Renegades, Chippendales, and Comfort Eating: The 10 best international podcasts of the year
Podcast Corner
A curious mix of art, true crime, and confession, as people in New York dial up an ‘apology line’ to get something off their chest. But there’s someone listening on the other end, who risks everything.
Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama in conversation about their respective histories and thus the story of America. It’s familiar territory but how do you resist the Boss and the former president? Also available in a hardback book - the perfect Christmas present.
The true-crime podcast of the year as murder comes to the Chippendales 1980s male exotic dancers. The story of Somen ‘Steve’ Banerjee is also being adapted for a TV series starring Kumail Nanjiani
With the surfeit of true crime shows around at the moment, and with cryptocurrencies gaining in popularity, it was no surprise to see two series cover the same topic at the same time, investigating the mysterious death of the founder of Canada’s biggest bitcoin exchange.
Dan Taberski was busy this year, hosting the Apple exclusive series The Line and, to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks on the US, this series of stories about what happened, in various strands, after the day in question.
Series three may not have been as special as the first two, but as George the Poet’s prods his raison d’etre, he taps his love of rap and seeks to inspire a younger generation. Featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra, it is a lush listen.
Jonathan Goldstein returns for another season of heartrending (some might say overwrought) stories. ‘#37 John’ is the standout episode of the run, as Fault in Our Stars author John Green revisits a shocking piece of his past.
There were two seasons of the superlative Slow Burn in 2021. Season five, about the US invasion of Iraq, wasn’t very appealing, but the current ongoing season, about the LA Riots of 1992, is fascinating. We all know the name Rodney King, but there are so many other names, and victims, of this story.
The ideas are running low for podcast interview series with ‘celebrities’, but Guardian restaurant critic Grace Dent wants to know what food people are reaching for when they’re all alone, in need of a savoured morsel. The first episode, with It’s a Sin creator Russell T Davis, will leave you teary-eyed, but it’s the curious recipes that linger - beans on toast with Wotsits crisps on top, anyone?
Catfishing is a 21st century deception/fascination and Sweet Bobbytells an increasingly horrifying, incredulous story as Kirat loses years of her life to someone she only knows online - is he even real? Features numerous stop-you-in-your-tracks, jaw-dropping moments.
- Next week's Podcast Corner column will feature the best of Irish for 2021
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