Tell me your favourite podcasts

[Spring2026]

I'm trying to walk more but can get a bit bored listening to music - what podcasts do people like? I've got Spotify premium and bbc sounds, not sure if bbc does podcasts. Looking for funny or interesting kind of things. Nothing too heavy. Thank you!

Funny:
My dad wrote a porno
Joan and Jerrica
Friday night comedy
Mumsnet AIBU
Wanging on

Interesting:
Hidden brain
Noble blood
Empire
Lady killers
The gift
The trial of Lucy letby
Doubt
The coming storm
Will be wild
Through line
This American life
You're wrong about

Funny and interesting:
No such thing as a fish

Yes I laughed so hard once I had to get my inhaler!

Dateline
48hrs
20/20
Everyone has an ex
Betrayal
Against the odds
True crime obsessed
Watch what crappens (if you like Bravo shows this is a must,I can't get through my work day without Ben & Ronnie)
Casefile

Off the top ...

• Talk 90s To Me // Miranda Sawyer

• You're Dead To Me // Greg Jenner // BBC Sounds

• We Have Notes // The Observer // Liv Little, Miranda Sawyer

• WTB // Women Talking Bxllxcks! // Jen Brister, Maureen Younger, Allyson June Smith

Brian and Roger. My all time fave, hilarious

Criminal - odd crime related stories which are less invasive than the traditional true crime podcasts.
Ear Hustle - about life in San Quentin maximum security prison in USA. Made by the prisoners.

I really like Happy Mum Happy Baby with Giovanna Fletcher. It’s an interview but she has good people on and nice way about her and it is focused on parenting.

Chew on this is also an interview based podcast all about nutrition and health and I find it quite interesting.

The rest is history

I like Shagged Married Annoyed by Chris and Rosie Ramsey. I’ve listened since their very first episode.

I’ve also just started listening to Begin Again by Davina McCall.

Anything with the van Tullekan brothers
Michael mosely
martin lewis
Money for couples

I only like documentary- style podcasts rather than chatty ones and my absolute favourite is Cautionary Tales by Tim Harford. Also love Uncanny, Crime Next Door, Tortoise Investigates, The Missing Crypto Queen and Mark Steel's in Town

Lots of these and also What Did You Do Yesterday basically asking a famous(ish) person what they did the day before.

I can’t get on with dish or Romesh because of the absolute forced laughter from the people in the studio. It’s funny not hilarious but they’re guffawing away 🙄

Didn’t like Jo and Zoe either. News Agents - bit smug.

There was a good one with Jessica Knappet she’s not done any new episodes in ages but I listened to old ones.

Another fan of ‘the rest is entertainment’ here and also ‘when it hits the fan’ . It’s about how the PR is managed when things go wrong covering the latest news stories every week . Really interesting.

If you’ve got or had teenagers (or even if you haven’t!!) then The Teen Commandments with Sara Cox and her best friend Clare Hamilton is fantastic. 2 episodes a week, one is them chatting about their experiences and those of their own teenagers and the other episode is where listeners have sent in their own brilliant stories. Very, very funny!

BBC do a lot of good podcasts and the benefit is if you're in the UK there are no ads, apart from a brief self-promo at the beginning. I do like The Rest Is Entertainment but you have to skip through a lot of the hosts trying to pretend they're interested in Octopus energy, or the Johnnie Walker experience, or Monzo - it's about 3 minutes at the start of the episode, and another 2 minutes in the middle.

The Witch Farm is genuinely terrifying!

My Dad Wrote a Porno is my all time favourite. Howling in public like a maniac. Got some funny looks.

The Luxury Podcast with William Hanson and Jonathan Vernon Smith. Very funny.

The Halloween episode was particularly fantastic.

Louis Theroux has some good interviews

desert island discs!

The three I always listen to are Dish, My Therapist Ghosted Me, and Shameless - that's an Australian one, mostly about pop culture, celeb stuff, book reviews, things like that.
Some that I'll listen to every now and then are I'm Grand Mam, Vogue and Amber, Not Gonna Lie, and the Peter and Abbey Crouch one.

Giles Brandreth's Rosebud podcasts are surprisingly good. He's one of the best interviewers I've heard.
The rest is classified/history.
Another vote for 'Life's a beach.'
Romesh Ranganathan

Parenting Hell, Off Menu and the rest is politics

The ads on this are off the scale though! It feels like it’s more ads than programme.

The rest is politics and entertainment
double jeopardy
Redhanded

Juicy Scoop with Heather McDonald
The Rest is Entertainment
Live Laugh Luke