Pick of the week
Explosive Lies
Alice Levine narrates this scam story in customary wry fashion. We meet Steve, an ex-copper who helps his childhood best pal sell his cutting-edge bomb detector, only to end up with detectives arresting him. It’s a slickly produced tale of a con that fooled governments and militaries, with action flitting from questionable Hong Kong banks to the Iraqi airports in which it’s installed as a security measure – with potentially lethal consequences. Alexi Duggins
Widely available, episodes weekly
Mercy
Joanna Scanlan stars in this monologue-based, one-off drama, written by Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw. She’s all charm and warmth as a nurse who’s forced to take early retirement, and opens up on everything from her views on patients’ sex appeal to why people should never stop smoking. A compelling listen. AD
Audible
Ransom Man
What if your most private thoughts ended up on the dark web? Radio 4’s Intrigue strand returns with this propulsive tale of a Finnish mental health platform – “the McDonald’s of therapy” – that was compromised, leading to the release of thousands of patients’ private records. Jenny Kleeman revisits a daring hack, and the trauma it unleashed. Hannah J Davies
Widely available, episodes weekly
The Problem With …
Fitness influencer James Smith’s new podcast is a weekly interview with an expert about a different way that everything really is as bad as you fear. The topics of the up to two-hour episodes include the difficulties of life as a gen Z-er to the looming crisis in population size with demographer Paul Morland. The latter of which will require you to listen to his blase approach to the climate catastrophe. AD
Widely available, episodes weekly
You Look Like Me
“Since our last season my number of unknown half-siblings has ticked up once again.” Irish journalist Louise McLoughlin is back with her thoughtful podcast that speaks with people who, like her, were conceived via a donor. This includes a father who kept a life-changing secret from his daughter for almost 40 years. Hollie Richardson
Widely available, episodes weekly
