Trumped
Launched in February, this podcast by Scottish journalist and film-maker Anthony Baxter follows on from You’ve Been Trumped, his award-winning 2011 David and Goliath documentary about the local people protesting the building of Donald Trump’s luxury hotel and golf course at Balmedie in Aberdeenshire. Baxter has made two more films on the subject, and in this podcast he brings it all together alongside new interviews. A great chance to be outraged all over again.
West Cork
Premiered in 2018 as an Audible Original, this 13-episode podcast delved into the brutal 1996 murder in West Cork of 39-year-old Frenchwoman Sophie Toscan du Plantier, who had been living in the area for some years. Louis Theroux, no less, called it “possibly the best true crime podcast of all time” and in 2021 it was announced that it would be turned into a TV drama series – to join the two documentary versions which have also been made on the back of the podcast’s success.
Witches Of Scotland
Claire Mitchell QC and author Zoe Venditozzi are your hosts for this podcast looking at witchcraft and allegations of witchcraft in Scotland and beyond, and telling the stories of some of the 3837 people (mostly women) who were tried for it. The podcast has a political edge too: its mission statement is to press for an apology, a national memorial and pardons for all those convicted. One episode is an interview with Edinburgh author Jenni Fagan, whose novella Hex is set in 1591 in a condemned cell holding a young woman who is due to be burned at the stake the following day. Others look at modern witchcraft or dip into the witchcraft stories from other countries and regions, such as Ireland, Lancashire and Catalonia.
Serial
Described as “the grandaddy of all podcasts”, the investigative Serial premiered in 2014 and its fourth season dropped just a few days ago, this time examining the troubled history of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp. Series two, a collaboration with Oscar-winning Hurt Locker screenwriter Mark Boal, covered the case of US soldier Bowe Bergdahl who was deployed to Afghanistan, held captive by the Taliban for five years and then court-martialled for desertion. Series three took a deep dive into the American criminal justice system in Cleveland, described by Serial creator Sarah Koenig as “the least exceptional, most middle-of-the-road, most middle-of-the-country place we could find.”
Whisky Sisters
Inka Larissa and Jennifer Rose are the siblings of the title and each episode of this podcast sees them sticking their noses into a glass or two as they talk drams, distilleries and, as they put it, “every corner of the whisky universe.” And it isn’t just Scotland’s finest malts which come under scrutiny – series three ended in December and as well as looking at some Japanese whiskies the pair jetted off to Finland to sample the best the Teerenpeli Distillery had to offer.
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