With the UK still in its third lockdown and the nights finally beginning to get lighter on evenings, here are some podcasts to see you through those daily walks and to keep you company as you take on the wind, rain and sleet of the UK’s winter.

How to Own the Room 

How to Own the Room from comedian and presenter Viv Groskop interviews women leaders across a range of industries about their tips and tricks to public speaking and how they lead in professional settings.

Highlights include Abadesi Osunsade, tech entrepreneur, whose experiences as a Black woman within the male-dominated industry led her to found Hustle Crew, a careers initiative that aims to make tech more inclusive. Tricks ahead of important talks include replaying her greatest achievements, re-reading her CV to remind herself of her successes and using meditation.

Feminist activist Laura Bates of Everyday Sexism covers how breathing carefully to slow down her speech and reveals that she practises any talks again and again with her friends and family ahead of an event. For fans of Otagha Uwagba’s podcast In Good Company or her Little Black Book 

Money Clinic with Claer Barrett (formerly FT Money Show)

I’ve been a long-time fan of this show, hosted by Claer Barrett at the Financial Times. 

Barrett, often through interviews with industry experts and fellow FT journalists, examines areas of financial news, unpicks jargon, changing legislation and offers insight and ways to become financially literate.

Following COVID-19, there is a greater emphasis in episodes on how to do something, including regular episodes interviewing those considering life-changing decisions, such as career pivots, setting up their own businesses and buying property.

If 2021 is the year you begin to take charge of your finances, skimming through some of the episodes on this show would be an excellent place to start for whether you’re looking into shared ownership, wondering whether you should clear your credit card debt or build emergency savings first, through to ethical investments and planning for retirement. For fans of Refinery29’s Money Diaries

One from the Vaults 

This is my new favourite podcast. Hosted by the charismatic Morgan M Page, One From the Vaults brings you “the dirt, gossip and glamour from trans history” across North America and Europe. The podcast delves into the stories of early queer icons, whose decision to live authentically, and the cost to them for doing so, remains shamefully little known.

The real strength of this podcast is Page’s consistent attention to how the intersections of queerness, race and socio-economics can each and together impact on cultural viewpoints of a time, but also inform those today.

Page’s passion for the topic of legislation is infectious. It’s bingeable as well as brilliant. For fans of Disclosure. As a touchpoint for queer history and culture, it’as a must listen. 

Relatively

We’ve all seen the meme that 2020 taught us to appreciate what we have rather than what we crave next. For many of us, that included a renewed appreciation of our family. The relatively new (aha!) podcast Relatively, led by journalist Catherine Carr, interviews pairs of siblings on their relationship, both together and individually.

So far, the series has included RuPaul’s Drag Race: UK runner-up Divina de Campo and her youngest sister Carys, as well as Birmingham MP Jess Phillips and her older brother Luke. The show is a sensitive and fascinating insight into different family structures, the bonds between siblings and how those relationships develop over time. Perfect for fans of Esther Perel’s Where Should We Begin?

Still Processing 

This show, hosted by friends Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris, both of the New York Times Magazine, chart culture-defining events (the first episode unpicked Colin Kaepernick’s decision to take the knee back in 2016) as well as from the arts themselves and analyse them, sometimes with the help of guests.

Highlights include the pair interviewing cultural critic Margo Jefferson on the Trump presidency, as well as actress Tika Sumpter about terrible first dates and lessons learnt from them, hopefully something which may be relevant again in 2021. For the pop culture-obsessed.

The Man at the Window

While originally released in 2019, but with new episodes added in December 2020, this brilliant true-crime series from the LA Times is well worth inclusion on this list.

The podcast traces the hunt for the Golden State Killer, who terrorised California from the early 1970s to the mid-80s. Known by many names in different towns and areas, the crimes weren’t recognised as the work of a single perpetrator until the early 2000s and, after more than 40 years at large, the killer was finally caught in 2018.

The episodes released in 2020 explore the trial and the killer in more depth.

The series includes interviews, reports and testimonies from victims, their relatives, reporters and police officers who covered the original cases. The series’ structure is flawless and the narrative is gripping and each episode will leave you desperate for the next. Listening for the first time now means you can binge these at once! Lucky.  For fans of Serial. 

You’re Wrong About

This podcast is a staple for anyone interested in pop culture and history, as it analyses events and people through recent living memory which were misreported or deserve re-examination.

Hosted by journalists and friends Sarah Marshall and Michael Hobbes, the pair cover a wide range of topics from Tonya Harding (the reason why the pair became friends!), Princess Diana to the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill and Enron, America’s largest corporate bankruptcy.

Fun and incredibly insightful, it’s worth delving into the archives for fascinating episodes on Anna Nicole Smith and the 2000 election which will have you gasping and making notes to bring up with your friends or at the next online quiz night (are we still doing those?) For people who love to deep-dive into subjects.

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Written by Nat Shaw
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