Let’s start this week’s newsletter with some new podcasts.
Invaded: Voicemails from Ukraine, from the Slow News publisher Tortoise, consists of testimony and personal accounts from Ukrainians about the Russian invasion. There’s a select number of speakers chosen for the series, making it possible to hear what they have been up to over successive days. Their Slow Newscast has also just done an episode on Evgeny Lebedev, the owner of The Independent and the Evening Standard.
The Rest Is Politics is a new weekly politics discussion show, hosted by former Downing Street strategist Alistair Campbell and cabinet minister Rory Stewart. Meanwhile, The Manchester Weekly from The Mill is a new podcast hosted by Darryl Morris and Joshi Herrmann giving the latest perspectives and analysis from one of the best cities in the UK.
The popular strand History Hit has got a new series called Patented: History of Inventions, looking at how world changing inventions came to fruition. And England rugby legend Jonny Wilkinson has a new show called I Am…, featuring interviews with individuals who have come up against and overcome huge challenges in their life.
If you have launched a podcast, let us know! All you have to do is fill in this form with details. You might also be interested in Grow – a new podcasting event taking place at London’s Kennington Park on the 22nd July. It is a day full of panels and seminars full of advice about how to grow and build your new podcast. There’s a free ticket if you submit an entry to the Best New Podcast Category at the British Podcast Awards, powered by Audible. Just head to their website to find out some more details.
NOTABLE NAMES ON PODCASTS THIS WEEK
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- Probably one of the biggest podcasting talking points in recent weeks. The most recent episode of The Diary of A CEO with Steven Bartlett features an interview with former Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who talks frankly about his affair that led to his resignation and why he broke COVID rules.
- Edward Enninful, Editor-in-Chief for Vogue, is on Dua Lipa: At Your Service
- The co-creator of Motherland, Helen Serafinowicz, is on Spieling The Beans this week, talking about the show being nominated for an Emmy, her show Nova Jones on CBBC and the rumours and speculation around Motherland’s return.
- Michelle Visage shares her travel stories on Life’s A Beach with Alan Carr
Here are our podcast picks for the week ahead
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Sports Strangest Crimes – Fresh from the latest series of British Scandal and My Dad Wrote A Porno, broadcaster Alice Levine is now the storyteller in this captivating and strange tale of how a scammer and fraudster, linked to dodgy foreign powers, managed to take over a football club. Then, brought the club to its knees.
Despite coming from Nottingham, Levine admits at the start of the series that she doesn’t call herself much of a football fan. Neither am I, but her honesty brought me into the story because this isn’t entirely a football story anyway. The story is certainly one for those who are obsessed with stories such as The Tinder Swindler and Inventing Anna.
Dirty Mother Pukka – A new series of the popular series hosted by Anna Whitehouse (aka Mother Pukka) and her friend Polly. It has built a considerable fanbase because of the honesty and candid reflections of modern life shared, and no frills approach to interviewing, with a recent episode starting with a great rant about International Women’s Day (“I’ve had lots of invites,” says Anna. “Lots of things asking me to talk about flexible working and closing the gender pay gap and equal pay, for free!”) Guests so far in the new series include Myleene Klass and Cherry Healey.
The Secret History of Flight 149 – An engrossing new documentary series, which looks back at event you may have never heard before. In August 1990, a British Airways plane with more than 300 passengers on board landed at Kuwait airport, only to to be then caught up in an invasion of the country by Iraqi forces. All of the passengers were then taken hostage by Iraqi forces, raising questions about why the plane was allowed to travel there in the first place.
Investigative journalist Stephen Davis has been following the story for the past 30 years, interviewing more than 200 people. “It reads like a movie script, and yet it happened,” he said.
Don’t Call Me Exotic – My final podcast recommendation this week is the return of this engaging and thoughtful conversation podcast by Oh Annie Oh. The DJ and presenter chats with another creative about their careers, tapping into the racism that they have both experienced in their personal and professional careers. It is one of those programmes where you feel like you know the host, even if you haven’t actually met them. That’s a real talent.
I was back on BBC Radio 4 Extra’s Podcast Radio Hour this week with my favourite podcast picks for March. They include many of the podcasts that we have featured on this very newsletter, including Shaun Keaveny’s Creative Cul-de-Sac, Somerset House’s The Process series and Dua Lipa At Your Service.
Laura Grimshaw and I also spoke to the BBC’s specialist disinformation reporter Marianna Spring and producer Ant Adeane to talk about their new BBC Radio 4 podcast series Death by Conspiracy?, as well as Kate Moryoussef about The ADHD Women’s Wellbeing Podcast.
That’s all from the podcast newsletter this week. Thanks so much for reading and we’ll be back next week.
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