4 minute read

THE OLD TESTAMENT // October 2023

NORMAL GOSSIP

S1 EP8 // SPOT THE SCAMMER // FEB 2022

Sharing the most appalling scandals, ludicrous situations and banal nonsense which happens to people you’ll never meet, Claire Fallon and Emma Gray have reclaimed the idea of being a gossip and reminded us that, yes, sometimes it’s just enormous fun to hear about other people’s misfortunes. Frankly, it’s better you go in not knowing anything about this barnstormer of a finale to the first series, but suffice to say a post-college girls’ trip to South-East Asia does not go to plan.

STUDIO CANAL PRESENTS - THE PODCAST

4 // TOTAL RECALL AND TERMINATOR 2 // SEP 2022

Ex-Den of Geek editor Simon Brew hosts this monthly, and he’s joined by Empire editor Nick De Semlyen, author of The Last Action Hero: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage, to talk about the two big action hits of 1990. It’s full of mad details, including the fact that Sylvester Stallone got involved in Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot because Arnie put out a rumour saying that he was interested in the role, just to mess with Sly’s head.

THE HEART

MEAT // AUG 2017

This is a pretty floaty, conceptual one from American indie network Radiotopia’s Podquest: it brings together personal essays along the broad theme of “our bodies versus the world,” and each time explores the ways that these fleshy frames transport us through the world, and what the world makes of them. Here, Jonathan Zenti remembers being dragooned into getting muscly and awkward as a 13-year-old ballet dancing boy, and working out what kind of a young man his body demanded he become. 

DAN CARLIN'S HARDCORE HISTORY

59 // DESTROYER OF WORLDS // JAN 2017

Nobody tells history like Dan Carlin. Quite literally: his growling diction and storytelling catchphrases are totally unique. There are few hosts who research and pull together grand narratives like him either. His series can take only marginally less time to get through than it would have done to live through the entirety of the Mongol Empire, but if you’re looking for some post-Oppenheimer nuclear history then this telling of the early years of the atomic age clocks in at a relatively sprightly 5 hours and 49 minutes. 

DESERT ISLAND DISCS

THOM YORKE // SEP 2019

Fans of Radiohead will know that Thom Yorke doesn't do many interviews. Often thought of as a withdrawn and socially awkward character, his appearance on Desert Island Discs revealed a relaxed and cheerful side that has rarely been on show before. The subject matter helps of course, with Thom speaking articulately about the music he loves. With tales from the early years of Radiohead mixed alongside more personal revelations, Lauren Laverne assists Thom in creating a real gem of an interview.   

WIRELESS NIGHTS

THE NIGHTCLUB // DEC 2015

Back before the recent Pulp reunion our premiere chronicler of the suburban demimonde, Jarvis Cocker, added to his 6 Music residency with this radio show and pod. A little like Short Cuts, it’s effectively a compilation of short documentaries knitted together by Cocker’s narration and a loose theme each time – but it’s all about what people get up to at night. And where better to go out at night than Soho, where Cocker meets revellers including a singing waitress and a psychic mod. 

RADIOLAB

OF BOMBS AND BUTTERFLIES // OCT 2021

A proper institution, Radiolab has been running out of WNYC in New York since 2002. This short documentary presented by longstanding main man Jad Abumrad and fresher face Latif Nasser is a classic Radiolab idea, “a big story about a little thing” as Nasser puts it. When ecologist Nick Haddad was called in by the army to save a rare butterfly at their base in Fort Bragg, he thought it’d be easy. By the time he’d dodged bombs and had to trick beavers, he began to realise it wouldn’t. 

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