Recommendation Engine: Hysterical

Plus Dangerous Memories and Olympic takedowns

10:00 AM GMT+1 on July 17, 2024

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

State of Play - “This illuminating and alarming six-parter opens in April of this year, 100 days before the Olympics’ opening ceremony, with a dozen police vans pulling up outside an abandoned office building-turned-squat in Vitry-sur-Seine in Paris. Out pour officers carrying riot shields, ready to empty the premises. For three years, the building has been home to up to 450 people, many of them documented refugees unable to find regular housing.”
Tested - “If State of Play gives us a wide-lens view of the Olympics and its legacy, Tested tells a more intimate story about the controversy hovering over a small number of elite athletes who have been told they can no longer race as women owing to their naturally high testosterone levels.”

Miranda Sawyer in the Observer

Hysterical - “The mass psychogenic event in question involves teenage girls at Le Roy high school in upstate New York in 2011. At least, it starts with them. They suddenly start tic-ing and shouting, making noises and twitching, almost as if they have Tourette’s. And no one knows why.”
Jon Holmes Says the C-Word - “Holmes was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2023 – he’s now clear – and found himself searching out podcasts that might help him through it. ‘Straight-talking accounts… honest conversations, the sort you’d have in the pub if you were talking about films or football instead of cancer,’ he says. But he couldn’t find any. What he wanted was a ‘men talk cancer’ podcast, and now he’s made one.”

Ben Sixsmith in the Critic

Diary of a CEO - “One of Bartlett’s favourite subjects is stress. What causes stress? What can we do to deal with stress? What is stress anyway? Well, his podcast seems like a major source of stress. Even relatively minor lifestyle choices such as drinking coffee are hyper-analysed, from different directions, and in near-apocalyptic terms. This seems hugely unhelpful. How can you focus on building a successful company, for example, if you’re feeling neurotic about your morning drink?

James Marriott in the Times

Peer Review - “Part of the podcast’s success is down to the fact that the Lords is an odd and awkward compromise: part ancient aristocracy, part panel of experts, part grab bag of chums and cronies who have been rewarded with peerages by various prime ministers. Whether this is a good thing constitutionally is open to discussion. It is undeniably good for a podcast seeking a diversity of guests.”

Patricia Nicol & Clair Woodward in the Sunday Times

Harry and Paul are… Devious - “So far this is one to swerve, due to a decent concept being overshadowed by the mindless yap of its cocky co-presenters. The idea is that each episode will examine a crime that went wrong, then these two ‘loveable liars’ will explain how they might have pulled it off. Off screen, however, these reality stars are incoherent — and not that likeable.”
Revisionist History: Hitler’s Olympics - “This podcast digs deeper into the machinations that went on behind the scenes to ensure the world’s athletes would attend.”
I Know Dino - “Sabrina Ricci and Garret Kruger host a series about all things dinosaurs, ideal for anyone who has taken their love of the great beasts into adulthood (this isn’t one for younger kids).”
The Modi Raj - “In the wake of Narendra Modi being sworn in for his third term as prime minister of India, The Economist’s Avantika Chilkoti presents an investigation into his effect on the country.”

The Guardian’s Hear Here column recommends

Peppa Pig’s Play-A-Long Podcast - “Kids and their parents can play along as Peppa Pig explores very big feelings, long car journeys and what to do when you’re not tired at bedtime.”
Hysterical - “When a group of girls at an upstate New York school started to exhibit mysterious symptoms including twitching and shaking, doctors were baffled.”
Pop Culture Debate Club - “Would it be better to hang with the cast of New Girl or Community? Is Space Jam or D2: The Mighty Ducks the superior sports movie?”
Coatbridge: The Disappearance of Moira Anderson - “Eleven-year-old Moira Anderson vanished from the small town of Coatbridge, near Glasgow, in a snowstorm in 1957.”
Master: The Allegations Against Neil Gaiman - “It juxtaposes the accusers’ testimony with Gaiman’s denials and contradictory account of events (based in consensual relationships) to create a story that is head-spinning – and at points difficult to listen to.”

In the Guardian’s Guide newsletter

Land of the Giants - “For its 10th series, it has enlisted the culture bods at Vulture to report on one of Hollywood’s biggest beasts: Disney.”

Highlights from the Radio Times

The Episodic Table of Elements - “A clever blend of scientific fact with humour.”
Dangerous Memories - “Hinges on the first-person accounts of some of the girls and their heartbroken parents.”
Good on Paper - “Assumptions are challenged, contradictions are exposed.”

Heat’s Top of the Pods

Scott Bryan in Great British Podcasts

Communicating with Ros Atkins - “The BBC news broadcaster Ros Atkins has built a considerable fanbase for his clear impartial videos explaining and unpacking the latest news and current affairs.”
In the News this Week - “The show’s writers, producers and other members of the production team give their own witty take on the week’s news and discuss what could have been on the show if it was on television that week.”
A New Way of Being - “Adrian Chiles is the latest guest on this self-help podcast and talks about flow (that’s the enjoyment of an activity that absorbs your time.)”
Dangerous Memories - “Looks at the claims made by young women who say that a personal development coach changed their lives upside down, for the worse.”