Instead of doing one mega-post and potentially missing out on stuff at the end of the year, I thought I’d do a mid-year update (I know, I’m late!) on what I’m listening to! While I can’t really get into audiobooks for some reason, I listen to so many podcasts and am always looking for more.

New Podcasts

In the first six months, I managed to finish four short podcast series and started one longer podcast.

We Crashed – This was a 6-part series on the rise and fall of WeWork by Wondery. I knew about WeWork and heard about its IPO being withdrawn but I did not realise that the company was in such a messy state. This is great if you want to take a deep dive into WeWork’s history and see how it crashed.

The Missing Cryptocurrency Queen – This is an 8 episode podcast from the BBC. I had not heard about OneCoin so I was shocked to hear there was a “cryptocurrency” MLM. Quotes because if you know about cryptocurrency, it’s pretty obvious that OneCoin is not crypto. I enjoyed all eight parts and I hope that this OneCoin scam is ended soon (and the founder… found).

The Doorstep Murders – This is another BBC podcast, this time from BBC Radio Scotland. It covers the Alistair Wilson murder, another crime that I had not known about. Unlike other true crime podcasts, this one had quite a lot of input from the victim’s family. I liked that the podcast made it a point to focus on being ethical in their reporting and doing right by the victim’s family instead of dialing up the mystery and dramatic side of the murder.

All About Agatha (Christie) – I love this Agatha Christie focused one! Each week, the two hosts review an Agatha Christie novel. I started by listening to episodes of books I had already read (I found this one when I was looking for more information on the mysterious Mr Quinn) but I’m really enjoying the new episodes. If you’re not a fan of spoilers, you may not want to subscribe to this if you’ve not read all the books. Personally, I’m fine with it so I’m loving this!

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward/The Whisperer in the Darkness – This radio drama by the BBC is amazing and I would recommend it to anyone who loves creepy mysteries. The BBC has adapted two Lovecraft stories (each season is one story) but with a twist – apart from being set in the modern age, the stories are told by the Mystery Machine, a fictional true crime machine. If you liked the podcast formats of Tanis and Rabbits, you should love this too. Here’s hoping that the BBC commissions a third season!

Stopped Listening

Given that I’ve been trying more new podcasts and listening to smaller finished ones, I gave up on a few so that I had enough time to keep up on the ones I was actually interested in.

Stuff You Missed in History Class – The minisodes lost my interest and I wasn’t really into the topics that they were doing when I stopped sometime in the first quarter of the year. I think I might go back to this if I feel like listening to something historical, but it’s probably the type of podcast that I choose which episode to listen to, rather than listening to every single new thing that appears.

Overdue – I liked the idea of people talking about books but the episodes were far too long for me. I liked the ones where they recapped Inferno by Dante but I wasn’t a fan of the more modern books. Since the Well-Read podcast is back and I found All About Agatha (Christie), I had enough bookish podcasts in my feed and decided I could go without this.

Cults – I know I called this and Con Artists easy background noise, but with better podcasts available, it was easy to cut them out. I didn’t feel like I was missing anything.

Con Artists – I got rid of this for the same reasons I got rid of Cults.

Other Updates

In other podcast-related news:

I finally caught up to The British History Podcast!! It’s taken a really long time because there were 300 backlist episodes but I’m finally ready to start listening to new episodes as they come up. Next up: I’m going to have to catch up with the un-listened episodes of The History of English podast.

Even with all the new things to try, I found time to re-listen to Rabbits and the first season of Tanis. I used to listen to this on the way to and from work while I was in Sasebo, so listening to these while I was driving really brought a lot of memories back. I really enjoyed these and I’m tempted to re-listen to The Black Tapes as well. I’m still hoping that they release new episodes of The Black Tapes but I have no idea when that will happen.

I’ve also re-started the Storyworks Round Table podcast. I guess I wanted some more writing craft podcasts in my ears because I’m trying to write more. Although I guess I’ve been listening to it as background noise rather than actively taking notes. But at least it’s going in, right?

So here’s what I’ve been listening to! I expect the end-of-year update will be equally long since The Magnus Archives is airing its final season & I’m a podcast magpie anyway. If you have any podcasts you recommend, especially docu-dramas, please let me know!