IIf there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I’m really into drugs. I read Empire of Pain by Patrick Raddon Keefe earlier this year, which has long been on my “to-read” pile, and found its story of the rise and growth of the Sackler drug dynasty to be truly horrifying (although isn’t artist turned oxycodone campaigner Nan Goldin a total hero?).
Naturally, I script This week, I’m writing about the new Atlantic miniseries, Brain Drugs and the Stories to Tell Them. It’s sensitively done, but all of this stuff is scary. The story of two brothers who are treated for the same heroin addiction but end up living very different lives will stay with me for a while. As with Dan Taberski’s recent series, Hystericalis about a group of girls who simultaneously develop a Tourette’s syndrome-like condition, but while it features real people battling an incredibly difficult illness, we’re also never far from bigger questions about how we think about mental health and the self.
Read on for this week’s picks, from con man dads to gritty Paralympic shows, plus five podcasts we recommend for fans of classic film, from old Hollywood hits to the history of Hammer horror.
Hannah J. Davis
Newsletter Deputy Editor
This week’s picks
#1 Dad
Widely available, all episodes available now
Comedian Gary Vidor hasn’t spoken to his con man father in 24 years. As a child, his dad made him pose as a young journalist to sneak into Michael Jordan’s locker room (above) and help him photocopy dollar bills to earn money for his school lunches. In this wild journey, Gary tries to track down his dad, find out if he’s still the same fake accent, court-waging man he always was, and hope it doesn’t tear his family apart. Alexi Duggins
Fraud Clinic
Widely available, with weekly episodes
Nick Stapleton, presenter of BBC One’s Bafta award-winning show Scam Interceptors, tries his hand at helping members of the public in this investigative show. The opening double feature features a startling interview with the man alleged to be the mastermind behind a £100,000 theft, and he’s just so keen to have a fun conversation about podcasting equipment that it’s mind-blowing to listen to. advertisement
Head Number 7
Widely available, with weekly episodes
You’d think that if you were to donate your body for scientific research, Harvard Medical School would manage it. So when families found out that parts of their loved ones’ bodies had been sold and misplaced, it became a horrific scandal. Now, DNA expert Dr. Tuli King is asking where the bodies went, starting with the NYPD officer’s noticeably large head. Hannah Verdier
Don’t drink milk
Widely available, with weekly episodes
Sex, drugs and turf are promised in the second series of this series which explores the unexpected backstories of familiar things. Reality TV and the missionary position will make an appearance, but first Rachel Stewart heads to Scotland to put an entertaining spin on witch hunting and investigate the history of misogynistic medieval conspiracies. HV
Rising Phoenix: What does it take?
Widely available, with weekly episodes
It’s a cliché to say anything Paralympic-related is inspiring, but this podcast, full of courage and humour, is just that: armless archer Matt Stutzman and fellow medallist Michael Johnson interview athletes including Kadeena Cox, who talks about her determination to return to sport after suffering a stroke and being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 23. HV
There is a podcast
this week, Graham Virtue Pick the top 5 A podcast for classic film fansFrom highlights of the Hammer Horror catalogue to series re-evaluating films like Some Like It Hot.
Keep this in mind
Meticulously written and narrated by film historian Karina Longworth, recent seasons of this riveting show charted the rise and fall of the erotic thriller of the 1980s and 1990s. But YMRT became an early big hit with Longworth’s immersive dive into Hollywood’s Golden Age, unravelling rumors surrounding doomed starlets and spotlighting the sins of amoral moguls. To mark its 10th anniversary earlier this year, the “lost” first episode, long in limbo due to music licensing issues, was remastered and re-released. An insightful profile of Vertigo star Kim Novak will have you revisiting her lavish 200-plus-movie back catalogue.
Hammer House
Most profiles of the British film studio Hammer focus on its golden age of illuminating, badly received horror films from the mid-1950s through the 1970s. But the biweekly podcast The House of Hammer has been patiently working its way through the studio’s filmography chronologically since 1934, applying detailed context and affectionate irony to forgotten films like the nylon-smuggling crime drama River Patrol (1948). Between hosts Sev Moore, Ben Taylorson, Adam Roche, and a first-person voice, Smokey, the overall atmosphere is laid-back and welcoming. But things have certainly heated up over the past year, as the show has tackled such foundational Hammer texts as The Quatermass Experiment (1955), The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), and Christopher Lee’s immortal Dracula (1958).
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Rewound
Are there any so-called classic films that should be left out? When the slickly produced Unspooled first launched in 2018, film critic Amy Nicholson and actor/writer/comedian Paul Scheer aimed to take a fresh look at the prestigious Motion Picture Association of America’s 2007 Top 100 Movies list. Two years later, the affable but studious hosts have removed 60 titles from the original ranking and added new ones in an attempt to formulate a more representative selection of films (intended to be launched into space to educate and entertain passing aliens). But it’s worth scrolling through Unspooled’s extensive list of episodes, all the way back to the early days when the pair debated the value of hallowed titles like Ben-Hur, The African Queen, and Some Like It Hot.
movie theatre
Consciously or not, many podcasts about classic movies try to evoke the decadent cocktail-and-cigarette spirit of Old Hollywood, often using seductive sound mixes to help you forget the decades that have passed. The Movie Palace is more down to earth, but what it lacks in sonic flourishes it more than makes up for in thoughtful discussion. In each episode, Dr. Carl Sweeney invites a knowledgeable guest to discuss a notable film, from influential noir to fraught westerns. The result is a concise, accessible primer on classic cinema. Hitchcock appears repeatedly throughout the show’s 130-plus episodes, particularly in a comprehensive eight-part miniseries analyzing Psycho.
The conspiracy deepens
Not all film podcasts have a direct connection to Hollywood’s Golden Age, but US network Turner Classic Movies’ The Plot Six is hosted by Ben Mankiewicz, the grandson of Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, the subject of David Fincher’s 2020 biopic Mank. Previous seasons of The Plot Six have delved into the careers of Peter Bogdanovich (a director obsessed with Hollywood’s past) and righteous blaxploitation powerhouse Pam Grier. But the current episode, Unlocking the Mystery of John Ford, seeks to assess the notoriously difficult but Oscar-winning king of 20th-century filmmaking, with the help of previously unreleased interviews with co-stars such as John Wayne, Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart.
Give it a try…
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after schoolOur newsletter for the general public, Decoding Gen Z, “ ,” will be delivered in podcast form.
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Frank Skinner and Faye Ripley star in Radio 4 workplace comedy Good People.
Source: www.theguardian.com
