Tomorrow (that’s the 8th March!) is International Women’s Day, and as you would expect, a lot of great podcasts are releasing special episodes.

From Monday, Standard Issue Podcast will be launching six long-form interviews to discuss the issues women are currently facing. The Comedy Arcade, a podcast where comedians compete with stories and anecdotes on a certain subject, will release a special about what their guests have learnt. Then also on Monday, former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard will be interviewing Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the new Director General of the World Trade Organization, on her show A Podcast of One’s Own.

Anthems, by the audio company Broccoli, are releasing an episode every single day in March under the strand Anthems: Women. One episode is from presenter and inclusion advocate Tatum Karmen, who talked about growing up and her experiences of muscular dystrophy. “I have to giggle and put a middle finger up to the universe for throwing me a challenge I can’t work, talk, dance or meditate my way out of,” she said. “It’s a lesson I wouldn’t wish upon anyone, but one that has highlighted my adaptability and resilience more than ever.”

Meanwhile, Behind the Screams, a horror podcast, is starting a month’s worth of special episodes celebrating women in horror with some special guests. And British Podcast Award winning series The Last Bohemians, which features interviews with one-of-a-kind women in arts and culture, will be returning with a special episode with performance artist Marina Abramović. 

GUESTS ON PODCASTS THIS WEEK

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  • Fiona Hill, a former official of the US National Security Council, is a guest on The Economist Asks by Anne McElvoy. An expert on Russia, she discusses what relations between the US and Russia might look like in the post-Trump era.
  • Sound Advice: Get Year One in Business Right is launching a special episode on International Women’s Day on how to win business investment, from the perspective of three female founders. 
  • Media Tribe, a podcast where media people are interviewed about their career by Shaunagh Connaire, has an interview with RTE broadcaster Claire Byrne.
  • Comedian Maisie Adam is the latest guest on It’s An S Pod Thing!, a podcast where the guests and the host watch the iconic S Club 7 TV series.
  • Candice Carty-Williams, the author of Queenie, which won the “Book of the Year” at the British Book Award Awards, is on Changes with Annie Macmanus
  • The Kindness Economy, a podcast by Mary Portas about businesses trying to do good things to society and the planet, speaks to Kate Raworth about her book “Doughnut Economics,” which argues that the economy shouldn’t just be based around GDP, but should consider inequality and the environment too. 

Here are our podcast picks for the week ahead

If you want your podcast featured, or you have a great recommendation, all you need to do is fill in this simple form and might get featured in a future newsletter.

Open HouseA podcast that is presented by two close friends can fall into the trap of only containing references that only they will get, or be so fast-flowing in conversation that it is nearly impossible to keep up. I’m happy to say that this podcast, hosted by close friends and housemates Clancy Ryan and Mel Lowe, doesn’t fall into that trap at all. In fact, it’s an absolute delight.

Like the title suggests, the podcast is an ‘open house’ for a number of topics, the silly and the serious. The serious being a thoughtful discussion on living with endometriosis. The silly being a discussion on the right way to pronounce tortoise (for the record – I think you have to pronounce it as “tort-us” not “tort-OISe”).

Money Moves with Toni ToneToni Tone, a content creator, writer and public speaker, is the presenter of this engaging podcast by BBC Radio 1Xtra, looking at a topic that has been in a lot of our heads lately: money. 

Each episode breaks into specific topics with an interesting guest, from how to make money from your passion and with entrepreneur Nafisa Bakkar, to how to embrace financial change with finance content creator Bola Sol.

Many financial podcasts out there are full of cliches, management speak or competitive bragging. This series doesn’t do any of that, which results in it feeling like a breath of fresh air. It contains advice and aspirations, without veering into unrealistic expectations either. All eight episodes are available to listen to now.

Spotify Podcast of the Week This week’s Spotify pick is Rose and Rosie: Parental Guidance – they’re joined for this episode by comedian Suzi Ruffell on Monday. Rose and Rosie met Suzi a few years ago on a rooftop at a New York pride event. But now they share a new bond – both R&R and Suzi are pending parenthood in a pandemic. Suzi talks all about how the adoption process works in 2021 and explains how she intends to maintain a balance between being a celebrated celesbian (Rose and Rosie’s words, not Suzi’s…) and a zero-drama-first-time-Mama. It’s available to listen to exclusively on Spotify, along with all other episodes of the season so far. 

The Panic YearsWhat are the ‘panic years’? It can be around your late twenties and early thirties, when everything in your life starts to feel like it is against the clock, especially if you aren’t where you expected to be by that point in your relationships, friendships or career. The pandemic has, of course, added to that anxiety, pausing life when it feels like change should be speeding up, not slowing down.

Journalist and author Nell Frizzell wrote a book on the subject after realising that this experience was felt by many more people than just her and this new podcast she interviews well-known names about their experiences too. One episode features an engaging chat with comedian Sara Pascoe, where they talk about feeling weird whilst attending weddings (“a lot of what I think defined ‘the panic years’ are feeling out of sync with the people around me”, says Nell, “and a time when that reared up like a Medusa was at weddings”). 

Good Food – Rookie and Nice PodcastIn a recent newsletter I talked about how food criticism can work reality quite well in podcasts. I’ve since come to realise that podcasts discussing recipes and flavours can work in podcasting too, even if you have to imagine what the finished dish actually looks like.

This new podcast, presented by Nadiya (the magazine’s “Rookie Chef”) and food writer Miriam Nice, have discussions with different food topics each week, along with an expert guest, starting with how to make the perfect butter chicken. The hosts’ own questions are weaved in with questions sent in from listeners.

A reminder before we go: The British Podcast Awards, powered by Amazon Music, want you to help choose the shortlist for the Best International Podcast this year, supported by Podfront UK

All you need to do is head to our website and tell us your suggestions. The only rule is that the podcast must have released episodes between the 1st February 2020 and the 31st January 2021. That’s it!

If you want to listen to a selection of podcasts rather than just reading about them, make sure you listen out for Podcast Radio Hour with Amanda Litherland on BBC Radio 4 Extra this week. Both Amanda and I talked about our favourite podcasts we’ve heard recently, including Life Hacks – Lockdown Wellbeing and Get Birding.

Categories: Weekly Picks