All journalists know that what they produce matters, but sometimes it can be easy to forget just how much.
The man who fell to earth, an excellent episode of the Guardian’s Today in Focuspodcast, tells the story of how Esther Addley reported on an airplane stowaway whose dead body was found in a west London car park – only to be contacted by the deceased’s brother 23 years later. The reason: his family had kept her article as a family treasure for decades, prompting him to learn enough English to be able to read the account of his much older sibling’s life – then travel to the UK on his trail. “It is genuinely one of the most powerful and emotional things anyone has ever said to me about my work,” says Addley. “It brings home the responsibility of every story we do.”
Hopefully there might be some similarly beloved tales in this week’s podcast recommendations. We’ve got a round-up of the best shows for comic lovers, plus Lupita Nyong’o’s new series about the African diaspora and what it means to belong. There’s a damning history of the New York Police Department, an insiders’ guide to charity giving and the awful tale of a German sex trafficking ring. They’re all joined by the wild stories of the participants who signed up to a reality TV show … without knowing what would happen when cameras started rolling.
Alexi Duggins
Deputy TV editor
Picks of the week
Mind Your Own
Widely available, episodes weekly
Lupita Nyong’o came up with the idea for this podcast when she was stuck in traffic and wanted to hear a story from Kenya, where she grew up. She’s inviting others in the African diaspora to tell real-life tales from Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Johannesburg and more. But what’s really interesting is Nyong’o talking about how uncomfortable it felt to lose her accent for the American market, before finding her authentic voice again. Hannah Verdier
Cursed
Audible, all episodes out now
Journalist Femi Oke investigates “a true story about sex, money and the spirit world” in this harrowing series. When a woman turned up at a German brothel in 2016 and refused to say how she’d got there, authorities uncovered a human trafficking ring that made women take an oath with a spiritual ritual. The way young women from Nigeria suffered is horrific, but it needs to be heard. HV
Giving Done Right
Widely available, episodes weekly
Whether you’re an occasional donor, a charity or a big bucks philanthropist, this new podcast looks at how to make the most of what you give. Leaders and experts talk about what climate action can make a difference, how AI can be used for good and the pros and cons of giving away cash. HV
Empire City
Widely available, episodes weekly
Journalist Chenjerai Kumanyika recently discovered footage of his father as a young man. The context was disturbing: the film was shot by the NYPD who were surveilling civil rights activists. It prompted Kumanyika to produce this damning series, which functions as an alternative history of the US police and a challenge to the notion that they have the safety of New Yorkers at heart. Phil Harrison
Split Screen: Thrill Seekers
Widely available, episodes weekly from Monday
What happens when you get people to sign up to a reality TV show they know nothing about? The “thrill seekers” who did just that join Love + Radio’s Nick van der Kolk to look back on their incredible experiences: some are adventurers, others will do anything for money, but all are surprisingly relatable. HV
There’s a podcast for that
This week, Graeme Virtue chooses five of the best podcasts on comic book culture, from a six-part dissection of Black Panther to a history of Charlie Brown, Snoopy and company
Unpacking Peanuts
This delightful series celebrates the cartoon strip that turned kid worrywart Charlie Brown and his daydreaming beagle into global icons. Three professional cartoonists – Michael Cohen, Jimmy Gownley and Harold Buchholz – are working their way through Schulz’s output chronologically from 1950, and with the entire Peanuts archive free to view online, listeners are encouraged to read along. The veteran trio and their producer Liz Sumner have an easygoing rapport, and offer perceptive insights into author Charles M Schulz’s artistic development and empathetic sense of humour. With eight seasons banked, the epic read-through has already reached the mid-1980s.
after newsletter promotion
War Rocket Ajax: Every Story Ever
If keeping tabs on the Marvel Cinematic Universecan feel like a full-time job, then trying to fathom the long and sprawling history of comics is even more intimidating. One way to get a handle on decades of serialised storytelling might be to compile a whopping great list of comics ranked from best to worst, which is what the long-running US podcast War Rocket Ajax does every month with its bonus Every Story Ever episodes. To date, dynamic duo Matt Wilson and Chris Sims have compiled an ever-growing league table of over 1,500 comic stories, providing exuberant analysis of everything from Judge Dredd to cult online strip Achewood.
Newcomers: Batman
Each season of the raucously entertaining Newcomers sees hosts Nicole Byer and Lauren Lapkus put themselves through a different pop culture boot camp. Earlier this year the pair immersed themselves in Bruce Wayne’s world with 14 episodes examining the Caped Crusader. A murderer’s row of Batman obsessives – including former Saturday Night Live star Taran Killam, podcast kingpin Scott Aukerman and whip-smart comic Patton Oswalt – dropped in to explain how every movie adaptation raided various classic comic stories for inspiration. Byer and Lapkus politely took all that geekiness on board, but seemed just as interested in calculating which screen Batman was the horniest via their own Bat poll.
House to Astonish
The UK’s longest-running comics podcast – 15 years and counting – is a relaxed chinwag between Edinburgh-based experts Al Kennedy and Paul O’Brien, whose scholarly knowledge of their chosen subject is permeated with flashes of daftness and dry wit. Each episode provides a snapshot of current comics culture as the pair break down the latest hyped-up publishing announcements and put recent new issues under the review microscope. Since early 2021, Kennedy and O’Brien have alternated standard episodes with a book club rereading Marvel’s Thunderbolts, an influential 1997 series about supervillains masquerading as heroes (and secretly starting to enjoy it). With a Thunderbolts movie starring Florence Pugh and Julia Louis-Dreyfus out next year, you could hardly ask for a better primer.
The History of Marvel Comics: Black Panther
Marvel’s first Black superhero had already been around for more than 50 years by the time 2018 blockbuster Black Panther became an Oscar-garlanded, billion-dollar phenomenon. Originally created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1966, the hands-on warrior king of African tech-utopia Wakanda has been rebooted and relaunched multiple times over the decades, each new incarnation challenging the prejudices of the times. This slick six-part series presented by YA author Nic Stone charts the evolution and cultural impact of the character. Stone’s enthusiasm is infectious as she hears from those who shaped the Black Panther mythos, including veteran artist John Romita Jr and award-winning writer Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Why not try …
-
The final series of the late Rob Burrow’s Seven podcast will be released from next week, with one bonus episode already available.
