Recommendation Engine: The Trapped

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:

• History’s Greatest Conspiracy Theories
• 16 Sunsets
• The Trapped
• From Bomb to Ballot
• The Good Whale

Spotify New & 🔥

• The Quilt
• The Rest Is Classified
• The Buckleys
• The Diplomat: The Official Podcast
• Routes

Patricia Nicol in the Sunday Times

• Ruthie’s Table 4 (iHeartPodcasts) - “The American-born chef-patron’s guests are drawn from River Café regulars, many of whom have become friends. In the ongoing fourth series these have included Elton John and his husband, David Furnish, the former PM Tony Blair, the actress Kristin Scott Thomas and the film director Guillermo del Toro.”
• Dish (S:E Creative/Waitrose) - “Some of Hartnett’s recipes, like the pot-roasted lamb made for Anna Maxwell Martin or the Korean crispy spiced chicken served for the hilarious Judi Love, sound — in my kids’ parlance — banging.”
• Table Manners (ind.) - “Jessie will sprint back to the kitchen counter swearing about forgotten ‘f***ing’ balsamic. She is a Mercury-nominated pop star, but it all feels very real.”

Fiona Sturges in the FT

• The Madman’s Hotel (Audible) - “The Good Whale is made by Serial Productions, the company founded by the creators of hit true-crime series Serial and, as such, has the feel of a big-budget yet tastefully unshowy production. The host is Daniel Alarcón, a Peruvian-American journalist and novelist whose literary chops are clear from the writing, which is atmospheric, expansive and lyrical.”

Rachel Cunliffe in the New Statesman

• The Trapped (ITV News) - In early 2021, the ITV reporter Daniel Hewitt visited a block of flats in Croydon, tipped off that the Covid lockdown was being used by some landlords as an excuse not to do repairs. What he found made him and his cameraman physically ill. You might remember the footage – it was broadcast and went viral. Ceilings and walls utterly covered with furry black mould. Dirty water pouring into buckets and on to electrical sockets. The squelch of the sodden carpet. Most shocking of all, though, were the emails Hewitt and his team started to receive after his story aired. Croydon wasn’t an exception. It was just the beginning.”

Miranda Sawyer in the Observer

• Stakeknife (BBC Radio 5 Live) - "Episode two of Stakeknife is an exceptional piece of audio documentary – riveting and sad.”
• From Bomb to Ballot (Daily Mail) - “From Bomb to Ballot moves through catalytic events such as the civil rights movement in the 1960s and internment. It pulls its punches on Bloody Sunday though, when 26 unarmed Catholic civilians were shot by the British army, 14 of whom died. Possibly this is because the event is still being investigated, even now, with soldiers being prosecuted.”

James Marriott in the Times

• The Buckleys (Folding Pocket) - “‘We’re not interesting, we don’t do anything, we don’t go anywhere, we’re not funny,’ he says when introducing the podcast. It is impossible to imagine an American saying this. But he is only the latest iteration of that deathless English archetype — the thwarted middle-aged man driven to rage by the minor inconveniences. ‘I can create scenarios in my head to moan about. Even stuff that hasn’t happened makes me angry,’ Buckley boasts.”

Clair Woodward in the Sunday Times

• Head Number 7 (Audio Always/Wondery+) - “Professor Turi King, who is a forensic genealogist, presents an investigation into the gruesome case of body parts being stolen from the mortuary at Harvard Medical School and then sold online.”
• The Quilt (Queer Britain/Aunt Nell) - “They’re going beyond obvious locations such as Brighton to find out queer stories from people including an older trans woman and a man who set up a group for gay southeast Asian men in Birmingham.”

The Guardian’s Hear Here column recommends

• The Optimist Project with Yara Shahidi (SiriusXM) - “Yara Shahidi is the award-winning actor of comedies Black-ish and Grown-ish, but she reckons she could factor optimism into her life more.”
• Stakeknife (BBC Radio 5 Live) - “Mark Horgan investigates the complicated case of the man who tracked down IRA informers, but acted as a double agent.”
• SmartLess presents ClueLess (SiriusXM) - “ It’s an odd listen – a bit like eavesdropping on a pub quiz team – which happens a bit too fast for playalong potential.”
• Lords of Death (Tenderfoot TV/Audacy) - “If you’re braced for grisly descriptions you can relax, because host Thrasher Banks unravels a personal, poignant story.”

In the Guardian’s Guide newsletter

• Stakeknife (BBC Radio 5 Live) - “As well as being one of the best sports podcasts going, Irish pod Second Captains also has turned its hand to producing intelligently made true-crime series.”

Highlights from the Radio Times

• Tales from the Green Benches (History of Parliament Trust) - “Now that the place is largely occupied by people whose experience of the world is limited to consultancy or the charity sector, the idea of a bygone age when there were fisticuffs in the Strangers’ Bar seems rather exciting.”
• Fashion Neurosis (ind.) - “Pure escapism for some… anathema for others.”
• Frank Skinner’s Poetry Podcast (ind.) - “Skinner’s enthusiasm for verse is genuine.”

Heat’s Top of the Pods

• The Rest is Classified (Goalhanger) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Video Archives: Tarantino + Avery (Stitcher) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Scott Bryan in Great British Podcasts

• The Trapped (ITV News) - “Daniel Hewitt from ITV News from the last four years investigating people living in appalling living conditions and the landlords and housing associations who have ignored their pleas for help.”
• Queerphoria (Gay Star News) - “I particularly liked an interview with Graham Norton, who talks about being taken under the wing of friends within the LGBTQ+ community back in the 1980s, and talks frankly about his experience of loss and fear during the AIDS Crisis.”
• History’s Greatest Conspiracy Theories (History Extra) - “Why have some conspiracy theories managed to capture the public imagination for so long?”
• Stopping to Notice (Fresh Air) - “Twice a week, the author and actor Miranda Keeling guides you through an audio description of a walk in a different location: from Regent’s Canal in London to the sights and delights of the Chelsea Flower Show.”