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 & 🔥
- The Louis Theroux Podcast
- Why Do You Hate Me?
- Queer the Music
- For the Love of Rugby
- Offstage: Inside the X Factor
Fiona Sturges in the FT
- Queer the Music - “While Jake Shears’ contacts book has no doubt proved handy — future guests include Peaches, Years & Years’ Olly Alexander and Rufus Wainwright — there is no sense that he has been wheeled in on the basis of his celebrity status and asked to parrot a script.”
James Marriott in the Times:
- Untold: The Retreat - “There are a million and one podcasts looking at cults or conspiracies or tales of drug addiction. This one is new and unexpected. Marriage’s programme is dense with information, dense with emotion and dense with stories. I was gripped.”
Miranda Sawyer in the Observer
- Why Do You Hate Me? - “Her purpose? To see if she can bring the internet abusers together, to resolve their conflict and broker some real-life understanding. Yep, she’s an optimist.”
- Patient 11 - “This is a national scandal. Every UK politician should listen to this podcast.”
- Benjamin Walker’s Theory of Everything - “You could almost call him a conspiracist, but Benjamin Walker is more art and philosophy than politics and paranoia. Although in his new miniseries, Not All Propaganda Is Art, he’s sort of both."
Patricia Nicol in the Sunday Times:
- The Runaway Princesses - “A four-part series with Madeleine Baran and Heidi Blake, based on Blake’s investigation into looking at the women in the family of Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.”
- The Price of Music - “Topics covered include streaming revenues, royalty fees and ticket prices, as well as how AI and the metaverse will affect the music business.”
- Anatomy of a Stalker - “The series talks to experts including psychologists and barristers, and survivors and stalkers themselves.”
The Guardian’s Hear Here column recommends
- Your Mama’s Kitchen - “How does the kitchen you grew up in shape the person you are today, host Michele Norris asks guests in this warm, nostalgic celebrity interview series.”
- Law and Disorder - “Retired high court judge Nicholas Mostyn, human rights campaigner Helena Kennedy and former justice secretary Charlie Falconer promise their podcast “will not be one of those achingly serious respectful shows where everybody politely disagrees with each other”
- Unf*cking the Future - “Wise and sweary climate scientist Chris Turney presents the cure for your planet-induced existential dread.”
- Patient 11 - “Staggering, bold.”
- Gun and Wand: The Official Companion Podcast - “Alfie Packham and Caroline McEvoy are your hosts for this companion podcast to Games of Thrones-meets-Peaky Blinders drama Gun and Wand. Except, of course, the show doesn’t actually exist.”
And in the Guardian’s Guide newsletter
- The Runaway Princesses - “It tells the story of the remarkable absconsion by Sheikha Latifa.”
Highlights from the Radio Times
- Shaun Keaveny’s Daily Grind - “Each episode is long enough to walk one dog.”
- Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford - “Real-life stories of human error carry lessons aplenty.”
- You Had to Be There - “Take a key moment from pop history, assign it to a different host each week and give them 48 hours to find and interview someone who was there.”
- Trapped History - “Forgotten figures from the past are the beating heart of this series.”
Heat’s Top of the Pods
Scott Bryan in Great British Podcasts
- In Haste - “Authors Alice Vincent and Charlotte Runcie lift the lid on the writing process.”
- Queer the Music - “Celebrating the music and anthems that have resonated with queer people. A neat idea!”
- Offstage: Inside The X Factor - “It unpacks that whilst some contestants found their experiences humiliating and exploitative, others found their time in the show helpful.”
- Trapped: The IPP Prisoner Scandal - “Ever since The Post Office Scandal there has been an onus to highlight other miscarriages of justice that deserve time in the limelight.”
In PodPod’s Earworms column
- Chris Cantrill, IcklewickFM: Loremen - “In each episode they present each other with myths from around the British Isles and beyond."
- Andrew Goldsmith, Adelicious: Paper Cuts - “Witty insight into the daily news.”
- Oisin Feeny, The Troubles: How to Take Over the World - “We learn about Napoleon and how he operated, and then the host parallels that with leadership, and how to use the skills of these great leaders to help with your goals.”
- Adam Jarrell, Holy Smokes: The Rest is Politics - “I cannot recommend it enough.”
- Millie Smith, Wonderhood Studios: Sweet Bobby - “One of the most insane catfish stories in recent memory.”
And on Podcast Rex, Catherine Carr has been looking at women’s history in podcasting.
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