Audio

How Fela Kuti became fearless

The creator of hit podcast Dolly Parton’s America turns his scholarly eye towards the pioneering Nigerian activist-musician

The Blackpool man who found a pot of crypto gold

Lewis Goodall makes sense of this brilliantly nutty tale about James Parker, the fraudster who spent £24.5m in free bitcoin. Plus, a deadly standup routine

The British Podcast awards are now the Oscars of the medium

The glitzy, celeb-studded ceremony’s jump to the O2 Arena reflects the growth in podcasting itself

After years of reviewing podcasts for The Observer, I’m making one

Recording a podcast is a strange, poacher-turned-gamekeeper experience

Audible’s star-studded Pride and Prejudice does Austen proud

This lively, funny adaption charmed even an Austen refusenik like me. Plus, Anna Wolfe explores the challenges of dating sober

Memories of David Bowie

This Radio 6 Music series about the early years of the great pop artist, featuring Kate Moss and Robbie Williams, is full of unheard detail and vivid colour. Plus, Adrian Chiles goes in search of Elgar

It’s back-to-school time and parental guidance is very welcome

Having children is overwhelming but the CBeebies Parenting Helpline is on hand to help bruised and battered mums and dads

Instant Classics feels like an Oxford tutorial – in a good way

Mary Beard and Charlotte Higgins discuss the classical world in a new weekly podcast that feels like an Oxford tutorial

The hippy heroes who took on McDonald’s

Comedian Mark Steel explores the McLibel case – the longest trial in British history – in a riveting series. Plus, an unmissable documentary about the Asian front of the second world war

Is criticism in crisis?

Arifa Akbar’s two-part series explores culture writing in the age of identity politics, algorithms and ChatGPT

Is counterculture dead – or mainstream?

Stewart Lee goes underground to uncover the roots of alternative scenes. Plus, psychedelics become all the rage and Katherine Ryan talks dirty

How Long Gone's Chris Black and Jason Stewart: ‘Taste takes years to define’

The hosts of the How Long Gone podcast reflect on how life, chatter and staying interesting

What was indie sleaze?

A new podcast remembers early 00s guitar music, but first it must define the term. Plus: sport’s strangest crimes returns

What should we make of the HS2 fiasco?

Radio 4 airs an unmissable investigation of the high-speed rail network debacle – although ‘debacle’ seems too strong a word for the contained emotions in this series

The rise of the AI companion

The Wondery series Flesh and Code investigates a man in love with a chatbot

The Retrievals is disturbing but essential listening

The second season unearths the appallingly common injustice of women undergoing C-sections without pain relief. Plus, Shadow World and The Crime Agents

The return of character comedy

From Alan Partridge to Ed Reardon, deeply ridiculous personalities are back on radio and podcasts this week

The misinformation rabbit hole

Marianna in Conspiracyland reveals the dark world of anti-medicine influencers