The Graham Norton Book Club, Audible
Graham Norton is having a flourishing career as a novelist, and his passion for books extends to a new podcast for Audible with alternating co-hosts Alex Clark and Sara Collins. In the first episode Norton is joined by the Scottish crime writer Denise Mina, and later guests include Zadie Smith, Juliet Stevenson, Maxine Peake and Stephen Mangan. As well as close engagement with books and authors, there are discussions of audiobook narration, news and gossip from the book trade.
The Lazarus Heist, BBC Sounds
This excellent podcast tackles the subject of organised crime on a dizzying international scale. Who are the members of the shady hacking group behind the WannaCry ransomware attacks, thefts of huge amounts of money, and the hacking of Hollywood emails and professionally embarrassing Sony Pictures data? Journalists Jean Lee and Geoff White investigate the hackers’ links to North Korea—and a Seth Rogen movie—and present an expansive and addictive exploration of the rapidly evolving modern warfare of cybercrime and its cultural contexts.
A Brief History of Stuff, Science Museum Group
Nihal Arthanayake explores in detail a series of everyday objects that you might find in the home. With each episode featuring a relevant object from the Science Museum Group’s collection, with museum curators providing expert context, we hear how items such as bath toys, sticky tape and microwaves have helped scientists to understand the world in new ways. For instance, the 29,000 rubber ducks that washed overboard in a storm in 1992, whose onward journeys have provided fresh insight into ocean currents.
