Picks of the week
The Beauty Fix
Naomi Shimada, a plus-size model pushing the often-rigid boundaries of the fashion industry, is the host of this new podcast. Her interviewees include Tan France, Queer Eye’s confident fashion expert who – in fact – was so insecure about his skin as a child that he used lightening creams, and model Ebonee Davis, who sees wearing her natural curls as a “form of rebellion”, and wants everyone to have follicular freedom. A warm, searching and thoroughly body positive look at, in Shimada’s words, how people “feel free to be themselves.” Hannah J Davies
Cautionary Tales
Tim Harford’s podcast returns for a second season, with ways that people didn’t learn the lessons that history tried to hammer home. From the world’s worst bank robbery to how Harold Shipman could have been prevented from murdering hundreds of patients, there’s always something to take away from the stories. And they’re told in a brilliant way, with the help of dramatisations from actors including Jeffrey Wright and Helena Bonham Carter, who makes a very convincing Florence Nightingale in the episode about how data visualisation changed ideas about public health.
Hannah Verdier
Producer pick: Kerning Cultures
Chosen by Courtney Yusuf
This series from the UAE masters the craft of telling “stories from the Middle East and North Africa, and the spaces in between”. Now in its sixth year, its winning combination of first-person-led investigations, expert witnesses, rigorous research, and beautiful sound design have produced an exciting catalogue of stories that offer a sideways glimpse into this interconnected world.
The latest series has already asked questions like “how do Black Arabs consider their own identity and their own struggle against discrimination, particularly after George Floyd’s killing?”, “how did Kuwait’s thriving Indian community experience Saddam Hussein’s invasion?”, “what is it about K-Pop that speaks to thousands of Arab megafans?” and “who can determine where Jewish-Egyptian artefacts really belong today?”
This is honest storytelling led by those from the region with a real love for its richness, and, while you may end up at the end of the journey with many things being true at the same time, it is refreshing to avoid lazy tropes or the belief that any place, person, or phenomenon could ever be understood through a single lens.
The latest series is currently being released but do also check out a number of great episodes from previous series – the haunting Zabelle, centred on Armenian-American singer Zabelle Panosian, is one episode in particular that I keep returning to. For Arabic-language speakers, the Kerning Cultures network also offers a range of additional shows.
Talking points
For fans of the whimsical yet emotive world of Japanese animation giants Studio Ghibli, Ghibliotheque is a must-listen. Its creators have now turned their attention to the work of Irish studio Cartoon Saloon, whose work includes The Breadwinner, a YA tale set in Taliban-held Afghanistan, in Cartoon Salooniverse.
Why not try: Aria Code | Astray | Skin Tings
