The Best Docu-Podcasts To Listen To Now
The Assassination
She was assassinated in 2007, but no-one has been convicted of the murder of Benazir Bhutto, the Pakistani politician who served as the country’s Prime Minister from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996 and was the first woman to head a democratic government in a Muslim majority country. But why? Journalist and former BBC world correspondent Owen Bennett-Jones investigates in this award-winning documentary series. The story starts from the beginning of her career as PM. But this is also the story of the Bhutto dynasty, the allegations of corruption against them and the growing power of their enemies, which includes interviews with those accused of her murder. Fascinating stuff.
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The California Century
In The California Century, actor Stanley Tucci imagines the story of the US state as a movie screenplay, tracing its dramatic history from Hollywood to Silicon Valley. His screenplays tell the stories of ten women and men who built California. It's a high-risk, high-reward state. A place where, if you make it, you're on top of the world, but if you don't, there's a way to fall. Available as standalone episodes or an omnibus, the stories swing between the genius who first brought silicon to Silicon Valley, right before he became a passionate eugenicist, to those of the Black Panther Party, trailblazing politician Dianne Feinstein, gangster rapper Ice-T and California's longest-serving governor, Jerry Brown. Here, Tucci tells the real story of California, a story peppered with dead bodies, disasters and duplicity.
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British Scandal
In a country obsessed with gossip, British people fear one thing more than any other: scandals. They bring down governments, overthrow the rich and cause the mighty to fall. Some are about sex, others about money, but in the end they’re all about power. Often at the heart of a scandal, however, are ordinary human stories and questions including: who was really to blame for what happened? Why did they do it? And when all is said and done, did anything really change? In the first series of British Scandal, hosts Alice Levine and Matt Forde narrow in on sordid stories – from phone hacking and Jimmy Saville to the Profumo Affair and the twists and turns of the death of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko. The second series, which came out last month, sees the duo focus on the infamous disappearance and death of weapons expert David Kelly and the ‘sexed-up’ dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.
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The Improvement Association
From the makers of Serial, this recent five-part series looks into allegations of election fraud – and the powerful forces that fuel them. For at least a decade, allegations of cheating have raised their head around elections in rural Bladen County, North Carolina. Some people point fingers at a black advocacy group, the Bladen County Improvement Association, accusing it of bullying voters, tampering with ballots and stealing votes outright. These accusations have never been substantiated, but they persist. Reporter Zoe Chace went to Bladen County to investigate what’s really going on – and the powerful forces that fuel these allegations.
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Hunting Ghislaine
American tycoon Jeffrey Epstein’s court trial – and his ensuing jail time and suicide – has been one of the biggest stories of the past few years. And whether or not you’ve watched astonishing Netflix documentary Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich (where thriller author James Patterson delved deep into the past to uncover aspects of Epstein’s crimes not previously made public), this podcast series is worth a listen when it comes to the most recent developments involving Epstein’s alleged accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. The daughter of a disgraced billionaire and the former partner of Epstein, Maxwell was in hiding for almost a year, and now finds herself facing multiple charges for helping her former partner sexually exploit and abuse under-age women. If found guilty, she’ll spend the rest of her life behind bars. In Hunting Ghislaine, reporter John Sweeney investigates a fairytale that happens the wrong way round, of how a princess ends up accused of being the monster and no-one ends up happily ever after.
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The Missing Cryptoqueen
Ruja Ignatova called herself the ‘Cryptoqueen’, telling people she had invented a credible cryptocurrency – OneCoin – to rival Bitcoin and persuading investors to pour billions into the project. In 2017, she disappeared. Journalist Jamie Bartlett spent months investigating how she did it and trying to figure out where she is now. A gripping and astonishing story that still raises questions today, Bartlett presents a story of greed, deceit and herd madness.
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The Great Post Office Trial
This BBC 4 podcast tells the extraordinary story of a decade-long battle with the Post Office, fought by hundreds of sub postmasters and postmistresses. Some went to prison following convictions for false accounting and theft, many were financially ruined and have described being shunned by their communities. Some have since died. If you’ve seen coverage of the latest overturned verdicts in the news recently – but aren’t quite sure about what went on between 2000-2014 – here’s your chance to brush up on what some call the largest miscarriage of justice in UK legal history. It's the story of how the Post Office systematically prosecuted honest people, and how a small band of victims fought back in the face of impossible odds. The series was first broadcast in 2020 – but last month saw an update, which now contains additional material in light of the startling recent developments.
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