Talking Points
Jon Ronson’s The Butterfly Effect was one of the most talked about podcasts of last year, its account of the rise of the free porn industry proving grimly gripping. Now, he has announced a follow-up series focusing on the tragic tale of one of the industry’s biggest names: porn star August Ames, who killed herself in November 2017, days after being embroiled in a Twitter controversy. The Last Days of August will be available on Audible from 4 January 2019.
Meanwhile, a new major podcast awards show has been announced. The iHeartRadio Podcast Awards will take place on 18 January and will feature 22 different categories, the majority of the winners of which will be determined by listeners. The nominees of the ceremony’s top awards – the podcast of the year – have already been announced and are a stellar bunch: Atlanta Monster, Dirty John, Hardcore History, Joe Rogan, Radiolab, Serial, Slow Burn, Stuff You Should Know, The Daily and The Habitat all feature.
Finally, it would be remiss of us not to flag another new podcast starting soon, the Guardian’s Today in Focus. Presented by Anushka Asthana, it will combine personal storytelling and insightful analysis to take listeners behind the day’s headlines. Listen to the trailer for the series here.
Picks of the week
Stephen Fry’s Victorian Secrets
Scandalous bedtime storyteller Stephen Fry’s new podcast bursts the image of the Victorians as prudish and pious. There’s much debauchery, told with delicious relish, and Fry is one of the few people who can get away with reading aloud off-colour phrases without a whiff of offence. Start with The Buckingham Palace Freak Show, which delves into the world of Queen Victoria-approved entertainment and move on to the episode on pornography, where more than just a table leg is exposed. Hannah Verdier
The Brights
Towie graduate Lydia Bright unleashes her family in this new podcast, which sees reality TV elbowing its way into the medium. Although Bright is a wooden narrator, and there are many times when scenes are obviously staged, that won’t dent structured-reality fans’ enthusiasm. The family, with their “massive mouths and massive hearts”, are loud and lovable and they provide some surprisingly tender moments when parents Debbie and Dave learn that one of their foster children will be moving on. HV
In focus: US political podcasts
With the midterms looming, now is as good a time as any to add some American political podcasts to your regular rotation. There are certainly plenty to choose from, with most media organisations providing a weekly, biweekly or, in the case of the New York Times’s The Daily and NPR’s Up First, diurnal offering.
Probably the most established of these is Slate’s Political Gabfest, which, since 2005, has offered astute weekly takes on major political happenings. Similarly thoughtful is The Political Scene from the New Yorker. For those of a more wonk-ish persuasion, the Politics Podcast, from Nate Silver’s analytical website FiveThirtyEight, crunches down polling numbers, while the semi-weekly Vox podcast The Weeds offers granular insight on the latest goings on in the house and senate.
If you are after something that is more unambiguously partisan, the enormously popular twice weekly effort Pod Save America sees former Obama staffers Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor and Dan Pfeiffer break down Donald Trump’s behaviour from a Democratic perspective, while representing the “dirtbag left” is the shambling and savagely funny Chapo Trap House.
Trump inspires so much fear and fascination, that it is perhaps inevitable that several podcasts are devoted solely to the Donald. Launched during the 2015-6 Republican primaries, Slate’s Trumpcast was intended to last only as long as he remained on the political stage. Two years later, it is still providing a withering critique of Trump’s latest aberrance. Similarly Trump-focused is Can He Do That? from the Washington Post, which considers the institutions under threat from this most unorthodox of presidencies. Finally, WNYC Studio’s Trump, Inc. looks at the tangled business relationships between the first family and a global network of plutocrats, crooks and despots. Gwilym Mumford
Guardian pick
On this week’s Science Weekly, Nicola Davis travels to Botswana to see how empowering women and giving them the chance to control a fundamental part of the their lives has not only reduced fertility rates but has had enormous ramifications for their health, education and employment. The average woman in Botswana is having fewer than half the number of children she would have had 50 years ago. This marks one of the dramatic reductions in fertility in the world and it could hold lessons for addressing one of our biggest challenges – how to grapple with soaring world population?
Readers picks
Who Are Ya
Who Are Ya is a football podcast that doesn’t fall into any of the old tried and tested cliches of what a footy pod should be, instead going behind the stories and turning the focus on the fans. Recommended by Andrew Greaves
The Science of Happiness
Hosted by the award-winning UC Berkeley psychology professor Dacher Keltner, The Science of Happiness highlights the most provocative and practical findings that can lead you to a more meaningful life. Guests have included writer Michael Pollan, journalist Dan Harris and the psychologist and host of TED’s WorkLife podcast, Adam Grant. Recommended by Lauren Rothering
If you have any podcast recommendations email podcasts@theguardian.com
