What’s new to listen to

Ximena Smith rounds up the best of recent podcasts.

Imperfect Paradise: Yoga’s Queen of Conspiracies

This three-part series from LAist Studios investigates the story behind Guru Jagat, a Californian yoga teacher and wellness entrepreneur, who died suddenly in 2021. Before her death, Jagat, pictured, had built a successful yoga empire around a style of yoga called Kundalini with book deals, celebrity clients and a gaggle of loyal followers. But when the pandemic hit, Jagat began peddling outlandish conspiracy theories, much to the dismay of her increasingly worried family. Imperfect Paradise explores Jagat’s rise and fall, through interviews with family members and others that knew her. Hosted by Emily Guerin in just three episodes, the series paints an empathetic picture of Jagat, without downplaying the harmful, dangerous elements of her conspiratorial beliefs.

Shrink the Box

Somethin’ Else and Sony Music Entertainment’s weekly podcast explores the psychology of some of the greatest fictional television characters. Every episode, actor Ben Bailey Smith and psychotherapist Sasha Bates put a different character on the therapy couch, analysing their motivations, decisions and relationships. Tony Soprano (from The Sopranos), Omar Little (from The Wire) and Beth Harmon (from The Queen’s Gambit) have been dissected so far. Of course, Smith and Bates only have the show material to go on, but the conjecture and extrapolation are all really just part of the fun, and you get the sense from the show’s relaxed lightheartedness that Smith and Bates aren’t taking themselves too seriously. It’s not all just jokes and banter though – Smith and Bates also incorporate weighty themes of childhood abandonment, racism and discrimination into their discussion of each character, and some memorable clips from each television show are woven in. Be warned that spoilers are inevitable with Shrink The Box, so make sure you’ve watched at least a season or two of each corresponding television show, before you dive in. New episodes every Tuesday.

Next Year in Moscow

The Economist’s Russia Editor, Arkady Ostrovsky, hosts this seven-part series that tells the story of exiled Russians who fled the country when the war in Ukraine began one year ago. Ostrovsky describes those who left as Russia’s ‘‘freethinkers’’ – they all oppose Putin’s regime, and now, hundreds of thousands of them are scattered across the globe because of their opposition to the Ukraine invasion. Throughout the series, Ostrovsky travels to different parts of Europe and the Middle East to meet these dissident Russians, talking to them about how they’re rebuilding their lives and their hopes for the future of their home country. As a Russian-born British journalist, Ostrovsky brings a distinctive perspective to the role of host – he’s simultaneously an outsider and an insider which works in his favour as each episode so far has brought together the right blend of context, nuance and detail for a broad audience. It’s terrifically produced too: tightly edited interview clips, welltimed music and excellent atmospheric sound. New episodes every Friday.