The week in audio: Mad, Sad and Bad with Paloma Faith; Fin vs History; Welcome to Hell and more
Mad, Sad and Bad with Paloma Faith JamPotFin vs History Fin Taylor and Horatio Gould Welcome to Hell hellpod.comThe Screen Rot Podcast with Jacob and Jake Jacob Hawley and Jake FarrellStalked BBC SoundsOur Plant Stories Our Plant Stories
It's been a gloomy start to the year, so here are a few jolly podcasts to bring joy into your life. Good vibes are the basis of them all: laughs, warmth, a nice rapport.
First up: singer Paloma Faith has a new podcast out called Mad, Sad and Bad, each episode loosely structured around her asking a celebrity guest about, yep, when they've felt mad, sad and/or bad. The interviews take place in Faith's house, on a semicircular leopard-print settee – if you want to see it, go to YouTube – and so far she's welcomed Alan Carr and Mel B. Nice and snappy at around 30 minutes, including the guest ringing the bell and Faith's welcome, these are not in-depth interviews but you do get insights.
Carr was delightful, bringing in Faith's mum ('Oh 'ello, Pam!') and subtly steering the conversation to give funny anecdotes while not offering too many revelations. His story combining his dog dying, a spot of food poisoning and presenting a show about Agatha Christie while in full Poirot costume was hilarious. Mel B last week was more chaotic, though her discussion of her 10-year abusive marriage was touching and true. 'The dripping tap of abuse,' she said, 'it's in your psyche.'
Faith's ditsy honesty is endearing – 'I'm not listening, I only want to talk about myself,' she announced at one point – and if she could rein in her tendency to rattle away, this show would be even better.
A very different concept is Fin vs History, in which comedians Fin Taylor and Horatio Gould pick a few historical highlights (the Cuban missile crisis; the English civil war) and go for the dark laughs. Taylor's hugely successful Fin vs the Internet online show, where he drops filthy ridiculousness on internet celebrities, is along the same lines. If you're not familiar, then consider this a trigger warning.
Still, if you can deal with them assessing Chairman Mao as the GOAT (greatest of all time) of despotic dictators – 'numbers-wise he blows everyone out of the water' – then strap yourself in and enjoy. Their outrageousness is properly side-splitting, and the first few episodes of this podcast have hit the top of the comedy charts.
More jolliness in Welcome to Hell, now on its third series. This is another chit-chat between two funny men, Daniel Foxx and Dane Buckley, who have an established online following. On TikTok, Foxx plays a devil and Buckley an angel. In Welcome to Hell they're out of character but still quite similar. Listeners ('mostly women and bottoms', says Foxx in the first of the new series) send in their questions and confessions, to be judged in funny, campy manner. The first question of the new series is an absolute cracker and no, I'm not revealing it.
Somewhere in between Welcome to Hell and Fin vs History is The Screen Rot Podcast, in which comedian Jacob Hawley and his pal Jake Farrell chat about their current online obsessions. Last week they discussed Bryan Johnson, that idiot whose quest to live for ever has led him to compare his own erection with that of his son. Even before they got to him, their pre-topic chat, encompassing David Lynch's pop career and retiring to Spain, was brilliantly funny. The bad-taste punchline to Hawley's concept restaurant made me snort out loud.
And The Way They Were, with comedians Grainne Maguire and Chantal Feduchin-Pate, is also a hoot. Currently on a break but with many episodes to browse, in this show a new guest comes on to discuss a celebrity couple who have broken up (full disclosure: I've been on – I chose Will and Jada Pinkett Smith). Maguire researches and tells the broken-love story, Feduchin-Pate comments with snarky astuteness, and this is another laugh-out-loud podcast. Great stuff.
The Observer's Carole Cadwalladr is co-hosting a new investigative series for BBC Sounds with her (sort of) former stepdaughter Hannah Mossman Moore. Stalked is about Mossman Moore's very weird experiences in her mid-20s, just a few years ago. The story is awful and gripping, and the podcast has the courage to name the person who causes Mossman Moore such difficulty, which must have been a legal minefield. (Well done, the BBC.)
Just out of university, a charming older man-about-town called Kim becomes Mossman Moore's friend. He's supportive and fun, with access to fashion shows and posh parties; but at a certain point, when she's in a vulnerable position, he turns scary. She cuts him off, only to find herself in a whirlwind of never-ending emails and can-this-be-real cyber-stalking that includes a bewilderingly comprehensive hacking of her online identity and that of her family. I've only heard two episodes but am agog to hear more. As with all stalking shows, it does make you wonder, what is wrong with some people? Why can't they let others live their lives?
For a palette cleanser after such nastiness, you might try Our Plant Stories, hosted by Sally Flatman, which began its third series last week. It can be a little slow, and my desire for a sharper edit might be because I don't have a garden and am thus far from understanding the less-accelerated joys of horticultural life. But the tale of how New York was given a million daffodil bulbs and where those bulbs went is a sweet and interesting one, and, as with all the above shows above, it's the vibes I enjoy.
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