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Have you ever heard of fun true crime? Or wondered how to write a book? Then this week’s podcast picks would be perfect for you.
1. The Reggie Yates Podcast
Streaming platform: All streaming platforms
Genre: Culture, comedy and society
The Reggie Yates Podcast is back after four years. It’s still hosted by British television presenter, writer and director Reggie Yates, and his nearest and dearest friends Owen, Bubba, and Uzo, but it feels different, yet the same.
In the first special episode, which was about nothing until it wasn’t – a running them for the Unlocked-produced podcast – the hosts fill listeners in about what they have all been up to over the past four years, including getting married, making an album, and becoming a dad, to name a few.
But in the latest bonus episode which drops every Sunday – regular episodes drop every Thursday – they speak of the old Bubba, who used to have road rage and his subpar driving skills (according to his friends, not me), before the executive producer Leanne Alie and social media manager Hot Max ask them some fire questions, including if they have ever heard of the term ‘bi*** sauce’ and any crazy secrets they’d like to share. The co-hosts also answered some of the questions listeners left in Reggie’s DMs.
The Reggie Yates Podcast – also recorded on video – is where four men with history talk about everything from trending topics, love, men’s mental health and everything in between. It’s what makes it ooze such wholesome energy.
(By Yolanthé Fawehinmi)
2. How To… Write A Book
Streaming platform: All streaming platforms
Genre: Society and culture
Are you dreaming about penning that novel, but feel overwhelmed about where to start, or unsure whether your ideas are any good? Then tune in to best-selling novelist Elizabeth Day’s latest ‘podclass’ for insider tips, golden rules and lived experience from the writing trenches.
Day, host of chart-topping podcast ‘How To Fail’, is joined by three pros – author Sara Collins, publisher Sharmaine Lovegrove, and literary agent Nelle Andrew, who all offer key advice for budding authors.
First up is ideas – how do you turn yours into a voice, and does it have the ingredients of a compelling story? The four discuss books you enjoy reading and plot lines – what keeps you from putting one down and feeling bereft when it’s finished?
They also talk about the discipline required to actually sit down and get those words onto the page, the process of getting your creative juices flowing (‘ingest stuff, go to art galleries. Walk, read novels’), while pointing out that there are no original ideas, it’s the way you express them.
This is the perfect podcast for giving budding writers the push they need to get that piece of work out into the world, but even if you don’t have the ambition to be a published author, it draws the curtain back on the world of books. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
(By Caroline Duggan)
3. Journeys with Grace
Streaming platform: All streaming platforms
Genre: Life, health and music
Three words describe Journeys with Grace: immersive, innovative and authentic.
Hanging onto every last word, host and singer-songwriter Gigi, also known as Grace or Tope, tells a remarkable, funny, and painfully honest story about her battle with Crohn’s disease of the small intestine – she was diagnosed in 2005 after an accidental visit to the hospital – while trying to pursue her music career.
The first episode or chapter – out August 1 – takes listeners on a rollercoaster ride, punctuated with the propulsive original music written, performed and produced by Gigi.
It begins with Gigi asking her friend Tora to stay on the phone as she drives herself home. She’s in pain and discomfort, which feels like “someone is tying knots” in her stomach, and desperately needs to use the toilet.
We learn more about Gigi’s Nigerian upbringing and family dynamic, almost becoming homeless, interrupted time at university, moving to Brooklyn, New York, for a few months to work with music producers, how she dealt with her diagnosis, continuously having to advocate for herself during hospital appointments and her thoughts on the dangers of the pharmaceutical industry.
Journeys with Grace, which won Spotify’s Sound Up initiative, is proof that there’s so much more on the other side of claiming our stories. There’s power, healing and freedom.
(By Yolanthé Fawehinmi)
4. Black Writers: After Hours
Streaming platform: All streaming platforms and YouTube
Genre: Arts
Poet, playwright and jazz singer Cheryl Martin is the latest guest on Commonword’s Black Writers: After Hours podcast.
This episode mentions mental health issues and suicide, so if you would like to avoid this content, I would advise skipping to 11 minutes 30.
Martin, who is originally from the United States but has lived in and around Manchester since 1988, started writing – particularly poetry – when she was eight years old and already dealing with a lot of mental health issues, including feeling suicidal.
It was interesting hearing Martin talk about how she has used her work to carve out her lane and find her literary voice. But she points out that balancing your mental health and creative pursuits can be very difficult.
Her work digs deep into the human psyche, so it’s no surprise that she shared some invaluable tips and examples on how to strike that balance, which would be beneficial for writers and creatives trying to get out of a rut.
(By Yolanthé Fawehinmi)
Spotlight on…
5. Scam Goddess
Streaming platform: All streaming platforms
Genre: True crime and business
Scam Goddess, hosted by Laci Mosley, is a podcast dedicated to robbery fraud and all those who practice it.
But the intro music, which the host wrote and arranged in traffic on Laurel Canyon, is now being featured on a new TV non-fiction series adaptation in collaboration with ABC News Studios, where Laci will meet scammers face-to-face and those who were exploited by them.
In each episode, Laci keeps listeners up to date on current rackers, digs deep into the latest scams, and breaks down historic hoodwinks alongside some of your favourite comedians.
This week, Laci and the “con-gregation” – what Laci calls listeners – is joined by hosts Ceara O’Sullivan and Griff Stark-Ennis of the Petty Crimes podcast. Laci starts the episode how she always does and first asks what their relationship is like with scams, and goes on to talk about being scammed by dentists and the 1960s real estate developer Nat Mendelsohn, whose California City desert utopia became a desert nightmare.
Scam Goddess is a clever podcast. It’s like true crime, only without the death element, which puts the fun back into the genre that is usually quite morbid.
(By Yolanthé Fawehinmi)
