Best podcasts of the week: Solving the unexplained death of journalist Christopher Allen
Picks of the week
Pop Culture With Chanté JosephEpisodes weekly, widely availableChanté Joseph is here to feed you an essential weekly pop culture fix with the Guardian’s newest podcast. Each episode, Joseph will take a juicy deep dive into a talking point with her guests – starting with the career of R&B phenomenon Rihanna. As she prepares to release her first new music for six years, guests Afua Hirsch and the Guardian’s Shaad D’Souza assess her past and potential future. Hollie Richardson
Pig IronEpisodes weekly, widely availableWas Christopher Allen a reckless fighter or a budding war reporter doing his job? When he was killed in South Sudan, questions were left unanswered and some of the newsrooms he’d worked for didn’t even report his death. Basia Cummings spends time with his cousin to produce a gripping investigation and a moving portrait of him. Hannah Verdier
Pseudocide: The Disappearance of Patrick McDermottEpisodes weekly, SpotifyOlivia Newton-John’s death has seen renewed interest in the case of her ex-boyfriend Patrick McDermott, who disappeared on a fishing trip. Poppy Damon and Alice Fiennes trace his story, from the theory he left the boat alive to reported sightings of him in Mexico. Can they solve the mystery?
HV
Sweeney TalksEpisodes weekly, widely availableInvestigative journalist John Sweeney knows what it’s like to find yourself in what he describes as “the deep do-do”. Here he meets other troublemakers, including risktaking palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke, who found herself forced into a bomb shelter in Kyiv, and former MI6 agent Christopher Steele, owner of some hair-raising tales of his own. HV
They Did ThatEpisodes weekly, widely availableThis evocative podcast spotlights innovators who have been omitted from the history books. It focuses first on Alice Ball, who developed a treatment for leprosy – only for her death at 24 to allow her work to be stolen and credited to (you’ll never believe it) a male colleague. Alexi Duggins
There’s a podcast for that
This week, Charlie Lindlar chooses five of the best podcasts to exercise to, from stories of sporting greatness (and scandal) to inspiring tales of perseverance
30 for 30If you couldn’t get enough of The Last Dance in lockdown, this podcast is for you. Originally an Oscarwinning documentary series by American broadcasting titan ESPN, 30 for 30 now also exists in audio form, offering another way to delve into stirring (and often shocking) stories from the world of sport. Episodes on the longest baseball game ever played (eight hours!) and the unstoppable rise of UFC make for perfect workout partners. There’s also a very bingeable sevenpart series on Béla and Márta Károlyi, the controversial Hungarian coaches whose defection to the US transformed gymnastics for a generation.
The MothThe Moth Radio Hour is the younger sibling of The Moth’s trademark storytelling events, which – for 25 years – have seen speakers take the stage to retell transformative fables from their own lives. In the podcast iteration, listeners are treated to multiple inspiring stories per episode, on topics ranging from standing up for yourself to discovering your inner beauty. You may never quite know what you’re going to get from each speaker, but every one is guaranteed to give you the emotional fuel to stretch out that run just that little bit further.
Song ExploderMusician Hrishikesh Hirway sits down with recording artists from Billie Eilish to Slipknot to break down one perfect song from their archives. The diverse range of genres Hirway delves into (Ludwig Göransson on the trips to Africa that inspired his Black Panther soundtrack one week; pop sensation Selena Gomez the next) is cause for constant surprise – though nothing beats the rush of finding out a song you truly love is coming up. With a brisk 20-minute runtime, it’s a unique way to hear how your favourite tunes came together, with two or three episodes providing a varied soundtrack for your next gym session.
CommittedDevoted to couples who have “soldiered through unimaginable circumstances”, Committed is all about perseverance. From WNBA star turned social justice activist Renee Montgomery’s story of meeting her wife Sirena Grace through basketball, to the tale of the man who cycled from Sweden to India for the women he loved (puts that Saturday morning spin class into perspective, doesn’t it?), every episode finds a way to teach you a lesson about the unerring value of giving it your best. The show’s archive is well worth working through to help reaffirm what humans can endure when we set our heart to it.
Why Is This Happening?Hosted by MSNBC journalist Chris Hayes, Why Is This Happening? goes beyond the headlines to understand the deeper causes of, and fixes for, the stories bubbling underneath the news agenda. The quiet format (Hayes non-combatively talks through each subject with one authoritative, trustworthy expert) and the earnest, solutions-focused tone of every episode draw you into the conversation, giving you quiet time to exercise your brain while you exercise your body. You can start anywhere, but the episode with author Ta-Nehisi Coates – recorded hours after the January 6 attack on the Capitol – remains perhaps the best diagnosis of what that day really meant for American democracy.
Why not try …
Amazing stories and sounds from the natural world in the BBC Earth podcast.
A deeply personal tale with links to the wider history of international adoption in All Relative: Defining Diego.
Get an in-depth look at longform journalism on topics from Tinder to billionaire apocalypse preppers in Story of the Week.
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