Best podcasts of the week: The truth about Oatly’s climate-friendly credentials
Picks of the week
Build the Life You WantWidely available, episodes weeklyThis spin-off from the staggeringly successful Super Soul podcast is packed with Oprah magic and tips on how to live better. Even if good deeds and mindfulness make you want to regurgitate your couscous, it’s hard to resist Winfrey. First, she looks at the ingredients of a happy existence with simple but irresistible mantras such as “social media is the junk food of social life” and “happiness is not a destination, it’s a direction.” Hannah Verdier
Joe Lycett’s TurdcastWidely available, episodes weeklyDavid Beckham, Liz Truss: no one is safe from Joe Lycett’s attention. But now the “incredibly rightwing” comedian is turning his comedy hand to poo, with a podcast featuring celebrities telling their toilet stories. First up is Gary Lineker, who inevitably must relive his on-pitch poo at the 1990 World Cup. HV
Heirs of EnslavementWidely available, episodes weeklyClive Lewis MP’s ancestors were enslaved and former BBC journalist Laura Trevelyan’s were enslavers – and both want to confront the past. This podcast sees them travel to Grenada to meet Lewis’s dad and historian Nicole Phillip-Dowe, who helped Trevelyan’s family draft an apology to the country. Plenty of thought-provoking discussions follow. HVThird EyeAudible, all episodes out nowLaughs aren’t usually common in sci-fi fantasy podcasts, but Felicia Day’s story of an ordinary girl who’s destined to fight evil is full of them. Neil Gaiman is the enthusiastic narrator and Day is the blundering chosen one in a world full of human normies, selfie-seeking superhero fans and mind-wiping tricks. HVThe Oatly ChroniclesWidely available, all episodes out nowPrepare for some hard truths in this three-part investigation into whether oat milk –
specifically, the choice of every hipster for their flat white, Oatly – really is better for the planet. There has been much scrutiny over the Swedish brand, starting with the claim that it needs to grow into a massive corporate success in order to properly defeat the big dairy industry. Hollie Richardson
There’s a podcast for that
This week, Nicole Jackson, head of audio at the Guardian, chooses five of the best Today in Focus podcasts, from an investigation into royal finances to one Ukrainian soldier’s extraordinary storyHuman catastrophe unfolds in Israel and GazaHost Michael Safi talks to Sharone Lifschitzrom whose parents were kidnapped on 7 October and Hazem Balousha, a freelance journalist in Gaza City, about the increasingly desperate situation that residents are experiencing. An incredibly moving episode.
The Cost of the Crown – valuing the royal familyThis series was part of a major Guardian investigation into the royal family and led to King Charles’s first signal for support of research into his family’s historic ties to transatlantic slavery
The volunteer fighter: ‘Life will never be the same’This interview with 22-year-old Volodymyr Ksienich really captured the horror of the Russian invasion on ordinary Ukrainian civilians. Once an NGO worker, Ksienich was now learning to use a rifle and spending his nights in the woods preparing to repel a Russian attack.
On the frontline of the cost of living crisisHost Nosheen Iqbal has a raw conversation with Amie Jordan, a single mother, about the reality of the cost of living crisis. The conversation led to an outpouring of sympathy for Jordan and donations from listeners.
The Pegasus project part 1: an invitation to ParisThe first of an ambitious five-part Guardian investigation that took listeners into the shadowy world of a powerful phone hacking tool being used by governments around the world.
Why not try …
From ghostly phantoms to vengeful poltergeists, a series of paranormal encounters in Uncanny.
In Have a Nice Future, Wired’s Gideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode speak with top technologists, thinkers and creators.
Investigative reporter Paul Caruana Galizia returns to report the story of the foiled assassination attempts on British soil of Iranian nationals in Londongrad: Iran’s Hit Squads.
If you want to read the complete version of the newsletter please subscribe to receive Hear Here in your inbox every Thursday
tutions.
More generally, as the recent success of protest parties such as the Dutch Farmer-Citizen movement illustrates, Mr Wilders profited from an acute crisis of trust in traditional politics. In one survey this autumn, 72% of respondents said that they believed the country was on the wrong path. Another poll found a “worrisome” level of dissatisfaction on the right with the functioning of democracy. In an age of anxiety and insecurity, large numbers of voters are reeling from the cost of living crisis, worrying about how the green transition will affect one of the world’s agricultural powerhouses, and concerned about a chronic housing crisis. Many had clearly become more open to Mr Wilders’ dark mood music as a result, and the hateful xenophobia that he promotes.
For Dutch Moroccans, Surinamese and other minority ethnic groups, this is a deeply frightening development. Following the election of Giorgia Meloni as Italy’s prime minister last year, and radical right successes in countries such as Sweden and Finland, it also represents an urgent challenge for progressive parties across Europe. In meeting the formidable economic challenges of an increasingly volatile age, mainstream politics must provide better reassurance to vulnerable constituencies that they will not be left behind.
Hopefully, Mr Wilders can be kept out of power, or politically neutered once he achieves it. But the trends that have put him within touching distance of high office need to be addressed. Lessons must be learned from what the Netherlands public broadcaster justly described as a “political earthquake” in one of the EU’s most influential member states.