With energy bills rising and inflation rising over 10% in recent weeks, a number of podcasts have launched special episodes looking at how best to protect your finances.

Cash Chats with Andy Webb did a special episode explaining how the energy price cap works and the difference it will make to your bills. “A couple of things to do: get your current direct debit right now and see what you’re paying right now and 80% of it,” he says. “That will give you a broad sense of where you are going with it. I would also make sure that you have given accurate metre readings and that you have a good idea of your usage based on the last twelve months versus what they’re guessing what you’ve got.”

Meanwhile, Money Clinic with Claer Barrett re-released a special episode on how best to manage your money if you’re single. Advice includes: start saving for an emergency fund, no matter how small, before working out possible investments.

On a different note … in the last newsletter we wrote about The News Agents, the new Global podcast hosted by the ex-BBC trio Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall. Both Sopel and Maitlis are known for their work on the BBC podcast Americast, which funnily enough returned with a new episode and presenting lineup on the very same day as The News Agents debuted! 

Americast’s new line-up includes Today programme host Justin Webb, US Editor Sarah Smith and the BBC’s Disinformation and Social media correspondent Marianna Spring. The “Zurch” will be providing analysis too. Nothing quite like healthy competition.

NOTABLE NAMES ON PODCASTS THIS WEEK

If you have listened to a great guest on a podcast, let us know by filling in this form and it might get featured in an upcoming newsletter.

  • The Gaby Roslin Podcast has returned with a batch of new episodes and in-depth interviews, featuring Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Craig Parkinson and Dr Amir Khan. Another episode with Michael Bublé is on its way. 
  • The ADHD Women’s Wellbeing Podcast has returned for a second series, a podcast that might provide some help to those who were diagnosed as an adult. In the first episode Kate Moryoussef speaks with writer Grace Timothy.
  • CoppaFeel! Cancer charity founder Kristin Hallenga has started a new podcast called Glittering a Turd, all about how to turn a terrible situation into something better. Her first guests are Giovanna Fletcher and Vicky Pattison.
  • The latest episode of Secret Leaders, a podcast talking about what it is like to be a top entrepreneur, has James Vincent as a guest. He has helped develop brands for huge companies, most notably Apple.
  • Frankie Tortora, host of the DIFTK podcast (which won a Gold award at the British Podcast Awards) is on the Mother of All Solutions podcast this week. She talks about navigating maternity leave and being a freelancer as a parent.

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.

Walk Tall Podcast – “Forging a career path is hard and we all know that there is a confidence gap between men and women in business, especially for those just starting out,” says the broadcaster and author Toni Tone at the start of her new podcast. 

In this new series, she speaks to women who have thrived within the world of business about how they have managed to make it work on their own terms and, starting with the Olympian Katarina Johnson-Thompson talking on the topic of perseverance. 

Johnson-Thompson is known for her ability to come back after setbacks and injuries, recently achieving a Gold at the Commonwealth Games in 2022 after crashing out after a sustained calf injury during the heptathlon at the Tokyo 2020. In the episode, she opens up about how she lost her confidence and then regained her motivation, with her advice being that you have to love what you do to withstand the tougher moments that we will all face from time to time.

“Kat is living proof that the path to career success may not always be smooth, but she has shown that the journey and how we handle it along the way is a true marker of success,” says Tone.

Restless NativesBroadcaster Gordon Smart and Martin Compston, who of course you will recognise from all six series of Line of Duty (and the first two minutes of Vigil), have joined together for a new Global podcast. The format is an ode to the cult Scottish film Restless Natives (hence the name of the podcast) but the main appeal is just the chemistry and the frank anecdotes that both of them bring up episode after episode.

The first episode, similar to the Walk Tall podcast, is all about persistence and all things going wrong. As Martin Compston says: “When things go wrong, they go right.” 

The TowerA nifty little audio drama series, created by an audio collective based in Glasgow, is returning for its third series this week. The premise of the story is simple and as a result, compelling. Each episode consists of Kiri climbing an abandoned tower that reaches impossibly high into the sky. Nobody has ever made it to the top, nor knows what is even at the top. All of the dialogue in the series consists of phone communications between Kiri and those on the ground. And sound production is fantastic, created by David Devereux, who also serves as the drama’s writer and producer. 

Episodes range from a few minutes to over ten, but make sure you tune in from the very start before listening to the new batch of episodes. It’s an absolute delight.

How To DJOur final podcast is for anyone fascinated with radio broadcasting or DJing, or are keen to get into the industry themselves. 

In each episode Chris Hawkins interviews a well known name about how they hone in their craft and the list of names the podcast has managed to attract: Capital’s Lauren Layfield, Scroobius Pip and Norman Cook (aka. Fatboy Slim.) 

“I never intended to be a DJ, I always wanted to be a popstar from when I was about eight years old” said Cook. “DJing didn’t register but what I was was a vinyl junkie, a collector of all the records. And when I was about 14 or 15 years old and we started having parties, obviously without streaming the only way you could hear the cool music at a party was if someone had all the records.”

Thanks so much for reading.

We’ll be back soon with another edition next Sunday.

Subscribe and get this in your inbox…

Categories: Weekly Picks