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YoIt’s ’90s week in podcast land! Or at least you’d think so, judging by the nostalgic homages to children’s entertainment from decades past. There’s an entire series dedicated to the fictional purple dinosaur Barney, plus investigative news heavyweights Serial Productions offering a literal deep dive into a vital topic: what happened to Free Willy’s whale?
In slightly more extreme retro nostalgia, there’s also Audible’s starry new Agatha Christie adaptation, with Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage playing Poirot in Christie’s first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. He is joined by Himesh Patel, as Hastings, and Harriet Walter. Does the fact that they started from the beginning of Christie’s canon mean they’re planning to do all the books? We certainly wouldn’t object.
But if that thought strikes terror into your time-pressed mind, don’t worry: we’ve got a roundup of the best listens for those of you who want to dive into full-length shows without having to sift through the entire back catalog. . Although you can also take inspiration from the proliferation of podcasts from the 1990s: wait 30 years for a retro nostalgia episode about it, and then listen to the highlights.
Alex Duggins
Deputy television director
Picks of the week
Styles’ mysterious affair
Audible, all episodes available now
Peter Dinklage is Hercule Poirot in this surprisingly cast version of Agatha Christie’s first novel. Rob Delaney, Harriet Walter, Jessica Gunning and Himesh Patel join him in a high-budget immersive production. Dinklage’s Poirot ranges from the harsh force of nature to the wise and brilliant soul in the story of the murder of a matriarch on the estate where Captain Hastings, a friend of the Belgian detective, is recovering from the First World War. Alex Duggins
The good whale
Widely available, weekly episodes.
For an iconic investigative franchise like Serial, the whale in the ’90s film Free Willy isn’t an obvious subject. But this fascinating series is a deep dive into the story of what happened to the creature, from his unhealthy period in captivity to becoming a Hollywood star, to the PR-driven campaign to free him and, sadly, extremely difficult it turned out. be. ADVERTISEMENT
The quilt
Widely available, weekly episodes.
Queer Britain is the UK’s first LGBTQ+ museum and is teaming up with the producers of The Log Books podcast to create this moving new series. Presenters Tash Walker and Adam Zmith travel around the UK collecting stories, starting in Norfolk, where a trans woman in her 70s brings them to tears with an old photograph. Hollie Richardson
Barney Generation
Widely available, weekly episodes.
Can a giant purple dinosaur provide a generation with the comfort it needs in turbulent times? It certainly revolutionized the children’s television landscape of the 1990s, giving younger viewers their first superstar. Host Sabrina Herrera is full of joy as she retells the story of the dinosaur who, like any good children’s television character, provoked hatred in exasperated parents. Hannah Verdier
mafia lady
Widely available, weekly episodes.
Sara King earned her reputation as “the female Bernie Madoff” by allegedly swiping loans to make a fortune, then spending it on jewelry, cars and an extended stay at the Wynn Resort in Las Vegas. Now, Michelle McPhee lets the lawyer tell her side of the story and why she doesn’t consider herself a scammer. high voltage
There’s a podcast for that.
This week, Raquel Aroesti choose five of the best podcasts you can dip in and out offrom a Radio 4 classic to Alex Cooper’s $60 million show
calls his daddy
Most podcasts, no matter how popular, seem like cult topics; their intimate banter and freewheeling atmosphere give the impression that they exist outside the dominant cultural conversation. Even Call Her Daddy by Alex Cooper, the second most listened to pod on the planet, has an exclusive club feel. From time to time, however, Cooper performs headline-grabbing feats. In recent months, the show, beloved for its sex-positive view of womanhood, has made headlines with interviews with Katy Perry (about her disastrous comeback) and Kamala Harris (about her family life and campaign); episodes that become mandatory for anyone trying to keep up with the zeitgeist.
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Ninfa students
If you’ve ever felt stumped by endlessly rebooting TikTok’s aesthetic or baffled by the latest trends (like 10 minutes ago), Nymphet Alumni is here to help. Host trio Biz Sherbert, Sam Cummins and Alexi Alario tackle cutting-edge fashion and extremely online phenomena, from mogging to Mormon style, in a way that’s unashamedly literate but never inaccessible. Sometimes they even name the trends themselves (see: blokette, in which soccer jerseys and sambas are combined with women’s outfits), as well as looking back at the 20th century fashion roots of various revivals. Immerse yourself to feel like you understand the modern world, even if it’s just for an hour.
Menu off
Some podcasts succeed independently of their guests (or sometimes even despite them), while others rely more on the energy of the celebrity involved. At this point, Ed Gamble and James Acaster are consummate professionals when it comes to extracting dream food-based jokes from their interviewees, but the Off Menu episodes actually worth listening to involve guests with staunchly eccentric tastes and the hysterical spiral. resulting from callbacks. Highlights include Victoria Coren-Mitchell’s dinner sandwiches, Ivo Graham and his Yeo Valley yoghurt, Nicola Coughlan’s Robbie Williams wrap and The Inbetweeners star Joe Thomas’ incomparable madness, ‘Soft Touch’ and the buried lamb.
Desert Island Discs
Very few podcasts have decades-long archives to dive into, let alone one that dates back to the 1940s. But that’s what you get when you turn the UK’s longest-running radio show into a podcast. There are now 2,482 episodes of Desert Island Discs, whose taste-based premise has proven to be an influential model for the contemporary podcast (see the aforementioned Off menu and many more), available to dive into. The back catalog alone is a fascinating cultural chronicle, featuring hugely famous guests, along with many, many others who have faded into obscurity.
Well
That old saying that analysis destroys comedy has been widely discredited by a critical establishment now much more inclined to take stand-up seriously. And Good Ones, “a podcast about jokes” from Vulture’s Jesse David Fox, takes comedy seriously. With guests like John Early, Alex Edelman, Jack Whitehall, and Joel Kim Booster, Fox delves deeply into the art and context behind the routines and sketches—we’re talking two-hour-plus post-mortems on stand-up shows. It’s too intense to listen to too much; However, in moderation, it is an exciting and revealing peek behind the curtain.
Why not try it…?
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The Best Medicine with Kiri Pritchard-McLean returns for a second series, featuring comedians, doctors, scientists and historians celebrating wonderful medical breakthroughs.
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The good sex projectin which Melody Thomas goes on a quest to understand how to do it right.
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Journalist and documentary filmmaker Lucy Sherriff’s investigation into the sudden disappearance of a wealthy widow, Where is Dia?