The best podcasts of the week: What does it take to win? Manchester City’s Kyle Walker knows the answer

Picks of the week

Pack a bag
Widely available, weekly episodes starting June 5.
“If fascism takes over your country, do you stay or try to flee?” David Modigliani opens this beautiful podcast about his family history with the question his Italian grandfather Franco faced. Modigliani reads love letters between his nonna Serena and Franco, and learns of his escape to the United States, where Franco won a Nobel Prize. Executive producer Stanley Tucci then introduces great-grandfather Giulio into the story. Hannah Verdier

You’ll never beat Kyle Walker
BBC Sounds, weekly episodes
What does it take to win again and again? “A lot,” says Manchester City and England’s Kyle Walker, who joins Chris Hughes for a weekly podcast that’s like a trip on the team bus. Self-doubt, bromances and his childhood are topics of discussion as the affable Walker tells the anecdotes. high voltage

Gangster
BBC Sounds, weekly episodes
Investigative journalist Livvy Haydock goes beyond gangster clichés with her thoughtful interviews in this new series focused on Viv Graham. With her imposing demeanor and complete control of the Newcastle goalkeepers, there is no doubt that she feared Graham, but Haydock shows the anguish her family felt after his murder in 1993, which remains unsolved. . high voltage

Here is the hope
Widely available, weekly episodes.
Grammy-nominated producer, environmental toxicology scientist and house DJ Jayda G is a true force of greatness. Now, he adds podcaster to that impressive mix, with his new series about hope. She is joined by voices from the worlds of fashion, grime and ocean conservation to talk about life on the front lines of the climate emergency. high voltage

Simmering: gays against Briggs
Widely available, weekly episodes.
Slate’s modern history podcast is one of the best out there, and this season host Christina Cauterucci explores the Briggs Initiative, a proposed rule to prevent gays from working as teachers in California. Hearing so much intolerance ranges from ridiculous to disgusting to relentless, but it’s a story that needs to be heard. high voltage

There’s a podcast for that.

This week, Charlie Lindlar choose five of the best technology podcasts, from an online quiz about being a woman to a revealing Elon Musk story

Answer everyone
It was the digital culture podcast that had it all: a clear niche; humor and life lessons in equal parts; and hosts you really looked forward to spending time with. Hosted by PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman for most of its eight-year run, Reply All specialized in stories about human relationships online and how technology shapes the way we exist together. Its back catalog is almost 200 episodes long, but if you want to know where to start, check out this newsletter’s list of five must-listen episodes, including the musical mystery The Case of the Missing Hit, which The Guardian described as “perhaps the best “. -any episode of any podcast.”

There are no girls on the internet
More than 50% of the population may have no difficulty imagining the difficulties of being a woman on the Internet. But this iHeart Radio series, hosted by Bridget Todd, not only examines how online spaces can be anywhere from uncomfortable to downright hostile to women, it retells the story of the Internet from the perspective of innovators and culture creators. that they are building it. . Each week, Todd and her guest experts discuss topics ranging from Nicki Minaj’s toxic online fandom to TikTok’s impact on digital journalism and alternatives to increasingly rabid social media sites like X.

Click here
Every Thursday, former NPR investigative journalist Dina Temple-Raston examines the world of cyber intelligence and security, revealing the hidden ways malware, disinformation, and state-backed hacking masterminds are now inextricable from our online world. It may seem niche, but in recent months the podcast has expanded to discuss the impact of the Internet on the war in Ukraine and the spread of misinformation amid the war in Gaza. In addition to those ongoing stories, Temple-Raston deftly presents breakdowns of Kremlin cybercrime, the story of NSA whistleblower Reality Winner, and the Mexican military’s “love affair” with spyware.

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Elon Musk: The Night Rocket
TO batch It’s changed in the tech universe since this 2021 quest to understand Elon Musk and his vision of the future. But three years (and $44 billion wasted on a social media site) later, much of journalist Jill Lepore’s imaginative BBC series still rings true. Framed by the science fiction novels that have inspired billionaires, thinkers and scientists alike, The Evening Rocket “explores Musk’s strange new kind of extravagant and extreme capitalism, where stock prices are driven by profits.” and also for fantasies.” Is there something called “almicism”? How damaging can a single tweet from Musk be? And does he really believe we can colonize Mars? All that and more, answered in six 30-minute episodes.

black box
This six-part Guardian series launched in February this year and delves into seven different stories, from a Detroit man falsely accused of robbery thanks to faulty facial recognition technology to a disturbing deepfake scandal targeting young women. The only thread that connects each story? The exploits and failures of artificial intelligence and the damage it can cause if in the wrong hands. In an era where AI is already transforming our lives, host Michael Safi describes Black Box as “a snapshot of the first moments when everything started to change.” Catch up on the entire series here..

Why not try it…?

• From Anne Hathaway to Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, the NYT gets up close and personal with A-list guests on The interview.

• Another corrective to male-centered artistic elegies, such as Death of an artist returns for a series about “the woman who made Jackson Pollack famous,” Lee Krasner.

• A 13th-century monarch with a taste for murder is under the microscope in The iron kinga spin-off series from the This is History team.

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