# Star Wars – Why our obsession with star ratings is ruining everything Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bunker-news-without-the-nonsense-1209382/star-wars-why-our-obsession-with-star-ratings-is-ruining-everything Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bunker-news-without-the-nonsense-1209382/star-wars-why-our-obsession-with-star-ratings-is-ruining-everything.md Podcast: [The Bunker – News without the nonsense](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bunker-news-without-the-nonsense-1209382) Published: 2026-07-14T03:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/the-bunker/episodes/star-wars-why-our-obsession-with-star-ratings-is-ruining-eve Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/6a2ad2e9440b9d7bbf6bde6b/e/6a54e6c93e018503d623656d/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-bunker-news-without-the-nonsense-1209382/episodes/star-wars-why-our-obsession-with-star-ratings-is-ruining-everything Duration seconds: 1606 ## Resource “Please rate this book.” “What was your experience at Tesco like?” “Did this carrot meet your expectations?”… Star ratings are everywhere and they’re ruining the world. You can’t order a curry, watch a film or buy a kettle without having to check what others said about it – and being pestered to give your review.  We’ve turned the entire planet into a customer satisfaction survey, but how did it happen? With a limitless choice on offer, are star ratings more help or hindrance? Can we trust them – and how can you spot a scam write-up? Benji Wilson , author of Rate This Book: How Star Ratings Took Over the World , tells Emma Kennedy what the pressure to review and rate everything is doing to our minds.   • Buy Benji’s book Rate This Book: How Star Ratings Took Over the 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.  • Back us on Patreon Written and presented by Emma Kennedy. Producer: James Liddell. Audio production: Jade Bailey. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.   www.podmasters.co.uk   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-bunker-news-without-the-nonsense-1209382/episodes/star-wars-why-our-obsession-with-star-ratings-is-ruining-everything/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bunker-news-without-the-nonsense-1209382/star-wars-why-our-obsession-with-star-ratings-is-ruining-everything.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.