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
Apple Podcasts: New Shows
True Criminals (Audio Bleach Global)
The Big Pitch (Netflix/BBC Studios)
The Persuasion Game (The Forge/18Sixty)
Spotify: New & 🔥
Service95 Book Club (Service95/Persephonica)
The Wargame (Sky News/Tortoise)
Rylan: How to Be In Love (BBC Sounds)
Many Rivers (Warner Music Entertainment)
Amazon Music: Best Podcasts of the Week
Stick to Cricket (The Overlap)
The Rise and Fall of… Oasis (BBC Radio 6 Music)
Pocket Casts: Featured
Mushroom Case Daily (ABC listen)
Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club (Hello Sunshine/iHeart)
Reviews
Miranda Sawyer in the Observer
- From the Oasthouse: The Alan Partridge Podcast (Audible) - “The writing is so great, so precise, and Coogan’s performance is an absolute joy, especially when Partridge gradually loses it as he realises Lynn might actually be seriously ill. Brilliant.”
Fiona Sturges in the FT
- From the Oasthouse: The Alan Partridge Podcast (Audible) - “While the unedited rambling of podcast hosts is one of the curses of the medium, here it is welcome, allowing glimpses into the complex psyche of a local celebrity as he relays his inner thoughts, reflects on his surroundings and makes occasional clumsy attempts at human interaction.”
Patricia Nicol in the Sunday Times
- Havana Helmet Club (BBC Radio 4) - “While it is great to have Forde and Bungey back, this is not a podcast series that feels as original, or uniquely their own, as West Cork.”
James Marriott in the Times
- The Crime Agents (Global) - “Both men are a little wordy. Hughes, perhaps, is used to filling airtime on live radio. Basu, I suspect, has spent too long on the other side of the microphone. He comes over as formal and cautious, littering his speeches with apologies to the families of victims and statements of regret over terrorist incidents as if a wrong step will prompt furious listeners to start emailing complaints. Indeed, the effect is often remarkably like listening to a senior police officer being interviewed on Today. Podcasts only work if the hosts assume enough good faith on the part of their listeners to be able to relax.” ★★☆☆☆
Lucy White in the Irish Independent
- The Art of Dying Well (ind.) - “Palliative care has become a key part of political debate in recent years but James Abbott’s poignant episode Caring for Pa is a personal story of Matt Parkes whose father Jeff – suffering with a rare neurodegenerative palsy – was actively suicidal, which came into conflict with Matt’s Catholic faith.”
- Bedside Manners (ind.) - “Many admire actress Miriam Margolyes for her unbridled candour. Many find her uncouth. She’s certainly a gift from the gods for Dr Oscar Duke on the inaugural episode of Bedside Manners.”
- The Next Five (FT Partner Content) - “Opposition voices of biotech worry it could create ‘designer babies’, biological weapons and other Frankenstein-like scenarios – but it appears to be too late to return the genie to the bottle.”
Listings
Clair Woodward in the Sunday Times
- Help! My Child’s Anxious (Global)
- Shadow World: The Grave Robbers (BBC Radio 4)
- Sir Bradley Wiggins: Cafe Aficionado (Atomized)
- History Rage (ind.)
The Guardian’s Best Podcasts of the Week
- Mistresses (Audible)
- Trapped History (ind.)
- Shadow World: The Grave Robbers (BBC Radio 4)
- Making of a Fugitive (BBC Radio Wales)
In the Guardian Weekly
- Untold Legends: Hedy Lamarr (BBC Sounds)
In the Saturday Guardian magazine
And in the Guardian’s Guide newsletter
In the Radio Times
- The Crime Agents (Global) - Pick of the Week
- A Matter of Conscience (ind.)
- Devil in the Desert (abc 20/20)
- Help! My Child’s Anxious (Global)
- Sir Bradley Wiggins: Cafe Aficionado (Atomized)
- The Rest Is Politics: The Real JD Vance (Goalhanger)
- Mistresses (Audible)
- Sufferless (ind.)
- The Binge Cases: Seven Silver Bullets (Sony Music Entertainment)
In i Weekend
- Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club (Hello Sunshine/iHeart)
- Chance Encounters (CNN)
- The Wargame (Sky News/Tortoise)
- That Lionesses Podcast (England)
Plus Emily Cope speaks to Karen Carney about her new show Long Story Short (Crowd Network)
Heat’s Top of the Pods
Woman Magazine’s Listen Up section
Scott Bryan in Great British Podcasts