From puberty to how to become a YouTube sensation, this week’s podcast picks are great fun.
1. Puberty! (The Podcast)Streaming platform: All streaming platforms and YouTube
Genre: Health and family
In 2012, real-life friends and former journalists Molly Bloom, Marc Sanchez and Sanden Totten created their independent media company, Brains On Universe, for kids and curious adults.
With a clear audience in mind, they went on to create the hit podcasts Brains On!, Smash Boom Best, Forever Ago and Moment of Um, and their latest instalment, Puberty! (The Podcast) will be out on Friday.
Puberty! (The Podcast) is an eight-part podcast series, co-hosted by Bloom – also the host of Smash Boom Best and Brains On! – rotating teens (aged between 15 and 19) from diverse backgrounds, plus health experts.
In each episode, young people – and their parents – will learn more about consent and their changing bodies and brains as Bloom answers questions from listeners.
This week, Bloom and her 10-year-old daughter, Lulu, explain what happens during puberty, when they first started speaking about it and what changes in our body are associated with it.
Puberty! (The Podcast) is a fantastic resource for all of the family to enjoy. It doesn’t annoy adults or talk down to kids, and highlights their voices and passions.
(By Yolanthe Fawehinmi)
2. Gangster Presents: The Story of Ronnie Biggs
Streaming platform: BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 5 Live
Genre: True crime
Gangster Presents: The Story of Ronnie Biggs is a documentary podcast hosted by British actor Daniel Mays, who portrayed the controversial figure in the 2012 drama Mrs Biggs, and returns to the story here as narrator.
Mays leads the listener through the story of Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs’ infamous heist in 1963, subsequent vanishing act and public reception thereafter. The podcast also covers the road leading to the crime and the media circus that followed.
Gangster Presents: The Story of Ronnie Biggs is immediate and engaging; it wastes no time getting the show on the road. The immersive podcast flips between Mays reporting historical facts and present-tense storytelling, peppered with sound effects (such as the roar of a train or the boom of an explosion) to effectively draw listeners into the story.
The radio audio, music and emotive descriptions of the era’s atmosphere teleport the listener to the Sixties in no time at all. The podcast provides important historical context to every moment and is as informative as it is entertaining.
Featuring illuminating comments from people who knew Biggs, as well as unheard audio from the man himself, this podcast is both the perfect entry point to the story and an excellent retelling for those already familiar with the history.
(By Tori Jones)
3. In Proximity
Streaming platform: All streaming platforms and YouTube
Genre: Entertainment and culture
What does it take to be a YouTube sensation? This isn’t just one or two viral posts, but a full business empire that consistently brings in millions of viewers.
This week’s episode of In Proximity takes a deep dive into this question with Michelle Khare, host of the award-winning YouTube series Challenge Accepted.
Having started out as a producer on digital media company BuzzFeed, the self-confessed daredevil decided to take the next step and create her own channel, tackling the world’s toughest professions and stunts.
With more than five million subscribers, she knows her stuff. Passion for your subject and knowing your audience seem to be the main takeaways from this conversation.
Obviously, it doesn’t hurt that she’s taking on epic challenges, including running seven marathons in seven days on seven continents, and recreating Tom Cruise’s most dangerous airplane stunt.
Hooking the audience with attractive thumbnails and never resorting to clickbait are also key in securing content engagement.
Given that Khare successfully managed to petition for her independently produced series to join the Primetime Emmy ballot for Outstanding Hosted Non-Fiction Series shows just how far she has come from her early days at BuzzFeed.
As for taking on more risks in the future? Challenge Accepted.
(By Rachel Howard)
4. The Downside with Gianmarco Soresi
Streaming platform: All streaming platforms and YouTube
Genre: Comedy
It’s not often you come across a podcast where complaining is encouraged, negativity is celebrated, and silver linings are debunked, but that’s what makes The Downside with Gianmarco Soresi work so well.
In each episode, comedians Gianmarco Soresi and Russell Daniels interview people more famous than them about the downsides of their lives.
This week, actress and comedian Taylor Ortega joins the co-hosts again – she has been on the podcast before – to chat about the downsides of life, cartwheels, and why kids don’t need to exercise.
They also talk about the downsides of type A versus type B people, fruit AI slop videos, growing up in a loud family, learning the unwritten rules in showbiz, and why subscriptions have got to stop.
If you are someone who dabbles in dark comedy, then The Downside with Gianmarco Soresi should be an enjoyable listen.
(By Yolanthe Fawehinmi)
Spotlight on…
5. How To Become A…
Streaming platform: All streaming platforms and YouTube
Genre: Careers and society
Many of us gravitate towards motivational career podcasts and books that spotlight high-flying business figures and rapid success stories, however the How To Become A… podcast takes a more grounded approach.
This new podcast focuses on everyday people with interesting job titles and explores how they carved their own unique career paths.
In this thoughtful series, host Grace Stevens speaks with a wide range of guests – from DJs to charity founders – unpacking the realities behind their careers and the journeys that led them there.
In this week’s episode, Stevens sits down with somatic coach Hannah Blackburn, who openly shares the chain of events that guided her into this specialised area of wellness.
Their conversation touches on the all-too-familiar experience of feeling uncertain about the future during and after university, as well as the sense of clarity and fulfilment that can come with discovering your purpose.
Stevens also breaks down what her niche role involves, how it supports others, and the training that happens behind the scenes.
If you’re drawn to stories about real people and the defining moments that shaped their lives, How To Become A… is well worth a listen.
(By Camilla Foster)
