From Sue Perkins: An Hour Or So With… to Giovanna Fletcher’s Happy Mum, Happy Baby and The Shrink Next Door, this week’s top podcasts
Sue Perkins: An Hour Or So With…
Comedian Perkins rustles up a celebrity guest and indulges in ‘good old-fashioned conversation’ for an hour or so.
Sue Perkins’ (above) interviewees on her podcast range from the king of podcasting, Adam Buxton, to the economist Tim Harford with the Mary Berry episode a particular highlight
Her interviewees range from the king of podcasting, Adam Buxton, to the economist Tim Harford.
A highlight is the second episode of the first (and only) season, in which Mary Berry asks what a podcast is – and Perkins patiently explains. ‘How very trendy,’ Berry decrees.
Happy Mum, Happy Baby
The fortnightly show was trundling along nicely when it secured a guest most podcasters could only dream of. The Duchess of Cambridge graced the show last month to share her experiences of motherhood with host Giovanna Fletcher.
The Duchess of Cambridge graced the Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast last month to share her experiences of motherhood with host Giovanna Fletcher
The interview is great, not least because it’s hard to get a proper sense of the Duchess’s personality from her media appearances, and this digs deeper.
Also worth seeking out is Fletcher’s interview with chef Nadiya Hussain, who is gloriously candid about her traumas while giving birth.
Irish History Podcast
If Brexit revealed anything it was that many in the UK have no more than a rudimentary understanding of the history of Ireland.
This ambitious podcast, hosted by author Fin Dwyer, takes listeners through the past 1,500 years of Irish history. Above: the Gap of Dunloe in County Kerry
This ambitious podcast, hosted by author Fin Dwyer, is a great way to get up to speed. Bit by bit, the podcast takes listeners through the past 1,500 years of Irish history.
It’s best to begin at the beginning, with episode one’s evocation of a chilly and densely forested island that was soon overrun with invading Vikings.
The Shrink Next Door
When veteran journalist Joe Nocera met his neighbour Ike for the first time, he assumed he was encountering a harmless eccentric. Ike was a psychiatrist known for treating Manhattan’s glitzy set.
In this eight-part series Nocera uncovers how Ike took advantage of his patients, insinuating himself into their lives until they could barely function without him.
The podcast has the retro feel of a slightly dusty thriller – it’s a story about obsession, betrayal and the desire for power, and it’s beautifully told.