It is Pride Month, so let’s have a look at podcasts that are reflecting and discussing LGBTQ+ life in Britain today.
Queer Spaces: Behind the Scene spoke to the founders of Gal Pals, a dance party that celebrating the music of queer, non binary and trans women. Homo Sapiens, presented by Christopher Sweeney, has a two part special looking into celebrating Prides in schools and the challenges in making LGBTQ+ pupils feel seen. And Two Twos Podcast, presented by Rose Frimpong and Nana Duncan, has a discussion on the merits of Pride.
Anthems by Broccoli is back with another month of speeches and stories by people across the LGBTQ community, with new episodes out every day. In The Key of Q celebrates queer musicians from all over the world, presented and produced by Dan Hall. It starts with an interview with Don+, whose first EP debuted in the RnB charts. Pride & Progress featured an interview with Fisayo Akinade, who plays Heartstopper’s Mr Ajayi.
There are also two upcoming series to look out for. One is Bi-People, by Julia Shaw and Sofia Hagen, which will delve into the history and culture of bisexuality. The other is the second series of Call Me Mother, where the author and journalist Shon Faye speaks to LGBTQ+ trailblazers who paved the way for our lives today.
NOTABLE NAMES ON PODCASTS THIS WEEK
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- Bake Off’s Paul Hollywood is on the latest episode of Holly Rubenstein’s The Travel Diaries, where he talks about his favourite destinations (I bet Japan has a mention)
- Joe Wicks has started the third series of his BBC Radio 4 podcast series, which looks at mental and physical wellness. Joining him in the first episode is the one, the only skateboarder Tony Hawk.
- Big Zuu from the double BAFTA Award Winning show Big Zuu’s Big Eats was on the latest episode of Comfort Eating with Grace Dent.
- On Celebrity Catch Up: Life After That Thing I Did features Lea Thompson, aka. Marty McFly’s Mum Lorraine on how starring in the film affected her career.
- Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code, is on the latest episode of Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett.
- If you have been watching The Outlaws, the new sitcom / thriller on BBC One, there’s a new BBC Sounds podcast series accompanying the series. The first episode of Inside… The Outlaws features an interview with Stephen Merchant.
Here are our podcast picks for the week ahead
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Financial Times – Hot Money: Porn Power and Profit – “This series is full of adult themes and has some graphic sex talk.” Such a disclaimer at the start of a podcast isn’t a surprise when you know that the subject matter is pornography. Yet it is a surprise when you realise who is behind his new investigative series: Alex Barker and Patricia Nilsson at The Financial Times. It explores the underexplored power and cryptic ownership of some of the major players within the industry. When Patricia started to investigate this industry, she realised that nobody knew who owned the porn’s largest website.
Why does it matter? Well, as Barker explains, this industry has enormous influence “over our culture, over how my kids learn about sex and over almost 8% of all internet traffic.”
Smoking Gun – A true crime podcast that explores the role that science has played in solving them. Presented by the actor Romola Garai and notable forensic scientist Tracy Alexander, each episode explores how an everyday object at the scene of the culprit, from a Chinese takeaway to an ordinary house brick, was key in helping to work out who the culprit involved was.
The storytelling is clear and compelling and the science is explored in layman’s terms that anyone can understand. It is always a plus to have a true crime podcast that doesn’t give the notoriety the culprit might want or dwell heavily on the gory details. This podcast manages to achieve both things.
Londongrad – From the company behind the viral hit podcast series Sweet Bobby, Tortoise Media have now launched a new investigative series looking at the life of two Russian oligarchs and Britain’s relationship with Russian money. Alexander Lebedev, a former KGB officer who acquired a substantial amount of money as the Soviet Union fell apart and his son Evgeny Lebedev, who owns The Independent and the London Evening Standard newspapers. Evgeny was known for his legendary parties and his connections to the London social scene and ended up with a seat on the House of Lords, despite a warning from the security services.
“Is it really possible to buy power and influence in Britain, by spending more money than you or I could ever imagine on parties?” says Paul Caruana Galizia. “If you asked me over a year ago, I wouldn’t have believed it. But now I can see it is not just a possibility. It actually happened.” There are several episodes available to watch at the moment, with early access to
Sliced Bread – A strange name for a podcast (although, there are weirder out there) but it makes sense when you know about the concept. In each episode, broadcaster Greg Foot investigates whether a much hyped product lives up to expectations. Basically, is this product better than sliced bread?
There are several episodes so far, looking into whether it is worth forking out a lot of money on fancy electric toothbrushes or personalised vitamin plans. I got stuck into an episode looking at the supposed claims by meal replacement drinks (aka. ones like Huel) and whether they are ‘nutritionally complete.’ An issue, as the episode explores, is that although they contain healthy ingredients each one of us requires different amounts of nutrients and vitamins and there are still scientific gaps in our collective understanding of what nutrients we all need anyway.
In two weeks time, we will be rolling out a special red carpet with a ✨special two part newsletter✨ announcing all of the nominees for the British Podcast Awards 2022 (powered by Audible). Many people have told us that they love the nominations newsletter because they are able to find out about brilliant podcasts they may have missed over the last year.
The winners will be announced at a special ceremony on the 23rd July 2022.
