The Book Club to Get Birding with Sean Bean: Eight of the best podcasts of 2026 so far

From a new literary discussion show to a Games of Thrones star waxing lyrical about our feathered friends, we pick the best new podcasts for you to listen to and watch.

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1. MF DOOM: Long Island to Leeds

BBC 6 Music DJ Afrodeutsche and journalist and producer Adam Batty examine the life and legacy of the enigmatic hip-hop artist MF Doom – real name Daniel Dumile – who died in 2020 aged 49 after having a rare reaction to prescription medication. This five-part series is part of the BBC's Audio Labs initiative, dedicated to giving a platform to rising podcasting and audio creative talent, and features a gorgeous original score by the Arctic Monkeys' Matt Helders.

We learn how rumour and myth clung to the London-born, New York-raised Doom who, inspired by his love of comic books, wore a custom-made mask and became a hero of the alternative rap scene; not for nothing is he described here as "your favourite rapper's favourite rapper". But a mystery persists which our hosts set out to answer: how was it that this shape-shifting hip-hop pioneer came to spend his final years in Yorkshire?

Listen on BBC Sounds in the UK or BBC.com outside the UK

2. Shadow World: Impulsive

It might seem a tall order to ask listeners to empathise with people afflicted by urges that are harmful to themselves and others. But in Impulsive, the latest in the BBC's Shadow World strand, which shines a light on hidden or untold stories, Noel Titheradge does just that. The series reveals how dopamine agonist drugs, a medication prescribed for people living with Parkinson's, can cause impulse control disorders and lead users to compulsively shop, gamble, steal or fixate about sex.

It's a reflection of Titheradge's careful reporting and interviewing style that he has managed to persuade those affected to put aside any shame and tell their stories. We meet Steve, who began staying up all night talking to cam girls; Freddie, whose father suddenly blew his life savings on overseas property; and Lucy, who began an affair with a stranger she met online. "It wasn't me," Lucy says now. "I had been married for 25 years."

Listen on BBC Sounds in the UK or BBC.com outside the UK

3. Blood Memory

While serving a 45-year prison sentence for double murder, Californian Michael Lynne Thompson joined the neo-Nazi prison gang Aryan Brotherhood, though later left and testified against its members. Now out on parole, he remains one of the few to have done so who has lived to tell the tale. Blood Memory finds Thompson telling his story almost uninterrupted, save for the testimony of a prosecutor and court mitigator, both of whom had extended contact with him in jail.

This intimate, detailed and richly sound-designed mini-series features on Nick van der Kolk's Love + Radio, a podcast about the vastness of human experience and featuring in-depth conversations with unusual people. Van der Kolk is the interviewer, though he keeps his interjections to a minimum. Thompson is a complex figure: a man of rare charisma who was born into a life of neglect and poverty and claims to have killed as a means of survival. Is he a victim of circumstance or a skilled self-publicist and master manipulator? That is left for us to decide.

Listen at loveandradio.org

Chris Floyd/ Goalhanger

4. The Book Club

Goalhanger, the production company behind podcasting juggernauts The Rest is Politics and The Rest is History, has turned its attention to literature with The Book Club. Tabby Syrett and Dominic Sandbrook are our hosts, poring over old classics and contemporary titles, especially those having a cultural moment. Featured so far: Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell.

Literary pods can be a tough sell: how to engage listeners who haven't read the book in question? The Book Club navigates this by digging into the books' backstories and those of the authors (come for the story about Emily Brontë punching her dog). Sandbrook and Syrett have an easy chemistry and their series is smart yet accessible (so much so that we can forgive Syrett's habit of bellowing into the mic). Given Sandbrook is also host of the ever popular The Rest is History, you do wonder when he finds time to sleep.

Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and watch on YouTube

5. Get Birding with Sean Bean

Birdwatching podcast Get Birding has been around for several years, capitalising on the vogue for slow radio: gentle and meditative audio that is the antidote to our often hectic and noisy lives. Last month the series relaunched with a new host, the Yorkshire-based actor Sean Bean, star of Game of Thrones. Bean has been a keen birdwatcher since childhood and now spends many happy hours in his garden gazing at the wildlife.

Each episode has a loose theme, which thus far have included bird-friendly gardening and the joy of nest boxes, which allow birds to breed in a safe and warm environment. There are also assorted guests including folk singer Sam Lee, Elbow's Guy Garvey and YouTuber Kwesia aka City Girl in Nature. But the greatest delight lies in hearing Bean waxing lyrical about our feathered friends. His reading of Blackbird, the poem by John Drinkwater, is truly a balm for the soul.

Listen on Acast and watch on YouTube

CBC

6. Creation Myth

When the Belgian audio producer Helena de Groot got together with her American partner, David, she told him emphatically that she didn't want children. She told him again just before they got married in San Francisco. David seemed to accept her decision, saying he wanted to be with her more than he wanted a baby. But as the years went by, he began trying to change her mind.

In Creation Myth, De Groot ponders the question: to breed or not to breed? A compellingly raw audio memoir, it moves from present to past and back again as it documents its creator's innermost anxieties about motherhood. Now, from the vantage point of her forties, De Groot finds herself questioning her own convictions and weighing the impact of her decision on herself, her friendships and her marriage.

Listen at cbc.ca

7. The Best is Yet to Come

Older people have been ill-served by podcasts in the last decade, but change is in the air. The runaway success of 76-year-old Bill Nighy's podcast Ill Advised has revealed an appetite for the wisdom of society's elders. Enter The Best is Yet to Come, the new podcast from 90-year-old Sir John Tusa, the BBC journalist who launched TV's Newsnight and was managing director of the BBC World Service. Tusa conducts lengthy interview with fellow nonagenarians about their lives, careers and their plans for the future. There is warmth and depth to these conversations, which avoid the cackling informality found in chat casts pitched at younger listeners. Tusa's first guest is Philip Graham, a child psychiatrist and author whose own miserable childhood galvanised him into studying and improving the lot of British children. Upcoming guests include the author and historian Lady Antonia Frasier and former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine.

Listen on Acast

8. City of Lights

In 2002, in Aurora, Illinois, Al and Mary Ann Signorelli's 21-year-old son Jeff was shot dead at a social gathering in what seemed a random act of violence. No arrests were made and the case remains unsolved, but this podcast which is written, produced and hosted by Willy Nast, isn't a whodunnit. Decades in the making, City of Lights is a thoughtful and empathetic account of the aftermath of a murder and what happens to those left behind.

For the Signorellis, coming to terms with their grief meant trying to fix the apathetic political and social systems that had allowed violent crime to flourish in their city. Nast is no impartial observer: he grew up in Aurora and knew Jeff Signorelli, albeit vaguely. That he is so embroiled in the story makes for a heartfelt portrait of a city and a couple whose determination and resilience take your breath away.

Listen at willynast.com

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