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YoIf there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I’m very, very interested in drugs. I read Patrick Radden Keefe’s Empire of Pain earlier this year after it spent way too long in my “to be read” pile, and found its story of the rise and rise of the Sackler opioid dynasty truly terrifying (although isn’t artist-turned-Oxy-activist Nan Goldin a total heroine?).
Naturally, I got into… Scripts This week, a new miniseries from The Atlantic about “the pills we take for our brains and the stories we tell ourselves about them.” It’s sensitively made, but scary, like so many of these things; the story of two brothers who found themselves in the same treatment for heroin addiction, but whose lives took very different paths, will stay with me for a while. As will Dan Taberski’s recent series HystericalAbout a group of young girls who all developed Tourette-like symptoms at the same time, there are real characters here dealing with some very difficult ailments, but we’re also never far from bigger questions about how we think about mental health and individuality.
Read on for our picks of the week, from scam parents to a podcast about the Paralympics, and five of the best podcasts for classic movie fans, from old Hollywood hits to the history of Hammer horror.
Hannah J. Davies
Deputy Editor, Newsletters
Selections of the week
#1 Dad
Widely available, all episodes are now available
Comedian Gary Vider hasn’t spoken to his con-artist father in 24 years, after a childhood that saw him pose as a young journalist to get into Michael Jordan’s locker room (above), and help him photocopy dollar bills for school lunches. On this wild ride, Gary tries to track him down, to see if he’s still the same fake-accented, court-fighting man he once was – and hopes it doesn’t end up tearing his family apart. Alexi Duggins
Scam Clinic
Widely available, weekly episodes.
Nick Stapleton, presenter of Scam Interceptors, a Bafta-winning BBC One show, attempts to help members of the public in this investigative programme. It’s an astonishing experience, with the opening double-bill including an astonishing interview with the supposed mastermind behind a £100,000 heist, who seems keen to have a nice chat about podcasting equipment. ADVERTISEMENT
Head number 7
Widely available, weekly episodes.
When you donate your body to science, you’d think Harvard Medical School would take care of it. So a macabre scandal ensued when families discovered that their loved ones’ body parts had been sold and lost. Now DNA expert Dr. Turi King is asking where they all went, starting with the distinctively large head of a New York City police officer. Hannah Verdier
Don’t drink the milk
Widely available, weekly episodes.
Sex, drugs and gardens promise the second season of this adventure that delves into the unexpected stories of familiar things. Reality TV and missionary position are coming up, but first Rachel Stewart puts a fun spin on witch hunting and heads to Scotland to investigate the history of a misogynistic medieval conspiracy. High voltage
Phoenix Rising: What Does It Take?
Widely available, weekly episodes.
It’s a cliché to say that everything about the Paralympics is inspiring, but this podcast, full of courage and humour, really is. Armless archer Matt Stutzman and fellow Paralympic medallist Michael Johnson interview athletes including Kadeena Cox, who talks about her determination to return to the sport after suffering a stroke at age 23 and being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. High voltage
There’s a podcast for that.
This week, Graeme Virtue choose five of the best Podcasts for fans of classic films.from highlights of Hammer’s horror catalogue to series that revisit films including Some Like It Hot.
You must remember this
The later seasons of this captivating show (meticulously written and narrated by film historian Karina Longworth) explored the rise and fall of erotic thrillers in the 1980s and 1990s. But YMRT became an early hit thanks to Longworth’s deep dives into Hollywood’s golden age, untangling the rumors surrounding doomed stars and highlighting the sins of amoral moguls. To celebrate its 10th anniversary earlier this year, the “lost” first episode (long in limbo due to music licensing issues) was remastered and re-released. That insightful profile of Vertigo star Kim Novak will likely make you want to rewatch a lavish back catalog of more than 200 installments.
The House of the Hammer
Most profiles of the British Hammer film studio focus on its imperial phase of gleefully debunked horror films from the mid-1950s through the 1970s. But the bi-weekly podcast The House of Hammer has been patiently progressing through the studio’s filmography chronologically since 1934, applying detailed context and affectionate banter to forgotten films like the nylon-smuggling crime film River Patrol (1948). The general vibe between hosts Cev Moore, Ben Taylorson, Adam Roche, and the mononymous Smokey is relaxed and welcoming. But things have definitely picked up in the past year, with the show tackling seminal Hammer texts like The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), and Christopher Lee’s immortal Dracula (1958).
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Unwound
Are there any films considered classics that should be ousted from the canon? When the impeccably produced Unspooled first launched in 2018, the goal of film critic Amy Nicholson and actor-writer-comedian Paul Scheer was to take a fresh look at the 2007 list of the 100 best films created by the distinguished American Film Institute. Two years later, the hosts had quietly but diligently removed 60 entries from the original ranking and set about adding new films to try to formulate a more representative selection of cinema (one that was intended to be filmed in space to educate and entertain passing aliens). But it’s worth trawling through Unspooled’s extensive list of episodes back to the early days, when the pair debated the merits of hallowed titles like Ben-Hur, The African Queen, and Some Like It Hot.
The palace of cinema
Consciously or not, it seems like a lot of podcasts about classic movies want to evoke the decadent cocktails-and-cigarettes spirit of old Hollywood, often employing an appealing mix of sounds to help the decades fade away. The Movie Palace is a more down-to-earth affair, but what it lacks in sonic flourishes it more than makes up for in thoughtful discussion. In each episode, Dr. Carl Sweeney invites an expert guest to discuss a notable film, from influential noirs to hard-boiled Westerns. The result is a crisp, uncomplicated introduction to old-school cinema. Throughout the show’s 130-plus episodes, Hitchcock has been a recurring presence—notably in a comprehensive eight-part miniseries looking at Psycho.
The plot thickens
Not every film podcast can claim a direct link to Hollywood’s golden age. But Ben Mankiewicz, host of The Plot Thicks, produced by American network Turner Classic Movies, is the grandson of Herman Mankiewicz, the celebrated screenwriter of Citizen Kane and star of the 2020 biopic Mank, directed by David Fincher. Previous seasons of The Plot Thicks include deep dives into the careers of Peter Bogdanovich (a filmmaker obsessed with Hollywood’s past) and righteous blaxploitation ass-kicker Pam Grier. But the current season, Decoding John Ford, attempts to take the measure of the notoriously cantankerous but Oscar-laden king of 20th-century directors, with the help of previously unreleased interviews from collaborators including John Wayne, Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart.
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After schoolthe newsletter that decodes Gen Z for the rest of us gets the podcast treatment.
Frank Skinner and Fay Ripley star in Radio 4 workplace comedy Those who do good.