Here, we’ve tuned in to the best podcasts of the year and urge you to do the same.
Late Fragments
In this beautifully produced new podcast, journalist Chloe Fox interviews a range of prominent octogenarians who reflect candidly on their long lives. Fox makes a point of asking them about the things one shouldn’t: politics, sex, religion and money. Her voice is almost as mesmerising as her guests’ wit and wisdom. We’ve hung on every word of Carmen Callil and Sir Tom Stoppard and feverishly await the next instalment. Listen here.
The Rest Is Politics
Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart chew the cud as they debate the political and cultural stories of the moment in this chart-topping weekly podcast. The two men are familiar in different ways with our country’s corridors of power; their aim is to ‘bring back the lost art of disagreeing agreeably’. They are engaging, clever and astonishingly knowledgeable and their differing stances produce endless food for thought. Listen here.
Books And Authors
OK, this BBC podcast – combining the Radio 4 shows A Good Read and Open Book – is hardly shiny and new but it is updated with brilliant episodes so often that you need to check in regularly. Think of any author you’d like to hear from or about, search for them and you will find them within this rich resource. Listen here.
The Goop Podcast
Mock it all you like but Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness empire, Goop, wields a lot of power. Some of the things she sells and advocates are questionable. But many of the topics covered in this weekly podcast, which drops every Tuesday, are genuinely useful. We particularly liked the episodes about caring for aging parents (November 8) and examining our relationship with money (December 6). Listen here.
Therapy Works
In each episode of this new podcast, we sit in on one of Julia Samuel’s therapy sessions. Some of her guests are famous (Minnie Driver opened the season); others are not. All of their stories are interesting, and Samuel’s take on them is invaluable. A happy quirk of the format is that she is joined at the end of the episode by her two therapist daughters, Emily and Sophie, who reflect on the conversation and share their insight. Listen here.
Solving The Puzzle With Dr Datis Kharrazian
One of the things we human beings have in common is an obsession with our health. If that statement resonates, this American podcast is for you. In each episode, the functional medicine practitioner, Dr Datis Kharrazian, takes a thorny healthcare issue and painstakingly unpicks it. Kharrazian has spent 20 years researching autoimmune and brain conditions and is brimming with ways we can gain control over certain aspects of our health. What the podcast lacks in humour, it makes up for in clearly presented and very helpful information. Listen here.
The Writer’s Voice
This elegant podcast, in which The New Yorker magazine’s fiction writers read aloud their stories, is such a gift you won’t believe that you can access it for free. There are any number of stories, which you are unlikely to have come across before, to get lost in but a particular highlight is the prize-winning Irish author Claire Keegan reading her short story, So Late in the Day, which featured in the February 28, 2022 issue of the magazine. Listen here.
The Modern House
Matt Hibberd founded The Modern House as a chic and niche estate agency. He is fast turning it into a wildly successful and full-blown lifestyle brand. GQ magazine has described The Modern House as, quite simply: ‘one of the best things in the world’. In each episode of The Modern House Podcast, Hibberd speaks to a luminary from the world of design is invites them to list and describe their top three living spaces. We particularly enjoyed fashion designer Margaret Howell’s selection. Listen here.
By Becky Ladenburg
December 2022
