Pick of the week
Dig It
BBC broadcasting besties Zoe Ball and Jo Whiley follow those who have enjoyed new freedom in the podcast world. In a breezy series, which was nearly called “Jo and Zo’s Big Bushes”, they invite listeners to ask them questions on subjects from kids to gardening, interiors, music and the menopause. What they won’t be talking about, Zoe confirms, is band members they slept with in the 90s. Sorry! Hollie Richardson
Widely available, episodes weekly
13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle
Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock joins the BBC’s space podcast for the third season’s look at the space shuttle program and its attempt to create a reusable craft. Given her excitable voiceover – plus a bombastic soundtrack that could have come straight out of 24 – it’s a drama-packed tale. Alexi Duggins
Widely available, episodes weekly
Autocracy in America
Do Donald Trump’s political decisions look wild and incoherent? They’re not, according to this measured, fascinating show: they’re the classic moves of someone trying to establish an autocracy. Garry Kasparov, chess champ and lifelong democracy activist who lived under Putin for many years, hosts the second series of this look at the US’s slide into a pseudo dictatorship. AD
Widely available, episodes weekly
Crime Scenes
This Emilia Fox-fronted podcast looks at shocking crimes and the locations where they were committed, from Wales to New South Wales. It’s grisly, by-the-numbers stuff, beginning with the (already much-publicised) story of the Todt family, residents of a Florida town once owned by Disney who died in an alleged murder-suicide in 2019. Hannah J Davies
All episodes available, Audible
Charlie’s Place
Defying segregation in the 40s and 50s, a South Carolina nightclub brought together Black and white patrons for performances by the likes of Little Richard and Ella Fitzgerald. This richly told series offers a history of Charlie’s Place, where art defied racism – but which became, perhaps unsurprisingly, a target for the
Ku Klux Klan. HJD
Widely available, episodes weekly
