1 Richard Ayoade used a ThunderCats duvet cover until he was in his late 20s
Where we learned it The Adam Buxton podcast
Adam Buxton’s life-affirming, jingle-packed “ramble chats” with his celebrity guests are a constant delight. In this two-parter, the multi-talented Ayoade went into everything from the height of pillows to the reaction to his notoriously awkward interview with Krishnan Guru-Murthy. As funny as the pod is, you will learn a lot, too – from Buxton’s honest discussions of grief when his dad died to how upsetting Sara Pascoe finds it when people make “clicky sticky” noises with their mouths.
Other lessons from this podcast Louis Theroux does a fine rendition of Yes Sir, I Can Boogie. Ellie Violet Bramley
2 One of the biggest car recalls in history may have been caused by drivers pressing the wrong pedal
Where we learned it Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History
If you are familiar with Gladwell’s work, then Revisionist History is both a treat and familiar territory. The New Yorker writer often takes assumptions and things we might think to be true and unravels them to end up in a different place altogether. In his bestseller Blink, he explained why it might not have been so unusual that an unarmed man was shot 41 times by New York police. In the best episode of Revisionist History, Gladwell looked back at Toyota’s “sudden unintended acceleration” phenomenon, which led to a gigantic fine for the car maker. The conclusion – after we listen to a 911 call in which a man is driven to his death by a car that won’t slow down – was not that the car’s accelerators were sticking, but that drivers unfamiliar with certain cars were having a brain malfunction that meant they were physically unable to differentiate between the brake and the accelerator.
Other lessons from this podcast American colleges with the nicest canteens are the worst choices for poor students; if you want to score the most free-throws in basketball, do them underarm. Will Dean
3 One day, everyone in Sweden switched to driving on the opposite side of the road
Where we learned it 99% Invisible
You needn’t be an architecture or design fanatic to enjoy Roman Mars’s gentle unpicking of how the world around us came to look and function as it does. As well as stories about the origins of the inflatable men they have outside car dealers in the US, and why they used to advertise missing kids on milk cartons, you can learn about Högertrafikomläggningen, or H-day – 3 September 1967 – when everyone in Sweden switched from driving on the left side of the road to the right.
Other lessons from this podcast California’s Salton Sea was formed by mistake; 20 years ago, the world became obsessed with a phone booth in the middle of the Mojave desert. Leah Harper
4 Having your own podcast won’t win you an election
Where we learned it With Her
How do we know that Hillary Clinton enjoyed a Cuban sandwich and a beer at the end of a day on the road? Well, she had her own campaign podcast, about the “little details” of being on the trail. In the first episode, Max Linsky, of the podcast Longform, talked to her in Miami about what she was going to have for dinner that evening. As the first presidential candidate to have a campaign podcast, Clinton tried to harness the power of the medium to show a more personable side of herself. Suffice to say, it didn’t have the desired effect.
Other lessons from this podcast Clinton is a TED talks fan and has to ration her Elena Ferrante novels. EVB
5 There’s more than one way of motivating your sales force
Where we learned it My Dad Wrote a Porno
Pots-and-pans sales supremo Belinda Blumenthal can find lust in any situation – even when she is lost in an ornamental maze. The star of the erotic fiction written by comedian Jamie Morton’s father has taught the world that a regional sales conference has just as much potential for naked fun as a business trip to Amsterdam. Other things she has appropriated into her libidinous realm include a charity tombola, Herb Alpert, a chalet, a pomegranate, a horsebox and any sentence involving the words “further access”. What she has taught listeners about her ridiculously sexy life may be unsavoury, but via Morton’s podcast it has brought a whole lot of mirth.
Other lessons from this podcast There is such a thing as a vaginal lid; never read erotic fiction written by your dad. Hannah Verdier
6 Sacha Baron Cohen has been known to use a getaway car
Where we learned it WTF
Marc Maron’s WTF can be off-putting: the host’s 15-minute opening monologue and guitar jams are often enough to deter new listeners. But when it comes to teasing out colourful details from the careers of some of Hollywood’s funniest and finest, Maron is the master. Grimsby may have bombed in the cinemas, but it was worth it for the interview Baron Cohen did with Maron to promote the film. The best bits were the details of the logistical difficulties of making Brüno, from how a redneck fight crowd were duped into watching a homoerotic romp to how Baron Cohen managed to escape Kansas police after being caught with, among other things, a pedal-powered sex machine in a hotel room. (He had a car waiting outside with the engine running.)
Other lessons from this podcast Asking what people’s parents were like rarely gets a dull answer; if you have the US president over to record in your garage, you’d better have nice neighbours; William Friedkin is the best storyteller in Hollywood. WD
7 Having two vaginas doesn’t mean you can have vaginal sex with two men at the same time
Where we learned it Close Encounters from the Guardian
Alix Fox pries into the complicated and fascinating lives of people for whom sex is not always entirely straightforward, from a polyamorous couple to a man paralysed from the waist down just before his honeymoon. An extraordinary interview with “double-barrelled” Hazel, who talked openly about the effect her condition has had on her – and may have on her if she wants to have children – is the standout so far.
Other lessons from this podcast Russian-doll-style dildos can cure vaginismus; having cold feet can help to delay an orgasm. LH
8 The search for a fifth meat continues
Where we learned it The Beef and Dairy Network podcast
The centuries-old assumption that there are only four meats – beef, lamb, pork and chicken – is crumbling after unconfirmed reports that the European Space Agency has identified a mysterious “fifth meat”. The Beef and Dairy Network podcast, produced by comedian Ben Partridge, is “the No 1 podcast for those involved – or just interested – in the production of beef animals and dairy herds”. Featuring guest appearances from “agricultural experts” such as Josie Long, and attracting fans including Miranda Sawyer, it is a surreal beefstravaganza.
Other lessons from this podcast According to Beef and Dairy Network sponsor Mitchell’s, 90% of cattle can kick through a ship’s hull after just one month of taking hoof-strengthening supplement Steel Hoof Deluxe. EVB
9 John Oliver is not dead
Where we learned it The Bugle
For a decade, long-time comedy partners John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman put the world to rights via the medium of their “audio newspaper for a visual world”. Their riffs on anything from civil liberties (“Like dogs, John, we love our own, but we get really annoyed when other people’s civil liberties keep shitting on our lawns”) to Texas barbecues (“All I know is this, Andy: if I was a cow, and I knew that I could taste like that, I’d find it very hard to make a coherent case for not being immediately killed and slow-cooked”) often made the show the funniest thing you could get on Wi-Fi. With Oliver having left the Daily Show to front his own show on HBO, the Bugle went into satirical hibernation. It awoke in mid-October, just in time for a political event so ridiculous that even Zaltzman at his most surreal couldn’t have imagined it. The pod’s Have I Got News for You-style rotating guest co-hosts now include US comics Wyatt Cenac and Hari Kondabolu, as well as Brit Nish Kumar and brilliant Indian standup Anuvab Pal. They don’t know each other as well as best friends Zaltzman and Oliver, but perhaps the other co-host, Andy’s sister Helen, could claim an advantage on that front. The Bugle is dead, long live the Bugle.
Other lessons from this podcast Bashar al-Assad bought LMFAO’s I’m Sexy and I Know It as the Syrian civil war raged. WD
10 A bloke running a driving school in Acton, west London, was also helping to prop up the death penalty in the US
Where we learned it More Perfect
In a residential area of west London, inside a building with a banner that reads “Elgone Driving Academy”, is a guy in his 50s who looks a bit like William Hurt and who was the one-man operation helping to provide the drugs used for capital punishment in the US. That was until a human rights charity alerted the UK government to his “pharmaceutical broom closet of death”. In the inaugural episode of More Perfect, a Radiolab spin-off looking at how US supreme court cases affect lives “miles away from the bench”, the presenters explored those three little words from the US constitution: “cruel and unusual”.
Other lessons from this podcast An unusual 911 call made in Houston, Texas, in 1998, led to one of the most important LGBTQ rights decisions in the court’s history, effectively making homosexual relations a basic civil right. EVB
11 The political insiders’ term for people panicking about a Trump win was ‘bedwetters’
Where we learned it Keepin’ it 1600
A politics podcast hosted by Barack Obama’s former speechwriter and a senior communications adviser ought to scream wonkishness, but Jon Favreau and Dan Pfeiffer may be the two most engaging analysts of a bonkers election campaign. Having been at the heart of two US election storms, they – alongside other hosts Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor know, inside-out, how this world works – and share it. Their near certainty about a Clinton win – up to the morning of the election – made 1600 one of the most reassuring political podcasts you could listen to … and made their morning-after mea culpa on 9 November all the more extraordinary. Now it’s really time to wet the bed.
Other lessons from this podcast The Obama team realised it was impossible to disprove crazy lies about its candidate after Fox News said in 2008 that the young Obama had been raised a Muslim – when the team complained, they were told that it was “an entertainment show”. WD
12 Billy Joel has really soft hands
Where we learned it Two Dope Queens
Comedians and co-podcast hosts Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams went “where two black women have never gone before … a Billy Joel concert”. They sneaked in their rosé – in suntan lotion bottles bought on Amazon – “the kind that get white girls, watching the Shins, through Coachella”. And, having been given front-row tickets because Billy likes to see “pretty women” up at the front, they got to shake his baby-soft hands. If that’s not informative enough for you, listen to the other episodes of this snort-out-loud-funny podcast from WNYC and hear some of New York’s best female comedians talking about sex, romance, race, hair journeys and living in the city.
Other lessons from this podcast Pierce Brosnan’s volcano thriller Dante’s Peak has a lot to tell us about how far we have come since the 90s; talcum powder is the best method to deal with “boob sweat”. EVB
13 Tar heroin smells just like capers
Where we learned it Guys We Fucked
Corinne Fisher and Krystyna Hutchinson host the “anti-slut-shaming podcast”, featuring interviews with everyone from Jon Ronson to Stoya (and, as the title gently suggests, people with whom they have had sex). Their interview with Wendi Kent – or, as they call her, “White Precious” – who photographs protesters outside abortion clinics, revealed the reason she can no longer eat capers and what it’s like to have sex when you’re homeless. But it’s not all heavy-going. The episode titles alone are a treat – good luck concealing “You didn’t go to France because you wanted to masturbate?”, “His pubes were haunted?” and “Period sex: thoughts?” from fellow commuters.
Other lessons from this podcast DIY HIV tests can be done at home (or on-air) with a mouth swab; comedians on the circuit all hook up with each other. LH
14 You can watch Sex and the City 2 too many times
Where we learned it The Worst Idea of All Time
“A lot of time, effort and money, especially money, went into making this film,” says Guy Montgomery. “We’ve just opened up the most disgusting can of worms.” There’s no need to watch SatC2 because he and Tim Batt have done it more than 50 times for the sake of their podcast (they did the same with Grown Ups 2). Miranda’s nanny Magda is a spy who is gradually poisoning her, Charlotte is “the other one” and the whole thing is crying out for the kind of dialogue that made the TV series great.
Other lessons from this podcast We Are Your Friends is next on your hatewatch list. HV
15 You can have a podcast about a podcast
Where we learned it Slate’s Serial Spoiler Specials
Slate’s week-by-week analysis of Serial, 2014’s podcast obsession, is perfect for when everyone you know is listening far too slowly – offering story recaps, whodunnit theories and critiques of the host, Sarah Koenig. Not to mention digging deep down into Reddit rabbit holes about the two cases covered so far.
Other lessons from this podcast The cow birth in season two can be seen as an agricultural metaphor for the military’s response to Bowe Bergdahl’s disappearance; it’s almost impossible to map a timeline via audio. LH
16 Moby is a CD thief
Where we learned it Heavyweight
Jonathan Goldstein’s Heavyweight aims to the tell the stories of people whose lives have taken a wrong turn somewhere. One of these was to reunite his 80-year-old father with his elder brother before it was too late. Another was to reunite his friend Gregor who is haunted by the moment he loaned a box of CDs to a techno-producer friend. The friend, was, of course, Moby, who used many of them as the basis for his squillion-selling Play. Gregor doesn’t want royalties – he just wants his CDs back. And Goldstein helps him get them.
Other lessons from this podcast Tracking down your school bullies is an uncomfortable eye-opener (as demonstrated by Julia in episode seven). HV
17 You can have an A-list cast in a podcast drama
Where we learned it Homecoming
Although Serial was essentially a piece of investigative journalism, its format proved that podcasting didn’t need to be limited in its form. Gimlet Media, a specialist podcasting company, emerged around the same time as that NPR hit and proved its ambitions in the field. Its scripted drama, Homecoming, aimed straight for the stars with a cast including Catherine Keener, Star Wars’ Oscar Isaac and David Schwimmer. The story flips between Keener’s character’s work at an experimental facility that helps soldiers integrate back into the community and her present-day life as a waitress. There are plenty of cliffhangers helping to tell the story of what happened in between.
Other lessons from this podcast You don’t mess with David Schwimmer. As Colin Belfast, he oozes rage and has the air of a man on the edge. HV
18, 19, 20 France buys in most of its frogs legs … only one person called Oscar has won an Oscar … Donald, Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck are the most reprinted comic book characters (that aren’t superheroes) of all time
Where we learned it Answer Me This!
Helen Zaltzman and Olly Mann (plus Martin the soundman) solve listeners’ queries on a fortnightly basis with questions ranging from the practical to the ethical to the ridiculous. Suffice to say, you will learn more listening to them while doing the washing up than from Heart FM. You will also learn that drunken voicemails are welcome, especially from Dave from Smethwick and Graham from Canada. (It’s Oscar Hammerstein II, by the way.) LH
The Guardian publishes a wide range of award-winning podcasts daily, from Football Weekly to the Guardian Books podcast, all of which are available on our site, iTunes and other leading podcast platforms.
