Seven Podcasts To Keep You Entertained This Summer

Jun 21st

We think that the time of the holiday read is over – 2024 is the year of the holiday podcast! This year, why not use the summer months to dip into some new shows?

We know that the summer months can sometimes be tricky for podcast listening – on the one hand, you might be too busy with family or enjoying some sightseeing to make time for your favourite shows. On the other hand you might find yourself with some extra hours whilst travelling, or relaxing on the beach wanting some gentle entertainment as you get some much needed vitamin D.

From short series that will keep you gripped, to one-off episodes you can fit into your journey times, here are our suggestions for seven podcasts you need to pack for your holiday listening.

Lowlines

A recent winner at the International Women’s Podcast Awards, this show is described as a ‘sonic scrapbook and a passport to roam’. Lowlines is a collaboration between Social Broadcasts, Scenery Studios and Petra Barran, who has gathered hundreds of hours of raw audio from her solo travels through the Americas. For those of us who might not have a holiday booked this year, we can still have a good sonic travel experience – we hear Petra’s audio diaries and musings, as well as field recordings, interviews and script looking back on the experience. Whilst you might want to listen through the series in one go, we suggest giving yourself a short injection when you want to be whisked away – you’ll soon be imagining yourself in the parades of New Orleans or sinking into the culture of (the slowly sinking) Mexico City. Listen here.

Killing Justice

There’s long been a juxtaposition of the year’s must-read crime novel being consumed in glorious sunshine on beach holidays. If you’re after some audio with similar murder, plot twists and intrigue, this could be the one for you. Killing Justice is not necessarily a light listen, as it does dig into the politics of modern India, giving a good insight to Modi’s nationalist government. But it’s all giving context to the throughline of Killing Justice, where former Obama staffer Ravi Gupta investigates the mysterious death of a prominent Indian judge. What is nice to hear on this show is how Ravi brings in his own backstory, and talks about the topic in relation to his own exploration of his India heritage as a first-generation American-Indian, “emphasis on the American”. We get intrigue on a grand scale, and a host that is personally invested. We’re hooked! Listen here.

Blame It On The Fame: Milli Vanilli

The R&B double act from Germany became famous in the late 80s and early 90s, then infamous when it was revealed that they lip-synched throughout their career. In Blame It On The Fame, we get to hear how Milli Vanilli were manufactured, but more interestingly we learn about the exploitation and cultural context that went on behind the scenes. It’s incredible listening to the truly convoluted effort that music producer Frank Farian put into the ruse, and host Amanda Seales adds a good amount of her own disbelief into her delivery. You’ll be greedily pressing ‘play next’ to find out the next crazy story. Listen Here.

Memories From The Dancefloor

Initially created as part of the Acast Amplifier programme, Memories From The Dancefloor is a docu-series hosted by Journalist Damian Kerlin. It’s returned for a second season to coincide with Pride, and this time Damian is moving away from the mega club scene of London to talk about how nightlife developed for those growing up queer in Wales. The first episode digs into Cardiff’s first gay club, The Red Dragon, tea dances for lesbians and the activism of Lesbians and Gays Support The Miners, which opened up conversations that often didn’t happen otherwise. With four episodes in this mini-series, this is a great listen for a bit of queer history, but more than anything it’s likely to want to get you up on the dancefloor by the end of the night. Listen here.

Pilot Season

It’s one of the shows we’ve been looking forward to in 2024, and it has not disappointed! Pilot Season is more than a podcast – it was created by Unedited for ‘proof-of-concept’ pilot episodes for podcasts, in the same vein as the ‘pilot season’ for television. This year includes two shows that Content is Queen has supported. A product of our 2022 Mirco Grant scheme, Redemption Man is the start of an investigative series from Chris Mitchell as he tries to discover more about a mysterious man who was seen carrying a giant cross throughout West London for almost 35 years. Meanwhile, from our 2023 Micro Grants, Dead Ting is an audio drama with a darkly comic edge that was recorded in the Content is Queen studios. It follows Koby and Tayo, two friends desperate to lose their virginity before university, who get drawn in by the seductive Mercedes… You can of course listen to the individual episodes of Pilot Season when you can fit them in, but we reckon you’ll want to engage in the whole series. Listen here.

Land Skeins

If you enjoyed Camlann after our recommendation back in Spring, this show is a nice short series to fill the gap whilst we wait for a second season. Land Skeins is part of an artist development programme to get theatre creators into audio drama. The four short stories are based around the four seasons, but there is a magic-realism to each piece. We hear from a woman whose mother may – or may not – have been consumed by mushrooms, seek a man lost in Epping Forest on Spring Equinox, and a summer where it’s been raining non-stop for months. Produced in binaural 3D sound, this is best listened to through headphones so you can get the full design of the sound. Listen here.

Broomgate

From the rising, clinky organ music to the way this show develops and reveals information over the episodes, Broomgate is clearly emulating Serial. A sense of fear surrounds the story, there are hidden figures that no-one can track down and we hear about a fall from grace for a super star. However, this show makes perfect light-listening for your summer holidays, because the topic is – at its heart – rather wholesome. Broomgate is all about a scandal in the sport of curling, a close-knit sporting community that isn’t often profitable enough for controversy. However, in 2015, a development in the technology of the brooms used to sweep the ice turned teams against each other, and the sport nearly imploded. Our host is a semi-professional curler, and comedian, John Cullen who couldn’t be closer to the key players in the story, and has a lot of love for the sport to share. Listen here.

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