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.
Apple Podcasts New & Noteworthy:
Spotify New & 🔥
Fiona Sturges in the FT
- Groupies (KCRW) - “You only hope the ethical questions will be addressed later on. But not to press Maddox, the youngest of the groupies, on what occurred feels like an error. Thus far, the series seems to buy into time-honoured rock’n’roll mythology: that young girls happily threw themselves into a life of wildness and excess and a lovely time was had by all.”
Miranda Sawyer in the Observer
- Origin Story (Podmasters) - “They highlight how he was let off by the media for years, partly because he was seen as eloquent and madcap and sexually honest. But that’s not really what the show is about. Lynskey identifies the new political divisions as not left v right but paranoid v not. There are so many ways to get upset about Brand, but using him as an example of where charismatic, politically interested people can end up is enlightening.”
- Groupies (KCRW) - “The first two episodes are Lori Lightning and Pamela Des Barres – and they are huge fun, and clearly love telling their tales. But at no point does the host ask them about the power balance between them and the bands, and you may well find this uncomfortable (I did).”
Sarah Ditum in the Times
- Call Her Daddy (SiriusXM) - “Bland therapy-speak is Cooper’s mother tongue. She roughs her image up by talking about how much she loves drinking rosé and some crude stuff about what’s wrong with men (apart from her oft-referenced husband, Matt, they suck). Fundamentally, though, this is a podcast where you’re rarely more than five minutes away from hearing the word ‘boundaries’.”
Plus Neil Fisher went to The Rest Is History’s (Goalhanger) live show at the Royal Albert Hall for the Times
- Neither of the history men was there to talk us through Mozart’s innovations in sonata form or the dissonance in Beethoven’s late string quartets. They were there to tell a good story. So while a more fretful classical music promoter might have insisted on more hand-holding, Sandbrook and Holland just let Zeffman and the other performers speak for themselves
Patricia Nicol in the Sunday Times
- I’m ADHD! No You’re Not (ind.) - “To her personal and academic insight he adds celebrity pull and silly voices. What they have here mostly works; the teasing affection between them creates a safe space for guests. I like their endgame, Buttons of Banishment, when they ask guests whether they would keep their ADHD if they had the choice.”
Clair Woodward in the Sunday Times
- The History Hotline (ind.) - “The young black historian Deanna Lyncook presents a series examining aspects of black history that have been largely ignored by the mainstream.”
- Ten Thousand Posts (ind.) - “This series examines social media and other platforms and asks why they have come to influence every part of our lives.”
- Frank Off the Radio (Avalon) - After Absolute Radio’s baffling decision this year to axe one of its most successful shows, its host Frank Skinner returns with a new twice-weekly podcast alongside the usual sidekicks Emily Dean and the writer Pierre Novellie.”
The Guardian’s Hear Here column recommends
- Begin Again (Flight Studio) - “Nothing sparks an existential crisis like a 90s icon being an expert on midlife, but Davina McCall is the OG of the genre.”
- Hyperfixed (Radiotopia) - “This perky podcast bills itself as a help desk for life’s most intractable problems.”
- Less Radical (ind.) - “Dr Bernie Fisher was pivotal in improving the way breast cancer patients are treated.”
- Elon’s Spies (Tortoise) - “Does Elon Musk use covert investigators to gather intelligence on people with whom he has an axe to grind?”
- Groupies (KCRW) - “It’s startling yet shallow.”
In the Guardian’s Guide newsletter
- Rumble: Ali/Foreman and the Soul of ‘74 (iHeart Podcasts) - “More than a grudge match, it was a battle for the consciousness of African American self-organisation, as Ali’s Black nationalist ideology opposed Foreman’s advocacy of a more liberal civil rights movement.”
Highlights from the Radio Times
- Twenty Thousand Hertz (ind.) - “Exists to remind us that these days sound is designed to make the pictures it accompanies look better.”
- Elon’s Spies (Tortoise) - “Presenter Alexi Mostrous admits that the news that one of the most powerful men in the world uses private investigators to dig up dirt .”
- Kill List (Wondery/Novel) - “May sound like the stuff of Hollywood fiction, but Carl Miller’s investigation in this riveting podcast reveals the deadly reality.”
Heat’s Top of the Pods
- Liam and Millie (Sony Music) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Up In Smoke (Penny4) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Scott Bryan in Great British Podcasts
- Everything is News (Magpie) - "A well-told, tightly produced series and weaved together with compelling sound design.”
- Single Ladies in Your Area (Plosive) - “Most of all, Amy and Harriet provide a sense of solidarity and companionship about being single at this age.”
- Crime Next Door: The Salisbury Poisonings (BBC) - “A new series looking at the Novichok poisonings in the Wiltshire city of Salisbury, six years on.”
- The Hidden 20% (ind.) - “This podcast by Ben Branson is up there with the best, having recently won the Best Interview category at the British Podcast Awards.”
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