Pick of the week
Missing in the Amazon
This six-episode Guardian podcast opens with evocative descriptions of dense Amazonian jungle teeming with macaws, jaguars and howler monkeys. But the pastoral beauty soon gives way to fear, as we hear about the disappearance of environmental journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous defender Bruno Pereira in a tale that pits them against the forces that run one of the world’s biggest drug-smuggling routes. This gripping investigation tries to get to the bottom of what happened and, given that it’s hosted by Phillips’s friend, the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent Tom Phillips, does so in a movingly personal manner. Alexi Duggins
Episodes weekly, Widely available
Future Tense
Will AI steal all our jobs? Could Terminator-style robots overthrow humanity? These questions don’t just feel loaded but arguably a little hoary by now. It’s a good job, then, that it is Richard Ayoade and Warwick Davis picking over them with effortlessly amusing and often (in Ayoade’s case) deeply dry observations. Helen Keen adds some science writer cred, as they gaze into the future of food, relationships, holidays and more. Hannah J Davies
Audible, all episodes available now
The Holmwood Foundation
Rebecca Root and Seán Carlsen star in a found-footage indie drama from Fio Trethewey and Georgia Cook, who have previously written Doctor Who audio adventures. This updated take on Dracula with a queer twist is brilliantly inventive while also keeping Bram Stoker’s cast of characters front of mind. HJD
Widely available, episodes every fortnight from Tuesday 10 June
Stories in Colour
Are the colours you see the same as the colours I see? The National Gallery’s new podcast invites you to enjoy its collections a bit differently, by listening to host Beks Leary and expert guests delve into answering questions such as this in each episode. They lead to deep conversations that make you sit back and think (“What the hell even is colour?”). Hollie Richardson
Widely available, episodes weekly
The Crisis Room
“A journalist, a cabinet minister and a spy walk into a bar” – is this a bad joke, asks ex-CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos? In any case, his podcast, co-hosted with former UK home secretary Amber Rudd and Newsnight alumnus Mark Urban, offers an informed, international outlook, and shares much DNA with its global cousin The News Agents. HJD
Widely available, episodes weekly
Rylan: How to Be in Love
“At some point love sprouts in your brain in the same way hair sprouts under your arms.” So says Stephen Fry in Rylan Clark’s new celebrity interview podcast which delves into affairs of the heart. It’s launched at the same time as an episode featuring Self Esteem, who has had a newfound romantic awakening. AD
Episodes weekly, BBC Sounds
