Podcasts

Jon Holmes Says the C-Word: Stephen Fry and Eric Idle talk frankly about the indignity – and humour – of cancer

Podcast review: This is important, destigmatising stuff but also bright, warm and entertaining

Bronwyn: Teacher’s Pet investigator Hedley Thomas on the trail of another missing mother – and another apparent death

Podcast review: Thomas’s dogged approach to the case of Bronwyn Winfield marks this series out from true-crime titillation

The Run-Up: New York Times election podcast takes the more interesting approach of talking to ordinary people

Black millennial host Astead W Herndon takes a bottom-up approach that makes this US presidential election podcast a must-listen

Mother: Keelin Moncrieff’s new podcast freewheels through the mothering life in all its glory and gore

Review: Mother is a reminder of the real need for this kind of cut-through-the-Insta-lives frankness, especially if you’re new to the parenting rollercoaster

D-Day: The Tide Turns – Absorbing account of meticulously orchestrated military gamble

Podcast review: The seaborne invasion, involving more than 130,000 troops, created a path to victory in Europe during the second World War

Handsome podcast review: Dry wit, glorious self-deprecation and creative brain explosions

Podcast review: The comedians Fortune Feimster, Tig Notaro and Mae Martin conquer the potentially dicey three-friends-chatting format

Fur & Loathing: an unsolved gas attack on a hotel and the rise of Nazi furries

Podcast: Why was a potentially deadly gas released at an IRL meeting of ‘a particularly nice and earnest’ online community?

The Forgotten: RTÉ’s investigation into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings highlights damning withholding of evidence

Podcast review: Deeply sourced series shows how the initial investigation foundered on incompetence, accident and indolence

Broomgate podcast review: The scandal that tipped the sport of curling into a hotbed of resentment and rivalry

Podcast review: Broomgate opens at the 2015 Tour Challenge in the Canadian town of Paradise, when a man named Brad Gushue walked on to the ice

How Matt Katz discovered his Irish family – and learned about Irish nights out – is a gripping story

Podcast review: Katz is a cracking storyteller, his meticulously researched and affecting journey is propulsive stuff

Serial season four: A stomach-churning account of a brutal, malfunctioning Guantánamo Bay prison camp

Podcast review: The award-winning Serial team have found an astonishing number of sources ready to share their stories of life at the camp

Dara Ó Briain and Josh Widdicombe gleefully dive into the story of the ‘worst footballer ever’

Podcast review: On their way to recounting Ali Dia’s brief appearance for Southampton, the comedians tell a complex, compelling tale

Keep It Tight review: Deirdre O’Kane and Emma Doran combine brazen charm with disarming realness

Podcast review: When O’Kane and Doran go off on one, they’re a streak of laughs, but they land punches too

The Bookshelf: Ryan Tubridy’s new podcast may be the best vehicle to date for this one-time Jack of all RTÉ

Podcast review: The former RTÉ broadcaster’s new show plays to his strengths – but it’ll need to push him out of his comfort zone

The Magadalenes and I: Compelling voices illuminate unspeakable institutional truths from Ireland’s recent past

Podcast review: Steven O’Riordan’s follow-up to 2009 documentary lacks narrative shape but makes up for it in the sheer force of his stories

Ryan Tubridy’s new books podcast to launch next week

Former RTÉ 1 presenter will speak to international guests about their life stories through the prism of books

Who Replaced Avril Lavigne? Joanne McNally’s deliciously deranged investigation is a must-listen

Podcast review: The Irish comedian musters all her charm and chutzpah to find out whether a body double has taken over from the Sk8er Boi singer

The Runaway Princesses: Painstaking investigation puts spotlight on treatment of women by ruler of Dubai

Podcast review: This New Yorker series is deeply sourced, dogged and horrifying

Black Box: You may never sit comfortably again after listening to this podcast about artificial intelligence

Podcast review: Michael Safi’s new Guardian series looks at how AI started, how it’s playing out and how it can be both a solace and a scourge

Who Trolled Amber? review: Relentless dig beneath Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard libel case makes a staggering revelation

Podcast review: Why did public opinion seem to turn against Amber Heard? Alexi Mostrous unearths one ominous factor that may have been responsible

How an Irish citizen wined, dined and then swindled a mansionful of high rollers

Podcast review: Viktor Kozeny, a round-faced, red-haired charmer, persuaded investors that they could share in the spoils of an oil-company privatisation

Just One Thing: At last you can trade in your vagina crystals for a good night’s sleep

Podcast review: Michael Mosley’s BBC series delves into the single simple change that might improve your health and wellbeing

Dr Marie Cassidy’s Life in Death: Bracingly direct Glaswegian makes easy listening of the grimmest of subjects

Podcast review: When asked her why she retired when she did, Cassidy refers to the murder of Ana Kriégel and a changing world

The true-crime dilemma: ‘Family of people who have been harmed could hear these stories’

Phoebe Judge and Lauren Spohrer, who are bringing their Criminal podcast to Ireland this week, set out to go beyond sensationalism in their reporting

Why Do You Hate Me? The BBC’s disinformation correspondent descends into the world of online trolls

Podcast review: Why do people churn out bile online, post abusive comments or threaten people they have to real connection with?

Bad Bridget: The haunting untold stories of the Irish women who sailed to the US for a better life but ended up in jail

Leanne McCormick and Elaine Farrell’s grim retellings detail harsh reality of immigrant life that was often heartbreaking and occasionally hilarious

The Rest Is Entertainment: Richard Osman and Marina Hyde know so much about the darnedest things

Podcast review: Choose your lane, get two or three experts with personality and enough passion for the subject - and watch your listener count rocket

Runaway Joe: RTÉ’s new podcast has all the ingredients for a gripping true-crime narrative

Podcast review: This new Documentary on One offering is a doozy that goes all the way back to 1967, with the murder of a young mother of two

Against the Odds review: Tales of extraordinary resilience, even if the hosts can lay the stars and stripes on thick

Podcast review: Mike Corey and Cassie De Pecol narrate stories of people surviving immeasurable hardship. But too often they lean into the histrionic

The Lady Vanishes: Listening to this sprawling missing person podcast is like witnessing a plane being built midflight

Podcast review: An investigation into the disappearance of an Australian woman in 1997 is the antithesis of the neatly packaged crime podcast

Seán Moncrieff: ‘Centrist dads’ are the political version of the missionary position but they offer something valuable

Seán Moncrieff: The centre ground can be a dull place but without it there’s less chance of change happening

Now You’re Asking: Tara Flynn and Marian Keyes may be sweet Irish agony aunts, but they’re not afraid to shank you

Podcast review: The pair are clearly close friends with a strong chemistry that works a charm

Eight Years’ Hard Labour: Succession meets Are You Being Served in this deliciously catty podcast

Podcast review: David Aaronovitch brings voice, snark and excellent storytelling to the tale of the UK Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer

Podcasts of 2023: Quality audio wins out - but some behemoths have made devastating cuts

Podcasting is still growing, with global listenership up year-on-year, but a plethora of entry-level pandemic-era podcasts have bowed out

McCartney: A Life in Lyrics podcast – Deliciously intimate conversations between the Beatle and Paul Muldoon

Podcast review: An extraordinary audio journey featuring find after glorious find by Paul McCartney

Small World: ‘The things we share are much, much more than the things that are different’

Podcast review: Rather than mine the traumas each one was escaping in coming here, Small World focuses on their lives once they arrive

The Daily: After years in the make-it-stop camp, I’ve found myself growing fonder of Michael Barbaro’s voice

Podcast review: This newspaper is alive and well and coming to an earbud near you

The Laughs of Your Life: Doireann Garrihy’s podcast packs a punch behind her infectious cackle

Podcast review: In a way it’s the non-laughing questions that paint their laughing counterparts into such high relief

The Rest Is Politics: Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart are wildly well informed and personally invested

Podcast review: Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart politics show is kind of a balm, and pretty chummy, but it’s definitely serious

Drifting Off with Joe Pera: Addictively soporific listening

Podcast review: The US comedian’s meaders through subjects from soup to Ireland to his answering machine are a little bit ASMR, a little bit guided meditation

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