Hosts Harry Pinero and Henrie bring us a podcast celebrating black music and culture, Fun kids radio station tells us tales from their storytelling podcast and Jon Snow looks back at his 45 years in journalism……

It would have been Glastonbury Festival this weekend, until … you know. 

To fill the gap and to celebrate the festival’s 50th anniversary, the BBC has unveiled The Glastonbury Experience. There are landmark and memorable sets available to watch on BBC iPlayer, with a whole lot of mixes and special performances on BBC Sounds too.

If you are interested in the history of the festival, look no further than Glastonbury 50. It’s a Radio 4 style audiobook, with voice actors reading out stories and anecdotes by Michael and Emily Eavis, each episode looking back at a different decade. What you appreciate is how something so big came from a single idea five decades ago. It just proves that you never know where the next idea will take you.

See you by the cider bus.

Here are notable guests on podcasts this week:

  • Alan Carr and his husband Paul Drayton are the guests on Ayda Williams’ Postcards from the Edge, a podcast that riffs on the differences between the UK and US.
  • Tom Robinson, the 6 Music Presenter, joins Attention Engineer, a podcast about artists and their grit and determination.
  • Keza MacDonald, Video Games Editor at The Guardian is the latest guest on the She Plays Game podcast, a podcast about women in the video games industry. A stand out quote: “The more women are present and in positions of power or of influence, the more women feel empowered to go for that career. That’s the effect that happens.”
  • Gail Porter is the latest guest on Grounded with Louis Theroux.

Tell us about great guests you’ve heard (or are coming up, if you make a show). They don’t have to be a huge name, just someone who you think would be interesting to the people who get this. All you need to do is fill in this form.

Here are our podcast recommendations for this week:

Innermost – The Guardian has launched an interesting storytelling podcast about the lockdown, with personal stories on corona related topics you may not have heard before. There’s a story about what it is like to watch a family funeral on a laptop (“all of us, as a family wrote to each other immediately afterwards feeling that we had been completely and emotionally knocked sideways”) and how lockdown affects someone with schizophrenia, all told to journalist Leah Green. Several stories are told at once, flicking between each one constantly. It feels a bit odd at first, but it is actually a draw of the podcast itself. It lets your mind wander about the subject just that little bit more between each chapter.

Who We Be TALKS – There is such great chemistry between the hosts of this Spotify podcast celebrating black music and culture, hosted by Harry Pinero and Henrie. In the first episode of the new series, they discuss the Black Lives Matter protests, whether the black squares on Instagram were just performative (“your intentions should never be dependent on what your social media says it should be,” says Harry) and they interview rapper Tion Wayne. All the music that gets featured in each episode is available to listen to on an accompanying playlist. By the way, their podcast is a Spotify exclusive, so you will need to head to the app or their website to listen.

Storyquest – Last week we featured a storytelling podcast for children and with summer beckoning (and a summer of long car journeys ahead) there’s also this one by Fun Kids, the children’s radio station. Each of the stories are read out by one of their presenters and last 10 minutes a piece (so if you’re going down the M4 that’s one story per junction). I didn’t realise how immensely popular these style of podcasts are for kids, so do let us know if there’s one your kid loves that deserves more attention.

Jon Snow: Making the News – And finally, the veteran Channel 4 News anchor Jon Snow has a new Audible Original series looking back at the big news events that he has reported on in his 45 years in journalism, by pouring through and watching back the archives in the bunker at ITN’s headquarters. Each episode covers a different news event: the Grenfell Tower fire, the Haiti earthquake and 9/11. At a time when journalism has been under such scrutiny, this series is a timely reminder of the purpose and value it serves when it is done right. All of the episodes are available to listen to, but this podcast is only available to Audible subscribers.

The British Podcast Awards are just around the corner (*toot trumpets* Saturday 11th July *folds trumpet back into case*), so a reminder that you only have two weeks left to submit your favourite for the Listeners’ Award. All you need to do is head to the British Podcast Awards website and submit your favourite podcast. Your favourite podcast says thank you in advance. 

Remember you can also listen to all of the nominees in The Shortlist, our podcast showcasing all of the nominated entries. Recent episodes include highlights from the best fiction and best family podcast.

And finally, just a quick thank you. We have passed 100,000 readers to the Great British Podcasts newsletter, which is amazing considering that we only started this newsletter just over a year ago! Thank you so much for reading and for sending us your recommendations. If there’s someone who you think would want to read this newsletter, ping them this webpage to sign up. And if there’s a podcast that you think this newsletter should be including, let us know too.

Thanks for reading. We’ll be back next Sunday,

Scotty / @scottygb

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Categories: Weekly Picks