Pick of the week
Heavyweight
Jonathan Goldstein’s narrative pod about regrets, mistakes and the pursuit of closure – cancelled by Spotify in 2023 – makes its return this week under the Pushkin banner, and it’s been worth the wait. Heavyweight does up-close-and-personal like few other shows, and this first episode – about a son’s fears around his parents’ cluttered house, and a plot to relocate their trinkets to a barn – is both warm and spiked with melancholy. Hannah J Davies
Widely available, episodes weekly from Thu
Model Wars
Powered by alleged mob money and a taste for the high life, college dropout Paul Fisher opened a modelling agency in 80s New York. This Campside/iHeart podcast – hosted by journalist Vanessa Grigoriadis, with much colour from Fisher – is a pacy, racy retelling of a bygone era, and the dirty tricks deployed by rival reps. HJD
Widely available, episodes weekly
Helen’s Log
Catchy … Helen Bauer. Photograph: Raphaël Neal
Comedian Helen Bauer was a hoot on the Trusty Hogs podcast co-hosted with Catherine Bohart. She goes solo in this new series, which is basically a very funny and chaotic hour or so of rambling (or trauma-dumping, as she calls it in episode one). The jingle is fantastically catchy, too. Hollie Richardson
Widely available, episodes weekly
Stop Rewind
This 10-parter tells the tale of Taj, an Indian child who was kidnapped, put up for adoption then taken in by a Mormon family in Utah. As an adult, he uses a cassette tape he recorded as a boy to try to track down his roots. But be warned: you’ll need to slog through three hours of backstory to get to the show’s compelling narrative journey. Alexi Duggins
Widely available, episodes weekly
Bold Politics With Zack Polanski
The recently elected Green party leader, Zack Polanski, continues his impressive media blitz with this new “podcast that stands up for the 99%”. It’s a chat about progressive ideas, and the first episode sees him sit down with journalist and activist Ash Sarkar to talk wealth taxes, the future of his party, why she’d never run for MP and why “Keir Starmer is spectacularly shit at politics”. AD
Widely available, episodes weekly
