Recommendation Engine: Is Instant Classics and instant classic?

Plus The Mystic Mayor and the new Green leader

8:05 PM GMT+1 on September 4, 2025

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

Reviews

Miranda Sawyer in the Observer

Instant Classics (Vespucci) - "Mary Beard and Charlotte Higgins go to different parties from most of us. Which is good news, because it means that Instant Classics, their new podcast, is packed full of stuff we didn’t know."
The Mystic and the Mayor (Wondery) - "(Host) Leo Schick has done brilliant work, but The Mystic and the Mayor could have been told in half the time, leaving us satisfied rather than irritated."
Evil Animals (BBC) - "I prefer the animal version to Evil Genius. It’s sillier, and animal evilness is so much less distressing than anything humans get up to. A joy."

Fiona Sturges in the FT

Instant Classics (Vespucci) - "The aim is not to deliver straightforward history lessons, but to join the dots between past and present and see how ancient Greece and Rome are embedded in our language and culture. “History never repeats itself exactly,” says Higgins. “But sometimes the rhymes are pretty in-your-face.”

Patricia Nicol in the Sunday Times

The Mystic and the Mayor (Wondery) - "Although fun with some enjoyable Eurotrash-style Gallic accenting, it is slighter and less skewering than British Scandal, but nor does it outstay its welcome since its six episodes are short"

James Marriott in the Times

Instant Classics (Vespucci) - "Beard... is a natural podcaster — fluent, witty, informal and with apparently the whole of Roman history at her fingertips."

Chris Bennion in the Daily Telegraph

Bold Politics with Zack Polanski - "On the evidence of the opening episode, Bold Politics does little to enhance [Zack's] reputation"

Culture Pigs - "Kate Demolder and Rory Cashin reflect (so far) on why all’s well that didn’t end well for the SATC multiverse, their individual yet universal experiences at music festivals, and the cult of KPop Demon Hunters."
Instant Classics (Vespucci) - "Beard is expert at tethering the past with the present day, without over-exaggerating or shoehorning parallels."
Our Big Shot - "Our Big Shot’s bonus episodes are a must-listen"