Figurative food for the curious

If it feels like you’ve been hooked on Covid-19 news for weeks, now is the time for a new distraction. What’s further away from coronavirus than outer space? Let Nasa’s Curious Universe podcast take you to galaxies far, far away where viruses are gone.

Nasa scientists and astronauts are your guides in this podcast, where you can discover amazing facts about our home planet and the universe beyond.

There’s a great episode on the

Hubble telescope and how it’s helped map Earth from space, and another on how astronauts are trained in an underwater neutral buoyancy lab.

If, like me, you’ve become attached to daytime game shows Tipping Point and The Chase, then this next podcast is for you.

Presented by Lucy Porter and Jenny ‘‘The Vixen’’ Ryan of

The Chase, the Fingers on Buzzers podcast features a host of people who work behind the scenes of popular TV quiz shows, including James Harkin (QI) and Roger Tilling (the voice of University Challenge).

There are also interviews with epic winners and losers of quiz shows past and present.

Every time I listen, I feel undiluted quiz joy.

If you really want to hide from coronavirus stories down the rabbit hole of the internet, then give Rabbit Hole a listen.

It’s produced by the New York Times team who made the

Caliphate podcast, and is presented by tech columnist Kevin Roose.

It’s a fascinating look into the algorithms behind YouTube, questions what the internet is doing to our brains, and how people become radicalised by too much time online.

Episode two on the rise of the alt-right on YouTube is fascinating. There’s a first-person account of a young man who became transformed after spending hours online.