THE JOURNAL
With so many podcasts sprouting up and only two ears, it can be hard to keep on top of what to listen to. Whose opinions matter and who just likes to natter. Well, don’t panic – the MR PORTER Team is here to help. These are the podcasts that have lured us in, held our attention and left us wanting more this year.
From left: Life Is Short. Image courtesy of Wondery; Decoder Ring. Image courtesy of Slate; Transmissions: The Definitive Story. Image courtesy of Cup And Nuzzle
01.
Life Is Short With Justin Long
Actor Mr Justin Long considers the meaning of life with help from famous pals such as Messrs Vince Vaughn, Judd Apatow and Rob Lowe. The meandering style sounds like earwigging on a couple of pals at a bar, as Mr Long and guests talk serious life stuff, swap Vegas stories and riff on Alvin And The Chipmunks.
02.
Decoder Ring
Something of a true-crime podcast, only dealing with pop-culture mysteries rather than murders, Ms Willa Paskin, TV critic for Slate, investigates unsolved cases, from the origin of the poop emoji to whether Ms Jane Fonda inadvertently invented athleisure. Plus, do you know what year the word “mullet” was first coined for a haircut? It’s not when you think.
03.
Transmissions
Narrated by actor Ms Maxine Peake, this podcast details how one band from Manchester, England, in the words of Bono, “sort of changed the world twice”, first as Joy Division then as New Order. An engrossing, intimate aural history, with contributions from remaining band members (who famously don’t talk to each other), not to mention the likes of Mr Peter Saville, Mr Damon Albarn and even Mr Virgil Abloh.
From left: Dolly Parton’s America. Image courtesy of New York Public Radio; The Big Picture. Image courtesy of The Ringer; Ecstasy: The Battle of Rave. Image courtesy of BBC
04.
Dolly Parton’s America
Not content to reckon with kids’ literacy rates through her books charity, and coronavirus via a million-dollar donation, Ms Dolly Parton is often hailed as a healing force in American culture wars. The country music icon’s universal appeal is thoughtfully explored here through her music, politics and apparent cultural contradictions.
05.
The Big Picture
In a year with little actual cinema, pop culture site The Ringer’s Mr Sean Fennessey and Ms Amanda Dobbins kept the flame alive with their nerdy, smart film chat. Topics include the movies to file under “Garbage Crime” and “Oscar Bait Hell”, amid advice on the miniseries to watch at home while we wait on the multiplex to reopen.
06.
Ecstasy: The Battle Of Rave
A history of the Second Summer of Love and its aftermath, when a symbiotic union of music and drugs turned fields and old factories across Britain into dancefloors. But in keeping with a subject matter as knotty as this, this is no straight talking-head account, with a fictional drama interwoven with input from the likes of DJs, promoters, dealers and Happy Mondays.
From left: About Race. Image courtesy of Broccoli Content; The Socially Distant Sports Bar. Image courtesy of Nata Media; Intrigue: Mayday. Image courtesy of BBC
07.
About Race With Reni Eddo-Lodge
This year, Ms Eddo-Lodge gained to dubious honour of becoming the first black British female author to top the chart for non-fiction literature with her 2017 book Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race. With this engaging nine-part series, the journalist moves the conversation on further.
08.
The Socially Distant Sports Bar
Three highly amusing Welsh men – Messrs Mike Bubbins, Elis James and Steff Garrero – sit around a (often virtual) table talking nonsense in the way that good friends do, with humorous and bizarre flights of fancy into what’s going on in sport, as well as plenty from their encyclopaedic knowledge of television, books, film and obscure snacks from the 1980s.
09.
Intrigue, Mayday
The extraordinary story of Mr James Le Mesurier, co-founder of the White Helmets in Syria, who was found dead on the street outside his home in Turkey in 2019. Hailed as a hero and funded by Western governments; labelled a secret agent, a terrorist and targeted by the propaganda machines of the Syrian and Russian regimes, this is a dark tale that unfolds amid the fog of the most documented war in history.
From left: The Adam Buxton Podcast. Image courtesy of Acast; Son Of A Hitman. Image courtesy of Spotify; Staying In With Emily And Kumail. Image courtesy of Three Uncanny Four
10.
The Adam Buxton Podcast
Despite a tough year for the podcaster (he lost his mother in early summer), there was no place we’d rather spend lockdown than in Castle Buckles. Guests this year included Mr Robbie Williams, Ms Zadie Smith and old schoolmate Mr Louis Theroux, who has some explaining to do after starting his own rambly podcast…
11.
Son Of A Hitman
That the subject of this crime series, the hitman Mr Charles Harrelson, was father to actor Mr Woody Harrelson, is arguably the least interesting aspect of this podcast tells you a lot. Son Of A Hitman offers up a rollcall of A-list conspirators, multiple murder plots, the CIA, JFK and threats to the host – Mr Jason Cavanagh – should he seek to uncover the truth of the story.
12.
Staying In With Emily And Kumail
Hollywood couple Ms Emily V Gordon and Mr Kumail Nanjiani adapted to lockdown in the way starry types do, with a podcast. But Staying In has credentials, speaking from the couple’s previous experience with quarantine, fictionalised in the movie The Big Sick. The podcast to self-prescribe in 2020.
From left: Giant. Image courtesy of Spotify; Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend. Image courtesy of Earwolf; The A24 Podcast. Image courtesy of A24
13.
Giant
Football gets the deep-dive treatment from cult magazine Mundial with stories that go behind the full-time score. Come for the tributes to Messrs Johan Cruyff, Alan Shearer and Diego Maradona, stay for the strange tale of the Russian submariner turned Heart of Midlothian FC owner (spoiler: it didn’t end well).
14.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
The conceit – veteran American talk-show host finds out if celebrities would actually be his buddy – is only a (very loose) framework for Mr Conan O’Brien to do what he does best. Which is get really weird. Guests from Mr Bruce Springsteen to Ms Hillary Clinton provide the springboard, as Mr O’Brien lets his verbal talent fly.
15.
The A24 Podcast
From the production company behind the hippest arthouse cinema of the decade – Hereditary, Moonlight and Good Time – comes the hippest movie podcast. But, like the movies it delivers, this A24 production is an assured blend of style and substance, with illuminating, wide-ranging conversation from filmmakers, actors and writers about all things big screen.