Recommendation Engine: Up In Smoke

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
• Live and Let Dyers
• Begin Again
• Up In Smoke
• Rivals

Spotify New & 🔥

• Rivals
• Begin Again
• Up In Smoke
• Skip the Small Talk
• History’s Greatest Conspiracy Theories

Fiona Sturges in the FT

• Extrasensory (Apple) - “Extrasensory builds to a climax that I won’t spoil. What I will say is that I greedily binged all eight episodes in a day.”

Miranda Sawyer in the Observer

• Politically: Surviving Politics with Michael Gove (BBC Radio 4) - “Rudd takes Gove to task for supporting Boris Johnson when he knew he was unreliable. She is excellent. Otherwise, though, this series does nothing to sell UK politics and politicians to us poor voters.”
• The Documentary: In the Studio (BBC World Service) - “The latest episode showcases Jonny Banger, an off-mainstream artist/activist who creates stuff, with others, under the label Sports Banger.”
• Up In Smoke (Penny4): “This is an engaging series, with the excellent Mei Mac playing Kay McAllister, a local reporter convinced that the police have got the wrong guy as murderer. Her brilliance shows up a few stagier performances among the cast, though Adam Buxton is great as local policeman Roy Burgess.”
• Unfit for Service (Wavland/Vespucci): “Exposes the awful toxicity of making gay people unwelcome in the military, through the story of one very sweet man.”

Patricia Nicol in the Sunday Times

• Up In Smoke (Penny4) - “The eight-parter is a cleverly soundscaped, absorbing listen, and misty autumn — the season of the witch — is an ideal time to snuggle up with a mysterious audio-drama mystery.”

Clair Woodward in the Sunday Times

• Podstruck (ind.) - “Elena Crevello and Chelsea Davison look at the genre by unpicking one chick flick at a time, often in obsessive detail.”
• Up In Smoke (Penny4) - “The latest in the “fictional crime podcast” genre, this one with an added supernatural element, stars Mei Mac as the disgraced tabloid journalist Kay, who examines a 2014 house fire and the subsequent disappearance of the teenager Mason Miller.”
• The Bus Inspectors (ind.) - “One of those lovely ‘enthusiasts’ podcasts that can draw everyone in if they’re willing to give it a listen.”

The Guardian’s Hear Here column recommends

• Up In Smoke (Penny4) - “It’s told in a true-crime style but there is no mistaking this is glossy, high-quality fiction – an engaging, slow-burning tale.”
• The Burden: Avenger (iHeart Podcasts/Orbit) - “When Miriam Lewin was 19 she was kidnapped on the streets of Buenos Aires and tortured for her political beliefs.”
• The Madman’s Hotel (Audible) - “Dr Bernie Fisher was pivotal in improving the way breast cancer patients are treated.”
• My So Called Midlife (Lemonada) - “Julia Louis-Dreyfus (above) is as fabulous as ever, talking about midlife ups and downs, including the joy of posing naked for Rolling Stone.”
• Extrasensory (Apple) - “If you were glued to last year’s Ghost Story, here is another twisty investigation into an eerie old family secret – this time with questions of reincarnation.”

In the Guardian’s Guide newsletter

• The English Disease (Stak) - “Journalist Sam Diss’s empathetic podcast looks at modern-day hooliganism, a world of violence taking place away from stadiums and arranged over WhatsApp.”

Highlights from the Radio Times

• I’m ADHD! No You’re Not (Pixiu)  - “Further guests in this series include Katie Price, Shapparak Khorsandi and Denise Welch.”
• Up In Smoke (Penny4) - “Mei Mac gets it just right as the breathy narrator, a journalist-turned-podcaster taking the listener two steps forward, one back through the story of a teenager who is missing after his home burns down.”
• The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim (Sky News/NBC) - “Their first programme - with a new episode every Wednesday - came from Lebanon.”

Heat’s Top of the Pods

• Live and Let Dyers (Global) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Kill List (Wondery/Novel) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Scott Bryan in Great British Podcasts

• Unfit for Service (Wavland/Vespucci) - "As a focus, the series looks at Randy Taylor, who rose to the rank of Two Star General, but had to suppress his homosexuality through fears it would destroy his life and career.”
• Begin Again (Flight Studio) - “Another podcast interview series consisting of a celebrity interviewing another celebrity, but Davina McCall is worth a listen because she is very good at interviewing.”
• Listen Very Carefully (ind.) - “Celebrating the 1980s BBC sitcom ‘Allo ‘Allo, which followed a French cafe worker and the French resistance during World War II, this new podcast features three notable cast members sharing their favourite memories.”
• That’s Runnable (ind.) - “A clear communicator, the series is all about avoiding some of the pitfalls you might (hopefully not literally) fall into if you’re starting to get into running.”