What’s new to listen to
Ximena Smith rounds up what podcasts we’re tuning into.
Narcissa
The narrative fiction podcast studio QCode is back again with a new audio thriller to plug into your ears. This time, the plot is set in a dystopian Los Angeles, where the skill of mind-reading is banned. The show’s protagonist, Sid (played by Glee’s Dianna Agron), has successfully kept her reading abilities secret for years, but this secrecy is threatened when a series of murders by a suspected mind reader takes place. Like most of QCode’s other narrative fiction stories, Narcissa has an interesting premise and the sound design and voice acting are both outstanding. Halfway through, I’m just hopeful that Narcissa doesn’t go the way of QCode’s recent thrillers Listening In and Last Known Position, which both started out so promising, but ended disappointingly. New episodes of Narcissa are out every Wednesday for free on all major podcasting platforms, or you can listen to the full series available now by subscribing to QCode+ on Apple Podcasts.
The Followers
LBC broadcaster Shelagh Fogarty tells the disturbing story of how she was stalked for nearly two years, in this new, five-part series. In taking the listener through each stage of her harrowing experience, Fogarty frequently uses an intimate first-person narrative style, which results in some spine-chilling reconstructions of encounters with the stalker (the first episode, for example, features a terrifying description of when she first noticed she was being followed by him on The Tube). Fogarty also talks through her mental responses to the situation, ranging from minimisation at the start to horrific recurring nightmares and a feeling of complete powerlessness. This series isn’t solely about Fogarty’s experience though: she also speaks to experts and other victims about the issue of stalking more broadly in society, and the problems victims often experience when trying to seek justice. The statistic that one-in-five women in the United Kingdom will experience stalking is mentioned several times throughout the series – a sobering reminder that what Fogarty went through is sadly far from rare. New episodes are out every Monday, or you can listen to all five now by signing up to Global Player for free.
Fed Up
Like scammer stories, tales of controversial gurus seem to be ripe for podcast series. Tanya Zuckerbrot is one such guru: she’s the Instagram-famous founder of a trendy diet called F-Factor, and this new series from Wondery explores the social media crusade that took place against her. Leading the charge against Zuckerbrot was the Instagram influencer Emily Gellis, who heard rumours about people experiencing terrible side-effects after following the F-Factor diet. Gellis decided she needed to expose Zuckerbrot by launching an online campaign warning people about the diet and what followed was a high-profile feud and eventual court battle between the two Instagram personalities. In the episodes released so far, we’ve heard more from Gellis’ side of the story than Zuckerbrot’s, but host Casey Wilson has hinted that will change as the series goes on. Episodes are being drip-fed on your chosen podcast app, or you can listen to new episodes one week early and ad-free by subscribing to Wondery+.