6 podcasts to listen to this week

Are you a budding F1 fan? Do you just need a laugh? Are you tired of TV and film not being critiqued fairly? Or wonder how our current state of affairs really impacts the way we live? Then this week’s episodes are for you.

Podcasts of the week

ShxtsNGigs 

Streaming platform: All streaming platforms

Genre: Comedy

What’s something your parents lied about that you believed? It’s what hosts and best friends – who met at university – James and Fuhad of ShxtsNGigs asked their listeners ahead of their latest episode.

“If I look at the full moon I’ll wet the bed,” one listener shared. “If you cross your eyes while the wind hits you you’ll remain cross-eyed forever,” another added.

Amongst the general chit-chat often punctuated with genuine laughs and cackles, this week it was all about how Manchester United have been playing football recently, sleeping patterns, and that moment when you come to terms with the lyrics of a song, in this case, it was Tom Odell’s Another Love for James.

James and Fuhad also try to answer a few listener dilemmas and go back to school with a quiz segment, where they need to answer five KS3 questions from a variety of topics, including Maths, English, Science, Spanish, French… it could be any subject, who knows.

The hit comedy podcast with over 2.4 million monthly listeners, 1.6 million YouTube subscribers, 8 million TikTok followers and 2 million Instagram followers, has continued to quickly grow since it launched over four years ago, and has become one of the biggest across the country providing a place where listeners can truly let their hair down.

And after the huge success of their recent sold out UK tour, they now have a headline live show, The Biggest You’ve Ever Had, taking place at London’s O2 Arena on May 26.

Post Credit Scene 

Streaming platform: All streaming platforms

Genre: Film

“Hi, I’m Donald Glover and you are watching or listening to the Post Credit Scene podcast.” What a statement. What a flex. What an introduction to the second episode of Season 3.

The 14HQ original podcast is hosted by Huss, the founder of the specialist multi-service creative agency, Gerry ‘Gaz’ Otim, Manny, Jason, and the newest member of the PCS universe, Bisola.

Over a soft lo-fi soundtrack that provides a safe landing for some of the not-so-favourable takes, the podcast is bringing back the necessary critique of art – in particular TV and film – one episode at a time.

For what has been a jam-packed start to the year so far, Manny gets the ball rolling by sharing his thoughts on 2001: A Space Odyssey – which came out in 1968 – and how much of an impact it has made on other sci-fi films, including Star Wars, Interstellar, Gravity and Arrival.

He then goes on to speak about why he gave All of Us Are Strangers, starring Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott, four and a half stars.

I love the wittiness Bisola brings to the podcast. At one point she asked: “What do you guys feel about sex scenes in movies and TV?” A conversation that has been more widely discussed with the rise of intimacy coordinators being used on sets.

They also spoke about American Fiction, my all-time favourite: Desperate Housewives, Scandal, Abbott Elementary, Mean Girls, The Kitchen, Barbie feminism, and the Oscar nominations.

PCS has found an honest and unique way to both praise and challenge the entertainment industry to always put their best foot forward. And I adore that.

(Yolanthé Fawehinmi)

Formula For Success

Streaming platform: All streaming platforms

Genre: Sport

It was great fun listening to Formula 1 royalty David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan talk about some of the things that have gone on inside and outside of the world of motorsport.

First up, Jordan shared that he got his ear drum replaced. I never really thought about the consequences of not wearing earplugs whilst driving loud-engined Formula 1 cars for many years.

“So everyone out there, do protect your ears guys,” said Jordan during his very thoughtful public service announcement. “It doesn’t matter what walk of life you’re doing, they’re the only sets you’ve got and you’ve got to make sure you look after them. Do put protectors in when you need to.”

In the latest episode – always executive produced by Whisper and New Strange, and comes out every Thursday with impeccable audio quality – the pair are joined by two special guests, Matt and Tommy, the hosts of the podcast and YouTube channel P1, who are here to preview the 2024 F1 season.

Matt points out the brilliant relationship between EJ and DC – the nicknames the hosts call each other – and I couldn’t agree more. The age difference, in particular, makes for great comedy, storytelling and perspective that helps the world of motorsport sound more interesting and accessible for an F1 novice like me.

(Yolanthé Fawehinmi)

It’s That Deep

Streaming platform: All streaming platforms

Genre: Society

Who regulated digital spaces? Who holds content creators to account? Are we supposed to self-regulate? These are some of the questions host Feyisara Olukoga explores in the 10th episode of her new weekly podcast It’s That Deep.

She has proven her love for sociology, politics, media, pop culture, and current affairs and wanted to try and mesh all of these interests into one safe space – and I must say, it works.

On the surface level things may look a particular way, but when you dig deeper, something else always reveals itself and sheds more light on who we are as a human race.

Olukoga clarified that she’s not trying to restrict the way people create but made an important point and said: “In life, where there are no boundariesand where there are no standards to be upheld you’re just in murky grounds”.

“I’m 23 and I’ve lived through two recessions. Is that life? Oh. Hallelujah. That’s crazy,” she joked, whilst talking about the UK being in a recession.

Olukoga has an understated charisma that encourages listeners to really think about the state of affairs and whether the bar for first-world countries has truly moved.

(Yolanthé Fawehinmi)

Spotlight on…

5. This is History: A Dynasty to Die For

Streaming platform: Apple, Sony Music, Spotify

Genre: History

Returning for a fourth series, historian Dan Jones’s history podcast explores the most dysfunctional, destructive family of the Middle Ages – the Plantagenets – but this is no dusty history lesson, with tales of murder, machinations, mutilations, and the true bloody chaos that was the medieval period.

We dive into the reign of Henry III, who was only nine when he was crowned in 1216. No surprise that making a kid a king usually ends in disaster, especially as Henry was pious, eager to please, and thus easily manipulated.

Along with Henry’s Svengali-like advisor, Hubert de Burgh, who was joined at the hip with the king and pulled his strings from the shadows, there’s simmering tension and sibling rivalry between Henry and his Machiavellian little brother Richard, who’s devious, ruthless, greedy and backstabbing – perfect king material. Jones points out that he had ‘some dog in him’, which came in useful in later life when he ‘became an extremely energetic lover of the ladies’.

Learn about the Plantagenet way of financial planning – which involved Henry ‘stuffing the mouths of rebels with gifts’, kowtowing to other people’s wishes to get them on side, handing over mansions and land, and even a fat deer for his sister’s pantry (on top of the fancy house?), and how he scotched Richard’s growing resentment after he spent two years fighting in France to reclaim family lands by gifting him an earldom, so he wouldn’t raise an army against him. That’s one war diverted – for now…

But can the warring brothers avoid the old Plantagenet trap of having such a bad fall-out that they end up dragging the whole country into their psychodrama? You don’t have to be a history buff to want to binge every episode when it’s this much fun, and Jones is such an entertaining host. I loved it – and with an immersive soundtrack, complete with clashing swords and battle cries, you’ll be transported right back to medieval England.

(By Caroline Duggan)

6. The Spy WhoStreaming platform: All streaming platforms

Genre: Crime

The Spy Who takes listeners into the ‘twilight realm’ of real-life spies – a ‘dark dangerous world, full of shadowy corners, sinister motives, and corrupted morals’, as the captivating intro states. Each episode will focus on a different spy, while the final part of each series will feature a guest interview by journalist and author Charlotte Philby, grand-daughter of Kim Philby who was part of the Cambridge Five – a spy ring that sent information to the Soviet Union during World War II and the Cold War.

First up is Serbian Dusko Popov, a charismatic law student living in Germany who became a double agent, working on behalf of London’s MI6 and the Abwehr (the German military intelligence service that operated until 1945). A playboy who ‘out-foxed Nazi Germany while living a life full of cocktails, women and casinos’ – if Popov sounds familiar, it’s probably because he’s the inspiration behind James Bond.

Actress Indira Varma (known for Netflix’s Obsession and Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One) narrates, bringing the story to life with radio play-style scripted scenes. Soundscaping adds to the drama, as we follow Popov on missions across Europe. A thrilling blend of history, drama and entertainment.

(By Abi Jackson)