Podcast of the week

1. The Receipts Podcast

Streaming platform: All streaming platforms but exclusive to video on SpotifyGenre: Sex and Relationships

Billed as bringing ‘unadulterated girl talk with no filter’, fans of The Receipts Podcast – which has been running since 2016 – know co-hosts Tolani ‘Tolly T’ Shoneye and Audrey Indome don’t hold back in their conversations. The pair get into the nitty-gritty of everything from relationships to celebrity culture and life in-between in trademark no-holds-barred style, peppered with humour, honesty and sharp observations – and this latest episode is no exception.

It starts with Indome talking for the first time about recently becoming a mum to a baby girl, revealing her reasons for choosing to keep her pregnancy quiet, why she “hated being pregnant”, and details of the birth including suffering with pre-eclampsia. The pair also dish up new thoughts on celeb news, seeing Usher in Paris last year, and Shoneye opens up about the emotional rollercoaster of her mother’s cancer over the last few years.

The podcast’s aim was to create space for black women to have unfiltered conversations about all sorts of topics, and it’s easy to see why The Receipts has gone on to gain thousands of loyal listeners. Settle down with a cuppa because this is an hour-and-a-half of realness and emotion.(By Abi Jackson)

2. Diary Of A CEO

Streaming platform: All streaming platformsGenre: Life and Business

In 2021, entrepreneur and author Steven Bartlett made history when he joined BBC One programme Dragons’ Den, becoming the youngest Dragon in the programme’s history. In keeping with making a success of everything he launches, his podcast, The Diary Of A CEO, is no different. It sees Bartlett, 31, speaking to “some of the world’s most influential people, experts and thinkers”. Past guests have included Busta Rhymes, sleep expert and author Matthew Walker and many more. His latest guest is Thierry Henry. The 46-year-old former forward, who won the World Cup with France and is Arsenal’s all-time highest scorer, opens up about his depression, childhood trauma and seeking approval from his father.

It’s an emotional and impactful conversation during which Henry recounts a moment early in the coronavirus pandemic where he was “crying almost every day”. He tells Bartlett: “Tears were coming alone. Why I don’t know, but maybe they were there for a very long time. Technically, it wasn’t me, it was the young me. (Crying for) everything he didn’t get, approval.” If you enjoy hearing insightful conversations with a varied roster of guests from all areas of life, then The Diary of a CEO is the podcast for you. It delivers informative conversations and Bartlett is a brilliant host.(By Kerri-Ann Roper)

3. World Of Secrets: Disciples

Streaming platform: All streaming platformsGenre: Religion

The BBC’s World Of Secrets explores shocking realities people have gone to great lengths to keep hidden, with Season 2 – The Disciples digging into the cult of the late Nigerian prophet TB Joshua, who founded the Synagogue Church of All Nations. From the outside, Joshua was a popular televangelist and preacher with global following and ‘healing powers’. But following his death in 2021 the true picture emerged, with widespread accounts of physical and sexual assault among the ‘disciples’ at his compound in Lagos.

Episode 9 hears hosts Charlie Northcott and Yemisi Adegoke interview Ajoke, one of Joshua’s daughters, who from a young age attempted to rebel against him, before finally getting out at 18. They also talk to Rae and Anneka, two British women who left their homes for Joshua’s promise of healing, only to end up losing years to his cult. It’s uncomfortable listening, but sensitively produced and extensively researched – delving into the manipulative tactics of abusers like Joshua, and giving survivors a chance to tell their stories.(By Abi Jackson)

4. The Traitors: Uncloaked

Streaming platforms: BBC Sounds, BBC iPlayerGenre: Entertainment

The Traitors: Uncloaked is a ‘visualised podcast’ – which sounds remarkably like a TV show, and that’s pretty much what it is. Comedian host Ed Gamble is joined in the first episode by presenter Stacey Dooley and Tom Elderfield, who you might recognise from the last series of the hit BBC show. They unpack all the drama from the first three episodes of the new series, including who the traitors are, how they’ve been performing and that bombshell reveal in episode three. The podcast also welcomes the eliminated players, and the best bit is undoubtedly watching them discover who the traitors are – a priceless reaction you don’t get on the main show. While you can listen to this one as a podcast – and if you do so, you’ll even get a bit more content – it’s probably better visualised, so you can properly see people’s reactions.(By Prudence Wade) 

Spotlight on…

5. Booked Up With Niecey And Bri

Streaming platform: SpotifyGenre: Arts

If the only thing you love more than reading books is having a good ol’ chinwag with friends about them, then this upbeat new podcast deserves a spot on your to-listen list. Booked Up With Niecey And Bri is basically like eavesdropping on two besties riffing together about books.

In this first episode, the #BookTok regulars delve into the common tropes they want to see left behind – and spoiler, most are romance clichés. Like the high-school friend-turned-love interest trope, the falling-for-the-nanny trope, the ‘bully romance’ trope. Some they firmly agree on, while on other points they disagree – but the conversation is cosy, fun and instantly relatable. Plus at just 25 minutes long, it’s an easy listen when you want to switch off or soothe your brain on the way home from work.(By Abi Jackson)

6. Things Fell Apart with Jon Ronson 

Streaming platform: All streaming platformsGenre: Society

The second series of BBC Radio 4’s Things Fall Apart sees journalist Jon Ronson dive into the origins of stories and divisive terminology that rose and snowballed during lockdown – including anti-facist group Antifa, and the junk science ‘medical condition’, excited delirium.

This week’s episode – the last in the series – focuses on Mikki Willis, the man behind Plandemic and the conspiracy theory films, and how he became suspicious of mainstream science. Always in his calming, very listenable tone, Ronson is cleverly stringing together lots of the culture wars discussed in the rest of the series here (so it’s worth listening to the others as well) with his signature style of not giving too much away too early. You’re never entirely sure where each story is going in the series, which makes it all the more fascinating.(By Lauren Taylor)