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Pick of the week
Get Birding With Sean Bean
On the face of it, the RSPB picking Ned Stark as the host of the new series of their podcast seems odd. But it turns out he’s been a birder since childhood, who crams in birdwatching between acting gigs. He’s warm and honest in his first podcast, chatting to fellow ornithology lover Elbow’s Guy Garvey about spotting different species while working abroad, recognising bird song and the meditative joy of watching the feathered creatures. Alexi Duggins
Widely available, episodes fortnightly
Vine: Six Seconds That Changed the World
This one-off special of the podcast about Vine – the shortform video site from the 2010s – looks at how its previous episodes could have revived the platform. We meet Evan Henshaw-Plath, one of Twitter’s first employees, who is setting up diVine, an anti-AI version of Vine, which he hopes might fix the flaws with modern social media – and which was inspired by this show. AD
Widely available, out now
Love + Radio: Blood Memory
This hit offbeat interview show from Nick van der Kolk (pictured above) makes an unexpected pivot to true crime with this sprawling series. Its subject is Michael Thompson, a former member of prison gang the Aryan Brotherhood who has testified against the group in court. But is he who he claims to be? Hannah J Davies
Widely available, episodes weekly
Valley of Shadows
Malcolm Gladwell’s outfit Pushkin Industries is behind this riveting investigation, which offers a hooky mystery right from the start. In June 1998, Jon Aujay of the LA county sheriff’s department went missing in the Mojave desert. But why was his own employer so quick to call the search off – could they have something to hide? HJD
Widely available, episodes weekly
Atonement: The John Paulk Story
John Paulk and his then wife Anne were among the leading lights of the “ex-gay” movement in the US in the 90s, two proponents of Christian conversion therapy who believed they had been “cured” of their sexuality. Now one of the movement’s strongest critics, Paulk’s testimony guides iHeart and Goldhawk’s frank and excellent oral history podcast. HJD
Widely available, episodes weekly
