podcasts
Men in black
Martin McNamara, the writer of Mosley Must Fall, a play on Radio 4 this week, must have had a jolt…
Open book
365 Stories I Want To Tell You Before We Both Die is a podcast that experimental filmmaker Caveh Zahedi started…
Old school ties
It is incredibly hard to convey the fleeting invincibility and passionate self-significance that we feel on the cusp of adulthood.…
The art of listening
There’s a great documentary film on Netflix at the moment about the late artist Bob Ross, he of the happy…
Spooky furniture
‘I’ve actually seen ghosts.’ This statement comes less than ten minutes into the first episode of Dark House, a limited-series…
Alan key
Given my affection for M*A*S*H, I can’t think why I haven’t listened to Alan Alda’s podcasts before now, besides the…
Fatal attraction
Why do some women find killers irresistible?
Crime and punishment
How do we have difficult conversations? Especially in an age of polarisation, where everything is immediately politicised? But also where…
Crude mittens
Let me give you a free piece of relationship advice: just break up. If it’s more work than pleasure, if…
A fat king with a sex chair
When it comes to history programming, television’s loss is increasingly audio’s gain. People moan to me most weeks over the…
Men and sheds
The interview podcast is a genre immoderately drawn to gimmicks, as the logical space of possible formats is gradually exhausted.…
Kicking the habit
Work is our new religion. There are people whose primary job is writing listicles of celebrity gossip, illustrated with gifs…
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Listening to Trees A Crowd, a podcast exploring the ‘56(ish) native trees of the British Isles’, solved one of childhood’s…
It’s who you know
All the world’s on stage again so where to go to for insight into what to see and why? Podcasts,…
Shawn again
Pity the aesthete, the flâneur and the opera-goer. Those who find the contents of their own heads so dull and…
Grand designs
Passenger List opens with a carefully structured ripple of breaking news bulletins: a mysterious catastrophe, an unconvincing official explanation, the…
Miliband’s last supper
You have to hand it to Ed Miliband. After bacon sandwich-gate, he might never have eaten in public again, but…
Star trek
Now that all of the billionaires are going into space, the night sky holds a special new kind of allure.…
Title deeds
The best thing on the radio last week was, without question, Kind Hearts and Coronets. You may have missed it…
No yelling necessary
It’s interesting that we have decided shaming and yelling are the easiest ways to change people’s minds. Which is not…
Big hooks but no mackerel
The narrative podcast remains a form in search of a genre. The template set by the hit show Serial —…
Inside stories
Prison-based podcast Banged Up, now in its second series, is far more uplifting — and less soapy — than its…
Dumber and dumber
Truly we are living in the golden age of the grifter. From Fyre Fest to the WeWork empire to Theranos…
Sins of the father
I’d forgotten what a rich and deep and characterful voice John le Carré had. Listening to author and lawyer Philippe…
Lightbulb moments
Last Saturday on Radio 2 Claudia Winkleman was inaugurated as the host of what was formerly Graham Norton’s mid-morning spot.…
