Earworms: What the industry’s been listening to this week

UK Black Pride is taking place in London on Saturday for its 18th-annual year, celebrating LGBTQI people of African, Asian, Caribbean, Latin American and Middle Eastern-descent. As part of this celebration, BBC 1Xtra is launching a new Black and Queer dating podcast where the co-hosts are matched up with potential partners based on their star signs as astrology continues to be an important part of the queer dating experience. The podcast will also take part in UK Black Pride with a special live edition on stage.

For the non-astrology believers, there’s a range of new launches that dropped this week covering genres like career development, true crime, documentary - and of course, football, thanks to the new Premier League season. We’ve also spoken to industry experts from the business and creator side to tell us their recommendations of the week. 

What’s in the industry’s ears?

Zoe Blaskey - Host, MotherKind

I love We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle - this is the only podcast I listen to religiously every week. Every time I listen, I think about my role as woman, mother, and partner differently: I love the mix of guests and presenter episodes and professionally, I’m in awe of the the sense of community this podcast has built. 

Lochlainn Harte - Imaging manager, Newstalk

13 Minutes To The Moon is launching season three next month. Firstly, it's scored by Hans Zimmer. It's also the perfect combination of actuality, history, storytelling, sound design, scripting and narration. I actually cannot fault it, and have listened to each season multiple times. Plus, I met the astronaut at the center of the next season at The Podcast Show, and it's going to be out of this world (if you’ll excuse the pun).

Benjamin Masse - Chief product officer, Triton Digital

Empire, a history podcast hosted by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand, is extraordinary. It's a thorough deep dive into empires. As a listener, you feel as though you've been invited into the living room of two excellent and articulate friends, traversing the different geos as if there weren’t any knowledge barriers. 

Pandora Morris - Host, Hurt to Healing

Huberman Lab is one of my favourite podcasts. I sometimes have to listen to each episode two or three times as he takes a deep dive into some complex subjects but I always feel so inspired by what I’ve learnt. It has also been a huge help in educating myself about how my OCD effects my brain.

Georgie Holt - Co-founder, Telling Media

I love a podcast rabbit hole - one great podcast takes me into a topic deep dive from which I often emerge 20 hours of listening later. The Coldest Case In Laramie led me to season two of the Bear Brook Podcast - the through line? The dark, dark world of coerced and false confessions. How can someone take another human to a place where they truly start to believe they committed a crime they clearly did not do? 

Freshly dropped 

Shaping Success

Broadcaster and music artist Fleur East is hosting a new branded podcast for inclusive fashion brand Simply Be, titled Shaping Success. The podcast features East in conversation with leading women in the UK talking about their personal developments and career path. The first episode debuted on Thursday and features sports presenter Dame Denise Lewis as the first guest. 

Swipe Your Sign 

For the astrology believers, BBC 1Xtra has launched a new Black and Queer dating podcast series co-hosted by The Two Twos Podcast’s Ro Frimpong and former Geordie Shore reality star Nathan Henry. The podcast, titled Swipe Your Sign, is debuting its first episode 19 August to coincide with UK Black Pride and features Frimpong and Shore getting matched with potential partners by astrologist Celestial Tree based on their star sign and astrological chart.

Football Ramble 

Stak’s hit sports podcastFootball Ramble is back for its seventeenth season with new episodes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with broadcaster Marcus Speller, comedian Jim Campbell, football expert Andry Brassel, and sports journalist Vithushan Ehantharajah. The new season will cover reviews and highlights of the matches and funny stories from the world of football.

Dear Alana

Tenderfoot TV has launched its latest limited series Dear Alana telling the story of Alana Chen, a 24-year old who ended her life in 2019 after undergoing conversion therapy. The eight-part documentary series launched its first episode on 14 August, hosted by Simon Kent Fung, a person who learned about the death through local news and aims to understand the truth behind her death, having gone through a similar experience with conversion therapy for nearly a decade.

Out of The Ordinary 

New true-crime series Out of The Ordinary tells the story of computer scientist and cosmetics entrepreneur Brandon Truaxe who founded beauty company DECIEM, the company behind famous skincare brand The Ordinary. Truaxe was fired from his company after expressing erratic behaviour online in the midst of a supposed drug-fueled breakdown, and later passed away in 2020. The first episode debuted 13 August and will continue to be released weekly.

To read the full article, visit: https://www.podpod.com/article/1833715/earworms-industrys-listening-week