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
- The Spy Who (Wondery) - “It opens in 1940 with Norway’s King Haakon VII, on the run from the Nazis, hiding out in a cabin in a forest in the country’s frozen north and being persuaded to flee the country on a navy cruiser bound for Scotland. Fast-forward two and a half years to the North Sea where a group of sailors and spies are heading to Nazi-occupied Norway on a reconnaissance mission. Their plan is to sabotage a pyrite mine that is being used to make German ammunition.”
James Marriott in the Times
- Threshold (ind.) - “Threshold is the recommendation of an audio producer colleague at The Times. I’m always interested in what people who make podcasts like to listen to. Their ears are more sensitive and responsive. You can see why Threshold’s exquisite and imaginative sound design appeals to a professional. Novelists such as Henry Green are sometimes called “writers’ writers” — they appeal to people invested in the craft and technique of writing. Threshold is a podcasters’ podcast..”
Patricia Nicol in the Sunday Times reviewed the recent flurry of large-scale live podcasts.
Clair Woodward in the Sunday Times
- Against the Odds (Wondery) - “Those who were there talk about how they survived a massive eruption of superheated ash and steam, and there are tales from rescuers.”
- This is History (Sony Music Entertainment) - “Dan Jones presents the sixth season of his podcast looking at the Plantagenet dynasty, with an examination of the life of Edward III. Aged 17, he led a raid on Nottingham Castle to capture and execute his mother’s lover so he could take on the crown for himself.”
- Behind the Christmas Hits (iHeart) - “He interviews Wham!’s Andrew Ridgeley on this year’s 40th anniversary of Last Christmas, and discusses songs including Taylor Swift’s Christmas Tree Farm, Stevie Wonder’s Someday at Christmas and Sabrina Carpenter’s Fruitcake album.”
In the Guardian’s Guide newsletter
- Legacy: Charles Dickens (Wondery) - “Historian Peter Frankopan and journalist Afua Hirsch have found the perfect podcast format to fight confected culture wars.”
Scott Bryan in Great British Podcasts
- Operation Seal Bay (BBC Radio Wales) - “When a man-made chamber was discovered under a beach in Wales back in the 1980s, it sparked off an audacious plan by locals and the police to stop a massive drug smuggling operation, centred around millions of pounds worth of marijuana.”
- Sherlock Holmes, Short Stories (Noiser) - “Hugh Bonneville (of Paddington and W1A) has started to narrate the stories, starting with ‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band,’ just in time for Christmas.”
- Watch Dogs: Truth (Audible) - “You, the listener, choose what happens next to the lead protagonist at the end of each chapter.”
- The Pieces with Bimini (ind.) - "As interview podcasts go, it is a strong one, with a great selection of guests (Joe Lycett, Charlie Craggs, Jojo Siwa and Layton Williams)”
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