Please recommend some absorbing podcast series for me!

[WishINeverPlantedMint]

Recommendations please!

I've just finished Murder in the Masai Mara and Sweet Bobby and enjoyed them both.

I don't like American series and prefer non-fiction. Ideally something like a 6-parter, with episodes up to 45 mins each.

I also enjoy podcasts such as Off Air, Uncanny, RTI Politics - but found myself getting really into the series above. Keen to find things I don't have to pay for!

I don’t listen to podcasts very often so can’t advise on series. I do enjoy TRI politics though.
I really enjoyed the Louis Thoreux interview with Sharon Stone.

I really enjoy Lucy Worsley's lady killers, followed by Lady Swindlers and lady on trail. Each seson is pretty short but very enjoyable

This is a fascinating true story https://open.spotify.com/episode/1e2p4tLwG0hZjV25tKQxrZ?si=pItynISzSjqdFL7d9nYymA&utm_source=copy-link

Series on pollution/environmental destruction that I found interesting:

Rinsed https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0njm577 about water privatisation and pollution

Buried:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001hf1w - I think the second series (The Last Witness, about chemical pollution) was the best, but S1 (illegal landfills) and S3 (illegal animal killing and hare coursing) are also good. I suspect they might make a bonus episode of S3 as someone was recently convicted https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/03/man-dumping-animal-corpses-outside-churches-new-forest

I have been enjoying If Books Could Kill recently (funny and comprehensive debunking of hit self-help books) so thought I'd mention that even if you said you didn't want American ones.
But my main thing is history podcasts. Favourite miniseries I've listened to recently:
Journey Through Time - Black GIs in Britain, the Gunpowder Plot, McCarthyism
Rest is History - Klu Klux Klan, the Beatles, and the most recent one on Elizabeth I.
I like the Empire podcast too, I find I need to concentrate a bit more while listening to that one, but like the hosts and there are some fascinating topics. Worth exploring their back catalogue.

The podcast series on BBC sounds called Fairy Meadow is very good but sad. It’s about a little girl who disappeared from Fairy Meadow beach in NSW Australia in the 1970s. It’s about 10 parts and very sensitively done, interesting but obviously sad subject matter.

{mention:BluePoet}That@BluePoetThat was an excellent podcast.

Foul Play about the alleged poisoning of Gordon Banks in Mexico has been really interesting and I'm not a football fan.

British Scandal is a great one and the presenters are hilarious

The BBC podcast Intrigue has lots of interesting series

Just about to start The Storyteller: The Narcissists Playbook

"Titanic- Ship of dreams" is excellent.

Real Dictators.And Bad Women (retelling the Jack the Ripper Story focussing on the women involved). Both on BBC Sounds.

I've been enjoying a series online about Ed and Lorraine Warren I found called The Warren Files, if you like Uncanny you might enjoy it. The Warren's were undoubtedly frauds but the podcast is a bit of spooky fun.

I enjoyed How Reading Made Us with James Marriott recently www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m002s6lb?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

I enjoyed Adrift on Apple Podcasts recently, a true story.

The BBC has lots of investigative journalism (adjacent) podcasts in addition to the ones I mentioned above. Shadow World has quite a few series, mostly UK based.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001zlz0 I liked and Thief at the British Museum and the Willpower Detectives/The Graverobbers.

as does World of Secrets, from the World Service so various countries - quite a few on murder/sexual abuse so often a bit more harrowing than Shadow World.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvs0

The BBC4 series called "Boy in the woods" was very absorbing and, I think, sensitively handled.

Cautionary Tales is great on BBC Sounds

I like British scandal,
the rest is history

I came on here specifically to say this!!! Thoroughly enjoyed this one.

I have just finished Buried: Dead Rabbit on sounds. V good !

My favourite lately is the Rest is History and I will also agree with pp that Real Dictators is fascinating but a bit hard going.

Guilt by Ryan Wolf. He does cold cases from NZ and Australia (he’s a kiwi trained lawyer and journalist)

Another vote for Cautionary Tales, though they are one-offs and do vary in quality.

The ‘Swingers’ series on BBC recently was excellent.

I liked The Fairy Meadow too , also on BBC sounds is Soul Music which is excellent
A life Less Ordinary , and Real Survival stories also my go to when on a solo walk

I really like lady killers and the subsequent spin offs, lady swindlers and then lady on trial. True crime but set in social and historical context for women, very engaging and interesting and only half hour episodes. I also really enjoyed Eleanor rising, a drama about Eleanor of Acquitane both available on BBC Sounds so free. One of those where I accidentally caught an episode on a long drive on radio 4 and then deliberately sought the rest out

The other ones that I thought are v good are

Who killed Emma?

The Cruelty

The Gift (about unintended consequences from DNA tests )

I am not Nicholas

The Shrink next Door

And special mention for Bible John which I think it absolutely outstanding and sensitive journalism.