Picks of the week
The Sound: Mystery of Havana Syndrome
Widely available, episodes weekly from Friday
Ringing in the ears, dizziness, a sound so loud it feels like pressure: the symptoms of Havana syndrome are so bad that US vice-president Kamala Harris’s 2021 visit to Vietnam was delayed due to possible cases. But despite investigations by the FBI and the CIA, no one knows what causes the mysterious condition. Along with spies and neurologists, Nicky Woolf investigates – and asks why it affects so many US and Canadian diplomats. Hannah Verdier
Smoke Screen: Deadly
Widely available, episodes weekly
When Donald Trump suggested injecting bleach might cure Covid, a fake church jumped on it. Spoiler alert: it’s not a good idea. Host Kristen V Brown tells the mind-boggling story of the dangerous cult that promoted it and a band of activists who went on a mission to hunt its members down and stop them. HV
A Prison’s Guide To …
Widely available, episodes weekly
Insightful narration from Andor star Ben Bailey Smith holds together this series, which goes inside jails to tackle topics such as redemption. Over four episodes, he talks to staff – including the first Black African governor in the UK – about encouraging inmates to find hope, and how at least one of them shed a criminal past to become a prison officer. Alexi Duggins
The Turning: Room of Mirrors
Widely available, episodes weekly from Tuesday
“George Balanchine made dancers feel chosen, like they were something bigger – it was intoxicating.” In this new 10-part series, host Erika Lantz speaks with those who know the real cost of working with the New York City Ballet co-founder – a man who married his muses and said he didn’t think ballet dancers should have children. Hollie Richardson
Joanna & the Maestro
Widely available, episodes weekly
Despite being married for nearly 40 years, Joanna Lumley and her composer husband Stephen Barlow have never talked about their shared passion for classical music. Here, they invite us into their music room to talk childhood musical loves, playing instruments and learning something new about each other. AD
There’s a podcast for that
This week, Ammar Kalia chooses five of the best anthology podcasts, from a true crime series on medicine’s greatest villains to scary stories told in true campfire style
Campfire Radio Theater
Horror stories are the perfect narrative material for an anthology podcast, and recent years have seen a boom in the genre. Notable mentions include David Cummings’ NoSleep Podcast, which gives the audio treatment to chilling tales from the Reddit forum of the same name, and Nightlight, which centres Black voices. The immersive audio design of Campfire Radio Theater takes the top spot, though, using the time-honoured format of urban legends told around the flickering firelight as the backdrop to stories featuring sinister Santas, haunting puppets, and remote lighthouses. Not one to listen to before bed …
Slate Presents: One Year
A simple yet ingenious premise fuels this series , which sees host Josh Levin take a deep dive into the events and people that shaped a single year in American history. His most recent series focused on 1942, investigating everything frommisinformation spread during the second world war to the labour strikes of working musicians and runaway inflation, with the help of co-hosts Evan Chung and Sophie Summergrad. By devoting so much runtime to each year, One Year often unearths overlooked events, such as a hotly-contested (and ultimately fatal) contest for a place on board the the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986.
Dr Death
Medical malpractice is a gruelling subject for a true crime anthology series, but this offering from pod giant Wondery does an admirable job of foregrounding its reports with detailed research and context that avoids sensationalising the victims. Over its three seasons, Dr Death has followed shocking cases, including Texan surgeon Christopher Duntsch – sentenced to life in prison after a string of his patients were left seriously injured, or dead – oncologist Farid Fata, who prescribed chemotherapy to patients that didn’t need it, and surgeon Paolo Macchiarini, who conducted fraudulent research. More than just a litany of gory details, host Laura Beil explores the motivations behind these egregious abuses of trust.
The Truth
Since 2010, Jonathan Mitchell’s audio series The Truth has been quietly setting the benchmark for fiction-based audio anthologies. Each self-contained episode harnesses the brevity and interconnected themes of a short story – and the show as a whole is akin to a collection – while Mitchell’s often impressionistic scene-setting gives rise to a host of immersive tales. Standout stories include an adaptation of Philip K Dick’s Upon the Dull Earth and the meta-references of Tape Delay, while committed performances from actors in New York’s Magnet Theater bring life to the scripts, producing the perfect half-hour segments to lose yourself in.
Within the Wires
Playing like a work of experimental found fiction, each of the seven seasons of Within the Wires recounts a different story through the medium of letters, tapes and audio guides, leaving the listener to piece together thrilling narratives through the fragments. It’s a simple premise elegantly executed, with audiences getting hooked to plots that begin to interweave with increasing pace. Narrator Janina Matthewson tells the story of a medical patient who receives mysterious guidance through relaxation cassettes in season one, while season three follows a political thriller in 1950s Chicago – all conveyed through a bureaucrat’s letters.
Why not try …
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