Ahead of The Podcast Show taking place next week, we’ve gathered some great podcast recommendations from top industry experts including last year’s British Podcast Award winners of Best Current Affairs Podcast - Media Storm.
Freshly dropped podcasts this week include a range of genres from investigative true-crime to climate change and world disasters, all making for great content to listen to this weekend.
What’s in the industry’s ears?
Helena Wadia and Mathilda Mallinson - co-hosts, Media Storm
Ever since we watched Zak Addae-Kodua and Jules Rowan's joyful win at the ARIAs this year for Best Speech Presenters, we couldn't stop thinking about the Life After Prison podcast. We love it when an underdog comes out on top against the mainstream media, and the pure shock and exhilaration when they won was so exciting to witness. At Media Storm, our main aim is to get more lived experience voices telling their own stories, and this podcast has the same mission, done with humour and poignancy.
Becca Newson – Head of podcasts, Carver PR
Produced by Plosive, Cuddle Club with Lou Sanders is my favourite silly audio escapism. If you don’t know comedian Sanders, her style is a little bit chaotic – and so is the podcast (in the best way). She speaks to guests from the world of comedy and showbiz. Often, it’s a lovely guise that disarms people into talking about the emotional nitty gritty without realising and sometimes it’s just bonkers.
Oli Walters - International head of podcast sales, Global
This week I’ve been listening to Beautiful Anonymous! It’s a true treat of a podcast, with beautiful stories, from anonymous people! The concept is unusual but incredibly creative. Chris Gethard opens up the phone lines once a week to random people to call in and the deal is, he can't hang up first. The concept creates an amazing environment that encourages truly fascinating and beautiful stories.
Charlotte Newing - Head of commercial, MagsCreative
I listen to Off Air with Jane and Fi pretty much every day, and it has the same effect on me as the moment you collapse on the sofa after a long day or sink into a relaxing, warm bath. They never fail to make me giggle whilst also hitting on some trickier subjects. It’s utterly varied and a little bit silly - perfect!
Adam Colton - Planning director, Zenith
I love podcasts and I have the perfect commute for podcasts as it's literally 40 minutes long. My favourite sports podcast is called Second Captains - a daily Irish sports podcast which covers everything from football, GAA rugby or anything related to Irish sports. It's great craic and a cheeky reminder of life back in Ireland.
Freshly Dropped
We Can Be Weirdos
QI elf and co-host of No Such Thing As A Fish Dan Schreiber has launched a new weekly podcast by Global titled We Can Be Weirdos. The podcast premiered on Wednesday and explores the wild beliefs of some remarkable guests including the pioneer of the cure for chronic pain Mr Harith Akram, Loch Ness Monster hunter Steve Feltham, and Redhanded co-hosts and “True-crime soulmates” Suruthi Bala and Hannah Maguire.
Fukushima
BBC World Service has launched a seven-part audio drama series on Fukushima, the tsunami that hit a Japanese nuclear plant in March 2011 and what happened after. The series launched on Monday this week and is led by journalism student Akiko who goes in search to find the story beyond the deadlines and what consequences the country faced after the disaster, 10 years after the incident took place.
In The Room with Peter Bergen
A new Audible original series with veteran security journalist Peter Bergen launched this week on 16 May, addressing the news stories that go beyond the headlines. The weekly series In The Room with Peter Bergen already has three episodes out on Wondery, talking about a range of topics from Vladimir Putin to General David Petraeus and UFOs and featuring interviews with top experts and leaders.
Everybody in the Pool
Former tech respondent of US radio program Marketplace Molly Wood is the host of a new climate solutions podcast titled Everybody in the Pool. The series launched on Wednesday and makes an effort to not address the obvious climate crisis but instead focus on the solutions that people can try, with the first episode focusing on where and how you invest.
Freeway Phantom
iHeartMedia and Tenderfoot TV have launched a new investigative true-crime podcast series titled Freeway Phantom on the real story behind the unsolved kidnapping and murder case of six Black girls in Washington D.C between 1971 and 1972. The podcast, which launched on Wednesday, is hosted by veteran journalist Cleste Headlee who will examine the old case files throughout the series as well as interview investigators and family members of the victims.
