Make time for fascinating Song Exploder
Song Exploder
This series continues to be such a breath of fresh air in the world of podcasts; its episodes are bite-sized, 20-minute morsels that often pack a greater punch than much longer shows.
Host Hrishikesh Hirway invites artists to deconstruct their songs and tell the stories of how they were made, isolating different stems of the recorded tracks and explaining both the emotional and technical histories of their music.
The result is fascinating and often deeply affecting; Mitski’s explanation of Your Best American Girl and Sharon Van Etten’s story of Seventeen are both gut-punch episodes.
The podcast was also adapted into a Netflix series, which is available as two, four-episode treats available to stream on the service now.
The Missing Cryptoqueen
I have to admit that I’m somewhat behind the curve on this one; The Missing Cryptoqueen captivated thousands of listeners on its release in late 2019 and was somewhat of a sensation for BBC podcasts.
Journalist Jamie Bartlett fronts this head-spinning investigation into Dr Ruja Ignatova, a Bulgarian-born woman who convinced people all over the world to invest huge sums of money into her new cryptocurrency known as OneCoin – before disappearing.
Bartlett and his producer Georgia Catt take listeners on a journey behind this extraordinary scam, making for the kind of audio documentary podcast that tells a factual story that truly is stranger than fiction.
Table Manners with Jessie Ware
Another one you’ve likely heard of, but that’s no reason not to signal-boost a podcast that is continually brilliant with each episode.
Singer Jessie Ware recruited her mum for this hilarious podcast in which they invite a roster of wonderful guests to spend dinner with them, and the resulting interviews are wonderfully charming and often hysterical.
Guests include Kylie Minogue, Florence Pugh and Sam Smith, and there’s a huge backlog of episodes for you to comb through and find your favourite stars.
Ware is an extraordinary talent – as well as keeping this podcast consistently excellent, she also happened to release one of 2020’s best albums, the disco-influenced dancefloor journey of
Pleasure?