Podcast company Goalhanger is launching a new economics series hosted by ITV News political editor Robert Peston and Channel 4 presenter Steph McGovern, according to reports.
The new series, titled The Rest Is Money, aims to help listeners make sense of the cost of living crisis, economics, business, and money - as reported by iNews.
This is the third extension of the company’s successful ‘The Rest Is…’ franchise, following the first two chart-topping podcasts by the production company - The Rest is History with historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook and The Rest is Politics with Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart - with the latter being one of the top five shows in the UK as of April 2023, according to Edison Research.
“Robert and Steph offer a perfect mix of insight, great contacts and an understanding of how finance, business and money affect us all, from the cost of living crisis to rising mortgage rates to water company bailouts,” an “insider” told iNews. “We feel that lots of people will be interested in a podcast which deals with economics, business and money, from macro to micro.”
The Rest is Money is set to launch this summer, although the exact date is yet to be announced. It is expected to become a rival to Persephonica’s newly-announced political economics podcast with ex-politicians Ed Balls and George Osborne which is still unnamed and will be later released in the autumn.
Production company Persephonica, led by CEO and co-founder Dino Sofos, is also behind Global’s hit political podcast The News Agents with veteran journalists Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall. The podcast launched six months after The Rest is Politics released its first episode, and quickly rose to the top of the charts cementing its place as a strong competitor, with 24 million downloads in seven months.
According to Global’s whitepaper on the rise of news podcasts released in January this year, 66% of respondents said they consumed more news podcasts in 2022 compared to the year before and 71% of survey respondents also added that they intended to listen more this year. This happened during a period of political uncertainties, from the war between Russia and Ukraine, to three different Prime Ministers taking leadership in the UK.
Now, the UK is dealing with a cost of living crisis brought on by these political uncertainties which has led to the growth in popularity of economic podcasts, including financial journalist Martin Lewis’ BBC Sounds show, The Martin Lewis Podcast.
