9 New Podcasts To Listen To

Hooked

Apple TV’s new podcast explores the true story of Tony Hathaway, whose addiction to legally prescribed opioids led him to spiral from a respectable job to becoming one of the most prolific bank robbers in American history. He robbed 30 banks in a single year, all within a 30-mile radius of his suburban home. But before he was a masterful bank robber, fooling police departments and the FBI, he was a design engineer at Boeing. Based on three years of conversations between Hathaway and journalist Josh Dean, Hooked is a fascinating true-crime story.

Episode Highlight: How Not To Rob A Bank
In a previous episode, we hear how Tony’s son, Conner, finds his father’s drugs and starts taking heroin. Weeks later, the two are out of money, cigarettes and drugs, so they decide to rob a Seattle bank to fund their addiction. Spoiler alert: they get caught. But it’s Conner who pays the price and ends up in jail – dealing with intense drug withdrawals on his own.

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Bad Blood: The Final Chapter

If you’ve been tuning into regular updates on The Dropout podcast, add this series to your library. Bad Blood: The Final Chapter focuses on the downfall of Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the blood-testing start-up Theranos. Holmes, who was recently convicted of fraud, lied to investors, doctors, colleagues and even sick patients about the capabilities of her technology. In a nutshell: the technology didn’t work. Currently awaiting sentence, she faces up to 20 years in prison. This podcast takes listeners into the courtroom to examine the intricacies of one of Silicon Valley’s – and America’s – biggest scandals.

Episode Highlight: This Week in Court #10: Prosecutors Make a Big Mistake
With hundreds of documents, strong witness testimonies and damning evidence from every angle, convicting Elizabeth Holmes sounds like an easy task on paper, but during the tenth week of court proceedings, prosecutors make several mistakes. Host John Carreyrou and reporter Emily Saul discuss a big blunder that Holmes’s defence team jump on, one falsified pharmaceutical report, and the estate attorney who connected several billionaire families to Theranos.

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Bonaparte

25 years ago, Anne Champion’s friend was killed, but the case was never solved. In 1996 Laura Van Wyhe went to a party in Iowa. Early in the morning, just eight hours later, her body was found on a highway across the border in Missouri. The police classified it as a murder, but the case was never solved. When Anne, now a prominent Manhattan attorney, got an unexpected phone call from an old friend, it compelled her to return to Iowa, her childhood home, to try and piece together the events around Laura’s mysterious death.

Episode Highlight: Chapter 3
When Anne looks through the police files of Laura’s case, details don’t seem to add up about the night she died. Anne decides to investigate further and confront a key witness to find out more.

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Power: Hugh Hefner

Season one of Power told the story of Ghislaine Maxwell’s media tycoon father, Robert Maxwell. Series two focuses on Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. Models, Playboy Bunnies, and other women from Hefner’s inner circle, like TV personality and author Holly Madison, tell journalist Amy Rose Spiegel their side of his story. For all of these women, Playboy changed their lives – for better and for worse – but beyond the glitz and glamour of raucous pool parties and lavish lifestyles, there was a darker side to the notorious Playboy Mansion, one that revolved around sex and power.

Episode Highlight: A Child in the Mansion
Jennifer Saginor is the daughter of Hefner’s hard-partying personal physician. She grew up in the mansion right in the middle of Playboy’s decadent party scene. Here, Jennifer tells Spiegel about trying drugs for the first time as a child, spending her teenage years in the mansion and how Hefner used his power to control the lives of the women around him.

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Wild Things: Siegfried & Roy

Over the course of nearly 50 years, Siegfried & Roy performed over 30,000 shows for 50 million people and generated over $1 billion in ticket sales. But given how famous the duo was, next to nothing was known about their private lives. It all came to a dramatic end after their final show in 2009 – an act with a tiger that went wrong, resulting in one of the industry’s most shocking moments. Presented by filmmaker and journalist Steven Leckart, this podcast reveals the hidden truths about two men who were glorified by millions of fans, ridiculed by the media and criticised by animal welfare advocates.

Episode Highlight: What Went Wrong
During their final performance, a white tiger attacks Roy Horn in front of a live audience. As the famous magician fights for his life, hundreds of fans, friends and the media rush to the hospital. Leckart details the events leading up to the fatal show, and why Siegfried & Roy had a morbid fascination with exotic animals and wild cats.

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Built To Thrive

Available exclusively on Amazon Music, Dr Rangan Chatterjee hosts this new bite-sized podcast designed to help you start your day off right. In five minutes, he shares a number of health and wellbeing tips to help motivate you during the week, whether you’re taking on a new fitness challenge or simply want to make some healthy switches. There’s a different theme each week, spanning topics like gratitude, feeling nourished, breathing better and stress.

Episode Highlight: Simple Strength – Day One
Week two is all about simple strength. In the first instalment, Dr Rangan talks about the power of muscles. We lose 3-5% of our muscle mass every decade, so staying active is key to maintaining enough mass to keep injuries at bay and perform day-to-day tasks. At the end, Dr Rangan gives listeners a simple five-minute exercise to try – ideal if you need a bit of extra encouragement.

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Now You’re Asking With Marian Keyes and Tara Flynn

Writer Marian Keyes and her close friend, actress Tara Flynn, become agony aunts in this new series. The two women have gone through their fair share of highs and lows, both personally and professionally, and want to use their experiences to help listeners, no matter how big or small the problem. From dilemmas about life, love and grief, to the perils of laundry or knowing what to say at a boring dinner, you’ll find out what Marian and Tara would recommend – it might not solve the problem, but you’ll probably feel better afterwards.

Episode Highlight: The Badly-Dressed Boyfriend Problem
Marian and Tara answer a pressing question: how do you tackle a badly-dressed boyfriend? And one who thinks they’re stylish? He might be ‘the one’, but his knitted beige shoes and drab outfits have left one listener less than impressed. They also discuss the pros and cons of weighted blankets, and why noisy eaters are never acceptable at the dinner table.

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When Diana Met…

There have been countless podcasts dedicated to Princess Diana’s life, but we were intrigued to listen to this new series from CNN which details her most notable meetings with public figures, politicians and celebrities, revealing truths and misunderstandings about her life as the Princess of Wales. Host Aminatou Sow looks at a series of high-profile people the Princess was connected to and what each relationship teaches us about power, gender and control.

Episode Highlight: Fashion Designer Elizabeth Emmanuel
Princess Diana had many different looks during her lifetime, but her signature style was unmistakable. In this episode, Sow is joined by fashion designer Elizabeth Emmanuel who created hundreds of looks for Diana over the years, including her iconic wedding dress. Here, she talks about keeping the famous design a secret from the press, choosing outfits for Diana’s royal tours, and what it was really like to dress the most famous woman in the world.

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Desperately Seeking Wisdom

This podcast is for those hoping to live a simpler, more fulfilled life, but aren’t sure how to get there. The series is presented by Craig Oliver, a former BBC political editor and director of communications at Downing Street, who, after losing his job in politics, decided he needed a simpler life without stress. After talking to his friends and family, he realised that lots of other people felt the same. In this podcast, he speaks to extraordinary people who have faced extremely difficult and traumatic experiences, to find out what they have learned and what they consider most important in life. Spoiler: it’s not work.

Episode Highlight: George Alagiah
Seven years ago, BBC newsreader and journalist George Alagiah was diagnosed with bowel cancer. The prognosis wasn't good, and he was told to get his affairs in order. In this episode, George speaks candidly about living with a terminal illness, appreciating the small things in life, and nurturing the relationships that will be cut short. A moving listen.

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