Recommendation Engine: Kill List

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:

• Single Ladies in Your Area
• Kill List
• The Black History Buff Podcast
• The English Disease
• Table Manners
• Elon's Spies
• Proper Tasty Pub Quiz
• The Trial of Diddy

Spotify New & 🔥

• Frank Skinner Off The Radio
• Skip The Small Talk with Ellie Middleton
• Squid Game: The Official Podcast

Fiona Sturges in the FT

• Kill List (Novel for Wondery) - "The series... exposes bleak truths not just about technology but humanity. Miller notes early on that those on the list are overwhelmingly female and the people wishing them dead are almost always ex-husbands or boyfriends."

Miranda Sawyer in the Observer

• Kill List (Novel for Wondery) - "I could have done with a lot less of this and the “Oh, I’m so tense” stuff from (host) Miller, but once the series gets going, it’s gripping."
• Call Her Daddy (Sirius XM) - "To the UK ear, Call Her Daddy can be an abrasive listen. Cooper has that exaggerated reality show way of speaking, as though everything she says is highly significant."
• Boj & Kate Have a Lot on Their Plate (Podmasters) - "This is Lawler’s show, anyway: she’s spiky and silly, nuttily charismatic. Maybe one episode could be Boj trying to get her to concentrate long enough to make a sandwich."

Patrica Nicol in the Sunday Times

• We Live Here Now (The Atlantic) - "How this knotty story of unlikely Washington neighbours pans out, might not be clear until after the inauguration of the next US president. For now, it offers a surprising, confronting, frequently diverting ride."

Clair Woodward in the Sunday Times

• Elon's Spies (Tortoise) - “How the free-speech champion Elon Musk isn’t quite so keen on allowing others to express their opinions”
• How to Win an Election (Times Radio) - "Peter Mandelson, Polly Mackenzie and Daniel Finkelstein will be turning their expert and entertaining eyes to the pressures being faced by Keir Starmer’s government"
• The Sociable Dog Podcast - "[Dog] owners can enjoy the benefit of Wooler’s warm wisdom as he discusses how to overcome [canine] behavioural problems."
• Weird in the Wade - "Natalie Doig’s homemade series won the award for best history podcast at the recent British Podcast awards, [covering]historical events and stories from... around the Bedfordshire town of Biggleswade."

The Guardian’s Hear Here column recommends

• Rumble: Ali/Foreman and the Soul of ’74 (School of Humans for iHeart) - "Zaron Burnett shows what a feat it was to put on, with a backdrop of political tension and giant egos"
• Backfired: Attention Deficit - (Prologue Projects for Audible) - "Refreshing to hear what it’s really like to live with ADHD"
• Kill List (Novel for Wondery) - "A horrific story where he finds out too much about the people on it"
• Mag Hags - "Franki Cookney and Lucy Douglas ask what’s changed as they flick through an issue of Cosmopolitan from October 1982"
• Know Your Place (The Conversation) - "Voting is no longer a clearcut case of Labour for the working class and Conservative for the middle class. But what actually does class mean in 2024?"

Highlights from the Radio Times

• Fingers on Buzzers - Lucy Porter and Jenny Ryan talk to Ken Bruce about how the BBC wanted to "improve" Popmaster
• Cross Words with Ian Smith - A comedian joins Ian to solve a crossword in 40minutes.
• Quiz Coconut's Trivia Podcast - A pub quiz in your pocket

Heat’s Top of the Pods

• Heartstopper: The Official Podcast (Netflix) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Begin Again with Davina McCall (Flight Studio) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Scott Bryan in Great British Podcasts

• Kill List (Novel for Wondery) - “Right now, all over the world, there are hundreds of people going about their lives with no idea that somebody wants them dead.”
• Strangers on a Bench - "Sitting idly on a bench before being interrupted by someone saying that they are making a podcast and asking whether they could interview you"
• The English Disease (Stak) - "The series highlights that whilst football violence has gone down over the last thirty years, it has simply evolved into something else."
• The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim (Sky News) - "This series unpacks and analyses a world event such as the ongoing conflict in the Middle East or the upcoming US Election, whilst also highlighting the implications elsewhere."