Fake Heiress, BBC Sounds
A thrilling true crime podcast without a single dead body or smoking gun, this is the tale of the fake socialite Anna Delvey, who talked her way into fancy celeb parties in New York, fooled the rich and powerful and finally got convicted of fraud. The six episodes about how she did it mixes drama with documentary to powerful effect to tell a story about what one audacious person could get away with—and what she couldn’t.
Something Rhymes With Purple, Somethin’ Else
Fancy increasing your vocabulary? Here’s a surefire way to learn some new words: Gyles Brandreth and Susie Dent explore unusual words and their surprising etymologies in each episode. Great fun, meandering and not at all hard-hitting, it’s nevertheless good brain fodder, with episodes on themes such as words invented by poets or the hidden language of parts of the body. If you don’t yet know the meaning of sphallolalia, zwoddery, jirble or nipcheese, get involved.
Corbynism: The Post-Mortem, Oz Katerji
This podcast is a labour of love made by the journalist Oz Katerji, tackling a different theme in each episode as he looks in-depth at what went wrong for Jeremy Corbyn in the general election last year, with the help of input from a variety of journalists and political figures. The themes are well chosen and explored with intelligence and sensitivity, so far covering anti-semitism (the first episode), Scottish independence and problems within the parliamentary Labour Party.
