A good podcast can make or break a long walk. These are three of my current favourites:
How Do You Cope?
John Robins interviews guests about their lives and discusses how they cope with challenges they have faced. His interview with comedian Matt Forde, who experienced cancer and life-altering surgery last year, is moving and hilarious and I couldn’t recommend it more whole-heartedly. Forde’s attitude to life is truly inspiring.
Films to Be Buried With and Off Menu
Presented by, respectively, Brett Goldstein (comedian and writer/star of Ted Lasso) and comedians James Acaster and Ed Gamble, these podcasts follow the tried-and-tested Desert Island Discs format of discussing a guest’s life by way of movies/food. They are reliably entertaining although I do tend to only listen to episodes with guests I’m interested in. Recent highlights include the witty and laconic Tim Key (one of the funniest men alive) on FTBBW and the infectiously enthusiastic Antoni Porowski (Queer Eye) on Off Menu.
Heavyweight
Heavyweight is a series of true stories of people trying to find closure for an unresolved question or event in their past. I’m not sure I’ve described that well at all, but please do listen because I’ve loved it since 2016. You have 50+ episodes of mysteriously disappearing babysitters, family secrets, misremembered childhood anecdotes and an attempt to get back some CDs loaned to Moby in the 1990s to enjoy.
Oh I’m looking forward to trying out all these podcasts. I so need something new/refreshing and real.