Podcast Club - What are you listening to?

[BigFatBully]

Podcast Club 👂- What are you listening to?

What podcasts are you listening to at the moment? As I get heavier in to my pregnancy, I'm spending more time laid down with my earphones in.

Here are my top 5 for this week:-
1.Wanging On With Graham Norton & Maria McErlane
2.Jamie Laing's Good Company
3.Begin Again With Davina McCall
4.Mayim Bialik's Breakdown
5.Kathy Griffin - Talk Your Head Off

Talk your head off is a great podcast. Kathy Griffin has a great whit about her in the way she tells stories. Her recent podcast talked about her 'un-cancellation'. In 2018, she was investigated by the FBI and placed on the 'No-Fly List' after posting a graphic picture of a mock up face that seemed to represent President Trump. Kathy's tour was immediately cancelled and as she says "the phone stopped ringing". After being released of all charges and recovering from a serious health issue, Kathy is back to creating content and recently embarked on another tour.

Mayim Bialik's Breakdown is an insightful show that focuses on a miscellaneous collection of topics, ranging from showbusiness to psychology, to spiritualism and religion. The Big Bang Theory star hosts with her hot new boyfriend Jonathan Cohen, a producer and therapist. Recently, they released an episode on life after death and Jonathan received a psychic medium reading. He also opened up on his brother's tragic accident when young and how it's affected his family's life since then. Mayim also revealed that the house is haunted, but doesn't seem phased at all by this.

Begin Again With Davina McCall is Davina's new podcast, where she discusses and shares life stories with a vast array of celebrities. In the latest episode, Davina speaks to X-Factor judge and musician Tulisa. Tulisa was set up in a drugs scandal and had to fight to defend her name and avoid jail. Last year, she appeared in I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, where she described herself as being a 'demisexual'.

Jamie Laing's Good Company is a refreshingly positive show which features an array of celebrity guests. This week featured Professor Green, who discussed his relationship with Made In Chelsea star Millie Mackintosh and his battles with mental health. He also mentions his taste in music and what his guilty (or not) pleasures are.

Wanging On is a new podcast that's light-hearted and pleasantly outrageous! It's slightly topical not in a newscast style. I'd not heard of Maria McErlane before the podcast but she seems to be quite an interesting character. Her puppy is adorable as well. The format is similar to the Sh*gged, Married Annoyed podcast by Chris & Rosie Ramsey, with letters from listeners read out. Graham Norton has a great humour without being pathetically woke. It's hard to believe he works for the BBC.

Critical Spotlight
I've stopped listening to Giovanna Fletcher's Happy Mum Happy Baby. It's a pure misery fest. Recent guests include Natalie Cassidy who opens up about grief (her mother sadly passed away when she was aged just 19) and body image struggles. It's not entertainment to listen to people's misfortunes in life. Though I feel sympathy for them, nothing is to be gained from hearing their tragedies re-told on a commercial podcast. For a podcast that has the word happy twice* in the title, I expected something more uplifting. I listen to podcasts to unwind from the troubles of life, not listen to someone else's.

What About You....?
Post your thoughts on the podcasts that you've been listening to below and share your opinions. What are your favourites? What can you not stand?

Freakonomics Radio (and other podcasts from the authors of Freakonomics: People I mostly admire, Economics of Everyday things), love them all
Economist podcasts
Some guests on Diary of CEO (Stephen Barlett) are quite interesting
The Rest is History
Science VS
Andrew Huberman

I like the Diary Of A CEO podcast. I've warmed to Stephen Bartlett but I thought it was cringeworthy, the way he 'transformed' in to hardened journalist mode when speaking with Boris Johnson. As a businessman, he should know his market and that podcasts are supposed to be easy on the ears, it's not a news expose to try and get headlines. It didn't seem the right place for him to be doing that.

Two excellent legal podcasts- Law and Disorder and Double Jeopardy. Both great with real experts, covering legal stories in the news and explaining them properly. I’m a lawyer and find them enlightening but I think they’re also completely accessible for a non-lawyer.

Various financial ones- Meaningful Money, On the Money, Many Happy Returns, Unhedged, Merryn Talks Money.

Alex Andreou’s Podyssey- Greek myths told, retold, taken apart.

Poetry Unbound- really excellent modern poetry podcast, simply done- the presenter reads a poem, discusses it, reads it again. It’s really well done and has introduced me to some great modern poets.

Calm Christmas- not sure whether there will be a new series this year but there are a few old ones. Good to get you feeling Christmassy but totally uncommercial with an emphasis on family, friends, traditions etc rather than spend spend spend.

Shagged married annoyed
parenting hell
tge rest is entertainment
traitors uncloaked

For me it’s always (in preference order):

Handsome
Katherine Ryan Telling Everybody Everything
Amy Poehler Good Hang
Petty Crimes
Katherine Ryan’s other podcasts

Two Hot Takes but only ever on YouTube for some reason
Where There’s A Will There’s A Wake but not since Kathy Burke left - just can’t imagine it’s any good without her although I LOVE Mel Giedroyc and enjoyed her Mel is Quilting or whatever her podcast was called.

So, all comedy 😄 I started podcasts about a decade ago with My Favourite Murder and true crime/cult stuff but it’s too bleak.

Calm Christmas definitely sounds worth a listen for me.

I love that Katherine Ryan can host a whole podcast of just herself, no guests, talking in to the microphone and make it interesting and funny. It's impressive.

Heavyweight by Jonathan Goldstein. Some wonderful, human stories. So absorbing.

Betwixt the Sheets with Kate Lister. Spicy social history.

Scarred For Life. An examination of spooky pop culture, with some good guests.

Backlisted. Discussion of old books. Sometimes very funny.

I'm more of a politics, political commentary, news person so this may or may not appeal but:

The News Agents, really love the trio, and they are quite funny, the also do more weekly interview/conversation segments like a longer one which are really interesting. Also they do documentary style/flim episodes, one about the issues with drug addiction in the U.S and how it's going into the UK was great and anywhere on abortion last year in the U.S.

Also the The Rest is Politics both the U.S and normal one, like all of them. Katy and Anthony have a surprising vibe which works quite well and they do good in-depth coverage of a few stories. I did pay for subscription sometimes as their mini-series are quite good. They've got on currently on past presidents, also Stephen Miller which is really good.

Electoral Dysfunction, is also good, nice to have an all women one in there. Sky also has one called The World which I think is really good coverage and often things getting less focus.

The Rest is Entertainment, I came onto it accidentally but love Marina Hyde and Richard Osman, actually very interesting and relevant stuff. My newest Goalhanger one is the The Rest is Classifed, love it really interesting stories, both current and some older ones. Haven't listened as regularly but really good when I do.

Also sometimes the Pod Save the World and America, it's sometimes quite different segments which I like, but I more dip in and out of that one.

You are basically me! The 4 podcasts I listen to religiously.

I'm starting to take to Katherine Ryan's podcast too, and giving Tom Allen's Pottering a go.

I like The Rest Is Entertainment. Richard Osman is refreshingly honest about his salary. I find Marina Hyde a tad irritating for some reason (nothing wrong with her, just my personal perception) but she's tolerable. I hate the theme music though. I wish podcasts would do without themes, but I suppose it fills airtime.

Does anyone have any recommendations for investigative journalism/investigation type podcasts?

I loved the Girl Taken, Bloodlines, Believe in magic, that Joanne McNally one about whether or not Avril Lavigne was replaced (so doesn’t have to be serious!) but the kind where there’s a conclusion at the end not a general chit chat one.

Any suggestions?

You might be interested in Leah Remini's podcast, Scientology: Fair Game.

My favourites...

Sliced Bread
Good, Bad Billionaire
Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley
When it hits the fan
Dish
Living a Nordic life
Different with Nicky Campbell
Real Survival Stories

I'm new to podcasts - will be checking some of the above out, thanks!
My contributions are comedy -

Wheel of Misfortune (a different theme every episode with stories of cringe and people sending voice notes of their most embarrassing moment linked to the theme) I've nearly had to pull over from laughing til I couldn't see :)

Magazine Party podcast - totally silly - they get the shittest magazines and take the piss out of the stories in them. Again, laugh till I'm creased.

True but I feel that both of them together world well and balances out. I think Marina does more freelance work in a way so less reliable salary, I know she does guardian columns but it seems the rest of her work is less stable. But everyone has a different vibe or thing they prefer, and I do get why she may be less appealing but I find her sort of deep dives quite good and sometimes her honesty just funny. I mean theme music sort of is typical, TV has it etc and they use it to fill time, I know others do preview things as well.

I do listen less regularly as well, so often watch a few at a time. I am more of a watcher of podcasts then a listener I must say, I like seeing things as well.

Top Five From The Last Month

Crime In Sports

Small Town Murder

Timesuck

Redacted: Declassified Mysteries

The Serial Killer Podcast

Another good one is The Golden Girls Deep Dive podcast, with Jennifer Simard and Patrick Hinds.

Very, very funny, if you’re a Golden Girls fan. Niche, I know.

I’ve got Hell in Heaven going currently. Very evocative.

Thank you for this thread! Also listening to Graham Norton’s and am listening to dam parenting- it’s a podcast about parenting in Amsterdam but still applies to here in ways and I like the way it’s so motivating and makes you think about parenting but also getting yourself feeling more you (I’m explaining it terribly!!)

I’ve listened to Katherine Ryan on and off, I also sometimes listen to Off menu with James acaster and Ed gamble.
i really liked the AIBU mn podcast I wish they would bring that back.

It has taken me a while to get into podcasts. I love reading books but can't listen to audio books as I have a terrible attention span. If I'm not sitting down and physically holding a book then I get distracted and my mind wanders. So I've been using podcasts to train myself up! The two I enjoy the most and not mentioned so far:

I'm ADHD, No You're Not - they interview interesting celebrities each week. Good insight as a few family members of mine have ADHD.

Oh My Dog - Jack Dee and Sean Walsh talk about their dogs and interview celebrity dog owners. Fun and light hearted. A good one to listen to when I'm on a dog walk, as the episodes are about the right length too.

The Rest is History is absolutely brilliant. Informative, funny and sometimes spellbinding. I’ve listened to all the back catalogue and am desperate for more! Also enjoy Empire, No Such Thing as a Fish, Uncanny (though it can be frustrating when Danny doesn’t ask the hard questions) and You’re Dead to Me. Some of the Noiser stuff is good. BBC Witness History podcasts have been good recently. Can you tell I like history?!

STEMtalk; the tag line is "Conversations with some of the most interesting people in the world of science and technology"
The format is long form interviews with people actually doing research and development, so it is very new and interesting stuff. There is a lot of detail, but it is understandable to a layperson.
There are various recurring themes like nutrition and space, but one recent interesting topic was the menopause:
Episode 176: JoAnn Manson on Women’s Health Initiative, menopause and her findings on hormone therapy

Thanks @Sajacas
Stemtalk looks interesting, I’ve just followed the show.

My podcasts are an eclectic bunch..

Alan Carr - Life’s a Beach (the latest with Jon Richardson was funny).

Esther Perel - Where should we Begin?

The Guardian science weekly

Off Menu - James Acaster and Ed Gamble (LOVED the Kathy Burke episode)

Liz Earle Wellbeing.

Dr Louise Newson

Louis Theroux

Huberman Lab