Welcome to this week's Recommendation Engine from Podcast Rex, rounding up the week in podcast reviews. Get this in an email each week by signing up to be a supporter of Podcast Rex from £3.99.
Platforms
Apple Podcasts: New Shows
No Appointment Necessary (Viral Tribe)
Move Over Mother Theresa (Drop Dead Generous)
At Home with The Thomas Bros (ind.)
Spotify: New & 🔥
Grand Designs: Deconstructed (Channel 4)
Amazon Music: Best Podcasts of the Week
ill-advised by Bill Nighy (ind.)
History’s Toughest Heroes (BBC Radio 4)
Pocket Casts: Featured
Office Hours with Arthur Brooks (ind.)
Reviews
Miranda Sawyer in the Observer
- Coining It (Global) - “Fabulously entertaining: a romp of a series that somehow keeps you on everyone’s side all at once.”
- Wisecrack (iHeart) - “What is the point of all this? Why did [Jodi] Tovay think going over this horribly sad story was a good idea?”
- Country Roads (Spiritland) - “Earle has a nice warm approach, and these are a lovely listen; I’m far from a country music fan but found myself drawn in.”
- Dances for Buildings (ind.) - “One for budding DJs who want to learn how to negotiate their way through the industry.”
Fiona Sturges in the FT
- WTF with Marc Maron (ind.) - “It’s not overstating matters to say Maron changed the podcasting landscape as scores of celebrities sought to replicate the WTF template and launch their own projects. Many weren’t up to the task, engaging in wilfully banal love-ins with their famous friends.”
Patricia Nicol in the Sunday Times
- Legend: the Bruce Springsteen Story (BBC Radio 4) - “Not just an informative, contextualising joy but galvanising: sending me back to listen to Springsteen’s earliest studio albums.”
Gerard O’Donovan in the Daily Telegraph
- Legend: the Bruce Springsteen Story (BBC Radio 4) - “If you’re one of the few who doesn’t already worship The Boss, you might find yourself converted”
- Two Women Chatting (ind.) - “An impressive back catalogue of chats with prominent professionals and celebrities such as Dames Judi Dench and Kelly Holmes, Judy Murray and, more recently, bestselling author Elizabeth Day.”
- The Louis Theroux Podcast (Spotify) - "Today's edition, featuring his broadcasting hero Michael Palin freshly returned from an eventful trip to Venezuela, promises to be one of the best.”
- The Final Cut (ind.) - “Grace Cordell, host of the long-running REDRUM True Crime podcast indulges her lifelong love of horror, inviting fellow crime podcaster Stuart Blues to join her in unpacking the plots, characters, twists and tongue-swallowing scares of her favourite films”
Listings
Clair Woodward in the Sunday Times
- The Final Cut (ind.)
- Ill-advised by Bill Nighy (ind.)
- Coining It (Global)
- 40 “Miserable” Years Later (ind.)
- No Appointment Necessary (Viral Tribe)
The Guardian’s Best Podcasts of the Week
- Sweet Little Human (Orkan/8D) - Pick of the Week
- Tubby (Left of Dial)
- Overshoot: Navigating a World Beyond 1.5°C (Planet B/SCRI)
- Homo Sapiens (ind.)
- Origin Stories (Campside)
The Guardian Weekly magazine’s Podcast of the Week
And in the Guardian’s Guide newsletter
In the Radio Times
- 21 Minutes to Go with Goldstein and Cundy (ind.) - Pick of the Week
- Woman’s Hour Guide to Life (BBC Radio 4)
- We Have Notes (The Observer)
- Sources and Methods (NPR)
- The Final Cut (ind.)
- Two Women Chatting (ind.)
- The Hackney and Newham History Social Club (Distorted)
- Revisionist History: The Alabama Murders (Pushkin)
- World of Secrets: Death in Dubai (BBC World Service)
In i Weekend
- No Appointment Necessary (Viral Tribe)
- On Politics (London Review of Books)
- Uncanny Halloween Countdown (BBC Radio 4)
- Every Cloud (ind.)
Plus Anna Bonet speaks to Elis James and John Robins about their show… Elis James and John Robins (BBC Sounds)
Heat’s Top of the Pods
Woman Magazine’s Listen Up section
Scott Bryan in Great British Podcasts