Pick of the week: Broken Record
Super-producer Rick Rubin and super-podcaster Malcolm Gladwell have a hit on their hands with Broken Record (iTunes), which they bill as “liner notes for the digital age”. The unlikely duo got together to make the podcast as “a place for us and for others to tell stories about music. All kinds. Where songs come from, how they’re made, why they work.” The first episode, just 15 minutes long, is fascinating as Gladwell sets the scene by bringing to life Rubin’s “strange minimalist house” with white walls and a massive sound system.
Gladwell was “floored” by a song Rubin played him, Eminem’s Walk on Water, and Slim Shady is their first guest. He is in full wind-him-up-and-watch-him-go mode, recalling how he wrote his first rhyme at his Aunt Edna’s house. “It was so much of LL [Cool J],” he says, before reeling off a long list of influences including Ice-T, NWA and Big Daddy Kane. “I forgot Run-DMC,” he says as the credits roll. And of his life before he’d heard hip-hop? “Oh, man, I was such a nerdy kid.”
Rubin and Gladwell have a great dynamic, with the producer giving his insight into the music-making process as Eminem reveals his struggle with his latest album. “When you start out in your career you have a blank canvas,” he says. “But by the time you get to your seventh and eighth album, there’s nowhere to paint.”
Rubin’s solution was to play him Frank Zappa. “I thought the energy might be right for him.” Gladwell also attempts to analyse Eminem’s creative struggle. “I think these feelings cross the mind of anyone who’s ever cared deeply about something,” he says.
The podcast is focused on just one song so stays tight, despite Eminem sounding as if he could talk for hours. Rubin modestly drops into the conversation that it was him who played Walk on Water to Jay-Z, who then got Beyoncé to listen – and agree to sing on the chorus. Broken Record is anything but: its hosts let the artist speak and by the time they drop the song, it’s impossible not to be hooked.
Your picks: Behind the scenes at the Science Museum, boozy crime stories and how to save the Arctic
Bill Bryson’s Appliance of Science
Self-described as “a museum for your ears” Appliance of Science walks you through key moments in scientific history using specific objects hand-picked from the London Science Museum’s comprehensive collection. You’re free to browse at your own pace, with Bill Bryson on hand to explain the enchanting backstory behind every knob, dial and button. The excitement of the Science Museum’s curators is infectious as they share their expertise, bringing the ideas and inventions of the incurably curious to life. The episodes are only short so I’d suggest starting at the beginning and, if you can, popping down to the museum itself to see the objects in question as their secrets are being shared with you. Recommended by Rosie Lindqvist-Jones
Wine and Crime is a comedy podcast where three friends “chug wine, chat true crime and unleash their worst Minnesotan accents”. Each episode is themed with topics such as blood spatter analysis, axe murderers and peeping toms, and consists of wine pairing, psychological background and three or more case studies.
The series kicks off with the subject of necrophilia, so it’s definitely worth starting from the beginning, but my favourite is episode six – Munchausen’s Syndrome. The chemistry between the presenters is what makes it special. The three constantly laugh along, getting more drunk as the show goes on. It makes you feel like you’re part of the gang. Recommended by Lindsay Seddon
One for those who have found themselves glued to a screen in awe of Blue Planet II. Awareness of the staggering diversity and breathtaking ingenuity possessed by some of the world’s aquatic creatures is at an all-time high, but with this comes the realisation of just how fragile our ecosystems have become. It’s something we should all be talking more about, which is why the latest podcast from the team at Radio Wolfgang is ever more pressing. Unburnable tells the story of an “unprecedented legal battle for our planet’s future” – as a group from Greenpeace take on the Norwegian government. Recommended by Max Sanderson
Guardian Picks: the increasing weakness of the UK government, the Irish border and the EU getting more and more fed up with us
Between the Paradise papers and the Guardian Live Streaming Seals, you could be forgiven for not noticing that it’s all kicking off in Brexit land. But never fear, the Brexit Means … team is here, giving you all the updates you could possibly want. This episode in particular is one that I found fascinating: Jon Henley, Jennifer Rankin and Dan Roberts explain the weakness of our government, the problem of the Irish border and how the EU is actively getting fed up with us. Recommended by Rowan Slaney
If you’ve got a podcast that you love, send your recommendations to rowan.slaney@theguardian.com
