Jane Fonda’s life goes under the microscope: best podcasts of the week

Jane Fonda, photographed in 1965. Photograph: Silver Screen Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Pick of the week
Big Lives

Emmanuel Dzotsi had an all-too-brief run on internet culture podcast Reply All, so it’s great to hear him back on a smart and chatty show. He co-hosts this series alongside Kai Wright of WNYC’s Notes from America, with the pair drawing on the BBC’s vast archive to tell the stories of major pop culture figures. First up is actor and activist Jane Fonda, followed by a thoughtful profile of George Michael. Hannah J Davies
Widely available, episodes weekly from Monday 23 March

Project Mind Control

Criminal psychologist Dr Julia Shaw hosts this sensitive but extremely disturbing podcast about a Canadian psychiatric hospital that used vulnerable patients for grossly unethical CIA brainwashing experiments. “He didn’t act like a doctor – he was an evil person,” says one survivor of the Allan Memorial Institute’s Dr Ewen Cameron. HJD
Widely available, episodes weekly

The Rise and Fall of Madchester

“Manchester”, as Morrissey once swooned. “So much to answer for.” Not least, the baggy, druggy music scene that gave the world Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses. This eight-parter presented by Steve Lamacq begins with originators like Joy Division before remembering the city’s full flowering in 1989 when its bands seemed to be taking over. Phil Harrison
Widely available, episodes weekly

Off Duty

In 2011, Chicago police officer Clifton Lewis was murdered, kickstarting a 12-year battle for one suspect, Alex Villa, to clear his name. US senior investigative reporter Melissa Segura hosts this new Guardian series, which offers a propulsive crime story while asking crucial questions about the state of the US criminal justice system. HJD
Widely available, episodes weekly

Beware Book

This series examines a string of horrifying murders of Glaswegian sex workers between 1991 and 2005, its title referring to a list of dangerous clients that the women compiled. Journalists Collette McGonigle and Callum McQuade centre the victims and their families, while never losing sight of the tragedies. HJD
Widely available, episodes weekly from Monday 23 March