Best podcasts of the week: Guantánamo gets the Serial treatment | Podcasts

Picks of the week

Serial
Extensively out there, episodes weekly
The OG of podcasting returns for a superb fourth season, with Sarah Koenig and Dana Chivvis’s historical past of Guantánamo. It’s a narrative they’ve been wanting to inform for years, however till now haven’t been in a position to get too far past the official line. At present, employees and detainees are prepared to speak: whereas the previous report partying their “asses off”, the latter – who every value $13m a yr to accommodate – focus on their fears. Hannah Verdier

To Die For
Extensively out there, all episodes out now
The point out of seduction and “sexpionage” sounds just like the stuff of male fantasy, however Neil Strauss offers one Russian lady the prospect to inform her story of surveillance and love traps. First, he should work out if she is real, as she claims she was “a sufferer, brainwashed that I used to be a hero”. HV

Historical past’s Secret Heroes
Extensively out there, episodes weekly
It doesn’t get a lot lovelier than listening to Helena Bonham Carter (pictured beneath) inform the story of Ida and Louise Prepare dinner. In an archive interview with Sue MacGregor, Mills & Boon novelist Ida talks about romance, earlier than Bonham Carter explores the lives of the 2 sisters who specialised in socialising with opera stars and serving to Jewish individuals escape Nazi Germany. HV

Jockular
Extensively out there, episodes weekly
Listening to Katie Kershaw, Tien Tran and ER Fightmaster speak about “all issues queer, trans and woman-forward on the earth of sport” is a exercise to your gossip muscle. The trio of buddies are humorous and outrageous as they speak about unhealthy coaches, being referred to as dykes by a rival group and the sporting moments that made them homosexual. HV

Homicide within the Hollywood Hills
Extensively out there, episodes weekly
Kristi Johnson was 21 years outdated when a person spun her an irresistible pickup line in an LA mall: he mentioned he was a film producer on the lookout for the subsequent Bond lady. He drove her in his sports activities automobile to a supposed photoshoot, and he or she was by no means seen alive once more. This sequence hosted by NBC’s Keith Morrison tells the story of the ladies who banded collectively to search out and lock up the smooth-talking predator. Hollie Richardson

There’s a podcast for that

This week, Ammar Kalia chooses 5 of the perfect podcasts on hip-hop, from a Roots founder’s interview with rap stars to Romesh Ranganathan’s ode to the style

Questlove Supreme
Founding father of hip-hop group The Roots and Oscar-winning director Questlove has turn into one thing of an authority on rap. Whereas his Instagram profile incorporates a treasure-trove of tributes to lesser-known and infrequently not too long ago deceased artists, his podcast sequence interviews residing greats about their profession highs and lows. Steering away from the aimless chit-chat of different hip-hop superstar podcasts, Questlove Supreme will get tutorial with out shedding an enthusiastic aptitude that at all times brings selection anecdotes out of its visitors. Highlights embody a deep dive into LL Cool J’s superstardom, author Dan Charnas on the genius of producer J Dilla, and DJ Marley Marl on 80s hip-hop.

Louder Than a Riot
Alongside its status for extra and controversy, hip-hop has existed for the previous 50 years as an important technique of social and political expression. Louder Than a Riot explores intimately how this energetic artistry from a few of America’s most uncared for communities has been policed, coincided with the rise of mass incarceration and even expressed prejudices inside its personal ranks. Hosts Rodney Carmichael and Sidney Madden combine partaking reporting with interviews to discover how rappers have typically fallen foul of the felony justice system earlier than analysing the misogyny and homophobia inside hip-hop.

The Weblog Period
Brothers Jeff and Eric Rosenthal host this fascinating sequence that analyses a distinct segment however crucially essential few years in hip-hop historical past. After the start of the web and earlier than the streaming age took off, blogs may make or break rap artists and a few argue that their fevered write-ups even started to affect the kind of music being made itself. On The Weblog Period, the brothers Rosenthal unpick music made between 2007 and 2012 (after which SoundCloud turned the dominant power), that includes the rise of everybody from J Cole to Child Cudi, in addition to profiling the destiny of the editors who ran the websites.

Dissect
Stepping away from wholesale histories of the style, this long-running sequence from host Cole Cuchna houses in on hip-hop one album at a time. With every sequence unpicking the lyrical, musical and contextual data of a unique document, Cuchna employs his coaching in composition to discover the specifics of how artists like Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West movement over their beats, in addition to explaining their lyrical intent. Having already coated every little thing from Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly to West’s My Stunning Darkish Twisted Fantasy and Tyler the Creator’s Igor, Dissect is an exhaustive however important pay attention for current followers, in addition to a perfect entry level for informal listeners.

Hip-Hop Saved My Life
Hip-hop may need began out as a distinctly American style however 50 years on from its start, it has a legacy that spans the globe. Taking a joke-filled however equally encyclopaedic strategy to hip-hop fandom, this sequence from comedian Romesh Ranganathan explores his love of the style whereas interviewing fellow British celebs and artists. Episodes to start out with embody grime star Kano speaking about his distinctly British twist on the style, Mercury prize winner Little Simz on her rise as a lady in hip-hop, and the late Jamal Edwards on his founding of the pioneering grime platform SBTV.

Why not attempt …

• Chameleon: Gallery of Lies is a six-episode romp right into a world of deceit, fraud, and the potential for redemption.

• Inbetweeners actor James Buckley and spouse Clair focus on the nitty gritty particulars of marriage and relationship non-negotiables In Illness and in Well being.

• Skilled wrestler Ashley Massaro died by suicide in 2019. Ashley vs WWE, follows occasions main as much as her demise and examines allegations of abuse whereas she was with the corporate.