5 podcasts to listen to this week

There’s a podcast for everyone to listen to this week.

1. Two Women Chatting 

Streaming platform: All streaming platforms and YouTube

Genre: Relationships

If you’re looking for insightful conversations that delve into everything from menopause to empty nesting, Two Women Chatting is a go-to podcast for all things midlife.

This week, host Michelle Ford sits down with presenter, counsellor, and podcast powerhouse Anna Williamson to unpack the weird and wonderful world of midlife relationships – from family dynamics to dating.

Many will recognise Williamson’s infectious energy from her role as an agent on Channel 4’s Celebs Go Dating show, as well as her co-hosting gig on LuAnna: The Podcast, and her trademark openness shines throughout this episode making her more relatable than ever.

Through Ford’s thoughtful questions on rekindling romance and navigating family tensions, Williamson shares practical, actionable advice on communication, boundary-setting, and managing tricky relationships – wisdom that feels especially timely as we head into the festive season and the New Year.

Whether you’re a devoted LuAnna listener, have a soft spot for Celebs Go Dating, or simply want some genuinely useful relationship advice, this episode is well worth a listen.

(By Camilla Foster)

2. Experience is Everything by Saga

Streaming platform: All streaming platforms

Genre: Society and culture

This is time of year is all about reflection, and on The Experience Is Everything by Saga podcast former Radio 4 broadcaster and Daily Mail columnist Jenni Murray sits down with national treasures to find out about their biggest life lessons.

In this week’s episode, Murray catches up with the legendary Tony Blackburn – the first-ever voice of Radio 1 – as he reflects on the highs and lows of his extraordinary broadcasting career and the glittering world of showbiz.

Blackburn speaks candidly about his childhood, his early days in pirate radio, and the setbacks and successes that shaped his journey, including the infamous moment of over-sharing about his divorce on air.

The two-time Radio Academy Lifetime Achievement Award winner also revisits making history as the very first winner of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here.

Open, honest and deeply insightful, this conversation offers a rare glimpse into Blackburn’s life beyond the radio studio, revealing how gratitude and kindness helped drive his success while keeping him grounded.

If you grew up listening to Tony Blackburn and want the inside scoop, carve out a moment amid the Christmas chaos to give this podcast a listen.

(By Camilla Foster)

3. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Streaming platform: Audible

Genre: Book

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is now on Audible and it’s a full-cast audio edition of the best-selling novel.

This immersive audiobook brings listeners right into the book with its narration from British actress and writer Cush Jumbo, and actor Frankie Treadaway speaking as Harry Potter, Max Lester as Ron Weasley and Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington featuring as Gilderoy Lockhart.

This book is the second novel in the series as it follows Harry Potter as he faces another challenging year at Hogwarts, starting with life under the strict care of the Dursleys and the mysterious first appearance of Dobby, the house-elf who quickly becomes essential to the plot.

Overall, the actors do an amazing job at firstly sounding extremely similar to the original cast and also bringing us into the world of Hogwarts and magic.

Whether it’s to listen on a walk or as an alternative to the movie, this is a great option for Harry Potter fans.

(By Sara Keenan)

4. Ruthie’s Table 4 

Streaming platform: All streaming platforms and YouTube

Genre: Food

Celebrity food podcasts are hardly few and far between. Off Menu and Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware are just a few that firmly dominate the genre.

And if those are up your street, then Ruthie’s Table 4 should be on your play next. Hosted by restaurateur and co-founder of The River Café Ruth Rogers, the podcast follows a fluid conversation between Rogers and a celebrity seated at a table in her restaurant, feeling like you’re eavesdropping on a post-dinner conversation between two friends.

The newest episode finds Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and curator Hilton Als reflecting on growing up in New York, the city’s food culture and the sensibilities that inform both his writing and his life.

Also, celebrated for his cultural criticism in The New Yorker, brings an intellectual appetite to what could have been another surface-level chat about snacks and food habits.

Yes, there are anecdotes about jet-lag munchies and the electric food scene of Eighties Manhattan, but underlying these are genuine insights into how place, memory and identity shape the way we eat and think.

Rogers’s style is convivial, loose-lipped and unfussy, meaning it’s an easy and enjoyable listen for food and culture lovers alike.

(By Lara Owen)

Spotlight on…

5. World of Secrets: The Child Cancer Scam

Streaming platform: All streaming platforms and YouTube

Genre: Documentary

Some investigations shock through scale; others through devastating intimacy.

The Child Cancer Scam, the latest series from the BBC World Service’s podcast World of Secrets, manages to do both.

What begins as a suspicious online fundraising advert becomes a meticulous unpicking of a global scam that exploited some of the most vulnerable    people imaginable: children with cancer and their families.

The reporting, led by the BBC Eye team, is forensic without ever feeling cold. Across six episodes, the series traces how emotional videos of sick children – often filmed without families’ consent – were used to raise millions that never reached those they purported to help. The details are deeply uncomfortable: staged distress, shaved heads, scripted pleas for survival.

The podcast resists sensationalism. Instead, it lets the human cost surface gradually – confused parents who are betrayed and grieving and donors who are unknowingly complicit. What resonates is not just outrage but a painful unease about how easily compassion can be manipulated online.

It’s a powerful listen but certainly an unsettling one, and perhaps not for the faint-hearted.

(By Lara Owen)