putting into the time capsule for the end of days so humanity won't be forgotten and theres plenty of unhinged messages from you lot.

This week, we're watching again as the world collapses slowly:

• The algorithm that’s brain-rotting us into apathy
• Automated AI gun turrets in Gaza
• Live action horror from Black Mirror
• Why porn sites now want your passport
• Billionaire escape pods vs. Graeme’s apocalypse bunker
• And what humanity’s time capsule shouldn’t include (spoiler: maths)

Plus, Dylan admits to having the most innocent Explore page on Instagram and Graeme wonders if foot fetishes are just a simpler life.

It’s dark, weirdly wholesome, and very, very funny. Welcome to the end of the world. Bring snacks.

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After we threw down the gauntlet with episode 1....You lot have been on with questions. About the slow collapse of civilisation. Isn't that always the way.

Thankfully it's the theme of this podcast as well as the background music to all of our lives.

But how are we re populating earth when everyone's died off? And other matters that have come up since our first chat.

We also check the latest real time threats to life on earth on the reddit subgroup R/Collapse who provide us inspiration and information to make the end of times well informed and at least funny.

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Experts say the collapse of civilisation isn’t coming — it’s already underway. So we decided to loosely base a show on the expert doomerist sub reddit r/collapse. It's democratically moderated by people with the right qualifications and temperament to pass on the verified info about civilisation unravelling. People take comfort in the sobering pessimistic facts, they make the days count.

From nuclear war to climate-triggered volcanic mega-eruptions, the next two decades are looking… spicy.

Dylan Evans (chronically online gen z/milennial / internet treasure/ showbiz royalty on Merseyside) ) and Graeme Smith (elder millennial/ queer/ ex pat scouse/ national broadcasting's best kept secret) dig into the headlines and research that suggest humanity might have about 20 years left, max. But don’t panic — or do, but also remember to take time out to p*ss your pants laughing.

This is your emergency broadcast, only with better microphones and worse coping mechanisms.

🎙️ In this episode:

• How many ways can civilisation collapse? (Spoiler: loads)
• How the sub reddit r/collapse is taking a sensible informed approach to the gradual end of times.
• The bit about how all the mega volcanoes might be planning something.
• And whether it's still worth buying nice clothes

📉 Doom. Lols. Facts.

Graeme and Dylan are documenting the downfall so you don’t have to.

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